Friday, November 30, 2018

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: ACCEPTING MYTH AS FACT - EVEN IN OUR SCIENTIFIC AGE IT IS DONE OFTEN AND WITHOUT BEING QUESTIONED DESPITE ITS DANGER - PERHAPS THE MOST PUBLICIZED EXAMPLE IS THE NOTION OF MODERN JEWISH PEOPLE HAVING RETURNED TO AN ANCESTRAL HOME IN ISRAEL

John Chuckman


COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY AS’AD ABUKHALIL IN CONSORTIUM NEWS



“Israel’s Overlooked Strategic Losses in Wars Against Arabs

“After conventional Arab armies failed to deter Israeli invasions, Lebanese and Palestinian volunteers have changed the strategic balance in the Middle East”

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Response to a comment saying, “The barrage of anti-Israel rhetoric lost all credibility some time ago. While it remains fashionable among our bourgeoisie, it has defied all logic. Bottom line: Jews are indigenous to that bit of land, restored as the Jewish nation in 1948. Israel is roughly 1% of the Mideast, with the remaining 99% owned by the Arab states, all of which are armed to the teeth by China, Russia, and the US. Although portrayed as a military behemoth trampling over the impoverished oil states, it takes everything Israel has got, just to survive”:

Sorry, but you just repeat lines from pamphlets.

The Ashkenazi - the people running Israel and the main early Zionist writers - are indeed Jews, but that ignores the fact that they are not Hebrews. There is a huge difference.

The Ashkenazi are Europeans. The word, Ashkenazi, means "German."

Deli food is not Middle Eastern - it reflects German and central European food.

The Yiddish language is not Middle Eastern - it is derived from German.

The dress of the ultra-Orthodox is not Middle Eastern - it is from 18th or 19th century Eastern Europe.

Yes, most Jews learn some Hebrew in their temples’ Hebrew Schools, but that is no different than the practice of millions of devout Muslims learning Arabic in madrassa schools so that they can read the Koran in the original. It provides no basis for Indonesia laying claim to Saudi Arabia.

Sharing religious beliefs with someone who ages ago owned some real estate buys you nothing in the real world.

All the best evidence we have suggests the Palestinians are the actual remaining descendants of the Hebrews.

The Romans never tossed out whole peoples from conquered lands. There is no record of their ever doing so.

The notion of wandering Jews looking for a home again for two thousand years appears to be just a sentimental myth used by people like the Ashkenazi to feel more connected to the ancient Hebrews whose religion they share.

There are many examples of such myths and beliefs – e.g., a number of American Blacks regard themselves as descendants of the ancient Egyptians – but myths provide no foundation for building new arrangements in the real world.

Besides, time and again, DNA tests of Ashkenazi people tell us plainly they go back about one thousand years or less. Two origins are suggested, and both of them are located in Europe.

Citing ancient texts, and especially religious or superstitious ones, as any kind of basis for the geo-politics of the modern world makes little sense and is actually quite dangerous.

Otherwise, Greece, who won the Trojan War three thousand years ago, would have a claim on Turkey, the site of ancient Troy.

And many other groups besides the ancient Hebrews possessed what we call Israel before the Hebrews, including the Egyptians. By what logic do you stop at just a certain era in any territory’s long history to call it the definitive origin? There’s no such thing.

And there are scores of such examples as the Greeks and Trojans which prove nothing and would only generate confusion and war if taken seriously.

And that is pretty much the case for re-created Israel. Confusion and war.