Anthem Wars

Muslim Arab Cabinet minister Ghaleb Majadele has caused a controversy over his refusal to sing Israel's national anthem, though he says he does stand in respect. The lyrics are here:

"As long as in the heart, within,
A Jewish soul still yearns,
And towards the end of the East
An eye still watches toward Zion --

"Our hope is not yet lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our own land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem."

Majadele is right that the song is clearly aimed at Jewish citizens, and any Arab is justified in having mixed feelings so long as they are persistently regarded as a "demographic threat" to what it represents and when a woman who says that having an Arab in the Cabinet represents "a lethal blow to Zionism" is herself nominated for that Cabinet by her party within the governing coalition. Loyalty has to be a two-way street.