On 12/27/2023 10:12 AM, Charles Carpenter wrote:
What makes Jews more "deserving" of a homeland than other peoples who
don't have a homeland? Kurds, Rohingya, Palestinians, Roma, Hmong,
Uyghur — all of these are major ethnic nations with no homeland.
What makes them any less deserving of a sovereign state than Jews?
Who (or what) is a Jew?
One of the first decisions that had to be made in conducting
this study and analyzing its results was to answer the
question, “Who is a Jew?” This is an ancient question with
no single, timeless answer. On the one hand, being Jewish is a
matter of religion – the traditional, matrilineal definition of
Jewish identity is founded on halakha (Jewish religious law).
On the other hand, being Jewish also may be a matter of
ancestry, ethnicity and cultural background. Jews (and
non-Jews) may disagree on where to draw the line. Is an adult
who has Jewish parents but who considers herself an atheist
nevertheless Jewish, by virtue of her lineage? What about someone
who has Jewish parents and has converted to Christianity? Or
someone who has no known Jewish ancestry but is married to a
Jew and has come to think of himself as Jewish, though he has
not formally converted to Judaism?
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2013/10/01/sidebar-who-is-a-jew/
Clearly, if Jewishness is determined by religion, then that cannot
entitle Jews to a homeland. There is no clamoring for a Presbyterian
or Methodist or Zoroastrian (or Wicca) homeland.
So, it has to be "a matter of ancestry, ethnicity and cultural
background." But *all* of those apply to all the stateless
ethnic/national groups I mentioned above, plus many others. Again,
then, why are Jews deserving of a homeland, but those groups are not?
In particular, why do Jews not see Palestinians as a distinct people
deserving of a homeland? And why is it official U.S. policy to see
Jews as deserving of a homeland, and expend American blood and
treasure in countering threats to it, but not any of those other
stateless peoples, in particular Palestinians?
And Hartung
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