Wednesday, December 10, 2008

There Has To Be A First Some Where, So Why Not Israel

Imagine a nation where a minority of the people want the government to give them special benefits and rights, but they do not want to give any service to that nation. Imagine that minority being a mostly Muslim one. Now imagine what the government should do.

Eldad to push 'anti-Islamization' laws

MK Arye Eldad, who is currently with the National Union-National Religious Party but has founded the new Hatikva Party, says he is planning to introduce a package of emergency "anti-Islamization legislation" in the next Knesset to "confront the enemy within and without."

The legislation would make military or civil service obligatory for both Arab and Jewish citizens, require all citizens to declare their loyalty to Israel "as a Jewish democratic state" as a condition for voting in national elections and ensure punishments are meted out for illegal construction, which is rife in the Arab sector.

"I am trying to preserve the state of Israel as a Jewish state," Eldad told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "I'm trying to struggle against both a post-Zionist trend and the trend of 'Islamization' of some citizens of Israel, who are saying we no longer need a Jewish state and that this should be a binational state of Jews and Muslims."

MK Ibrahim Sarsour, head of the United Arab List-Ta'al, said that he and other Arab activists will do everything possible to ensure that Eldad's "discriminatory" legislation package, if introduced, does not pass.

The legislation, Sarsour said, would lead to the exclusion of the Arab minority from the Israeli system, something the community "will not accept."

But even if it does pass, Sarsour said, "we will go on struggling within the limitations of Israeli law by peaceful means, [so] that Israel will be a state of all its citizens, not a Jewish state or a state of the Jewish community" in which Arabs are "simply a passing minority."

Most Arab leaders are against making military or civilian service mandatory for Israeli Arabs, saying they want to create their own non-state mechanisms to serve their communities.

Eldad plans to reveal details of the package during a public conference he is hosting in Jerusalem on Sunday, entitled "Facing Jihad."

Full Story
What an interesting concept. Treating minorities like full citizens. Making them do Army or Civilian Service to the nation. And yet these same minority citizens have the same rights as the majority does, but refuses to give to the nation any service. Maybe they should find another nation to belong to. But there's the crux. Nobody in the world wants them in their countries. Their own Arab brethren don't want them. The West doesn't want them. And forget about Africa or South America. They have enough problems without them.

If you are a citizen of a nation you have a duty to obey the laws of the land, and to serve your nation if it calls upon you. You cannot say no to that. You cannot say but only for my community.

If this law is enacted, then the government of Israel should set up community services in Arab areas too. Thus fully bringing in their Arab minority to the benefits that they will get from such community service to their nation.

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