one could easily argue that since Americans have been forced to live, work, and learn together since 1968, we have grown much more tolerant, inclusive, and open.
but we still have a long way to go before we can abandon all anti-discrimination laws and expect everything will be hunky-dorey.
One could suggest that this is because you are
forcing people to live, work, and learn together rather than
educating people to live, work, and learn together.
In NZ, Maori are so interbred with Europeans now that there is often no telling who is Maori and who isn't purely by sight. There are plenty of blond, blue eyed, Maori and quite a few deeply tanned Europeans. (We can still tell the Asians, but no way to tell by sight if they are 5th generation or 1st.) In the IT dept in my company we a number of Maori guys. One of them is about 6', has pale skin, and shaves his head. If you put him next to a skinhead, then except for the lack of tattooes you couldn't visually see a difference. There is simply little point to discriminating here by race as half the time you have no clue who to discriminate against.
Now I am not going to say that it doesn't mean it doesn't happen at all, I know there are idiots out there, I used to know a few, it was more fun arguing with them than with you, but as a whole, most people in NZ aren't biased against anyone other than Australians. We also tend to respect other people's beliefs and cultures. It'd be nice to see the US do likewise and get past the colour of people's skins, though I am sure you agree with that.
So back to the OP.
The major thing in Israel is that the law doesn't just permit Jewish owners to have Jewish only apartment buildings, but it also permits Arab owners having Arab only apartment buildings, and when we are dealing with two cultures that are very insular and tend not to get on with each other, forcing them to live together rather than using education to do it is like sticking a lit stick of dynamite under a house.
Forcing people that hate each other to live beside each other and then suppressing their hate works wonders though, I mean just look at the ex-country of Yugoslovia.
If instead it's out in the open, and being dealt with, education starts to win and in the end, hopefully intelligence starts to win out rather than waiting for the explosion that occurs when it's bottled up and hidden.
So it comes down to this. I don't like the idea of having "Jew only" of "arab only" apartments. I think that the Israeli society should stand up to those doing it and tell them to stop, but I also think they have a right to make themselves look moronic in front of everyone else. I also think that considering the two cultures, separation to a degree isn't a bad thing until they can actually learn to live together without killing each other, and I don't believe that forcing them to live together is the way to achieve that end, I believe that it can only come via education and through people both in the grass-roots and the leadership being willing to stop the cycle of hate.
