Israeli academic: Loyalty oath resembles racist laws of 1935

Who in the world will want to uphold their state?today. It violates our human laws and standards of decency and fairness to one another....Dutch

Israel was born as a Jewish state and remains a Jewish state. The US was born as a multi-religious state but with a heavy Christian influence (Sunday blue-laws, Christmas as a national holiday, etc). This oath doesn't say you must be a Jew - only that you acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. Try being Jewish in arab lands and see true discrimination and pogroms.

Asking Christian and Muslim citizens to swear loyalty onto Judaism? Such an idea is simply repulsive. Does one imagine if American Jews were asked to swear loyalty to Christianity in the USA?

I once had a subject with an lecturer from the University of Tel Aviv. He thought Israel with a Jewish character was a travesty of Justice, speculated of moving to Holland, and suggested Israel should dissolve its Jewish charter. When he asked if the possibility of 2 million Palestinians returning to israel then transforming its democracy into a new Islamic republic bothered him, he said it was impossible, and in any case, didn't care much for he could live in Holland. This is the approach of "academics" in Israeli universities. They don't care about the real world, only about their ideological theories. http://anothermudpit.blogspot.com/2009/01/removing-jewish-character-from-israeli.html

Netanyahu is trying to appease fascists with his support for this amendment. As history shows such appeasement inevitably fails. People of conscience in Israel and around the world should stand together against the rapid descent of our country into the kind of darkness that enveloped central Europe in the 1930s.

I bow down to these courageous and righteous people! Thank you for outcries for peace .

For Palestinians, it is long past Krystallnacht. I used to support Israel. But like many other Americans, I now doubt that Israel can save itself from the calamity it is bringing upon itself.

Is it too much to ask your citizens not to be traitors?? Every nation should have a loyalty oath as an American I would not mind pledging an oath not to sell out America.

I encourage all artists, musicians, people who believe in Israeli democracy. So that we can live as Jews in a homeland that we can be proud of and that was the vision of our founders like Ben Gurion and Rabin.

Unless very few exceptions which would be Bnai Noah, who would want to have the status of Ger Toshav (and keep the 7 Noahide laws properly). Then MAYBE they can live in Israel. Even though this still is an argument with the Ramban saying not until Yovel is operating again in Israel.

to be haranguing Israel. If you don't want to take a loyalty oath then go somewhere else.

I was feeling despair at the passage of that abhorrent law. The words "Never Again" really do have meaning when the caretakers of Israel, common people, put a stop to the misguided direction the leaders have chosen. The true face of Israel to the world must be those courageous people you have revealed to us in this article willing to stand up for what is moral and just. Not even Alan Dershowitz could approve of the course Israel has chosen .

I repeat. Nobody needs to take the loyalty oath more than the Haredim. To exempt Jews from this oath required of non-Jews is a double discrimination and a double insult. Drop this wrong idea and stop distracting attention from the real issue, which is this NOT MAKING PEACE that's going on. We who seek peace will not forget this lost chance. New elections will be called very soon, and these guys won't be winning.

... and over 7 million stayed home!

The designs are easy enough to reconcile, but the colors clash. It's going to be a graphic arts challenge.