David writes: "You may not equate Israel with Judaism, but Israeli Jews and Arabs certainly do. Israeli Jews think of Israel as a "Jewish State" and like it that way, and Arabs think of Israel as a "Jewish State" and don't like it that way. Pre-WW2, Zionism was very controversial in the Jewish community, because Zionism challenged the idea that Jews could be incorporated as citizens into European countries while retaining their dignity and identify as Jews, and many European Jews were committed to becoming "Good Germans," etc.. The Zionists said that could never happen and Jews had to have their own state. After WW2, the anti-Zionists became analogues to the members of the America First Committee after Pearl Harbor.
Israel is not like equating Mussolini with Italian ethnicity or language. Israel is like stating that Italy is the state for Italians, who are those peope that speak Italian and share Italian ethnicity. The fact that Italy may include as citizens those that do not have Italian ethnicity does not mean that Italy is not an Italian state. In the view of Israeli Jews (and most Jews worldwide) Israel is the state for Jews, who are those people that (1) are ethnically Jews, or (2) choose to be part of the Jewish tribe." The only thing greater than your arrogance is your ignorance. I am not going to give you a lesson in Zionism. But perhaps you could take it upon yourself to investigate the difference between political zionism and religious zionism. Perhaps you should ask yourself why many Jews, including my father, think that Israel is a blot upon Jewish history and spirituality. And then, for advanced study, you should look at the very common blood-based, race-based creeds of nazism and political zionism. Joanna _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
