Matt Yglesias

25 Responses to “Arab Parties Back In”

1. thepuzzled1 Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 12:29 pm

   Told you this would happen.

2. Ikram Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 12:50 pm

   Happens every time. The Israeli SC is very activist — and the Knesset is very irresponsible, passing bad laws the government probably doesn’t want, knowing they will be overturned.

   Which is the cause and which is the consequence — I don’t know. But the end result of activist liberal judges coninually overturning laws passed by populist demogogic lawmakers? — It won’t be good.

3. thepuzzled1 Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 1:17 pm

   There is a tug-of-war going on between the right-hand half of the Knesset (Likud + far right + religious parties) and the Courts (”bagatz”) going on for at least 15 years.

   (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Friedmann for the guy who took this to the boiling point.)

   This dispute is as acrimonious, and as important, as the settlers vs. let’s-negotiate factions.

   The point is that Israel has a de-facto constitution (the “Basic Laws”) which right-wingers are either exploting or undermining, whichever fits them best at any time.

4. Miriam Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 1:31 pm

   I am really relieved. This is the first good news out of Israel in several weeks. The ban was really a really shameful subversion of democracy.

5. JimboSlice Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 1:36 pm

   When will they right this injustic:
   Thursday 1 September 2005:

   “Four Arab Israelis shot dead by a soldier opposed to the closure of the Gaza Strip settlements are not victims of “terror” because their killer was Jewish, Israel’s defence ministry has ruled, and so their families are not entitled to the usual compensation for life.”

   http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/01/israel

6. fostert Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 3:16 pm

   “are not victims of “terror” because their killer was Jewish”

   Well of course that wasn’t terrorism. Terrorism is defined as “people we don’t like doing things we don’t want them to do.” We like the Jews, and killing Arabs is something we want. How could that possibly be terrorism?

7. SLC Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 3:22 pm

   Happens every time. The Israeli SC is very activist — and the Knesset is very irresponsible, passing bad laws the government probably doesn’t want, knowing they will be overturned.

   Gee, just like State Legislatures in the US that pass laws requiring the teaching of creationism in public schools, knowing that the Supreme Court will declare them unconstitutional.

8. daveNYC Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 3:26 pm

   Lieberman added that “[former chief justice] Aharon Barak once said that a democracy does not need to kill itself to prove its vitality. The court threw away this declaration and in fact gave the Arab parties license to kill the state of Israel as a Jewish democratic state,” adding that his party will not back down. “In the next Knesset, we will pass a citizenship law that will prevent the disloyalty of some of Israel’s Arabs,” he said.

   Making the Arab citizens swear some sort of loyalty oath involving the primacy of Judaism should do wonders for inter-faith relations in the country.

   Do these people wake up each morning and think, “You know, the problem is that we aren’t being big enough assholes.” Because everytime they say “Jewish Democracy” it sounds more and more like “Democracy for Jews”.

9. James Says:
   January 21st, 2009 at 7:09 pm

   What DaveNYC said.

   Although, it would seem that that actually IS the Israeli right’s approach.

   http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/jan/26/00006/

   Basically, their intention is to humiliate and subjugate the Arabs as much as possible to make them realise that they are a “Defeated people”. It’s also important that they restrict the rights of Palestinians to vote since they are not planning on getting the Two State Solution into action any time soon and so establishing a Jews-only democratic system is the only way that a Jewish State can be reconciled with the wonky demographs of the region (in other words, a state dedicated to a religion which the majority of its citizens do not practice).

   So the Israeli Right would prefer them not to be full citizens since the alternative is not shortly having a Jewish State. And those, incidentally, are the moderates who don’t want to start up the ethnic cleansing…

10. SPURIOUS Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Now that Arab parties are allowed, I’m going to party like it’s 1421.

11. dpers Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    The elections committee’s decision was pretty blatantly in violation of Israeli law, so there was no doubt it would be overturned. But the gradual alienation of 20% of the country’s population, whose brethren constitute the vast majority of the larger region’s inhabitants, represents myopia and stupidity of magnificent proportions.

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