And creates real problems for Israeli Arabs - it must be a strange thing to know that, by virtue of ethinicity, you will never serve as PM, President, or a minister of one of the power ministries.
My guess is that we will know sooner than that. And I am less optimistic than you.
From yesterday’s news:
From a few days ago:
From a few weeks ago:
From January:
Really? I’d thought Jordan was more-or-less cool.
By the way, Brainglutton is on record as predicting that the revolution in Libya would “almost certainly” result in a "“friendly, secular, democratic” regime.
I suppose you could ask Jews living in most of the Arab world how it feels. Those who haven’t been chased out already, I mean.
Please identify a single country that was an ideal democracy once it adopted the form of government.
Far worse, I’ve no doubt. Is that the standard we want to hold Israel to - that the only democracy in the Middle East (well, except for the Arab Spring thing) is less racist than their neighbors?
Well it depends on what your purposes are in judging Israel. If the question on the table is whether Israeli Jews should be concerned about the possibility of living in a country with an Arab majority, then the answer is clearly “yes.”
What was your purpose in pointing out that Israeli Arabs are (as a practical matter) barred from serving in some (but not all) of the highest positions of Israeli government?
I repeat that prediction.
Um. There is nothing magical about being an Arab that pre-disposes one towards bad government - a majority-Arab Israeli state could certainly maintain a liberal democracy.
Well, most liberal democracies view race-based bars to public office (de facto or de jure) as bad things.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but only because I think the overall trend worldwide (over the past several hundred years) has been towards more democratic, secular and non-violent government. Do you care to put a time-frame on your own prediction?
No, it’s just their culture.
Anything is possible. But the best way to predict a group’s behavior is to look at the group’s track record. The Arab track record is not encouraging.
Israel does not have such a bar. For example, an Arab sits on the Israeli Supreme Court. There are also many Arab members of the Knesset.
And whether it’s good or bad depends on the alternative. Israel is a democracy and the voters (the majority of whom are Jewish) correctly perceive that the Arab leadership is generally speaking hostile to the interests of Israel’s Jewish citizenry. So it’s unsurprising that there is never an Arab PM.
Anyway, can I take it that your purpose in making your point was simply to throw out some gratuitous criticism of Israel?
Well, here’s hoping, but I guess it’ll be at least ten years before we can be sure, and the process could go awry at any time.
I expect Libya will be stable and open-for-tourists and everything within one year from now, two at the most. Where are you getting ten?!
How does Arab culture pre-dispose one toward bad government?
:rolleyes::dubious: No, it isn’t.
From my sense of optimistic generosity. I’m not talking about mere stability, but actual functional democracy.
I think it’s some combination of too much value on honor; too little value on tolerance; and too little value on harmony.
Lol, a stunning rebuttal.
I’ve wondered if it is testosterone poisoning. 