Israeli Jews aren't racist - they're anxious

[oberliner]

A recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute has revealed that 62 percent of the Jews in Israel support conditioning the right to vote for the Knesset on a declaration of loyalty to the state. With regard to this finding and other, similar ones, Prof. Tamar Hermann, a senior fellow at the Institute said: "If for some reason or other the Jewish public has its back to the wall and has to choose between the two components of the definition of the state's character, it is very highly likely that the national, Jewish definition will be chosen over the definition of the regime, democratic."

A key expression for understanding the survey's findings is therefore: "If the Jewish public has its back to the wall..." But this "if," for those who hasten to claim that racism has spread through the country, is no longer an "if."

The Jewish public's back has been against the wall for a long time now. That is mainly the result of the harsh expressions, in word and deed, of the Arab public in Israel. A public whose political, religious and intellectual elites are working in Israel and abroad to delegitimize the Jewish nation-state.

Expressions aired in Nazareth or even in the Knesset, are sometimes becoming more extreme than in the Palestinian Authority. The Arab pressure is joined by those in Jewish circles that have public opinion-forming tools, such as academics and culture and media gatekeepers.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israeli-jews-aren-t-racist-they-re-anxious-1.328332

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. Choosing ethnocracy over democracy is racist by definition.

The Jewish public does not have its back to a wall. They have an overwhelming military advantage over their neighbours, and are massively more prosperous. They also enjoy carte-blanche support from the USA, and - despite their whining - much more favourable relations with most of Europe than their neighbours.

The only pressure being placed on Israel is moral pressure, and sadly it's largely impervious to that.

The Palestinians have their backs to the wall; Israeli Jews do not.


The "Blame the arabs, it's not our fault we're racist" philosophy set out in this article (more clearly in the whole thing than in the excerpts in the OP) is utterly contemptible.

[Cassandra]

2. I guess that makes the entire Muslim word racist, as well.

Perhaps tribal is more the word you are looking for.

[madrchsod]

3. yes it is tribal

i ran across a Muslim writer blaming the Bedouins for the violence in the early days of islam. judaism and islam share the same "father"

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Bigotted as opposed to racist - just as bad, but different.

(Although a lot of it is probably fairly heavily institutionally racist too).

[oberliner]

4. The author is a right-wing religious Zionist who lives in a West Bank settlement

Bear that in mind while reading the article.

I shared it to provide a window into that particular point of view.

Presumably that is why a left-wing newspaper like Ha'aretz published it as well.

[whosinpower]

5. rebuttal

snip from comments section -


Israel Harel's attempts to explain away the clear racist tendencies increasingly expressed in Israel are, at best, weak. Placing the burden on the Palestinian population in Israel to prove their loyalty in order to placate the racists and reduce racism is like demanding the slave prove her humanity in order that the slave owner would free her. Palestinians in Israel owe no proofs of loyalty or anything else. It is the State that must first demonstrate its commitment to democracy and human rights!!!


I could not say it any better than that.

[LeftishBrit]

7. The two aren't incompatible

Racism is often closely linked to fear, both as cause and effect. It is still racism (orto be pedantic, cultural bigotry, as it is questionable whether Israelis and Palestinians are different 'races').

Israel Harel is a very right-wing representative of the settlers, and has some fairly strange views.

[Igel]

8. It's common enough.

When you think that your ethnicity is likely to be abused, oppressed, or even destroyed, you find ways to defend it.

Nationalism, for instance. Take Estonia and Latvia vs Russians--or, in the other extreme, Russians in Lithuania and, well, Russia. The French and Mexicans I know hate the US, not so much for what the US does but because of US culture being common and "infiltrating" or corrupting the "indigenous" culture.

Of course, there are defenders--whether explicitly or simply by letting the behavior passed unremarked--of the Palestinians for holding essentially the same attitudes. One could argue that it's okay since they're not in power, and racism requires power (always a nice way of making racism less about intent and attitudes than distribution of power). On the other hand, the Pal. attitudes are roughly the same as they were during the real first and second anti-Zionist intifadas which, oddly, were before 1945 when the Zionists weren't the government, or even a majority much of anywhere.