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An occupying power cannot be a beacon of democracy : Comments
By Alon Ben-Meir, published 10/5/2023As Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, every Israeli should remember that the occupation stains the country's independence day.
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«You say they are Jews, well that might have been so 1400 years ago but it is not so now.»
You raise a serious question here which the best scholars have not been able to answer: "What is a Jew?"!
If Judaism is measured by religious observance, then the majority of Israelis cannot be counted as Jews: Even Israel's prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was recently caught eating non-kosher sea-food in a London restaurant when he went there to visit King Charles.
If Judaism is measured by race then most Ashkenazi Jews are not of Middle-Eastern ancestry.
If Judaism is measured by Hitler's ideas then many faithful Christians who believe in Jesus but have Jewish ancestry should be sent along to the gas chambers, while Aryans who converted to Judaism should be allowed to live.
If Judaism is measured by the Rabbis' Jewish law (Halacha) then what counts is maternal lineage, and so most of those who now identify as "Palestinian" are actually proper Jews, whether or not they know it, whether or not they like it.
Secondly, it was not 1400 years ago, but a gradual process that took many centuries. Initially all conquered Israeli Jews paid the Jizya, but then one by one, all except one family, they said "what the hack" and converted to Islam. Can you say with hand on heart that finding yourself in their difficult situation you would not have done the same?
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