http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/29/israel.letter.arabs/index.html?hpt=T2 one of the comments I thought summed up my reaction as well from the site: What a bunch of sad human beings. To place so much stock in their ethnic and religious "purity" that they have become the very nazis who persecuted them is one of life's greatest ironies.
Yeah thats dumb. If you ever want to control a man, get to his wife. If you take away your only in, your number one option, its just dumb.
Your criticism is somewhat one-sided. "As soon as you arrive at the village, your life will never be the same. The attention will be replaced with curses, beatings, and humiliations. Even if you want to leave the village it will be much harder. They won't let you, they will chase you, they won't let you come back." The official stance is for the well-being of Israeli women against stereotypical chauvinist Arab men. But, they might have actual racial reasons of just not wanting their 'race' to assimilate with Arabs (despite both groups being Semitic and so similar). But, this letter was from a far-right wing Jewish group, and you shouldn't think all Israelis or Jews agree with it, and indeed, the article highlights this. "The head of Israel's Reform movement, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, harshly condemned the letter and said, "Israeli society is falling into a deep, dark pit of racism and xenophobia". More than 800 rabbis from around the world signed a petition against the letter, saying "statements like these do great damage to our efforts to encourage people to love and support Israel."
Did you miss this part? It urges Jewish girls not to go out with non-Jews or work in places that employ non-Jews. "Your grandmothers never dreamt that their descendants would do something that will take the next generations of her family out of the Jewish people," it says. How about this part? A poll published Tuesday by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem showed that 48% of Israelis oppose the call to avoid renting or selling property to Arabs. Seriously? This is about as racist as it gets.
Correct me if I'm wrong, in Judaism if your mother is Jewish, then you are considered Jewish? Think about that, and also think about how this is so focused on dating non-Jewish men, but no mention of Jewish men dating non-Jewish women. Racist, sexist and and uncivlized IMO. But I guess that's why they call them ultra-conservative right wingers.
Clearly goes both ways in this conflict. When I was in Dubai, I read the Gulf News every day, as I have in the past. Even in this English-language newspaper in an Arabic country, the hate and propaganda against Israel was amazing.
Right, which is why I said "but, they might have actual racist reasons of just not wanting their 'race' to assimilate with Arabs (despite both groups being Semitic and so similar)." A letter written by far right-wing Jews does not represent the position of most Israelis or Jewish people around the world. IMO the title of this thread or the OP's initial reaction don't clearly address that this is a fringe group.
And then a few days later their former President is charged with rape and sexual harassment. Things are not looking good for Israel. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/30/israel.katsav.verdict/index.html?hpt=T1
A few notes: 1. Judaism is from matrilineal decent. This makes it a bit tricky when the mom is Jewish and the dad is Muslim (happened to a friend of mine -- he's atheist anyway). 2. Moshe Katsav has been raping women in his office for 30 years + and people have known about it. Even once he finally got caught, he claimed that it was a witch-hunt because he was Persian. There's not much outrage about it. In Israel the average person understands that politicians are mostly sociopaths and isn't surprise when they caught doing things like this. 3. Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that only Jews have souls. Being near non-Jews will corrupt those precious souls. 4. The whole "don't date an Arab man" thing is a letter written by a bunch of ultra-orthodox rabbi's wives. It's awful, but I'll just say that a mixed couple is always an Arab man and a Jewish women. No Arab family would permit the opposite to happen, so that particular bigotry goes both ways. 5. The racist rhetoric isn't just about Arabs. It's also about African refugees, who work hard and are glad not to be in Eritrea/Sudan/Coite d'Ivoire/Some Other Hell anymore. Since they are not only Jewish, but foreign and black, this has created a huge moral panic, since they are threatening to more than just the ultra-Orthodox. More and more are coming, and even the Left is a bit uncomfortable about dark-skinned people and I think they are total hypocrites. They don't call them refugees. They call them "infiltrators." Family photos of my multi-racial extended family make plenty of otherwise friendly people I know visibly nervous. The African guys in my band joke that in Israel little kids walk up to them and say "hey ******!" without a hint of self-awareness. Yes...Israelis, Jewish and Muslim alike, IMHO are quite racist. 6. Netanyahu's days are numbered, and it's his own fault for building a coalition of settlers, fascists and religious whackos. Livni in theory is the likeliest to be the next PM, but I think she's pretty useless. 7. In short, the leaders are corrupt and inept, the people are ignorant and racist, religion is used as a means of social control, wealth is consolidated mostly with a few elite families that own everything (including the government) and all national planning is mostly for the benefit of short-term gains. This is however, true of every government in the world.
You said racial reasons, not racist reasons. And the article itself doesn't address this being a fringe group. It only says that the letter came from 30 prominent rabbis wives, one of which was the wife of a right wing rabbi, and that the previous letter was written by 50 state appointed rabbis. The poll clearly indicates that racism against Arabs is widely condoned, only 48% of Israelis oppose not renting or selling property to Arabs. Read the article.
Yes, because religious figures condone marrying/dating outside of their respective religions... Can we be any more selective here against Jews?
it's not just arabs they are against.....i dated a girl from a semi-ultra-orthodox jewish family several years ago in manhattan....after a couple months i had an idea to invite her younger brother to join us for out for dinner......unfortunately, the kid had already been brainwashed at saturday school and went on an insane rant one me not much unlike the one further below (in all fairness the girl was extremely upset about it and her mother even met with me to apologize in person): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovadia_Yosef
The kid is an idiot. He probably wouldn't even consider me to be Jewish. I've been dating a girl that's not Jewish (she's very Catholic) for about a year now. Her family has definitely been nicer to me as a whole than mine has to her. Marrying outside of the faith is considered one of the greatest sins you can commit. These are very personal decisions though and I have many Jewish friends that have intermarried. If both people are religious, then there will be difficult choices to make when you talk about marriage/kids.
Yea, I dont really see how this is news? Arabs and Israelis, as a people, have a significant history of not getting along.
