Percival wrote:vanlose kid wrote:Percival wrote:vanlose kid wrote:Percival wrote:It may not be for the left only but it seems, lately at least, if you express anything center or right center you will likely get piled on, name called, personally attacked and shouted down. I am not sure that means the left has more chops around here or that they simply can shout louder and are more willing to resort to ad hom, name calling and personally attacking.
Personally I dont think expressing concern for the problem Israel faces in dealing with the threat of extermination by Hamas is a right wing viewpoint, since IMO those who show support for the view of Hamas would have as their company, the KKK, fascists of any variety, white supremacists and various other antisemitic types, which is not even remotely left wing but about as far right of center as one can venture.
But I suppose its all a matter of perspective and how you spin it.
I have never in my life had anyone associate me or my views with the right, in fact most people refer to me as radically left and of the smelly hippy variety.
Hamas is made up of Palestinians, i.e. by ancestry, semitic Jews of Palestine who converted to Islam. Even Israeli race-science admits this.
So to say that Hamas is anti-semitic is nonsense. Just as claiming that Jews belong to a distinct and separate race is nonsense.
To Hamas, "Jewish", as c2w rightly says, is a religious designation. Only among Zionists is Jewish a racial designation.
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Ok I can agree with that, I myself consider it a religious designation but I am Jewish and more of a Buddhist than anything else so how does that wash in your opinion. I am not a Jew anymore because I dont practice Judaism?
Ah, that's the fun part, eh?
Because, depending on how you want to make the distinction you could be either or both.
See, you, non-practicing as you are, probably consider yourself racially Jewish, but then what "distinguishes" you racially as a Jew: your genes, are no different from those of your alleged "Hamas 'I will exterminate them all' informant". So, even though he's a practicing Muslim, he's Jewish, right?
Then again, if Jew is a religious designation then neither you nor he are Jews. Right?
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To be completely honest with you I have never once considered it on racial terms for myself personally although the issue has come up in conversation that I am Jewish because my mother is Jewish, however, for me I simply consider myself culturally Jewish, that is to say that I enjoy and recognize all the trappings of Jewish culture, I love Jewish food and folk music, Jewish folk art etc and things of that nature but I dont practice the religion much anymore per se.
Yes, it is indeed tricky.
For the record I do personally recognize and accept the Palestinian people as my own and I have no problem with them at all, I am saddened that there is so much hate between us and our brothers in the Gaza, it is a hate that has passed from generation to generation and I wish there was a way to put an end to it BUT please understand that one of the reasons for this is continued threats against Jews by organizations like Hamas, who have vowed no peace until every Jew is removed from the land.
I'd say it works both ways. Extermination and acceptance wise. There are Israelis who have made the same vows.
If the Jewish right of return is to be taken seriously then Palestinians have that right – in Israel.
Also, expelling them and theft of their land and livelihood is a crime and should be recognized as such and reparations and/or repatriation steps should be taken.
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By the way, Samaritans have Israeli citizenship. Are they Jews?
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