My letter to the IHT RE Thomas L. Friedman's "What Does Morsi Mean for Israel? "

4th of July fireworks in Washington DC

RE: What Does Morsi Mean for Israel?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/opinion/what-does-morsi-mean-for-israel.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=global&adxnnlx=1341396049-j77iUXHF6s+5dtbhoXmZiA

Dear Editor,

There are many different writers supplying a diverse marketplace of ideas and opinions available online that one can read and quote when exploring what anything might mean in the Middle East. Some are infinitely more helpful and wise and compassionate than others. I am delighted to see that Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times has discovered the indubitable Hussein Ibish, one of the best and most brilliant analysts (and a staunch supporter of Palestine- as in a two state solution to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict) who points out the importance of creating a constitution that ensures “ironclad, inviolable protection for the rights of individuals, minorities and women.”

But the indubitable Ibish does not stop with that, Ibish also points out the crucial importance of developing "a positive narrative about the virtues, rights and responsibilities of citizenship." 

As an American citizen, very much schooled in the importance of making a more real democracy with full and equal rights for all, as well as the idea of meritocracy, I have to seriously object to Friedman's claim that Israel is or should remain a "Jewish Democracy".  Individual freedom, including freedom from religion and institutionalized bigotry as well as sectarian conflict is a key part of democracy and forging a just and lasting peace:  People here and there should not be forced to pay taxes that arm and empower religious "scholars" and schemes.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"...The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine."

The Folly of Israel's Settlement Policy by Raja Shehadeh

Fayyad: UNESCO decision a victory for rights, humanity

CSM: UNESCO designates Church of the Nativity as endangered site... "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads a self-rule government in charge of 38 percent of the West Bank, says negotiations with Israel remain his preferred choice, but wants global recognition to improve his leverage [for negotiations]."

Due Diligence: Questions for the One-Staters

MSNBC: Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us'

Israel subjecting Palestinian children to 'spiral of injustice': Foreign Office-backed delegation of UK lawyers says treatment may stem from belief every Palestinian child is potential terrorist

The perils of alienation over Palestine

“Drought the people out”... the continuing plight of the Palestinians

"I don’t need another declaration of statehood — we already have one."

"It is in Israel's vital interest to come to a complete resolution of the conflict between it and the Palestinian people sooner rather than later, relieving the weight of this tragic conflict from both of our peoples' shoulders. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the world." Maen Rashid Areikat: The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ )  Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

• Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt