Re: Israel policy

At 09:55 AM 9/24/2001 -0400, Bijan Parsia wrote:
>Plus, it's not clear to me that it's necessarily wrong to oppose the
>notion of Israeli as a *Jewish* state, per se (i.e., as opposed to a
>secular, "non-partisen" state). *Of course*, if that *entails* support of
>persucution or harm or second class status to Jewish residents, it's a
>non-starter.

The problem with a "Jewish" state is the same problem of nearly every state 
in history which has governed on the basis of religion, as opposed to a 
non-secular basis. Things may start out okay, but it soon turns into a 
haven for human rights abuses, fervent nationalism (perhaps leading to 
jingoism), police abuses, and unfair hardships for any who do not fit the 
mold which the country is governed by.

My feelings are that the sooner Israel and Palestine begins to move toward 
non-secular politics and government, the more chance we have to see 
relative peace within our lifetimes in that area...  The US should begin to 
push for this, by tying conditions to our Israeli aid.  Of course, ideally, 
we shouldn't be offering any aid, but that's not likely to happen soon, 
much less in this administration.

-g