Rebuttal of your comment points

Submitted by Singer (United States), Jan 13, 2010 at 01:54

>>The world has been held hostage by the uncompromising Arabs strategy to eliminate Israel rather than accepting the two state solution. >>

This has not been the only Arab sentiment. Many Palestinians were hoping that Israel would create a true secular democracy in the Occupied Territory after 67. This is a case were Israel missed a great opportunity to annex the occupied territory with the blessings of the occupied. Instead, it pursued a strong settlement policy and put harsh limits on the occupied. I still speak to many older Palestinians who mention how initially optimism started to grow and was followed quickly by disappointment. <

> But, according to our scriptural writings, it was G-d who delivered us up to first Assyria and second to Babylon. According to Jewish scripture, the land inheritance was contingent on obedience to the covenant. The hebrew scripture says we lost that right nd thus G-d used Assyria against the 10 tribes and then babylon against Judea. Assyria and Babylon were G-d's agents of execution. Why is this never mentioned by commentators even though it is plainly written in our own scriptures by our own prophets. <

> Check your facts, hundreds of towns existed from before the crusades. And since the crusades many more towns sprang up. You can still travel around the Palestinian villages and see the genetic results of the Crusades. Many blue-eyed and fare skinned. Blondes, redheads and brunettes being born in the same tribes. <

> Even after the destruction of Jerusalem the majority of the area continued to be Jewish. What you fail to mention is the mass conversion of local Jews to Christianity, first voluntarily and then forcefully. Pre 70 a large minority of Jerusalem where Jewish-Christians. These Jewish-Christians escaped Jerusalem in 67 and thus survived the 70 massacre. Jewish-Christian proselytizing and conversion continued in the villages outside jerusalem and throughout palestine and then later on conversions were forced upon other Jews first by Romans and then by crusaders. The point being that many palestinians genetically trace their ancestry to Jewish roots. And, because they remained settled in the areas of their original villages, can identify with a respective tribe. Whereas the Ashkenazi cannot identify their tribal lineage and cannot claim their respective tribal land rights. Conversion to Christianity and forced conversion to both Christianity and Islam later on does not take away ones Jewish heritage.

Even Israel's Ashkenazi Rabbinic code recognizes an individual as Jewish under these circumstances. What is troubling is the denial of historical facts and denying the Jewish roots of many palestinians. As far as religious facts, there is a great deal of denial there as well. Once the two-tribe kingdom was lost to Babylon and many jews were taken to Babylon, the Davidic line of rulership ended. Ashkenazi Jews who trace their roots to the Babylonian diaspora and remained separate from the Sephardic experience were greatly influenced first by Babylonian customs and really the Talmud has its roots in Babylon. Then their Germanic isolation form the rest of the Jewish world is seen in their customs today.

What's the point? That the Palestinians trace their heritage to the Jews that remained in Israel after babylon and includes those who returned from Babylon after Persian rule began. Whereas the majority of Israeli Jews today, the Ashkenazi, decided not to return during the time of the second temple, but willfully let go of their inheritance. Sounds severe, but this is the actual history. I wish more Jews would study the actual histories, even those in the written Hebrew scriptures (see the writings of Nehemiah), instead of relying on others.

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