At 4:39 PM -0500 31/3/02, David Griffin wrote:

>Notice that the questions I asked a week ago, with regards to the supposed
>religious nature of that national entity of zionism, remain unanswered. That
>is because there is no religious character to the Israeli state. Its
>repression nature comes from the fact that it is a secular
>bourgeois-democratic (read: imperialist) state, like the United States.

I apologise for not answering, I assumed it was a rhetorical question. In any case, I made it clear that I have more questions than answers on that issue.

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?

>In fact, if there was ANY religious character to Israel, I would have to say
>that it was PROTESTANT more than anything else, considering its complete
>accordance and collusion with U.S. foreign policy interests.

The logic of this is poorly thought out. By the same logic the US is a Jewish state because it colludes with the interests of Israel. But both cannot be true, would so the logic must be faulty.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell Tas