War (of Words) with Syria

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Thursday, Apr 17, 2003

[More background stuff. I found this paper while looking up Feith biographies. In his position at the DoD, Feith is involved in setting policy towards Iraq and Syria.]
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
Reflections on Liberalism, Democracy and Zionism
Douglas J. Feith
I began my talk by noting that liberalism emphasizes two concepts: the autonomy or separate character of individuals, on the one hand, and the equality or same treatment of individuals, on the other. There is inherent in liberalism a tension between these two concepts. Excessive emphasis on equal treatment will not do justice to the separateness or diversity of individuals. This helps explain the paradoxical manner in which liberalism—with its emphasis on individual th liberty—became a way station for the journey of some 19 century progressives toward socialism—which obliterated individual liberty in the interest of uniformity .

For liberalism to thrive in practice, balancing of its two elements is required. There is a lesson in this for those Israelis who, intent on comparing their country with the United States, contend that Israel like America should not be an ethnic state—a Jewish state—but rather a “state of its citizens.” Such Israelis advance a logic that would make all states in the world “states of their citizens,” a classic, liberal universalist view, but one that, as we have seen, ignores the reality that human beings cherish their ethnic identities and, given free choice, will often prefer to live in an ethnic state in which their own people is the majority.

If one gives due emphasis to the first element of liberalism—autonomy or the right of human beings to enjoy what distinguishes them from others—one should recognize that there is a place in the world for non-ethnic nations and there is a place for ethnic nations. Human freedom is best served when people have a choice of the type of democratic state in which they wish to reside.
- mark 4-17-2003 5:17 am [link]