In a message dated 4/1/2002 3:41:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> But your assertion that there "is no religious character to the Israeli
> state" seems flawed.  My understanding is that the Israeli state regards
> itself as a Jewish state. Exactly what that means is not entirely clear,
> there seems to be disagreement about even what being "Jewish" means.
> However the very basis of the state of Israel appears to be founded on the
> dogmatic premise that it is the will of God that Jews are entitled to that
> particular territory. As I say, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about
> this issue, but that seems to be a religious basis.


Yes-- and the United States was also founded-- and expanded via Manifest
Destiny-- based on the will of God that Europeans were entitled to the
Americas. That is the "extent" of the "religious" Jewish state. If you
concede that my initial questions were rhetorical, then it appears that you
understand that there is no religious character at all to any state program
or mechanism of Israel-- unlike that of Iran, Saudi Arabia or the Taliban's
Afghanistan. Now it is up to you to look at the history of Zionism-- which
was not religious in character at all, but always nationalist and sometimes
even socialist.

The only basis anyone has for Americans and Europeans classifying Israel as
"Jewish" is the same basis that some people in predominantly Muslim countries
classify the United States as "Christian": its Other-ness. But the Zionists
wish to capitalize on this brand of anti-semitism, because the idea of Israel
being specifically "Jewish" is one that serves to justify statehood in the
context of American imperialist designs.

But if indeed you admit to not knowing much about the issue, please do not
spout off with any kind of authority about Israel being "Jewish." At a time
of heightened violence in the occupied territories, the last thing we need is
ideological collusion with Israel-U.S. rhetoric on the nature of Israel as a
state.

ISRAEL IS A BOURGEOIS CAPITALIST STATE-- THE SAME AS EUROPE AND THE UNITED
STATES. PERIOD.

-- David