Ofer Kenig Quotes
This election is a critical juncture. We have to choose between being a Zionist and liberal nation, or turning into an ethnocentric, nationalist country. I am concerned about the direction in which this delicate democracy is heading.
Ofer Kenig, Israeli Political Scientist & Analyst, Knowledge Manager, Israel Democracy Institute, Referring to the Election to be held in early 2015, Quoted in Roger Cohn, “What Will Israel Become”, New York Times, December 21, 2014
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The irony is that the Zionist movement was very democratic long before most of the world had adopted democracy. They not only saw no conflict between a Jewish Homeland and democracy, but they maintained that Jewish tradition required democracy. After 60 years if constant attacks by its neighbors and having to defend the nation from invasion and extinction, the Israeli body politic actually became very conservative, while the Zionists were extremely left wing. Under the concept of Zionism there was a large population of Arabs as Israeli citizens. However, when some of those Arabs were openly against the nation in its struggle with the Palestinians and its other Muslim neighbors. Leiberman led the right wing effort in various efforts to expel the dissident Arab citizens and use very non democratic methods to cope with the right wing’s perception of the risk to the Jewish State.
The recommendation for partition was the basis of the decision of the United Nations in 1949 to partition Palestine.
President Benjamin Harrison and Congress proclaimed that October 31, 1892 be a national celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Columbus landing in America. Bellamy represented a juvenile weekly publication and was named chairman of the committee to conduct the celebration. A first draft of the pledge was written by James B. Upham, a staff member of the publication. The words "under God" were added in 1952 by an Act of Congress. The original had “to my flag.” The pledge was first used publicly at the Chicago World’s Fair on October 21, 1892. It was not endorsed by Congress until 1942. It is officially recognized as law in 36 United State Code 172.
At the time all the Arab armies were attacking Israel. Many Arabs joined the assault or evacuated to return with the “victorious” Arab armies. Many others stayed in Israel. The former became the refugees of the area. The latter, are citizens of Israel with the best health and education in the Middle East and the only Arabs who have the freedom of living in a democracy.
The original Zionist conceptualization of Israel was as an agricultural state. Einstein thought this was unwise given Jewish accomplishment in science and trade. Blumenfield satisfied him that Israel would not be solely or even predominantly an agricultural nation, but it should be able to supply its own food needs,
What makes the situation even more complicated is that most of the land of the Middle East has been governed by a succession of Empires who may have drawn the lines differently from the previous governing dynasty. For example, the land that is Israel today, has been governed by Egyptians, Greeks, Jews, Romans, various Arab dynasties, Turkey, England, and the Jews again. Turkey governed it for the longest period.
This quotation is very surprising for most people. Reading the text alone, most of us would assume that it came from someone when the Zionist movement was fighting for a Jewish homeland in what is now Israel. Or just before the UN decision in 1947 to partition Palestine. However, it came from one of our founding fathers in Colonial times. Adams was by no means the only Founding Father with this point of view. Fundamentalist Protestants have put much credence in God’s granting the area for the Jewish People—then as today.
Tito did not realize how right he was. The class issues were relatively easy to resolve into a unified nation, but the ethnic, national, and religious difference and historical hatreds and conflicts were held together during Tito’s lifetime, as he was a very strong leader committed to multiculturalism and imposed it on all of Yugoslavia. However, when he did in 1980, Yugoslavia rapidly flew apart into ethnocentric independent cultures which then went to war with each other.
See {640107} for another quotation creating this so called union. It made great sense to the King, but little to the Poles and Lithuanians who each saw themselves as a very different people and wanted little to so with the other.
Most Americans do not realize that for most of Amrcan history there has been open borders with little or no restrcition on immigration. These that there were tend to be rembered becuse of the populism, nativism and unrest taht went with them.
