 Israeli researchers Oren Yiftachel and As’ad Ghanem consider Estonia as an ethnocracy.Israeli sociologist Sammy Smooha, of the University of Haifa, disagrees with Yiftachel, contending that the ethnocratic model developed by Yiftachel does not fit the case of Latvia and Estonia; it is not a settler society as its core ethnic group is indigenous, nor did it expand territorially or have a diaspora intervening in its internal affairs as in the case of Israel for which Yiftachel originally developed his model.However the notion that Estonia or Latvia are ethnic democracies has been rejected by some commentators.