Any Anti Zionist Jews

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I am an ardent Zionist in the sense that I fully support the State of Israel's right to exist.

I do criticize certain state policies and I believe that anyone has the right to criticize Israeli policies as long as it's kept within context to other states, both those surrounding Israel and otherwise.

I do not agree with anyone who labels a critic of Israel an anti-semite, as long as the criticism of Israel is LEGITIMATE. I do, however, believe that anti-Zionism in the form of denying Israel the right to exist, is a form of antisemitism, as it's stating every other people have the right to self-determination bar Jews.

I also think holding Israel to double standards or drawing parallels between Israeli policy and Nazi policy (including the use of the word genocide) is antisemitic. Why use Hitler/Nazi Germany as a parallel? If someone feels such strong negative sentiments towards Israeli policies, why not Stalinist Russia, as one example? Labelling the treatment of the Palestinians as genocidal is unfounded rhetoric.

I think more than anything, the labelling of Israel as an occupation/imperialist settler, whilst glorifying movements like Hamas and Hezbollah as freedom fighters, can only be the result of either outright ignorance, or complete bigotry. Hamas deliberetly targets civilians (war crime) whereas Israel only targets combatants, which results in the inadvertant killing of civilians (not war crime.. also inevitable in any warzone).

Just to like to point out Israel's legitimate founding as a state is not dependant upon religious sentiments either, it's a secular state founded in a region where there has been a continuous Jewish presence for centuries, technically making the Jews an indigenous people to the region. Any spiritual or religious connection to the land is seperate to Israel's legitimate right to exist within the land of "Palestine".

However, that being said, I am Jewish and I do feel the religious connection the Land of Israel, I simply don't rely upon the Torah to justify Israel's existence as a state.

Uh, actually, there are quite a few of you. Most Jews ignore Israel altogether, which amounts to hurting her, since she is such a small, young, and beleaguered nation. What's rare is to find a non-Israeli Jew who REALLY CARES about Israel!

Even the Jews living in Israel?

Every day throughout Operation Cast Lead, the first thing I did when I got up in the morning is check for the latest news about (edit: after I said the Shema of course). Even when someone says something that amounts to demonization of Israel in a pub or something like that, I just get this deep gut wrenching feeling, it's hard to explain really. It's a very very deep connection to the land and the people living there.

And I live in the UK, so it's thousands of miles away .. I don't have any relatives there, I've never even met an Israeli, all I know is, I feel a profound connection and concern for the country and it's people.

What is the shema? (genuinely curious)

It's a verse or verses from the Torah (holy book of Judaism, so to speak, first five books of the "old" testament). Jews, or at least religiously observant Jews, say it each morning before we eat anything, last thing at night before we go to bed and we're supposed to strive to make it our last words before dying.

It's basically a declaration of allegiance to God, that's the best way to put it.

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is One. Blessed be the name of his glorious Majesty forever and ever. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your means. And these words which I command you today shall be upon your heart. Teach them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. Bind them for a sign upon your hand and for frontlets between your eyes. Write them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates."

It contains the declaration of the existence of a God, that there is only one God.. the command to love that God.. to raise our children as Jewish.. to talk of God and the Torah.. to recite the Shema upon awakening and before going to bed.. to wear tefillin, which are the Jewish phylactaries you might have seen on photographs or in movies or something.. and to attach a mezuzah to our doorposts, which is a specially written scroll containing biblical verses, put inside a case of some sort.

It's called the "Shema" after the first two words of the verse, if it is recited in Hebrew, "Shema Yisrael" (Hear, O Israel).

Sh'mah is the Hebrew word for hear or listen or heed.

Listen and Heed Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One.

I take that seriously. I serve at most one god.

ruveyn

Is that mockery?

You don't impress me as the religious type. Since when do you believe in God? What happened to Occam's Razor and that whole burden-of-proof business? What happened to your bilious contempt of religion in all its forms?

Read carefully. I serve at most one god.

What I think is that the ancient Hebrews were visited by extra-terrestrials whose powers were so in advance of humanity that they were regarded as gods. Arthur C. Clarke once wrote that if technology is sufficiently advanced we would not distinguish it from Magic.

ruveyn

You still didn't answer the question, you just repeated the sentance.. you "serve at most one god"??

And I asked if you were mocking the Shema or not .. by now I've gathered that you're also Jewish, so I'm just trying to get my head round, whether you're religiously observant or not, how you can mock something that our ancestors had to suffer centuries of hatred, just so we could have the right to say it...

Just think it's a little disrespectful and unnecessary.

I think telling the polytheists what is what is a great thing. I say Sh'mah twice daily. For Old Time's Sake.

ruveyn

My mistake, I didn't know if you were being sarcastic or not.

Apologies.