It is never explained why Judaism should have rights which are accorded no other religion. Surely if principles matter they should be applied equally?

If followers of Judaism have a right to colonise Palestine because some members of the religion wandered in thousands of years ago and set up camp, then surely all religions should have the same right. If not, why not?

If followers of Judaism can claim homelands and land rights then followers of all religions must be able to do the same.

Why would, could or should Jews be singled out in this way?

So, if Israel happily accepted Jewish Palestinians as citizens, what is the issue in a modern democracy with Palestinians in general being Muslim or Christian? Or indeed Atheist.

What other modern democracy discriminates on the basis of religion? I can’t think of one.

Surely the only reason Zionist Israel denies nearly six million Palestinians their rights is because they are not Jewish. Until that fact is addressed nothing will change.

It is ridiculous. Christians founded Istanbul, does that mean they have rights to it? Christians founded Bombay and Madras. Do they have rights to those cities? Of course not.

If followers of Minerva came back and said, we founded London so it is ours, the world would laugh. And yet some followers of Judaism got away with just that ridiculous concept in Palestine.

Nathan,

Judaism is not a religion? That is news I suspect for most people. Of course Judaism is a religion.

Jews are human beings you say? Sure, and so is everyone else. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, all human beings.

Or do you refer to the primitive Judaic teaching that somehow, miraculously, only Jews have souls and only Jews are real human beings – none-Jews being subhuman?

I said Judaism was invented in Iraq and if religions had homelands or rights to land, which they do not, then Jews would have rights to a bit of Iraq and Christians would be the ones with rights to a bit of Palestine where their religion was invented.

What I was trying to say, and clearly failed, is that religions do not create a genetic history. The claims of Jews being a ‘people’ founder because despite some areas of intermarriage, there are no conclusively shared genes present in every Jew on the planet. How could there be?

Which makes Jewish claims of ‘links’ to Palestine even more ridiculous since many have no Middle Eastern genetic ancestry but are Europeans through and through.

Yes, Israelis are citizens of Israel although non-Jewish Israelis are second-class citizens. And does not Israel define nationality as Jewish? This of course means that non-Jews who have Israeli citizenship are without a nationality.

My point regarding orthodox Jews rejecting the proposal to create a literal State of Israel was merely to say that Judaism had no requirement or expectation of a material State of Israel because it was only ever metaphor. It is largely irrelevant who did and who did not support the imposition of a State called Israel on Palestine since the act was certainly immoral and while not yet tested in a court of law, no doubt also illegal.

So, why then did orthodox Jews oppose the creation of a State of Israel saying it was only ever meant as metaphor?

More to the point, the first Jews invented their religion in what is modern-day Iraq and were colonists in Palestine having set up camp there a few thousand years ago, along with many other tribes. It was not their country then and it is not now.

If indeed religions have homelands which they do not. If they did Jews would have rights to a bit of Iraq and the Christians would have first call on Palestine.

A religion is not indigenous. And Jews today, like all religions, comprise all races and hundreds of nationalities. Many Jews, perhaps most, have no Semitic ancestry either so their links even to Iraq genetically, let alone Palestine, are flimsy. Although quite how a religion becomes genetic is the real question. It sounds very unscientific and racist.

The problem with calling it the West Bank is that it plays the Israel propaganda card. The correct term is Occupied Palestine.

The West Bank sounds like a suburb of Israel which is what the Israeli Government wants.

Everything beyond the UN Mandate is Occupied Palestine.

The irony of course is that the Jewish/Zionist ‘belief’ that followers of Judaism are magically superior as human beings, is the worst kind of racism. and not to be tolerated in a civilized world.

The other irony is that if Nobel Prizewinners are studied by religion, Jews do not stand out. If we also remove those who do not practice Judaism, and that would include Einstein whose parents were atheists and who was educated by the Catholics, the number drops dramatically.

If we remove those who had one Jewish parent and one Christian/Muslim or Atheist, or one grandparent who was Jewish, then down the number comes again.

However, the mere fact that some feel it is necessary to quote this mythical cleverness in regard to Jews in general and the Nobel Prize in particular, makes one question the intelligence of Jews who do it because it is such a divisive and racist approach.

Indeed, if Judaism did magically confer greater intelligence then Israel would not be the horror it is today. Israel should be, if the claims had any substance, exceptional in intelligence not stupidity.

The two-state solution was never alive.

There is much progress being made on the BDS front, regardless what American presidential candidates might say or do and in fact regardless of what American Presidents say and do.