The ADL seems to think it will be a Livni government:
This is pure propaganda. Livni's coalition, if that's what emerges, won't reflect diversity. It will reflect lack of diversity. One shock for me of visiting Israel was seeing how separated Arabs and Jews are; and this separation has only continued with the rise of Avigdor Lieberman. Though everyone brags about Israeli Arabs having the right to vote, note that the Arab Knesset members will not be included in the coalition talks–as they were not included in earlier governments, crucially Ehud Barak's in 1999. This is one of the most important posts I've ever done on this site. If Arabs were truly included in Israeli democracy, then they would change Israeli governance. They're not. They might have played a part in Camp David if they were part of Barak's coalition. And of course the governing coalitions go further and further right. Reminds me a little of the Atlantic City Democratic convention in 1964, where they refused to sit the Mississippi Freedom delegates. Blacks then couldn't vote in Mississippi.
(Phil Weiss)
Related posts:
- Democracy at work: Livni would eschew Arab parties while building coalition with a party of ‘hate’?
- Loyalty and Democracy in Lieberman’s Israel: Interviews with Israeli Knesset members Alex Miller and Ahmad Tibi
- If Israel Is a Democracy, Why Does a Liberal Jewish Leader Forswear a Coalition With Arabs?
- If Israel’s a Democracy, How Come Arabs Can’t Help Form the Government?
- Legislation would allow Israeli communities to bar Arab landowners from building
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Rabbi Stephen Wise
As late as 1943, while the Jews of Europe were being exterminated in their millions, the U.S. Congress proposed to set up a commission to "study" the problem. Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was the principal American spokesperson for Zionism, came to Washington to testify against the rescue bill because it would divert attention from the colonization of Palestine.
This is the same Rabbi Wise who, in 1938, in his capacity as leader of the American Jewish Congress, wrote a letter in which he opposed any change in U.S. immigration laws which would enable Jews to find refuge. He stated:
"It may interest you to know that some weeks ago the representatives of all the leading Jewish organizations met in conference. … It was decided that no Jewish organization would, at this time, sponsor a bill which would in any way alter the immigration laws."
…"Our Shomer 'Weltanschauung,"' Hashomer Hatzair, December 1936. Originally published in 1917, Brenner, Zionism, p. 22.
When Parnell's Irish National Party held the balance of power in Parliament in Westminster, they were allowed to determine which party would rule in the UK. That led to a great amelioration of the conditions under which Irish Catholics lived.
The national elections in Israel demonstrate that, at a time of war and stress, the vibrant democracy of the State of Israel has prevailed.
[Insert picture of Iraqi propaganda minister, Muhammed Saeed al-Sahaf]
It's interesting that Lieberman's party wants civil marraige and liberalizing the Rabbinates' iron control on who is a Jew re right of return. The left and the right dance around each other going nowhere.
Has a dissertation been written yet about derelict minds and the obsession to control Israel?
Should make for an interesting read!
BTW–love the latest attempt to equate Israel with the Old South–since comparisons to Nazi Germany went nowhere. haha!
Suzanne, you must have been asleep during your Hasbara 101 training. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Suzanne, who has brilliantly demolished the educated anti-israeli opinons on this forum (The uneducated such as Rowan, Martin, Lance, Eva… are best left to rot on their own)does not appear to have had any Hasbara training.
Of course, if you can prove otherwise, please do so.
The Arab parties, seemingly dedicated to the destruction of Israel, are understandably not being woo'd.
But then, Rowan would ask the Tory's to woo the British Nazi party.
You have been Dugg.
Check out my ideas at boomsend.wordpress.com
I look forward to your comments
Those parties can't join a coalition because they oppose the fundamental nature of the state, and pay only enough lip service to it to allow them to run for Knesset. Except for Hadash, which argues for a community-blind state, Balad and Ta'al are actually Arab-nationalist and Islamist parties that argue for privileges and protections for the Arab community that are possibly incompatible with the democratic nature of the state. Balad's call for a designated national-minority status for Arabs alone raises serious issues on constitutional law that would take YEARS to adjudicate. This is not the Congressional Black Caucus, and your lack of historical knowledge and current Israeli politics causes you to frame the heirs of the DFLP/PFLP as if they were.
Check out your library for the new tale, The Jew Who Cried Wolf To Raid The Larder.
Plenty was wrong with Mississippi (and the nation as a whole)in 1964, but blacks had the right to vote. Poll taxes, literacy tests and ohter means were found to discourage blacks as a group from voting, but those tactics were often, and to a much lesser degree, used against whites also–along political lines rather than racial lines. I'm not sure how big of a problem voter intimidation is anymore, but voter fraud seems to be a big problem everywhere. I have a friend whose grandmother swears that her vote belongs to her, and she can sell it to anyone she pleases.
Why not just allow Israel to be judged by what happens in Israel, and by the actions of Israel's supporters abroad?
samuelburke.
This doesn't make sense: …"Our Shomer 'Weltanschauung,"' Hashomer Hatzair, December 1936. Originally published in 1917, Brenner, Zionism, p. 22.
Can you explain?
The Tories in 19th century Britain argued that Parnell's National Party should not be given any real political power because they opposed the fundamental Protestant nature of the British state.
Women received suffrage in 1920. African American Men received suffrage in 1870 with the 15th Amendment. But as a practical matter many Blacks were scared away from the polls by the KKK and other terrorist groups. They've received official Voting Rights in 1965; those rights were fully enforced by the state subsequently.
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