"If the Grand Rabbi took haplotypes seriously, most Ashkenazi Jews would have to be declared “not Jewish” by the Talmudic criterion, since their mothers do not have the distinctive patterns in their mitochondrial DNA showing descent from the inhabitants of the ancient Levant."
This is 100% false, professor. The women only needed to be converted by a local rabbi and they would be considered Jews. Not sure how you could make such an obvious mistake. The Jews are a people, not a race, although most of us do have genetic ties to the Levant. Anyway, moving on...
My Jewish family is from Iraq and Syria, now most live in Israel because they were chased out. You do not seem to understand the perceptions of Middle Eastern minorities very well. The history of the Middle East is one of local and foreign conquest. In terms of local conquest, 3 majority ethnic groups of ruled the MENA region for over a thousand years: Arabs, Turks, and Persians. They have traded sovereignty between them while disenfranchising the millions of indigenous minorities throughout. Jews, Kabylians, Kurds, and many others reject the concept of "Arab land," -- a term which you have never seemed to decry as racist (gee, why is that?).
Israel is no different than a Native American reservation or historic black college in the USA. They are all places where minorities-under-threat have carved out a space for themselves to be allowed to thrive under their own terms, and their own culture, without worry from the imperialist machinations of dominant, majority, regional ethnic groups. Israel wants to be referred to as a Jewish state as a safety and respect issue. It is the Jews' way of getting representatives of a majority ethnic group that has historically denied self-determination to all regional minorities, to acknowledge that Jews DO have land rights, DO have the right to self-determination, DO belong on their ancestral lands, and ARE recognized as sovereign over the lands they control. This is the same desire Native Americans ask for as sovereign nations that allow only tribal members to live upon while surrounded by white communities. It is the same desire born out of the name, Kurdistan. It is the same desire found among Amazighen advocating for Kabilie. It is the same desire found among peoples throughout the world who are denied the right to practice their culture by repressive majorities. There is nothing racist about that.
Declaring Israel as a Jewish state denies nobody rights anymore than living in Denmark, Norway, or Sweden, all of which are named for ethnic groups and have a cross on their flags, even thought other ethnic groups have lived among them for centuries.
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"If the Grand Rabbi took haplotypes seriously, most Ashkenazi Jews would have to be declared “not Jewish” by the Talmudic criterion, since their mothers do not have the distinctive patterns in their mitochondrial DNA showing descent from the inhabitants of the ancient Levant."
This is 100% false, professor. The women only needed to be converted by a local rabbi and they would be considered Jews. Not sure how you could make such an obvious mistake. The Jews are a people, not a race, although most of us do have genetic ties to the Levant. Anyway, moving on...
My Jewish family is from Iraq and Syria, now most live in Israel because they were chased out. You do not seem to understand the perceptions of Middle Eastern minorities very well. The history of the Middle East is one of local and foreign conquest. In terms of local conquest, 3 majority ethnic groups of ruled the MENA region for over a thousand years: Arabs, Turks, and Persians. They have traded sovereignty between them while disenfranchising the millions of indigenous minorities throughout. Jews, Kabylians, Kurds, and many others reject the concept of "Arab land," -- a term which you have never seemed to decry as racist (gee, why is that?).
Israel is no different than a Native American reservation or historic black college in the USA. They are all places where minorities-under-threat have carved out a space for themselves to be allowed to thrive under their own terms, and their own culture, without worry from the imperialist machinations of dominant, majority, regional ethnic groups. Israel wants to be referred to as a Jewish state as a safety and respect issue. It is the Jews' way of getting representatives of a majority ethnic group that has historically denied self-determination to all regional minorities, to acknowledge that Jews DO have land rights, DO have the right to self-determination, DO belong on their ancestral lands, and ARE recognized as sovereign over the lands they control. This is the same desire Native Americans ask for as sovereign nations that allow only tribal members to live upon while surrounded by white communities. It is the same desire born out of the name, Kurdistan. It is the same desire found among Amazighen advocating for Kabilie. It is the same desire found among peoples throughout the world who are denied the right to practice their culture by repressive majorities. There is nothing racist about that.
Declaring Israel as a Jewish state denies nobody rights anymore than living in Denmark, Norway, or Sweden, all of which are named for ethnic groups and have a cross on their flags, even thought other ethnic groups have lived among them for centuries.