Tamar
I am Jewish.
While I have already indicated that I feel that Israel has problems with civil rights enforcement that it needs to address (for all its citizens, including Israeli Arabs, including Bedouins), it is a massive double-standard to say that Israel can either be a just and fair democracy or the Jewish homeland, but not both.
I admit that, even if Israel were to address and resolve the civil rights problems it currently is responsible for, there would still be certain inherent biases to keep the country's Jewish character intact, but such things are negligible, and many societies have certain rules designed to preserve this or that cultural heritage or cultural character.
I don't see international complaints about Saudi Arabia keeping itself basically Muslim-only (about other problems there, sure, but not that). And I say, fine: let it be Muslim-only, if they want. It's their country, Muslims are the majority, the central shrines of Islam are there. They get to make the rules.
Most European countries have a national religion, a national language, etc. Citizens with other religions, who primarily speak other languages deal with it. Many countries in Europe also have strict definitions about what constitutes proper use of certain names, or government programs to promote the protection of certain kinds of traditional music, cookery, etc. People who want to do other things, or use protected names in other ways are out of luck-- that's just part of the deal.
If one is non-Japanese living in Japan, I am given to understand it can be a little difficult. Same with non-Koreans living in Korea.
Yet somehow, it's only a horrible idea to preserve the national character and promote a certain national identity when the Jews do it. Strange how that works.
It seems to me that Israel needs to improve and resolve its civil rights issues so that non-Jews who are citizens of the Jewish State are not unduly discriminated against, yes. But, ultimately, it's the Jewish State. And if, once it is no longer a problem for non-Jewish citizens to get fair compensation from the government in cases of eminent domain, or to get prompt and fair infrastructural services, or to have equal opportunities in employment in practice as well as theory, it remains a problem for non-Jewish citizens that they live in a Jewish State, which must sometimes take actions to preserve its Jewish nature, and which may mean that there are certain things that will inevitably be inclined to Jews and not non-Jews...then they will always free to go and live elsewhere.
The entire rest of the world is composed of states that are not Jewish. Nearly one third of the world's states are Muslim or Muslim-majority. The whole rest of the Middle East is Arab (except for Iran). The only Jewish State in existence is this one tiny dot of land, barely the size of the State of Delaware. For the life of me, I do not understand why it is thought fair or just that Jews should give up their one state because of the unwillingness of some of the Arab population to either deal with living in a Jewish State or just move elsewhere (though, again, I am not saying that Israel shouldn't deal with solving civil rights problems for all its citizens).
Well said!! :clap:clap