Why You Should Want Israel To Be A Jewish And Democratic State

How should Israel be constituted in a just resolution to the I/P conflict?

The standard consensus viewpoint that Israel should emerge as the "Jewish and democratic state" has recently received a lot of pushback here. In this diary, I hope to further explain the concept of what it means for Israel to be Jewish and democratic, and why this is something that progressives should support.

Much of the objection to Israel being constituted as a Jewish state emerges from a misunderstanding of what it means for a country to be Jewish, and also what it means for a country to be a national homeland and democratic.

Some commenters elsewhere have raised the objection that a 'Jewish state' would be like a Christian or Muslim state, i.e. a theocracy or something religiously based. This is simply not the case. We have established, with near unanimity, that the Jewish people are just that - a people - and not a religion. There is the religion of Judaism that many Jewish people practice, but there are also many Jewish atheists and agnostics, including many in Israel.

Israel being constituted as a 'Jewish state' in no way means that it would be a theocracy or lack religious liberty. It means a secular national homeland for the Jewish people.

Some people have objected that the concept of a 'national homeland' is not in alignment with progressive values. However, it most certainly is in alignment with progressive values. To see why, please carefully consider the following case study:

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In the Southeast corner of Europe is a great country with a proud history that is unfortunately going through some tough times at the moment. This nation is called Hellas by its inhabitants, but for some reason in English we insist on calling it Greece. Here I will follow the locals and call it Hellas.

Hellas is the national homeland for the Greek people. It was explicitly set up as such in the Greek wars of independence, and has remained so since. What does this mean? It means that Hellas is a state where the Greek language is preserved, Greek symbols, customs, and culture are promoted, and where Greek people can flee in a time of crisis.

The later property was of the utmost importance, when millions of ethnic Greeks escaped Turkey in the war following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. They would have likely been the victims of a major massacre, had they not been able to flee somewhere.

Does Hellas being the national homeland for the Greek people mean that it is undemocratic? Absolutely not. The ethnic minorities within Hellas, which include Albanians, Bulgarians, and Slavic Macedonians, enjoy full civil and political rights. And Hellas is a secular state, with the Greek Orthodox Church enjoying no theocratic status. People are free to practice whatever religion they choose, or no religion.

In this way, Hellas is the national homeland for the Greek people, and is also a secular democracy with full civil and political rights for ethnic and religious minorities. National homelands constituted as such are quite common in the Old World.

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Israel as the Jewish and democratic state is like Hellas as the Greek and democratic state. In a Jewish and democratic Israel, Jewish symbols and customs, and the Hebrew language, would be preserved and promoted. Jewish people would have somewhere to flee in times of danger, which as we know seem to happen all too often. And the ethnic minorities within Israel - Arabs, Druze, Armenians, and so on - would enjoy full civil rights, and the full rights to preserve their cultures and languages. And people would be able to practice the religion of their choice, or no religion.

In fact, this the vision of a Jewish and democratic state that has been part of Israel since its founding. What I just said is actually stated in the 1948 Israel Declaration of Independence

THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions;

In 1948 the UN wisely partitioned the British Mandate - where two peoples were living - into two states for two peoples. Israel accepted that partition with the Declaration of Independence quoted above. Unfortunately, the surrounding nations invaded, setting in motion everything that has happened to the present, with all of the injustices perpetrated by all sides.

The just resolution to the I/P conflict is the two state solution, which consists of a Jewish and democratic Israel, as described above, alongside a Palestinian and democratic Palestine.

Israel as a Jewish state, and a democratic state, is fully a part of the progressive vision for a just resolution to the I/P conflict. And you don't have to take just my word for it. Israel as the Jewish and democratic state was and is the vision supported by such human luminaries as Martin Luther King Jr., Albert Einstein, JFK, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and the many Nobel Laureates who have endorsed the position of J Street.

Thank you for reading and considering.

Peace. .שלום. سلام and while we're at it, ειρήνη.