Israel adopts controversial Jewish 'nation state' law

[Perknose]

Law stipulates Jewish people have ‘exclusive right to national self-determination’ in Israel:

Israel has passed a law declaring that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country, a move described by members of the Arab minority as racist and verging on apartheid.

The “nation state” law, backed by the rightwing government, passed by a vote of 62-55 and two abstentions in the 120-member parliament after months of political argument. Some Arab MPs shouted and ripped up papers after the vote.

“This is a defining moment in the annals of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel,” the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Knesset after the vote.

Largely symbolic, the law was enacted just after the 70th anniversary of the birth of the state of Israel. It stipulates that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it”.

The bill strips Arabic of its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew, downgrading it to a “special status” that enables its continued use within Israeli institutions.

Democracy or Theocracy? You decide.

 

[IronWing]

The law is a legal prop for the existing apartheid state.

 

[MrPickins]

Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people

Is it not also the historic homeland of various Arab peoples?

 

[Thebobo]

Lol the whole world is going bonkers

 

[UNCjigga]

The law is a legal prop for the existing apartheid state.

Bingo. It's an official declaration of *the* apartheid state. Jewish first, Arab last.

 

[Vic]

Lol the whole world is going bonkers

The plague of illiberal democracies is spreading.

 

[Jhhnn]

Law stipulates Jewish people have ‘exclusive right to national self-determination’ in Israel:



Democracy or Theocracy? You decide.

Fascist ethnostate is the term you want.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The plague of illiberal democracies is spreading.

It arguably kicked off with Israel, when Bibi was facing a changing culture and potentially losing the election, decided he'd throw a bone to the fundamentalists and said a few days before the election that he'd never allow a Palestinian state while he was in office. Think he might've said more (basically he tried to tell one side "oh, I'm super still working towards peace with Palestine and getting them their own country" and then turning around and telling the conservatives "over my dead body"), and that galvanized enough of the right wingers to get out and support him to push him over the edge. I'd be curious if there wasn't more involved (like some of the groups that we know had a hand in Brexit and Turmp campaigns), and that was the moment they realized their winning method: pairing targeted propaganda with the right (and in this case ultra Right-wing) message to tap into the ignorant masses blind hate.

The thing is, Israel is likely going to reap what they have sown more than anyone.

 

[Moonbeam]

It arguably kicked off with Israel, when Bibi was facing a changing culture and potentially losing the election, decided he'd throw a bone to the fundamentalists and said a few days before the election that he'd never allow a Palestinian state while he was in office. Think he might've said more (basically he tried to tell one side "oh, I'm super still working towards peace with Palestine and getting them their own country" and then turning around and telling the conservatives "over my dead body"), and that galvanized enough of the right wingers to get out and support him to push him over the edge. I'd be curious if there wasn't more involved (like some of the groups that we know had a hand in Brexit and Turmp campaigns), and that was the moment they realized their winning method: pairing targeted propaganda with the right (and in this case ultra Right-wing) message to tap into the ignorant masses blind hate.

The thing is, Israel is likely going to reap what they have sown more than anyone.

That is the sad reality, I am afraid. The Nazis are really going to make hay out of this. Somebody should have told the original Nazi group that it would be only a few generations for Jews to go from the ovens to a racists bigoted state, suffering the indignities of the outcast to denigration of the Arabs.

 

[Perknose]

It arguably kicked off with Israel, when Bibi was facing a changing culture and potentially losing the election, decided he'd throw a bone to the fundamentalists and said a few days before the election that he'd never allow a Palestinian state while he was in office. Think he might've said more (basically he tried to tell one side "oh, I'm super still working towards peace with Palestine and getting them their own country" and then turning around and telling the conservatives "over my dead body"), and that galvanized enough of the right wingers to get out and support him to push him over the edge. I'd be curious if there wasn't more involved (like some of the groups that we know had a hand in Brexit and Turmp campaigns), and that was the moment they realized their winning method: pairing targeted propaganda with the right (and in this case ultra Right-wing) message to tap into the ignorant masses blind hate.

The thing is, Israel is likely going to reap what they have sown more than anyone.

That is the sad reality, I am afraid. The Nazis are really going to make hay out of this. Somebody should have told the original Nazi group that it would be only a few generations for Jews to go from the ovens to a racists bigoted state, suffering the indignities of the outcast to denigration of the Arabs.

The underlying dynamic in all of these instances is the fear of the folks of the dominant legacy culture that their "culture" will be overrun by "newcomers" of a different race/culture/religion. This dynamic is happening all over . . . in Israel (where the Arab "newcomers" are the, ummmm, OLDcomers), in England (Brexit), in America (Hispanic Panic!), and all over Europe, now exacerbated by the flood of refugees from Syria and Libya, et. al.

Never has it been more true: All politics is local.

Without giving into nativism or naked racism, leaders in each of these countries have to find a way to accommodate their "regular folks/"REAL Americans"" fears of change, of having their set way of life overwhelmed by people who look and act and worship differently.

The problem is, in a democracy, "leaders" are often craven "followers" who pander to the lowest common denominator of opinion, should the polls point that way.

This is mightily exacerbated in America by the rise of Fox News and all the various online alt-right echo chambers.

"Can't we all get along?" Right now, the sad, one-word answer is, "No."

THIS is why a solid 40% of our electorate continue to support Donald Trump despite . . . everything!!!!

 

[Moonbeam]

The underlying dynamic in all of these instances is the fear of the folks of the dominant legacy culture that their "culture" will be overrun by "newcomers" of a different race/culture/religion. This dynamic is happening all over . . . in Israel (where the Arab "newcomers" are the, ummmm, OLDcomers), in England (Brexit), in America (Hispanic Panic!), and all over Europe, now exacerbated by the flood of refugees from Syria and Libya, et. al.

Never has it been more true: All politics is local.

Without giving into nativism or naked racism, leaders in each of these countries have to find a way to accommodate their "regular folks/"REAL Americans"" fears of change, of having their set way of life overwhelmed by people who look and act and worship differently.

The problem is, in a democracy, "leaders" are often craven "followers" who pander to the lowest common denominator of opinion, should the polls point that way.

This is mightily exacerbated in America by the rise of Fox News and all the various online alt-right echo chambers.

"Can't we all get along?" Right now, the sad, one-word answer is, "No."

THIS is why a solid 40% of our electorate continue to support Donald Trump despite . . . everything!!!!

I just couldn't agree with this more and especially after watching a few minutes of Fox News last night. The question that was asked in the small segment I watched was what do Democrats, liberals stand for. Who do they have to run. Biden in his time machine DeLorean blast from the past, Hillary Clinton, as one prayed, "Please God make it so." or Maxine Waters screaming impeachment or Warren who wants to take your hard earned tax cuts. Are they going to run of eliminating ICE and then went on to rant about how liberals are tearing down law enforcement and allow everybody in to the country.

In short, I am sitting there thinking to myself just how much emotional appeal these folk make to people who are afraid and how little liberals can offer in counter response. We have no unifying message and no exceptionally gifted young leadership. I just read on Google news something about the democrats working to figure out what message they should offer to get elected. Eliminate ICE, and a few others, commenting that the best they can come up with so far is that the republican party is too corrupt to govern. That got a 54 percent approval rating. In my opinion they need to actually address illegal immigration, focus on jobs and the economy and start talking about the fact that an American isn't a color but a mentality that anybody can have where it coalesces with and mirrors our deepest moral yearnings.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I just couldn't agree with this more and especially after watching a few minutes of Fox News last night. The question that was asked in the small segment I watched was what do Democrats, liberals stand for. Who do they have to run. Biden in his time machine DeLorean blast from the past, Hillary Clinton, as one prayed, "Please God make it so." or Maxine Waters screaming impeachment or Warren who wants to take your hard earned tax cuts. Are they going to run of eliminating ICE and then went on to rant about how liberals are tearing down law enforcement and allow everybody in to the country.

In short, I am sitting there thinking to myself just how much emotional appeal these folk make to people who are afraid and how little liberals can offer in counter response. We have no unifying message and no exceptionally gifted young leadership. I just read on Google news something about the democrats working to figure out what message they should offer to get elected. Eliminate ICE, and a few others, commenting that the best they can come up with so far is that the republican party is too corrupt to govern. That got a 54 percent approval rating. In my opinion they need to actually address illegal immigration, focus on jobs and the economy and start talking about the fact that an American isn't a color but a mentality that anybody can have where it coalesces with and mirrors our deepest moral yearnings.

What do they stand for? Look, I get conservatives are idiots, but people copping this "I don't know what Democrats are for" angle is just stupid. What the Democrats need to say is simply that they're "for America" and point to the things they've done. Point to Obama righting the economy that Bush and Republicans tried to collapse. Point to him keeping us out of more Middle East quagmires (straight up say, are people willing to suffer the same consequences as we did with Iraq and Afghanistan in Syria? Point out that our fuckup in Iraq was directly responsible for ISIS). Point to the ACA and the people its helped and show how conservatives screamed lies and hid instead of facing their constituents when they tried to dismantle it while admitting they had absolutely no plan whatsoever for fixing health care. Point out how many of the people screaming about immigrants now had forebears that came here and experienced the opposite side of that, or fled countries because of the xenophobia and hate. Remind people of that placard about who America wants. Remind people about how isolationism doesn't fucking work and only hurts yourself while enabling great evils to spread until they are impossible for you to hide from (WWII), but that you should also not go looking for wars at every opportunity (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq). That working together, and forming strong economic bonds, fosters peace more than any gun/tank/bomb ever will. Say that you care about racism because it is a part of our history and that in spite of the most catastrophic war America ever fought, and then having to march en masse, that the fight to deal with racism is not over. That you care about the LGBTQ people, because Pulse shows us that they are outright under attack. Say that you care about women, because we've ignored them for far too long when they told us how rotten society could be to them. Say that you care about the EPA and health regulations because we've seen how horrible things are when we don't care.

On the latter paragraph, they've been saying that and doing that for years (maybe not on eliminate ICE, but trying to come up with an immigration compromise was a huge topic for Obama, and they put in real work on it, enough so that even Republicans had agreed to a compromise until the extremists on their side started spouting their xenophobic/racist rhetoric again, stoking the fear by making shit up like how ISIS was going to use Mexicans a biological bombs to spread Ebola). It hasn't worked against the hatred that conservatives have, and the centrists are too ignorant (by choice) to bother to learn and be informed so they end up being swayed easily based on incredibly stupid stuff. The Democrats have been unified in that they take on topics when they become necessary. And its not like they just sit there twiddling their thumbs otherwise (they got to work on the ACA quickly, and did that while managing the disaster that was the economy that Bush had just turned over to them). Then they got to work on foreign policy (and we see there was good reason for them to not be buddying up to Russia - that's another thing I hope they run ads, they should be running them now even is how many fucking Republicans were buddy-buddy with all these Russia agents - ones that now are being indicted). When racist policing became a big topic they worked to try to figure that out.

Only ignorant assholes keep trying to hold the Democrats to a perfect standard while giving Republicans a free pass on the litany of massive major incredibly fuck-ups. We're talking historical fuck-ups.

 

[Moonbeam]

What do they stand for? Look, I get conservatives are idiots, but people copping this "I don't know what Democrats are for" angle is just stupid. What the Democrats need to say is simply that they're "for America" and point to the things they've done. Point to Obama righting the economy that Bush and Republicans tried to collapse. Point to him keeping us out of more Middle East quagmires (straight up say, are people willing to suffer the same consequences as we did with Iraq and Afghanistan in Syria? Point out that our fuckup in Iraq was directly responsible for ISIS). Point to the ACA and the people its helped and show how conservatives screamed lies and hid instead of facing their constituents when they tried to dismantle it while admitting they had absolutely no plan whatsoever for fixing health care. Point out how many of the people screaming about immigrants now had forebears that came here and experienced the opposite side of that, or fled countries because of the xenophobia and hate. Remind people of that placard about who America wants. Remind people about how isolationism doesn't fucking work and only hurts yourself while enabling great evils to spread until they are impossible for you to hide from (WWII), but that you should also not go looking for wars at every opportunity (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq). That working together, and forming strong economic bonds, fosters peace more than any gun/tank/bomb ever will. Say that you care about racism because it is a part of our history and that in spite of the most catastrophic war America ever fought, and then having to march en masse, that the fight to deal with racism is not over. That you care about the LGBTQ people, because Pulse shows us that they are outright under attack. Say that you care about women, because we've ignored them for far too long when they told us how rotten society could be to them. Say that you care about the EPA and health regulations because we've seen how horrible things are when we don't care.

On the latter paragraph, they've been saying that and doing that for years (maybe not on eliminate ICE, but trying to come up with an immigration compromise was a huge topic for Obama, and they put in real work on it, enough so that even Republicans had agreed to a compromise until the extremists on their side started spouting their xenophobic/racist rhetoric again, stoking the fear by making shit up like how ISIS was going to use Mexicans a biological bombs to spread Ebola). It hasn't worked against the hatred that conservatives have, and the centrists are too ignorant (by choice) to bother to learn and be informed so they end up being swayed easily based on incredibly stupid stuff. The Democrats have been unified in that they take on topics when they become necessary. And its not like they just sit there twiddling their thumbs otherwise (they got to work on the ACA quickly, and did that while managing the disaster that was the economy that Bush had just turned over to them). Then they got to work on foreign policy (and we see there was good reason for them to not be buddying up to Russia - that's another thing I hope they run ads, they should be running them now even is how many fucking Republicans were buddy-buddy with all these Russia agents - ones that now are being indicted). When racist policing became a big topic they worked to try to figure that out.

Only ignorant assholes keep trying to hold the Democrats to a perfect standard while giving Republicans a free pass on the litany of massive major incredibly fuck-ups. We're talking historical fuck-ups.

It sounds to me like you quoted my post to criticize something I said in it, but I don't see any connection. All that I can add in addition to all the wonderful points you made, is that I also want to win. Perhaps you aren't aware that the points conservatives make to each other, in their opinion, blow the points you made out of the water. That is a weakness in your approach that can be addresses in my opinion. I lack confidence is liberals winning elections where they can't offer confidently presented salves to irrational fears. It is fear that allows conservatives to win. They gin it up and offer divisive solutions while democrats address issues that appeal to democrats. I see this as a kind of intellectual arrogance and emotional disconnect from the real concerns of average people. I worry that the attitude you take here may imply some secret desire to experience a loser state, to secretly hope that some conservative will defeat you in an election by clubbing you in the back of the head. I wonder if Trump Derangement Syndrome doesn't release endorphins and create an addiction dependency.

 

[Fern]

Law stipulates Jewish people have ‘exclusive right to national self-determination’ in Israel:



Democracy or Theocracy? You decide.

Maybe an ethnocracy?

(Yeah, that word actually exists)

Fern

 

[Perknose]

Maybe an ethnocracy?

(Yeah, that word actually exists)

Fern

Nope. The Arabs and the Israelis are both Semites. It's religion that divides them.