Posted on 10/30/2001 5:23:19 AM PST by vrwc54
You warm the cockles of my heart.
As usual, Kudzu, your question makes no sense based on my previous statement, but I will try and answer you anyway. For one thing, these Arabs didn't own the property - Most of it was purchased by the Jewish National Fund. As for your numbers of Jews, I don't know where you get your figures. However, they didn't "plop themselves down". They were refugees from the extermination camps...you know, the war to exterminate the Jews that the Arabs supported?
I guess they relocated because no one in Europe wanted them and the "land of the free" had enough. I know you are disappointed that anyone survived the death camps. Too bad for you, I guess.
What I don't understand is how she could garner the majority of Jewish votes in NY State, if this incident really represented a dangerous viewpoint to them. I mean I understand how Republicans acquired their bad reputation with many Jewish voters, but why is the same not true for Hillary or Bill; especially knowing that Israel holds no special place in their political philosophy. Any Republican who would have been purported to utter the phrase "All you jews care about is money" would have been crucified, and yet she went on to deflect the statement with some claptrap about being part Jewish, due to the fact that her grandmother had married someone who was Jewish, and all was forgotten. I just don't understand how she could have won so many Jewish votes considering her contempt for Israel, and possibly even Jews themselves.
Since we cannot tell which one of the 100 "nice" moslems coming to the West plans to become a human bomb to kill as many "infidels" as possible, we must keep them all out.
(Sorry moslems, but that's called self defense. Sort out the insane killers among yourselves, and you may someday be invited back to the table of civilization. If you can't or won't, you will have to remain outside the city gates with the bandits and brigands.)
No trade, no travel.
We will limp along for awhile without their oil, but survive.
They will fall back to their passtime of slaughtering each other with no Westerners to murder, and in ten years all their cities will resemble Kabul or Mogadishu, with warlords battling over the rubble.
Now can you give us a definition of a "Jew"? Would that be someone whose religion is Judaism? Because the information I have come across regarding whether the Jews are a race...states there is no longer a Jewish race...per se. Therefore...the conflict must not be a "race" conflict...but a religious conflict.
Mirriam Webster gives this defintion of "semite":
"a member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs b : a descendant of these peoples."
So I am wondering how the term "anti-semetic" was coined to refer to Jews....since the resources state there has been no Jewish "race" for some hundreds of years. Perhaps you or someone else can explain it to me.
The Encyclopedia Brittanica (1973) 'The Jews As A Race: The findings of physical anthropology show that, contrary to the popular view, there is no Jewish race. Anthropornetric measurements of Jewish groups in many parts of the world indicate that they differ greatly from one another with respect to all the important physical characteristics." (vol. 12, page 1054)Encyclopedia Judaica Jerusalem (1971) "It is a common assumption, and one that sometimes seems ineradicable even in the face of evidence to the contrary, that the Jews of today constitute a race, a homogeneous entity easily recognizable. From the preceding discussion of the origin and early history of the Jews, it should be clear that in the course of their formation as a people and a nation they had already assimilated a variety of racial strains from people moving into the general area they occupied. This had taken place by interbreeding and then by conversion to Judaism of a considerable number of communities. . . .
"Thus, the diversity of the racial and genetic attributes of various Jewish colonies of today renders any unified racial classification of them a contradiction in terms. Despite this, many people readily accept the notion that they are a distinct race. This is probably reinforced by the fact that some Jews are recognizably different in appearance from the surrounding population. That many cannot be easily identified is overlooked and the stereotype for some is extended to all - a not uncommon phenomenon" (Encyclopedia Judaica Jerusalem, 1971, vol. 3, p. 50).
Encyclopedia Americana (1986) "Racial and Ethnic Considerations. Some theorists have considered the Jews a distinct race, although this has no factual basis. In every country in which the Jews lived for a considerable time, their physical traits came to approximate those of the indigenous people. Hence the Jews belong to several distinct racial types, ranging, for example, from fair to dark. Among the reasons for this phenomenon are voluntary or involuntary miscegenation and the conversion of Gentiles to Judaism" (Encyclopedia Americana, 1986, vol. 16, p. 71).
Collier's Encyclopedia (1977) "A common error and persistent modern myth is the designation of the Jews as a 'race! This is scientifically fallacious, from the standpoint of both physical and historical tradition. Investigations by anthropologists have shown that Jews are by no means uniform in physical character and that they nearly always reflect the physical and mental characteristics of the people among whom they five" (Collier's Encyclopedia, 1977, vol. 13, p. 573).
Today, being a Jew simply means that one is of the Judaistic religion or a convert to it, or else in a "brotherhood" of those who are. Therefore, being a Jew has nothing to do with race. We are familiar with a number of notable figures, such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Elizabeth Taylor, and Tom Arnold, in fact, who became Jews by conversion to the religion of Judaism. In fact, one is defined a Jew by legal dispensation or coercion, with race playing no part at all:
Funk and Wagnall's New Encyclopedia (1970) "In 1970 the Israeli Knesset adopted legislation defining a Jew as one born of a Jewish mother or a convert." (vol. 14, p. 214) H.G. Wells "There can be little doubt that the scattered Phoenicians in Spain and Africa and throughout the Mediterranean, speaking as they did a language closely akin to Hebrew and being deprived of their authentic political rights, became proselytes to Judaism. For phases of vigorous proselytism alternated with phases of exclusive jealousy in Jewish history. On one occasion the Idumeans, being conquered, were all forcibly made Jews. There were Arab tribes who were Jews in the time of Muhammad, and a Thrkish people who were mainly Jews in South Russia in the ninth century. Judaism is indeed the reconstructed political ideal of many shattered peoples - mainly Semitic.... The main part of Jewry never was in Judea and had never come out of Judea" (The Outline of History, p. 505).
For starters, I refer you to his link which references (and links to other) genetic studies of Jews in various parts of the world. These studies show that Jews from the middle east and europe have nearly identical genetic make-up. The studies also show that so-called "Khazars" (a group that is believed to have converted to Judaism and that many anti-semites use as an example to show genetic incontinuity) have virtually no relationship to the Turks who also descend from the Khazars.
Certainly, there have been converts into the religion, and outbreeding with non-Jewish partners. However, the studies show that this has had neglibible impact on the overall pool of Jewish genes. An easy to explain answer is that, for example, if a black person and white person mate, is the product of such a union still racially "black"? The obvious answer is yes. The same is true for a Jew. And if such a person carries with him a black identity, and himself mates with a black person, the second generation still retains "75%" black genes (to put it in simple terms). So, while some "dilution" occurs, several generations later these "black genes" begin to reassert themselves (if successive generations mate with other blacks) or is liquidated out (if sucessive generations continues to mate with other whites). One way or the other, future generations either remain black or become white. The same is true for Jews. If a non-Jew mates with a Jew, successive generation will either mate with Jews or non-Jews. Those who mate with non-Jews will "breed themselves out" of the Jewish race. Those who mate with Jews will breed themselves back into the Jewish race with increasing consistency. Certainly there is a randomness to it, if you are familiar with the science of dominant and recessive genes, but I'm sure the idea is clear.
Likewise, a convert will marry a Jew. Their product will be "50% Jewish". That product will marry a Jew. They will be "75% Jewish". That product will marry a Jew. We're up to 87.5% now. Next, 93.7% and so on... (I realize that these percentages are not the accurate way to do it, but it is a simple explanation).
Now, I am cannot prove one way or another if the Bible is truth. But assuming it is, we know how the Jews came about. They came about from Abraham. One man. From him came others, Converts & births alike. So, to say that because some are fair and some are dark proves that there is no race is nonsense. The earliest Jews were converts themselves, some fair some dark. These "fair skinned" or "dark skinned" genes remain in the gene pool even 4000 years later. Obviously then, some 4000 years later, some Jews will be fair skinned and some dark.
Another point to make is that the Jews themselves were made of tribes. Some tribes were fair, some were dark. These tribes were scattered, but likely were scattered together. Take a look at the Ethiopian Jewish research, and also now the evidence pointing to the Pashtun - a tribe of Afghani and Pakistanis that are remarkable "Jewish". (I have links for this information but they are on a different computer, I will try to put them up here later). This is evidence that despite the differences among the tribes, they tended to remain and maintain a distinct, consistent gene pool even after the diaspora.
So the real question is "what constitutes a race", and not "are the Jews a race"?
Not all Jews agree with you. See:
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