No, Israel Doesn’t Face a Choice between Being Jewish and Being Democratic

In an interview with CNN in February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated the well-worn warning that the creation of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River is necessary “to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state.” This claim, which has been articulated by State Department officials since at least 1977, assumes that Israel must either continue to govern the Palestinians, and thus sacrifice its democratic character, or grant them citizenship, and thus, supposedly, cease to be a Jewish state. If this is true, notes Yossi Kuperwasser, it follows that Jerusalem must accept whatever terms are put forward by the Palestinians, or even withdraw unilaterally. Of course, to most Israelis, these theoretical dangers seem negligible compared to the tangible threats, known from very recent experience, of having their children blown up on buses and in pizza parlors, or hit by rockets on the way to school. In fact, Baker explains, the entire dilemma constructed by Blinken et al. is a false one: