As was widely expected, Israel’s right-wing Cabinet today approved the contentious Loyalty Oath bill, which will amend the nation’s citizenship law to require all new non-Jewish citizens to swear loyalty to Israel’s status as a “Jewish” state.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that despite the requirement, all citizens of Israel will enjoy “equal rights,” but that the demand for non-Jews to swear a loyalty oath made sense in light of the ongoing peace process.
The move will direct effect comparatively few people, because the law only applies to new citizens who are not Jewish (which are covered under a separate law) and therefore will be aimed mostly at foreigners marrying Israeli citizens who are members of religious minorities.
But it is the first step in a broader effort by the Yisrael Beiteinu Party to require all non-Jews in the country, including native born citizens, to swear an oath to the government’s status as a “Jewish” state or risk expulsion.
The law was angrily denounced by leaders of Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up about 20 percent of the population, but was also condemned by a number of secular Jewish groups, which warned it was a dangerous precedent taking the nation down the road of theocracy.
The ruling sparked public protest in Tel Aviv, where a number of secular people warned that the law was turning Israel into a fascist state and that they might soon have to decide whether or not to leave the country.
GOOD, now that Israel has openly declared themselves a 'jewish' state it violates church and state for the US to continue to provide foreign as well as military aid to the stolen land.
PLUS, once Palestine finally get's their state they can compel the jews in the settlements to take an oath of loyalty to an Islamic/Christian state.
@EmeraldDruid>> "violates church and state"?
Hmmm, for a moment I thought about that. Then I remembered. We don't have church-state separation in the U.S., do we?
Faith-based initiatives? But only for Jews, Catholic/Orthodox, mainstream Prots, and maybe a few token mainstream Muslims. No Unitarian-Universalists, Nation of Islam, Metropolitan Community (gay) Church, or Wiccan need apply.
And don't try serving pedophilic Vatican officialdom with legal process when they visit the U.S. That church-state "City" has privileged diplomatic status.
Zionism is as big a blasphemy as the medieval papacy. They both represent(ed) attempts to immanentize the eschaton.
I wish more people would see that Israel has to continue to make more and more mistakes and become more and more violent, that is the only way to get it to change. It has to collapse upon itself, and this is the beginning of that. No outside force is going to change anything in that country, they have the samson option and will use it.
I think Juan Cole sums it up best.
http://www.juancole.com/
I think one reason the US is so fearfull of Israel is because of the Samson Option. It is like a mad dog.
An oath made under coercion is null and void.
"If Israel wanted to commit a genocide, it could do so in 24 hours!"
The idea is actively debated in Zionist circles, and your bragging about how easily it could be done shows the level of comfort that the Zionists have with the idea. The reason you Zionists do not actually put into effect your plan of driving the Palestinians across the Jordan with a rolling artillery barrage – your military historian van Creveld has made that plan well known – is that if you really were to try it, a number of powers, some of them nuclear armed, would intervene. Your US lackey might even retch if you went that far, and then where would you be? Looking for a new homeland, in all likelihood.
"your bragging about how easily it could be done shows the level of comfort that the Zionists have with the idea"
No, it shows how absurd the charge is. But since you can't condemn something that hasn't taken place, you'll condemn what you think must be lurking in my heart!
Thanks for yet another example of the pathetic grasping at straws and transparent distorting of words that inevitably results when one of my opponents knows he absolutely has nothing of substance to say, but proceeds to say something anyway.
"Looking for a new homeland, in all likelihood"
Judging by this comment and so many more that you've puked onto everyone's monitor, I'd say YOU'RE the one who absolutely RELISHES the idea of mass violence and ethnic cleansing. Don't project your genocidal desires onto me. Only a hater like you would pine for such things.
Seriously, moderator, will you let me post my rebuttal already? If you weren't so capricious a censor, I wouldn't be so persistent:
"your bragging about how easily it could be done shows the level of comfort that the Zionists have with the idea"
I'm not "bragging", just reminding you of what firepower Israel has and how it's obviously NOT being used to such evil ends. What my comment "shows" is how absurd the charge of genocide is. But since you can't condemn something that hasn't taken place, you'll condemn what you think must be lurking in my heart, like a paranoid conspiracy theorist.
"you must be describing hamas, hezbollah, the mullahs…"
Tell us how israel doesn't use "brutality and cruelty and humiliation" instead of pointing out others who do.