Quote:
Originally posted by hoepoe
Good day all
First of, i think the site's great!
Greenhat, you raise an interesting point of view, it is true, many Israelis are indeed Semites, originating from countries such as Iraq, Iran, Morroco, Egypt, Syria and so on and so forth.
However, being a Jew is not only a religion, but also a nationality, hence the Jews from the Arab countries are Jews, belonging to the Jewish Nation and not Arabs, although born in an Arab country and practising some rituals.traditions. The rituials/traditions practised by these Semites are all Jewish in nature, but with a "local" twist. eg. Ashkenazi versus Sephardi wedding ceremonies etc.
The State of Israel is the Jewish Nation and hence is not part of the Arab world, history, as well as current affairs testify to this rather strongly.
Hoepoe
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Jews are just one of the tribal groups of the Arab world. I disagree that Israel is not part of the Arab world, they are a very obvious part of it, central to its focus in many ways. They are the part of the Arab world that has become most successful at warfare and at adopting democracy, and because of the hostility of the rest of the Arab world, as well as their own religious identity, they prefer to be identified seperately. Nevertheless, they are Semites both linguistically and culturally, and many are Semites ethnically.