With Israel's 60th Birthday Western Republics Should Ask Themselves: How Long Will They Support A State Founded On Religious Nationalism?

The decision to usurp Arab homelands by Europeans in order to found a new state, with the only justification for the claim being a semi-mythical document over 2000 years old, is never going to be seen as objectively reasonable.

Such an outrageous act was made possible by one factor – support from the western powers principally the United States. Israel is now armed to the teeth probably with nuclear weapons, and so its existence is a fait accompli. Meanwhile the indigenous Palestinians who are mostly Muslims, but include many Christians as well as Druze and others, continue to suffer the loss of their homeland.

So what is to be done? Leaving aside the history the big problem Civic Republicans have with the state of Israel is that it is a "phyletist" state. That is, it is a state founded on religious nationalism. The only type of modern state that can be at peace with itself and at peace with others must be a state tolerant of all religions and not founded on any particular one.

Although they may have issues with religious minorities, none of the Arab states surrounding Israel are phyletist states and so their constitutions allow for change. Syria for instance has the largest population of Christians in the Middle East outside Lebanon and is largely tolerant. Israel makes life difficult for its Christians and has erased Christian archaeological sites for reasons of cultural cleansing.

The only way forward is a UN approved and verified agreement whereby all states of the region undertake to protect people of all religions and ethnicity. This would automatically include the normalization of Israel as a non-phyletist state so that it can join the community of all nations, of the west and east. The issue of it boundaries would then be of less significance.

There can be no excuse for western republics to continue to support a phyletist state.

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