Whatever you do, make sure you keep on saying that Israel is a democracy

Throughout the current Anat Kamm case in Israel – where predictably Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick calls the paper behind the story, Haaretz, a friend of Israel’s enemies and “supporting treason” – Zionists in the West still cling onto the same old myths. Take the New York Forward:

There is a larger issue here: the efficacy of targeted assassinations, and whether the benefit of this practice outweighs the possibility it would, instead, spur on more acts of violence and revenge. This is the kind of issue that Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East, ought to debate fully and freely. Holding government accountable is the media’s primary responsibility, and in the end can strengthen the bond between citizens and their leaders, a bond that now seems ever more dangerously frayed.

It’s like a mantra. Israel is the region’s only democracy. For Jews. Despite years of human rights reports that finds systemic discrimination against Arabs and others in Israel proper (let along the occupation), it’s still beyond many Jews in the West to acknowledge that Israel isn’t a democracy, it’s an ethnocentric ghetto.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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