22 February 2007

A delicately laid trap

A representative group of Israeli Arabs is putting forward a manifesto that calls for the Arab minority to be given collective rights and to ensure that they are represented in the government. The move has set off alarm bells amongst Jews in the country.

The document is called "The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel" has been produced in conjunction with the Committee of Arab Mayors in Israel and "has been endorsed by an unprecedented range of Arab community leaders".

I have always felt that the a reason, perhaps the primary reason, that Israel does not have a written constitution is that to put down in black and white a definition of the state of Israel as a state for and of Jews, and Jews alone, exposes that policy as a racist one which would lose it much international support and which would be an anathema to many of Israel's citizens.

It is hard to say how the Israeli state, or the United States for that matter, will react to this once it is put into a position that it has to deal with it directly. Does it expose itself as a racist state? Does it consider the possibility of a one, secular state of greater Palestine as the ultimate solution to the seemingly intractable problems it faces today but at the price of the loss of a Jewish state?

Interesting.

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