![]() The Canadian Constitution underwent significant changes in 1982, but without the agreement of the government of Québec, leading to ongoing tensions to this very day. But as you know there always has been serious tension between French Canada and the rest of the country and there is to this day a strong separatist movement in Quebec that almost won a 1995 referendum (49.4%) for Québec to separate (there had been an earlier one in 1980 which also lost but much more decisively), as well as spawning a violent insurrectionist movement, the FLQ (Front de Libération du Québec), whose members were responsible for over 200 bombings and robberies (and kidnappings) from early 1960 to 1970 that resulted in several deaths, including that of a minister of the provincial government in Québec. Canada, where I live, is a better example as is Begium. Your list of peoples in the USA have not, in his words “bonded together to form a viable and successful State” and the years of President Trump have made that VERY clear. ![]() Richard, I don’t think you’ve answered Amnon’s query. Two-states, even if it were not rejected by Israel, offers to duplicate in the Palestinian state the same level of dysfunction, intolerance, and corruption found in Israel itself. One state offers hope for a truly democratic future. It would especially weaken far-right ultra-nationalist parties like Likud, whose platform clearly rejects cooperation with Palestinians. It would also set the formerly exclusivist Jewish parties (Likud, Labor, Blue and White, etc.) on a new path, because they would need to find allies among Palestinians if they wished to form governing coalitions. This too would strengthen the secular parties. Why vote when your party has no hope of entering a governing coalition, where true power is concentrated? Why vote when your MKs will be interrogated by police and either thrown in jail or lose their Knesset privileges merely because they represent your interests as Palestinians? But in a single state, Palestinians inside Israel, the West Bank and Gaza would have tremendous motivation to vote and participate. But a single state would permit the coalescence of a secular progressive alliance among Jews and Palestinians, which currently is not possible due to Jewish-Palestinian fear and mistrust.Īnother factor to consider is that normally Israeli Palestinians do not vote in the same numbers as Israeli Jews because many see politics as “fixed” against them. Of course, the secular Jewish and Palestinian parties would not automatically have common interests, since there is so much dividing them. This would in effect remove religion as an inciting force splitting the population and setting it against one another. But their numbers would not match the secular parties. The Orthodox and Islamist parties would have a great deal in common and perhaps try to form their own alliance. The combined numbers of secular Palestinians and Jews would far outweigh the religious. A single state would dilute the power of religious parties, whether they be Palestinian Islamist (Hamas, Raam) or Orthodox (United Torah, Shas, Yamina, etc.). Israel must be a secular state, but one which recognizes and respects the rights of all religions while permitting none to dominate or oppress the others. But any state that is dedicated to one people, as Israel currently is (or another) is doomed to be anti-democratic. Jews and Palestinians can have a joint homeland for two peoples. We must continually drive home to liberal Zionists that their dream of a “Jewish democratic state” is a chimera. This is a racist, anti-democratic, even anti-Semitic (since Palestinians are, like Israeli Jews, Semites) state. ![]() It privileges Jewish Israelis and offers Palestinian citizens inferior rights. I do so for one reason only: the only form of Jewish state on offer is a Judeo-supremacist apartheid state. It also shares much in common with other religious exclusivist movements like the Christian evangelicals and the white Christo-supremacist parties in power in Poland and Hungary.ĭespite (or because of) my strong Diaspora Jewish identity, I abhor defining Israel as a Jewish state. Christian evangelical leader John Hagee before Western Wall endorsing Judeo-triumphalism
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