Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Reducto Ad Arabium

Andrew Sullivan quotes some writers who ascribe Israel's current internal strife with its Haredi population to the occupation:


[U]ltra-Orthodox coercion stems in large part from ultra-Orthodox control of key ministries in the Israeli government. Israeli prime ministers give the ultra-Orthodox control over these ministries in return for the Knesset votes that keep them in power. And why must Israeli prime ministers include ultra-Orthodox parties in their governments? In large measure because they will not include Israel’s Arab parties. ...
What gives the ultra-Orthodox the ability to oppress women, in other words, is partly a political system in which Israel’s Arab citizens are largely barred from power. What the protesters in Beit Shemesh and their supporters in the United States need to remember is the fundamental interconnectedness of equal citizenship. When you deny it to one group, you produce ripple effects that undermine the equality of others as well 

Must every single issue in Israel somehow be reduced to the occupation? Can Israel only ever be seen thorough this single prism? Are we a one topic country?

Clearly this is little more than intellectual gymnastics written by those who lack any historical depth. Israel has other problems other than the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is true that the arabs are barred from power - however considering that at least on the topics of Education, Lack of empathy to Zionist causes, and a wish for cultural autonomy they are more or less inline with the Haredi political parties, one can't imagine that were Arab Parties in government the situation would be any better.

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