To: goldsnow who wrote (12419 ) 3/8/2002 2:32:20 PM From: Elmer Flugum Read Replies (1) | Respond to Can Zionism be Reconciled with Justice for the Palestinians ?mideastfacts.com Contrary to Zionist mythology, there has never been a single Jewish homeland in Palestine from which the Jews were expelled by the Romans. Historical scholarship calls this into question in every respect. First, long before the Roman conquest of Palestine there were large Jewish communities in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and other places throughout the Mediterranean basin. Second, it is doubtful that the Romans engaged in a wholesale expulsion of the Jewish people from Palestine after the suppression of the Jewish rebellion of 66-70 CE. Rather, most Palestinian Jews remained in Palestine through the period of the Roman Empire, but over time the majority became Christians -- or later, Muslims -- leaving only a small group which preserved its Jewish identity. Finally, the majority of the Jewish people who have lived throughout the world in the last two thousand years do not think of themselves as a "Diaspora" longing to "return" to Palestine. "
