Ho Ho.

This endless story is like the favourite Aunty who was a prostitute, and nobody in the family will ever raise the subject; especially when she’s around!

Israels favourite Aunty in this case, is it’s “friend and Allie”, the US…(SIC..or can we say with honesty, now the favourite Aunty is in her death throes, a meddling loud mouth), is at the root of more evil and destabilisation of Israel than its Arab neighbours?

Quite frankly, and personally speaking, I think traitors should be shot.
There is something to be said for shooting protesters.

A democracy must not favour one ethnic or religious group over another. A Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Jewish state cannot also be a democracy. A country may have a majority of a particular ethnicity or religion, but it cannot be a democracy if it favours that particular ethnicity or religion. Israel is not and has never been a democracy. It is a Jewish state. India is called a democracy. It is not. It discriminates against Muslims. Australia is not a democracy. It has Christian chaplains in the state schools.

S 116 of the Australian Constitution states:

The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.

Christian chaplains in state schools are a violation of the Australian Constitution.

Agree.
Alan B.

What David f says.
Alan B.

"how many Israelis completely distort the nature and the ultimate objective of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank."

Israel as such has no objectives, ultimate or otherwise - Israel is a divided country!

The people who historically took over the West Bank are not the people who now occupy it, albeit both live side-by-side and are therefore technically called "Israelis".

The declared objective of those who took over the West Bank in 1967, was to force Jordan to make peace with Israel. That objective has been long achieved.

The true and undeclared objective of those who took over the West Bank in 1967 was to rob its archaeological wealth for Moshe Dayan's private backyard collection. That too has long been achieved.

The ultimate objective of those who now occupy the West Bank, is to hasten the coming of their Messiah (a descendant of King David, who would then rule alone over Israel and the whole world, that much for their love of democracy). That objective has not been achieved and hopefully never will.

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Dear David F.,

One cannot legitimately produce false expectations by claiming that "democracy is... ___{fill-in-one's wish-list}___".

Democracy is plainly the tyranny of the majority as opposed to the tyranny of just one person, family, party or tribe. For the ordinary victim it makes no difference whether their life is controlled by one person or by a majority of those surrounding them.

Israel, as much as we hate its recent policies and direction, is by far more democratic than Australia, not to mention the U.S.A - it is indeed a bloody democracy!

Dear Yuyutsu,

We define democracy differently. To me a tyranny of the majority is not a democracy. Democracy to me includes the rights of the minority which majority opinion cannot override. The first ten amendments of the US Constitution specifies some of those rights.

Amendment 1 Freedom of religion, speech and assembly
Amendment 2 Right to bear arms
Amendment 3 Quartering of soldiers
Amendment 4 Search and arrest
Amendment 5 Rights in criminal cases
Amendment 6 Right to a fair trial
Amendment 7 Rights in civil cases
Amendment 8 Bail, fines, punishment
Amendment 9 Rights retained by the People
Amendment 10 States' rights

Addition rights were specified in later amendments such as abolition of slavery and female suffrage. Democracies extend freedoms. Tyrannies limit them.

The right to agree with the majority existed in Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and other tyrannies.