Moving to Israel

One of the most common arguments used to delegitimize Israel (and by extension, the Jewish people as a whole) is the claim that they are a racist state. Beyond the irony of who the people are that are doing the accusing is a further irony that not only is Israel not the discriminating monsters they are made out to be but that the country is, in fact, one of the ultimate models of equality and fairness. This point is driven home wonderfully in a fantastic article by Dr. Alex Grobman entitled “Keeping Israel on the Defensive.”

The article reminds us that “Significantly, Arabs living in Israel are guaranteed equality. Israel’s Proclamation of Independence declares that the state ‘will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture… and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.’ Under Apartheid South Africa, Blacks were not citizens of the country and were not permitted to vote.”

In complete contrast to what the many anti-Semites out there would have us believe, the country’s fair and just treatment of all its citizens should be another reason to admire the Jewish state and want to move to Israel, as opposed to another reason to hate and despise it.

Ari

With election of Israel’s Knesset falling deeper into the past and the process continuing with a government being formed, you continue to hear stories of the behind the scenes developments of Binyamin Netanyahu and his attempts to put together a coalition. Some stories, such as this one about Netanyahu giving in to all of the demands made by Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman regarding various cabinet positions, are typical examples of these pieces.

While the forming of the government and who will be serving what position are certainly important, critical issues I can’t help but read them with a sense of “are you kidding me” attitude. The discussions and political maneuverings just seem to pale in comparison to things like the attack by a deranged Arab tractor driver last Thursday — the third of its kind in Jerusalem in a single year. A big part of me just wants to shout at these politicians about how we have enough to worry about with an unending amount of Arabs surrounding our tiny little country swearing to drive us into the sea. This should be the only issue when forming a government. The security and survival of the Jewish people needs to come first. 

Let’s hope that these are some of the behind the scene stories that we are not hearing about. The ones where the brave politicians forming the government are talking about nothing but how best to defend the nation and to make sure our enemies torment us no more.

Ari

Anyone who has been reading the news regarding Israel the last few days has  no doubt noticed that, as the Gaza War seems to finally be relatively fading into the background, the top stories have now begun to focus on Israel’s elections, scheduled to take place on February 10th.

As the columns have begun to pour in with various pieces of input on who/which party would best serve the country, one particular article glaringly stuck out to me. The article, a seemingly ordinary piece speculating on the number of Arab party members who will possibly be part of the next Knesset, doesn’t seem to be anything special at first glance. However, when I really stopped to look at it, I couldn’t help but be greatly disturbed about a nagging issue that has bothered many reasonable people for decades. Namely, why in the world would any country allow any members of their sworn enemies to sit in the government and be allowed input into issues dealing with said country’s well being.

To repeat, I know this is not a ground breaking realization that I had but I do think that it is just as absurd today as it was when the question was first raised probably some time ago.

No self respecting sovereign nation would ever even consider such a situation and hopefully some of the decision makers are just as dumbstruck as I was when they read such articles.

Let’s hope that of all countries, Israel, the holiest place on earth, will eventually see the error of their ways and defeat any motion that allows our mortal enemies to have a say in our national affairs.

Good luck at the polling stations.

 Ari