Indeed?
May a Jew claim to be not a member of a religious community and show up at a Seder, as I claim to be a Republican in a primary election in an effort to torpedo a popular Republican candidate and vote Democratic in the general election? The observant Jews were obviously very serious about religious marriage.
Puerto Ricans are full US citizens. Are Palestinians in the occupied territories full Israeli citizens?
As full US citizens, Puerto Ricans are entitled to settle anywhere in the US, and if they settle in a state, they get the same rights as all residents of that state (including the right to vote in that state’s elections). Is that true of Palestinians in the occupied territories? Are they allowed to settle anywhere in Israel and assume full rights of Israeli citizenship?
As US citizens, Puerto Ricans are entitled to a basic set of rights under the US Constitution that all US citizens are entitled to. Are Palestinians in the occupied territories entitled to the some similar basic set of rights as all Israelis under Israeli law?
Even though there is no constitutional obligation to do so, the US government has set up a local, elected government in Puerto Rico, and all US citizens resident in Puerto Rico are entitled to vote in those elections. Is that true of all Palestinians in the occupied territories?
Both major parties in the US hold Presidential primaries in Puerto Rico, and as such, Puerto Rico citizens have some say in who will eventually be US President. Are Palestinians in the occupied territories allowed to participate in and be members of Israeli parties?
Puerto Rico has a non-voting Congressional delegation. Do Palestianians in the occupied territory get to elect non-voting members to the Israeli parliament?
I don’t know about showing up at a Seder, although I suppose, so long as the other people at the Seder don’t object, but yes, a Jew can unregister as a Jew (or a Muslim as a Muslim or a Christian as a Christian). There was a case before the court, after the late author/critic Yoran Kanuik had sued the Interior Ministry to change his registration from “Jewish” to “Without Religion”. The judge writing the decision stated "“Freedom from religion is a freedom derived from the right to human dignity, which is protected by the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom. . .”, and Kanuik’s religious affiliation was changed to without religion.
Since then, other people have done it. So, yes, it can be done.
Probably only Taliban-occupied Afghanistan is as oppressive as the worst parts of Saudi, or the worst parts of Kuwait, Oman and the Emirates. There are many liberal people in the region who like to talk about politics (Twitter is hugely popular in Saudi), mingle with the opposite sex, drink wine, and do other ‘Haraam’ things. It is done out of sight behind firmly closed doors, but on a regular basis. Saudi is currently home to about 8 million immigrants, some of whom will not want to give up all of their previous recreational pursuits. As to the many wealthy, western-educated, Saudi princes and princesses there, well…
When was the last time Puerto Rico launched a missile attack against US soil?
When was the last time you actually tried to respond to a post in a coherent manner? adaher tried to make a bizarre and ignorant comparison with US treatment of Puerto Ricans, and I refuted that. I’m not going to play your little dishonest game.
But, if you actually knew what you were talking about, you’d also know that Puerto Rican nationalists have actually committed terrorist attacks in the US in the past. That, of course, is irrelevant to the point that residents of Puerto Rico are not treated the way residents of the Palestinian territories are, and it is dishonest to try to equate them in any fashion.
And did the government of Puerto Rico respond by calling them heroes and urging them to continue their attacks?
Does the US government treat Puerto Rican residents the same as the Israeli government treats Palestinians in the occupied territories? Yes or no? Was adaher incorrect when he claimed “It would be like saying that the US practices apartheid towards Puerto Ricans because they don’t have the right to vote.”? Yes or no?
It wouldn’t go to ten years before someplace, somewhere in those foe countries, gets glassed. Previous coalitions against Israel were just basically lucky they got their asses handed to them repeatedly in the conventional wars of the 60s-70s. A protracted engagement would be another story.
Israel fought a war lasting over one year when they didn’t have any material advantages over the Arabs. The Arabs have already tried the “long war of attrition” strategy on Israel, with long periods of undeclared war where they tried to bleed the little country to death and failed.
Israel can fight for as long as it needs to within or just outside its own borders. The real issue is whether Israel can fight over large areas. Israel trying to march to Baghdad or Tehran is a lot like the Germans or Napoleon trying to march to Moscow.
As Captain Amazing has pointed out, this situation is caused by the fact that Israel has inherited a bizzare system (from the Ottoman Turks, of all people) in which there is no civil marriage. It is not an example of “religious fundamentalism” - on the part of the government, but on the part of all of the religious communities there.
Maybe I’m just dense, but I can’t see how the above jibes with a “liberal, democratically elected government”. A conservative one that is beholden to archaic religious strictures, yes. But not a society I’ve been repeatedly told is all about freedom and progressiveness and equality.
Well, if you have been told Israel is “… all about freedom and progressiveness and equality” you have been sold a bill of goods.
Israel is a liberal democracy, but like all liberal democracies I know of, it has internal issues.
In this case, its issues are with the highly religious minorities (Jew, Christian and Muslim alike) - who hate each other like poision most of the time, but who are united as one on this particular issue - that there be no change to Israel’s bizzare, archaic marriage laws that give all the power (on this topic) to said highly religious minorities.
The secular majority deals with this by ‘work-arounds’ - huge gaping loopholes that, in effect, allow Israelis to have a purely secular marriage if they want to. The ultra-religious cannot get these loopholes closed, because to do that would require changing the law, and any change would allow for the possibility of introducing secular marriages.
The main “work-around” is to vacation on Cyprus and get married there. Cyprus is very easy for Israelis to get to, and has made a mini industry of hosting Israeli marriages. The Israeli state makes it easy, as marriages performed outside of Israel are considered fully valid in Israel. If Israelis don’t want to travel, they use Paraguay, which allows marriages at the consulate in Tel Aviv.
This is just one of the many oddities imposed by the fact that, for whatever reason, Israel has chosen to support the pre-Israeli religious establishment. Perhaps less known, but more significant, is the fact that several holy sites are under the jurisdiction of Christian and Muslim authorities - for example, the Dome of the Rock is, to this day, controlled by a Muslim authority (a “Waqf”). It is actually ‘administered’ out of Jordan, not Israel.
It was the mere act of Ariel Sharon visiting the Temple Mount area that set off the “Al-Aqsa Intifada”. In Israel, the religious authorities are not to be trifled with - even by the government.
Israel has besieged Gaza for years, controlling its access to Egypt and the Mediterranean as well as its access to Israel. But it’s wrong of Hamas to fight back against this, I guess.
I wonder what would happen if some hostile power squeezed two million Americans into an area 1/14 the size of Delaware, and wouldn’t let anybody in or out. Bet that if we could construct missiles and fire them at the hostile power, we damned sure would, and we wouldn’t give a shit if one of them landed on a school.
It isn’t Hamas’ intention to fight for the liberty of Gazans - they are religious fanatics, whose express aim is to use the Gazans’ plight as a springboard for jihad.
Israel has no ability to “control access to Egypt”. That’s on the Egyptians.
The Israelis would like nothing better than to have Egypt take over Gaza, and have all Gazans who want to join their fellows in Egypt. Egypt is determined to prevent that, ghaving its own problems with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood:
Yet even Egypt’s acts are blamed on Israel. Funny that.
The missiles are from Iran, but I digress.
Surely you exaggerate to make your point about giving a shit if one of them lands on a school full of kids.
Hardly. For one thing, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, and can move to the mainland and vote for Congresscritters if they desire.
For another, there is no U.S. policy of constructing a network of Anglo-only settlements in Puerto Rico, connected by a network of Anglo-only roads, and requiring Puerto Ricans to pass through checkpoints when they cross these arteries within Puerto Rico.
Not to mention, if a majority of the citizens of Puerto Rico supported independence, we’d almost surely let them have it, but that isn’t the case.
I’m sorry, I thought you said Hamas, not Iran.
And as far as caring about kids from places in the world that we don’t like, we’ve got a perfectly good example going on right now.
Which makes Israel’s treatment of Gaza all the more immoral.
Especially when the terms are set by an Egypt-Israel agreement, and Israel continues to maintain a naval blockade of Gaza’s sea access. (See your own link.)
Hamas purportedly obtained the missiles from Iran.
Your second point is quite valid, but if someone moved me into some place like Gaza or 1/14 of Delaware, I wouldn’t want to kill some of their children, my morals aside, I would think that it would really, really piss them off at me.