[DEBATE] : Israeli nationhood

[Doug Henwood]

Ran Greenstein, in your sharp review of Benny Morris' book

<http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/greenstein170509.html>

you write:

> In France, the likes of Zinedine Zidane (of Muslim Algerian  
> background) or of Thierry Henry (of Caribbean ancestry) are entitled  
> to full equality and share in national wealth and power no less than  
> the descendants of the ancient Gauls, even if they have no ethnic  
> linkage to them at all, or to the Catholic Church.  In Sweden, the  
> likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic (of Bosnian Muslim origin) are entitled  
> to full enjoyment of citizenship rights as the descendants of the  
> Nordic tribes of ancient times.  This is not the case in Israel, in  
> which citizenship and access to resources are determined to a large  
> extent by ethnic origin and religious affiliation, and in which  
> civic nationalism that encompasses all citizens regardless of  
> ethnicity and faith does not exist.

But isn't this issue fundamental to the definition of Israel as a  
Jewish state? Of course, Israel could shed that identity and define  
citizenship like other states. But are there any political forces in  
Israel that are prepared to do that?

Doug