From: David Lubkin (extropy@unreasonable.com)
Date: Fri Apr 19 2002 - 01:10:59 MDT
At 02:36 PM 4/18/2002 -0700, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
>Ok, here we have a case of religious extremism that should be clearly
>identified as such. I expect this extends to the "settlements" issue of
>our time. One wonders how the Zionists would treat communities of
>Zoroastrians, Sufis or Zen Buddhists living in their midst(!).
>
>In fact an *interesting* peace proposal could revolve around community
>transplantation -- complete exchange of Palestinian communities with
>alternate ethno-religious communities with appropriate financial
>compensation to make it *very* attractive. Exchange several million
>Palestinians with several million Indian Hindus. What would the Israelis
>do then?
I discussed in my previous post aspects of how Bedouin, Druze, and Arabs
are integrated into Israeli society. There was a Baptist village down the
road from us; I'd walk the three miles there to use their swimming
pool. Various Christian enclaves near sites holy to them. The world
headquarters for the Ba'hai faith is in Haifa. Israel is very tolerant of
non-Jewish religions, although they loathe Mormon missionaries and are
insufficiently tolerant of American branches of Judaism.
The system is basically everyone is equal, but some people are more equal
than others. Non-Jews can become Israeli citizens, through a five-year
process that is very similar to what the US has. But anyone who can prove
Jewishness can instantly become a citizen, under the Law of Return. (This,
combined with the leverage that the religious political parties have always
had when government coalitions are formed and the clout that American Jews
have, has meant that there were several decades of arguing over Who Is A
Jew, focusing on whether Israel has to recognize conversions to Judaism
performed by non-Orthodox rabbis under the Law of Return.) There's also a
quasi-governmental organization called the Jewish Agency funded largely by
American Jews that routes money and services to the Jewish population while
reducing the appearance of a two-tier system.
Family law is under the jurisdiction of religious courts, one for each
religion. They have complete autonomy, and their decisions are not subject
to review by the secular court system. People who want to do something
that their religion disapproves of, like marry someone of a different
faith, fly to Cyprus (much as Irish women travel to Britain for
abortions). When they return, the non-Israeli civil marriage is recognized.
Israel extended itself nearly to the breaking point to bring in hundreds of
thousands of Sephardic Jews, who were culturally quite alien to the
dominant Eastern European Ashkenazim and physically resemble the
Arabs. More recently, they brought over many Ethiopian Jews, who appear to
be black. Their existence is presumably a consequence of Solomon's
dalliance with the Queen of Sheba.
It's funny you mention Indian Hindus; there are apparently about
100,000,000 Indians whose claim for Jewish identity is at least as good as
the claim the Ethiopians have. (There are Jews everywhere; there used to
be a thriving community in Shanghai with the most curious variations on
religious observance.) Some of them have sought the Right of Return. The
authorities in Israel have stalled on answering their request. If even a
small fraction moved there, the country would be dramatically transformed.
Meanwhile, there were a couple decades when Israel and the United States
pursued the plight of Soviet Jewry. Consequent to this, many Russians
asserted Jewishness and moved to Israel. Turns out more than a few weren't
Jewish at all; they just wanted out of the USSR.
>The key point from my perspective seems to be rejecting the "material
>interest or advantage of any other nation or people". If you can *really*
>buy a person off then it seems resonable to do it! I mean *really* are
>the Palestinians or Israelis *so* attached to scraps of
>what is mostly desert that they cannot be bought out and be moderately
>happy that they are getting a fair deal?
> :
>Can you convert the rule of emotions to a rule of law?
Perhaps over the course of several generations. It's
funny: intellectually, I know how little most people are governed by
logic, so I try to take this into account. But I'm still surprised when
they aren't.
-- David.
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