The problem is that Israel defines itself as a "Jewish and democratic state" -- but has not reconciled the apparent contradiction in being both "Jewish" and "democratic."

For those of you who label the contention that Islam and democracy are incompatible 'Islamophobic' or even 'racist,' how does this sentence jive with you? Is this author's statement 'anti-Semetic' then (the fact that he is Jewish being irrelevant since I have seen anti-Islamic statements by people of Muslim upbringing like Hirsi Ali, Salman Rushde and Ibn Warraq frequently condemned as Islamophobic)?

Do you show the same concern for non-Muslim minorities in Muslim majority nations as you do for Arabs in Israel? Salon apparently does not. I realize the base excuse is that US support for Israel makes this 'our' issue, whilst the goings-on in Pakistan or Indonesia are internal conflicts of parochial interest. Please then someone site an article here at Salon about the fate of Christians and other non-Muslims in Iraq, where the American role is even more direct. Have Joan Walsh and company ever shown any compassion and concern for those people? Or are only non-Christains and non-Jews worthy of leftist sympathies? I would think the systematic terrorizing of gays and religious minorities by the 'insurgents' in Iraq would provoke some concern among fellow avowed liberals. It certainly upsets me as a committed iberal and it is NOT the fault of George Bush, Israel, etc. It is resultant from the actions of miltants who derive the prejudices and motivations from Islamic doctrine.

Not being a fan of Israel, I like this article, but the cognitive dissonance which runs through some of the Salon crowd can be frightening. A Third Worldism pervades many comments whereby Jews as de facto Westerners (even though many jews have fled to Israel from the Muslim world) are just part of the West's colonial, imperialistic ethos (which explains every failing no matter how small in the developing world) and can thereby be pilloried at will. I'm for exposing everybody to ridicule and debate instead of sparing Muslims the rod of criticism because it complicates a critical narrative of US foreign policy. It is possible to be an consistent opponent both realpolitik imperialism and political/diplomatic concessions to Islam (and Judaism and Christianity).

Must be a slow schedule heading into this week. Time for an anti Israeli screed.

I was wondering how long it would take the Salonistas to scream about human and civil rights abuses in Gaza given they've managed to kill about 100 of one another in street violence in the last 3 weeks. I wonder where Amnesty International is? Where is Ken Livingston and Rowan Williams and all the divestment folks?

Oh well, when they kill each other, it must be some kind of cultural affect it's not our problem to deal with. Hell they're practically Darfur-ians.

Do any of these terms come to mind when reading these descriptions of Israeli Arabs? It is as though there were no history before 1948- only 'whose story you buy'- and so the author is compelled to search for reasons as to why there is so much conflict surrounding Israeli Arabs. What a thoughtful analysis; so cold and distant, like a child observing the two halves of a worm he's just bisected, wriggling in sync on either side of his knife. It is equally disturbing as a white male American to realize the multitude of appropriate parallels of citizen-on-citizen oppression we have here to the same injustices unfolding in the Holy Land. There are not only the African slaves whose heritage is the struggle to find a place in a country that did not want them, that they did not ask for, and which they had no hand in forming- there are the Native American Indians as well. It is too much to read this man's words - this man who has spoken for Israel on the world stage- and to realize how large a blind spot for their own guilt and responsibility for the situation, how willfully ignorant they can be in assessing the situation, and that it can be done so easily. He decries the tribalism but not the policy it creates; he acknowledges the mindset but refuses to connect the realities. It is too late to write more, though there is certainly much more to be written. Perhaps if I ignore it all, it will all work itself out...

"The problem is that Israel defines itself as a "Jewish and democratic state" -- but has not reconciled the apparent contradiction in being both "Jewish" and "democratic."

Victoria writes:

"For those of you who label the contention that Islam and democracy are incompatible 'Islamophobic' or even 'racist,' how does this sentence jive with you?"

I really do not think Mr. Levey was claiming that Jewishness was incompatible with democracy. The point is that Israel has democratic institutions, but has manipulated its population in an effort to create a perpetual Jewish majority. On the eve of independence in 1948, there was an Arab majority in Palestine. By democratic principles, that majority should have had a determining say over what happened to the land, but they didn't. Once the State of Israel was established, immigration policies of the new state were explicitly designed to secure and maintain a Jewish majority. Democracy within the context of a manipulated population is compromised. (There may be one person one vote, but some of those who should have a vote are artifically kept out.) After the Six Day War in 1967, Israel controlled a large non-Jewish population. If they were going to retain it, they were duty-bound by democratic principles to give political rights to those people. In the name of security, they kept control of the land. In the name of maintaining the Jewish character of the state, they denied the vote to the Palestinians. It is in the second part of this statement that there is a contradiction between the "Jewish" state and the "democratic" state. Even if Israel is right that this situation couldn't be helped, it remains true that the democratic character of Israel is compromised by its constitutionally Jewish identity.

There are Muslim states that are constitutionally Muslim, too. I think of Saudi Arabia, where it is actually illegal to publicly observe another religion than Islam. But I have yet to hear anyone say that Saudi Arabia is democratic, so you have a bad situation but no parallel contradiction. Israel's democratic credentials are important to its image in the western world. The statement that Islam and democracy are incompatible suggests that no state with a Muslim majority can ever be democratic. That is "Islamophobic" or even "racist." To say that no state with a Jewish majority can ever be democratic would equally be anti-semitic. The statement is not about what is possible, but rather about the contradictions of the State of Israel as it exists.