Gaza calls on international powers to reprimand Israel on ‘racist’ law, says it will ’cause holy war.’
By Tova Dvorin, INN
“The law sounds an alarm regarding Israel’s ambitions in the region, and threatens to bring about a religious war,” Hamas representatives in Gaza threatened Sunday.
“The Israeli occupation is trying to protect Zionist myths and take control of Arab-populated areas, steal resources and humiliate [Palestinians],” it claimed.
Hamas also appealed the international community to crack down on Israel for considering the law, which is claimed is “racist.”
“The movement will continue to act against the Israeli occupation to overthrow the imperialist enterprise”, stressed the organization’s leaders.
Jewish State Law: ‘racist’ or ‘nationalist’?
The ‘Jewish State Law’ is comprised of two bills by three MKs: Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), Yariv Levin (Likud), and Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home). Both bills, which are similar in their principles, effectively raise the Jewish influence on the legalsystem, elevating it over the “democratic” elements of Israel’s identity as a “democratic and Jewish state.”
The proposal, in practice, would see Hebrew defined as the only official language and Arabic relegated to a language with “special status”; concretize the Jewish star and holidays as national symbols and holidays; and define Israel as a state which “endeavors to settle Jews within its borders” – leaving out Israeli Arabs, detractors claim.
A counter-proposal from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) would reduce the law’s efficacy to make the Jewish elements of the law equal to – but not higher than – the “democratic” character of Israel, and emphasizes that “the State will allow anyone in Israel, regardless of religion, race, or nationality, to preserve their culture, heritage, and identity.”
It also leaves out the definition of Hebrew as the official language and the clause on Jews settling within its borders.
Despite these amendments, leftist MKs have deemed the law to be “racist,” claiming that even Netanyahu’s clause on equality does not prevent the bill from making Arabs and other minorities “second-class citizens.”
The US apparently supports this position as well, after US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke urged Israel Monday that “Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and all its citizens should enjoy equal rights,” and “we expect Israel to stick to its democratic principles.”
Hamas: bent on starting a war?
Hamas’s position, meanwhile, reflects not only the terror organization’s well-known stance against Jews and Israelis, but also growing calls to incite hatred against Israel in recent weeks.
Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar publicly declared last week that the group was intending to widen its terror scope throughout Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and that it intends to continue to lead the Palestinian Arab camp which advocates for armed struggle until Israel is destroyed.
Earlier this month, the group threatened another war outright unless Gaza was allowed to be “rehabilitated” – in other words, for construction materials to be flooded into the territory without supervision over their usage.
And in October, Hamas declared the rising tensions in Jerusalem an official “third intifada” (terror war against Israel – ed.) as the “solution to Israeli aggression.”
Hamas has also been escalating its incitement campaign against Jews and Israelis through heightened rhetoric and social media, releasing a music video in broken Hebrew this month encouraging “car attacks” against Israeli citizens.
bernard ross Said:
Betting on a sure thing
yamit82 Said:
I am going to wager on Sisi’s ability to be ruthless and unyielding, as long as he has that saudi money. Notice, we hear nothing of Morsi, and little of Mubarak. Since they already have sweeping powers but are drafting another law I expect them to come down hard on opposition. i wonder what they will do to Morsi. I would expect first a high up MB figure being executed as a trial balloon to guage reaction from the street
@ bernard ross:
Sisi is in big trouble and is being mocked all over Egypt and even on Egyptian TV . Large demonstrations against him in the offing.
Watch the situation closely. According to Israeli Arabic analysts his days could be numbered.
@ yamit82:
The idiocy is yours. To refer to something “constitutionally” is not necessarily to invoke a formal document of some sort — but to allude to the essence, or the structure, of the thing.
— You can say, for example, that ‘so-and-so is not constitutionally suited to heavy labor, so he sits behind a desk all day.’
Whether Israel has a constitution had no bearing on what I said — which was that whether France or Italy are intended to be religious states, Israel is not. It doesn’t have a state religion, nor is it a theocracy.
It SOUNDS no less secular than the USA Declaration of Independence — which contains at least as many references to God, faith, providence, etc.
The key sentence, however is the FIRST one [cited above], which notes that Eretz Yisrael was the birthplace of the Jewish PEOPLE. That is the document’s primary focus; everything else in it develops from that.
It declares no state religion, nor a ruling govt structure to be manned by rabbonim or religious scholars. In fact, if THAT’S what you’re looking for in a country, you’re clearly in the wrong one.
The mullahs in Tehran, however, might have a gig for somebody with your mindset.
— You’d havta learn a few things, of course (and un-learn a few others), but w/ a little luck, you’ll fit in just fine. . . .
Sisi’s deportation law creates controversy
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has issued a decree that allows him to repatriate foreigners accused or convicted of a crime, based on a memorandum from the public prosecutor and with the Cabinet’s approval. The power is to be used “whenever the higher interest of the state dictates it,” according to the text of the law.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/11/egypt-law-repatriate-foreign-criminals-sisi-controversy.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+%5BEnglish%5D&utm_campaign=1f2f3c13c6-November_26_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-1f2f3c13c6-100371289#ixzz3KDcC73rM
Very funny. Most Muslim states practice absolute apartheid. They want you to ignore it. The West care less.
honeybee Said:
I’ll send you a street map of Ramallah with an XXXX on his house. How is your bird at navigation??? How are you???
yamit82 Said:
Look out below. Where’s Abbas’s house ?????
@ honeybee:
Love the imagery!!!!!!
honeybee Said:
Ahh!!! Here you are
yamit82 Said:
Not really I shall ride the last Terradoctyle to Israel as if born up on.” the Wings of Eagles”.
yamit82 Said:
honeybee Said:
The last one moved to Israel, Texas too big for him 🙂
I thought big foot was out of bounds?????? or was that big feet I forget. 🙁
@ honeybee:
dweller is wrong and only partially correct my full response for some reason was spammed 4 times.
maybe one will show. 🙁
@ honeybee:
Israel has no constitution!!!!
How secular does this sound?
Any fool reading the above can’t but help to see the religious inferences and even the word democratic or democracy is absent.
Idiot Israel has no constitution!!!!
How secular does this sound?
Anyy fool reading the above can’t but help to see the religious inferences and even the word democratic or democracy is absent.
@ yamit82:
As of Jan 2, 2015, I intended to hike the vast unknown canyon lands of Texas to hunt the last Terradoctyles and shack up with Bigfoot and never cook again.
@ dweller:
Thank you for your answer. I personally, because of it’s unique history, believed Israel to be a Jewish State.
Yamit, what do you think of this statement from Avi Erlich (from his book ‘Ancient Zionism’):
“…modern Israel, insofar as it is modern, departs from its origins to make deals and accommodations that appear necessary. At times Israel has imported foreign values, trying for example to make herself part of the socialist revolution or part of the international business community. Alternatively, Israel on occasion makes herself represent new homegrown values, convenient tot he moment but not derived from ancient Zionism, such as the creation of a secular pioneer movement and the building of a refuge for embattled Jews in the Diaspora.”
NormanF Said:
There was never a wall to wall consensus about Zionism even among declared Zionists. Can’t even agree as to who is a Jew.
Political Zionism has little meaning today if the it means the establishment of a sovereign Jewish State and the absorption of immigrants.
Political Zionism succeeded, There is a sovereign Jewish state and most Jews now live in Israel. One can be pro Israel or anti israel but being pro Zionist today has little meaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEuxPHJ8YSU
@ NormanF:
Beats hell outa me, Norman — but I’m stateside (and I assume you are, as well).
Might look different from a vantage closer to the eye of the storm.
@ yamit82:
Yup. The Israeli Left is completely dishonest if it thinks a secular state can be preserved against an inevitable Muslim takeover bid. The only way Israel will remain secure against such a threat is as a Jewish State. Nature abhors a vacuum.
@ yamit82:
The Left certainly does. And sure Jew is not a catch-all phrase, there are still Jews who are active in anti-Israel groups both in Israel and abroad.
Once upon a time, it would be unnecessary because there was a wall-to-wall consensus about Zionism. Today? No one is quite sure how far the slippery slope extends.
@ dweller:
Then what’s the hullabaloo about? No one intends to make Israel a theocracy.
@ yamit82:
How, ‘not true’?
You may quarrel over the manner or degree to which Israel fulfills its stated (or implicit) mission, but the fact is that it DOES proclaim itself to be a Jewish state:
@
@ honeybee:
Don’t know if they are constitutionally RCC states; don’t know if RC is still the state religion there.
However, in any case, there is no comparison with Israel.
The word Jewish can mean either of TWO things:
Jewish by ethnicity, OR
Jewish by religion.
(In fact, in written French, they have two different words for Jew.
When referring to an adherent of Jewish faith, the word is Juif.
When referring to one of Jewish etnicity, the word is juif [viz., uncapitalized].)
Anyway, the point I was building to was that in referring to Israel as a “Jewish State,” the designation does not allude to a state grounded in Judaism, or even one whose state religion is Judaism.
Rather, the designation “Jewish State” alludes to the state of the Jewish People; the state of Jewish ethnicity, Jewish nationality.
Yes, there are some complexities to that, since, e.g., as a concession to the religious community (in return for their political support), Ben-Gurion — himself a socialist, of atheistic leanings — allowed the Orthodox Jewish rabbinate discretion over the decision to determine “who is a Jew”
— and they (for their own reasons), apply a religious affiliation ‘test’ to the individual and his ancestry, etc.
Nonetheless, whether France or Italy are constitutionally religious states, Israel is certainly not.
dweller Said:
Are not France and Italy Roman Catholic states, don’t their non-Roman Catholic citizens have rights ????
@ yamit82:
What left overs?????????????
dweller Said:
Not true!!!
Israel is not a Jewish State it is a state where Jews have the majority. If the Arabs get a majority or even near majority it will be an Arab Muslim State.
@ honeybee:
http://premeditatedleftovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Buffalo-Ranch-Chicken-Casserole-Recipe.jpg
DoS either is disingenuous or has simply not thought things thru. All Israel’s citizens do enjoy equal rights as individuals.
But if Israel is a Jewish state, then it is neither possible nor advisable for its non-Jewish citizens to enjoy equal nationality rights.
NormanF Said:
NormanF Said:
I don’t have a problem with identity and many others don’t as well.
Stop using the word Jew as an all inclusive catch phrase.
@ yamit82:
Of course. After all, a Jew invented the term “masochism.” No other people in the world wrings their hands over their identity.
yamit82 Said:
NormanF Said:
” Who wants to join a club that would take me as a member” Groucho Marx
NormanF Said:
So what?? Nothing new here.
@ yamit82:
I keep thinking of the Arab leaders who say: “feel free to call yourselves what you want.” But some Jews recoil as though the words are the Mark Of Cain or a source of deep shame. Its not the Arabs who have a problem with the words “Jewish State.” As it turns out, the people who have the greatest difficulty accepting they’re the nation G-d made them to be are none other than the Jews themselves.
NormanF Said:
Life is amusing… who knew the strongest proponent of a Jewish State – would not be the Jews themselves
Life is amusing… who knew the strongest proponent of a Jewish State – would not be the Jews themselves but their enemy?
The Arabs speak a truth Jews seek to deny to their own face. For their own good, they should heed it.