Religious States

Religious states are the topic of this blog. By Religious states I mean country’s with laws that are specifically seeped in religion. I want to talk specifically about Israel to spring board this discussion. Recently Israel’s cabinet approved a draft for a new pledge that would require non-Jewish immigrants to Israel to pledge loyalty to Israel as a government that is specifically Jewish.
This bothers mean, in an age where society marks the Islamic countries as backwards for religious based politics, yet Israel was established to be a place where Jewish people could be safe and yet when they receive their state they almost immediately become expansionist. It is also bothers me that this loyalty pledge is only meant for people who are not Jewish or who do not have Jewish heritage. The New York Times article that I read mention that this was for the Hasidic Jews who are largely non-Zionist.
So what’s so bad about a loyalty pledge, you might ask, I mean after all we do have out pledge of allegiance? Well what so bad is you are promoting blind nationalism. The Pledge of Allegiance was originally instituted as an assimilation tactic, so that the child of immigrants would feel more loyalty to the USA than to their parents’ homeland. It’s a tactic that is deplorable, to require a person to pledge allegiance to a country is to say they must be loyal to it by virtue of living with in it, which does not seem right. A person does not have to be a nationalist to participate in government so why should they have to say a pledge, which means they are inevitably agreeing to risk life and limb for a country that they might not want to even be a part of but lack the means with which to get out.
This particular notion of loyalty oath bothers me because, while I am to some extant a Zionist, it requires the person to agree to Israel as an exclusively Jewish state, or at least its government to be exclusively Jewish. Which leave the everyday Palestinian who is already being crushed under the boot of Israeli occupation, even less likely to receive a voice in Israel. It also means that the only solution to peace talks is a two country system and that would ultimately lead to Israel giving up some of its occupied territory. So not only is this pledge disrespectful of anyone who might want to live in Israel, but is not Jewish, but it also limits the options for peace in the area.
I have been talking like this is already in effect I know, but it has yet to be passed through parliament. I am hoping the parliament will have the greater sense to not pass this loyalty pledge. Just the notion of a loyalty pledge gives me the shivers, and makes me think of a wonderful book Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, but this pledge limits what the non-Jewish immigrant can expect there government to do for them. Namely it limits the scope of progress to be made as well as the rights of others.