{"id":313,"date":"2004-01-15T03:55:03","date_gmt":"2004-01-15T10:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stefangeens.com\/?p=313"},"modified":"2004-01-15T03:55:03","modified_gmt":"2004-01-15T10:55:03","slug":"for-a-secular-israel-dream-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/2004\/01\/for-a-secular-israel-dream-on\/","title":{"rendered":"For a secular Israel (dream on)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes posts I read bug me longer than expected. This tells me I should have blogged them to begin with. Here is a recent example: David Volokh Bernstein’s defense of ethnic\/religion-based states<\/a>, specifically Israel. Where to begin? With Bernstein’s semantic bait-and-switch:<\/p>\n

Supporting Ethnic-Religion Based States: I occasionally get email from readers suggesting that Israel is unworthy of support, or even existence, because it is an ethnic\/religion-based state.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Naturally, the rest of the post concerns itself with Israel’s right to exist, instead of what would be justifiable levels of support. Not interesting, especially if the argument, in a nutshell, goes like this: A) Poland is a ethnic\/religion-based state. B) Israel is a ethnic\/religion-based state. C) Poland has a right to exist. Therefore D) Israel has a right to exist. Basically, because A = B, if C then also D. And C is certainly the case. Hence D. Brilliant, that.<\/p>\n

This rather truncheons nuanced argument from the likes of me, who support the right of Israel (and Poland) to exist, but think it indefensible for one religion and\/or ethnic group to be elevated by law over others. If it’s deplorable when it happens in Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, we should deplore it in our midst too, whether that be the Vatican, Italy, Israel, Ireland, France, Bavaria, Apartheid South Africa or segregation Southern USA.<\/p>\n

My reason: In an ideal world, a polity exists to create a level playing field for its constituent population. In the economic sphere, innovation and competition is assured by guarding against market failures such as monopolies; similarly, a free market of religious or cultural ideas cannot thrive if one religion or culture is granted monopolistic powers by law. Such monopolies might be stable, but at the expense of ethical and cultural innovation. Witness the stagnation of both the Catholic Church (in those areas where it is entrenched) and of societies that have implemented Islamic law.<\/p>\n

Bernstein would probably sit impatiently through that last paragraph and now testily point out that all this is good an well, but that in Israel’s case, if you support taking the word “Jewish” out of “Jewish state”, you are de facto<\/em> against Israel’s existence. That is not true: There would still be a majority of ethnic Jews living together with a minority of ethnic Arabs in a secular democracy, at least for its citizensPointedly not a democracy for Palestinians, but let’s just assume we can fast-forward to an independent but defanged Palestine, which is the inevitable solution and both sides know it.<\/span>. One homeland with room enough for both Jews and Arabs is, believe it or not, quite compatible with the original mandate granted by the British to the Zionist movement in the Balfour Declaration<\/a> of 1917:<\/p>\n

His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other countryWriting it was a mess of negotiations<\/a>; clarifying it wasn’t any easier<\/a>.<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ethnic Jews lose no freedoms in transferring to a secular arrangement, while Israeli Arabs gain a stake in the state as legal equals. Now that the state guarantees a free market of ideas, cultural and ethical innovation is worth exploring again. You only lose out if you subscribe to an orthodoxy. Which suits me fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes posts I read bug me longer than expected. This tells me I should have blogged them to begin with. Here is a recent example: David Volokh Bernstein’s defense of ethnic\/religion-based states, specifically Israel. Where to begin? With Bernstein’s semantic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy-religion","category-politics-economics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7eNhC-53","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stefangeens.com\/2001-2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}