judge

All these points while mentioned are ultimately justified in the closing as helping the biblical dream of the redemption of Israel.

We appeal to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz-Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.

Mind you as it is a political document they might just be pulling out all stops. I mean why not enlist fundamentalist jews and christians to help them by insinuating they will be doing the work of the almighty by establishing an Israeli/jewish state.

Chili

Is-ra-el is a state of mind when the two rivers of life merge into one and become the Eu-phrates (bright-mind). This is about the time that all claims to the world are abandonned and so the worst thing that can happen is to have a physical peace of desert replace this lofty ideal.

ernestombayo

Someone who converts to Judaism is not automatically an Israeli national.

jules?

I have come across a number of European studies of genetics and related sciences that reveal many modern inhabitants are direct descendants of ancient Europeans. Following the destruction of Judea in 135 c.e. the Jewish nation came to an end but people continued to live there. There are folk movements everywhere but in essence the Palestinians are the descendants of the Jewish nation it just so happens they speak the language and practise the religion of invaders.

Unfortunately most of the Middle-East was carved up by the politics of France and Britain after the destruction of the Ottoman empire. what happened can not be reversed, people need a home but hearing a fundy literally scream that god promised the land to them 5,000 years ago and having seen policeing that looks like occupation I wish things would just move on for the betterment of all.

gstafleu

Given that this is a historical forum, here is a question that a historian may be able to answer. Once the diaspora after the second Jewish war had more or less completed, what percentage of the original population had left? Compare this with the estimate that during the Babylonian exile, the amount of people exiled is estimated (I think) at something like 10-15%. If the amount of people who left Palestine after the two Jewish wars is comparable to that, any historical "we are the legitimate descendants" claim is very weak. A priori I would think that only the most religious types would have left, and that that was a relatively small fraction. But I could easily be wrong, of course.

Gerard Stafleu

premjan

Eventually Israel is going to become de-racinated/ethnicized and will no longer be significantly Jewish in my opinion. But a similar fate will befall the Palestinians as well. The religions and cultural boundaries which are fuelling this war will cease to be important. Transnational forces will start to be more important than these troublesome notions of nation-statehood.

Casper

Wouldn't the biblical "land grant" also have to acknowledge the later dispersion in the first century as a divine mandate to be followed?

Seems to me that the political justifications are far more compelling and workable.

But then again, when you can twist around a text or a tradition to imply almost anything you wish it to, well, I guess that has always been an issue with civilization.

Newfie

As there does not seem to be an ethnic group claiming to be the Canaanites filing a counter claim, then the Israelis win by default, I guess?

Now, if this were merely a religious contention wouldn’t Native Americans of the Mormon faith also be able to claim the right to return to Israel? Mormon faith believes they are a lost tribe of Israel after all.

Anat

The way an adopted child has a share in the inheritance of their adoptive parents. Halakhically all male converts are sons of Abraham, can't remember the formal Halakhic parentage of female converts.

Since the late 1st century CE the mainstream Jewish position is that God no longer reveals his mandates. The only acceptable way to discern what he commands Jews to do is via interpretation of Torah by the majority of the sages of each generation. (Conservative Jews differ with Orthodox on whom they recognise as sages and how literally to read the text, Reform Judaism lets anyone interpret the text for themselves.)

To all: BTW the reference to The Almighty isn't the most accurate translation of the Hebrew. Ben-Gurion tried to compromise between the religious Zionists who wanted a very explicit religious reference and the socialist Zionists who didn't want any and used the term 'Tsur Yissrael' ie 'the rock of Israel', letting anyone interpret it hir favorite way.

Casper

Thanks for the reply. In keeping within the forum scope though, is there anything specifically biblical, especially from a Christian standpoint, that supports this view?

I know, there is the apocolyptic approach, but that is fairly laden with semantics. Maybe that is about all there is?