The Future Of Israel

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg explores the endgame of the current political position of Israel towards Palestine, where a two-state solution is unacceptable.  What happens to the Palestinians absorbed by Israel's expansion into the West Bank and other areas?

Is it actually possible that one day Israelis -- Jewish Israelis -- would choose to give up democracy in order to maintain Israel's Jewish voting majority? Some people, of course, argue that Israel has ceased to be a democracy, because there is nothing temporary about the 43-year-old occupation of the West Bank. I believe it is premature to talk about the end of Israel as a democratic state -- mainly because the disposition of the West Bank is still undecided --  but I can't say that the thought hasn't crossed my mind that one day Israelis will make the conscious, active decision to preserve the state's Jewish character instead of its democratic character (I use the word "Jewish" in the demographic sense, not the moral sense, obviously).

As I wrote last week, there's very little Israel's right-wing government has done in the past year or so to suggest that it is willing to wean itself from its addiction to West Bank settlements, and the expansion of settlements bodes ill for the creation of a Palestinian state -- and the absence of Palestinian statehood means that Israel will one day soon confront this crucial question concerning its democratic nature: Will it grant West Bank Arabs the right to vote, or will it deny them the vote? If it grants them the vote, this will be the end of Israel as a Jewish state; if it denies them the vote in perpetuity, it will cease to be a democratic state.

The fact that anyone in the Village is even asking this question is something of a revelation.   It's such a basic, simple question that nobody bothers to ask it.  What democratic rights do Palestinians have in Israel?  If Israel refuses to even consider a two-state solution, then what of those rights?  Goldberg goes on to say that he believes that Israel will continue down this path, and may even declare that Palestinians are citizens of Jordan, and can vote there.

But for the life of me, I can't remember when any columnist in an American magazine actively questioned Israel's democratic future.  Commentary's Alana Goodman dismisses Goldberg's concerns about Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, rumored to be Israel's next hard-line PM.

Say what you will about Lieberman but, actually, his position has always been that some Arab towns and villages that are part of Israel should be given to a Palestinian state while Jewish settlement blocs are annexed to Israel. That may not be what the Palestinians want or even what many Israelis want but the outcome Lieberman desires would be a democratic and Jewish state.

Which would be true, but again, that would involve the creation of a Palestinian state.  So far, that hasn't happened.  And I don't see it happening anytime soon, either.