Exclusive: The Limits of Dissent
Ben Shapiro


Author: Ben Shapiro

Date Published: 2006-08-02



Dissent is understood to be an integral part of democracy. But FSM Contributing Editor looks at the words and actions of some of Israel’s Arab lawmakers and wonders where the limits of dissent in wartime should legitimately be set.
 
The Limits of Dissent
Ben Shapiro
August 1, 2006
 
 
This week, Arab hordes massed in the streets of Umm al-Fahl to protest the Israeli incursion into Lebanon. “Israel is a terror state!” the crowd chanted. “Our people in Gaza and Lebanon will not surrender!”
 
Arab anti-Semitism is nothing new or surprising. Here’s the problem: Umm al-Fahl is an Israeli city, the protesters were Israeli Arabs, and the organizer of the protest is an Arab member of Israel’s parliament. Knesset member (MK) Abas Zkoor of the United Arab List party addressed Hezbollah terrorists directly, in Arabic, on the floor of the Knesset last Friday: “We ask Allah to forgive your martyrs, increase your reward in the world to come, and avenge the exploiters.” Arab MKs have repeatedly labeled Defense Minister Amir Peretz a “murderer.” 
 
Arab MK Azmi Bishara (Balad Party) explained that democracy means that there is no consensus. It is no surprise to find Bishara defending the anti-Semitism of his comrades; after all, back in 2001, Bishara visited Syria. Standing alongside Hezbollah terrorist leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Bishara encouraged both the Syrians and the Hezbollah terrorists to “resist” the Israelis and continue the “struggle.” Bishara called Israel’s 2000 pullout from southern Lebanon a “victory” for Hezbollah, and praised the “heroism of the Islamic struggle.”
 
Again, Bishara is a citizen of the state of Israel. Again, Bishara is a member of the Israeli parliament. “What is considered an extremist opinion here is considered very moderate in the Arab world,” Bishara recently explained. 
 
Clearly, Israel has a deep problem of its own making. Israel is the Jewish state. Hatikva, its national anthem, bears the lyrics “As long as the Jewish spirit is yearning deep in the heart, / With eyes turned toward the East, looking toward Zion, / Then our hope - the two-thousand-year-old hope - will not be lost: / To be a free people in our land, / The land of Zion and Jerusalem.” Yet Arabic is a national language in Israel; Israel’s Declaration of Establishment asks the Arab population to “preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”
 
There is no chance that the Arabs will ever sing Hatikva. Israel rightly exempts Arab citizens from the universal draft, knowing that the vast majority of Arab citizens cannot be trusted to serve loyally in the Israel Defense Force. 
 
Now Israel must make a choice. Either Israel must change its vision of democracy, or it will be destroyed from within. Several demographic scholars plausibly suggest that Israel will have an anti-Zionist majority within 50 years, due to high birth rate among Arabs and low birth rate among most Israeli Jews. What will happen if the Arab population within Israel unites with the external Muslim population in a war of extermination? What will happen when a Muslim majority within Israel can simply disband the state by voting?
 
Israel must realize that not all dissent is loyal. No state can tolerate calls for its extinction emanating from within its own governmental chambers. No state can survive when its citizens hold literally nothing in common, especially a love for the nation itself. Israel must ban Arab parties dedicated to Israel’s destruction forthwith, and root out and expel those who pray for Israel’s destruction.   
 
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ben Shapiro, 22, is a graduate of UCLA and a student at Harvard Law School. He is also the author of the recently published "Porn Generation: How Social Liberalism Is Corrupting Our Future" as well as the national best seller "Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America's Youth.”
 
 
©2003-2006 FamilySecurityMatters.org All Rights Reserved
 
Click here to support Family Security Matters