I refer to the letter Why Malaysia is not like Israel.

On this letter, I wish only to clarify one point where the writer claims: ‘But we don't practice the legal doctrine whereby blood gives you right to the land as practised by Israel’, and refer the writer to our realities of Malay reserved land versus squatter Indians and old Chinese communities still living on TOL (temporary occupation).

Another reader lent his comment: ‘As far as I know only two countries in the world define race in terms of religion, the Jewish faith for Jews and Islam for Malays’.

Similarly, as far as I know, there is no country in the world that is a Christian state excluding Vatican City. There are no Hindu states nor Buddhist states though there are a handful of Islamic states and there is Israel the Jewish state; Jews in Israel adhere to Judaism and earlier, I’d given examples of how her state religion enshrouds that country’s national life.

Israel has given serious thought to what (if any) place under the Israeli sun for her minorities who form a quarter of the population, with one fifth of them Arabs.

At present, Israel cannot permit her large minority to hold the portfolios of defence minister, foreign minister, home minister and other pivotal decision-making positions in cabinet.

I’m tempted to think that if Israel’s defence minister had been an Arab Muslim, her home minister an Arab Christian and foreign minister a Druze, then perhaps this current attack on Gaza might not have gotten the go ahead from the country’s war council.

(As a comparison for minorities’ shareholding in national leadership, take Singapore where the ‘co-ordinating minister for national security’ is Shunmugam Jayakumar, who is also deputy prime minister; the island republic’s finance minister is Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who was formerly education minister while Singapore’s president is Sellapan Rama Nathan.)

As I’d also cited in my article, Israel’s minority population is set to grow from its present 24 percent to constituting the majority in 30-40 years because of the Arab fecundity.

How can Israel in year 2040 remain morally a Jewish state if more than half its population is not Jewish, and how can it proclaim itself a democracy – ‘one man one vote’ – if in year 2050 it enforces a rule of Jewish will going against its Arab citizens' sensibilities?

So is Israel worried about resentful minorities in its midst? You bet! Here are the lessons that Israel can take away from Malaysia to reverse it demographics trend.

There is already one parallel. When Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, she divested herself of the (currently) 1.5 million Palestinians there similar to Malaysia divesting ourselves of Singaporean Chinese in 1965 at the time when Lee Kuan Yew was proclaiming his slogan ‘Malaysian Malaysia’.

Malaysia's ratio of Chinese and Indians in the population is shrinking. In 1987, Malays had a TFR (fertility rate: children born/woman) of 4.51, Chinese 2.25. By 2070, the two-kids-per- family Chinese are expected to decline to 13 percent of the population. Israel might want to invigorate state policies that encourage a same trajectory.

But my own hope is that Israel should adopt a ‘prosper thy neighbour’ philosophy. Forty-four years ago there was not a country called Singapore, and the world did not know if the little red dot would make or break.

However, since destiny has been kind, Singapore succeeded and is now absorbing Malaysia’s Chinese cream of the crop.

Therefore Israel should likewise prosper the Palestinian Authority, help make Gaza and West Bank together a viable merged entity. Then, instead having a disenfranchised minority within Israel’s borders, her Arabs, if disaffected should emigrate to a progressive state next door – an independent and sovereign Palestine.