#Yuyutsu

Why are you so reluctant to tell us how your family comes to be living in Israel?

Have you ever been to Israel to visit them?

Why do you think it is necessary for Israel to have a non-Arab (but not necessarily Jewish) majority for its survival?

Don't you accept that Israel is the Jewish National Home?

Dear David,

«Why are you so reluctant to tell us how your family comes to be living in Israel?»

I already told you, they were born there. Some of their ancestry there can be traced back to the year 1600.

«Have you ever been to Israel to visit them?»

Lots. Last time was a few months ago.

«Why do you think it is necessary for Israel to have a non-Arab (but not necessarily Jewish) majority for its survival?»

Because Arabs/Muslims cannot control their violent extremists and those violent extremists would never accept the presence of others in their region and would never rest unless all others are dead. If Arabs became a majority, they would change the legal landscape in such a way that Israelis, including my family, would no longer be able to live there.

«Don't you accept that Israel is the Jewish National Home?»

No, I reject all nationalities. People may want to stick together because they have common goals, values and lifestyles, but that cannot be said of Jews as a group (if even there is such a thing), which are very diverse and can be completely different from each other.

Dear David,

The area that is now Israel is the Jewish National Home because supposedly that is where the Jewish people came into being.

However, because an area is where a people originated a long time ago is no reason that their descendants should return there. Supposedly the Magyars and the Bulgars arose in what is now Ukraine. That is no reason that Hungarians and Bulgarians should settle in or claim those areas. That is what is called irredentism and has been the cause of many wars. If we believe in that highly doubtful document, the Bible, the area between the Jordan and Mediterranean was inhabited before the Jews got there. If the area is the Jewish National Home it is even more the Canaanite National Home because they were there first.

There is a primitive religious belief among some Jews that God is a real estate dealers who allotted Jews that part of the planet. Do you believe that nonsense?

In my opinion no country should discriminate among its citizens on the basis of ethnicity, race or religion. There should be no Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish or Muslim countries. Although the country may try to be fair to the part of the population that does not represent the paradigm on which the country is founded it cannot be.

Jews are not discriminated against in the United States, Australia and other democratic countries. They can marry who they like in those countries without needing the approval of any clergy. They are not isolated from other children by a segregated public school system. Why should a Jew abandon a democracy which treats him like any other citizen to go to a state dominated by a primitive ethnic nationalism? Makes no sense to me.

I have sympathy for people seeking a refuge from persecution who want to find a haven. However, for people who are not seeking a haven from persecution to go to a country because their ancestors may have lived their a long time ago makes absolutely no sense to me.

#Yuyutsu

I assume your relations are Christians. Is that correct?

Going back as far as 1600 is very impressive. Where did they originate from before making their way to the Holyland?

What should happen to the 57 Islamic States around the world?

Aren't they and their populations very diverse and completely different from each other?

#davidf

You state:
"The area that is now Israel is the Jewish National Home because supposedly that is where the Jewish people came into being.

However, because an area is where a people originated a long time ago is no reason that their descendants should return there."

The League of Nations and the United Nations do not agree with you.

The League of Nations in 1922 unanimously endorsed the right of the Jews to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Palestine.

The United Nations preserved the rights vested in the Jewish people by the Mandate in 1945 in article 80 of the UN Charter.

The failure of the Arabs and people like yourself to accept the binding legal nature of these decisions has led to untold conflict and suffering by both Arabs and Jews for almost 100 years.

Dear David,

You appeal to legal precedents. That is what a lawyer could be expected to do. I would prefer to appeal to compassion. I believe that no state should discriminate among its population on grounds of ethnicity, race or religion. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish or Muslim countries cannot do otherwise. I prefer justice to acceptance of unjust legal precedents. The establishment of a Jewish state served the interests of the British Empire at the time although the British later prevented Jewish emigration to Israel. Your devotion to legalisms prevent you from being a mensch. I assume you know what being a mensch means. Ethnic nationalism stinks whatever group it serves. No Country should discriminate among its citizens on grounds of religion, ethnicity or race.

Dear David,

One can cite past precedents, but often all it does is enshrine the injustice of the past. The United States Constitution as originally written provided for slavery. It was a move toward justice to amend the US Constitution to eliminate slavery. In order to do that it had to disregard the precedent that allowed slavery.

Ethnic nationalism developed in the nineteenth century. It maintained that countries be established on the basis of religion, ethnicity, culture or some other criterion which unified the population. Examples were the unification of Germany and the Risorgimento in Italy. Jews participated in these movements enthusiastically. However, when unification was achieved there was often no place for Jews. So Jews developed their own ethnic nationalism called Zionism. Tony Judt called Zionism the last of the nineteenth century nationalisms. In establishing the state of Israel as a Jewish state where Jews are the paradigm Jews have imitated the ethnic nationalist states which had no place for Jews.

However, there are counter examples to ethnic nationalism. Two examples are the United States and the French Republic which were established on the basis of separation of church and state. The religion of its citizens is not the business of government, and religion cannot use government to advance its agenda. Separation of religion and state are necessary for democracy.

Israel calls itself a Jewish democracy. That is nonsense. Separation of religion and state are necessary for democracy. If the United States became a Christian state, non-Christians would become second-class citizens. As long as Israel is a Jewish state non-Jews will be second-class citizens.

There should be no second-class citizens in any country.