"I don't care about Arafat. Mind you, Arafat has some terrible people around him, like [Tanzim leader Marwan] Barghouti," Hosni Mubarak told Newsweek in 2001. Israel mulls releasing Barghouti and already released scores of Tanzim fighters.
Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 in response to much lesser Arab terrorism than happens now when Israel relinquishes the territories.
Israel evicted 600,000 Arabs – 30% of Israel’s population - in 1948, but accepts 1.4 million Arabs now when they constitute 34% among the Israeli young.
Israel will continue as a political swinger unless her politicians decide on some basic questions.
Would the Jews accept an Arab majority in Israel? If not, why? Because a Jewish state must be Jewish? Then how Jewish is a state with 34% Arabs and 19% Slavs? How Jewish is the politics of Israel where Rabin and Barak came to power on Arab votes?
How can Jews deal with the Arab demographical problem in Israel? Arabs won’t leave the prosperous Israel voluntarily. They won’t accept Lieberman’s idea of attaching the Galilee Arab enclaves to the Palestinian state. Are the Jews prepared to evict Arabs from Israel to keep our state Jewish? If yes, why not do it now while the Arabs keep breeding? If no, why Israel?
Why establish the Jewish state in Palestine rather than Uganda? Because of the biblical importance? Then how can the Jews give Arabs Judea and cling instead to the beach area of no biblical importance?
If we are prepared to defend a Jewish state in our core lands against the wishes of Westerners and Muslims alike, then driving all Arabs across the Jordan River is our only choice.
This is an incredibly racist view, is it a common one in Israel?
Regrettably, about 30% of Israeli Jews disagree.
Wiat till they become a state. Once they wage war which it will be palastine with all the other arab regimes. Destroy and re-conquer
Tried that with Syria. Annexed the Golan Heights. Now giving them back.
To Keith B.
You seem to be criticizing the “extremely racist view”.
Please note that Obadiah is in no way saying, nor implying that the Arabs are “inferior” to Jews. He is simply saying that if the current situation continues Israel cannot survive as a Jewish state.
I personally see a huge value in the Jewish state. I believe that the World would be poorer without Jews and without a Jewish state. Just like the world would be poorer without India, China, Iran, or Germany.
Please note that Obadiah is not suggesting exterminating the Israeli Arabs, he is only suggesting relocating them.
My own 2 cents here is that I would like to see a test of loyalty. No Muslim can be loyal to the Jewish state as Quran and the Hadiths are extremely anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic. It teaches that Jews are descendants of monkeys and pigs. So the first thing is that any Arab that would qualify for being a good citizen should abandon Quran.
Secondly loyal Arabs should serve in the IDF, just like the loyal Americans of German and Japanese ethnicity served in the US armed forces.
Obadiah has asked some most excellent questions. These questions need to be answered.
I have one more question that need to be answered:
WHO is a Jew? WHAT is a definition of a “Jew”?
Religions are scheduled for extinction. The more intelligent a population the less religious. In the US, several studies have shown the reversely proportionally correlation between religiosity and intelligence.
When the choice is between some old religion and intelligence, intelligence should be chosen and religion and other superstitions abandoned.
Still Jews are a distinct group and distinct culture. This distinct Jewish ethnic/cultural/religious group has contribute more to humanity than any other group with the exception of the ancient Greeks. The loss of Jews will be a huge loss to humanity.
We need to understand what it is about Jewish culture/religion/nation that is essential and create new criteria for being Jewish. This criteria should allow people to become Jewish just like people can become American. Many patriotic Americans were born overseas. The old exclusive religious definition is useless. I don’t see that a Jew stops being a Jew by practicing Buddhism, or Zen, or by being atheist. It is harder to remain a Jew after converting Christianity, as this religion is anti-Semitic at it’s core.
It is an incredibly racist view and no it is not a common one in Israel.
This entire website has far as I can tell is anti Israel [MODERATED].
Does it really matters if they are jews or not? They are hard working people who want to live and work in Israel. they do a greater service to this country then the author of this article.
Tom: Try to comprehend that we want a Jewish state. If we wanted to live simply with decent and hard-working people, we'd rather move to America.
That's an ironic observation, Ray–given that the evangelic/charismatic Christians are more pro-Israel than the disparosa (at least in the US), and are probably the most philosemitic group of their size.
The problem rolls back on your question–the core of Christianity can be taken to be a number of things, including Judaism itself. If not Judaism, then the Christian bible, which is certainly not antisemitic, even if a whole bunch of evil people have used certain passages as if they were. OTOH, if we look at the period when Christianity differentiated itself from Judaism, we readily find some of the finest antisemitic writings to ever disgrace ink and paper.
Christianity probably has as more cores than Judaism has new years.
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What makes the Jew a different kind of person is that he practices Judaism. While I can understand your desire for a rationalist definition, such a definition, if accepted, would assimilate the Jewish people out of existence within a couple of generations. While you might value the corporate accomplishments of Jews, that has been completely demonstrated to be insufficient to maintain a separate identity outside of a national boundary. Look at the fate of ethnic identities generally in the US. Only the Jew has historically resisted the pull of assimilation through multiple generations, and he has done so in direct relation to his Jewish religiousity.
The assimilation problem that exists in the United States stems from two sources. 1) American exceptionalism. Americans believe that it is the US which is special, and that it is special because we love all peoples so much that we will marry them with little hesitation. 2) Loss of Jewish religiousity. Given history, the only reason for a Jew to make Jewish continuity an issue is Judaism. Hashem has commanded that the Jews form a separate people. You either accept his commands or you don't. It is no accident that the Reform movement is facing a crisis over assimilation, and the Conservative are heading the same way.
One must do what one must to survive. Morality is the luxury of the strong.
'Racism!' is that ignorant hollow cry sounded by people, who probably never had to deal with any real threat from a different group of people.
I'd rather be a live racist, than a dead humanitarian.