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Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-freeman18-2009feb18,0,3488410.story
What Israeli Identity Crisis?
[Los Angeles Times] Selwyn Freeman - The Los Angeles Times' Feb. 14 editorial, "Israel's Identity Crisis," questioning Israel's ability "to be both a Jewish state and a democratic state," is patently absurd. The suggestion that these objectives are mutually exclusive has no basis in reality. Israel was established with the aim of extending civil rights to all of its people (not just Jews). For the most part, despite ongoing threats from neighboring Arab and Muslim states, Israel has successfully realized this ambition. As the Times correctly states, Israeli Arabs "vote in free elections, criticize the government and run for public office, privileges denied to many of their brethren elsewhere in the region." The suggestion that Israel's status as a democracy conflicts with the call by some politicians for loyalty oaths (which American schoolchildren recite every day) is ridiculous. The Hamas charter openly calls for Israel's destruction and allows for coexistence among people of different religions only under the rule of Islam, so Arab Israeli citizens who support Hamas are actually supporting religious intolerance and the destruction of their own state. Can one imagine the response by the U.S. if American Muslims were to begin waving al-Qaeda banners and openly advocating the destruction of the U.S. and the murder of non-Muslim Americans? Israel's forbearance in the face of similar provocation is quite amazing. Given the egregious human rights violations in Gaza and in much of the Arab and Muslim world, perhaps a better question for the Times would be if it's possible to be an Arab or Muslim state and a democracy. The writer is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia.