^ Interesting.
And (no joke) a right-winger, a secular liberal, and a rabbi are walking toward a desegregated Israel, and the Rabbi
(Jeremy Milgram) says:
The overwhelming majority of Israelis is for the continuation of Israel as a Jewish state. In reality it is not a Jewish state at all, neither in terms of its behaviour, nor in terms of the prospects of remaining Jewish under conditions of democracy. There is an equal number of Jews and Palestinians in the area Israel controls. The Jews who invest their hope in continued Jewish domination are betraying Jewish morality. I think living together in one state is a better way to approach things than the dream and attempts to create two states. A two state solution is a delusion. A stable peace would require the right of return of the refugees. That brings us into a minority. For me it would be just fine.
That's the hardest point of compromise. Jewish citizens must feel secure throughout the process from the present to the peace, and from the role of oppressing minority to that of a coexisting and thriving minority. That's why in my opinion it would be a just bargain to leave the name of the state as "Israel" in an enduring constitutional way, as a marker of more substantive guarantees that Israel will always remain a place where Jews may enjoy equal (but not superior) rights; To have the constitutional prerogative to call their land the (non-exclusive) Homeland of the Jews. This could be established in much the same way as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and Saudi Arabia (for some local examples among many others) are arbitrarily named for old minority elites. In postwar desegregated Israel, coexistence can be the hallmark of a more authentically democratic system. It's to be expected that most non-Jewish Palestinians would be prone to unofficially calling it Palestine again- but I'm confident they would also agree to a constitution granting them equal rights as
Israeli citizens, across Israel and throughout the formerly-occupied and formerly-colonized territories, and wherever their Israeli passports can take them (a lot more places than present Israeli passports can, I'll wager). Such an Israel would be a model to the world, would not be plagued with pesky wars, intifadehs, kassams, freedom flotillas, boycotts, sanctions, stale UN resolutions, and all the other rotten old baggage and derision that go with it. Jewish Israelis and all their fellow citizens would certainly take much greater pride, and feel much greater security in an Israel like that, than with what we see there today.
What has to be done is to separate the pathologically-recurring nightmares of shoah from the end of the segregated zionist state. Israel is still in a position of power, and can retain that power, turning it to the greater good through a period of desegregation, so as to minimize (along with the enthusiastic support of the wider world) any chance of golems, nakbas, shoahs, or any other nightmares belonging to the past and darkest imagination. For too long, Israel has been childishly fixated on dwindling endowments and lullabies from the USA- psychotically playing Cowboys and Indians, and fighting off terrible guilty nightmares in her sleep. Now it's time for Israel to grow up, marry Palestine. It's an arranged marriage, but the only game in town- and Palestinians are really not so bad, on closer acquaintance. It's time to start a happier life getting along in the real world, beginning with nearest neighbors and working outward. Jews fighting non-Jews in this part of the world has always been a bloody ridiculous family feud. Palestine will (I believe) gladly let Israel wear the official pants in this odd but promising new family, in exchange for ceasing the irrational and unconscionable abuse of the betrothed and (next year in Jerusalem, as they say) beloved. Most importantly- more importantly than all analogies and arrangements (and in spite of a violent national infancy) this volatile but inseparable pair must finally agree at last to stop abusing, damaging, and killing their children.
