What about all the illegal settlement building?

Surely if Isreal wishes to claim any legitimacy as a state, it will begin by ceding all the territory that it has conquered since 1947.

I have a jewish friend who is opposed to the excesses of Isreal, and having signed a petition that she saw, somehow ended up on a list. I am not sure what the exact name was, I think it was Self-Hating Isrealites and Jews, the acronym therefore being S-H-I-T. Zionism feeds that kind of aggressive stupidity.

The idea of a 'promised land', given by God, should have no place in modern politics, and the author is particularly simplistic if he believes that the concept has not played, and does not continue to play a big role in Isreal's belief in itself and in the way it forms it's policies. This is not secular.

Get your feet back on the ground Dan . Who do you think you are talking to ? We are not mummy or auny Maisy .
You are trying to sell us a truck-load of dead babies .
You are insulting us , pal .

@ mac

"Jewish" State. (you do undersand English don't you mac?) means...predominantly 'ETHNIC' Jews or Converts. How hard is that?

What about an Australian 'Loyalty Oath' ?

Great idea.

-'Who'...would be outraged?
-'What' ...would they be outraged about?

Australian could easily declare it self 'a Christian' state in the sense that no other religion would be allowed to (for example) hold prayers in Parliament, or open Council meetings. The issue is not 'Christianity' but WHICH denomination? That is the issue addressed by the constitution section 116, and as long as our 'trappings' don't reflect just one denomination, but are couched in the broadest terminology and practice, no reason why we could not do it.

The 'bigotry' of which you speak has historically been the 'Catholic/Protestant' divide. No problem, both sides use the same Lord's prayer :)

Not that doing any of this will make much difference to the purity of the true Church (The Body of Christ within all the denominations) and if anything would probably have a negative 'self satisfied' impact.

Israel has the support of 2000 yrs of Salvation history on it's side.
From the founding with Abraham to the time of Christ.

@Al,

We're not discussing the possibilties of any society defining itself as an 'ethno-religious' state,but whether or not such a declaration is compatible with liberal secular democracy,it isn't. My argument is that Jews can't use special pleading to impose a practice that would not be tolerated in other liberal democracies.

Your appeal to Judeo-Christian religious traditions as support for your argument is meaningless to an infidel like me.

The problem is that the Christian religions also support the BS in the Old Testament that Israel is the land that God has promised to the Jewish people. Just look at who wrote all that BS. It wouldn't have been a Jew by any chance would it.
Bah, Humbug.

David

@Fringe:

The UK doesn't have a single constitutional document either, that doesn't mean that it has no constitution. Every state needs some kind of constitutional law and if it's not a single document like ours, it's normally a series of legislation that builds on itself, as in the UK and apparently Israel.

And the other points you listed don't seem to contradict the OP anyway. As far as I can see, it acknowledges that there is discrimination, even if this is a little downplayed. That doesn't mean that Israel can't be a Jewish state.

Also, I can't see there being much fuss if new Irish citizens had to pledge allegiance to the "democratic Irish-Catholic state" or something.