THE ISRAELI AND U.S. POLITICAL SYSTEMS COMPARED The United States and Israel are both political democracies, and both share certain core values as involves the rights of citizens. However, the two nations are also profoundly different in the purpose and operation of their political systems, though both share a similar history as developments of the British parliamentary system. (Jenkins, 1990, 48)
The single most profound difference is that Israel is a "Jewish State," founded as the "last refuge" for Jews around the world, which thus favors one particular religion that has a strong influence on the national politics and government, while the United States is a nation founded by many ethnic groups of varying religious backgrounds. (Peretz, Doron, 1997, 5)
While the founders of Israel were secularists, and established the government to be a secular government, the fact of its innate "Jewishness" means there are aspects to the government that are profoundly religious, and thus operate to the exclusion of other residents, primarily Christians and Muslims; Israel is far from a theocracy - at least at present - but it is also not a secular democracy. (Peretz, Doron, 1997, 9)
The United States, though it has frequent difficulties over the separation of church and state, is a determinedly-secular nation as regards the operation of its political and governmental system. (Gerberg, 1991, 14)
THE ISRAELI POLITICAL SYSTEM AND GOVERNMENT COMPARED WITH THE UNITED STATES
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