A great deal of attention has been afforded to the news that Israel's central elections committee had banned two Israeli Arab parties from the country's upcoming elections. Though it is entirely correct, as Matthew Yglesias pointed out, that this move would not have affected Israeli Arabs' ability to vote or serve in the parliament as members of other political parties, at first blush this news evoked the dilemma presented to me by a professor in Israel last week: that the two clearest long term solutions were for Israel to either abandon its Jewish nature, or for it to abandon its democratic nature.

But looking into this news, it's not clear to me that this move is quite as cataclysmic as presented. This isn't to say that the move doesn't come off poorly, or that it is particularly wise. Yet this isn't the end of the story. Israel's central elections committee, a political body, does not have the final say in this matter, as Israel's highest judicial body still has the ability to weigh in. Indeed, one of the two parties in question -- Balad -- has been banned previously by the committee, on similar grounds, only to be reinstated by the High Court.

All three motions claimed that Balad must be disqualified on grounds that it does not recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland, and that it advocates an armed conflict against it. Israel's High Court of Justice, in the past, has overturned votes to disqualify Balad from national elections that were based on similar grounds.

According to Yediot Aharonot, the Israeli Arab Balad party will in fact seek the High Court to overturn its ban rather than calling for a boycott from balloting in February, just as it did six years ago. So while it could be the case that the High Court will not reinstate Balad -- a situation I truly hope is not the case because, at least from this vantage, it will damage Israel significantly more than it will advantage the country, not only in the long run but even in the short run -- the country does not yet appear to have crossed the threshold many believe it to have already crossed with regards to the disenfranchisement of Israeli Arab political parties.

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