Kawar Ignores Israel's Democratic Foundations

To the editors:

Leila Kawar's statement that "there is not a single democratic state in the Middle East" ("Choosing Sides, Making Friends," Feb. 11) and her characterization of Israel as a theocracy, not a democracy, is ill-informed and false. As proof of the undemocratic nature of Israel, Kawar offers the example of the Law of Return, Israel's policy of guaranteeing citizenship to any Jew wishing to immigrate. How this leads her to conclude that Israel is a theocracy, defined as a government by officials regarded as divinely inspired, is puzzling.

The Law of Return, enacted at the founding of the state, was intended to offer protection to Jews around the world who had so recently faced persecution. Just as the horrors of the Holocaust were aimed at all Jews regardless of their personal observance or beliefs, this law is concerned with the well-being of Jews as a people, not as a religion.

Still, the Law of Return reflects the problematic question of what it means to be a "Jewish State" to many Israelis, both Jews and non-Jews, and Kawar is correct in nothing that Israel has complications in defining its national identity. But to characterize Israel as a theocracy represents a simplification of the myriad elements of identity at play: Jewish religious identity, Jewish ethnic identity and Israeli Statist identity. The fact that academia, the press, the public and the parliament (where both Arab and Jew are represented) can debate issues like the Law of Return reveals that Israel is a democracy in which supreme power is held by the people. To lump Israel with its neighboring anti-democratic governments is to ignore the fundamentally democratic foundations of Israel and Israeli society. Feb. 17, 1998

The writer is the co-chair of Harvard Students for Israel.