Gideon Levy may be the most hated man in Israel, or the most heroic, but the controversial Haaretz columnist has a dream. Recently, he expressed his enthusiasm for turning Israel into ‘one just state for two peoples.’
One state for two peoples? It has already existed for a while now. More than two peoples live in it – Jews and Arabs; ultra-Orthodox Jews; religious Zionist and secular Jews; Jews of Middle-Eastern descent and Jews of European descent; settlers and Palestinians. (…) This, though, is how an imaginary, just state would appear: It would grant everyone the right to vote, and have a democratic constitution that would protect the rights of all communities and minorities – including an immigration policy like that of all other nations.
Such a state would have a legislature that would reflect the mosaic of the country, and an elected government formed by a coalition of the communities and the two peoples’ representatives. Yes, a Jewish prime minister with an Arab deputy, or vice versa.
Levy’s Utopian ‘state of all its citizens’
will replace Zionism with ‘something infinitely more just and
sustainable.’ In his dream, the lion will lie down with the lamb and all
threats will dissipate. Foreign aid will flood into this
cross-confessional nirvana.
One can assume that ‘an immigration policy
like all other nations’ will not privilege Jews over Arabs. Very
quickly, Arabs would become a majority, Hatikva would cease to be the
national anthem, and the Jews will be forced to give up their national
state.
Levy’s solution has already been tried. It has
failed. Lebanon was a mosaic state, but following a bloody civil war,
it is little more than a precarious collection of quarreling sects on
the edge of another precipice. The Maronite Christians have become a
beleaguered minority, prefiguring what will happen to the Jews of
Israel. Who said the definition of insanity is proposing the same
solution but expecting different results every time?
Gideon Levy’s dream is the triumph of hope
over experience. The 650,000 Jews who sought a haven in Israel and now
form a 52 percent Jewish majority – some 300,000 others went to the West
– did not escape violence and repression in Arab states in order to
find themselves once more under Arab-Muslim dominion.
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Gideon Levy in Morocco: 'surprising coexistence'
Israel may give preferrential treatment to Jewish immigrants, but doesn't exclude non-Jews, and Israel is not the only country in the world that gives preferrential treatment based on ancestry. I have a fellow Canadian friend whose grandparents are Irish who tells me that would have given him an advantage had he chosen to immgrate to Ireland when its economy made it an attractive place.
ReplyDeleteAnon, in fact, many countries give immigration preference to dispersed ethnic brethren: Greece took in Pontic Greeks circa 1990, Armenia took in ethnic Armenians whose families came from places now in Turkey --where Armenians do not want to migrate. Germany took in the Volga Germans when the USSR broke up. Etc Etc.
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