AG: Israel abandoning its values, national symbols collapsing

[bemildred]

Attorney General Menachem Mazuz told university graduates Wednesday that the State of Israel's value system was in decline, and warned his audience that Israelis that could not ignore the phenomenon in the hope that it would "go away."

"The national symbols are collapsing one after the other, and the feeling is that the state is letting go of its values one by one," Mazuz said in an address to law graduates at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan.

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"We must choose whether to fight to preserve the character of the nation as a state whose citizens respect the values of adherence to the law and values of tolerance and equal rights, or alternately sit by and watch from the sidelines."

Mazuz said that the country must act to halt the moral decline and loss of direction, stressing that ignoring the situation was no solution.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/873349.html

[stonehinge]

1. Tolerance and equal rights? In Israel? Is this a joke?

Please tell me this is a joke.

[redqueen]

2. Hi stonehinge...

welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Its a damn site better there and in any of its neighbors...

[Shaktimaan]

4. No joke.

Why, do you have a country in mind who has a significantly firmer committment to tolerance and equal rights? I'd love to hear who.

You see, it is easy to measure Israel against a state that has no current conflict raging that's split down ethnic lines. So when you pick a country to compare her to, make sure you consider their actions and policies during a time that they faced somewhat similar strife.

Israeli tolerance during times of strife looks rather dim when compared to peacetime France. But how does it compare to France during war? Who would you deem more intolerant, Israel in their dealings with the Palestinians during the intifada, or France in their dealings with the Algerians during its war of independance?

...

Exactly.

[AviBaruch]

5. Nope, Israel is mighty tolerant

and preserves equal rights significantly better than much of the world.