Horseshit about Israel's democracy

Malaysiakini - Anti-Semitism and mainstream Malay politics (extracts only):

flag of Israel in the evil spirit of the way her government mistreats Arabs 

I contend that the only challenge to the country’s dignity is having people who make stupid anti-Semitic remarks like what Amanah and PKR have done with this issue.

KT note: Commander (retd) Thayaparan was referring to Amanah's and PKR's predictable bigoted criticism of the Najib government for allowing Israel to participate in a UN forum, though as explained by Wisma Putra, Malaysia has to abide by UN requirements as the price for hosting the UN forum.

Anti-Semitism is mainstream in Malay politics. Anything wrong with the Muslim world is blamed on the Jews. We have hosted despotic theocratic regimes. We have welcomed religious tyrants. We have courted religious fanatics. We have embraced religious extremists who mock the religions of the non-Muslims in this country.
Yet when the only real democracy in the Middle East comes a calling, the Islamists use it as a weapon against Malay power structures in an attempt to appear “more Islamic” than their brethren.

While I have often supported Aneh and sometimes clashed with his views, I have to once again question his assertion that Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East.

Last year in May the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) published How democratic is Israel? (relevant extracts):

... some critics question whether the country can truly call itself a democracy. They point to Israel's occupation of the West Bank as a key issue.

"What do you call an arrangement where your country controls every aspect virtually of the lives of 2.7 million people who have no say or vote in the government that rules them?" says Daniel Sokatch, chief executive of the New Israel Fund, a non-government organisation dedicated to social justice in Israel.

"The religious establishment in Israel is part of the state, and that presents a host of challenges and problems when it comes to issues of freedom of religion." [...]

In June 1967 a war was fought between Israel and its neighbours: Egypt, Jordan and Syria. At the end of the war Israel had seized control of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Because Israel never formally annexed these territories, the Palestinian residents have never been given Israeli citizenship. Yet for the past 50 years Israel has settled parts of these territories with its own citizens.

"There are now more than 600,000 Jewish Israelis living in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank," says White.*

* Ben White is the author of Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination, and Democracy

"What Israel has done is effectively ... incorporated the territories occupied in '67 into the basic fabric of the state."

If you are a Jewish Israeli settler living in somewhere like Ariel in the West Bank, you can travel freely across the so-called green line, while Palestinians who do not have Israeli citizenship are subject to military law.

Israeli settlers living in the West Bank vote in Knesset elections, but Palestinians who live there do not.

"This dual system — people have talked about separate not equal, or apartheid — however you describe it, you have two groups of people living in the same space, but one of them has privileges that the other group doesn't," says White.

Methinks Aneh should do a bit more research before he praises Israel as the only real democracy in the Middle East, not when that nasty country practises apartheid like former White Supremacist South Afrika (which incidentally was one of the few friends Israel has and which together with Israel developed their nuclear bombs).

At this point, I want to present for you all to read one of sweetie Helen Ang's article, titled Malaysia is like Israel written for Malayisakini long before she took the road to Damascus (or rather Johor Baru, birthplace of UMNO) or to be more precise, on 31 December 2008.

Air strikes on Gaza over the weekend have aggravated the Israeli Arab’s growing disaffection with the state, suggest some Israeli writers.

Popular author Benny Morris, who is professor of Middle Eastern history at Ben-Gurion University, wrote an opinion-editorial in the New York Times on Monday titled Why Israel feels threatened on the challenges Israel is currently facing, including fraught relations with its minorities.

Allow me to compare Morris’ description with our own situation here. There is no exact parallel as we’re not in a war zone but Malaysia is somewhat like Israel in some ways.

The national policies of both countries contain elements of apartheid which serve to segregate communities. Israel is constitutionally a Jewish state in nature and its founding document reflects a race-preoccupied social contract too. The Declaration of Independence mentions only the history, culture and collective memory of the Jewish people; too bad for the Arabs who form one-fifth of Israel’s population.

Its ‘law of return’ allows Jewish immigration from any part of the world and Israel has received among others, African Jews and Indian Jews plus an influx of Soviet Jews when the old USSR disintegrated.

On the other hand, an Arab who is an Israeli citizen cannot just as easily bring home his Palestinian bride from West Bank. Compare with Malaysia’s permanent residency requirements for foreign spouses of the different races.

In Israel, its religious law halacha mandates conversion to Judaism in mixed marriages. In Malaysia, anyone marrying a Malay must convert to Islam. On matters relating to birth, death and marriage, an Israeli cannot turn to a civil court, meaning he has no secular recourse in these areas. Neither does the Malay who is governed by syariah.

Restaurants, factories and public buildings are obliged to adhere to the kosher practices of Jews, and public space are Judaisised under state policy. In Malaysia, we adhere to halal practices and additionally in schools, and public space are Islamised.

Israel’s law recognises and protects Jewish holy sites alone. Cemeteries, seminaries and religious institutions are built for Jews but not for Arabs. Palestinian legal aid organisation Adalah, in a report titled ‘Institutionalised Discrimination’, said during the 1990s typically 98 percent of the Religious Affairs Ministry budget was allocated for Jewish houses of worship and religious services.

Need I elaborate on Malaysia’s practices in this respect?

Why Israel/Malays feel threatened

With apology and thanks to Prof Morris for my borrowing his writing, let’s explore the ideas below.

Morris on Israel’s siege mentality: ‘First, the Arab and wider Islamic worlds…have never truly accepted the legitimacy of Israel’s creation and continue to oppose its existence.’

Some Malays regret my Chinese forefathers coming, and do not accept the full legitimacy of my presence – hence my second-class citizenship – while willing to grant a first generation Muslim from Indonesia or the Philippines bumiputera privileges.

Morris writes: ‘Second, public opinion in the West (and in democracies, governments can’t be far behind) is gradually reducing its support for Israel as the West looks askance at the Jewish state’s treatment of its Palestinian neighbors and wards. The Holocaust is increasingly becoming a faint and ineffectual memory and the Arab states are increasingly powerful and assertive.’

Public opinion in the West is gradually looking askance at Malaysia’s treatment of its minorities. The countries of origin of these minorities are increasingly powerful and assertive; Indian Malaysians revolted with Hindraf and Chinese Malaysians are grumbling louder.

Morris writes: ‘But the attack will not solve the basic problem posed by a Gaza Strip populated by 1.5 million impoverished, desperate Palestinians who are ruled by a fanatic regime and are tightly hemmed in by fences and by border crossings controlled by Israel and Egypt.’

The verbal attacks by Umno ministers and their agents on Hindraf supporters, as well as the authorities punishing the movement and its leaders – and even Jerit cyclists – will not solve the basic problem posed by a Tamil underclass of impoverished, desperate Indians who are ruled by a fascist-like regime and tightly hemmed in by state-erected social barriers, a lack of upward mobility and exclusion from affirmative action programmes.

Sense of wall closing in

Malaysia’s existence is not threatened but the recent spate of demonstrations and fiery rhetoric on Malay special rights indicate how some insecure folks see their minority neighbours as existential threats.

Morris writes: ‘The fourth immediate threat to Israel’s existence is internal. It is posed by the country’s Arab minority. Over the past two decades, Israel’s 1.3 million Arab citizens have been radicalised, with many openly avowing a Palestinian identity and embracing Palestinian national aims.’

a. Radicalised: Have the Indians been radicalised by Hindraf? If you read or listen to only the mainstream, especially Malay mass media and official channels spewing government propaganda, what would you think?

Have the Chinese been radicalised by March 8? If a Malay reads or listens only to the official mouthpieces, what would he think?

b. Identity: Undeniably, Chinese Malaysians over the past two decades have become increasingly sinicised. Today between 90 and 95 percent are estimated to attend Chinese schools. The Star group editor Wong Chun Wai is in favour of bringing back the English-medium of instruction and calls the Chinese educationists ‘racist groups’.

c. National aims: Morris writes that Israel believes the loyalty of its Arabs lies with Palestinians rather than with the state.

When prime minister designate Najib Razak says his government wants to assist the advancement of Malays elsewhere who are of other nationalities, what does it reveal of his racialist orientation, not to mention his low regard of our common nationality?

And what about those who want to put immigrant-squatters on a boat ‘balik Tongsan’ (China) and ‘balik Kalinga’ (India)? What does this popular demand tell about that Umno-type mindset?

Morris writes that ‘most Jews see the Arab minority as a potential fifth column’.

If Israeli Arabs are alleged to identify with their country’s enemies Hamas and Hezbollah, some Malays accuse Chinese Malaysians of siding with Singapore and another segment expects the Chinese to cheer for China should our two national badminton teams or players meet.

Unreal reflection in the mirror

Demographics offer another interesting comparison and contrast. The birthrates for Israeli Arabs are among the highest in the world with four or five children per family, according to Morris. He writes: ‘If present trends persist, Arabs could constitute the majority of Israel’s citizens by 2040 or 2050.’

Minorities are dwindling rapidly against the Malay prolific annual birthrate and this coupled with emigration and religious conversion will see the numerical ratio of bumiputera at a most satisfactory Muslim majority sooner rather later.

In Malaysian blogosphere now, there is the usual schism. The Malay-Muslim voices have been unequivocally pro-Palestinian. The non-Malay, non-Muslim voices have tended to be more accommodating of Israel’s self-justification.

Predictably, there was a protest against Israel at the American embassy yesterday and anger over the deaths in Gaza – ‘several hundred Hamas fighters were killed’ says Morris but he omits to mention the civilian casualties.

During the recent terrorist attack (above) on Mumbai, similarly, several hundred Indian security forces, civilians and foreigners in total were killed and injured.

Did the Malaysians, who are now bristling at Israel, earlier show an outpouring of rage for the dead in Mumbai? Did the ones chanting slogans at the American embassy extend condolences to the family of the Indian Malaysian victim?

Yesterday, it was reported that 400 people were slaughtered in Christmas massacres in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo – burned alive in their homes, villagers decapitated or killed with machetes, axes and clubs. Where is the Malaysian outcry?

Malaysia is akin to Israel in insisting the international community should view the country just as the wonderful, fair-minded democracy it miraculously manages to see itself in the smoked mirror.

Bear in mind Helen wrote the above (words, contents and all) in 2008. I felt and still do that she was very brave and honest to have done so, considering she was then very pro Israel (not necessarily pro Israeli).

Thus, Aneh should think carefully before he (incorrectly) praises Israel the only real democracy in the Middle East. That would be, as one Malaysiakini reader has written, a pile of Aneh's own horseshit.