Leave a Comment

Franken and Coleman Join Hands To Support Gaza War While Israel BANS Arab Political Parties
TPMCafe — ... Gaza war, they join hands and sing Kumbaya, I mean Hava Nagila. . Here's another Jewish expression: what will the gentiles say. I'll tell you what they will say about this (I asked some). They say it is appalling, offensive and incomprehensible. I love Franken but he clearly does not get this issue. Nor does he understand that to the Minnesotans who worked to elect him, ethnic chauvinism is about as anachronistic as only electing white men President. Also, Israel bans Arab parties.

Not Sure What to Say or Think
Talking Points Memo — A shocking development. From the AP ... The Central Elections Committee on Monday banned Arab political parties from running in next month's parliamentary elections, drawing accusations of racism by an Arab lawmaker who said he would challenge the decision in the country's Supreme Court. The ruling, made by the body that oversees the elections, reflected the heightened tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority caused by Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Arabs have held a series of demonstrations against ...

Israel Bans Arab Parties
Matthew Yglesias — One of the most hopeful and impressive aspects of Israeli society, in my view, has long been the relatively cordial relations between the country’s Jewish majority and the “Israeli Arab” minority group of non-Jewish Arab Israeli citizens who live on the Israeli side of the 1948 ceasefire line. The relationship hasn’t been without its problems and allegations of discrimination, but by the standards of multiethnic polities Israel has done pretty well, and Israel’s friends could plausibly claim that Arabs with Israeli citizenship enjoyed more civil and political rights than did Arab citizens of ...

Condoleezza Rice Bedeviled by Bush Again
Taylor Marsh — BY TAYLOR MARSH Have Israel’s politicians lost their collective mind? Banning Arab parties in the upcoming election? Stunning. ...and incredibly stupid. The good news is ...

Lovely
Obsidian Wings — ... by publius The state of domestic Israeli politics continues on its hyper-nationalist descent into madness: The Central Elections Committee on Monday banned Arab political parties from running in next month's parliamentary elections, drawing accusations of racism by an Arab lawmaker who said he would challenge the decision in the country's Supreme Court. The ruling, made by the body that oversees the elections, reflected the heightened tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and Arab minority caused by Israel's offensive in the ...

Not Good
Lawyers, Guns and Money — ... re: the banning of the participation Arab political parties in the next Israeli election. Such a ban effectively disenfranchises Israel's Arab minority, making the claim that "Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East" problematic at best.

Israel’s Parliamentary “Reform” Cannot be Justified
Firedoglake — photo by dagbo There aren't words to describe how disgusting and unjustifiable this is. Israel is moving toward banning Israeli-Arab political parties from participating in the forthcoming elections. (Via Yglesias.) The only reason this is being done is because the Arab parties are against ...

Remainders: Mexico
Ben Smith's Blog — (Obama and Calderone, from AP) Clinton preps for her hearing. Obama's Middle East team lacks on Arabs and Persians. Israel bars Arab parties from its election. Hosenball explains the state of play at the CIA. The she's-a-friend-of-Obama argument for Caroline Kennedy gathers steam. Russ Smith prefers Mario. The Monkey Cage picks the year's best polisci. Pepsi imitates and flatters the Obama campaign. An Obama look-alike plays a role in the French ...

Arab Parties Banned in Israel
Swampland — ... The Associated Press is reporting that today Israel's Central Elections Committee decided to ban "Arab political parties from running in next month's parliamentary elections." From the article: ...

One Small Step For Bi-Nationalism
The American Scene — Israel’s Central Elections Commission has, in its infinite wisdom, decided that this year (unlike in prior elections where similar petitions were submitted) it will ban the participation of Arab parties. I can’t comment on the technicalities of the decision; I don’t know Israeli election law and none of the stories I read explained why the commission came to this decision this year. But I can say this: I’ve said for years that Israel’s true existential crisis does not relate to the territories but to relations between Jewish and Arab citizens. And this decision could be a major ...

Gates of Vienna News Feed 1/12/2009
Gates of Vienna — ... Israel Bans Arab Parties From Running in Upcoming Elections The Central Elections Committee on Monday banned Arab political parties from running in next month’s parliamentary elections, drawing accusations of racism by an Arab lawmaker who said he would challenge the decision in the country’s Supreme Court. The ruling, made by the body that oversees the elections, reflected the heightened tensions between Israel’s Jewish majority and Arab minority caused by Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip. Israeli ...

We must be a bad influence on Israel
Rantings of a Sandmonkey — ... How else would you explain the "region's only democracy's"™ decision to ban arab parties from running in the next elections? I thought only we did that! ...

Israeli democracy and anti-Arab bigotry
The Reaction — ... I usually support Israel... sometimes. But it's making it increasingly difficult for us pro-Israeli liberals to do so. It's the excessive military action in Gaza, yes, but it's also the racist nationalism to which it so often succumbs. Here's the latest appalling example: ...

Business As Usual
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Israel’s Central Elections Commission has banned Arab parties. Ackerman sighs. Yglesias calls it a "poorly timed PR move." Yaacov Lozowick says that the decision will almost certainly be overturned: ...the Arab parties will run in the upcoming elections, because the final say is the court's. The decision of yesterday's panel is certain to be struck down...yesterday's vote was pure theatre, a win for all sides. The right-wing politicians who initiated the ban showed themselves fierce defenders of Zionist hard-wingery; the Arab MKs got to shout their worst on national TV, hoping this ...

IDF opposed cease fire
Israel Matzav — ... tonight in his press conference) or Barak. But it might gain them some Arab votes if the two Arab parties that were banned from the election last week (subject to Supreme Court appeal) remain on the sidelines. I just hope Hamas doesn't take ...