Antiseptic

You really do abuse the truth and your dislike of Israel shows through.
First of all you confuse the establishment of the state with the existence of Jewish people in that part of the world. If Israel did not exist until 1948 then the Islamic Palestinian nation did not exist until after the 6 day war. Before the UN vote it was part of the British mandate, before then part of the Ottoman Empire, after then the West Bank was part of Jordan and Gaza part of Egypt.

There were Jews living in Israel continuously throughout recorded history. More Jews arrived about 200 years ago mainly from elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire, that was a result of discrimination against non Muslims. If you regard that as vilification, so be it, sometimes the truth hurts. Apparently in your book it is OK to vilify Israel but not Muslim countries. Later Jews arrived from Russia, there you do have the first examples of European Jew arriving from a different culture, and could argue that they shouldn't have gone there. If you feel that way you should book yourself a one way ticket out of Australia and leave this land to the aborigines. European Jews arrived in the ME about the same time as the British arrived in Australia.

The Jews who arrived in the area now known as Israel, from the ancient term, Kingdom of Israel arrived to a semi desert and managed to establish farms though they only land they could buy was the least productive. Arab communities according to both Turkish and British figures were quite small. Many Arabs arrived as the lands improved, their descendents now claim to be original inhabitants though in many cases this is just not true, Arafat for example came from Egypt.

Jerusalem had a majority Jewish population through most of the 19th century.

A large number of Jews arrived from Europe after the war, and after partition, and this is the sad part, Arabs left the area now known as Israel and equal or greater numbers of Jews left Arab lands. This was an India/Pakistan like situation except the Jews were rehoused in Israel while the Arabs were given no help other than UN aid. The Islamists have been able to exploit this situation. Israel also played host to other persecuted minorities such as the Baha'i, the Druze, the Samaritans. They also gave the Arabs equal rights with the Jews, something never given to Jews under Muslim rule.

A lot of Australians regard themselves as Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims, Aboriginal,the list goes on, that is modern multicultural Australia. A lot of the groups have an affection for other lands, and this we have accepted from the beginnings of modern Australia.

Your assertion that Australia was not willing to accept Jewish immigration was about as accurate as the rest of your distorted arguments. There was never discrimination against Jewish immigrants fron the white commonwealth and limitations against displaced Jews did not last for long.

You make the statement "the likes of you", that is a clear sign of bigotry. You claim that Israel behaves appallingly - it gives equal rights to minorities, there are Muslim Arabs in the Knesset, including a cabinet minister is that an example of appalling behaviour? When it tries to defend itself against neighbours who swear to destroy it and shower it with thousands of missiles it is accused of bad behaviour, it is doing no more than Britain did to defend itself during the war.

If your heart bleeds so much for the Muslims, and I assure you that mine and that of my Jewish friends does just that, try raising the roof over the treatment of women, gays and others by the awful fanatics who are taking over the ME and have their eyes on everyone else. That would show me that you are in fact reasonable and unbiased.

I am an agnostic.

logic:"First of all you confuse the establishment of the state with the existence of Jewish people in that part of the world"

Actually, you're the one that claimed to consider Israel as "the mother country" despite the fact it didn't exist as a country when your ancestors migrated. Confused much?

I would also remind you that the discussion is about Israel, not about British Jewry or the Ottoman empire or even Palestine. Next you'll be trying to talk about the Jewish people of Alpha-Centauri or something equally irrelevant. The propaganda machine needs a tune-up.

I asked you what that State has to do with you and me as Australians, not what it has to do with Jewish people or other religious groups that may have lived there over time. Any chance of an answer?

logic:"Your assertion that Australia was not willing to accept Jewish immigration was about as accurate as the rest of your distorted arguments. There was never discrimination against Jewish immigrants from the white commonwealth and limitations against displaced Jews did not last for long."

I didn't claim there was discrimination against the migration of Commonwealth subjects on the basis of religion. I claimed that Australia refused entry to Jewish refugees. I was right. The propaganda machine could do with a major overhaul.
http://www.holocaust.com.au/mm/i_australia.htm.

The more I read your regurgitated rubbish, the more convinced I am that Zionism is a nasty stain and its practitioners dishonest to the core if you are a representative sample. So far, I've been accused of "hating Israel", generalised "hatred", being a "Muslim lover", telling lies (by a seemingly habitual and very confused liar) and still you've not answered a very simple question. No doubt you think that makes you a good little Zionist. I think it makes you a dishonest fool

Scientific evidence has proven that Jews as a people come from a specific area in the Middle East; and are distinct from other semitic groups.

Let's forget that even non-religious Jews generally have some knowledge of Hebrew, or at least can identify it, know Jewish writings, Jewish children's stories, and Jewish philosophy of the past, share certain elements of a common heritage, and celebrate Jewish festivals. Just as other non-religious groups celebrate Christmas and Easter. Not to be forgotten is a comment made by an Aussie young woman complaining of why bring religion into the Christmas holidays.

A number of diseases, such as ”Tay-Sachs Disease, are exclusively Jewish disorders; as is the genetic form of breast cancer known as BRCA2, one of three breast or ovarian cancer mutations found only in Jews or descendants of Jews.

Based on the anthropological and the genetic record, genetistis and other scientists have established that the core Israelite population was not a single homogenous population but originally a combination of local populations—Canaanites, Semites, and others—who merged into a unity by about 1000 B.C.

cont ...

In the late 1990s, expert geneticists from the U.S., Europe, South Africa, and Israel sampled the DNA of nearly 1,400 males, Jews and non-Jews, from around the world in search of common date markers. They found that the overwhelming majority of Jewish populations worldwide—whether Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Indian, Oriental, or Black African (except of Ethiopia, “Falashas”)—shared a common Middle Eastern ancestry on the male line that not only extended back to ancient Israel 4,000 years ago, but also supported Biblical history, of Abraham founding the Israelite line.

In 1995 Karl Skorecki and geneticists designed a test, based on genetics, to determine whether Jewish males who claimed to be kohanim (descendants of the ancient Jewish priestly class) in fact were. Testing 200 Jewish males, Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Oriental, they found 98.5% of those who said they were kohanim shared a genetic marker for a common ancestor, a signature mutation pattern found in only 3% of the general Jewish population.

These geneticists calling this the Cohan Modal Haplotype (CMH), a series of six genetic markers common to the kohanim, found it originated more than 3,000 years ago—approximately the time of the biblical Aaron, the first kohan.

Lead researcher Michael Hammer stated: ... (Jews) are a single ethnic group coming from the Middle East. Even when looking European, with blue eyes and light skin, the [male] genes determine that they are from Middle East.”

It would be well to remember that Australia only became a "country" - the Federated Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 - only 47 years before the establishment of modern Israel.

Danielle, given the matrilineal nature of the Jewish faith, together with the obsession with ancestry and the absence of a tradition of proselytising it is hardly surprising that a genetic heritage should have been preserved. Nonetheless, a couple of your observations are clearly misleading. For example, among Jews Tay-Sachs is a common condition only within the Ashkenazim and occurs equally frequently within other non-Jewish populations. Do you think that the Cajuns of Louisiana are a long-lost tribe of Israel too?

No one has suggested that the Jews as a group are not from the Middle East, so I can't see what your point is supposed to be there. I have Danish ancestry, only 2 generations ago, should I as a result be given an automatic right to "return to Denmark" and displace the local population? What if I made a point of observing Viking traditions? What if I could show that my ancestors all the way back to Erik the Red had done so, albeit in a different country?

Frankly, I'm not sure if you have any idea what it is you're trying to say and I'm very confused by your reference to Australia's age. Please enlighten us.