American Media Pundits Argue Over Israel And Theocracy

[Purveyor]

New York Times article suggesting Israel may be drifting toward theocracy strongly refuted in Tablet online magazine.

By Haaretz | Apr. 12, 2014 | 2:08 PM

A New York Times opinion piece that suggested Israel may be drifting towards theocracy was strongly refuted by an article in Tablet online magazine on Saturday.

Written by Abbas Milani, head of the Iranian studies program at Stanford University, and Israel Waismel-Manor, a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa and visiting associate professor of political science at Stanford, the New York Times article suggested that Israel and Iran may be trading places.

Iran, the writers said, is shifting "away from theocracy and confrontation, and toward moderation and pragmatism," while "secular democrats in Israel have been losing ground to religious and right-wing extremists who feel comfortable openly attacking the United States, Israel’s strongest ally."

In fact, they added, "Israel’s secular democrats are growing increasingly worried that Israel’s future may bear an uncomfortable resemblance to Iran’s recent past."

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http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.585243

[Jefferson23]

1. I have great sympathy for the political left in Israel, they are marginalized to say the least.

There are huge obstacles for them to over come and I do believe they have been concerned for some time..nothing new.

[Crunchy Frog]

2. Any link to the original article?

[Purveyor]

3. Are Iran and Israel Trading Places?

By ABBAS MILANI and ISRAEL WAISMEL-MANORAPRIL 11, 2014

STANFORD, Calif. — Although the Israeli and Iranian governments have been virtually at war with each other for decades, the two countries have much in common.

Both are home to some of the oldest civilizations on earth, and both are primarily non-Arab states in a mostly Arab region. In the 1950s, David Ben-Gurion’s Israel and Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s Iran were bastions of secular nationalism; the shah pushed authoritarian modernization, while Ben-Gurion advanced a form of nonreligious Zionism. Only after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran did radical Islam all but eclipse this secular brand of politics. It held on for much longer in Israel but is now under threat.

Both Iran and Israel are now entering potentially challenging new stages in their relations with the outside world, and particularly with the United States. Over the last seven years, United Nations Security Council resolutions have imposed sanctions on Iran with the aim of halting its nuclear program. For years, Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad railed against the “Great Satan.” But even if Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is still opposed to reforms, it appears that some officials inside Iran have finally realized that continued intransigence and bellicosity will beget only more sanctions and catastrophic economic consequences.

As the winds of change blow across Iran, secular democrats in Israel have been losing ground to religious and right-wing extremists who feel comfortable openly attacking the United States, Israel’s strongest ally. In recent months, Israel’s defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, called Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive and messianic,” while Naftali Bennett, Israel’s economy minister, labeled Mr. Kerry a “mouthpiece” for anti-Semitic elements attempting to boycott Israel.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/opinion/sunday/are-iran-and-israel-trading-places.html?_r=0