How much longer can we continue to support this country that certainly does not support the type of multi-ethnic and religious equality that we espouse in our country? It is time that we start urging Israel to stop the discrimination against non-Jews and join the community of western democratic nations. ************** How lucky we are to have the extreme Right standing guard over our democracy. This week, the Knesset voted by a large majority (47 to 34) for a law that threatens imprisonment for anyone who dares to deny that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. The private member’s bill, proposed by MK Zevulun Orlev of the "Jewish Home" Party, which sailed through its preliminary hearing, promises one year in prison to anyone who publishes "a call that negates the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state," if the contents of the call might cause "actions of hate, contempt, or disloyalty against the state or the institutions of government or the courts." One can foresee the next steps. A million and a half Arab citizens cannot be expected to recognize Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. They want it to be "a state of all its citizens" – Jews, Arabs, and others. They also claim with reason that Israel discriminates against them, and therefore is not really democratic. And, in addition, there are also Jews who do not want Israel to be defined as a Jewish state in which non-Jews have the status, at best, of tolerated outsiders. The consequences are inevitable. The prisons will not be able to hold all those convicted of this crime. There will be a need for concentration camps all over the country to house all the deniers of Israeli democracy. The police will be unable to deal with so many criminals. It will be necessary to set up a new unit. This may be called "Special Security," or, in short, SS. Hopefully, these measures will suffice to preserve our democracy. If not, more stringent steps will have to be taken, such as revoking the citizenship of the democracy-deniers and deporting them from the country, together with the Jewish leftists and all the other enemies of the Jewish democracy. After the preliminary reading of the bill, it now goes to the Legal Committee of the Knesset, which will prepare it for the first, and soon thereafter for the second and third, readings. Within a few weeks or months, it will be the law of the land. By the way, the bill does not single out Arabs explicitly – even if this is its clear intention, and all those who voted for it understood this. It also prohibits Jews from advocating a change in the state’s definition, or the creation of a bi-national state in all of historic Palestine or spreading any other such unconventional ideas. One can only imagine what would happen in the U.S. if a senator proposed a law to imprison anyone who suggests an amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. http://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2009/05/31/dont-forget-israel-is-a-democracy/
Oh, those Jews are at it again. Let's just encourage the Palestinians to behead them all according to Shari's law....or, better still, lay a nuclear carpet across the land. Man, let's do it! Let's be far-sighted over policies in another land, and not near-sighted over letting Eric Holder drop charges against the New Black Panthers. Oh, I forgot, that's his new SS so they are immune. Tell that to Bartle Bull.
Oh so treating Arabs and Muslim equally is equal to letting them behead Jews? Got the attempt at distraction.
Israelis do what they have to do to protect themselves. It's not always right, but look at what they are up against. They faced mass murder once, but you apparently want them to face it again. Is that why you have no comment regarding Holder's SS troops that he released despite overwhelming evidence?
The same way we can survive without freedom to vote without being intimidated by New Black Panthers or more insideously by ACORN.
I'm confused. You say the Israelis are only doing what they have to do to survive, yet you equate their tactics to voter intimidation?
Sigh... Israel is in full frenzy mode now that it looks like Iran is going to have a bomb. This is all in line with the largest war drill in history they had recently. With all that being said... Israel is a Jewish state and a much different democracy than what we are used to (it's not perfect and I don't support it not being fully representative because of extremist entities on both sides). Had to join in on glynch israel-hating fun-time thread... woohoo!!!
Interesting edit of my post. So now you're stating that saying: "Israel is a state of of all its citizens" is hate speech?
If I gave you that impression, forgive me. I was trying to point out to glynch that he accuses the Israelis of wrongdoing but will not redress -- and remains totally silent -- regarding the sins of the current administration(I equate freedom of the vote and freedom of speech in the same vein), i.e. Eric Holder is doing the same thing in our government by allowing New Black Panthers to skate. This is tantamount to using SS storm troopers to use intimidation to achieve the outcome he desires. I am looking to more of this in coming elections using the New Black Panthers and ACORN. We shall see. Glynch is throwing rocks at the Israelis but refuses to pick up any stones to throw at the administration. I was pointing out the irony and false outrage. Even storied civil rights activist Bartle Bull is outraged.
Germany is a democracy -- for Germans France is a democracy -- for Frenchmen Norway is a democracy -- for Norwegians Hungary is a democracy -- for Hungarians This is fun!
The New Black Panthers did not affect the outcome of the election. They aren't Eric Holder's troops and did nothing at the behest of Holder or Obama. Likewise ACORN did nothing other than report fraud by people who were trying to rip them off. There isn't one case of fraudulent voting as a result of ACORN. Again they are not a govt. agency and did nothing at the behest of Obama or Holder. Your analogy is off because in the case of Israel the govt. is acting. In the case of either ACORN, or the New Black Panthers, the govt. isn't involved at all.
