Comments on: Men without a country

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:26:52 +0000

The “concept” of Israel is that it is a “Jewish state.” This concept has never been realized; it is hard to imagine how it could in this world, at this time.

By: McKiernan

McKiernan — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:42:23 +0000

Isn’t the concept of Israel, is that it is a democracy but not necessarily a jewish one or that all of its citizens need be jewish ?

By: mamemitzures

mamemitzures — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:01:56 +0000

Loz’em gain!! Remember Blazing Saddles? Throw them all out and let their own countries hang them!!!

By: zach.

zach. — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 19:04:08 +0000

in any case the ironies are certainly abounding in this story.

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:42:26 +0000

Not exactly. It’s true that Russia was a disaster at the time. But non-religious Israeli politicians, largely on the right but also on the left, saw major Russian immigration as a great “European” solution to the demographic time bomb of Arab population growth. (They were not too happy about the fact that, if one more generation could be waited out, orthodox Jewish population growth would probably do the trick — that kind of Jews they don’t like much better than Arabs.) They couldn’t care less if the immigrants were Jews or not, because Jewishness is, to them, an antique concept. They are Israelis, not Jews.

By: zach.

zach. — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:38:47 +0000

how ironic that now they cover their faces.

i didn’t realize the russian issue in israel was something actively encouraged by racial concerns. i only learned about it recently from an israeli acquaintance, who seemed to be telling me that the reason there are so many russian gentiles in israel is more because russia blew at the time (is it any better now?), and israeli officials didn’t want to get in the habit of forcing people to produce written documentation of their jewishness in the fear that doing so would cause true jews to be denied residency due to trivial issues such as clerical error. was she wrong? i am, to put it mildly, a nonexpert, so i’m asking the question honestly, in case that wasn’t clear.