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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Noel de Leon who wrote (116821)	10/14/2003 7:12:47 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Respond to of 281500

I understand the distinction you are making. I'm saying the distinction has no practical effect, in places like Israel. Whether a State defines Otherness by race, or defines it by religion (and then makes it impossible to convert), it affects people's lives exactly the same way. I don't see that it is a useful distinction. An interesting situation happened after the Catholics finished re-conquering Iberia in the late 15th Century. They forced everyone to convert or be exiled (or killed). Many Jews converted. But, then, the Inquisition didn't believe the conversions were genuine. That is, they decided there was a biological component to being a Jew, and anyone whose ancestors had been Jewish, was suspected of being a "closet Jew". Here's a thought experiment: What would be the response of the Israeli government, if all 5 million non-Jews living in Israel and the Occupied Territories, decided to convert to Judaism? Even if they all adopted, in detail, the Orthodox Jewish life-style (and this would be easier for Muslims, than for secular Jews), would they be accepted? Would the Israeli Army get half their recruits from these "new" Jews? Probably not. The 5 million "original" Jews would decide that Jewishness was biological, not cultural, and refuse to believe the conversions. I base this, on the fact that Israel makes conversion very difficult for the Christian spouses of Jewish immigrants, and doesn't try to convert the non-Arab guest worker population in Israel.