{"id":9388,"date":"2018-08-29T06:42:50","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T06:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohelet.org.il\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/"},"modified":"2018-08-29T06:42:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T06:42:50","slug":"israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

But let\u2019s be honest, if it weren\u2019t the Nation-State Law, it would have been the law on surrogate mothers, or some other law that makes some in the Diaspora shift uneasily in their seats.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel preceded Israel as a state. It would be safe to say that the majority of the builders, in both the physical and the spiritual sense, came from the Diaspora. No one can dispute the financial and political assistance that the nascent state received from the older and stronger Jewish sister-communities around the globe. The ongoing philanthropy was on a scale the world has rarely seen before.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n

\n\nNow at 70, Israel has emerged as an independent country. She maintains a healthy and vibrant economy and an even more vibrant, oft raucous, democratic system. Every day, Israelis debate \u2013 in the media, Knesset, academia, or caf\u00e9 \u2013 a multitude of issues regarding Israel\u2019s past, present and future. We know how to make hard decisions. Reality in Israel dictates that we do so on a daily basis.\n

As a young country, we are paving our own new path. Recently, the Knesset passed the Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People Basic Law. For the first time Israel passed into law the spirit of Israel\u2019s Declaration of Independence and recognized itself as a Jewish state. This should have been celebrated by Jews around the world much in the same way they celebrated the country\u2019s establishment 70 years ago, however, it was not. What we got instead was a downpour of criticism and lectures of doom for our democracy.\n\nSo let us assure you: our democracy is very dear to us and we don\u2019t plan to do away with it. Nothing in the Basic Law is intended to change the equal social or political rights of all Israeli citizens. Indeed, the word equality doesn\u2019t appear in the text, but it doesn\u2019t have to \u2013 it is already enshrined in our other Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which holds the same constitutional rank. The charade as if something in the language will injure Druze or any other minority is misinformed at best, and disingenuous at worst. Take two minutes and read the law. This argument can only be put forward by those who either didn\u2019t read the law, or did and chose to distort it.\n\nHere are some other clarifications. The Arabic language was not \u201cdemoted.\u201d True, Arabic was an official language during the British Mandate; but Israel never adopted that status into law. It wasn\u2019t as if, for instance, you could file a lawsuit or almost any other official document in Arabic prior to the recent law\u2019s passage. Still, the law clarifies that it should not be construed as changing the status of the language (now with constitutional status). In other words, if you put your trust in Israel\u2019s Supreme Court, let them decide what that status was previously and keep it unchanged.\n\nOn Jewish settlements, some more background is necessary. In the 1990s, Israel\u2019s Ministry of Defense thought it was necessary to build Jewish towns in the Negev and Galilee. Bedouins had populated these regions and the government wanted to prevent them from becoming isolated from the rest of the country, or worse, becoming a terrorist safe haven. In 2000, Israel\u2019s Supreme Court declared this move unconstitutional on grounds of discrimination. However, in previous and later decisions the court ruled that Arabs towns discriminating against Jews are fine. It seems only fair that Jews should enjoy similar right as other groups, especially when security matters are involved.\n\nAnother misconception is that the law impedes efforts in Israel to foster greater Jewish pluralism. This is an argument put forward by those attempting to widen the spat between Israelis and the Diaspora.\n\nThe truth is, the law makes it a constitutional value for Israel to strengthen its bond with Jews worldwide and maintain the cultural, historical and religious heritage in the Diaspora, regardless of denomination.\n\nBut let\u2019s be honest, if it weren\u2019t the Nation-State Law, it would have been the law on surrogate mothers, or some other law that makes some in the Diaspora shift uneasily in their seats. We would be hearing the same criticism and threats that the last threads holding us together are over strained.\n\nHere\u2019s the reality: our relationship has changed. Israel has become more independent; some of you have turned more liberal. Some decisions that we view as crucial and that are made here by our very democratic system \u2013 the Knesset held tens of hearings on the Nation-State Law, it passed with a majority of 62 votes \u2013 are viewed by you as abomination.\n\nThe door is always open for you to join us here and cast your vote to make a change; it says so in the Nation-State Law. If you choose to remain abroad, we understand and respect your decision. We are willing to respect your right to your opinion and make the effort to bridge the gap \u2013 we just made it our (constitutional) obligation. Are you willing to do the same?<\/p>\nThe article was originally published The Jerusalem Post<\/a>.\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But let\u2019s be honest, if it weren\u2019t the Nation-State Law, it would have been the law on surrogate mothers, or some other law that makes some in the Diaspora shift uneasily in their seats. The relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel preceded Israel as a state. It would be safe to say that the […]","protected":false},"featured_media":9389,"template":"","article-category":[525],"custom-tags":[654,607,650,536,651],"ppma_author":[84],"class_list":["post-9388","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article-category-publications","custom-tags-american-jewry","custom-tags-democracy","custom-tags-nation","custom-tags-nation-state-law","custom-tags-state"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIsrael's Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It? - kohelet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Israel's Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It? - kohelet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"But let\u2019s be honest, if it weren\u2019t the Nation-State Law, it would have been the law on surrogate mothers, or some other law that makes some in the Diaspora shift uneasily in their seats. The relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel preceded Israel as a state. It would be safe to say that the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kohelet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1226\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"816\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@koheletforum\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/\",\"name\":\"Israel's Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It? - kohelet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-29T06:42:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg\",\"width\":1226,\"height\":816,\"caption\":\"\u05d3\u05d2\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd \u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc \u05d0\u05e8\u05d4\\\"\u05d1\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Israel’s Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/\",\"name\":\"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg\",\"width\":292,\"height\":459,\"caption\":\"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/koheletforum\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Israel's Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It? - kohelet","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Israel's Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It? - kohelet","og_description":"But let\u2019s be honest, if it weren\u2019t the Nation-State Law, it would have been the law on surrogate mothers, or some other law that makes some in the Diaspora shift uneasily in their seats. The relationship between the Jewish Diaspora and Israel preceded Israel as a state. It would be safe to say that the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/","og_site_name":"kohelet","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/","og_image":[{"width":1226,"height":816,"url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@koheletforum","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/","name":"Israel's Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It? - kohelet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg","datePublished":"2018-08-29T06:42:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/us-israeli-flags.jpg","width":1226,"height":816,"caption":"\u05d3\u05d2\u05dc\u05d9\u05dd \u05d9\u05e9\u05e8\u05d0\u05dc \u05d0\u05e8\u05d4\"\u05d1"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/israels-democracy-is-flourishing-can-world-jewry-respect-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Israel’s Democracy is Flourishing. Can World Jewry Respect It?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/","name":"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization","name":"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg","width":292,"height":459,"caption":"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/","https:\/\/x.com\/koheletforum"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/9388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-category?post=9388"},{"taxonomy":"custom-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-tags?post=9388"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}