Dear David,

Many Beduins and Druze soldiers have also fought and died for Israel, so being loyal to one's country, even patriotic, has nothing to do with religion or ethnic identity.

Sorry if what I wrote hurts your feeling of identity - it was meant as a compliment:
if all (or almost all) of the inhabitants of the middle-east were like you David, there would be peace there long ago, no doubt.

Judaism and Islam are violent, fanatic and dangerous movements, but there is nothing wrong if someone wants to adopt and incorporate into their life some of the better and milder elements of one (or even both) of them.

Perhaps it is only semantics, perhaps it doesn't matter what people call themselves so long as they are good and not fanatic: for example, I could enjoy calling myself a pirate and collect pirate-memorabilia (skull and crossbones flags, eye-patches...) - so long as I didn't actually hijack any ship, that's OK!

Nevertheless, I wonder what causes one to voluntarily and unnecessarily hold onto a derogatory title that doesn't even describe them - would that be nostalgia, habit, social conformity or just false ideas and idealizations? no need to change your good habits, harmless and nice elements of Yiddishkeit culture and traditions which you chose to adopt, I just find it sad if someone picks an unwholesome title unconsciously or out of ignorance.

As for "G-d", I heartily accept the Jewish notion of differentiating in writing between their idol and the real God.

Yuyutsu wrote: Judaism and Islam are violent, fanatic and dangerous movements...

Dear Yuyutsu,

I think you carry a big load of prejudice. Judaism and Islam are no more violent, fanatic and dangerous than Christianity. Being a Jew is an unwholesome title only to a bigot.

You have made a faulty assumption. What you call a real Jew and a real Muslim can also live in peace and harmony. The religious Jews in general were against the Zionist movement. Many still are and wish to have nothing to do with the state of Israel. The state of Israel to them is a creation of man rather than of God, and they wish to have nothing to do with it. There were some living in Palestine when the Zionists started to come in the nineteenth century. They were quite happy to live under Muslim rule and took no part in building up the farms and later the structure of the state. Some of them now support the state, but many of them still don't. The Satmar are an example of those who don't. A group of them even visited Adminejehad in Iran. It is the same among Muslims. The very religious may regard Jihad as a spiritual struggle and are not into terror.

Being very religious does not necessarily correlate with involvement in temporal affairs or a propensity for violence.

And now Nutsinyahoo is telling the world not to approve a free Palestinian state and is dictating to the US to veto such a proposal in the UN.

What a bunch of arrogrant nazi idiots. The US wouldn't dare be seen to allow a Jewish state but not a Palestinian state. That would totally undermine any pretext they had to wanting a just outcome for the Palestinians.

The Palestinians are definately much much cleverer than the Israelis, who cannot seem to be able to see beyond their own selfish greed. The propaganda of the Israelis is now obviously rejected throughout the west and they are looking like grubby little b.....ds.

Keith,

I haven't seen such naivety in ages: taking Netaniahu at face value? if this was an Israeli forum, everyone there would offer to sell you a camel that lays golden eggs. Put yourself in Netaniahu's shoes: of course he HAD to pay this lip-service, he's got a coalition to uphold and support his precious Chair. Do you believe that what this shrewd 2nd-hand car dealer tells the media is the same as what he tells Obama in private? do you think he cares about these matters in the first place? his strategy is to allow peace to happen, taking the credit if possible, without being perceived as responsible for the sacrifices, to be able to say "Poor me, Obama forced it on us and I couldn't help it". One Israeli prime-minister was already murdered on the grounds of being willing for sacrifices, can you blame him for not wanting to be the second?

I didn't like your insult on Israelis: they are such a divided people, with such varied and conflicting ideas and objectives. Smearing them all as if they are one uniform blob can only hurt innocent people and does not serve any positive purpose. You probably didn't even consider for example that some of those "Israelis" are Arab-Israeli citizens!

David,

I think a dividing-line between a real Jew and a Jew-lite is the expectation for the Messiah. Jews may differ about the strategy how to go about bringing him, whether to be patient or active, but all agree that once he arrives he will violently conquer all nations by the sword as well as torture and kill those Jews who fail to follow the commandments.

Perhaps there are a few outstanding individuals who regard Jihad as a spiritual struggle, but they are not commonly tolerated, nor in Judaism, when this Jesus guy suggested something similar about the Messiah's spiritual instead of temporal role, conquering the inner daemons instead of outer enemy-nations, look what they did to him...

Dear Yuyutsu,

Jew-lite is your designation. I had a Jewish mother and father, a Jewish education, belong to a synagogue, identify with the Jewish people and much of my reading is concerned with Jewish history and culture. I am a real Jew. We come in many different shapes, colours and opinions. I am blond and blue-eyed. My cousin married a nice black Jewish girl.

I don't know where you get your ideas about the messiah. Your statement "all agree that once he arrives he will violently conquer all nations by the sword as well as torture and kill those Jews who fail to follow the commandments." is simply nonsense. In my Jewish education I never encountered such ideas. Please tell me your source.

Some branches of Judaism now reject the concept of a personal messiah and have an optimistic faith in the advent of a messianic era with “the unity of all men as the children of God in the confession of the One and Sole God” (Philadelphia program, 1869) or “the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice and peace” (Pittsburgh program, 1885). We certainly don't all agree.

This Jesus guy was a Jew and much of what he spoke about came from his Jewish heritage. "Love thy neighbour as thyself" comes from the Jewish Bible. Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. A little later our Bible makes it clear that it applies to all - not just Jews. Leviticus 19:33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him.

You wrote: "Sorry if what I wrote hurts your feeling of identity - it was meant as a compliment: if all (or almost all) of the inhabitants of the middle-east were like you David, there would be peace there long ago, no doubt."

It was not a compliment. It translates to: "You're ok, but the others are dirty dogs." There are many like me. You insulted them.

Yutusu ha

'Smearing them all as if they are one uniform blob can only hurt innocent people and does not serve any positive purpose.'

Isn't this what the Israelis have been doing to Palenistians for oh about the past 60 years ... and the gentiles for thousands of years?

Those Arabs Israeli's you opportunistically cite are discriminated against in the downright disgraceful fascist Israeli aparthate system.

Don't you dare lecture me! With your bloody nazi-like Gobbels acolyte propagandising you are only digging Israel's hole deeper..