That Israel has been self-destructive over the years in the eyes of most of the world, save the US, goes without saying, mainly because it purports to be a liberal democracy.

There are now about twenty laws on the books, most upheld by the Israeli high court, which supports a second class exclusionary existence for Israeli Arabs (Palestinians with citizenship). By wanting to be a "Jewish and democratic state" Israel is essentially saying that it want to be a pure Jewish state.

Apologists need to be less obvious. Livni's recently proposal to transfer Israeli Arabs is not exactly what one would like to hear from the foreign minister of an allegedly democratic country and confirms that racist values have taken over Israel.

Why do you say it hasn't yet passed the threshold???

with across the board political support left to right support for crossing it. I think people see it as a bad sign for Israel's future, and for its present incapacity to do the right thing politically/strategically.

The near unanimous decision by the election board is an example of being forced down the undemocratic path by Avigdor Lieberman during election season. Let's hope that's all it is.

The aphorism about why you want people inside the tent seems applicable in this case.  If you don't give citizens an outlet through the political process, they may well pursue more destructive outlets.

I'd note a few facts that may aid people's understanding of the situation:

1. From the media, one might be led to believe that there is some kind of blanket ban on Arab political parties.  In fact, the ban only applies two specific parties (Balad and Ta'al).  There is at least one Arab party (Hadash) with seats in the Knesset that is unaffected by this decision; I have no idea if anyone has made efforts to exclude them as well.  In addition, there are other Arab nationalist parties that did not achieve enough support in the last election to win a seat, but will presumably have more support now.

2. In 2003, Balad was barred from participating in the elections by a 1-vote margin.  This time, the vote was a lopsided 26-3, with one abstention, suggesting that something has changed.  I'd note that the Israeli Supreme Court (a body I have great respect for) overturned the first ban on the grounds of insufficient evidence, meaning that the latest ban may not necessarily be overturned if new evidence has emerged in the meantime.

3. Arabs comprise approximately 20% of the population of Israel; presumably not all of them vote for an Arab nationalist party.  The three Arab parties I mentioned currently hold a whopping total of 10 seats in the Knesset (out of 120), so it's not like Israel is in any danger of seeing an Arab nationalist majority any time soon regardless of what happens.

I hope this adds some context.

Either the latest polls are off, or the 'left' is about to get hammered in Israel. The whole country seems to have gone off the right limb in support of the invasion of Gaza. Meretz is down, Labor is down, could it be that even the Retiree Party voters are going to sit out the election this time? Lieberman's Party is gaining too. Right now, this could be the rightwing coalition we are looking at after Feb 10th:

Likud, with a PM Netanyahu; Lieberman heading up the second largest bloc; Shas; whatever is left of NRP-NU; and the UTJ!!!?

Yes. 61 in the latest poll.

I think the only hope is that Kadima can pull off some sort of upset, get the highest number of seats, join with Labor/Meretz, and see if they can form some sort of coalition--probably having to give Shas whatever they want...

Here's a bit more info on the anti-Zionist parties at stake:

Ta'al [Arab Islamist party] received 3.02% of the vote in 2006 and has 4 seats (out of 120) in the Israeli parliament (Knesset)

Balad [Arab nationalist party] received 2.30% of the vote in 2006 and has 3 seats in the Knesset

Hadash [Arab/Jewish communist], which was not called to be banned, received 2.74% of the vote and has 3 seats (out of 120) in the Knesset

In addition to these parties, which receive the majority of the Israeli Arab vote, about 30% of Israeli Arabs usually vote for Zionist parties, mostly the leftist Meretz and the center-left Labor.

that the two clearest long term solutions were for Israel to either abandon its Jewish nature, or for it to abandon its democratic nature.

This is, of course, the question and it pervades throughout the Israeli-Palestinian question. The right of return would undo in a fell swoop the Jewish character of the Israeli state which is why Israel has long opposed it. Still demographics are not on Israel's side, the bomb that Israel hears ticking now is the explosion of the Palestinian population. How Israel confronts this I have no idea.

Great post.