If there is one repetitive expression that is consistently trotted out by Israeli leaders, both Right and Left, as justification for their often detrimental political decisions, it is the hackneyed phrase, "Israel is both a democratic and Jewish State."



On the surface, if one is not a very deep thinker, this may seem to be true. After all, religiously there is national observance of the Sabbath and Jewish holidays, while the Knesset, Israel's parliament, is ostensibly the bastion of secular democracy. However, what transpires when these two concepts come into conflict with each other (a crucial issue that was first raised by the late, great Rabbi Meir Kahane, of blessed memory), I believe, threatens the very existence of the Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel.



Let us, for example, analyze a few basic facts that characterize the much-touted "both Jewish and democratic state". It is well known that other than Druze or Bedouin, Arabs are not permitted to be recruited into the Israel Defense Forces. "Why?" you may ask. Because, says conventional Israeli wisdom, they cannot be trusted. That being the case, an additional "uncomfortable question" arises: Why, then, are Arabs permitted to serve in the Knesset, and granted immunity from prosecution even when they meet with Israel's enemies such as Hamas, the terrorist organization sworn to Israel's destruction ?



Another case in point (among many others) illustrating official government policies attempting to defend the split personality concept of Israel, as both democratic and Jewish, is the illogical, if not altogether deranged, idea that a Jewish State - which, with G-d's help, came into being after two millenia of Gentile crusades, inquisitions, pogroms and the unspeakable Holocaust - can 'democratically' (sic) uproot thousands of its own citizens and cause them to become refugees in their own country.



The raison d'etre for the Jewish State, as expressed in Israel's national anthem, Hatikvah (The Hope), is for Jews to be a "free people in in our land, the land of Zion...." Indeed, the Bible, the very source upon which Israel stakes its claim to Eretz Yisrael, clearly elucidates G-d's Promise to Abraham, the first Jew: "Unto thee and thy seed after thee do I give this land as an eternal inheritance." This everlasting covenant between the Almighty and the Jewish people does not mention 'democratic rights' of others to any part of the Jewish homeland.



The ongoing conflict over Israel's split personality in attempting to be "both democratic and Jewish" - 'serving two masters', as it were - has resulted in a deep-seated rift in Israeli society between observant Jews and Hellenized secularists. Tragically, the ominous spectre of a a civil war between brothers looms large on the horizon.



At this critical juncture, it is instructive to remember that throughout the long and painful trek of Jewish history, it was always the Jews of uncompromising faith who remained loyal to the teachings of Torah Judaism. And it was this that helped ensure Jewish survival.