First, I’ll pick on the person I agree with most here.

Leora, I’m surprised to see you write: “Israel is a Jewish state just the way that certain Arab countries in the Middle East are run by Muslim law, and that’s something that the majority population in Israel will never give up. Although it’s a democracy, it will remain a religious democracy.” Based on your past writings here, I am sure that you know better.

Israel is not at all a “religious democracy” “the way that certain Arab countries in the Middle East are run by Muslim law.” That makes it sound like (some very credulous view of) the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Israel is not governed by Jewish religious law (halacha) as some Muslim countries are (partly) governed by Islamic religious law (sharia). In Saudi Arabia, Iran, other such places sharia is enforced daily and pervasively, with criminal penalties (e.g., mutilation for theft) for acts such as women going unveiled in public. This is done because sharia to them is God’ law, not because a government put words in a law book.

With the exceptions of family law and some commercial regulations, Israel is not governed by halacha at all. It’s true that a rabbi (no option for a judge) decides when Israeli Jews may marry in Israel ( and even this is on the cusp of changing). It’s true that buses do not run on the Sabbath. But it also true that Minnesota law (as well as many other state and local laws) forbids selling alcohol (and cars *shrug*) on Sunday.

In the United States, as in Israel, some laws are inspired by religious rules. But in both countries these rules are law not because they are written in a religious text (like in Saudia Arabia, etc.), but because these laws were passed by democratically elected legislatures (which in most Islamic countries do not exist).
Israel in its treatment of religion, law, and democracy is like the America, not Iran!

Ruki – great question re the acceptance of Jews of color in our communities. I don’t have an answer as to when that will happen, but it’s a really important issue.

As to your other point, re the Israelis and the Palestinians needing to have one government together and sharing the land, I think that’s beautiful in a hippie ideal but impossible. Israel is a Jewish state just the way that certain Arab countries in the Middle East are run by Muslim law, and that’s something that the majority population in Israel will never give up. Although it’s a democracy, it will remain a religious democracy. Furthermore, how can you share a government with a people that in large part want your destruction?

I think that’s the larger problematic issue here. New York City or Minneapolis or Los Angeles can have pockets of different immigrant communities, run by the same government, but with each “territory” or “settlement” retaining unique culture and characteristics. Israel in fact has those little pockets – Arab and Christians who are both integrated into its culture, but in some areas (like Christian communities in the Galilee or Arab communities in Haifa) where the groups have created little cultural bubbles that are both valued and enhance Israel at large. Why then can’t there be little pockets of Jews in Palestinian areas? Or in nearby Arab countries?

There won’t be shared community or shared relationships between the Palestinians and the Israelis until Jews can live in Arab land the same way that Christians and Arabs can live in Jewish land.

And that’s not funny.