In a blathering speech yesterday, lame-duck Secretary of State John Kerry claimed Israel cannot be both a Jewish state and democratic.
His comments imply a false alternative. He’s saying either you have to be a religious state or a democracy. Actually, there’s a third alternative, and it’s the only acceptable one: an individual rights-respecting republic. The kind of republic represented by our original U.S. Constitution.
Kerry wants us to believe that rights either come from religious doctrine, or from people voting for you to have them. But your rights are inherent to your nature. They’re part of what you require to survive, and you’re born with those rights, whether others respect them or not. The only role any government can play is in protecting those rights, or violating them. Sadly, most governments have done the latter.
If you enjoy your liberty and freedom, it’s not democracy that brought them to you. Other people — the 51 percent or 70 percent majority — have not given you your rights. Your rights belong to you. If your rights are still respected in America, it’s because of the Constitution, not because of democracy.
Rights cannot be settled by democratic vote. You either have the right to free speech, or you don’t. If you do, then it doesn’t matter if 51 percent or 75 percent of the population suffers a lapse in judgment and decides that you suddenly don’t. The First Amendment states that government shall not interfere in freedom of speech on one’s own property, and it’s not subject to a majority vote. The same goes for any other legitimate right, including the right to self-defense, the right to private property, and the right to freedom of association.
John Kerry commits a double falsehood in this outrageous speech. First, he implies that you have to choose between religion and democracy to ensure your rights, which isn’t true. Second, we know he doesn’t even believe what he’s saying. Kerry and Obama are perfectly fine with Iran, which is a theocratic state. They have done everything possible to make life easier for the government of Iran, unfreezing its assets and making it plausible for them to build nuclear weapons to use against Israel or anyone else they don’t like.
You don’t hear John Kerry saying, “Iran has to make up its mind. Either it’s a democratic state, or it’s an Islamic state.” Because whenever a country or organization (like the PLO) wishes to be an Islamic state, Kerry sees no reason to impose democracy on it.
Apparently, democracy only matters in the Middle East when we’re talking about a Jewish state, a Christian state, or any other kind of state that isn’t Muslim. By his own standards, John Kerry gives Islam yet another free pass.
It is not freedom and liberty John Kerry is upholding. It is Israel he wants to destroy.
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