A friend from Israel Today asked me: ”How can Israel be at the same time both Jewish and democratic?” Here is my answer.

Democracy is man-made. Like every other thing created by man, it is far from perfect. In our world today, there are many exceptional things, and the existence of the State of Israel is one of them, and therefore we must think about it in an exceptional way.

Israel is the only homeland of the Jewish people. They settled in the “The Promised Land” thousands of years ago. The presence of the Jews in the Land of Israel is germane for them, prehistoric, even if the people surrounding them view it differently.

The question is how can a country belonging to a certain religion be democratic? The answer is obvious – it cannot.

I was born in Lebanon, I am a Christian, and the country of Israel accepted me and provided me with full citizen rights in their land. Since the Jew, the Christian, the Muslim, the Druze and all others are equal...