Our apartheid state

Three racist, discriminatory decisions undermine Israel’s democratic character

One of the clearest rules that distinguishes a democratic state from a non-democratic state is the principle of equality when it comes to rights and obligations. In a democratic country, all citizens regardless of race, religious, gender or origin are entitled to equality when it comes to national assets, services and resources, and all citizens regardless of race, religion, gender or origin are equally obligated by national duties.

For example, in a democratic country everyone must pay taxes (although at different rates, of course,) and everyone must obey the law. On the other hand, every citizen in a democratic state is entitled to enjoy individual freedoms. One is entitled to purchase assets in the country, marry anyone he or she wish, work wherever one wants, study whatever one wishes, and express himself or herself as they wish..

In short, equality is the basic tenet of a liberal western democracy and without it a country is not democratic in practice although possibly democratic by law.

Last week, in a series of three decisions that are separate but connected through a stench of racism and discrimination, Israel entered the dismal pantheon of non-democratic states. This past Wednesday, Israel decided to be like apartheid-era South Africa, and some will say even worse countries that no longer exist.

Let’s start with obligations. In a democratic country that has mandatory military service, all citizens must serve with no exception (aside from those who were unable to for health reasons or similar grounds.) A person should not be getting an exemption from service based on one’s religion or race. And there, with a slight hand gesture, the Knesset decided to "extend" the legislation known as the Tal Law – which initially was meant to be valid for five transitory years only, in order to examine the possibility of integrating the strictly Orthodox into the IDF.

This was a blatantly anti-democratic arrangement and even those who drafted it reemphasized that it was merely a temporary agreement for five years only, yet around here the temporary becomes permanent, particularly when we’re talking about discrimination and racism.

’Tainted sect’
The second apartheid decision has to do with the apparent "good news" that those who are unable to wed as a result of religious limitations would be able to marry each other now. What a disgusting expression that is. In a democratic country, a couple is allowed to marry however it wishes and the State is not at all allowed to interfere in this choice. It must allow any man to marry the woman he chooses (and in some countries same-sex marriages are also allowed,) because the State has no interest, and must not have one, in an individual’s happiness and in the person one chooses to spend their life with.
 
But around here the situation is different. The division is based on religions and sects, and a member of one religion is not allowed to marry someone of a different religion. This has led to the emergence of a situation whereby an Israeli whose mother isn’t Jewish, therefore making him non-Jewish according to Jewish law, was unable to marry in Israel at all.

Yet instead of allowing such person or any other person to marry as they wish, the government decided to establish a new sect. Now, a tainted sect has been created of people who can only marry among themselves. And so, an IDF officer whose last name is Rabinovich or even Cohen, who was born to a Jewish father but not a Jewish mother, would not be able to marry the woman who served in the army with him because she, lo and behold, is a kosher Jew while he is "tainted."

The culmination of this chutzpa is the fact that the current justice minister makes pretenses to call this racist arrangement a "breakthrough."

Anti-Zionist forces come together
The third racist decision was the one that banned Arab citizens of Israel from purchasing national land. Well, not all land, but only a part of it - Jewish National Fund land.

Imagine the French government banning Jews from purchasing land in Paris and its vicinity. Imagine that the United States would ban Jews from purchasing land in New England, because that’s the cradle of American culture. What would we say then?

Yet when it comes to Arabs we keep silent, because we have been accustomed to think that in Israel there are citizens of various ranks and not everyone is entitled to the same rights.

The highlight of this absurd situation is that racist discourse takes place in the Israeli Knesset, yet nobody sees their own racism. Arab Knesset members, who justifiably protested the terrible discrimination against them, voted in favor of the Tal Law, which allows discrimination among Jews.

Instead of Arab Knesset members backing the enlistment of Arab Israelis to the army and playing an appropriate role when it comes to duties and rights, they preserve the racism. And so, all the anti-Zionist forces joined together – the Arabs, strictly Orthodox and settlers – to bring Israel to a place of chaos and darkness, blatant racism and screaming discrimination. All of them joined forces in order to bring us to a state of apartheid.

History has amused us by bringing these decisions at the beginning of the month of Av. Anyone who will be studying the destruction of the Third Temple, that is, the collapse of the Zionist enterprise and of the State of Israel, would certainly emphasize the above-mentioned disastrous decisions.

History played another trick by bringing these decisions a day after Jabotinsky Day was marked. Ze’ev Jabotinsky was a full-fledged atheist, secular, and Zionist who wrote that Arabs and Jews will be playing in this country together. Had he been resurrected and seen those who pretend to be his successors pass these despicable and contemptible decisions, he would certainly wish to die.

The writer is a former Shinui cabinet minister 

Ynet News et Yossi Paritzky 07.24.07, 16:08 / Israel Opinion

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3429070,00.html

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Info n° 002

French olim expected to arrive in Israel on Wednesday say they do not feel at home in France; ’there is a feeling that something is about to happen,’ one of them says

PARIS - Before learning that the expected strike at Ben Gurion Airport was pushed back by a day, Jewish Agency officials expressed their concern Tuesday that it would prevent hundreds of French olim from arriving in Israel.

Histadrut Labor Federation head Ofer Eini declared a general strike beginning Wednesday at 6 am, but added that airport employees would join the strike only on Thursday.

Around 600 new immigrants from France are scheduled to land in Israel on Wednesday as part of a joint effort of AMI (Aliyah et Meilleure Integration) and the Jewish Agency for Israel.
The olim, many of whom have already sold their homes and packed up all of their belongings, were anxiously awaiting their journey to the Holy Land.

Jewish Agency Chairman Ze’ev Bielski asked Histadrut Labor Federation head Ofer Eini to allow the olim’s arrival on two planes even in case of a strike.

“We are speaking of families from all over France who have sold their homes and detached themselves from their homeland,” Bielski told Eini in a letter.

“These families are already on their way to Israel to begin a new life here with us. Since the country’s inception the aliyah to Israel has never been stopped, under any condition, even at times of war.”

Carolle Ziton, who is making aliyah along with her husband Dan and two small children, told Ynet “whatever happens, happens; if there is a strike upon our arrival in Israel we will go with the flow. Everything is God’s will.

“We don’t feel at home in France,” she continued. “I bought a house with a private backyard because we have Arab neighbors and I want my children to play in a safe place. We haven’t encountered any expressions of anti-Semitism, but there is a feeling that something is about to happen. The murder of Ilan Halimi only substantiated this feeling.” 

Ynet news et Yael Branovsky - 07.24.07, 20:55 / Israel Jewish Scene

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3429440,00.html

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Info n° 003

Swift victories needed

Top priority shouldn’t be home front, but rather, preparing IDF to win quickly

The country is in a state of turmoil: How could it be that the home front was abandoned during the last war? Who will have to pay with his head for the fiasco? What needs to be done so that the home front doesn’t suffer in the next war?

Someone must stand up and tell the truth: There is no practical way to defend the home front and to fortify it so that the next war "will go over its head" as though it never happened. In order to do this, the country would have to be "doubled" in size and an emergency system alongside every main system would have to be established.

We would need two countries: One that would operate in times of calm ("peace"), and another that would operate in times of war (including the banking and economic institutions, health and educational services, commerce and food supplies, fuel and anything else that didn’t function properly during the last war.)

There is no country that has enough resources to do this; certainly not a small country such as Israel.

Our enemies’ attempt to inflict harm on the home front is nothing new. As early as the War of Independence we suffered more than a hundred casualties in a single attack by Egyptian bombers on the Tel Aviv central bus station (May 18th, 1948.) In the war known as the second intifada, which broke out in September of 2000 and ended three-and-a-half years later, we lost almost 1,000 civilians. Our enemies have always been able to recognize the emphasis we place on human life and have attempted to strike at the civilian home front.

It would suffice to mention the shelling of Tel Aviv during the Six Day War, the bombing of Netanya, the rocket fire on the Jezreel Valley during the Yom Kippur War, and the rockets launched by Saddam Hussein in 1991.

If this is the case, why do we now feel that defense of the home front failed?

This is primarily due to fact that this was the first time the home front was forced to endure ongoing rocket attacks (over a month) without it feeling that something was being done to mitigate the extent of the fire.

Setting right priorities

The root of the problem, therefore, does not lie in the defense and fortification of the home front itself, but rather, in the fact that the IDF allowed Hizbullah to attack the home front for more than a month. Had the military elite and the defense establishment conducted the war in a way that would have shortened this period to a week or 10 days, the home front problems we are now forced to probe would not have emerged.

And if this is the case, to what extent should we invest our limited resources? In fortifying the home front or in achieving the capability required by the military to win the next war in a short timeframe?

Every citizen should answer the next question: If a war with Syria is forced on us, what should we be more prepared for? For a swift and decisive victory over the Syrian regime, which would require us to invest our time and finances in training the army’s armored divisions, or in fortifying the home front against rocket fire, so that it would be easier to sit out another month in the bomb shelters while listening to the rockets landing in our backyards?

Israel is currently analogous to someone suffering from an auto-immune disease – the body’s immune system is attacking the body itself. Where the State is concerned, an "inoculation" is designed to attack anything that disrupts normal function, and it leans on the judicial system, the media, parliamentary supervision, the police force, the state comptroller and the home front etcetera. These systems are supposed to operate when something in the normal functioning of the state goes wrong.

However, when these systems are directed internally and begin attacking the healthy body itself, a situation of immune failure occurs in which the immune system loses its ability to separate the "wheat from the chaff."

It’s still not too late. Properly identifying the problem and setting the right priorities can pull us out of the mud. The case pertaining to the home front is relatively easy: We should lend a hand and our support to the IDF to achieve a swift and decisive victory in a future war, and fortification of the home front will (almost) become unnecessary (except perhaps in places where we would not want to exert the IDF’s full power in achieving a swift victory.)

Ynet News et Yitzhak Ben Israel Published: 07.26.07, 00:16

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3429223,00.html