I have pondered and pondered how to respond to Nathan Geffen's odious and nefarious likening of Israel to amongst others, Syria, where the regime has in cold-blood murdered 7000 of its citizens in just a year. Possibly the best way is to provide him and your readers with facts, facts easily obtainable by anyone with access to the internet.
On www.freedomhouse.org the countries of the world are independently measured in terms of the liberties, both political and civil, that all their citizens enjoy.
On a scale of 1 7, where 1 is the most free and 7 comprises no freedom at all, Israel was given 1 for political liberties and 2 for civil liberties, and termed a free society. And because Freedom House does not differentiate between the various religious or racial groups within a country but assesses all the citizens equally, this 1 and 2 applies to all the citizens of Israel: Jew, Christian and Arab alike.
In contrast, the countries mentioned by Geffen were allocated the following points in the 2012 Freedom House census: Syria was given 7 for both political and civil liberties, Egypt 6 and 5, Jordan 6 and 5, Turkey 3 and 3 and it was termed partly free.
What is important to note is that Freedom House does not maintain a culture bound view of freedom. The methodology of the survey is grounded in basic standards of political rights and civil liberties, derived in large measure from relevant portions of the Universal declaration of Human rights.
These standards apply to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition or level of economic development.² Geffen believes that Israel is no more democratic than Algeria that was allocated a whopping 6 for political liberties and 5 for civil liberties and was termed "not free"; or than Morocco that was allocated 5 and 4 and termed "partly free." Geffen would do well to take up the cudgels with the research analysts of Freedom House.