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After Lebanon: a personal reflection on Israel and Palestine : Comments
By Philip Mendes, published 13/11/2006There is a huge cultural gulf between Israeli and Palestinian concepts of peace.
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I disagree with your dismissal of Palestinian Arab identity. More importantly, the people about whom you write disagree. Cultural/ethnic/national identity isn’t a science, and there is no “right answer” somehow objectively determined by history or other factors.
I realize that “American paratroopers” was an attempt to translate the caption, but it was a mistranslation.
As far as I know, the president of Israel was not involved in any decision to permit, encourage, or assist the immigration of Bnei Menashe. Also, I am Orthodox and haven’t heard of any “controversy among orthodoxy” about the community or its immigration to Israel.
Of course every government decision and public policy generates some opposition, but there seems little reason why Orthodox Judaism would not embrace the Bnei Menashe: Orthodox rabbis and organizations were instrumental in encouraging ties between the Bnei Menashe community and Israel; one of the Orthodox Chief Rabbis of Israel recognized the community’s claim of historic ties to Judaism; most members of Bnei Menashe are undergoing formal Orthodox conversion to Judaism, either in India or Israel; and most Bnei Menashe who have immigrated to Israel have settled in Orthodox communities.