John Kerry-Israel can be Jewish or democratic but not both

Editor: Vladimir Bajic | Tactical Investor

Israel can be Jewish or democratic

The truth is that trends on the ground – violence, terrorism, incitement, settlement expansion and the seemingly endless occupation – are destroying hopes for peace on both sides and increasingly cementing an irreversible one-state reality that most people do not actually want.

Today, there are a similar number of Jews and Palestinians living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. They have a choice. They can choose to live together in one state, or they can separate into two states. But here is a fundamental reality: if the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or democratic – it cannot be both –and it won’t ever really be at peace. Moreover, the Palestinians will never fully realize their vast potential in a homeland of their own with a one-state solution.

Most on both sides understand this basic choice, and that’s why it’s important that polls of Israelis and Palestinians show there is still strong support for the two-state solution – in theory. They just don’t believe that it can happen.

After decades of conflict, many no longer see the other side as people, only as threats and enemies. Both sides continue to push a narrative that plays to people’s fears and reinforces the worst stereotypes – rather than working to change perceptions and build up belief in the possibility of peace. Full Story

Israel can be Jewish or democratic but not both according to Kerry

Kerry’s speech featured some of the toughest criticism of Israeli policy from a top US official in some time: If Israel continues to reject a two-state solution, he said, it will have to choose whether unified Israel is Jewish or democratic — because it cannot be both.

The line isn’t an implication that there’s something inherently undemocratic about a “Jewish state” — it’s a recognition of demographic reality. Either Palestinians receive their own state, get voting rights in Israel (which would make the Knesset majority-Palestinian when the Palestinian population surpasses the Jewish one), or they are denied voting rights in any sovereign state.

Those demographic changes — and the growing international consensus (reflected in the UN resolution) that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is unjust — have some commentators optimistic that Netanyahu and the truculent expansionism he represents are the last gasps of a dying political force: that he is one of “yesterday’s men.”

But Netanyahu knows that things will only get easier for him in Washington. Full Story

Israel can be Jewish or democratic

Israel can be Jewish or democratic but not both according to Kerry

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