"After all, Zionism did not start until the middle of the 19th century, whereas Jews have existed for thousands of years." False. Political Zionism began in the late 19th century, but Zionism as the idea that Jews should live in the Land of Israel goes back, well, to the beginnings of Judaism itself.
Except that MODERN Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. Theodor Herzl was an atheist, as was David Ben-Gurion, Golda Mair and many others who wanted to establish a SECULAR JEWISH STATE.
They had NOTHING to do with Judaism. That is why the Haredi oppose the state of Israel.
Yes, religious Judaism foretells the arrival of the Messiah, sent by God, who will lead the Jews back to their ancient homeland. But for a group of atheistic Europeans to arrogate that right to themselves is BLASPHEMY. Pure and simple.
First of all, not all Haredim oppose the state of Israel. Second, you don't look like an orthodox Jew yourself so it's odd that you're accusing other Jews of blasphemy. Thirdly, while there are some Jews who see Israel as blasphemy, far more religious authorities totally reject that notion. Perhaps you should just say this in the future: "My position is that any authorities who agree with me are correct and any authorities who don't are wrong," just so your readers understand that you have a tenuous relationship with the truth.
Nice try. I will tell my readers that the main objectives of Israeli "hasbara" - such as you are practising - are to (1) befuddle and overwhelm would-be critics with a tsunami of "Gish Gallop" direct arguments and (2) create or conflate sources and opinions in order to "muddy the waters" so that the real facts and truths are obscured, and so no anti-Zionist conclusions can be drawn. It is precisely in this maelstrom of mis- and disinformation that the Zionist project exists and is able to flourish.
But that whirlwind of hasbara is dissipating. The Truth will out, and people are becoming aware.
You claim that Jewish peoplehood is the invention, and Judaism is a religion, but you have this the wrong way round: The notion that the Jews constitute a religious group can be traced to the French Revolution; there was no word in ancient Hebrew for 'religion' in the sense that you use it. In the Bible the Jews are an עם - a people. So it is you who are living a lie, and not us.
I would posit that for the ancient Hebrews, the Jews are not "a" people, but rather "THE" people. The only people. God's Chosen. And the rest of us are - as Yoav Gallant so eloquently put it - "human beasts".
Which to me is just another way of saying "Untermenschen".
Wrong again. In the Bible there are many nations; it's true that the Jews have a special role, but so do other nations. That's why Judaism - unlike Islam and Christianity - has generally not sought converts. I'm really sorry that you hate Jews so much and misunderstand us so much. I'm sorry that you expend so much energy in writing about us - to absolutely no effect. It must be deeply frustrating and I hope you find a way of overcoming your anger and living with the fact that your racist writings will change nothing and we will continue to thrive.
Actually there is a school of thought that says that Judaism - like its Abrahamic cousins, Christianity and Islam - was indeed a proselytising religion, which is how the Ashkenazi came into existence. They were (are) descended from Caucasian Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 6th-9th centuries.
I will repeat: there is no actual firsthand evidence for a mass conversion. I have written about this above. It is a completely false and discredited claim.
Hmmm. This opens up an entirely new and interesting field of thought, Obviously you do not dispute the fact that Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all Abrahamic sects, that they all worship the same God. Why, then would two of those sects try to convert "heathens" and polytheistic pagans to their own "true" religion, but the Jews would not? Why is it that, according to the Jews, only Jews are "chosen" by God and all the rest are inhuman beasts, with no hope of salvation, with no possibility of becoming a righteous human, simply because their mother was not Jewish?
Tell me, Alex: Why is the Jewish religion NOT proselytising? Why does the Jewish religion NOT want to convert people to Judaism?
I wish to address your base accusations of anti-Semitism and refute them ENTIRELY. I have nothing against Jewish people. I am however a RABID anti-Zionist.
The Jews that I have as friends and even close family members do not believe that they are inherently superior to other people simply because they were born Jewish. Zionists, however, DO believe that.
Now, you can say that Zionism is not based on Jewish Supremacy, but there is a mountain of evidence to prove you wrong, and that mountain grows bigger and taller every time Ben Gvir, Smotrich or Netanyahu open their mouths. Israel is now firmly in the hands of Likud, which Albtert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other prominent Jews described as "Nazi" and "Fascistic" - and they were RIGHT.
Zionism started out as a secular, socialist project with peaceniks tilling the land in communal Kibbutzim. Those days are gone. Today Israel has donned the mantle of Begin, Shamir and the other extremists who literally believed in genocide and preached it from the beginning. In short, it is no longer Bernie Sanders's Israel, and I would argue that it never was. Einstein was right to be an anti-Zionist, because he knew that any etho-nationalist state would devolve into fascism and genocidal conquest. Such is the case with Israel. It is a made-up state based on made-up premises and it only exists through violence, destruction, ethnic cleansing and constant war. And people are waking up to that fact.
BTW: this dependence on war and racism is the only real "shared value" that Israel has with the United States, and I wrote about this as well:
As for your endorsement of Sand, I suggest you read 'The Origins of the Jews' by Steven Weitzman:
"In my own view, this part of Sand's argument is misconceived. If what counts for a sense of ethnicity, peoplehood, or nationhood is not actual descent but a group's subjective belief in a common origin, I cannot see why it is germane to Sand's argument whether or not Jews actually descend from common ancestors in a genetic sense. What does seem relevant is the history of the idea of Jewish peoplehood – where does this idea come from, and does it predate the rise of nationalism or not? It seems to me that Sand should have been thinking about these questions more carefully, and that what he does instead – marshaling evidence to show that the majority of Jews descend from various non-Jewish populations in North Africa, Arabia, and the Russian steppe – is at the very best beside the point. Indeed, worse than that, it can be read as an endorsement of a racialist conception of Jewishness, in the sense that it implies that a Jewish population that does not all descend from ancestors who were Jews does not thereby qualify as a genuine people or nation."
Your comment that the Jews had to invent a word for orange is funny, given that the Arabic word for orange is 'burtugal,' from the word Portugal. Guess what: every language invents words! That's what language is about!
Except spoken Arabic was not declared extinct in 200 AD.
Except that the invention of words is a normal part of the evolution of a language among the people who speak it - not some single person - in this case a Lithuanian Zionist atheist academic.
You are only telling half the story, Yes, the Arabs adopted the Portuguese word for orange, but the Portuguese adopted the Arabic word for orange ("Laranja").
In both cases, these were living, spoken, modern languages who have adopted external words through common use. Not from some Baltic Zionist nerd fanatic who simply decreed it so.
First of all, I have never argued that "DNA tests are banned in Israel". That is just another straw man argument from a hack hasbarist.
The post you reference says that "Commercial ancestry tests can be purchased from abroad."
But not in Israel.
DTC (Direct to Consumer) DNA tests are banned in Israel. The company "MyHeritage" is an ISRAELI COMPANY that provides home DNA testing solutions but IS BANNED IN ISRAEL.
But thank you for giving me the excuse to posting this link:
"Several genetic studies demonstrated that approximately half of the genetic lineage of Ashkenazi Jews may be traced to the ancient Middle East and the other half to Europe, proving proximity to both ancient and present Middle Eastern and European groups. The majority of the European half comes mainly from southern European populations. Several studies estimate that between 50% and 80% of Ashkenazic Y-chromosomal (paternal) lineages originate in the Near East, with some estimating that at least 80% of their maternal lineages originated in Europe.[21][22] Most researchers now believe that the early Jewish communities of southern Europe, which are the forebears of Ashkenazi Jews, are descended from both the ancient Israelites and from European converts to Judaism.[23]"
Wow you're quoting the one study that supports your position while ignoring the ones that don't. Given the integrity you've shown, this is really surprising! In any case, though, my main argument isn't about genetics.
Alex, you cannot seriously argue that the Ashkenazi Jews like yourself are descended from the Semitic people of the Levant. Such an assertion is ridiculous on its face.
Look, if you want to say that the Jewish people deserve an ethno-state "just for Jews", then make that argument. Just don't insult our intelligence by asserting that your ancestors came from Palestine, and your being from Manchester is just a cruel historical accident. I have seen your profile photo on LinkedIn. You are a European.
My argument on this issue, which you have ignored, was summarized by Weitzman. I'll repeat it here: "In my own view, this part of Sand's argument is misconceived. If what counts for a sense of ethnicity, peoplehood, or nationhood is not actual descent but a group's subjective belief in a common origin, I cannot see why it is germane to Sand's argument whether or not Jews actually descend from common ancestors in a genetic sense. What does seem relevant is the history of the idea of Jewish peoplehood – where does this idea come from, and does it predate the rise of nationalism or not? It seems to me that Sand should have been thinking about these questions more carefully, and that what he does instead – marshaling evidence to show that the majority of Jews descend from various non-Jewish populations in North Africa, Arabia, and the Russian steppe – is at the very best beside the point. Indeed, worse than that, it can be read as an endorsement of a racialist conception of Jewishness, in the sense that it implies that a Jewish population that does not all descend from ancestors who were Jews does not thereby qualify as a genuine people or nation."
As you state, Weizman says that Sand's thesis "implies that a Jewish population that does not all descend from ancestors who were Jews does not thereby qualify as a genuine people or nation."
OK, so let us for the sake of argument allow Weizman's argument that the "common descent" theory of Zionism is false. That there is a "Jewish people" that are not defined by a common ancestry but rather by a common culture and religion. OK. Let's say that "the Jewish people" can come from all sorts of places.
But then you seem to be missing the point. We can all agree that there is such a thing as "the Jewish people". What we cannot agree on is that these "Jewish people" from Eastern and Central Europe and Russia are entitled to steal land from other people in the Middle East by claiming that "God promised it to us".
In short, dear Alex, if you do not insist that ALL Jewish people are descended from Abraham, to whom God promised the Land of Eretz Israel, then the entire Zionist project falls apart.
I repeat: more than half of Israeli-Jews came from the Middle East. Second, I'm not going to relitigate the circumstances of Israel's creation (needless to say, I don't agree with your characterization of this history). And obviously I couldn't care less whether or not you agree with Israel's existence; it exists and there's nothing you can do about it.
In summary, in two articles that supposedly reveal the big lies of Zionism, you propagate numerous lies yourself. I hope you will have the integrity to acknowledge your errors.
Nice try, you miserable hasbarist hack. I acknowledge NO ERRORS, and all of my assertions, conclusions, critiques and conclusions are supported by Jewish, Israeli and/or Zionist publications.
I know you have done "Alliyah" and are living in Jerusalem, probably high on your Zionist fanatical fever dream, but perhaps you should go back to your TRUE homeland, the United Kingdom?
You are a Mancunian Jew, Alex. Not a so-called "Israeli".
P.S.: Remember to put on SPF 50 - your skin can't take that Palestinian sun.
I am sorry that you are so angry about the fact that I live a pleasant life in the ancestral land of the Jewish people, but I must take issue with you calling me a Mancunian. I was born in London.
Sorry, my mistake. Still, London is a long way from Tel Aviv. But then, that is where the Balfour Declaration came from, right? Tell me, Alex: do you like the British people? Would you have been willing to kill them in cold blood in order to form the Jewish State? That is what Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and many others of the "founding fathers" of Israel did. They slaughtered the British by the dozens. Not just in Palestine: they blew up the British Embassy in Rome, and boimbed the British Army HQ in Vienna, and bombed British troop trains across the Levant and even in the Alps!
How does that make you, a "born Londoner" feel. Did you ever encounter any animosity among your fellow Brits once they knew you were Jewish, and going to join the State whose founders had slaughtered so many Brits?
I wrote about this, BTW in my article::
"“Rewarding Terrorism” in 1948 — How Zionists Used Terror to Get a State"
You do know the Khazars theory has been throughly debunked. Not only that there are numerous studies showing the genetic links between all Jewish populations and the Middle East. I mean seriously dude 5 minutes on google scholar is all it would have taken to keep you from embarrassing yourself.
You are simply a hasbarist spreading false information, begging us to deny the evidence of our own eyes. The Ashkenazi are blond-haired, blue-eyed people who consider themselves to be superior not just to the dark skinned indigenous Arabs, but also the semitic - but dark-skinned - Mizrahi Jews. The fact that you just trot on in here and lay down your hasbarist narrative with no links and no proof only goes to show how bankrupt the Zionist narrative has become.
I am sorry, Kate, but Israel is a fake, a made-up country living on a false ideal that was concocted by a bunch of atheistic Jewish zealots who were determined to make the Jews "like everyone else" - except BETTER.
Their argument was: "if the Germans can have a state, if the French can have a state, if the Italians can have a state, then why not the Jews?"
It is a bullshit argument.
Judaism is a religion, Kate. Nothing more. And it was also a proselytising religion, like its Abrahamic cousins, Islam and Christianity.
These three branches of the Abrahamic tree lived together in peace for hundreds of years.
Have you never wondered why the weekly holy days of celebration for those three religions are as they are? That Friday is for the Muslims, that Saturday is for the Jews, and that Sunday is for the Christians???
It's because we all got along - it was a practical arrangement that accommodated mixed communities where there might have been only one chapel, and it had to be shared between the three congregations.
Yes, we all got along - until one of those three faiths decided that they were more than just a religion. more than just people like everyone else. They were "God's Chosen" and so they had the right to rule over us all.
REMEMBER: Muslims, Christians and Jews ALL PRAY TO THE SAME GOD.
All that said, I would remind you that - despite its claim to divine providence - Zionism has NOTHING TO DO WITH GOD. The people who formed the Zionist movement, the people who founded the State of Israel, WERE ATHEISTS. It was nothing more than a settler colonial enterprise that was rooted in European racism.
First, thanks for reading. Second, I am going to go out on a limb and say that you must be a Zionist. Because only Zionists and Nazis like to refer to other people as "cockroaches". This dehumanisation is part of the Nazistic/Zionistic ethos, because once you start thinking of people in terms of them being vermin, it makes it much easier to slaughter them.
We see this in Zionist media all the time, where Palestinians are referred to as "cockroaches", "snakes", and "human animals". This is all so that the kids in the diaper army can find it easier to pull the trigger.
In this you have something in common with the Ukrainian Nazis who also refer to the ethnic Russians in the East of their country as "cockroaches". That made it OK to bomb, shell and snipe thousands of innocent civilians.
I wrote about this similarity in my article: "Can the US Please Stop Supporting Genocidal Nazis?"
Lol you just keep getting more and more delusional don't you. Well I hate to tell you this but the genetic studies have been done and the AJs have significant semitic genetic markers, particularly in the Y chromosome. They share very little genetic admixture with the people of the Caucuses such as the Khazars. They are genetically most closely related to ... wait for it... other populations of Jews.
As for Israel being a "fake country" Again the archeological evidence is overwhelming for the existence of Israel. The historical evidence of Jews existing in the levant and being exiled repeatedly is dense.
Lastly as a matter of fact Jews are forbidden to proselytize, unlike Christians and Muslims. Conversion to Judaism, though possible, is rather difficult comparatively. It's one of the reasons their population is as small as it is.
Of course the fact that the majority of Israel now a-days is Mizrahi doesn't help you much either. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have lived together for in various regions throughout history. Sometime relations have been good, sometimes they haven't that is the nature of history. The idea that everyone was living together singing Kumbayah until Hertzel is just laughable.
Of course we both know you will continue to believe your lies but that is the nature of anti-semites, isn't it?
You can call me a hasbarist if you like. the reality is I am educated. I have been a lay student of history and religion, particularly of Mesopotamia for much or my adult life. It seems you, on the other hand, have been a student of propagandists and anti-semitic hacks.
Kate, I reject entirely the notion that I am an anti-Semite. I am an anti-Zionist, and no amount of Gish Gallop or hasbara will change that.
I have many, many close friends and family who are Jewish. None of them wake up in the morning convinced that they are better than other people just because they were born Jewish. Zionists, however, DO believe that, and that is the difference.
And that difference is why I am an anti-Zionist and NOT an anti-Semite.
By conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism you are actually hurting the Jews, Kate, because by association you are asserting that all Jews support genocide. And they most assuredly DO NOT.
I do not hate Jews. I hate Zionists. As I have explained elsewhere, I have many fiends and family members who are Jewish. NONE of them wake up every morning thinking they are better than other people just because they were born Jewish.
Zionists, however, DO believe that, and THAT is the difference between a Jew and a Zionist.
And it is that difference that makes me an anti-Zionist and NOT an anti-Semite.
You should be more careful, Nancy, in how you throw around accusations of anti-Semitism. By conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism you are actually hurting the Jews, because you make it seem that all Jewish people everywhere are guilty of racism, genocide and war crimes, or at least you make it seem that all Jews everywhere support such atrocities, and we both know this is not the case.
I am sure that you, for example, may be Jewish, but I would also hope that you do not support genocide. Am I right, Nancy?
Why? Jews have to live somewhere. Every year on Passover it’s said “next year we will celebrate the Jerusalem “. Israel is their home. When they pray they face Jerusalem just like moslems face Mecca. Do you prefer Jews to wander around as deracinated victims? Zionism is a survival ideology for the Jews. Let them live.
Deracinated victims??? Please. My goodness, Nancy, I am an American. I see what power, prestige, wealth, fame and influence the Jewish 2% of the US population wield, and so I can only laugh when you refer to the Lord Rothschilds, the Larry Finks, the Larry Ellisons, the Jamie Dimons, the Louis B. Meyers, Samuel Goldwyns, the Antony Blinkens, the Janet Yellens, etc. etc. as "victims."
But then, that is the Israeli/Zionist way: always play the victim, no matter how powerful you are; no matter how much you yourself may be the victimizer.
The fact is that Jews survive and thrive everywhere. Jews lived in peace among the Iranians, Iraqis, Jordanians, and other cultures across te ME for hundreds of years, until the Zionists arrived in the neighbourhood and started breaking things and killing people.
Zionism is a violent ideology that says the Jews can only live if everyone else dies. There are many references to "the sword" in Jewish scripture. Certainly Avraham Stern, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir and a host of other Zionist leaders all made many statements to the effect that the Israelis must never stop fighting, that the land must be taken by the sword, that they must "kill, and kill, and kill and so on.
One example from the famous Moshe Dyan:
"Before (the Palestinians) very eyes we are possessing the land and the villages where they and their ancestors have lived We are the generation of colonizers and without the steel helmet and the gun barrel we cannot plant a tree and build a house."
Zionism is disgusting in that it relies on anti-Semitism to justify its existence. But then Israel becomes the ultimate self-licking ice cream cone because even before its existence, the Zionists were killing people, stealing land, burning babies and doing everything possible to stoke anti-Semitism.
By making the Jews less safe, Israel justifies its own existence. Hamas's charter states that their struggle is not against the Jews, but with the "Zionist Project". But then hasbarists work overtime to make it seem that Hamas are nothing more than terrorists who just like to kill Jews.
In reality, Hamas is a Resistance Movement struggling against an illegal occupation. But Israel cannot allow that portrayal to gain traction, because if everyone knew that the word "Hamas" is just an acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement" it begs the question: "what are they resisting"?
You’re blaming them for doing well? After all those peaceful Arabic moslem countries threw them out they had Israel to go to. Arabic moslem countries are massive swaths of land. Let the Jews have their own. I think that you really don’t like the Jews. Deep down.
First, I had to actually laugh when you accused me of "blaming" Jewish billionaire moguls for being successful. My God, Nancy, do you not remember what you said? You asserted that, without Israel, the world's Jews would be "deracinated victims".
I countered that Jews around the world were living quite well, and in fact had prominent positions of power in all sectors of society.
And then YOU - in a classic Zionist move - turn that around to try and make these billionaire scions of international industry "victims" once again, accusing me of "blaming" them for being successful.
Nancy, that dog won't hunt. No one is buying your bullshit anymore.
And then you use a made up word: "moslem"??? Your ignorance is manifest. The truth is that the migration from Muslim counties to Israel was prompted by Mossad operations in which Zionist operatives bombed synagogues and other Jewish institutions to force Jews to leave.
The Zionists knew that in order to make their new "Jewish State" viable, they needed to have Jews. And the Zionists executed a massive campaign in the surrounding countries to force Jews there to "flee persecution" and go to Israel.
The problem is that these "anti-Jewish" acts were false flag operations perpetrated by the Mossad in order to convince Jews in places like Iraq and Egypt and Yemen to leave their comfortable lives in those countries and move to the new Jewish state. This is well documented - hell, even in Wikipedia:
This should not be a surprise to anyone. Zionists have always been willing to "sacrifice" their fellow Jews in order to achieve a political objective. They did the same thing on 10/7.
I wrote about this in my article: "Israel Has a Nasty Habit of Killing Its Own"
Hey. Great article, but I have a bit of a quibble for you. God did not promise the Holy Land to "the Jews", but to the descendants of Abraham, which would include Arabs (descendants of Ishmael) as well as the twelve tribes of Israel (descendants of Jacob/Israel).
The Tribe of Judah, from which Jews get their name, were only one of 12 tribes of Israel.
"After all, Zionism did not start until the middle of the 19th century, whereas Jews have existed for thousands of years." False. Political Zionism began in the late 19th century, but Zionism as the idea that Jews should live in the Land of Israel goes back, well, to the beginnings of Judaism itself.
Except that MODERN Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. Theodor Herzl was an atheist, as was David Ben-Gurion, Golda Mair and many others who wanted to establish a SECULAR JEWISH STATE.
They had NOTHING to do with Judaism. That is why the Haredi oppose the state of Israel.
Yes, religious Judaism foretells the arrival of the Messiah, sent by God, who will lead the Jews back to their ancient homeland. But for a group of atheistic Europeans to arrogate that right to themselves is BLASPHEMY. Pure and simple.
First of all, not all Haredim oppose the state of Israel. Second, you don't look like an orthodox Jew yourself so it's odd that you're accusing other Jews of blasphemy. Thirdly, while there are some Jews who see Israel as blasphemy, far more religious authorities totally reject that notion. Perhaps you should just say this in the future: "My position is that any authorities who agree with me are correct and any authorities who don't are wrong," just so your readers understand that you have a tenuous relationship with the truth.
Nice try. I will tell my readers that the main objectives of Israeli "hasbara" - such as you are practising - are to (1) befuddle and overwhelm would-be critics with a tsunami of "Gish Gallop" direct arguments and (2) create or conflate sources and opinions in order to "muddy the waters" so that the real facts and truths are obscured, and so no anti-Zionist conclusions can be drawn. It is precisely in this maelstrom of mis- and disinformation that the Zionist project exists and is able to flourish.
But that whirlwind of hasbara is dissipating. The Truth will out, and people are becoming aware.
You claim that Jewish peoplehood is the invention, and Judaism is a religion, but you have this the wrong way round: The notion that the Jews constitute a religious group can be traced to the French Revolution; there was no word in ancient Hebrew for 'religion' in the sense that you use it. In the Bible the Jews are an עם - a people. So it is you who are living a lie, and not us.
I would posit that for the ancient Hebrews, the Jews are not "a" people, but rather "THE" people. The only people. God's Chosen. And the rest of us are - as Yoav Gallant so eloquently put it - "human beasts".
Which to me is just another way of saying "Untermenschen".
Wrong again. In the Bible there are many nations; it's true that the Jews have a special role, but so do other nations. That's why Judaism - unlike Islam and Christianity - has generally not sought converts. I'm really sorry that you hate Jews so much and misunderstand us so much. I'm sorry that you expend so much energy in writing about us - to absolutely no effect. It must be deeply frustrating and I hope you find a way of overcoming your anger and living with the fact that your racist writings will change nothing and we will continue to thrive.
Actually there is a school of thought that says that Judaism - like its Abrahamic cousins, Christianity and Islam - was indeed a proselytising religion, which is how the Ashkenazi came into existence. They were (are) descended from Caucasian Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 6th-9th centuries.
I will repeat: there is no actual firsthand evidence for a mass conversion. I have written about this above. It is a completely false and discredited claim.
Hmmm. This opens up an entirely new and interesting field of thought, Obviously you do not dispute the fact that Christianity, Islam and Judaism are all Abrahamic sects, that they all worship the same God. Why, then would two of those sects try to convert "heathens" and polytheistic pagans to their own "true" religion, but the Jews would not? Why is it that, according to the Jews, only Jews are "chosen" by God and all the rest are inhuman beasts, with no hope of salvation, with no possibility of becoming a righteous human, simply because their mother was not Jewish?
Tell me, Alex: Why is the Jewish religion NOT proselytising? Why does the Jewish religion NOT want to convert people to Judaism?
I look forward to your answer.
I wish to address your base accusations of anti-Semitism and refute them ENTIRELY. I have nothing against Jewish people. I am however a RABID anti-Zionist.
The Jews that I have as friends and even close family members do not believe that they are inherently superior to other people simply because they were born Jewish. Zionists, however, DO believe that.
Now, you can say that Zionism is not based on Jewish Supremacy, but there is a mountain of evidence to prove you wrong, and that mountain grows bigger and taller every time Ben Gvir, Smotrich or Netanyahu open their mouths. Israel is now firmly in the hands of Likud, which Albtert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other prominent Jews described as "Nazi" and "Fascistic" - and they were RIGHT.
Zionism started out as a secular, socialist project with peaceniks tilling the land in communal Kibbutzim. Those days are gone. Today Israel has donned the mantle of Begin, Shamir and the other extremists who literally believed in genocide and preached it from the beginning. In short, it is no longer Bernie Sanders's Israel, and I would argue that it never was. Einstein was right to be an anti-Zionist, because he knew that any etho-nationalist state would devolve into fascism and genocidal conquest. Such is the case with Israel. It is a made-up state based on made-up premises and it only exists through violence, destruction, ethnic cleansing and constant war. And people are waking up to that fact.
BTW: this dependence on war and racism is the only real "shared value" that Israel has with the United States, and I wrote about this as well:
https://euroyankee.substack.com/p/israel-america-and-the-unbreakable?r=17gos
As for your endorsement of Sand, I suggest you read 'The Origins of the Jews' by Steven Weitzman:
"In my own view, this part of Sand's argument is misconceived. If what counts for a sense of ethnicity, peoplehood, or nationhood is not actual descent but a group's subjective belief in a common origin, I cannot see why it is germane to Sand's argument whether or not Jews actually descend from common ancestors in a genetic sense. What does seem relevant is the history of the idea of Jewish peoplehood – where does this idea come from, and does it predate the rise of nationalism or not? It seems to me that Sand should have been thinking about these questions more carefully, and that what he does instead – marshaling evidence to show that the majority of Jews descend from various non-Jewish populations in North Africa, Arabia, and the Russian steppe – is at the very best beside the point. Indeed, worse than that, it can be read as an endorsement of a racialist conception of Jewishness, in the sense that it implies that a Jewish population that does not all descend from ancestors who were Jews does not thereby qualify as a genuine people or nation."
Is a person whose father is Jewish and whose mother is non-Jewish a Jew, in your opinion?
Yes. Not according to Orthodox Jews, though.
Not according to the Israeli government either:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return#:~:text=The%20law%20since%201970%20applies,a%20Jewish%20father%20or%20grandfather.
The Law of Return applies to people with at least one Jewish grandmother.
Your comment that the Jews had to invent a word for orange is funny, given that the Arabic word for orange is 'burtugal,' from the word Portugal. Guess what: every language invents words! That's what language is about!
Except spoken Arabic was not declared extinct in 200 AD.
Except that the invention of words is a normal part of the evolution of a language among the people who speak it - not some single person - in this case a Lithuanian Zionist atheist academic.
You are only telling half the story, Yes, the Arabs adopted the Portuguese word for orange, but the Portuguese adopted the Arabic word for orange ("Laranja").
https://www.tiktok.com/@sophiasmithgaler/video/7164067173575429381
In both cases, these were living, spoken, modern languages who have adopted external words through common use. Not from some Baltic Zionist nerd fanatic who simply decreed it so.
Ancient Hebrew wasn’t “declared extinct in 200 either.” Either produce evidence for this claim or withdraw it.
I have links in my article. It's in Wikipedia.
But here is a National Geographic article if you prefer:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/hebrew-wasnt-spoken-for-2000-years-heres-how-it-was-revived
And this source actually says it was earlier - 100 AD.
https://www.bible.ca/manuscripts/Septuagint-LXX-Extinction-Hebrew-first-century-mass-rapid-language-conversions-failed-restoration-attempts-Yiddish.htm
"DNA tests are banned in Israel" - another falsehood. See here: https://x.com/AlexMLeo/status/1742016086009094486?lang=en
First of all, I have never argued that "DNA tests are banned in Israel". That is just another straw man argument from a hack hasbarist.
The post you reference says that "Commercial ancestry tests can be purchased from abroad."
But not in Israel.
DTC (Direct to Consumer) DNA tests are banned in Israel. The company "MyHeritage" is an ISRAELI COMPANY that provides home DNA testing solutions but IS BANNED IN ISRAEL.
But thank you for giving me the excuse to posting this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJypUyVP8nI
I apologize for understanding from your comment "DNA tests are banned in Israel" that you have argued "DNA tests are banned in Israel."
As for the genetics, wrong again!
"Several genetic studies demonstrated that approximately half of the genetic lineage of Ashkenazi Jews may be traced to the ancient Middle East and the other half to Europe, proving proximity to both ancient and present Middle Eastern and European groups. The majority of the European half comes mainly from southern European populations. Several studies estimate that between 50% and 80% of Ashkenazic Y-chromosomal (paternal) lineages originate in the Near East, with some estimating that at least 80% of their maternal lineages originated in Europe.[21][22] Most researchers now believe that the early Jewish communities of southern Europe, which are the forebears of Ashkenazi Jews, are descended from both the ancient Israelites and from European converts to Judaism.[23]"
Nope. Argue with NBC News if you will:
https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/most-ashkenazi-jews-are-genetically-europeans-surprising-study-finds-8c11358210
Wow you're quoting the one study that supports your position while ignoring the ones that don't. Given the integrity you've shown, this is really surprising! In any case, though, my main argument isn't about genetics.
Alex, you cannot seriously argue that the Ashkenazi Jews like yourself are descended from the Semitic people of the Levant. Such an assertion is ridiculous on its face.
Look, if you want to say that the Jewish people deserve an ethno-state "just for Jews", then make that argument. Just don't insult our intelligence by asserting that your ancestors came from Palestine, and your being from Manchester is just a cruel historical accident. I have seen your profile photo on LinkedIn. You are a European.
My argument on this issue, which you have ignored, was summarized by Weitzman. I'll repeat it here: "In my own view, this part of Sand's argument is misconceived. If what counts for a sense of ethnicity, peoplehood, or nationhood is not actual descent but a group's subjective belief in a common origin, I cannot see why it is germane to Sand's argument whether or not Jews actually descend from common ancestors in a genetic sense. What does seem relevant is the history of the idea of Jewish peoplehood – where does this idea come from, and does it predate the rise of nationalism or not? It seems to me that Sand should have been thinking about these questions more carefully, and that what he does instead – marshaling evidence to show that the majority of Jews descend from various non-Jewish populations in North Africa, Arabia, and the Russian steppe – is at the very best beside the point. Indeed, worse than that, it can be read as an endorsement of a racialist conception of Jewishness, in the sense that it implies that a Jewish population that does not all descend from ancestors who were Jews does not thereby qualify as a genuine people or nation."
As you state, Weizman says that Sand's thesis "implies that a Jewish population that does not all descend from ancestors who were Jews does not thereby qualify as a genuine people or nation."
OK, so let us for the sake of argument allow Weizman's argument that the "common descent" theory of Zionism is false. That there is a "Jewish people" that are not defined by a common ancestry but rather by a common culture and religion. OK. Let's say that "the Jewish people" can come from all sorts of places.
But then you seem to be missing the point. We can all agree that there is such a thing as "the Jewish people". What we cannot agree on is that these "Jewish people" from Eastern and Central Europe and Russia are entitled to steal land from other people in the Middle East by claiming that "God promised it to us".
In short, dear Alex, if you do not insist that ALL Jewish people are descended from Abraham, to whom God promised the Land of Eretz Israel, then the entire Zionist project falls apart.
I repeat: more than half of Israeli-Jews came from the Middle East. Second, I'm not going to relitigate the circumstances of Israel's creation (needless to say, I don't agree with your characterization of this history). And obviously I couldn't care less whether or not you agree with Israel's existence; it exists and there's nothing you can do about it.
BTW - the only country that has HIGHER skin cancer rates than Israel is Australia. But no one argues that the Aussies are "indigenous" to that land.
Sheesh.,Give it up, will you Alex. The myth is busted. We see the Zionists for what they are - European settler colonialists.
That should not surprise anyone. Theodor Herzl himself described the Zionist project as "something colonial".
More than half of Israel’s Jewish population originate from other Middle Eastern countries.
Yes, I wrote about the "rise of the Mizrahim" in this post - perhaps you might care to comment?
"How Israel’s Mizrahi Jews are “Making Israel Great Again”"
https://euroyankee.substack.com/p/how-israels-mizrahi-jews-are-making
Dare I hope - we might even find some common ground ...
Shockingly, given your incredible integrity, your claim about Israel's skin cancer rates is false: https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/israel-does-not-have-worlds-second-highest-skin-cancer-rate-2024-04-26/
I would say I was looking forward to you acknowledging your mistake, but you've already said you don't do that.
Sorry, I was basing my assertion on outdated date from a 2001 Ha'aretz article, which was in turn based on ICA data at the time.
Here';s something more recent:
https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/b1zed0ev3
In summary, in two articles that supposedly reveal the big lies of Zionism, you propagate numerous lies yourself. I hope you will have the integrity to acknowledge your errors.
Nice try, you miserable hasbarist hack. I acknowledge NO ERRORS, and all of my assertions, conclusions, critiques and conclusions are supported by Jewish, Israeli and/or Zionist publications.
I know you have done "Alliyah" and are living in Jerusalem, probably high on your Zionist fanatical fever dream, but perhaps you should go back to your TRUE homeland, the United Kingdom?
You are a Mancunian Jew, Alex. Not a so-called "Israeli".
P.S.: Remember to put on SPF 50 - your skin can't take that Palestinian sun.
I am sorry that you are so angry about the fact that I live a pleasant life in the ancestral land of the Jewish people, but I must take issue with you calling me a Mancunian. I was born in London.
Sorry, my mistake. Still, London is a long way from Tel Aviv. But then, that is where the Balfour Declaration came from, right? Tell me, Alex: do you like the British people? Would you have been willing to kill them in cold blood in order to form the Jewish State? That is what Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir and many others of the "founding fathers" of Israel did. They slaughtered the British by the dozens. Not just in Palestine: they blew up the British Embassy in Rome, and boimbed the British Army HQ in Vienna, and bombed British troop trains across the Levant and even in the Alps!
How does that make you, a "born Londoner" feel. Did you ever encounter any animosity among your fellow Brits once they knew you were Jewish, and going to join the State whose founders had slaughtered so many Brits?
I wrote about this, BTW in my article::
"“Rewarding Terrorism” in 1948 — How Zionists Used Terror to Get a State"
https://euroyankee.substack.com/p/rewarding-terrorism-in-1948-how-zionists
Discussing the opponent's personality is a very interesting method of proving your case.
There is no point in talking about manipulation, which you spent a lot of time on and which you called research.
Excellent research. This should be shared widely.
Is there a shit-filling station for your lot, like there are gas stations for cars?
Because this poast was topped up to the brim!!
Thank you for reading, Diana. I hope you will read more of my work and continue to give me your valuable feedback.
Also, I am glad to know that your disagreement with my theses puts me into the category of "everybody"!
BTW - do you really write books? Or do you only "poast"?
You do know the Khazars theory has been throughly debunked. Not only that there are numerous studies showing the genetic links between all Jewish populations and the Middle East. I mean seriously dude 5 minutes on google scholar is all it would have taken to keep you from embarrassing yourself.
No, it has not been thoroughly debunked.
You are simply a hasbarist spreading false information, begging us to deny the evidence of our own eyes. The Ashkenazi are blond-haired, blue-eyed people who consider themselves to be superior not just to the dark skinned indigenous Arabs, but also the semitic - but dark-skinned - Mizrahi Jews. The fact that you just trot on in here and lay down your hasbarist narrative with no links and no proof only goes to show how bankrupt the Zionist narrative has become.
I am sorry, Kate, but Israel is a fake, a made-up country living on a false ideal that was concocted by a bunch of atheistic Jewish zealots who were determined to make the Jews "like everyone else" - except BETTER.
Their argument was: "if the Germans can have a state, if the French can have a state, if the Italians can have a state, then why not the Jews?"
It is a bullshit argument.
Judaism is a religion, Kate. Nothing more. And it was also a proselytising religion, like its Abrahamic cousins, Islam and Christianity.
These three branches of the Abrahamic tree lived together in peace for hundreds of years.
Have you never wondered why the weekly holy days of celebration for those three religions are as they are? That Friday is for the Muslims, that Saturday is for the Jews, and that Sunday is for the Christians???
It's because we all got along - it was a practical arrangement that accommodated mixed communities where there might have been only one chapel, and it had to be shared between the three congregations.
Yes, we all got along - until one of those three faiths decided that they were more than just a religion. more than just people like everyone else. They were "God's Chosen" and so they had the right to rule over us all.
REMEMBER: Muslims, Christians and Jews ALL PRAY TO THE SAME GOD.
All that said, I would remind you that - despite its claim to divine providence - Zionism has NOTHING TO DO WITH GOD. The people who formed the Zionist movement, the people who founded the State of Israel, WERE ATHEISTS. It was nothing more than a settler colonial enterprise that was rooted in European racism.
Happy to explain further if you have any queries.
lol
Back to your hole cockroach
First, thanks for reading. Second, I am going to go out on a limb and say that you must be a Zionist. Because only Zionists and Nazis like to refer to other people as "cockroaches". This dehumanisation is part of the Nazistic/Zionistic ethos, because once you start thinking of people in terms of them being vermin, it makes it much easier to slaughter them.
We see this in Zionist media all the time, where Palestinians are referred to as "cockroaches", "snakes", and "human animals". This is all so that the kids in the diaper army can find it easier to pull the trigger.
In this you have something in common with the Ukrainian Nazis who also refer to the ethnic Russians in the East of their country as "cockroaches". That made it OK to bomb, shell and snipe thousands of innocent civilians.
I wrote about this similarity in my article: "Can the US Please Stop Supporting Genocidal Nazis?"
https://euroyankee.substack.com/p/can-the-us-please-stop-supporting
Lol you just keep getting more and more delusional don't you. Well I hate to tell you this but the genetic studies have been done and the AJs have significant semitic genetic markers, particularly in the Y chromosome. They share very little genetic admixture with the people of the Caucuses such as the Khazars. They are genetically most closely related to ... wait for it... other populations of Jews.
As for Israel being a "fake country" Again the archeological evidence is overwhelming for the existence of Israel. The historical evidence of Jews existing in the levant and being exiled repeatedly is dense.
Lastly as a matter of fact Jews are forbidden to proselytize, unlike Christians and Muslims. Conversion to Judaism, though possible, is rather difficult comparatively. It's one of the reasons their population is as small as it is.
Of course the fact that the majority of Israel now a-days is Mizrahi doesn't help you much either. Jews, Christians, and Muslims have lived together for in various regions throughout history. Sometime relations have been good, sometimes they haven't that is the nature of history. The idea that everyone was living together singing Kumbayah until Hertzel is just laughable.
Of course we both know you will continue to believe your lies but that is the nature of anti-semites, isn't it?
You can call me a hasbarist if you like. the reality is I am educated. I have been a lay student of history and religion, particularly of Mesopotamia for much or my adult life. It seems you, on the other hand, have been a student of propagandists and anti-semitic hacks.
Kate, I reject entirely the notion that I am an anti-Semite. I am an anti-Zionist, and no amount of Gish Gallop or hasbara will change that.
I have many, many close friends and family who are Jewish. None of them wake up in the morning convinced that they are better than other people just because they were born Jewish. Zionists, however, DO believe that, and that is the difference.
And that difference is why I am an anti-Zionist and NOT an anti-Semite.
By conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism you are actually hurting the Jews, Kate, because by association you are asserting that all Jews support genocide. And they most assuredly DO NOT.
A rose by any other name and all that, and bullshit doesn’t become any less bullshit cause you say on the internet you X sort of friends.
Once again: than you for reading. I hope you get the help you need.
What a load of nonsense. Insulting too. You don’t have to justify hating jews. Give it all you got
I do not hate Jews. I hate Zionists. As I have explained elsewhere, I have many fiends and family members who are Jewish. NONE of them wake up every morning thinking they are better than other people just because they were born Jewish.
Zionists, however, DO believe that, and THAT is the difference between a Jew and a Zionist.
And it is that difference that makes me an anti-Zionist and NOT an anti-Semite.
You should be more careful, Nancy, in how you throw around accusations of anti-Semitism. By conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism you are actually hurting the Jews, because you make it seem that all Jewish people everywhere are guilty of racism, genocide and war crimes, or at least you make it seem that all Jews everywhere support such atrocities, and we both know this is not the case.
I am sure that you, for example, may be Jewish, but I would also hope that you do not support genocide. Am I right, Nancy?
Why? Jews have to live somewhere. Every year on Passover it’s said “next year we will celebrate the Jerusalem “. Israel is their home. When they pray they face Jerusalem just like moslems face Mecca. Do you prefer Jews to wander around as deracinated victims? Zionism is a survival ideology for the Jews. Let them live.
Deracinated victims??? Please. My goodness, Nancy, I am an American. I see what power, prestige, wealth, fame and influence the Jewish 2% of the US population wield, and so I can only laugh when you refer to the Lord Rothschilds, the Larry Finks, the Larry Ellisons, the Jamie Dimons, the Louis B. Meyers, Samuel Goldwyns, the Antony Blinkens, the Janet Yellens, etc. etc. as "victims."
But then, that is the Israeli/Zionist way: always play the victim, no matter how powerful you are; no matter how much you yourself may be the victimizer.
The fact is that Jews survive and thrive everywhere. Jews lived in peace among the Iranians, Iraqis, Jordanians, and other cultures across te ME for hundreds of years, until the Zionists arrived in the neighbourhood and started breaking things and killing people.
Zionism is a violent ideology that says the Jews can only live if everyone else dies. There are many references to "the sword" in Jewish scripture. Certainly Avraham Stern, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir and a host of other Zionist leaders all made many statements to the effect that the Israelis must never stop fighting, that the land must be taken by the sword, that they must "kill, and kill, and kill and so on.
One example from the famous Moshe Dyan:
"Before (the Palestinians) very eyes we are possessing the land and the villages where they and their ancestors have lived We are the generation of colonizers and without the steel helmet and the gun barrel we cannot plant a tree and build a house."
CONTINUED...
Zionism is disgusting in that it relies on anti-Semitism to justify its existence. But then Israel becomes the ultimate self-licking ice cream cone because even before its existence, the Zionists were killing people, stealing land, burning babies and doing everything possible to stoke anti-Semitism.
By making the Jews less safe, Israel justifies its own existence. Hamas's charter states that their struggle is not against the Jews, but with the "Zionist Project". But then hasbarists work overtime to make it seem that Hamas are nothing more than terrorists who just like to kill Jews.
In reality, Hamas is a Resistance Movement struggling against an illegal occupation. But Israel cannot allow that portrayal to gain traction, because if everyone knew that the word "Hamas" is just an acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement" it begs the question: "what are they resisting"?
You’re blaming them for doing well? After all those peaceful Arabic moslem countries threw them out they had Israel to go to. Arabic moslem countries are massive swaths of land. Let the Jews have their own. I think that you really don’t like the Jews. Deep down.
First, I had to actually laugh when you accused me of "blaming" Jewish billionaire moguls for being successful. My God, Nancy, do you not remember what you said? You asserted that, without Israel, the world's Jews would be "deracinated victims".
I countered that Jews around the world were living quite well, and in fact had prominent positions of power in all sectors of society.
And then YOU - in a classic Zionist move - turn that around to try and make these billionaire scions of international industry "victims" once again, accusing me of "blaming" them for being successful.
Nancy, that dog won't hunt. No one is buying your bullshit anymore.
And then you use a made up word: "moslem"??? Your ignorance is manifest. The truth is that the migration from Muslim counties to Israel was prompted by Mossad operations in which Zionist operatives bombed synagogues and other Jewish institutions to force Jews to leave.
The Zionists knew that in order to make their new "Jewish State" viable, they needed to have Jews. And the Zionists executed a massive campaign in the surrounding countries to force Jews there to "flee persecution" and go to Israel.
The problem is that these "anti-Jewish" acts were false flag operations perpetrated by the Mossad in order to convince Jews in places like Iraq and Egypt and Yemen to leave their comfortable lives in those countries and move to the new Jewish state. This is well documented - hell, even in Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950%E2%80%931951_Baghdad_bombings
This should not be a surprise to anyone. Zionists have always been willing to "sacrifice" their fellow Jews in order to achieve a political objective. They did the same thing on 10/7.
I wrote about this in my article: "Israel Has a Nasty Habit of Killing Its Own"
https://euroyankee.substack.com/p/israel-has-a-nasty-habit-of-killing
They are incredible and notorious cannibals :
Yes.
THAT is WELL known.
By that logic, do the Lakota get to eject all Euro-Americans from the Black Hills?
Because I might be down for that, actually.
As would I NEVERMORE;
As would I….
They have a “right” to live / exist ; but not at the cost of innocent lives. THEY may want or wish to live by Old Testament/tribal law;
However, they’ve no right to force others to do so.
None at ALL.
Israel is now about to live with realization :
whether they wish to (?);…
Or not.
Hey. Great article, but I have a bit of a quibble for you. God did not promise the Holy Land to "the Jews", but to the descendants of Abraham, which would include Arabs (descendants of Ishmael) as well as the twelve tribes of Israel (descendants of Jacob/Israel).
The Tribe of Judah, from which Jews get their name, were only one of 12 tribes of Israel.
https://nevermoremedia.substack.com/p/did-god-really-promise-the-holy-land
When a tumour becomes cancerous, its demise is only a matter of time!
WELL spoken
and POINT ON