It would be appealing for tourism & future olim to recreate their former sojourning areas. We could include former areas peopled by Israelites historically. The former city of Khaibar (in current Saudi Arabia) could be recreated in the Negev. That it would be based on that ancient city doesn't mean it wouldn't mean that it wouldn't have modernity. If a community of rural Jews from Ethiopia came we could recreate their hamlet (even bringing the houses brick by brick & bringing the animals, seeds...) so that their immigration is easier than it was for the first Falashas that struggled so much in going from the fields to apartaments. If the Black Hebrews of Harlem came to the Holy Land we could recreate their New Yorker streets (measuring the same distance like the one between apartaments in New York) & synagogues to create a new city or a part of a city already built in Israel. If Jews came from a Ukrainian shtetl, the shtetl would be recreated. If they came from a Bnei Menashe jungle, the jungle, or a woodland area with the same trees & houses would be created & so on with all Jewish communities.
Maybe the way to accomplish an Israel between the Nile & the Euphrates is by reminding these crypto Israelite peoples in the Middle East of their past, then to have their own independent states & finally merge all those Israels into one great Israel.
The number of black Jews in the United States varies, estimates swing from as low as 50,000 to more 500,000; although a precise accounting is difficult, there’s a generally accepted number of 200,000 people. The style of that expression of the black Jewish experience takes different forms. Many choose to identify as black Hebrews and Hebrew Israelites; this subset of the black Jewish population is observant and obeys many of mainstream Judaism’s customs, its adherence to the Torah and various dietary laws. But a fierce sense of identity exists within the group; many black Hebrews have insisted that they, and not the Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi and other Jews whose numbers dwarf their own, are the only real descendants of the Israelites — a view that, perhaps obviously, puts them at odds with their counterparts in the wider Jewish population.
67% of Israelis would like to see the Rabbinate abolished. I suggest not to abolish it, but to include more Jewish denominations & even legalize civil marriage...
The ancient essenians where one of the three main branches (together with Saducees & Pharisees) of Judaism according to Josephus, the Jewish historian. The Qumran scrolls gave further knowledge on them. The current Essenes should be recognized as Jews & allowed to immigrate to the State of Israel. Many of the the modern essenians were Buddhists, Yoga practitioners, Taoists... Interestingly in America a 3rd of Buddhists are Jews. If the the modern essenes were enough popularized & accepted into the mainstream of Judaism perhaps many Jews would be gained back to Judaism & perhaps they would found a great community in Israel. Maybe their first community could be at Qumram in honor to the olden essenians.
A few years ago, a handful of people put together the Conversion to Judaism Web Page (www.convert.org). This grass-roots effort has seen a steady rise of visitors, now totaling over 250,000.
Now that the Aliyah is declining is time to contact Kulanu & open the process to bring the practicing Jews & Lost Israelites: Subbotniks, Kaifeng Jews, Indian Jews, Lembas, Tutsis, Abayudayas, Sefwis, Igbos, Beit Avraham, Beth Yeshurun... & why not to proselyte among non-Jewish Lost Israelites: Pashtuns, Kashmiris, Kurds, Ossetians, Chiang Min, Karens, Ashantis, Berber Jews...Maybe the way to accomplish an Israel between the Nile & the Euphrates is by reminding these crypto Israelite peoples in the Middle East of their past, then to have their own independent states & finally merge all those Israels into one great Israel.
67% of Israelis would like to see the Rabbinate abolished. I suggest not to abolish it, but to include more Jewish denominations & even legalize civil marriage...
The ancient essenians where one of the three main branches (together with Saducees & Pharisees) of Judaism according to Josephus, the Jewish historian. The Qumran scrolls gave further knowledge on them. The current Essenes should be recognized as Jews & allowed to immigrate to the State of Israel. Many of the the modern essenians were Buddhists, Yoga practitioners, Taoists... Interestingly in America a 3rd of Buddhists are Jews. If the the modern essenes were enough popularized & accepted into the mainstream of Judaism perhaps many Jews would be gained back to Judaism & perhaps they would found a great community in Israel. Maybe their first community could be at Qumram in honor to the olden essenians.A few years ago, a handful of people put together the Conversion to Judaism Web Page (www.convert.org). This grass-roots effort has seen a steady rise of visitors, now totaling over 250,000.
Reorganizing the Rabbinate
It's about time that the State of Israel & Rabbinate recognizes other branches of Judaism to be as legitimate as the orthodox ones. They should recognize & share functions, in a greater more inclusive Rabbinate, with reform, reconstructionist, karaite & falasha Judaism. It's reasonable that orthodox don't agree to admit every one into their stream of Judaism, nevertheless they shouldn't be the only ones to decide who is Jewish, let alone who can have Israeli nationality or the right to immigrate to the Holy Land.
In Christendom the Pope can't decide who is Christian. He can decide who is Catholic & that's it. A state like Israel, threatened with losing its Jewish demographic majority, should be far more flexible. This approach does not mean diminishing or lowering the Jewish standards. To the contrary this approach is not a secular one. It's concerned with dealing to integrate Jews from different streams of this rich & varied religion. The Jewish State was created for all Jews, not just for the Sephardis or Ashkenazis, Orthodox...
The American group known as the Black Hebrews have been claiming, in one way or another, their Israelite origin for over a century. Their religious approach is more urban & not hermitlike as the Black Hebrews of Dimona. In one way or another the American Black Hebrews appeal to more people than just their synagogue attendants. They could be several hundred thousands, mostly in the States, but also abroad. They follow a religious system that resembles orthodox Judaism. Dimona's Black Hebrews have a hippy like live in a way. The Black Hebrews from the USA should be encouraged to make aliyah & go to urban areas in Ariel, Haifa, Tel Abib, Jerusalem, Beersheba, Acre...
Their centennial Judaic stream should be recognized with the other streams of Judaism.
Their centennial Judaic stream should be recognized with the other streams of Judaism.
Now that the Lembas have been clearly proven that have Jewish origin, their religious practices should be codified & accepted by the Rabbinate as another stream of Judaism. A large number of Buddhist practicioners in America are Jews. In ancient times there were different forms of Judaism in the Land of Israel & abroad: Pharisaism, Sadduceism, Essenism, Falashism, Karaism... Nowadays there's a new stream of Essenism. The modern Essenians have received a lot of former Buddhists for their commonalities. Perhaps if modern Essenism received support from the Jewish State & even be accepted as another official stream of Judaism an old branch of Judaism would be reestablished. Pharisaism is alive through orthodox Judaism & Sadduceism through the liberal streams. Many secular Jews lost to secularism that practice Buddhism could be regathered back to Judaism through the appeal of modern Essenism.
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon in 1949 proposed turning the Israeli Rabbinate into a Sanhedrin. This is a good model to follow. The number of Sanhedrin members is about seventy. To prevent that a decision's result is a draw, the number needs to be odd. Since seven is a divine number, two sevens would be more divine. So having the number seventy seven would be a beautiful odd number. The number of Sanhedrin members of the same stream of Judaism would depend on the amount of Israelis following that very stream of Judaism. A survey should be made to known the exact share. It's logical that in that Rabbinate Ashkenazi orthodox & Sephardi orthodox would be more present than others.
Future possible composition of Israeli Jewry in millions
13 Ashkenazis + 8 Sephardis + 6'2 others = 27'2 Israeli Jews
Representatives of a modern Sanhedrin/Rabbinateh:
2'8 per million & 77 representatives
2'8 per million & 77 representatives
8 Ashkenazi Orthodox + 6 Sephardi Orthodox + 8 other Orthodox = 24 Orthodox representatives
21 Ashkenazi Conservatives + 14 Sephardi Conservatives + 5 other Conservatives = 40 Conservative representatives
3 Ashkenazi Liberals + 3 Sephardi Liberals = 6 Liberal representatives
1 Reconstructionist representative
3 Essenian representatives
1 Falashan others
2 Black Hebrew others
3 Ashkenazi Orthodox + 2 Orthodox Sephardis + 3 others = 8 Orthodox Jews
7 Conservative Ashkenazis + 5 Conservative Sephardis + 2 others = 14 Conservative Jews
1'5 Liberal Ashkenazis + 1 Liberal Sephardis = 2'5 Liberal Jews
0'5 Reconstructionist Ashkenazis
1 Essenian Ashkenazis (formerly Buddhists or seculars)
0'4 Falashan others
0'7 Black Hebrew others
0'1 Karaite others
13 Ashkenazis (including every Subbotnik, every Vykrest, every Ger + 1 Polish Crypto-Ashkenazi + 2 relatives of Ashkenazis converted to Judaism, usually children of a Jewish dad or spouses of a Jewish person) + 8 Sephardo-Mizraho-Palestinian (3 Sephardis + 3 [Latino] Marranos + 1 Mizrahis + 1 Palestinians reconverted to their ancestors' religion) + 0'5 Black Hebrews + 0'3 Falasho-Qemants (0'2 Falashas [+ Falashmuras] + 0'15 Qemants) + 0'07 every Mandean + 0'1 Alevis + 0'1 Syrian Ismailis + 0'1 Yemeni Zaydis + 0'1 Zazas + 0'1 Druzes + 0'1 Yezidis + 0'1 Bektashis + 0'1 Talyshis +0'1 Mazandaranis + 0'1 Alawis + 0'1 Ashantis 0'3 every Lemba + 0'1 Igbos + 0'1 Ashantis +0'1 (every Igdalen + every Iddaosahak + every Yibir + a few Mandinkas) + 0'1 Maoris + 0'1 Bambaras+ 0'1 Hawaiians + 0'1 Karens+ 0'1 Chins + 0'1 Kukis + 0'2 Qiangs + 0'1 Tajiks + 0'1 Pashtuns + 0'1 Kashmiris + all the few Kalash + 0'1 Japanese Hatas + 0'1 Kurds + 0'1 Armenians + 0'1 Georgians + 0'1 Mingrelians + 0'1 Ossetians + 0'1 Kumyks 0'02 every Mountain Jew + 0'1 Gilakis + 0'1 Lurs + 0'016 every Caucasian Tat + 0'1 Iranian Tats + 0'1 Kabards + 0'1 Lezgins + 0'03 every Aghul + 0'1 Dargins + 0'1 every Krymchak+ 0'1 every Rutul + 0'2 every Tabasaran + 0'1 Igbos + 0'1 Ashantis + 0'03 every Tsakur + 0'2 every Karachay + 0'08 every Banyamulenge + 0'13 every Balkar + 0'02 every Chueta + 0'02 every Svan + 0'1 Efiks + 0'1 Ibibios+ 0'1 Orons + 0'1 Bataks + 0'1 Fulanis + 0'1 Cherokees + 0'02 every Gogodala + every Bini + 0'1 Masais + 0'02 every Hottentot + every whole community working with Kulanu & Shavei.
The Palestinians Exist Because Israel Exists
Since the independence of Israel in 1948 the so called Palestinians have been generally regarded as a separate minority by the countries which have taken them as refugees & by the whole world. Before that tine most people, including scholars, considered them as Arabs simply. Some scholars, including Moslem ones, regarded them as Jewish Moslems, because of their Israelite ancestors though. This means that the State of Israel not only gave a State to Stateless Jews, but created (in some way) a new nationality: the Palestinian. So thanks to Israel, the Palestinians are not simply Arabs, but Palestinian Arabs.
The first step is to recognize their particularity that differenciates them from other Arabs. Every Palestinian has taken this step.
The second step is to recognize their Israelite roots. Many Palestinians have taken this step, few in public though.
The third step is to convert to the religion of their Israelite ancestors & become one people with the Jews, their real brethren.
The Arab Israelis are usually considered as part of the Palestinians. A majority of Bedouins, Druzes, Kurds, Circassians, Armenians, Gypsies, Arab Christians... cooperate with the Jewish State, in one way or in another. In the Jewish State joining the national army. In Judea, Samaria & Gaza infiltrating terrorist cells. Interestingly some of the most cooperative minorities are also the ones that recognize more their Israelite past: Druzes & Bedouins.
Genuine Attire for the Modern IsraelitesThe Palestinians Exist Because Israel Exists
Since the independence of Israel in 1948 the so called Palestinians have been generally regarded as a separate minority by the countries which have taken them as refugees & by the whole world. Before that tine most people, including scholars, considered them as Arabs simply. Some scholars, including Moslem ones, regarded them as Jewish Moslems, because of their Israelite ancestors though. This means that the State of Israel not only gave a State to Stateless Jews, but created (in some way) a new nationality: the Palestinian. So thanks to Israel, the Palestinians are not simply Arabs, but Palestinian Arabs.
The first step is to recognize their particularity that differenciates them from other Arabs. Every Palestinian has taken this step.
The second step is to recognize their Israelite roots. Many Palestinians have taken this step, few in public though.
The third step is to convert to the religion of their Israelite ancestors & become one people with the Jews, their real brethren.
The Arab Israelis are usually considered as part of the Palestinians. A majority of Bedouins, Druzes, Kurds, Circassians, Armenians, Gypsies, Arab Christians... cooperate with the Jewish State, in one way or in another. In the Jewish State joining the national army. In Judea, Samaria & Gaza infiltrating terrorist cells. Interestingly some of the most cooperative minorities are also the ones that recognize more their Israelite past: Druzes & Bedouins.
It makes one wonder why the Jewish orthodox intent to be purist in everything they do, but their attire is only a few centuries old & certainly modern in comparison with what the ancient Israelites used to wear in Roman or in Moses' times. If they are so conservative they should wear the attire of ancient times. A group of purist Jews should start that fashion. They would look as authentic as the Palestinian peasantry often look. Many Palestinians, including the Bedouins, look as if time never passed in the way their attire looks.
In that attire orthodox look as if they didn't really belong to the Holy Land, contrary to the more genuine looking Palestinian attire. In fact there should be a movement among the Jews, spanning from religious to secular, zionist & non-zionist that would include all the Jews & encourage them to wear those clothes.
Disputed Indigenous Communities
The so called international community has often very negatively focused on local construction in indigenous Israeli communities of Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria in the very heartland of the indigenous land of Israel. It is, yes, very legitimate to disagree about political matters including this controversial question – however whether you live in Israel or elsewhere in the world –ignorance and prejudice are specifically not legitimate.
1. Partition
It has very often been vocally claimed that disputed indigenous Israeli communities are intrinsic obstacles to partition. However this is based upon the propaganda fallacy that the 1949-67 Israeli-Jordanian former armistice lines with some variations are the only possible basis for partition. It is also further claimed that the disputed indigenous Israeli communities are developed in order to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. This is absurd since there are much better options for drawing new borders and there is furthermore really no need whatsoever to create one more independent state as Palestinian regions in both Israel and the territories could in principle very well be annexed by and geographically connected with Jordan as part of a permanent status agreement with Israel.
2. Provocation
Palestinian grievances against Israel are primarily founded in 1) highly politicized Anti-Jewish narratives of Islam and 2) in bitterness over historical consequences of serially declared and attempted genocide against the Jewish people in which the Palestinian movement has been and remains fully involved and complicit in. Not only did the Palestinian leadership actively collaborate with Nazi Germany in perpetrating the Holocaust, but they have consistently participated in serially officially declared, yet ultimately defeated attempts at perpetrating a Second Holocaust. The respective propaganda machines of Fatah and Hamas thus notably still unashamedly deploy Anti-Jewish genocidal rhetoric as a matter of media routine.
The consequences of the officially declared and attempted, yet failed Arabist genocide against the Jewish people during Israel’s War of Independence in 1947-49 also historically entailed loss of property for Palestinians. Although such historical bitterness is somewhat understandable yet there are no overt signs of regret among Palestinian over historical participation not only in the perpetration of the Holocaust through the Palestinian leadership’s collaboration with Nazi Germany, planning the establishment of Nazi concentration camps in the holy land, living in Berlin during WW2, carrying out official Nazi propaganda broadcasts in Arabic and politically making sure that Jewish refugees from Nazi Europe could not escape to the land of Israel but also in the serially officially declared, yet also serially defeated, attempted Arabist/Islamist genocide against the Jewish people throughout the history of armed aggression against Israel by its neighbors in which the Palestinian movement have always enthusiastically participated.
3. Two-state solution vs. One-state solution
A two-state solution could be achieved through Israeli-Jordanian optimal partition of the land of Israel west of the River Jordan between two peoples. A Jewish one-state solution could be achieved by welcoming Palestinian endogamous communities back to Judaism & Samaritanism as most Palestinian clans are not only endogamous but also of entirely Jewish ancestry in being descended from Jews, Judeo-Christians and Samaritans who were historically involuntarily Islamized.
A Jewish one-state solution therefore requires an extensive welcoming human infrastructure whereby Palestinian communities would be warmly welcomed back into Judaism and Samaritanism through a process of communal education. Each local Muslim Palestinian community should surely be given a voice as to whether they themselves would prefer to return to Judaism/Samaritanism and thus to the Jewish and Samaritan peoples respectively or rather become geographically connected with and annexed by Jordan. The existence of dynamically flourishing and successfully growing indigenous Israeli communities in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria only make the option of return to Judaism & Samaritanism and thus to the Jewish and Samaritan peoples even more attractive to local Palestinian endogamous communities of Jewish or Samaritan ancestry.
4. Diplomacy
It has been argued that development and demographic growth in indigenous Israeli communities are contrary to dialogue and mutual understanding. Whether in a two-state solution of optimal partition between two peoples or in a Jewish one-state solution; indigenous Israeli communities are rather part of the solution than the problem. Why really should such important actors in the Israeli-Palestinian situation as the leaders of disputed indigenous Israeli communities not be engaged in dialogue by diplomats?
Demographic growth in existing indigenous Israeli communities only reinforce the ultimate partition map including Israeli annexation of indigenous Israeli communities and parallel coordinated Jordanian annexation of Palestinian regions not only in Judea and Samaria but also inside Israel under a two-state solution. Residents of disputed indigenous Israeli communities can also play a vitally important role in welcoming local Palestinian communities back to Judaism and the Jewish people.
5. Legal vs. Illegal
The “legal” argument against disputed indigenous Israeli communities is that they should be considered illegal as a matter of universal principle despite their very apparent legality according to international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and the UN charter. Jews are indigenous to the land and no amount of prejudicial criminalization of an indigenous people removes its indigenous status in its indigenous land. The indigenous Jewish prerogative to, in principle, settle in all parts of the Western land of Israel was not removed by the restoration of Jewish independence in 1948 or, for that matter, by the 1949 Israeli-Jordanian armistice agreement which explicitly specified that those lines should not prejudice any permanent status arrangement. Also, while in force, those very temporary lines were never internationally recognized as international borders.
6. Eschatology
European Christianity has historically claimed to have supplanted Judaism while also suggesting that converting Jews from Judaism to Christianity is central to Christian salvation history. As Christianity emerged from within Roman-era Judaism; many first century Christians were Jewish and what later developed into what is now known as Christianity was originally not a different religion but merely a sect within Judaism. Medieval Europe thus variously believed that Jews should be either convinced or coerced to convert to European dystopian eschatological doctrines which in practice – while being couched in grandiose eschatological rhetoric –entailed the demise of the Jewish people.
Those dystopian eschatological ideas of imperialist versions of Christian metaphysics still strongly influence many culturally Christian Western representatives whether secular or religious who for decades have wrongly and often arrogantly presumed that they could – and indeed should bring salvation to variously the entire region or the entire world by converting the Jews to abjectly failed European eschatological doctrines with, in practice, highly dystopian outcomes. In fact, those often arrogant Westerners have generally neither envisioned & understood the borders of optimal partition between the two peoples under a two-state solution nor the return to Judaism and Samaritanism of Palestinian endogamous communities as part of a Jewish one-state solution.
Neither hostility against the sovereign Jewish nation and disputed indigenous Israeli communities nor preaching to the Jews will bring peace despite fervently held dystopian, megalomaniacal eschatological beliefs in this regard. The respective geographic parameters for an Israeli-Jordanian two-state solution and a Jewish one-state solution are clear and available for governments that wish to know. Yes, barely secularized Christian metaphysics may cover up for ignorance but ignorance does not bring peace. Also, disseminating discriminatory arguments against and/or lies about Jews have obviously never made the world safer, happier or more peaceful for anyone.
7. Palestinian statehood
But what’s wrong with a Palestinian state alongside Israel? The Palestinian narrative is such that it would be considered high treason in Palestinian society not to continue the political project to minoritize and exterminate the Jewish people. Also this purported panacea of Palestinian statehood solves none of the permanent status issues. But could not a Palestinian state rather be peaceful? Yes it could but this would first require responsibly successful liberalization and democratization as well as comprehensive de-radicalization of Palestinian society.
Indeed, Palestinian society would need to confront its own demons; its pervasive genocidal agenda, its pervasive genocidal public discourse and its pervasive socially accepted racism against Jews despite most Palestinian endogamous communities being of either entirely Jewish ancestry or entirely Samaritan ancestry. There would indeed have to be a comprehensive shift of paradigm in Palestinian public discourse. Only then could Palestinian leaders potentially become ready to sign end of claims, end of conflict, optimal partition and genuine sincerely meant recognition of Jewish statehood alongside Palestinian statehood.
8. Status Quo
The Israeli-Palestinian status quo is geographically no less stable than the status quo in Cyprus. Speaking nonsense won’t however bring lasting peace and engaging in counterproductive illusions will not improve anything for anyone. Palestinian statehood alongside Jewish statehood would have to be based on the exact same map of ultimate optimal partition as would Israeli-Jordanian optimal partition, meaning East-West Israeli contiguity & North-South Palestinian contiguity in Jerusalem, Samaria and the Galilee as well as reversely North-South Israeli contiguity & East-West Palestinian contiguity in southern Judea and the Negev. This means mutual territorial contiguity through territorial intersections of horizontally intersecting tunnels at different levels inside hills. This futuristic partition map is specifically devised so as to ensure military strategic depth for Israeli metropolitan regions under any future military scenario.
9. Reaching Permanent Status
The optimal solution is a Jewish one-state solution whereby endogamous Palestinian communities are welcomed back to the Jewish and Samaritan peoples in thus being genuinely and successfully returned to Judaism and Samaritanism respectively. However, achieving this would preferably, yet not necessarily, entail the nominal cooperation of the Haredi (strictly Orthodox) community in Israel and the Diaspora which has a vested social communal interest in making conversion to Judaism relatively more inaccessible so as to prevent assimilation in their own Diaspora communities as those communities are based upon strict orthopraxy which they therefore also expect from new converts.
Ariel University in SamariaHowever, this is not about conversion to Judaism but rather reversion to Judaism and reversion to Samaritanism respectively as most Palestinian endogamous communities are of either entirely Jewish ancestry or entirely Samaritan ancestry. This is thus different from the perspective of Jewish religious law as this is about reversion rather than conversion. The Haredi community in Israel and the Diaspora is thus another important potential interlocutor that could, and should, indeed be constructively engaged on the road to peace towards a Jewish one-state solution.
10. Obstacles to Peace
Any genuinely peaceful and lasting resolution of the conflict requires a profound change in Palestinian public discourse whereby Palestinian society must begin to critically examine its own history. This relates 1) to their Jewish ancestry and historically involuntary conversion by Muslim religious imperialism, 2) the Palestinian leadership’s close collaboration with Nazi Germany in perpetrating the Holocaust including planning to establish Nazi concentration camps in the holy land, living in Nazi Berlin during WW2, carrying out official Nazi propaganda broadcasting in Arabic during WW2 and politically preventing the saving of millions of Jews from Nazi genocide by preventing Jewish immigration to the land of Israel as well as 3) the Palestinian modern history in serially participating in declared, yet defeated attempts at perpetrating a Second Holocaust and then paying the price for this incalculable sin.
Palestinian society must begin to acknowledge this very tragic pattern of theirs and stop retroactively erasing their own Jewish history and their own agency in their contemporary and historical conflict with the Jewish people and liberal-democratic indigenous Israel. There are no quickie shortcut solutions to peace which requires no less than a revolution in Palestinian public discourse, indeed shift of public paradigm in politics, media, religion and academia. This necessitates an open society which in turn requires comprehensive and responsibly successful liberalization and democratization of Palestinian society and this is something that importantly also requires zero-tolerance towards all forms of the modern totalitarian political ideology of Islamism.
11. Narratives
Conventional approaches to resolving this conflict has been focused on reconciling two different historical narratives. Yet while narrating history is always structured by perspective this fact should not be construed as justifying deliberate falsehoods such as denying the Holocaust as Holocaust denial is indeed rampant in Palestinian society and is an important part of the Palestinian narrative. A Jewish one-state solution requires one reasonably unified historical narrative while a two-state solution at least requires Palestinians to acknowledge 1) Palestinian complicity in the Holocaust and 2) Palestinian complicity in repeatedly declared, yet, defeated attempts at perpetrating a Second Holocaust. As Israeli society has already long since closely and critically examined the Israeli narrative so must Palestinian society therefore likewise closely and critically examine the Palestinian narrative.
Western powers tend to regard themselves as representing a dialectic synthesis between what is the Israeli indigenous thesis versus the Palestinian Arabist/Islamist neo-imperialist anti-thesis in Palestinians negating their own Jewish history and complicity in Anti-Jewish genocidal programs. However the problem with this very Western approach is the assumption that those Westerners themselves have since decades already accurately predicted the ultimate resolution of the conflict. That is very wrong since this is intrinsically based upon ignorance about the very rational Israeli geostrategic objectives in very substantially investing in the development of the flourishing indigenous Israeli community restoration project in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria.
This Western narrative has traditionally and very wrongly presumed that the purpose of this indigenous Israeli restoration project is meant to prevent partition when in fact the real underlying purpose is indeed to ultimately facilitate optimal partition between two peoples once indeed there is a genuine Palestinian partner for real, optimal partition between two peoples. The Oslo map was thus in practice devised by Israel as an intermediary stage towards the goal of ultimate optimal partition which entails a political map of the land very different from the Oslo map.
12. Psychology of Genocide
International support for the Zionist movement was historically much greater after WW1 than after WW2, yet the memory of the Holocaust is something that simply affirms the absolute ethical necessity of liberal-democratic, sovereign-indigenous and multicultural-multiethnic Jewish statehood in the land of Israel, yet indigenous territorial self-determination remains the sole basis of Israeli statehood. Genocide prevention is at the very core of Israeli policy making in every field, including in the indigenous Israeli community restoration project in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria. And yes the historical experience of the Holocaust has rightly and certainly wisely so defined genocide prevention as part of the very core of the Israeli national interest.
Yet, there is a tragic phenomenon in Human mass psychology of ignoring genocide when genocide is still at the stage of threat, declaration, agitation, plan and preparation. The more realistic and more imminent genocide becomes, the more is it usually ignored. As the Iranian genocidal nuclear weapons program came closer to its goal of attaining capacity to produce nuclear weapons, many Westerners began to ignore the overtly genocidal intentions of the Iranian regime rather than continuing to affirm the absolute necessity of determined and credible dismantlement of this very genocidal nuclear weapons program.
Thus, President Barack Obama has claimed that a genocidal anti-Semite such as Iran’s dictator Ali Khamenei can be expected to act rationally in the interest of Iranian regime preservation. Yet, neither genocide nor antisemitism is rational and this is one essential lesson of the Holocaust that president Obama is now ignoring. The reality is rather that the Iranian nuclear weapons program is entirely irrational from a purely rational perspective of Iranian regime preservation as Israel eliminating Iran’s genocidal nuclear weapons program will most likely bring about the complete collapse of the Iranian regime itself by the peoples of Iran. In fact, really bad agreements lead to war and not to peace. It is not at all clear at the time of writing whether indeed enough Democrats in the US Congress will ultimately follow their conscience and vote against the disastrous nuclear deal with Iran in order so as to disable President Obama from using his veto power to prevent Congress from rejecting this disastrously bad agreement that severely harms American national interests and endangers America indeed.
Restored indigenous Israeli communities of Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria are continually developed with the twin objective of both 1) genocide prevention and 2) ultimately achieving optimal partition. Since achieving defensible borders is all about genocide prevention, not just in ten years but in a hundred years and in a thousand years; many Westerners have therefore preferred to demonize the indigenous Israeli restoration project in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria such as aggressively accusing Jews of living in the wrong country as is typically claimed in early modern racist Anti-Semitism. The assumption that Jews cannot live in a Palestinian state is however based upon the correct understanding that this would lead to attempted genocide against the Jews living there. So how can a hypothetical future state with a pervasive genocidal narrative not be expected to pursue precisely that genocidal agenda with all means available unless is has first refuted and sincerely abandoned that very genocidal agenda?
13. Bad Agreements
The lesson from the 1938 Hitler-Chamberlain Munich agreement which paved the way for the Holocaust is indeed that really bad international agreements lead to war. However, genocide prevention is at the very core of the strategic articulation of the Israeli national interest despite the fact that much of the world, as usual, ignores sincerely meant threats, designs and plans for genocide against the Jewish state. The genocide-enabling human mindset is, of course, the reason why the United States intervened one day too late in order to prevent the genocide against the Crypto-Jewish Yezidi community in August 2014.
However, Israel can certainly not afford to act too late in terms of genocide prevention with respect to genocidal threats against the Jewish state. In fact, Israel should itself have preemptively bombed Daesh from the air and even as of need landed ground forces in order to protect the Yezidis from genocide considering the relative military incompetence of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Western leaders who for whatever personal reasons sincerely and fervently wish to become part of the eventual resolution rather than the problem itself with regard to the Palestinian issue need to understand and acknowledge that genocide prevention is legitimately and completely rationally at the very core of all Israeli policy making in national security including with respect to the absolutely necessary continued legitimate and fully legal development of the indigenous Israeli communities of Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria which each day only brings peace closer.
14. Negotiations
Negotiations are surely necessary and important, however there are no signs whatsoever that the current 2014-2015 freeze on authorizing new indigenous Israeli construction in disputed regions that for most of the time has been in force for many months already is making the Fatah regime even the slightest interested in permanent status negotiations with Israel. The historical fact is that the Ramallah-based Fatah regime has for most of its existence simply refused to engage in permanent status negotiations and when it felt diplomatically compelled to nominally participate in such a framework they never engaged in any real substantive negotiations on permanent status.
The West therefore needs to acknowledge that their, usually quite condescending, attitude towards disputed indigenous Israeli communities was wrong all along and although this attitude was surely not maliciously intended, this has rather posed a significant obstacle to peace in locking the diplomatic framework into patently false preconceptions about both 1) the future partition map and 2) the utter lack of readiness of the Fatah regime to leave its overtly genocidal agenda in favor of a new paradigm of peaceful partition between two peoples. Those Western expectations have always been unrealistic and so any permanent peaceful resolution requires not only responsibly successful liberalization and democratization but also crucially comprehensive de-radicalization of Palestinian society which needs to develop a far more honest and self-critical approach towards its own past in order to substantially improve its own future.
15. New Policy for peace
The international community needs to internalize that disputed indigenous Israeli communities in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria are an important element of mutually achieving optimal partition between two peoples not only in Judea and Samaria but also inside Israel. The obsession over the wrong map with regard to achieving a truly peaceful future is a very serious mistake that hinders progress in conflict resolution.
The best solution would surely be a Jewish one-state solution as that would truly be a win-win solution for all. Therefore efforts by the international community very much need to focus on jumpstarting and then responsibly accelerating profound transformational processes of shift of paradigm in Palestinian society that will serve to enable and facilitate not only a Jewish one-state solution but also optimal partition between two peoples as the reserve alternative to a Jewish one-state solution.
The international community can really do much to promote such transformational processes of shift of paradigm in Palestinian society. Many countries can therefore play a most constructive role indeed in this vital shift of paradigm in focusing on vital internal Palestinian transformation away from what in terms of optimal partition between two peoples is extremely helpful, yet very much misunderstood indigenous Israeli construction that is actually very much pro-peace in strategic terms. Also, the international community in general and friends of Israel in particular would be especially well advised to learn to avoid rhetoric that plays into de-legitimization of Jewish existence and hence fuels unhelpful Israeli-Palestinian polarization and therefore conflict perpetuation.
If You Will It, It Is No Dream
There are according to Wikipedia up to 30 million Igbos, up to 38 million Kurds and approximately 50 million Pashtuns – all of them Pan-Jewish peoples with their own majority Pan-Jewish lands as there are of course many other Pan-Jewish peoples as well, many with majority Pan-Jewish lands and many without.
In the coming decades, most of the remaining Talmudically Jewish Diaspora (the vast majority of which resides in the United States) is in fact expected to massively immigrate to Israel. For most Diaspora Talmudic Jews who have either visited or lived in Israel for some time; living in multiethnic, Jewish & democratic Israel is highly culturally attractive, yet as the Israeli economy continues to flourish and the standard of living increasingly continues to rise for the well-educated, living in Israel also becomes increasingly economically feasible for indeed increasing numbers of well-educated Diaspora Talmudic Jews, including not least for Talmudic Jewry in the United States.
Receiving Israeli citizenship. Israel will thus ultimately receive the entire remaining Crypto-Jewish population in Ethiopia which is particularly eager to return to Judaism. However, Israel has unfortunately made many politically correct mistakes in relation to absorption of Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish immigrants and Israeli society has thus paid a steep social price for not letting Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish new immigrants determine for themselves how to indeed rebuild their professional lives in the land of Israel. This is so as most Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish immigrants to Israel used to be third world subsistence agriculturalists in Ethiopia and simply wanted to become agriculturalists in Israel as well, yet were denied this opportunity. Therefore, current and future Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish immigrants to Israel should certainly be offered the opportunity to build their own cooperative agricultural villages known in Hebrew as moshavim (singular moshav) as did successfully so many Mizrahi Jewish immigrants from Islamdom already many decades ago.
Although not every Jewish people will have its own titular member state within federal-democratic Israel, each and every Jewish people in dispersal should be entitled to immigrate to one particular future member state of federal-democratic Israel such as Igboland, Judah, Kurdistan or Pashtunistan. Federal Israel will be one increasingly integrated democratic nation with plural Zionist national homes for the many constituent peoples of an increasingly politically integrated Pan-Jewish nation. The Hebrew idiom as the national heritage idiom of the entire Pan-Jewish nation will thus be the primary shared official federal idiom of federal-democratic Israel. This would be in addition to many ethnically Pan-Jewish (and other) official idioms in future member states of federal-democratic Israel such as Igbo, Judean, Kurdish and Pashto which would of course also be co-official idioms in the future Israeli federal capital territory in Jerusalem.
Geographically minuscule contemporary Israel cannot conceivably and indeed will not receive mega immigration of major Crypto-Jewish peoples, especially not those Jewish peoples that are actually demographically & geographically capable of in principle forming their own majority Pan-Jewish federal Israeli member states even without any prior demographic changes. This is also so with regard to oppressed Crypto-Jewish peoples with their own majority Pan-Jewish lands such as the Kurds & the Alevis of the Republic of Turkey. Contemporary Israel is simply geographically far too small and is contrary to what historical Zionist leaders used to sincerely believe, certainly not the only Jewish land on this planet.
Specific Israeli federal member states would certainly be fully entitled to bilaterally or multilaterally increasingly open up for more or less unrestricted, mutual inter-state, intra-federal EU-style civic migration between particular Israeli federal member states that would so prefer and thus subsequently democratically decide and implement. To succeed, the universal process of Pan-Jewish democratic unification (which is not just political but also has many other important aspects as well) must be cautious, gradual and indeed very democratically responsible. However, all citizens of federal Israel should certainly have a common federal citizenship in addition to the state citizenship of each member state as is already the case for member states of the con-federal European Union.
Stateless Pan-Jewish peoples blessed with their own majority Pan-Jewish lands will have to organize & labor politically in close Pan-Jewish cooperation through globalized democratic Zionism in order so as to politically demand & indeed fashion their own Jewish democratic states as part of universal unified idiomatic statehood following in the profoundly ethico-political tradition of democratic realism that is at heart of modern political Zionism. This very demographically significant global Pan-Jewish nation can certainly empower fellow Pan-Jewish peoples to act rationally so as to achieve self-determination in their own majority Pan-Jewish lands as part of a broader universal agenda of universal emancipation.
Organization for Black Jews claims 200,000 in U.S.
Washington estimates that there are 200,000 black Jews in the United States. He is not sure of his organization's current membership because it is growing constantly.
"To be black and to be Jewish are not mutually exclusive," says Washington, also the managing editor of The Bay State Banner, a Boston-based weekly newspaper that covers the local black community.
"A black-Jewish seder assumes automatically in its title that blacks are not Jews and Jews could not possibly be black," Washington says. "We're just Jews having a seder. So what?"
Joining Washington were Rabbi Capers Funnye Jr., a black Jew who leads an Ethiopian congregation in Chicago, and Reuben Greenberg, a black Jewish police chief in Charleston, S.C. The men were also founders of the alliance.
In 1993, Washington was contacted by Michelle Stein-Evers, a black Jew from Los Angeles, who told him a black-Jewish organization had formed there.
That December, Washington went to Los Angeles for a forum on black-Jewish Americans.
When the forum participants exchanged their population estimates, they concluded that there are close to 200,000 black Jews.
Washington says the 200,000 estimate is based on a 1990 Council of Jewish Federations survey that used both the narrow and broad definitions of "Who is a Jew?"
Based on the strict halachic definition -- that Jews must be the children of Jewish mothers and practice their faith, or undergo a halachically recognized conversion -- there are about 135,000 black Jews in this country.
But based on the broad definition, which says anyone who calls himself or herself a Jew is one, there are 260,000.
Can This Rabbinic Revolutionary Make Hebrew Israelites Mainstream?
Like synagogues in many old neighborhoods, the walls of Mount Horeb in the Bronx are lined with the framed photos of esteemed elders who have passed on. There is a faded photo, too, of the Western Wall, and Stars of David.
But at this Bronx synagogue, an Ethiopian flag also hangs above a series of aged newspaper clippings, chronicling the history of the devout African-American community that congregates here, one whose story has unfolded on the margins of the Jewish world.
This particular weekend, the crowd at Mount Horeb — some in dashikis, turbans and knit caps; others with three-piece suits and yarmulkes — have come to hear from a leader-in-waiting who promises to move his community, known as the Hebrew Israelites, at least somewhat closer to the center of mainstream Jewish life.
Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr. has already risen to prominence in the Jewish world as a charismatic cleric, a first cousin once removed to First Lady Michelle Obama and the first African-American member of the Chicago Board of Rabbis, with a synagogue — Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation — listed on the Guide to Jewish Living website of the local Jewish federation. At the same time, he is vice president of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, the only rabbinical body in the separate world of the Hebrew Israelites.
Around 200 members gathered at Mount Horeb on June 27 to hear Funnye; to honor a cherished patriarch, Chief Rabbi Wentworth Arthur Matthew, and to celebrate 96 years of history. It was, among other things, a chance for the New York community to listen to Funnye, who was nominated last October to assume the long-vacant title that Matthew once held. A statement from the board announced that Funnye had successfully “passed the penultimate step to becoming the first Black Chief Rabbi of the 21st century.” The final decision on his elevation, the board noted, will be made at a conclave of rabbis in the fall.
There have been only two other chief rabbis in the community’s history, and the position has been vacant for 16 years.
As Funnye stood to address the crowd, children were hushed, the doors to the street closed. One community member raised her hand and asked what Funnye would do to bring order to the fractious world of Israelites. Another wanted to know what would be done to bring in funding and attract new congregants.
“The world is not going to come here looking for us,” said Funnye, who has, more than any other leader, developed relationships with other branches of Judaism outside the Israelite community. “In order to grow, we need to come out and project who we are.”
Funnye is clear on the question of where the Israelites fit in the larger Judaic world: They are a member of the Jewish family, but also distinct. “We are not Ashkenazi; we are not Mizrachi, Sephardi or Yemenite,” Funnye said. “But we are a part of the house of Israel.”
In taking this stand, Funnye promises not only to challenge the long-held separatism of many in the Israelite community; he may also challenge mainstream Jewry’s image of the group as one that is irrelevant to Jewish life, and as a group with easily-dismissible claims to Jewish identity.
Diane Tobin, founder and CEO of Be’chol Lashon, a group that promotes Jewish racial diversity, called Funnye “practical and pragmatic.” His leadership could provide “an opportunity to move beyond biblical debates mired in the politics of race,” Tobin said, “and toward building community.”
Unlike any past Israelite chief rabbi, Funnye went through a conversion in a Conservative beit din , or Jewish court; almost his entire Chicago congregation has done so, too. He is a longtime member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, works with the World Zionist Organization, is on the board of Chicago’s Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and quotes from prominent rabbis of mainstream Judaism, such as Aryeh Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Unlike any past Israelite chief rabbi, Funnye went through a conversion in a Conservative beit din , or Jewish court; almost his entire Chicago congregation has done so, too. He is a longtime member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, works with the World Zionist Organization, is on the board of Chicago’s Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and quotes from prominent rabbis of mainstream Judaism, such as Aryeh Kaplan and Abraham Joshua Heschel.
In a community notable for a sprawling spiritual diversity and sometimes wary independence, the man nominated to unify the Israelites is one who has embraced a more normative idea of what it means to be Jewish.
Funnye’s agenda in the months since his nomination ranges from the practical (hiring someone to answer phones for the board, offering family counseling, providing support for clerics, raising money from Jewish organizations) to the more doctrinal (affirming that “Torah is the supreme law of the House of Yisrael, based upon the prophetic principles”). His plan points toward a broader formalization and unification of Israelite ritual, including the eventual adoption of a standardized Israelite prayer book, or siddur, and a generally accepted body of Halacha, or traditional religious legal code.
It was in 1919 that a Caribbean-born man named Wentworth Arthur Matthew, now revered as the founding chief rabbi of this group, formed a congregation that would inspire generations of black Americans like Funnye to observe Torah as they understood it. The community he established, the Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, in Harlem, opened its doors as New York City was beginning to swell with waves of African-Americans from the Caribbean and the South. Nationalism and spirituality mingled in the northern metropolis, which had also seen a huge influx of Jews from Eastern Europe at the turn of the century.
Early congregants were coming from church-going families, but Matthew preached that many African-Americans were descended from the biblical Israelites and that they should shrug off their Christian practice and return to the Jewish way of life, their true faith. While there were other groups promoting the same teaching, over time, Matthew’s community emerged as the most orthodox group, whose practice cleaved more closely to Judaism. A charismatic immigrant from the Caribbean island St. Kitts who was also a carpenter, Matthew became the central figure in New York’s emergent Torah-observant community of Israelites.
Matthew reached out to New York’s Jewish establishment, but over the course of four decades no formal relationship materialized. Though Matthew did receive support for his work from B’nai B’rith International, his application for membership to the New York Board of Rabbis was turned down twice, in part because his smicha, or ordination, was given to him not by a body they recognized, but by his mentor, another Israelite cleric. The head of the American Pro-Falasha Committee, a group devoted to the rescue of Ethiopian Jews, derided Matthew’s practice as a “mixture of superstition and ignorance that has nothing to do with Judaism.”
But among some Jewish liberals, Matthew did have advocates, who spoke out in support of the burgeoning community. Rabbi Irving J. Block, an ecumenically minded Conservative rabbi, urged other Jews to accept Matthew and his synagogues. “They are a part of us, spiritually tied to us, and yet they are estranged from us,” he lamented before the Commission on Synagogue Relations in 1964. “Worse still, we are estranged from them.”
In 1965, the commission funded the development of a group called Hatzaad Harishon (“the first step”) to bring Israelites and other black Jews into the fold. The group organized integrated summer camps, an Israeli folk dance troupe and conferences. But it also ultimately pushed for Israelites to convert to Judaism in a conventional beit din overseen by non-Israelite rabbis. While Matthew did perform a kind of ceremony of teshuvah, or return, for new adherents, some members at Hatzaad Harishon did not recognize this as being equivalent to conversion.
“They were trying to circumvent Rabbi Matthew, saying: ‘We’re going to make you just like us,’ as opposed to appreciating the uniqueness and diversity,” said Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy, president of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis.
Hatzaad Harishon was successful in “interrupting the expectation that all Jews are light-skinned, but [the group] ran into difficulties,” said Janice Fernheimer, author of “ Stepping Into Zion : Hatzaad Harishon, Black Jews and the Remaking of Jewish Identity.” There were internal rifts within the group, stemming from the question of whether to require “black Jews to convert according to Halacha or [to accept] their identity claims at face value.”
Divided by the question of conversion, in 1972 the group disbanded. The effects of those early attempts, Fernheimer said, “continue to cascade throughout larger discourses of Jewish identity.”
Developing apart from the mainstream, the community founded by Matthew thrived and diversified. Israelite synagogues spread through New York’s boroughs and across the country. Nationwide there are today a dozen congregations that recognize the authority of the Israelite Board; membership in these synagogues range from less than 75 to 200, according to the board.
There are also thousands of Israelites who do not associate with the board. Some Israelites embraced a more strident nationalism. In Chicago, one leader named Ben Ammi Ben Israel (who had not studied with Matthew but moved in similar circles) led a group of his followers out of the country, eventually settling in Dimona, Israel. Another splinter group for some years frequented Times Square, their members wearing colorful garb and preaching on street corners. This group, the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, has very distant and long-since severed ties to Matthew. Theologies diverge and none of these groups have ever had an institutional relationship with the Israelite Board.
When Matthew died in 1973, a student of his, Rabbi Levi ben Levy, became the chief rabbi of the board. Ben Levy revamped Matthew’s rabbinical academy and described the school as a haven for Israelites, “where young men can study to be rabbis, a place where our beit din can meet to solve the problems within our community.” Describing the movement, he declared, “We are free and we are independent.”
Meanwhile, a young Funnye was looking for God. He was born in Georgetown, South Carolina, an hour north of Charleston, and was raised on Chicago’s Southside, in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He briefly considered entering the AME clergy. But Funnye, like other black nationalists of his time, had begun to see Christianity as a foreign religion, something imposed by whites. “You give a projection of the imagery of God or God’s son, and that image looks just like the people that have been calling you the n-word,” Funnye said. “If that’s what Christian heaven looks like, I’d rather not go.”
He tried other Christian denominations, read about Islam (but was turned off by the role Arab Muslims played in African slavery), and in the early ’70s discovered a Southside temple headed by Rabbi Robert Devine that taught that African-Americans were descendants of the ancient Israelites. Devine’s syncretic worship included Hebrew and Christian scripture. (In this congregation, Jesus Christ was depicted as a black man.)
The next year, Funnye learned about ben Levy’s New York Israelite Academy and was drawn in by the practice of Judaism that was offered there, one closer to traditional Judaism and with no Christological elements. Like mainstream Jewish seminaries, the Israelite academy taught Talmud alongside Torah. Funnye enrolled, studied remotely and in 1985 earned his smicha.
On top of his Israelite education, and with ben Levy’s encouragement (“Get all the education you can,” he was told), Funnye also received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Chicago’s Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. Spertus opened doors for Funnye in mainstream circles; he recalled meeting dozens of Jewish luminaries, including Louis Jacobs, Jerzy Kosinski and Elie Wiesel.
Perhaps because he was a new arrival to the community and had not experienced the community’s earlier, failed attempts at outreach, Funnye had a fresh perspective. He was curious to interact with the Jewish world, and he went through a conversion overseen by a Conservative beit din . It was precisely the issue that had torn through the community years before. But Funnye saw no problem with mainstream conversion, and undertook it with the approval of his teacher, ben Levy.
“I had been a Jew in my heart,” Funnye said. He felt that “going through conversion only solidified who I was. I am a Hebrew, I am an Israelite, I am a Jew, I embody them all.”
With his mainstream pedigree, Funnye has become a public face for multiracial Judaism. Unlike some of his predecessors and peers, he was able to work within the mainstream without fundamentally challenging pervasive notions of what it meant to be Jewish. He set up the Alliance of Black Jews in 1995 and became an associate director at Be’chol Lashon . Though unaffiliated with a major denomination, Funnye applied and became a member of Chicago’s Board of Rabbis in 1997. His mentor, the last chief rabbi, died in 1999.
Today Funnye’s synagogue, the largest Israelite congregation of its kind, has regular pulpit exchanges with other Jewish synagogues in the city. He sees his community as an entry point; congregants have the Jewish literacy to worship anywhere. “Now wherever they go, they are grounded and steeped in Torah,” Funnye said.
But the memories of exclusion are still fresh. This country’s history of segregation and racism reverberates; some congregants see their earlier rejection as bound up in America’s tortured racial politics. There are members alive who studied with Matthew at the Commandment Keepers; some remember the failed attempts at integration with mainstream Jewry in the 1960s. Others bristle at the fact that they are, seemingly ad infinitum, asked to explain how they came to observe Torah and call themselves Israelites.
“There are still people who will not go through a formal conversion,” said Rabbi Baruch A. Yehudah, who leads Brooklyn’s B’nai Adath Kol Beth Yisrael . “It is still too much to give someone else the authority to say, ‘You are allowing me to be a Jew according to your standards.’”
Yehudah, who is a member of the Israelite board and dean of the rabbinical academy, described being interrogated by Hasidic rabbis who questioned his credentials. “Look at me, born Baruch Yehudah, circumcised on the eighth day, keeping more Torah than most,” Yehudah said. “You’re going to tell me I’m not a Jew, not an Israelite? Who gave you that right?”
Rabbi Bradley Artson, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies a Conservative Jewish seminary at American Jewish University, looks at the Israelites’ claims to Jewish identity from a historical point of view that sidesteps the politics of conversion.
“Never has there been a single, monolithic Judaism,” he said. “There have always been different communities of Judaism existing side by side. Some have joined together, like the various sects after the destruction of the Second Temple, or the Hasidim and Mitnagdim in the early modern period; others have left entirely, like the Nazarenes or the Frankists. With regards to the Israelites, what I’d like to work toward is to find a common path together while still honoring the Jewishness they claim. And I’d like to achieve this together, without anyone feeling subservient or judged.”
During his visit to Mount Horeb, Funnye delivered the sermon. Men sat on the right side of the room, women on the left. As per synagogue custom, all worshippers had removed their shoes. Funnye had changed into a black robe adorned with a Star of David.
Simbol of Lost Israel through out the for corners of the world
He invoked the early 20th-century black nationalist Marcus Garvey (“ One God! One Aim! One Destiny!”), spoke about the killing of nine worshippers at the AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, and asked for those of the Israelite community to find common ground as they begin another year.
“I don’t care about how long your tallit is, how small your kippah is or what color your turban is,” he said. There was scattered applause. “What I care about is whether you are willing to work, to build on the foundations we’ve been given.”
Ideas for the Jewish State
Israel needs manpower for the jobs the Palestinian use to do, but because of security reasons the Palestianians can't enter in the Jewish areas in the same proportion they use to do in the past. Now these jobs that the Palestinians use to do are done by illegal immigrants coming mainly from Subsaharan Africa & from eastern Asia in a lesser measure. This is an important concern for the Jewish State of Israel & for many, if not most, of its citizens dissolve because of the fear that these non-Jewish peoples can dissolve the Jewish majority. I propose an easy & practical solution in order to get the necessary manpower to work to sustain the Israeli economy without dissolving the Jewish majority of Israel & even increasing the Jewish majority of Israel. Bring hundreds of thousands of "Lost Israelites" (or as some call them "Lost Jews") from the least developed countries! And be courageous to bring them in hundreds of thousands in order to sustain the econmy now or as soon as possible. There are thousands that are already practising orthodox Judaism & are officially recognized as Jews by some of the main orthodox western & Israeli rabbies. Others practise some for of Judaism, so helping them reaching official orthodox Judaism woulodn't be such an issue. In these groups are included some Ebos, Tutsis, Maasais, Lembas, Shinlungs, the Sefwis (Ghana), some Jewish practicing Gogodalas, the Abayudayas (Uganda), the Beth Yeshourun (Cameroon)... The first group that I mentioned without the article "the" is composed Israelites with undeniable Israelite traditions. The Gogodalas & the ones with the article "the" are practicing Jews that are not considered to be Lost Israelites (Except for the Sefwis sometimes). Not to count the Anusim living in Spanish speaking countries, Italy, Portuguese speaking countries... These Anusim are about 32 million people but can even be more. Only a few are coming back on their own. But can not the Jewish State send proselyting missionaries to recover these and other Jewish souls? It's not even necessary to proselyte among gentiles. Other Lost Israelites among which the Jewish State can proselyte are: Qiangs, Karens, Karennis, Pashtuns, Hata Japanese clan, Ashantis, Iberogens, Iddaosahaks, Kurds, Zazas...
Bring the Black Hebrews from the USA to Israel!
Some want to solve the conflict with two states, one Jewish & the other Arab. Some others want a binational Arab-Jewish state. I propose two Jewish states: one would be Jewish secular republic with Jerusalem as its capital; the other would be a Jewish religious kingdom based on the Halakha (Jewish Law).
The monarchy would be parlamentarian like in the UK or Spain. A Sanhedrim would deal with the laws. There would be a Prime Minister democratically elected by Jews, Druzes, Arabs...Obviously the state, besides being based on Halakha would grant all of citizens rights including the religious. The capital of this kingdom would be the biggest settlement in Samaria, Ariel.
This is just an utopia but could be done. I hope as this group hopes that most non-Jews would be taught of their Jewish past & rejoin the people of Israel. If that is not the case the non-Jewish majority would be a minority because there would be a very agressive aliyah in which the 32 million of Latin American Crypto-Jews (Sephardis) would join Judaism & this second Jewish state. Moreover there's plenty of Lost Israelites willing to join the Jewish people but the state doesn't allow them to make aliyah whereas important rabbies accepted them as Jews: Lemba, Ibo...
I consider a good idea that in the future Israel will be a federal state, like almost any state in the world, and also like ancient times when the land was divided between the tribes of Israel. Thus Tel Aviv will be the secular sub-capital, Safed/Zefat the sub-capital of the Cabalysts, and Nazareth may be the sub-capital for the Notzrim. And of course Jerusalem must be the capital of all.
A New Chanukah Ritual?
Kulanu activist Ruth Silverman has suggested that Kulanu initiate a new Chanukah ritual honoring anousim, or forced Spanish and Portuguese converts of the 15th and 16th century. She suggests a special reading on the fifth night of Chanukah – a reminder of the 500 years that have passed since the Iberian Inquisitions.
Lapid declared that his political agenda includes making the Reform and Conservative movements valid with the Orthodox
Lapid declared that his political agenda includes making the Reform and Conservative movements – both popular in the United States – equal to orthodox Judaism in terms of state support.
“I want to do everything in my power to ensure the equality between all movements of Judaism in the state of Israel, Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform,” he declared. “In conversions, in budgets, in the eyes of the law. No one can claim ownership over the Jewish God.”
“Small, old, petty politics cannot determine something that is eternal as is the Jewish identity, this is just wrong,” he added.
Conservative and Reform Judaism differ from traditional Judaism on principles of belief such as the divine origin of the Torah and of the Oral Law. They also differ significantly regarding conversion to Judaism, and Reform and Conservative conversions are generally not recognized as valid by orthodox rabbis, who say converts must agree to full observance of Jewish law (halacha).
Lapid also said that he plans to promote civil marriage in Israel. Currently Israel recognizes marriages performed under the auspices of a recognized religion within Israel, and any marriage registered abroad whether religious or not.
Both Jewish movements are popular in the United States but are relatively small in Israel. The government does not recognize weddings or conversions conducted under Reform or Conservative auspices.
A survey found that feelings of identification with the Reform and Conservative movements were highest among Israelis from the United States and western Europe, and among Jews from northern Africa and Asia. Support for the two movements was disproportionately low among Israelis of eastern European origin and Israelis born to parents born in Israel.
Israel's Tourism Ministry is Creating a Vision of a New Israel
As the countdown for the final status of Samaria and Judea comes to its apex, the concept of the visualization of what will be in the future for the Nation of Israel is now more critical than ever. For decades, the State of Israel has been under assault by the globalist governments of Europe to give up land for peace. This fact has not been helped with the Palestinians living in the Shomron and Judea region in the heartland of Israel adamant that they do not want to live side-by-side with any Jews. Fatwas (legal pronouncements in Islam issued by a religious law specialist), one after another have been issued over the years seeking to distort the Palestinian Arab minds that it is necessary to wipe the State of Israel off the map and drive the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea.
The call has been that the borders of a Palestinian State are negotiable yet with such a state, the perception has become crystal clear that within the Palestinian State, no Jews will be allowed to live, and work in harmony with the Arab population of that state. The Palestinian Arabs of the House of Ishmael have not to date declared the desire to live in peace with their natural cousins; the Jews of the House of Isaac and Jacob.
Yet, the natural outgrowth of the Israeli nation is that land should be open for population growth and development. It is unique in modern human history, since the era of nation building (Era of Nationalism) for the various national people in the world in the 1920s, that land has been promised to the Jews and then taken away by the political desires of the nations around them.
The historical reality was that the Founding Fathers of the United States of America were leaders of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel in Europe that were infected with the mystical concept of the Jewish Messiah. This vision, even in its impure sense, gave them a utopian mission in a “New World” for a “New Jerusalem” in a new “Promised Land”. That vision is quickly fading and will soon disappear as most American Lost Tribers are coming to a new reality, “This Land is not my Land”. In its place the true Messianic vision of Greater Israel by the prophets of Israel will rise with the coming of the Maschiah ben Dovid (Messiah son of David).
There is one group that is determined to change the visual imagery of the Jewish population in Israel and show them that they do have the right for Jews to dream of a unified, undivided state with contiguous borders that can be defended from foreign aggression. With the members of the new government of Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu shifting its political image, we see the concept of a “One Israel for all Jews and Palestinian Arabs” transforming into the biblical image of a “One Israel for All Israel” incorporation the highest idealisms of a Jewish Messianic Homeland of Greater Israel beginning to be impressed upon the Jewish minds.
Led by the staunch patriotic nationalists, Foreign Minister Avignor Leiberman, and the Tourist Minister Stas Misezhnikov, a pro-Torah perception of a One Israel for All Israel is beginning to sweep the nation. For them, their life in Israel is directed by the G-d of Israel, who gave to their forefathers these lands for their eternal inheritance.
Unknown even to Avigdor Leiberman and Stas Misezhnikov, they are developing a futuristic prophetic mindset that the Jewish legacy for the ages, will be their dogged determination to preserve the regions of Shomron (Samaria) and Judea for the soon to come aliyah of the Greater House of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Two tribes, (Houses of Judah and Benjamin) have returned in part, yet ten tribes are yet to resurrect the “dry bones of Israel” from the desert in the diaspora when the Nations of Northern Europe plus America will awaken to their new reality, we are “Israel” and it is time to return home to the land of our forefathers.
This is a map of Israel as the Eternal One of Israel promised that it will be, in part, a One Israel, undivided for All Israel until the unfolding of the Greater Israel comes into its full reality. It will also be a day, when the Jewish people will also be able to inhabit their own tribal homeland in the entire Land of Judea and the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel will be restored back to the land of their forefathers in Shomron, Lebanon, Gilead in Syria, and Basham in Jordan.About the Rabinate and different Jewish traditions & tendencies
There are people which say Jews from place like India, Ethiopia or other ethnic look are not real Jews but converts to Judaism.
The fact is that in ancient times Israelites or Jews mixed with other people that were sojourning with them therefore they look Asian or African. The Lembas look purely black but their DNA says otherwise. They came partially from the ten lost tribes of Israel. The rabinnic establishment of Israel is not very willing to accept Igbos, Mizos, kukis, Pashtuns, Chiangs...
The Beta Israel culture which was not influenced by Rabbinic Judaism has been found to be incredibly similar to Rabbinic Jewish culture.
Ibo men in their traditional clothes Ibo women with Semitic features
The rabinate should be one of more openminded and be composed of not just white Jews but other ethnic groups & branches of Judaism: Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist, Karaite & even Messianic Judaism. One in which all currents of Judaism would have room.
The Rabbinate doesn't have to be extinct. In fact, there could be two Rabbinates in Israel: Orthodox and Reformist. Orthodox Jews will marry under the norms of Orthodox Judaism and Reform Jews would do it under the norms of Reform Judaism. On the other hand, atheists/agnostics or Jews/non-Jews who wish to marry non Jews should have the option of civil marriage.At very least there then should be Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstruction, and Renewal "Rabbinates". Maybe lots more if we honor every Hasidic sect.
Once somebody is accepted as Jew it doesn't matter if it's Christian or whatever it wants. You should look for the 32 million Latinoamerican Crypto-Jews as well. It would be revolution having 32 million settlers. Spanish would become another national language probably. The Negev would be inhabited and the whole of Israel too. The Arabs would be a minority even if Israel adds Judea & Samaria. The would be several cities of 1 million people or even 10 million for Jersalem and Tel-Aviv. I heard a high percentage of Palestinians are the offspring of Jews that never left. They should be taught that to comeback to their roots. The Druzes are often not considered Arabs nor even Moslems & they even recognize that.
Now that Syria maybe falling apart it can be created an associated State to Israel called Phoenicia made of current Lebanon plus the coastal Syrian Alawistan in which all the millions of Lebanese (Which are mainly Christian) can return to their ancient land plus the other ethnic/religious groups that include in it. This map shows the Non-Arab coast: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Levant_Ethnicity_lg.jpg (Interesting points of view in the map as well).
Just conversion policies are not only possible, they are necessary
The recent news that members of the Chueta community of Mallorca have been recognized as Jews by Rabbi Nissim Karelitz of Bnei Brak is certainly historic. Thanks to the hard work of Michael Freund and Shavei Israel, this will open the door to over 15,000 people whose Jewish ancestors were forced to convert to Catholicism 500 years ago, helping them return to the Jewish people.
Yet there is far more that we can and must do to welcome non-Jews of Jewish ancestry back into our nation.
At least 300,000 non-Jewish Russian immigrants of Jewish descent currently reside in Israel. They serve in our army, study in our schools, speak our language and socialize with our children. A high percentage seek to convert to Judaism but have met resistance from the Israeli Rabbinate, which questions their level of commitment to religious observance, a prerequisite for conversion.
Let me state in the clearest of terms that according to traditional Jewish law, not only can we convert these immigrants, we must convert them.
JEWISH TRADITION demands that we not relate to the descendants of Spanish “Anusim” and the Russian immigrants of Jewish descent as gentiles. While they are not Jewish and, of course, require the three steps demanded of all converts – circumcision, immersion in a mikve (ritual bath), and acceptance of commandments – they actually fall into a unique category called “zera Yisrael” (seed of Israel). According to some of the most prominent medieval sages, this designation means that while they are not Jewish, they do embody “the holiness of Israel.”
Rabbi Tzadok Hacohen Rabinowitz of 19th-century Lublin, Poland, explains that Isaiah referred to zera Yisrael when he described the “lost ones” who would rejoin the Jewish people through conversion upon our return to our homeland. Since these Russian immigrants have “the holiness of Israel” and it has been foretold that they will return to Judaism, we must do everything we can to help them convert.
“But what about the rule that a gentile must ‘accept the commandments’ as a prerequisite to conversion?” one might ask. “While the immigrants in question will surely fulfill circumcision and ritual immersion, they are not committed to performing all the commandments! Doesn’t Orthodox law require a verbal commitment to fulfill all the commandments prior to conversion?” The simple and straightforward answer is “no.” The greatest of rabbis never demanded this. The Talmud clearly requires only that we teach conversion candidates “some lenient and some strict commandments.”
None of the great sages ever demanded that the conversion candidate fulfill all the commandments; this is a modern development.
The candidates in question agree to fast on Yom Kippur, to refrain from eating leavened bread on Pessah, to recite the Kiddush prayer and light the candles on Shabbat night, and for those in the IDF, to risk their lives to protect the Jewish state (what greater mitzva can there be?). The classic texts are replete with sources permitting the conversions of these zera Yisrael immigrants based on their intention to observe these basic commandments, especially in light of the fact that we should be proactively seeking them out for conversion.
ONE ADDITIONAL issue demands that we convert these immigrants immediately. If we don’t allow them to convert, these immigrants are going to marry our children anyway. They grow up together, go to grade school together, serve in the army together, study in university together, and thousands will inevitably choose to spend their lives together. And then, in the coming decades, Israel will be ripped apart with disputes regarding which citizens are Jews and which are not. Non-Jewish children will be raised as Jews, but will not be recognized as Jews by the rabbinate or the state.
This will polarize Israel in ways it has never been polarized before.
True leadership demands that a problem be solved before it even arises, and in our current circumstance, that means relying on those valid and lenient opinions to convert these hundreds of thousands of immigrants.
The Israeli version of the Arab Spring has erupted in the summer of 2011. As the nation begins to address its internal problems, with the Facebook protest over the price of cottage cheese and the erection of tent cities to demand lower rental fees, I hope this internal reflection expands to include the plight of our fellow citizens who so badly want to be Jews. I will not rest until we solve their problem, and I hope all fellow Israelis join me in this quest.
We have to send olim to the majority Arab speaking areas (For that Israel needs to bring the calculated 32 million Latino American hidden Jews)
We have to send olim to the majority Arab speaking areas in the surrounding of Nazareth, Acre, Haifa & the northern Negev:
http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Mid_East_Linguistic_lg.png
For that Israel needs to bring the calculated 32 million Latino American hidden Jews (New Christians/Conversos/Marranos/Anusim/Crypto-Jews/Mantudos), the one million Crypto-Jews from Poland & others back to Judaism & to Israel later. In this way the desert will really blossom as Isaiah says: Isaiah 35:1
We have to send olim to the majority Arab speaking areas in the surrounding of Nazareth, Acre, Haifa & the northern Negev:
http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Mid_East_Linguistic_lg.png
For that Israel needs to bring the calculated 32 million Latino American hidden Jews (New Christians/Conversos/Marranos/Anusim/Crypto-Jews/Mantudos), the one million Crypto-Jews from Poland & others back to Judaism & to Israel later. In this way the desert will really blossom as Isaiah says: Isaiah 35:1
You recover the 32 millions of calculated Hidden Jews (Anusim/Marranos) from Latin America & bring them to the enlarged land of Israel, the whole of the Lost Israelites which maybe 100 millions or more (Lembas, Igbos, Beta Abraham, Mizo-Kuki-Chin, Yibirs, Kurds, Karens, Pathans, Kashmiris, Tutsis...)...Once brought back to Judaism & to the great people of Israel you can promote their return. Any mass immigration would pale compairing this.
When Theodor Herzl proposed a Jewish State it was an utopia but the utopia became a reality. Probably is better populating every corner of the current Eretz Israel overtaking non-Jewish peoples.
The desert has to be populated so that every corner is well populated & with huge Jewish majority.
South Korea is only 4 times bigger (territory) but 8 times more populated. Can you imagine cities like Tel-Aviv, Beersheba, Eilat, Ashkelon, Haifa...with 5 million people each?
I know the handicap of the desert but if the first Jews made the desert blossom why not again? Isaiah 35:1 God will provide the way to get the Promised Land. Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, chose the Negev for his home, because he believed the blooming of the desert would be the making of Israel. He had agricultural miracles in mind, and many have come to pass. Now the seeds of a cultural miracle have been planted in a harsh climate. If they are tended with patience and constance, the fruits produced will be sweet.
Igbo Friends of Israel
“Our mission is to forge a stronger spiritual, economic, socio-cultural relationship and a deeper understanding between Ndi Igbo and Israel and the Hebrew People.”
Goals include:
1. Recognition of Ndi Igbo by Israel as descendants of the lost tribe of Gad as well other Israelite Tribes.
2. To educate Ndi Igbo about their Hebraic identity, origin and history.
3. To provide a platform where great Igbo and Jewish minds could share professional ideas.
4. To foster an environment in which Israel's commercial interests with Ndi Igbo are enhanced.
5. Working toward the betterment of life among Ndi Igbo at home and abroad and the easement of sufferings among the women, widows and children in Igboland.
6. Working in conjunction with other like-minded peoples and organizations to bring these things about.
North American Board Members:
Kingsley Chibuike - Igbo Friends of Israel - Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Rabbi Gavriel Ogugua - Redeemed Israel Tabernacle - Riviera Beach, Florida. USA
Rabbi Yehudah "Tochukwu" ben Shomeyr - Abraham's Descendants International - Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, CANADA
African Branch:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/501060773295525/
Israeli Growth Rate and the Redemption of the Tribal Lands of Judea and the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel
Blue Line for “Jewish Baby Boomers” and Red Line for “Jewish Immigrants”
Two Columbia University professors, one of which is Jewish, Yinon Cohen and Neve Gordon have determination that the “Lack of Peace” in the Middle East was determined by one statistical fact: Jewish babies! Ruffled feathers began to fly in the face of “Friends of Israel” who support the Jewish settlement movement and those who believe that there is a G-d of Israel, who chose the Hebrew people, and made a covenant with them as “National Israel” at the mount called Sinai. This was after this same G-d promised his chosen emissary, Abraham, that his descendants through Isaac and Jacob would have divine legal “deed of trust” to the entire Land of Israel, for their descendants, forever.
It was in the early 1990s that following the 1991 Madrid Conference, our Norwegian Lost Israelite brothers plotted secretly until when they revealed the “Oslo Accord” (1993), this began the ill fated international quest to induce the Israelis “Land for Peace” for the sole purpose to give the “fields of Ephraim” in Central Samaria to the Palestinian peoples for a national homeland.
So they, the Palestinians created terrorism, suicide bombers, and rocket launchers and even use their own children as human shields to fend off attack by the Israeli defenders. Then they sought to negotiate more “Land” for “Peace” that never came. They began calling this region “Occupied Territory” as they sought to delegitimize the settling of Israeli citizens in that region that they called the “West Bank” which was actually the biblical heartland of the homelands of the ancient Children of Israel.
The only reason that there was a “West Bank” was because there was also an “East Bank” on the “other side of the Jordan” that was also artificially conceived by the British Mandate, supposedly for a national homeland for the Palestinian people. Instead it was given to the Hashemite Jordanian royal family in order to get “insider rights” to the oil in the Middle East, predominately in Saudi Arabia.
During these years, the State of Israel began to encourage the Israeli settlement Program which was initiated in the early 1990s to encourage Israelis settling in the mountains of Israel in central Shomron. This was done to establish a Jewish presence throughout all the land of Israel.
As we notice in the chart above, the immigration into the “mountains of Samaria” skyrocketed in 1990, then quickly began to decline, only to be followed by two surging growth patterns in 1997 and 1999 just before Yasser Arafat decided to sabitoge the entire “Land for Peace” by plotting the Second Intifada, seeking to kill, maim or destroy any Jewish people living in the “mountains of Israel” placed there for a homeland for the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel.
After the Gaza Disengagement, the patriots and pioneering Jewish families then began a concerted effort, this time on their own to “settle” the biblical mountains of Israel. This Jewish settlers “do it yourself” attitude came only the heels of the cowardice of their own Israeli political leaders who lost the vision of G-d’s promise and blessings to restore this land at the “end of days” to the G-d of Israel.”
After the devastating 2005 retreat from Gaza, the “Black Knight” assault on “settler kids” at Amona, and the continuous harassing of Jewish settlers living in Hebron, one of the most Jewish of the ancient Jewish towns in Jewish history, immigration into the Shomron regions continued to decline.
The evidence today appears that the natural birth rates of Israeli children born to parents that were patriotic to the dreams of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, continues to expand while the immigration rate of all Israeli into the Shomron and Judean regions of the Land of Israel continued to decline. Was this a lack of faith that their country’s government and Supreme Court leadership are against the Divine Will have political goals and agendas that are against the commands of the G-d of Israel? Even if so, there is sufficient growth to allow for the Jewish people to remain the ascendant population within the region, even against a growing Palestinian population.
What we now are witnessing, in the second graph is the evidence that the accelerating Annual Birth Rate in Shomron and Judea is and will be in the future one of the keys to the sustenance of the Jewish population in the biblical heartland of Israel. Here, where the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived and flourished, is today witnessing a flourishing population of patriotic and pioneering settlers who are predominantly Orthodox Observant Jews.
Testifying to the graph depicting the birthrate of the Jewish population, we see that the “Total Israeli Jewish population” living from Galilee to the north and Eilat on the Red Sea to the south, the average the total birthrate is only about 3.0%. We are initially unsettled by the facts that the “West Bank” Palestinian’s total birth rate is slightly higher at 3.1%.
The High Fertility Rate of Ultra-Orthodox Women in comparison to Israeli and Palestinian Populations
Yet when we put all the Jewish patriots settling in the Mountain of Judea and Shomron, we have an amazing population birthrate of 5.1%. What is the key to such a jump in the Jewish birthrate; the Ultra-Orthodox Jews. When we look at the birth rate of the Ultra-Orthodox Jews living within the entire Land of Israel, from Galilee to Eilat and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, the annual birthrate is an amazing 6.5%.
If we dig a little bit deeper, we discover that the Ultra-Orthodox population of Jewish people is seeking predominately to live in the biblical heartland of Shomron and Judea where their Patriarchal fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob once lived. There they lived, died and were later buried there in Hebron, in the family tomb purchased by their Father Abraham. It is in these regions of Shomron and Judea that the birthrate of the Ultra-Orthodox is a whopping 7.7%.
We have to understand the biblical command of the G-d of Creation to “be fruitful and multiply”. This means that in the eyes of the G-d of Creation, it is more important to have children than it is to have a Mercedes Benz, an estate, or an executive position in an important company. Also we have to consider that these are the stout pioneers of the State of Israel, who still have to evacuated their own legally purchased homes and dwellings, and watch them be razed to the ground to appease their tribal brothers to the north and choose instead to give the tribal homelands for the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel away to the Palestinians for their homeland. Consider if that was your home?
Now, let us witness the chart depicting the annual Jewish Israeli growth rate. We then look at the total populations and analyze how the annual growth rate in the entire Land of Israel is partitioned out to different sectors of the population. Here we see the result:
The Growth Rate of “All Israeli Jews” from the Sea to the River is 1.5%; The Growth Rate of “Palestinians” living in the mountains of Israel called Shomron and Judea is 2.2%.
The Growth Rate of “All Settlers” patriotic to the goals and dreams of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that the Children of Israel should take possession of the “Land” is 3.6%, and; The Growth Rate of “All Ultra-Orthodox Settlers” living in the biblical heartland of Israel, fulfilling G-d’s mandate to “be fruitful and multiply” is 6.6%.
The evidence today appears that the natural birth rates of Israeli children born to parents patriotic to the dreams of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob continues to expand while the immigration rate of all Israeli, into the Shomron and Judean regions of the Land of Israel continues to decline. Is this because there is a lack of faith that their country’s government and Supreme Court leadership refuse to govern with just policies that reflect the commands of the G-d of Israel? Do they believe that their government leader’s political goals and agendas are against the commands of the G-d of Israel? Even so, there is sufficient growth to allow for Jewish people to remain the ascendant population within the region, even as we shall see against a growing Palestinian population.
What we now are witnessing, in the second graph is the evidence that the accelerating Annual Birth Rate in Shomron and Judea is and will be in the future one of the keys to the sustenance of the Jewish population in the biblical heartland of Israel. Here where the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived and flourished, today is witnessed by the flourishing patriotic and pioneering settlers who are predominantly Orthodox Jews.
Testifying to the birthrate of the Jewish population in Israel, we see in the “Total Israeli Jewish population” living from Galilee to the north and Eilat on the Red Sea to the south; the average the total birthrate is about 3.0%. Yet we are unsettled by the facts that the West Bank Palestinians total birth rate is slightly higher at 3.1%.
In spite of the fact that the most honorable goal of lives of these pioneering Jewish settlers, they are still threatened and actually evacuated from their own legally purchased homes and dwellings. They have their homes bulldozed to the ground because the international furor coming predominately from the countries in Northern Europe.
Is not the message coming clear, the animosity and anti-Semitism of the Lost 10-Tribes of the House of Israel today living in Northern Europe towards their Jewish brothers is still alive and well. In a day not to far in the future, the G-d of Israel has promised to stop their arrogance to their brother, Judah, and their abomination of G-d’s Holy Name, and He will set the stage of global catastrophes that will effectively make the lands of their dwelling non-inhabitable.
The Ultra-Orthodox Trump Card
Let us now look that the last graph. In 1991, the year of the Madrid Conference, the international globalists established an international agenda to delegitimize the Israeli Jew’s right to live and possess the biblical heartland of Israel. All these honorable Jews wanted to do was to live in the hometowns and regions of where their Patriarchal forefathers once lived almost 4,000 years ago.
At that time, the population of ultra-Orthodox Jews living in the Shomron and Judea (not the West Bank) was less than 5,000 people, or less than 5% of the pioneering settlers living in the same region. The State of Israel began an official building program in which apartments and a variety of homes were built for the expanding Jewish population. With that also came a whole array of incentives and subsidies.
During the years of the Oslo Accord, after 1993, the State of Israel began to encourage the Ultra-Orthodox population to move to Shomron and Judea. First note that the term “West Bank” is a globalist term loaded with anti-Semitic ideology, and definitely not a biblical term. Yet today, over 30% of the population that lives within this region is Ultra-Orthodox Jews. In less than 8 years into the future of the State of Israel, the Ultra-Orthodox population will be nearly 40% of the entire population of Israeli patriots today living as citizens in the biblical heartland of the Northern Kingdom of Israel; Shomron and the northern regions of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the region of Judea. This tremendous growth has not and will not come by immigration. It has come from the expanding birth rate of those Torah pioneers who have chosen to stay true to the commands of the G-d of Israel
What this means today; the peoples who are following the commands of the L-rd believe fervently also that possessing the land is a Divine command. The G-d of Israel commanded that it was imperative to “possess” the “Land” in order to make this region a “Holy Land”. Let us look now at the statistics of the demographics of the expanding Jewish population today divided between the Haredi Jews and all other Israeli Settlers:
The Year of 1991 (Pre-Oslo); Ultra Haredi Jews: 5.2% and Other Israeli Settlers: 94.8%;The Year of 2011 (Post-Gaza Disengagement); Ultra Haredi Jews: 31.0% and Other Israeli Settlers: 69.0%;The future 2020 (Age of the Messiah?); Ultra Haredi Jews: 38.2% and Other Israeli Settler: 61.8%.
The facts are now clear, there is a mega-trend going on in Israel and it is no wonder that the future of Israel, in the non-spiritual eyes of the globalist anti-Jew, is seeing their political ideology of destroying the spiritual identity of the Land of Israel as being G-d’s Holy Land. The political identity of the Zionist State of Israel is turning away from being one with the rest of the “nations of the world”. They are returning to their true Jewish roots, while there political ideology is turning into a spiritual ideology with their futuristic vision of Israel begin transformed into the vision of the Messianic Kingdom in the “World to Come!”
A spiritual volcano is about to erupt in the Middle East and around the world. When it does, the transformation of the humans with a spiritual orientation of “service to others” will become more elevated and the polarity of the forces of light in conflict with the forces of darkness will become the battleground of the future.
On December 21, 2012, the world made a transition towards our future. The world as we know it to be is now being seen by millions as an era “passing away.” Their new identity will gradually escalate into a global focus on preparing to be a part of the “World to Come” and the “age of the Messiah.”
This fact is becoming an ever present reality especially in the lives of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, as the “The Call to the Ten Tribes of Yisra’el; “Come Home!” becomes an urgent obsession most of their lives. It's time for the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel to begin their historic journey back home and return to their Jewish roots in Judaism.
It’s time for emuna, the “faith” in the Sovereignty of the Divine One of Israel that He is capable of making this fact happen and renew the spirit within us, for us to daily “call upon the “Master of Legions” bring to reality the true “Messianic World to Come” and the recreation of the mountains of Israel in Shomron and Judea into a new “Gan Eden” (Ezekiel 36:35).
Ezekiel 36:33-36 – “On the day when I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited and the ruins will be built. The desolated land will be tilled, instead of having been desolate in the eyes of every passerby. People will say, ‘This very land, which had been desolate, has become like the Garden of Eden; and the ruined, desolate and demolished cities have been fortified, inhabited!” The nations that remain around you will know that I, HaShem, have rebuilt the ruins and I have replanted the wasteland; I, HaShem, have spoken and I shall act.”
Ethiopian-Israeli lawmakers split over continuing Falashmura immigration
How many people of Jewish descent are left in Ethiopia? Between 5,000 and 300,000, depending which Ethiopian-Israeli Knesset member you ask.
On one side is MK Mazor Bahyna (Shas), who claims, "There are more than 300,000 Jews in Ethiopia who are entitled to immigrate to Israel, and they should be helped to get here." On the other side is MK Shlomo Molla (Kadima), who supports the official government position that the immigration from Ethiopia should be ended.
The disagreement between the two lawmakers reflects the profound differences of opinion within the Ethiopian community in Israel. Some are calling to bring anyone who claims a connection to the Jewish people to Israel, while others do not see the Falashmura, whose ancestors converted to Christianity, as Jews, and say many of them are lying about their Jewish origins.
"We have historical evidence and letters from the kaises (Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders) showing that 40 years ago there were more than 50,000 crypto-Jews who had been forced to convert," says Bahyna. "We believe that there are at least 300,000 today. This is a religious question. The rabbis have determined that they are Jews, and they should be brought here."
Molla, however, argues that Israel should stop bringing over Falashmura, in accordance with the 2005 government decision to cease the immigration as of this month. He calls Bahyna's stance "utter nonsense. Because of mistakes they made at the Interior Ministry, there are still 5,000 people in Ethiopia whose eligibility needs to be examined, but after that, the matter must be ended," he says. "This is a political decision. If they keep dragging their feet, an infinite number of Ethiopians with no connection to Israel or the Jewish people could come here."
Help Converts To Help Ourselves
The Conversion to Judaism Web Page (www.convert.org) has seen a steady rise of visitors, now totalling over 250,000. We have seen an increase in the number of rabbis willing to be listed. If these numbers hold, the entire Jewish community will be undergoing an incredible upheaval. More and more people will have chosen Judaism as their religion and fewer and fewer Jews will be unaffiliated and secular.
We have an opportunity to increase and invigorate Judaism by opening our doors and letting people who wish to join us feel welcome. But much work still needs to be done. There is little or no organizational funding for conversion. Accepting Jews by Choice as devoted Jews is still not a part of the Jewish mentality, and getting rid of the notion that Jews do not proselytize seems far away. It is important to understand that Jews by Choice add a new vigor to our religion and that they are just like born Jews. They send their children to Jewish camps, read Jewish newspapers, contribute to Jewish organizations and enroll their children in Jewish day schools.
This notion that Jews do not proselytize is an erroneous idea. Jews used conversion to replenish losses because of war and famine. It was the Church which forced Jews to give up this practice and the specter of that edict still haunts Jews today. Huge numbers of non-Jews have a Jewish heritage, large numbers are dissatisfied with their birth religion, others are spiritual seekers who have no religion. And yet the Jewish community refuses to welcome those seeking to join us. Money is spent trying to seduce the Woody Allens of the world into rejoining the Jewish community. We need to wave goodbye to those who do not appreciate a Jewish heritage and welcome those who wish to throw in their lot with the Jewish people.
There are massive numbers of people who want to explore Judaism and the Internet has given us the tool by which to accomplish their goal. What we need is a Jewish community that puts money into programs which yield results, not programs whose results cannot be measured. An informal survey of 36 people who signed our web site’s guest book showed that within six months, six people had converted. Four more were still in various stages of study. A full-page ad in Moment Magazine pushed our daily numbers from 250 hits a day to 300-400 hits a day. Yet our entire web page is financed by only a handful of people. Population surveys about Jewish demographics could be rendered ridiculous if the Jewish community put a bit of financing into conversion programs. Please help us by directing people who wish to convert to our web page, by telling rabbis about what we are trying to do and by appreciating the great life-change that a convert experiences when joining us. Make the Jew by Choice feel welcome. We are greatly indebted to these most wonderful souls.
FINDING LOST JEWS
As if listening to the latest news bulletins were not depressing enough, Israelis are now being warned once again that the demographic balance between Jews and Arabs in coming decades is looking increasingly bleak. Projections recently presented to the Knesset show that Arabs may outnumber Jews within pre-1967 Israel as soon as the year 2035 (The Jerusalem Post, August 6).
Demography is hardly the most reliable of sciences, as it is nearly impossible to foretell future events such as mass human migrations or natural disasters, all of which obviously affect the statistical models involved. But Israeli policy-makers would be ill-advised to overlook such dire warnings about the fate of Israel's Jewish majority. Indeed, it seems fair to say that, aside from the danger posed by non-conventional weapons in the hands of Israel's neighbors, the issue of demography might very well be the greatest threat to the future of Israel as a Jewish state.
As the percentage of Jews continues to decline, it will grow increasingly difficult for Israel, as a democracy, to ignore mounting calls by its Arab minority for cultural autonomy and perhaps even self-rule. And if the day were to come when Arab Israelis could elect more representatives to the Knesset than Jewish Israelis, the Jewish identity of the State would be in grave doubt.
To their credit, leading Israeli public figures are no longer remaining silent about the issue. On his visit last week to Russia, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called upon world Jewry to immigrate to Israel, stressing the vital need for mass migration as a way of bolstering the state's Jewish population.
But as the pool of potential immigrants from the former Soviet Union begins to shrink, and with mass migration from the West not yet in the offing, it is hard to see how such traditional calls for immigration will have any real or lasting impact on the situation. World Jewry is simply not rushing to move to Israel. While Israel must certainly continue to promote immigration, both as a means of achieving personal Zionist and Jewish fulfillment and as a national responsibility, it must also begin to think more creatively about how to address the ongoing erosion in the country's Jewish demographic profile.
The fact is that there are plenty of people out there in the big wide world who would like to move to Israel. The problem is that most of them are not Jewish. While many are no doubt motivated by economic reasons, there are countless others who are sincere in their desire to be Jews, and it is incumbent upon Israel to at least explore the possibilities that such populations present.
In northeastern India, for example, there are 5,000 members of the Shinlung tribe (referred to as Bnei Menashe because of their claim to descend from a lost tribe of Israel) who have been living observant Jewish lives for some two decades and anxiously wish to immigrate to Israel. In recent years, some 600 Bnei Menashe have immigrated and undergone formal conversion by Israel's Chief Rabbinate. They serve in the army, lead religious Jewish lives and work as productive members of society. Shouldn't those still in India be given a similar opportunity?
Other groups, such as the Lemba tribe of southern Africa and the Abayudaya of Uganda, also express a desire to join their fate with that of the people of Israel, as have other far-flung groups in countries as diverse as Peru, Mexico and Japan.
In recent years, untold numbers of Crypto-Jews (descendants of Marrano Jews who were forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal in the late 15th century), have begun returning to Judaism throughout Central and South America and the United States. Receiving little in the way of encouragement or support from the organized Jewish community, these people are heroically trying to rejoin the Jewish people, and more needs to be done to help them.
But rather than neglecting these people, it is time for Israel to start reaching out to them, assessing their claims to Jewish ancestry and acting to help those worthy of assistance. The various organs of the State, such as the Jewish Agency, the Chief Rabbinate and the Foreign Ministry, need to look more carefully at this issue and give it serious consideration. For a country struggling to find potential new sources of immigration, groups such as the Bnei Menashe and others like them might very well provide the answer.
(The writer served as deputy director of communications and policy planning in the Prime Minister's Office from 1996 to 1999.)
To my “Kulanu eyes,” the only thing missing in the Maccabi Olympics was color. Oh, the teams’ uniforms were colorful, and the huge Mexican hats were distinctive. But with rare exception, skin color was white. I couldn’t help daydreaming about future Maccabi game in a more-perfect world with Jewish Tutsi basketball players from Rwanda and Burundi, Jewish runners from Uganda and South Africa and Ghana, Jewish table tennis stars from China, and Jewish soccer (football) stars from Latin America. Perhaps they would be living in their native countries, or perhaps in Israel or another country, but in this more-perfect dream world they would be well-educated, practicing, recognized Jews of many colors and many exciting abilities!
Black and White Jews Share Matzot and Minhag in Manhattan
On April 22, the close of Passover was celebrated at the Carlebach Shul on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. This, of course, is not unusual. What made the occasion a milestone was the attendance of seven Black Hebrews from the Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew congregation of Harlem, Congregation House of Israel of Brooklyn, and Sha'ar Zion Sephardic Minyan (Young Israel) of Manhattan.
Commandment Keepers is the original Black Hebrew congregation established in the US, tracing its beginning in New York to the year 1919 -- the same year that the Abayudaya Jewish Community was formed near Mbale, Uganda. There are several Black Hebrew congr egations located in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens. Most maintain a style of worship that reflects a synthesis of their Hebraic and African roots.
Arranged by Kulanu board member Harriet Bograd, the service atCarlebach presented an opportunity for the two groups to sing, worship, dance and partake of a final Passover meal together. Members of the Carlebach Shul, including its rabbi, offered observations on the spiritual significance of the day and the gathering. Presentations by Y’sudah Yehudah, a native of Harlem, and Ahab Eliyah, of Nigerian ancestry, followed. Both have been observant Hebrews for most or all of their lives.
Yehudah, an anthropologist, lived with the Abayudaya in Uganda during the summer of 2001 and again in January 2002 to work on her Masters project. She described the founding of the community under Ugandan warrior-hero Semei Kakungulu during the British colonial period. She cited as the community’s most formidable challenge in the modern era Idi Amin’s oppressive regime from 1971-1979. Yehudah noted that currently the lack of a viable water system and power source present major challenges to the small African community, along with unemployment, poverty and missionizing efforts by Muslims and Christians, which discouraged the pursuit of education. Hunger, illness and the lack of proper clothing have also been deterrents to education. Vigorous efforts to remedy the lack of general and Jewish education have been undertaken through the establishment of Semei Kakungulu High School and the Hadassah Infant School, both being crucial for the survival of the community. Initiatives on the part of Kulanu and members of the Black Hebrew community have contributed to a brighter outlook for the Ugandan community. A spirited question-andanswer period followed, and Bograd made an appeal for monetary and material donations to the Abayudaya schools.
Eliyah, a young researcher from the Upper East Side and representative of the Ibo Benei-Yisrael Association of New York, described the arrival of Jews to West Africa through migrations, trade and travel. His discussion covered the first arrivals of Jews into North and West Africa as well as their decline due to the Islamic invasions, which began in 650 CE. He specifically outlined the three major migrations, customs and practices of the Jewish ancestors of several prominent Ibo (Igbo) clans who comprise the Ibo Benei-Yisrael Jews of Nigeria. These migrations, according to Eliyah, are believed to be from Egyptian and Ethiopian Jewish migration, migration of Jews from Morocco and Timbuktu, and migration of Jewish Berber clans from North Africa. The Ibo, having lost most of the written record of their Jewish identity and the written Torah, were able to maintain oral traditions and practices such as circumcision, kashruth, and purification. Eliyah recounted the episode of British colonial control over Nigeria, which resulted in tensions between the Ibos and other Nigerian ethnic groups and led to the 1960-1966 Biafra War.
Eliyah also spoke of modern-day Ibo communities in Tel Aviv, Southeastern Nigeria, the United States and other locations, and their current progress in regaining the lost portions of their Jewish identity. Further research is currently being led in Nigeria by Remy Illona of the Ibo Benei-Yisrael organization of Nigeria to provide clearer accounts of the community’s Jewish origins as well as work to link West African Jews with other Jewish communities around the world. The presentation sparked a lively question and answer period.
Several recent events have brought black and white Jews together. This occasion served to underscore the diversity of ethnicities and traditions shared among Hebraic peoples -- some who live right next -door and some who reside in far corners of the world. The evening ended with an exchange of invitations between the two groups for future interaction.
Speaking Out for Israel
The work of Kulanu is a heavenly work—beneficial to all Jews. I noticed that a fact that encourages this mad dream of some people that Jews can be eliminated is that they view Jews as a small people; an untruth, because in our own case, the Ibos of Nigeria are at the very least 40 million. And in the same Nigeria, from my present research and observation, are many peoples/tribes who definitely came under Jewish influence, because the Ibos lived in most parts of Nigeria; and those people don’t really feel hostile to Israel.
Another obligation for all Jewish peoples should be to speak out and write about the oppression of Jews by Palestinians. If a Lemba, an Ethiopian Jew, an Abayudaya, an Ibo, a Honduran Jew, etc., all get articles into papers calling for world sympathy for Israel, I believe the world will begin to realise that the truth is that Israel is in reality the victim. Hiding has never helped matters. Initially Ibos were afraid to open synagogues in Abuja, but they did and the heavens did not fall. Jews everywhere should be encouraged by our leaders in Kulanu to speak out and write for Israel. Anything that could help in clearing the lies heaped on Jews should be encouraged. For example, why can’t we spread far and wide the provision of Vatican II absolving Jews of any blame in the killing of Jesus? Also, the suicide bombing of Israeli civilians has been classified as a war crime; we should agitate for charges to be brought against their leaders. Remy Ilona. Abuja, Nigeria
Kulanu and Zionism: Reviving the Jewish People
The successes of the Zionist movement over the last century can inspire us today, with an example of a cultural-religious-national Jewish movement that helped preserve and re-energize the Jewish people.The similarities between modern Zionism in its early stages and Kulanu today are fascinating. Building on the example of Zionism, we contribute to the wellbeing of our people by bringing in dispersed Jewish communities and converts from the four corners of the earth.
In 1890, Zionism was an ancient but dormant Jewish belief system. Jewish territorial nationalism was alive and well two thousand years ago, fading out after the destruction of the Temple and the Bar Kochba rebellion. But it did not die out completely: Jews over the ages remembered our ancestral land and at times strove to return to it.
The principles of Zionism remained a part of our identity, even though we were separated from our land. Two thousand years ago, conversion of Gerei Tzedek was flourishing, and Jews already worked to fulfill the prophetic vision of the Ingathering of the Exiles. During the long period of the Diaspora, work on these goals greatly declined but never faded out: Converts joined throughout our history, while Jewish explorers of all periods sought the lost communities said to lie across the fabled Sambatyon River. As of 1890, the seeds of Zionism were just beginning to grow. A few authors, such as Leon Pinsker in his Auto-Emancipation, were building the ideology for a modern Jewish national liberation movement, and a handful of activists, such as Bilu and Hovevei Zion, made Aliyah in order to revive our national presence in the land of Israel.
Likewise, Kulanu is just now beginning to plant the seeds of a Jewish revival, by reaching out to lost and scattered Jews worldwide. When Theodor Herzl organized the First Zionist Congress in 1896, Zionism truly came to life. The Zionists combined deep faith with political insight, and idealism with realism. The timing of the Zionist movement was right, striking chords of nationalism just when the Jewish masses were ready. For Kulanu, the time has come to expand our efforts to change the future of the Jewish people, and of the world, for the better. Combining Jewish principles with hard-headed practicality, we can achieve the organization’s goals of gathering in Jews – whether communities lost to us for centuries, or Gerim newly joining our people -- from the four corners of the earth.
Zionism did not garner the unanimous support of the Jewish people. At first, almost every Jewish ideology and movement opposed it strongly. Most Jewish socialists, assimilationists, and Orthodox saw Zionism as a threat, although Jews from each of these groups were active in the Zionist movement. The proportion of Jews who supported Zionism was very small, at first.
As Kulanu grows in numbers and activity, it can also expect to encounter opposition. Some Jews may feel threatened by the large numbers of dispersed Jews whom we are now connecting to the Jewish people. Some may see our work as endangering local customs by submerging them in Judaism, or endangering Jewish practices by introducing “outside” influences. Ironically, too, some Jews may be uncomfortable with the great fervor that new returnees or converts show for the Jewish religion. By explaining the traditional principles underlying the movement, and by acting according the ethical principles of Judaism, we can draw in nay-sayers, and continue working towards our goals despite opposition.
Zionism gradually gained acceptance. In the first half of the twentieth century, socialist Zionism grew, and secularists came to see Israel as a place where a secular Jewish culture could flourish. The Orthodox began to see modern Zionism as divinely inspired, and in the last twenty years most sectors of Orthodoxy have come to support Zionism. Today, although there are still non-Zionist Jews, support forthe State of Israel has become the norm among the Jewish people.
Likewise, Kulanu is gaining the recognition and support of wide sectors of the Jewish people. Religious Jews appreciate the addition of deeply believing and devoted Jews. Humanists see that bringing in Jews from different races and ethnic groups helps us actualize the principles of ethics and humanism that we have always worked for. All Jews will learn to appreciate the energy and commitment that newand newly-returned Jews bring to our people.
Zionist successes were tremendous. Within fifty-two years, Zionism succeeded in bringing Jews back to their ancient land and recreating the Jewish state. The Zionist movement established universities, journals, farms, schools, power plants, hospitals, labor unions, social services, and a public health system.
But success was slow at first. Herzl failed to gain support of world powers, and the Zionist movement struggled to work with tiny budgets and little support from world Jewry. It is surprising to learn how few pioneers worked at achieving these successes: Ideologicallymotivated chalutzim never numbered more than a few tens of thousands. Yet these few changed Jewish history. They created a state where Jews could find asylum from persecution and build a flourishing Jewish culture.
Likewise, Kulanu can achieve very ambitious goals, by careful planning and hard work. Even a small group of dedicated activists can trigger fundamental changes that will help revitalize the Jewish people. Some say that today, we are in a “post-Zionist” era. Regardless of the merits of that term, it is pleasant to think that, despite the tremendous threats we still face, we may be nearing the day when Zionism is so successful that it can be reabsorbed into its important place in Jewish thought as a whole, rather than a separate ideology.
Similarly, we look forward to the day when dispersed Jews are universally recognized and embraced as such, and when love of the Ger Tzedek once again becomes the accepted norm in Jewish thought and practice.
Zionism had many accomplishments that were unprecedented in human history. Never before had a people revived its independent state after a long period of exile, and never before had a language come back from the dead. Nowhere have voluntary socialist communes achieved the success of the kibbutzim, and nowhere has an economy grown so rapidly under constant political isolation and armed attack.
Kulanu is also aiming at goals that have never before been achieved. Other religions actively pressure people to convert, but only Judaism will bring in large numbers of converts without pressuring or even actively inducing people to convert. Ethnic groups have been scattered, but never before have dispersed nations revived a strong sense of national identity among long-scattered communities. Kulanu can bring this vision to life, with careful planning and dedication to the goals.
The State of Israel was established as a Light Unto the Nations, a moral beacon in a dangerous world. Likewise, in establishing ties to dispersed Jews worldwide, we propagate the principles of ethical monotheism, our precious birthright that is also our gift to the world.
Bring the Black Hebrews to the Hebrew State of Israel!
According to Yair Davidy of Brit-Am the followers of different Judaizing Christian sects are descendents of Israelites, even if they are from mostly non-Israelite nations: Church of God believers, Mormons, Makuyas, Huguenots, Cathars (or Albigenses), Oriental Christians (Not necessarily nationalities in the last two cases: Nestorians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Armenians, Greeks), Amish (in fact they mingled with Jews), Waldensians, Hussites, Mennonites, Amish, Subbotniks, Molokans, Szeklers, Bohemian Brethren, Vykrests, Doukhobors, Gers, Subbotniks, Szeklers, other Sabatarians... (not to mention the Christians of the Middle East & the proven Knanayas from India) Daniel Bart of Jewishideas.net says something similar about certain Islamic heterodox sects (some of whom are considered non-Islamic by orthodox Muslims) & non-Islamic Middle Eastern & Balcanic sects, calling them crypto-Jewish. I prefer to call them crypto-Israelites because they are supposedly practiced by Israelites that never left the Middle East nor their religion completely. He also calls these peoples Pan-Jewish, but I prefer the classic term "Israelite". These are the heterodox sects: Yarsans (Ahl-e Haqqs), Kaka'is, Shabaks, Alawites (or Alawis. Nusayri is a synonym, but often is considered a subgroup & even a separated group), Alevis (or Alevites), Bektashis (they are part of the Alevis, but they're often considered as their own separated sect), Druzes (an Israeli Druze parlamentarian of the Likud admits the Druze's Jewish roots. Druze have always been allowed in the Israeli army too.), Yazidis, Sabeans, Mandeans...
I would say that the American so called "Black Hebrews" are a similar case as the ones exposed by Yair. They have Israelite blood from Igbos & other non Gentile west Africans & they're coming back to their parent's religion.
There are about 500,000 Black Hebrews in the USA. They have been practicing Judaism for about a century & even from the 1800s & their tenets are not very far away from Orthodox Judaism. They are a type of Black Rednecks because of their traditional values. I would say to the voices that may hear me: Bring them to the Jewish State of Israel!
Apart from the minoritarian racist extremists, the rest would be a great input to the State of Israel. A small group of them there with some problems at first, but they're now integrating & even joining the Tzahal. The advantage of them over some Ethiopians & Mizrahi Jews is that they come from a first world country, so it would be easy to adapt in that regard. Their example would grant a great number of Black Americans to support the Jewish State so the Jewish minority wouldn't be the only ethnic group supporting Israel. There are many Black Americans Christians that already supporting it together with Christians of other ethnicities, but with 500,000 Black Hebrews in Israel the Black supporters would increase amazingly. Doesn't Israel need more Jews? I don't know the current number of Black Hebrews in America. It would be great if zionist associations looking for Lost Israelites & Jews like Shavei Israel, Kulanu, Amishai...would contact them. I understand that insspite the clear Israelite of many peoples they can't get in Israel unless they're Jews, but these people are practicing Jews. They may need Halahic conversion, but the changes are not big to achieve it. The Black Hebrews should be encouraged to join white Jewish associations, clubs, leagues... & zionist associations like the AIPAC, ADL, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the World Jewish Congress... They should be receicved with open arms to join other Jews. They have been practicing Judaism far longer than the Bnei Menasseh.
Resolution on Ethiopian Jewry Praised
At its 2002 Conference in May, the Rabbinic Assembly, which is composed of Conservative rabbis, passed the following RESOLUTION ON ETHIOPIAN JEWRY: WHEREAS a healthy Diaspora is a critical component of modern Jewish life, and all Jews in the Diaspora are precious and worthy of our support, and the institution of the synagogue is central to the Diaspora for organization, vigor, education, and communication; and WHEREAS those Jews living in Ethiopia believe that the political climate in Ethiopia is such that it is now possible to create a public, institutional, indigenous presence, and that such a presence would help protect the Jewish heritage of Ethiopia; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Rabbinical Assembly support Ethiopian Jews with encouragement, literature, advice, visitors and financial support.
Kulanu president Jack Zeller welcomed the adoption of the Resolution as an important step in correcting widespread misinformation. He commented, “Some large and important Jewish institutions have said, many times, there are no more Beta Israel in Ethiopia. As in any Jewish society, there are those who want to make aliyah (immigrate to Israel) and those who do not for whatever reasons.
This resolution humanizes Judaism in its Ethiopian (Beta Israel) format and appeals for help. Most importantly it corrects misinformation. Let's think about how to make this resolution known; and think of small but repetitive ways of making this resolution a living document.”
Yohannes Zeleke, an Ethiopian Jewish archeologist, also praised the document. He pointed out that “the largest portion of t he Ethiopian Jews are still in Ethiopia. On the top of that, hundreds and thousands of people are in the process of confidence-building and re-converting to their original religion, Judaism.”
Zeleke hopes the resolution will also encourage preservation of the Ethiopian Jewish cultural heritage. He explained, “The Ethiopian Jewish cultural heritage should be protected and preserved as part of the global Jewish historical and cultural identity. The cemeteries, and over 800 synagogues should not be abandoned or avoided as if they do not have historical significance.”
Zeleke feels this question will soon be raised by the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel: “For the Bete-Israelis, still and forever, Ethiopia is their home country. I have to remind you that the Bete-Israelis are the founders of the Ethiopian state. And it was the only Jewish kingdom in power in the world up to 330 CE, and several times thereafter. We have the oldest Jewish temple and hundreds of synagogues that need very special attention, protection and research.”
Zeleke is fond of explaining to the uninitiated that, in addition to the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem, there was a Temple of Yeha in Tegray from 150 BCE to 150 CE, in the context of the proto-Axum civilizations. Although some European researchers simple call it a “temple,” Zeleke has argued that since the religion in the area up to 330 CE was Judaism, the Yeha Temple should be considered Jewish.
A Jewish Multicultural Curriculum
Kulanu has become a sponsoring organization of the Jewish Multicultural Curriculum Project (JMCP), a national project to diversify Jewish education, to offer Jewish multicultural training seminars to educators and community leaders from all backgrounds, and to serve as a clearinghouse for Jewish multicultural resources. JMCP is developing the first-ever curriculum about Jews from Africa, the Middle East, Central and East Asia, Central and South America, and Southern Europe. By Fall 2003, the complete curriculum and a resource guide will be available for teachers, camp counselors, and youth group leaders across the country.
Khazar's discoveries
The Russians and Soviets have systematically destroyed Khazar burial and cultural sites, especially Sarkel, the capital. However, as archeologists are fond of saying, “Absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence.” Now, we do not have to rely solely on physical proof; other means such as linguistics, oral traditions, and genetics can be used to determine the history of a group. Unfortunately, Khazar history has also been used to discredit the ancestry of European Jews. Arthur Koestler, in his book The Thirteenth Tribe, claims that Ashkenazi Jews are the descendents of the Khazars and not the Judean Diaspora. This was used by the Arabs to show that Jews don’t belong in the Middle East. Recent advances in DNA testing disprove that theory and confirm that all Jews originated in Northern Iraq (Ur), just as the Bible says. Our closest relatives are the Kurds, Turks and Armenians.
Some scholars believe that only the Khazar nobility converted, since there is no significant sign of “Asiatic DNA” in the Ashkenazi gene pool. My opinion is that Turkic people are so close genetically to the Jews, that their DNA would not show up as dramatically distinct and that large numbers of Khazars converted and were absorbed by various Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. Most interesting is the theory of Simcha Jacobovici, a documentary film maker. Based on the wording of the Khazar letter as well as artifacts found in the area, he believes that the Khazars were of Israelite (lost tribe) and Turkic origin. King Joseph wrote to Ibn Shapsut “we have returned” to Judaism not “we have converted.” The memory of the Khazars refuses to die and continues to intrigue Jews. I hope that more research is done and that more sites and analytical tools become available. It would be wonderful to know more about the Jews of the steppe and their civilization.
Aliya is falling, so why not to boost it bringing Lost Israelites?
He says that if we want to boost the aliya figures, then let's open the door for thousands of "lost Jews" around the world who are seeking to return to Israel and the Jewish people.
They include the 7,000 Bnei Menashe of northeastern India, descendants of a lost tribe of Israel; the 15,000 Subbotnik Jews of Russia, whose ancestors converted to Judaism two centuries ago; and the remaining 8,000 Falash Mura in Ethiopia.
Right there you have 30,000 people who want to come here now. That is twice the number of immigrants that we will otherwise get this year.
At a time when the aliya rate is in steady decline, what could be more logical, and more Zionist, than to open our collective door and let them in? Sure, there are obstacles in the way, and our vaunted bureaucracy won't make it easy.
But you, more than anyone, Chairman Sharansky, have demonstrated that when it comes to making aliya, there is no hurdle that cannot be overcome. We should add to the list the Lembas, Chiang Min, Pastuns...
Proselyte Judaism
Several years ago, there was an article in Moment Magazine by Rabbi Harold Shulweis entitled “Seek Converts!” which made a convincing case for proselytism. Rabbi Shulweis argued that outreach and inreach are complementary. Outreach stimulates inreach, he said. They are two sides of the same coin. In our open and free society, we are all de facto Jews by choice. Rabbi Shulweis ran an ad in the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News and the Jewish Journal. Some 500 attendees arrived each night including lapsed Catholics and Lutherans disenchanted with their inherited faith and church dogma.
Forty members of the congregation Valley Beth Shalom volunteered to welcome people into their homes for Shabbat and to help answer questions about Judaism. One reader of this article, Rabbi Samuel Silver, later wrote in (Forum, August 1997), "I suggest that the enterprise go national and that it be given a name. The name I suggest is ‘Gentiles for Moses.’ I envisage full-page ads in many newspapers with this legend: ‘To our gentile friends: Do you believe in the Virgin Birth? Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? Do you believe in the Holy Trinity? If so, you are an adherent of an important branch of monotheism. If you do not subscribe to these tenets, but you still want to cling to monotheism, consider Judaism. Judaism is open to converts. For more information, see your nearest rabbi or write to the local branch of 'Gentiles forMoses.' "
Ashkenazi Jews are probably not descended from the Khazars
Mind you, I wouldn’t be totally shocked if there was a Khazar contribution to the modern European Jewish ancestry. There have been some suggestive uniparental results. But the smoking gun for me is a simple one: East Asian ancestry. The Khazars were Turkic, and as such they would have had substantial proportions of East Asian ancestry. This is evident in the modern Chuvash, who have had a thousand years to admix with surrounding Slavic populations (and have). There are reasonable explanations for the “Caucasian” ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews which do not make recourse to the Khazar hypothesis. But a Mongoloid element is almost certainly feasible only through Turks of some sort, and the coincidence of a Judaized Turkic populations on the fringes of Europe is far too coincidental. There are some suggestive results which indicate small components of Mongoloid ancestry in Ashkenazi Jews, but the proportions are low enough that they may be some artifacts. This is one area where more investigation is warranted. For example, whole-genome analyses which look at “East Asian” segments in Ashkenazi Jews, and match them to various East Asian populations. That would almost certainly answer the Khazar question, as there are relatively undiluted Turkic populations, such as the Kirghiz, that one could use as a reference.
Finally, despite the fact that I praise the author’s utilization of a wide array of contemporary statistical genetic methods, one can’t just do away with a thick and sturdy historical framework and reasonable questions derived from this superstructure. The historical models tested in this paper are moderately inscrutable to me (e.g., the “Rhineland hypothesis”). As others have noted there is a peculiar lacunae in regards to models of ethnogenesis during Roman antiquity, even though other lines of historical and genetic evidence do point in that direction. Instead, the author concocts a scenario of a mass migration after the Muslim conquest from the Middle East into Europe. To my knowledge Europe after the fall of Rome was not taking in the huddled Hebrew masses (though it was taking in some Middle Eastern Christians).
One issue that has always troubled me about the "Khazar hypothesis" is the seemingly complete lack of linguistic evidence supporting it. If Ashkenazi Jews originate from Turkic tribes, why do they speak the street-language of ca. 11th-century Rhineland, lightly infused with Hebrew and Slavic loan-words but with basically no Turkic content at all?
At the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Jews found themselves surrounded by a very hostile world
The Jewish caucus (in the USA) met and agreed to do something to change world perception of their race. Part of that resolution was to seek to own and use ownership of the media to mould world opinion in their favor.
The Jewish caucus (in the USA) met and agreed to do something to change world perception of their race. Part of that resolution was to seek to own and use ownership of the media to mould world opinion in their favor.
The Jewish votes, Jewish media...lobby for Israel & Christians join in. Since a large amount of African Americans have Igbo ancestry they could form a huge pro-Igbo lobby of voters. African American media could join too & given the Christian (& Jewish) afiliation of Igbos, the same Jewish Christian voters & media could support the Igbo cause. In this way we could be creating a huge lobby that no major political party or president could dismiss. An independent Biafra could be an African leading country alternative to the often anti-western & anti-Israel South African Republic. Under the entrepeneurial leadership of the Igbos, Africa as whole could get rid of poverty & their fellow Israelis could help in agriculture & against desertification. This alliance could expand spanning the defense of other Christian & Jewish minorities throughout the world. To achieve this Igbos have to be very publicized in the African American media & in the Jewish & Christian media. Igbos need a worldwide net of Igbo collaborators & representatives... They also need to explain their culture, onidani, language, music...
A new Greater Middle East with an independent Kurdishtan, Druzistan, Phoenicia, Alevistan, Caucasus' peoples, Central Asians...
Ali was a Jew & Muhammad had one of his grandparents that was a Jew.
Some people regard the Lebanese as a whole to be Lost Israelites. Other people regard just part of them to be Israelites. Many Lebanese affirm they are not Arabs but Phoenicians & their large diaspora & trading corroborates it. According to several scholars the Phoenicians of Solomon's time were really the seafaring Israelite tribes of Zebulun, Dan & Asher. When Israel was captive by Assyria many Israelites living in current Lebanon could have stayed as the Israelite ancestors of the Samaritans stayed.
The Feyli Kurds are offspring of Parthians. They are the link between Parthian Israelites & the rest of Kurds, also regarded as Lost Israelites.
The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews are remarkable.
It's interesting that the Yazidi god is a peacock because the Torah was written with peacock feathers. Since it's believed that Yazidism is a deviation or hidden Israelite religion the feathers & the animal could have been preserved instead of the God that dictated the Torah.
It's said the Turks are Israelites, but I would say that only part of them are. Among the Anatolian Turks, the Alevis & Bektashis are believed to be Israelites & the Dönmehs have Jewish origins. Among the Central Asian Turks there are many pockets with Israelite or Jewish origin apart from the Chalah Jews & the Bukhara Jews. The Karachays, Krymchaks, Balkars, Kumyks, Krymchaks, Karaites, Azeris & part of the Hazaras, Kyrgizes are Israelites
KuRdishtan might be GoLa, diaspora in Hebrew & stan, country in Persian, so the country of the diaspora.
The government of Syria treats the Jews as a religious community and not as a racial group. Official documents refer to them as musawiyin (followers of Moses) and not Yahudim (Jews). The government's translation into English of musawiyin is "Judists."
I dream about a new Middle East with an independent Kurdishtan, Druzistan & Phoenicia & why not Alevistan... Phoenicia would include Lebanon & the Alawi State together with the Sanjak of Alexandretta. Some non-sunni areas would be included as well. The huge Lebanese diaspora would be intitled & encouraged to populate & beautify the land just like the Jews did to Israel. Finally a Neo-Phoenician language would be taught to all people just as it happened to Hebrew too.
Have the town of Manisai n Turkey Israelite (Manasehite) origin? A celebrated rabbi was born in Manissa. In Manisa there used to be an important Jewish Community as well. How about the town of Manises in Valencia, Spain, Manassehite origin? & the town of Sakiz also in Turkey has Saka Israelite origin too? The account given by Josephus confirms the belief of Two-Housers, also the belief of the Israelite origin of Pashtuns & the belief that many Anatolian Turks are Crypto-Jews.
Aramaic was the language of the Israelites since very ancient times. So much that Hebrew is a corrupted form of Aramaic just as French or Spanish are corrupted ways of Latin. That Mandeans speak it & that they came from Judea & their belief that they lived in Egypt confirms their Hebrew origin.
The Druses are recognizing that they descended from Jews. Some even say "Alevi Judaism" is part of the syncretisitic priestly Judaism mixed with Paganism, Islam, Christianity & that they are the offspring of the Ten Lost Tribes that stayed in current Kurdishtan...So it would be with other minorities in the Greater Middle East: Mandeans, Sabeans, Kurds, Maronites, Shabaks... Maybe they'r just nonsensical words.
Do Mandeans come from Manassah? I would say that is the case, at least in part. The Umman-Manda were known as the People [Umman] of Manasseh since the Iranian Peoples often switched a Semitic "s" sound for "d", the Manda equals Mansa or Manasseh. We have shown else where that the term Umman Manda in Mesopotamian terminology first applied to Israelites from the Tribe of Manasseh who dwelt to the West of the Euphrates. Later the term was applied tot he Cimmerians and Scythians amongst whom we find members of the Lost Ten Tribes.
Economics of Jewish Immigation to Israel
Aliyah is managed as a monopoly and so private sector needs to get involved to encourage mass Aliyah by choice.
Aliyah (Jewish immigration to Israel) has for decades been focused on rescuing Jewish communities at risk fleeing hazards, oppression and persecution in the Diaspora and this is still relevant as European Jews will no longer be content with their oppressed and precariously endangered existence in Europe. However, Israel still has a lot of work to do so as to ensure that Israel will be preferable in every way to other emigration options.
Israel has throughout its existence invested enormous sums in defense and in the resettling of millions of indigenous Jewish immigrants in renewed Jewish communities in the land of Israel. While the very wisdom of Israeli diplomatic and security policy has for decades already been at the very center of public debate in Israel, the question of promotion of Aliyah-by-Choice (ABC) has for the most part been curiously absent from Israeli public debate and really no comparable public sums have been invested by Israel in the promotion of ABC as this was typically seen as the domain of major Diaspora organizations partially focused on fundraising.
The fact is however that Jewish Diaspora bodies tasked with promotion of ABC have so far dismally failed. Aliyah was long a monopoly run by the twin organizations known as the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Israel. Later, their tasks in Canada, the UK and the US were taken over by a then new organization founded by Modern Orthodox Jews and named Nefesh b’Nefesh (NBN) literally meaning “soul by soul” in Hebrew. This has led to professionalization of the Aliyah efforts in those predominantly English-speaking countries with the introduction of advanced private sector methods for marketing, communication and management. Aliyah has indeed increased from the United States where the vast majority of Diaspora Jewry lives; yet US Aliyah remains at a very low level indeed considering the immense demographic size of US Jewry. In fact, NBN has mostly boosted US Aliyah from among fellow Modern Orthodox Jews as well as among expatriate Israelis. Therefore, it seems quite likely that the demographic profile of this increased Aliyah from the US had been quite different indeed had NBN been run by say Reconstruct Jews, Reform Jews or Jewish feminists.
There are many reasons why promotion of ABC have largely failed in countries where Jews are not under threat and so the underlying reasons for this almost consistent failure need to be well understood in order to devise new and more successful social models that are capable of attracting Diaspora Jews to Israel. This requires thinking out of the box, embracing the reality of the increasing social diversity of Diaspora Jewry and adopting a holistic approach that will bring together successfully proven tactics into a coherent strategy for the mainstreaming of ABC.
Therefore, most aspects of policy making in both Israel and the Diaspora will need to reconsidered and reinvented in order to make ABC the primary choice of Diaspora Jewry.
The indigenous Israeli state has since its historical rebirth in 1948 been the target of hostile, rejectionist attempts aimed at harming, isolating and destroying it also by means of various economic tools. These hostile efforts in combination with Israel’s once largely socialist economic structure has historically served to slow down economic growth in Israel and still do to some extent. The fact that Israel lagged behind economically long served as the primary explanation for the relative absence of ABC to Israel. However, this relative economic disadvantage is not necessarily the case anymore relatively/comparatively speaking as depending on a Diaspora Jew’s particular country of residence and her/his individual profession.
Therefore the question of ABC needs to be better understood from an economical perspective.
Therefore the question of ABC needs to be better understood from an economical perspective.
There have historically been many economic monopolies in Israel and some still remaining ones that have unnecessarily limited and continue to hamper economic growth in Israel. The Jewish Agency for Israel was the pre-state state-within-the-state Jewish Zionist government in the British Mandate in the land of Israel and management of Aliyah is one of those monopolies that have both contributed to and limited the development of Israel and the Zionist project. Even NBN, however professionally and rationally managed, is a monopoly in its three Diaspora countries of operation and this is not particularly sound to put things mildly.
Therefore as so often with unsatisfactory socialist monopolies; what is really needed are privatization, deregulation, diversification and competition as carried out in a distinctly responsible fashion and critically monitored by scientists from different scientific fields. The first critical question that we should ask in this regard is the combined average cost for the Israeli government of health care and education for raising a legal minor in Israel from procreation to graduation in senior high school at the age of 18. If the average cost of developing a functioning adult Israeli citizen from conception to graduation is a factor called 100 then how much should the Israeli government be ready to invest in the effective importation of Diaspora Jews? Should the government be ready to financially invest a factor of 1 or 100 in ensuring that an 18-year old Diaspora Jew decides to make Israel the place of her/his adult life? Diaspora Jews like other Human beings certainly do respond to socio-economic incentives and so appropriate economic incentives need to be put in place that will alter the individual calculus of Diaspora Jews with regard to ABC.
Not just any economic incentive is necessarily effective in promoting ABC and different types of Diaspora Jews will require different types and degrees of social/economic incentives depending country of residence, age, profession, family status, degree of rabbinic recognition of Jewish personal status, degree of Jewish religious observance, sexuality, gender, level of education, degree of Jewish education, knowledge of Hebrew, familiarity with Israel, social class, economic wealth and other factors as well. But to begin let’s make things simple in economic terms. How much investment will it cost to convince an average 18-year old Diaspora Jew from an economically developed Diaspora jurisdiction take make Israel her/his home for life? It should be pointed out that this is highly economically beneficial and should be based on a financial calculus of finding out how much this will typically cost as certainly it will be costly indeed, yet also economically very much sound, beneficial and profitable for the Israeli economy. The current socio-economic incentives provided for ABC are however unfortunately both primitive and ineffective. So how can the real cost of bringing mass ABC to Israel be appropriately calculated from an economic point of view?
First it is important to realize that ABC is best implemented by private companies competing among themselves. Most individual Diaspora Jews find themselves in at least some point in their lives looking for a job in sending out job application to potential employers. Therefore, there is need for private companies that will recruit Diaspora Jews out where in the Diaspora who are simply looking for a job who will then be offered ready job positions in Israel on reasonably attractive terms, including if needed with incentives of reduced taxation in some form or the other. While this should certainly be done with regard to open job positions in the Israeli labor market, a more comprehensive approach is well-advised.
Thus, any major Aliyah company could in cooperation with a major company in another field help establish any particular Diaspora language work place in Israel tailored for new ABC immigrants. Rental housing could be built specifically for new immigrants to be used for the first years until they buy permanent housing for themselves.
A Diaspora Jew should thus be attracted with the full package of job, housing, as much Hebrew education as needed in ensuring near optimal proficiency in Hebrew, near zero bureaucratic hassle (which has already been partially achieved with the aid of NBN and other organizations), computerized mass marital psychometric matching and Israeli mass conversions to Judaism upon arrival in Israel for non-Jewish family members and those Jewish immigrants whose Jewish personal status is questioned by one or more Jewish religious denominations and therefore are well served by so called strict conversion (giur lechumra) that will remove any remaining religious question mark about their religious personal status as Jews. A Diaspora Jew would thus be offered an all-inclusive package on socio-economically clearly favorably terms. Essentially everything would be taken care of, including as of necessary reduced individual taxation during parts of the first decade in Israel that would be gradually individually phased out. Different private Aliyah companies could be involved in this process in ensuring that everything literally runs very smooth indeed. There should where possible even be the option of military service in all-immigrant IDF units in an immigrant’s first language in the way that is already offered to religious denominations in Israel. The tax subsidies could also be offered directly to employers rather than as relating to the income tax of individual immigrants to Israel.
Israel’s 1949-1950 Operation Magic Carpet rescued 49 000 Jews from Yemen to Israel.
This should be organized on a market model whereby different private companies would mutually compete in attracting Diaspora Jews to live in Israel. As some companies will likely become more successful than others as in any free market it will become increasingly clear how much it will cost to bring a Diaspora Jew with a certain profile to come and live in Israel. Just how expensive will it become? Well, competition will serve to bring down the average cost of ABC per capita of immigrants as ever more effective offers, models and packages are devised. It is not merely about offering money; rather it is mainly about psychology. Once it becomes profitable for private companies to bring ABC to Israel, Aliyah will become a business like any business and the question will no longer be whether Diaspora Jews will move to Israel but rather at what price for the Israeli government and through which incentives and package solutions. Furthermore, different companies may specialize at different aspects of the Aliyah process. Certainly, almost any Diaspora Jew would be ready to immediate and permanently move to Israel if offered several million shekels and a ten year tax-exempt status in Israel. However, this can be done at a far lower cost so the private sector therefore basically needs to be incentivized to incentivize Diaspora Jews to make Aliyah. Most modern Humans are ready to move somewhere else if offered a sufficiently attractive job position so Diaspora Jews need to come into contact with Aliyah companies specifically when looking for a new job.
Another crucial aspect relates to the modern welfare state. Western European Jews are accustomed to living in relatively generous welfare states and US Jews also tend to be particularly strongly in favor of having a European-style welfare state in the United States as well. Therefore, Israeli policy makers need to consider that most potential ABC immigrants from OECD countries actually prefer a life with a generous public sector security net and the Israeli government should therefore certainly look in depth at devising a more intelligent and effective welfare state than existing ones in many OECD countries. Mass ABC will bring rapid economic growth and deepened economic integration with other OECD states which will provide room for building a more generous public sector security net than the current one in Israel that will in turn help attract far more ABC.
Diaspora Jews are as socially diverse as native Israelis; however Jews who immigrate to Israel do tend to be attracted to the sense of indigenous Jewish community in living in Israeli villages, towns and cities where the majority of citizens are rabbinic Jews who thus longer constitute an oppressed minority in those locations. As this sense of community empowerment is no doubt highly attractive, so it is also somewhat less attractive to an increasing proportion of Diaspora Jewry in the sense that Jews of different rabbinic denominations increasingly no longer recognize each other as fellow Jews.
E.g. an Ethiopian-Israeli Jew cannot hide the color of his skin and so when he sits right across an Ashkenazi Haredi Jew on public transportation in Israel he knows that this person most likely do not recognize him as a fellow Jew. This non-recognition is not due to the color of skin, but the exterior appearance of Ethiopian Jews visualize their religiously disputed personal status in a way that otherwise would not be immediately recognizable. Yet, living in such a paradox where the Jewish identity of a Jew is questioned by entire streams in Rabbinic Judaism is a big turn-off not just for Diaspora Jews whose Jewish personal status is disputed, but also for those Diaspora Jews who have one or more family members who are either non-Jewish or are Jews whose Jewish personal status is also disputed by one or more denominations.
This situation is a product of Diaspora existence where different streams in Rabbinic Judaism devised different and competing social strategies for Jewish survival in Diaspora societies leading to divergent standards of conversion to Judaism. Once most Diaspora Jews have moved to Israel, then these strategic disagreements (which are mostly about Diaspora life) will lose relevance and therefore the solution to those disagreements is ABC to Israel. Diaspora Jewish denominations can hardly agree about individual conversion for the simple reason that these divergent views reflect the core differences of their competing, certainly highly divergent strategies for Jewish survival in the Diaspora. However, this issue can be resolved in Israel through mass conversion, something that has been done many times before in Jewish history.
The leadership of the Haredi community in Israel has since the early 1990s tried to make conversion to Judaism so demanding to the point of abolishing conversions as has long since been done in Latin America and among Syrian Jews. This agenda is not only reflective of stricture but is a distinctive viewpoint according to which Zionist Israeli Jews within a number of generations will “inevitably” start inter-marrying Israeli Palestinians at a large scale. Therefore, Zionist Israeli Jews are thus considered as an effectively already lost cause unless Zionist Jews become Haredi themselves as it is believed that Zionist Israeli Jews will eventually become non-Jewish through assimilation. However, the fact is that most Palestinians belong to clans of endogamous Jewish ancestry and those clans that learn about their Jewish ancestry strongly tend to develop Jewish identity and later interest in returning to Judaism. The practical solution is therefore for more and more Palestinian clans and local communities to entirely voluntarily religiously revert back to being Jewish through a process of collective reversion Jewish identity, Judaism and the Jewish people. This is an extremely attractive option for the many Palestinian clans and local Palestinian communities that have already redeveloped Jewish communal identity.
While collective reversion/conversion to Judaism should be managed by a government authority, most other tasks currently held by the existing Chief Rabbinate of Israel should simply be privatized and held by communal non-governmental organizations. Also, it should become illegal not only for a husband to deny his wife divorce but also for a rabbinical court to deny a spouse religious divorce.
Many secular Jews encounter Judaism primarily during life rites and many of these life rites should rather take place in Israel and not in the Diaspora. Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, high school, college and university should all ideally be conducted in Israel and not in the Diaspora.
While Jewish majority community is usually an attraction for those relatively few Diaspora Jews who opt for ABC, most Diaspora Jews have further identities and social affiliations. Thus many but not all Diaspora Jews may want to live in intentional communities in Israel such as based on a particular sexuality, on a particular functional limitation (disability), on a particular Diaspora language, on a particular economic niche, on a particular lifestyle, on a particular Jewish denomination, on a particular profession, on a particular political worldview, or even on a particular city, region or country of origin in the Diaspora. Intentional communities may be rural villages but could also be suburban neighborhoods and potentially even urban apartment blocks.
Diaspora Judaism will need to refashion itself in fundamentally changing its focus. First, traditional religious services are widely considered tedious and unattractive by secular Diaspora Jews who often have little to no knowledge and understanding of Hebrew and synagogues should therefore rather focus on encouraging Talmudic study and educating children towards the goal of ABC to Israel.
Talmudic study is what prevents assimilation and keeps the Jewish people and this is something that non-Orthodox denominations need to internalize as well. Rabbinic Jews with a significant exposure to Talmudic study generally don’t assimilate for the simple reason that they have learned how to appreciate the richness and diversity of their own cultural heritage. Also, Talmudic students learn Hebrew in the process of studying the Talmud which makes it practically much easier for them to immigrate to Israel and successfully integrate into Israeli society. Non-Orthodox denominations of Rabbinic Judaism need to rebrand themselves as Religious Zionism and basically endeavor to gradually move their communities and synagogues to Israel. Diaspora Jews learning Hebrew need not only be encouraged by Diaspora Judaism but also crucially funded by the Israeli government. More charter schools need to be established in the Diaspora that will teach mainly in Hebrew. It is certainly generally true that the more knowledge of Hebrew, the likelier it is that a particular Diaspora Jew will actually opt for ABC to Israel.
Talmudic study is what prevents assimilation and keeps the Jewish people and this is something that non-Orthodox denominations need to internalize as well. Rabbinic Jews with a significant exposure to Talmudic study generally don’t assimilate for the simple reason that they have learned how to appreciate the richness and diversity of their own cultural heritage. Also, Talmudic students learn Hebrew in the process of studying the Talmud which makes it practically much easier for them to immigrate to Israel and successfully integrate into Israeli society. Non-Orthodox denominations of Rabbinic Judaism need to rebrand themselves as Religious Zionism and basically endeavor to gradually move their communities and synagogues to Israel. Diaspora Jews learning Hebrew need not only be encouraged by Diaspora Judaism but also crucially funded by the Israeli government. More charter schools need to be established in the Diaspora that will teach mainly in Hebrew. It is certainly generally true that the more knowledge of Hebrew, the likelier it is that a particular Diaspora Jew will actually opt for ABC to Israel.
Many Diaspora Jewish singles would want nothing more than finding a Jewish soul mate. However, practically speaking the organized Diaspora Jewish communities outside the Haredi community is doing little to nothing to assist them. Therefore what is needed is mass psychometric computerized matching as based on extensive psychometric matching of each potential Jewish spouse. This will be expensive no doubt (and will need to be funded by the Israeli government), but mass psychometric matching will ensure a very high degree of spousal compatibility and thus marriages with a better chance of lasting. Yet this will be more effective than Birthright/Taglit and no doubt even more effective in ensuring Jewish continuity. The mass psychometric matching would also be used for the purpose of Aliyah in matching Diaspora Jews with job positions in the land of Israel.
Diaspora Jewish tourism is another vital aspect in bringing the Jewish Diaspora closer to Israel.
Birthright/Taglit is important in its own right but similar programs need to be created for children in junior high school and Jewish singles of all ages. Furthermore, tourism operators that cater specifically to Jewish individuals and households with at least one Jewish person should be given tax-exempt status so as to make Diaspora Jewish tourism in Israel even more attractive. Such tourism operators could be Aliyah-focused in bringing Diaspora Jewish tourists to places in Israel in which they would conceivably be interested in actually living.
Birthright/Taglit is important in its own right but similar programs need to be created for children in junior high school and Jewish singles of all ages. Furthermore, tourism operators that cater specifically to Jewish individuals and households with at least one Jewish person should be given tax-exempt status so as to make Diaspora Jewish tourism in Israel even more attractive. Such tourism operators could be Aliyah-focused in bringing Diaspora Jewish tourists to places in Israel in which they would conceivably be interested in actually living.
Hebrew-speaking Israeli society is a mix of many different rabbinically Jewish ethnic groups. This created a unique Jewish cultural synthesis which has led to ever-greater cultural distance between Israeli rabbinic Jews and the Jewish Diaspora since 1948. While most working age Diaspora Jews are well-educated and ready to move to another geographic location in response to an attractive job offer, Israel has largely failed to economically integrate itself into Diaspora Jewry. Most practical obstacles to Jewish relocation to Israel therefore need to be removed and Israel must turn itself into a competitive option for members of every Diaspora Jewish community. An Israel Attraction Index (AAI) is needed that will systematically and comparatively measure the attractiveness of Israel in various respects for Diaspora Jewish communities in different countries worldwide.
Diaspora Jewish parents should be encouraged by Jewish religious denominations to educate their children towards a life in Israel. Aliyah to Israel should therefore become a main life goal for new generations of Diaspora Jews.
Some Islamic Heterodox sects might be Jewish as well as Kurdish & Zazakish
In theory the Bahais (Baha'i) are an offshoot of Islam or were a Moslem sect but in practice they are their own religion just as Caferis, Alevis/Alevites, Alawis/Alawites/Nusayris, Druzes...
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The Alawis/Alawites/Ansaris/Nusayris are the same ethno-religious group although some Alawites decided to be called simply Nusayris so I guess that the areas in the maps which say they are Nusayris is because they are populated by them calling Nusayris. The Zazas/Zazakis/Dimilis have an independent national view in which they don't consider to be part of the Kurds aiming at an independent Zazakistan/Zazaistan/Dimilistan. Some Alevis/Alevites even want an Alevistan.
Some began to call themselves “Alawites” to emphasise the link with Ali and Shiism, and distance themselves from the pejorative term Nusayri.
Nusairis are not the same people as Alawites. Their religion varies in certain key points from that of the Alawites and the Alevis, and they have a different history of national development. Nusairis are not Alawites by another name.
The Turkish government and the academics who are financially backed by their grants have tried hard to drive divide the Kurds into smaller and smaller components. Divide et impera--the old Roman maxim, is true today as was two thousand years ago. In Armenia since 1991, they have declared the Kurds.
World Pan-Jewish Organization
The World Pan-Jewish Organization (WPJO) is a strategic project committed to research, documentation and education about the heritage of Para-Jewish peoples and communities, including Crypto-Judaism. The WPJO is animated by a vision of a future federal Israel that would democratically unite Israel with other Jewish peoples and other Jewish countries worldwide.
Para-Jewish peoples are other Jewish peoples than the core (rabbinically) Jewish people. Some Jewish populations were historically split off from the core Jewish people and later gave rise to a number of different Para-Jewish peoples, denominations and communities; including through conversion to Judaism in Antiquity and in later times.
The stars are Maggen Davids, while the suns have 13 beams like the 13 tribes of Israel
Hillel says, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?”
Pirkei Avot 1:14 of the Babylonian Talmud
The World Pan-Jewish Organization endeavors to increasingly broaden the articulation of the Israeli national interest in championing self-determination for Para-Jewish peoples around the world and thus replicating the social, economic and liberal-democratic success story that is Israel for Para-Jewish countries and Para-Jewish peoples in the Middle East and around the world.
This includes conceptually aiding in the return to the respective regional forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism in therefore phasing out existing religious imperialism, i.e. imperialist forms of religion that were historically, most tragically indeed imposed on Para-Jewish peoples.
The eternal special relationship between the State of Israel and the United States of America as bringing redemption on the back of the Lion of Judah in Crypto-Zionist depiction in contemporary religious Alevi-Bektashi art. The American flag is "hidden".
This essential return to regional forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism in Para-Jewish communities that were tragically deprived this by religious imperialism would pave the way for free migration between all or most member states of liberal-democratic Federal Israel. Member states would become increasingly economically and politically integrated with each other, including through free migration of citizens between member states and so the vision of multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious Federal Israel is one of tremendous Jewish religious diversity and Jewish religious pluralism while obviously respecting freedom of religion for all.
The WPJO dares envision a future where borders no longer as since time immemorial will be changed and established through warfare but rather democratically through 1) the principle of self-determination for all peoples, 2) the principle of linguistic statehood and 3) the respective wishes of local communities by means of communal democratic consultation as approved by the state that they therefore join.
The WPJO is a political project with a journalistic research methodology, strategically committed and indeed devoted to the spread of self-determination, lasting peace, liberal democracy, open society, economic and social prosperity and importantly universal emancipation for all.
It has become very clear that the Kurds are the only force on the ground militarily capable of defeating and crushing Daesh. Yet the United States has continued to enforce a partial weapons embargo against free Kurdistan in thus preventing Israel from arming Kurdistan. It is one thing for the US government not to substantially arm Kurdistan but it is quite another to prevent Israel from substantially arming Kurdistan. Two factors however figure in the US reluctance to substantially arm the Kurds.
First, the US does not want to antagonize Turkey’s Islamist dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whose regime actively sponsors Daesh and al Qaida in Syria. This means that Erdoğan, at least in part, successfully prevents the US from substantially arming the only ground forces that successfully fight those very Salafist terrorist groups that Erdoğan’s regime itself sponsors. This is not only objectively absurd but goes against core US interests in the region.
Second, the US is clearly concerned that arms sent to free Kurdistan may be used by the three self-governing Kurdish regions against each other. There is in fact tremendous distrust between the three parties (PYD, KDP and PUK), each of which governs one the three regions. Why is this so? There are two main reasons. Kurdish leaders tend to be pragmatic and sometimes the pragmatism goes too far in rightly or wrongly being regarded as treasonous by rival Kurdish political parties. These major Kurdish political movements have a tragic history of waging wars against each other and are for this reason mutually suspicious of each other. Also the three self-governing Kurdish regions although geographically continuous are differently geographically located which means that each one of the three self-governing Kurdish regions has a unique foreign policy adapted to its own geopolitical needs and unique geostrategic position and situation.
Diplomacy is needed that recognizes that each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions has vital strategic needs that therefore need to be appropriately addressed. Kurdistan needs to be armed in such a way that the three self-governing regions will not ever threaten each other. This means that the American and Israeli process of arming Kurdistan must be parallel to a diplomatic process of strategic dialogue between the three self-governing Kurdish regions.
Israel is most closely aligned with each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions and so Israeli-Kurdish military specialists as appropriately placed in the Kurdish chain of command can serve as an effective security mechanism that can prevent outbreak once more of Kurdish internecine warfare. Israel’s special relationship with Kurdistan which is not only a relationship between governments but also crucially one between the peoples means that Israel is uniquely well positioned to build trust between the three self-governing Kurdish regions. There are in fact existing models and solutions that should be carefully implemented with the consent of all three self-governing Kurdish regions that will thus effectively address the legitimate strategic concerns held by the three self-governing Kurdish regions.
It is however absolutely vital that each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions is armed separately, i.e. as long as they have not seriously and credibly committed to creating a unified, non-partisan Kurdistani military. Also only the PYD self-governing region in Rojava (Western Kurdistan in Syria) should be provided with an air force as long as the KDP and the PUK don’t seriously democratize their societies as the PYD is already seriously doing from below. These are three self-governing regions of the emerging unified free Kurdistan and so the three regions and their respective existing political leaderships are all part of the solution and not just part of the problem. Arming the Kurds should thus be done precisely in a calibrated way that will prevent any future outbreak of Kurdish internecine warfare. It should be possible to build the necessary verification mechanisms in a rather short period of time since these mechanisms would be established precisely so as to accommodate the legitimate strategic concerns of each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions.
The US should seriously arm the ground forces of the three self-governing Kurdish regions with various types of weaponry, yet if America does not wish to very substantially do so directly on a large scale it should certainly not continue to prevent Israel from doing precisely that. As Erdoğan, the Islamist dictator of Turkey strengthens his grip on power – in Turkey therefore increasingly becoming an enemy of the US rather than as once an ally of the US –Kurdistan needs to be thoroughly armed so at to be able to defend itself from any regional threat or combination of regional threats. Kurdish leaders face tremendous challenges and so Kurdistan must critically be enabled to defend itself from surrounding hostile Islamist regimes that are suppressing the strongly pro-democratic Kurdish people.
Due to long having had non-rigged elections and pursuing secularization policies was Kemalist Turkey for decades regarded by many Western strategic thinkers as a model for democratization in countries in the broader Middle East where Islam is the predominant traditional religion. This is no more and it really should be clear to all that Turkey is not and has never been a liberal democracy. The only events that could prevent the Islamist Erdoğan from putting Turkey on the path to becoming a Sunni version of Islamist Iran would be either a pro-democracy revolution, a military coup d’état as ordered by the secularist Turkish military intelligence agency known as the Deep State (Turkish Derin Devlet) or quite realistically even a combination of both.
If a process of democratization, liberalization and secularization could thus be commenced by relatively peacefully removing the Islamist dictatorship from power in Ankara, then this means political issues can be resolved democratically. However, Kurdistan needs to be thoroughly armed so as to be prepared for the prospect that neither a pro-democratic revolution nor a pro-democratic coup d’état will succeed which means that Turkey would be set on the path to becoming a second Iran.
Preparing the process of annulling Turkey’s membership in NATO needs however to commence. There can be no place for an Islamist dictatorship supporting Daesh and al Qaida in a defense alliance of liberal democracies. If neither a pro-democratic revolution nor a pro-democratic military coup d’état would work out then surely the Kurdish people must already be equipped to defend themselves against totalitarian tyranny. The US supports South Korea in every way necessary and so should the US similarly aid Kurdistan in a prudent manner in appropriately addressing Kurdistan’s legitimate strategic needs.
If Erdoğan and his Islamist ruling AK party which is part of the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (whose Palestinian branch is Hamas) were to gain full control of the Turkish state and the Turkish military – in Turkey therefore being put on a path to becoming a Sunni version of Islamist Iran in therefore eliminating the political influence of the pro-secularist Turkish military intelligence agency known as the Deep State, then Turkey could become a strategic threat to Israel as well. Therefore the special relationship between Israel and Kurdistan is absolutely vital in making sure that such an existential threat to Israel and the entire region will never appear.
Strengthening Kurdistan in every way necessary should also strengthen and be done within the framework of the triangular strategic relationship between Israel, Kurdistan and the United States of America. If America does not yet want to seriously supply many different types of arms to Kurdistan, then to continue to prevent Israel from doing so directly contravenes the US vital strategic interest of strategically defeating and subsequently destroying Daesh as opposed to merely containing it as has been the de facto outcome so far of US policy towards Daesh.
The Israeli security mechanisms inside the Kurdish chains of command need to be put in place and once Israel is enabled to very substantially arm Kurdistan, then surely there is no reason why not the US and other countries should not do so as well. There are many issues that will need to be addressed including the question of unifying Kurdistan through careful and responsible processes of democratization, liberalization, secularization and crucially return to Kurdish religion. All these strategic inter-Kurdish issues need to be addressed through peaceful and democratic means in respecting the legitimate tactical and strategic regional interests of concern of each of the self-governing regions of free Kurdistan.
Alliance Between Israel & Kurdistan
Contrary to the PKK's matrix, the PKK state in Rojava is however developing in very different ways. The PKK movement’s alignment with Israel also meant shedding its previous Communist ideology and so Rojava’s wartime economy is built upon the model of early modern Israel’s syndicalist (i.e. voluntary socialist) economy. It should be noted that Israel’s alignment with the PKK is part of Israel’s second periphery strategy which means Israel aligning with Iran’s geographic periphery both inside and outside of Iran’s international borders.
While Israeli intelligence has very strong research capabilities, the study of Crypto-Judaism in the Middle East and elsewhere was not something that was prioritized within the Israeli intelligence community. However, once it became known to Israeli intelligence a few years into the 21 century that Kurdish religion (Alevism, Yarsanism and Yezidism) are distinctive forms of very ancient Crypto-Judaism, Israel began seriously investing in expanding its diplomatic ties with the PKK movement as it became clear that not only are Alevis, Yarsanis and Yezidis halakhically Jewish (i.e. recognized as Jewish according to rabbinic religious law) in being Jewish indeed both religiously and ethnically, but Muslim Kurds are ethnically Crypto-Jewish as well as their own ancestors were indeed involuntarily Islamized Alevis/Bektashis, Yarsanis and Yezidis. In addition, there are also Muslim Kurdish clans such as the Barzanis who are descended from involuntarily Islamized Kurdish Rabbinic Jews.
There is already very deep Israeli-Kurdistani integration in the intelligence sphere as Kurdish intelligence agencies are the result of Israeli intelligence literally creating new intelligence apparatuses for Israel’s Kurdish allies. However, drastically more could be done both in political integration and military integration that would vastly strengthen Kurdistan. The establishment of an Israeli air force base in Rojava would do much to strengthen free Kurdistan against any offensive strategic military threat against it. Kurdistan needs its own defense industry or alternatively, Israeli defense companies could establish production plants inside this future Israeli military airbase in Kurdistan. These Israeli defense industries could then sell relatively advanced weaponry to Kurdistan as produced in those factories.
Rojava and Bashur need to establish real high-level relations with each other towards the goal of unifying all of Kurdistan through democratization, liberalization, secularization and patriotically motivated collective communal return to Crypto-Jewish Kurdish religion (Alevi-Bektashi, Yarsanism and Yezidism) of tribes, clans and villages throughout Kurdistan. Rojava would be particularly well advised to take the lead in helping restore Muslims Kurds (and other Muslims) of Rojava to Yezidism as most Muslim Kurds in Rojava are indeed descended from involuntarily Islamized Yezidis. This return to Kurdish religion is not possible unless the people first know what Kurdish religion really is, namely Median Judaism. Rojava is however uniquely well positioned to take the lead in the Kurdish return to Kurdish religion as this is an essential element in freeing Kurdistan from the evils of religious imperialism.
The strategic tasks currently facing free Kurdistan (aside from operational considerations in the ongoing war against Daesh) could be summarized as follows:
Democratization, liberalization, secularization and return to Kurdish religion. 2. Integrating the Kurdish states both politically and militarily. 3. Rapid military integration with Israel whereby Israel is tasked with building and training the united Kurdistan Defense Forces, KDF. 4. Building a Federal Israel that would increasingly unite free Kurdistan with Israel and Para-Jewish countries/peoples in the region and around the world.
This would enable a free Kurdistan to someday fully join a Federal Israel if it indeed so wishes and democratically so decides once its own internal transformational processes have been successfully completed, including crucially return to Kurdish religion.
This would in some fundamental ways be consistent with Abdullah Öcalan’s vision of democratic confederalism in the Middle East as many democratic political decisions in larger member states of Federal Israel (such as Kurdistan) would take place on the level of cantons. Smaller member states of Federal Israel such as Alawistan and Druzistan would each operate as one canton while larger member states such United Kurdistan would be subdivided into multiple cantons.
Islamism is increasingly becoming self-discredited and so the peoples of the region whose ancestors were involuntarily Islamized will become increasingly interested in return to their own ancestral regional forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism. Israel is the model of success for Middle Eastern peoples and so peaceful democratic accession to a Federal Israel will become as attractive as accession to the European Union if not more. However, let’s be clear that patriotically returning tribes, clans, villages and communities to their pre-Islamic Judaic religion will require an extensive human welcoming infrastructure. Visionary and progressive Rojava would be particularly well advised to make comprehensive preparations to take the lead in this regard in crucially aiding Muslims of Rojava to completely voluntarily, communally and yes locally return to Yezidism.
A liberal-democratic Federal Israel would crucially be religiously pluralistic and as regional integration processes advance would member states become able to decide to institute free migration among particular member states of Federal Israel. Also, for those Para-Jewish populations whose ancestors left their own respective forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism, accession to Federal Israel would be contingent upon patriotic return to that or another form of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism. Eventually as economies are developed, integrated and harmonized should citizens of all or most member states of Federal Israel become able to enjoy free migration throughout Federal Israel although each member state would have its own citizenship in addition to the common citizenship of Federal Israel. Free Kurdistan is indeed particularly well disposed to take the lead in a regional process of democratic confederalism in the Middle East and not least crucially so with regard to the popular return to Kurdish religion.
Self-Determination versus DominationThe World Pan-Jewish Organization (WPJO) is a strategic project committed to research, documentation and education about the heritage of Para-Jewish peoples and communities, including Crypto-Judaism. The WPJO is animated by a vision of a future federal Israel that would democratically unite Israel with other Jewish peoples and other Jewish countries worldwide.
Para-Jewish peoples are other Jewish peoples than the core (rabbinically) Jewish people. Some Jewish populations were historically split off from the core Jewish people and later gave rise to a number of different Para-Jewish peoples, denominations and communities; including through conversion to Judaism in Antiquity and in later times.
Hillel says, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I? If not now, when?”
Pirkei Avot 1:14 of the Babylonian Talmud
The World Pan-Jewish Organization endeavors to increasingly broaden the articulation of the Israeli national interest in championing self-determination for Para-Jewish peoples around the world and thus replicating the social, economic and liberal-democratic success story that is Israel for Para-Jewish countries and Para-Jewish peoples in the Middle East and around the world.
This includes conceptually aiding in the return to the respective regional forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism in therefore phasing out existing religious imperialism, i.e. imperialist forms of religion that were historically, most tragically indeed imposed on Para-Jewish peoples.
The eternal special relationship between the State of Israel and the United States of America as bringing redemption on the back of the Lion of Judah in Crypto-Zionist depiction in contemporary religious Alevi-Bektashi art. The American flag is "hidden".The WPJO dares envision a future where borders no longer as since time immemorial will be changed and established through warfare but rather democratically through 1) the principle of self-determination for all peoples, 2) the principle of linguistic statehood and 3) the respective wishes of local communities by means of communal democratic consultation as approved by the state that they therefore join.
The WPJO is a political project with a journalistic research methodology, strategically committed and indeed devoted to the spread of self-determination, lasting peace, liberal democracy, open society, economic and social prosperity and importantly universal emancipation for all.
Arming Kurdistan
It has become very clear that the Kurds are the only force on the ground militarily capable of defeating and crushing Daesh. Yet the United States has continued to enforce a partial weapons embargo against free Kurdistan in thus preventing Israel from arming Kurdistan. It is one thing for the US government not to substantially arm Kurdistan but it is quite another to prevent Israel from substantially arming Kurdistan. Two factors however figure in the US reluctance to substantially arm the Kurds.
First, the US does not want to antagonize Turkey’s Islamist dictator Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whose regime actively sponsors Daesh and al Qaida in Syria. This means that Erdoğan, at least in part, successfully prevents the US from substantially arming the only ground forces that successfully fight those very Salafist terrorist groups that Erdoğan’s regime itself sponsors. This is not only objectively absurd but goes against core US interests in the region.
Second, the US is clearly concerned that arms sent to free Kurdistan may be used by the three self-governing Kurdish regions against each other. There is in fact tremendous distrust between the three parties (PYD, KDP and PUK), each of which governs one the three regions. Why is this so? There are two main reasons. Kurdish leaders tend to be pragmatic and sometimes the pragmatism goes too far in rightly or wrongly being regarded as treasonous by rival Kurdish political parties. These major Kurdish political movements have a tragic history of waging wars against each other and are for this reason mutually suspicious of each other. Also the three self-governing Kurdish regions although geographically continuous are differently geographically located which means that each one of the three self-governing Kurdish regions has a unique foreign policy adapted to its own geopolitical needs and unique geostrategic position and situation.
Diplomacy is needed that recognizes that each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions has vital strategic needs that therefore need to be appropriately addressed. Kurdistan needs to be armed in such a way that the three self-governing regions will not ever threaten each other. This means that the American and Israeli process of arming Kurdistan must be parallel to a diplomatic process of strategic dialogue between the three self-governing Kurdish regions.
Israel is most closely aligned with each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions and so Israeli-Kurdish military specialists as appropriately placed in the Kurdish chain of command can serve as an effective security mechanism that can prevent outbreak once more of Kurdish internecine warfare. Israel’s special relationship with Kurdistan which is not only a relationship between governments but also crucially one between the peoples means that Israel is uniquely well positioned to build trust between the three self-governing Kurdish regions. There are in fact existing models and solutions that should be carefully implemented with the consent of all three self-governing Kurdish regions that will thus effectively address the legitimate strategic concerns held by the three self-governing Kurdish regions.
It is however absolutely vital that each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions is armed separately, i.e. as long as they have not seriously and credibly committed to creating a unified, non-partisan Kurdistani military. Also only the PYD self-governing region in Rojava (Western Kurdistan in Syria) should be provided with an air force as long as the KDP and the PUK don’t seriously democratize their societies as the PYD is already seriously doing from below. These are three self-governing regions of the emerging unified free Kurdistan and so the three regions and their respective existing political leaderships are all part of the solution and not just part of the problem. Arming the Kurds should thus be done precisely in a calibrated way that will prevent any future outbreak of Kurdish internecine warfare. It should be possible to build the necessary verification mechanisms in a rather short period of time since these mechanisms would be established precisely so as to accommodate the legitimate strategic concerns of each of the three self-governing Kurdish regions.
The US should seriously arm the ground forces of the three self-governing Kurdish regions with various types of weaponry, yet if America does not wish to very substantially do so directly on a large scale it should certainly not continue to prevent Israel from doing precisely that. As Erdoğan, the Islamist dictator of Turkey strengthens his grip on power – in Turkey therefore increasingly becoming an enemy of the US rather than as once an ally of the US –Kurdistan needs to be thoroughly armed so at to be able to defend itself from any regional threat or combination of regional threats. Kurdish leaders face tremendous challenges and so Kurdistan must critically be enabled to defend itself from surrounding hostile Islamist regimes that are suppressing the strongly pro-democratic Kurdish people.
Due to long having had non-rigged elections and pursuing secularization policies was Kemalist Turkey for decades regarded by many Western strategic thinkers as a model for democratization in countries in the broader Middle East where Islam is the predominant traditional religion. This is no more and it really should be clear to all that Turkey is not and has never been a liberal democracy. The only events that could prevent the Islamist Erdoğan from putting Turkey on the path to becoming a Sunni version of Islamist Iran would be either a pro-democracy revolution, a military coup d’état as ordered by the secularist Turkish military intelligence agency known as the Deep State (Turkish Derin Devlet) or quite realistically even a combination of both.
If a process of democratization, liberalization and secularization could thus be commenced by relatively peacefully removing the Islamist dictatorship from power in Ankara, then this means political issues can be resolved democratically. However, Kurdistan needs to be thoroughly armed so as to be prepared for the prospect that neither a pro-democratic revolution nor a pro-democratic coup d’état will succeed which means that Turkey would be set on the path to becoming a second Iran.
Preparing the process of annulling Turkey’s membership in NATO needs however to commence. There can be no place for an Islamist dictatorship supporting Daesh and al Qaida in a defense alliance of liberal democracies. If neither a pro-democratic revolution nor a pro-democratic military coup d’état would work out then surely the Kurdish people must already be equipped to defend themselves against totalitarian tyranny. The US supports South Korea in every way necessary and so should the US similarly aid Kurdistan in a prudent manner in appropriately addressing Kurdistan’s legitimate strategic needs.
If Erdoğan and his Islamist ruling AK party which is part of the Turkish branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (whose Palestinian branch is Hamas) were to gain full control of the Turkish state and the Turkish military – in Turkey therefore being put on a path to becoming a Sunni version of Islamist Iran in therefore eliminating the political influence of the pro-secularist Turkish military intelligence agency known as the Deep State, then Turkey could become a strategic threat to Israel as well. Therefore the special relationship between Israel and Kurdistan is absolutely vital in making sure that such an existential threat to Israel and the entire region will never appear.
Strengthening Kurdistan in every way necessary should also strengthen and be done within the framework of the triangular strategic relationship between Israel, Kurdistan and the United States of America. If America does not yet want to seriously supply many different types of arms to Kurdistan, then to continue to prevent Israel from doing so directly contravenes the US vital strategic interest of strategically defeating and subsequently destroying Daesh as opposed to merely containing it as has been the de facto outcome so far of US policy towards Daesh.
The Israeli security mechanisms inside the Kurdish chains of command need to be put in place and once Israel is enabled to very substantially arm Kurdistan, then surely there is no reason why not the US and other countries should not do so as well. There are many issues that will need to be addressed including the question of unifying Kurdistan through careful and responsible processes of democratization, liberalization, secularization and crucially return to Kurdish religion. All these strategic inter-Kurdish issues need to be addressed through peaceful and democratic means in respecting the legitimate tactical and strategic regional interests of concern of each of the self-governing regions of free Kurdistan.
Contrary to the PKK's matrix, the PKK state in Rojava is however developing in very different ways. The PKK movement’s alignment with Israel also meant shedding its previous Communist ideology and so Rojava’s wartime economy is built upon the model of early modern Israel’s syndicalist (i.e. voluntary socialist) economy. It should be noted that Israel’s alignment with the PKK is part of Israel’s second periphery strategy which means Israel aligning with Iran’s geographic periphery both inside and outside of Iran’s international borders.
While Israeli intelligence has very strong research capabilities, the study of Crypto-Judaism in the Middle East and elsewhere was not something that was prioritized within the Israeli intelligence community. However, once it became known to Israeli intelligence a few years into the 21 century that Kurdish religion (Alevism, Yarsanism and Yezidism) are distinctive forms of very ancient Crypto-Judaism, Israel began seriously investing in expanding its diplomatic ties with the PKK movement as it became clear that not only are Alevis, Yarsanis and Yezidis halakhically Jewish (i.e. recognized as Jewish according to rabbinic religious law) in being Jewish indeed both religiously and ethnically, but Muslim Kurds are ethnically Crypto-Jewish as well as their own ancestors were indeed involuntarily Islamized Alevis/Bektashis, Yarsanis and Yezidis. In addition, there are also Muslim Kurdish clans such as the Barzanis who are descended from involuntarily Islamized Kurdish Rabbinic Jews.
There is already very deep Israeli-Kurdistani integration in the intelligence sphere as Kurdish intelligence agencies are the result of Israeli intelligence literally creating new intelligence apparatuses for Israel’s Kurdish allies. However, drastically more could be done both in political integration and military integration that would vastly strengthen Kurdistan. The establishment of an Israeli air force base in Rojava would do much to strengthen free Kurdistan against any offensive strategic military threat against it. Kurdistan needs its own defense industry or alternatively, Israeli defense companies could establish production plants inside this future Israeli military airbase in Kurdistan. These Israeli defense industries could then sell relatively advanced weaponry to Kurdistan as produced in those factories.
Rojava and Bashur need to establish real high-level relations with each other towards the goal of unifying all of Kurdistan through democratization, liberalization, secularization and patriotically motivated collective communal return to Crypto-Jewish Kurdish religion (Alevi-Bektashi, Yarsanism and Yezidism) of tribes, clans and villages throughout Kurdistan. Rojava would be particularly well advised to take the lead in helping restore Muslims Kurds (and other Muslims) of Rojava to Yezidism as most Muslim Kurds in Rojava are indeed descended from involuntarily Islamized Yezidis. This return to Kurdish religion is not possible unless the people first know what Kurdish religion really is, namely Median Judaism. Rojava is however uniquely well positioned to take the lead in the Kurdish return to Kurdish religion as this is an essential element in freeing Kurdistan from the evils of religious imperialism.
The strategic tasks currently facing free Kurdistan (aside from operational considerations in the ongoing war against Daesh) could be summarized as follows:
Democratization, liberalization, secularization and return to Kurdish religion. 2. Integrating the Kurdish states both politically and militarily. 3. Rapid military integration with Israel whereby Israel is tasked with building and training the united Kurdistan Defense Forces, KDF. 4. Building a Federal Israel that would increasingly unite free Kurdistan with Israel and Para-Jewish countries/peoples in the region and around the world.
This would enable a free Kurdistan to someday fully join a Federal Israel if it indeed so wishes and democratically so decides once its own internal transformational processes have been successfully completed, including crucially return to Kurdish religion.
This would in some fundamental ways be consistent with Abdullah Öcalan’s vision of democratic confederalism in the Middle East as many democratic political decisions in larger member states of Federal Israel (such as Kurdistan) would take place on the level of cantons. Smaller member states of Federal Israel such as Alawistan and Druzistan would each operate as one canton while larger member states such United Kurdistan would be subdivided into multiple cantons.
Islamism is increasingly becoming self-discredited and so the peoples of the region whose ancestors were involuntarily Islamized will become increasingly interested in return to their own ancestral regional forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism. Israel is the model of success for Middle Eastern peoples and so peaceful democratic accession to a Federal Israel will become as attractive as accession to the European Union if not more. However, let’s be clear that patriotically returning tribes, clans, villages and communities to their pre-Islamic Judaic religion will require an extensive human welcoming infrastructure. Visionary and progressive Rojava would be particularly well advised to make comprehensive preparations to take the lead in this regard in crucially aiding Muslims of Rojava to completely voluntarily, communally and yes locally return to Yezidism.
A liberal-democratic Federal Israel would crucially be religiously pluralistic and as regional integration processes advance would member states become able to decide to institute free migration among particular member states of Federal Israel. Also, for those Para-Jewish populations whose ancestors left their own respective forms of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism, accession to Federal Israel would be contingent upon patriotic return to that or another form of Judaism/Crypto-Judaism. Eventually as economies are developed, integrated and harmonized should citizens of all or most member states of Federal Israel become able to enjoy free migration throughout Federal Israel although each member state would have its own citizenship in addition to the common citizenship of Federal Israel. Free Kurdistan is indeed particularly well disposed to take the lead in a regional process of democratic confederalism in the Middle East and not least crucially so with regard to the popular return to Kurdish religion.
Many communities in Islamdom claim legendary, prestigious Arabian/Islamic/Quranic pseudo-historical descent and many such communities have actually this way carefully hidden Pan-Jewish genealogical origin which if widely known in many cases would be associated with severe group stigmatization as the Jewish societal-structural untouchables of Islamdom. Such Crypto-Jewish dissimulation claiming prestigious Arabian/Islamic/Quranic pseudo-historical descent provided in some of those Crypto-Jewish ethnological cases a rather convenient, indeed highly convincing explanation for the tendency in many genetically distinctive Jewish communities for significantly above average societal achievement. While many Jewish communities thus successfully managed to escape the derogatory social status of Jewish untouchables of Islamdom – others like the previously natively Greek-speaking, now natively Oghuz-speaking portion of Anatolian Alevi Hellenist Jewry certainly did not.
Islamdom has thus provided many societal incentives to those “acquiring” legendary Arabian/Islamic/Quranic genealogy while on the other hand providing many disincentives for being overt about Pan-Jewish ethnological/genealogical status and other ethnic/religious origins structurally stigmatized by traditional Muslim religious imperialism. The vast diversity of Crypto-Jewish communal groups in Islamdom includes castes, clans, communities, dynasties, ethnic groups, Ghulat sects, “heretics”, human subspecies, idiomatic realms, Judeo-Christians, Judeo-Shias, Judeo-Sufis, Judeo-Sunnis, lineages of nobility, neighborhoods, patrilineal descent groups, peoples, political dynasties, Priestly Judaism, regions, religions, religious denominations, sayyids, sects, social groups, states, sub-ethnic groups, towns, tribes and villages distinguishing themselves in various often subtle ways from their neighbors. Yet, that which overtly socially/culturally distinguishes them from neighboring non-Jews is not necessarily exoterically identifiable as overtly Jewish in either Biblical or Talmudic terms.
Hereditary Alevi priests in Alevi Judaism constitute one of the more obvious examples of discursive transformation of severely stigmatized Pan-Jewish descent into altered/invented legendary genealogies exoterically claiming prestigious Arabian/Islamic/Quranic origins. Yet, there are many other such Pan-Jewish ethnological cases in different countries of the broader Middle East. While some Jewish/Crypto-Jewish communities in Islamdom were entirely assimilated into surrounding populations, many other Jewish/Crypto-Jewish communities remained as distinctive independent communities albeit under different religious, ethnic & communal designations as the general tribal structure of societies in the broader Middle East served to quite effectively prevent individual assimilation of members of many Crypto-Jewish communities. Although many Crypto-Jewish communities remained endogamous, others maintained their Pan-Jewish patrilineage, yet still others remained as distinctive communities despite being at least nominally exogamous. The question of collective Jewishness & Jewish nationality is however determined by whether a given community constitutes a Crypto-Jewish people, a Crypto-Jewish ethnicity and/or a Crypto-Jewish sub-ethnicity. Some (a) Crypto-Jews practice some form of Crypto-Judaism (i.e. “Secret Judaism”) such as Alevism or Yezidism, (b) others practice other religions, (c) some practice some form of Crypto-Judaism together with other religions and (d) yet others are not religiously observant.
The Pan-Jewish nation has generally the following structure:
4. Pan-Jewish sub-ethnicity 3. Pan-Jewish ethnicity 2. Pan-Jewish peoplehood 1. Pan-Jewish nationhood
If someone belongs to a Pan-Jewish ethnic community as of 1, 2 and/or 3, then s/he is also ethnically vested with Pan-Jewish nationality, even if ethnically only in Crypto-form, thus meaning secretly so in ethnic terms. Crypto-Jews literally means Secret Jews and the prefix crypto- is derived from the Greek word kruptos and means “concealed”, “covered”, “hidden” “private” or “secret”. Even so, Crypto-Jews are no less Jewish than historically overt Jews as it is ethnicity in the wider sense of the word (including sub-ethnicity and peoplehood) that determines Jewish nationality and not necessarily any contemporary presence of any particular kind of religious activity. An Atheist Jew thus rather indisputably remains Jewish as s/he is and remains ethnically part of the Jewish nation. While there are religious arguments as to who is a Jew and who is a Crypto-Jew, both categories are quite indisputably vested with Jewish nationality.
Talmudic Judaism generally and Haredi Judaism specifically does not have and have never had a monopoly on Jewish sub-ethnicity, Jewish ethnicity, Jewish peoplehood, Jewish nationality and certainly not on Jewish religion.
In Antiquity there were many forms of overt Judaism, yet most of the communities that survived religious imperialism as Jews did survive as Crypto-Jews with the exceptions of (1) overt Ethiopian Jews, (2) overt Karaite Jews, (3) overt Samaritan Jews and (4) overt Talmudic Jews which therefore are the only Pan-Jewish peoples with officially recognized automatic immigration rights to Israel. Since there are many majority Pan-Jewish lands, there thus also needs to be a federation of Pan-Jewish states. Every Crypto-Jewish community without a majority Pan-Jewish land of its own should each be entitled to immigrate to one of the future member states of the future federal Israel. As there are many Pan-Jewish peoples, being Crypto-Jewish often means belonging to different Pan-Jewish peoples than Talmudic Jewry and indeed often having a different Zion (e.g. Alawistan, Aram, Igboland, Karachay-Balkaria, Kurdistan, Pashtunistan etc.) as there are certainly more majority Pan-Jewish lands than Israel.
Today there are in ethnic terms essentially three types of Jewish peoples:
1. Overt Jews 2. Secret Jews 3. Overt Jews who were formerly secret Jews
There are furthermore many populations in Islamdom mainly descended from Jews/Crypto-Jews who cannot be considered as presently belonging to the Pan-Jewish nation because they do not any longer have Crypto-Jewish peoplehood, Crypto-Jewish ethnicity and/or Crypto-Jewish sub-ethnicity, yet some such formerly Pan-Jewish populations may nevertheless in the future along with most Crypto-Jewish communities in Islamdom want to overtly ethnically return to the Pan-Jewish nation and should indeed be enabled to do so. Most Crypto-Jewish communities in Islamdom & many communities in Islamdom mainly descended from Crypto-Jews are thus highly likely to indeed want to fully reintegrate with the Pan-Jewish nation once they collectively learn of their own Pan-Jewish origins. Universal Jewish national emancipation should thus also mean that no longer should any Crypto-Jewish community need to hide its own Pan-Jewish ethnological status due to fears of persecution.
Crypto-Jewish populations should never be required to religiously convert/reconvert to any kind of Judaism in order to reclaim Jewish nationality but should rather be accepted as belonging to different Pan-Jewish sub-ethnicities, different Pan-Jewish ethnicities and different Pan-Jewish peoples of the same Jewish/Pan-Jewish nation. Crypto-Jews are historically secret simply because that is how they survived Anti-Jewish persecution by religious imperialism.
First, we know from recent history outside nominally Muslim nations since indigenous Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel was officially politically restored in 1948 that Crypto-Jewish communities collectively and strongly so tend to seek overt national reunification with Talmudic Jewry after learning of their own more or less suppressed Jewish genealogy. A second reason why overt reintegration into the Pan-Jewish nation is highly likely to be publically desired even increasingly inside Islamdom is that Israel is increasingly a success story in almost every field; defensively, democratically, economically, scientifically, technologically etc., while self-identified existential enemies of Israel in Islamdom tend to be societal failures in many such respects simply because they are historiographically deluded enemies of liberal-democratic open society who think the world is ruled by no less than a Jewish conspiracy (sic!).
Hating & boycotting Israeli Talmudic Jewry has hence since 1948 obviously contributed very negatively and indeed very substantially so to the rather dismal societal outcomes of many societies in Islamdom with Anti-Jewish state ideologies. Such self-identified existential enemies of Israel in Islamdom have thus in effect paradoxically led a de facto Talmudically Jewish & pro-Jewish economic embargo against underdeveloped economies of ideologically rejectionist regimes in Islamdom. It should also be well understood that non-Jewish corporate executives – not only in the West but also in much of Asia from India to Japan – tend to be highly appreciative & admiring of the perceived Ashkenazi genotypic cognitive profile and therefore as a consequence also indirectly extremely reluctant towards and skeptical of investing in economically underdeveloped polities ideologically/religiously founded on Anti-Jewish & Anti-Christian state ideologies. However, Israel’s astounding societal success in so many fields despite all the boycotts, discursive discrimination, hatred, terror, venom and repeatedly attempted genocide against us – as well as the manifold structural failures of rejectionist societies do make it increasingly attractive for Crypto-Jewish communities around the world – now even inside nominally Muslim countries – to dare seek overt semiotic reintegration with the Pan-Jewish nation.
The American Jewish organization Kulanu (Hebrew for ‘all of us’) which seeks global Pan-Jewish national reunification has published an overview at Kulanu.org over Crypto-Jewish communities around the world that have chosen to stay in contact with the Kulanu organization, yet it is certainly telling of the state of Anti-Jewish stigmatization in Islamdom how the broader Middle East has thus far mostly remained a white spot for the organization. Yet this state of continued Crypto-Jewish hyper-secrecy in the Middle East is bound to change as their Pan-Jewish ethnological status becomes increasingly well-known among these communities themselves. Thus, the secrecy evolves into mere hypocrisy which is ended by ethnic re-appropriation of Pan-Jewish identity. This has already happened to a significant extent outside of the Middle East and will undoubtedly increasingly happen in Islamdom as well.
Liberal-democratic, sovereign-indigenous Israel often evokes (1) feelings of private admiration among many people in the Muslim world and (2) hateful envy among yet many others who are also part of the same Muslim world. These two seemingly conflicting sentiments are often privately mixed-up as feelings of Anti-Israel envy in the Muslim world are more and more for every year that passes being transformed into feelings of private admiration although you wouldn’t know that from opinion polls or the local mass media.
Conventional opinion polls are simply inaccurate when it comes to private taboo issues such as admiration for Israel in Islamdom. While there is undoubtedly gargantuan existential enmity towards Israel in Islamdom, it is far from unanimous. Many people in Islamdom even privately admire Israel for the very falsehoods ascribed to it by Anti-Jewish war propaganda. The Alawi Shabiha militia in Syria and many other criminal members of the Syrian regime thus tend to justify their war crimes by privately comparing themselves to Israel of all countries! After all, the Shabiha militia and the Syrian regime’s criminal war machine basically acts IRL in the very manner in which Israel is routinely and falsely so depicted by Anti-Jewish war propaganda….
The indisputably non-Philistine Amian ethnic group which calls itself “Palestinians” in many other idioms than their own implausibly call themselves “Philistines” in both their native Amian idiom as well as in the colonial, yet still very prestigious dead Arabic idiom that continues to be politically imposed in the Middle East and North Africa as if it were somehow mystically anything more than simply the dead liturgical idiom of the religion of Islam thus very comparable indeed to the official & educational, non-religious use of literary, dead Latin in pre-modern Europe.
Many people in the Arabophonie who natively speak Amian (a historical continuation of the dead Arabic) and Darian (which resulted from Muslim colonial idiomatic contact between the indigenous Tamazight “Berber” idiom and early medieval colonial Arabic) still claim to be “Arabs” although this historical people called “Arabs” do not any longer exist and of course none of these ideologically Arabist claimants are native speakers of said dead Arabic idiom. Judean (externally often misnamed as so called “Judeo-Arabic”) is in contrast a form of relexified Targumic Aramaic while Maltese has now a largely Indo-European general vocabulary derived from European idioms. Citizens of Turkey & Northern Kurdistan have long been absurdly told by their dictatorial rulers that they are “genetic Central Asians” when in fact Central Asian descent plays a most marginal role in the gene pools of the Pan-Jewish major Anatolian ethnic groups despite this very big lie on the part of ruling tyrants of the Republic of Turkey – whether Kemalist or Islamist.
Many of the now almost entirely Judeo-Christian remaining Arameans claim to be “Assyrians” and even more implausibly describe the Modern Aramean idiom as “Assyrian” despite the well-known fact that ancient Assyrian was a mere literary dialect of the now long extinct Akkadian idiom. In addition, there are Arameans with “Chaldean” identity. Then there is of course the “Phoenician” identity which happens to be prevalent among ethnically Maronite Arameans. The ancient Phoenicians, although using a different literary dialect, spoke the same Canaanite idiom as did the Israelites, the Moabites, the Carthaginians and others as this very Levantine indigenous idiom is today for the most part known as Hebrew and does serve in a historically somewhat evolved form as the primary official idiom of contemporary restored, sovereign-indigenous, liberal-democratic Israel. Halachic Judaism which is the traditional religion among Talmudically Jewish Israelis has two universal liturgical idioms – Hebrew & Aramaic – that are also the two idioms of both the Babylonian Talmud & the Galilean Talmud (i.e. the Talmud of the land of Israel, usually referred to in English as the Jerusalem Talmud.) Furthermore, parts of the biblical Book of Daniel were written in Aramaic and some parts were translated from Aramaic, although most of the Hebrew Bible is written in Hebrew.
Christian Aramean communities of pagan descent were historically almost entirely Islamized while Judeo-Christian Arameans like all of those Pan-Jewish (Jewish and Crypto-Jewish) peoples with significant Israelite genetic ancestry have indeed mixed genetic origins due to ancient Pan-Jewish acceptance of converts to Judaism. Thus, it would be very unreasonable indeed to think that Assyrian-identified Arameans generally have no Assyrian genetic descent and it would be genetically even more absurd to presume that Maronite Arameans have no Phoenician genetic descent. There is no question that the Judeo-Christian Maronite, Western Modern Arameans have at the same time Aramean, Israelite and Phoenician genetic descent due to ancient Pan-Jewish acceptance of converts to Judaism, representing thus the diversity of Maronite genetic history. Many Phoenicians, many Arameans and indeed the Punic ancestors of the Crypto-Jewish, Judeo-Christian Maltese people who once spoke the Punic literary dialect of Hebrew did indeed historically convert to ancient Judaism. While the dead Arabic is a mostly external, non-native idiom politically superimposed in modern times by secular/religious Muslim neo-imperialism (Arabism & Islamism) onto the many indigenous idioms of the Middle East and North Africa, including on Amian and Darian – both Modern Hebrew and Modern Aramaic are living natively spoken indigenous idioms of this region as is even Modern Egyptian, in fact long falsely rumored to be no longer natively spoken.
The multicultural Pan-Jewish nation is composed of many different Jewish peoples – including the Modern Aramean people which itself is constituted by a number of different contemporary Aramean ethnic groups & Crypto-Jewish religious denominations, predominantly Judeo-Christian Arameans (whether with Aramaic, Melkite or Western liturgy) and by additional relatively small groups such as the Crypto-Jewish Mandeans & the few remaining Christian Aramean communities of pagan origin. The ancient-modern land of Aram which forms part of Grand Liban & Greater Syria is also part of the broader biblical land of Israel. The Judeo-Christian Maronite Arameans are not just any Crypto-Jewish denomination; Maronite Arameans are patriotic Judeo-Christian inhabitants of the land who have remained faithful to the broader land of Israel despite so many centuries of imposed, intrusive religious imperialism. Western Judeo-Christian Aramean ethnic groups do not belong to the same genetic groups as surrounding Amian Muslim populations mainly descended from Islamized Christians of pagan origin as Crypto-Jewish Arameans generally together with most Talmudically Jewish ethnicities and a number of other genetic groups such as the Druze do fit quite neatly into the broader Israelitic genetic spectrum. However, the Pan-Jewish Maronite Arameans are now increasingly for the most part privately great lovers of Jerusalem, of the land of Israel and of historically restored sovereign-indigenous, liberal-democratic Israel.
Muslim neo-imperialism in both secular & religious shape (Arabism & Islamism) has forced Maronite Arameans and many other Crypto-Jewish communities in Grand Liban such as the Lebanese Druze to not express in public their true feelings towards Israel as these Arameans and Druze reside as increasingly ideologically colonized Dhimmis in the now most tragically Iranian-occupied Grand Liban. Muslim neo-imperialism has thus forced Amian-speaking Maronite Arameans to not say in public what they in fact sense & believe as the Judeo-Christian Maronite Arameans are in fact very patriotic Pan-Jewish faithful of the broader land of Israel and have been so throughout Judeo-Christian history.
Thus, Pan-Jewish Maronite Arameans tend to appreciate Israel far more than Maronites indeed tend to appreciate themselves as Arameans as do comparably & similarly in fact many other fellow Crypto-Jewish populations in the region and beyond as regards their own sub-ethnicity/ethnicity/peoplehood. Maronite Arameans thus tend to be not nearly sufficiently politically committed to their own freedom as one Aramean people in order so as to strategically secure their own share in the future of this region. Furthermore, the Pan-Jewish Maronite Arameans have for the most part tragically failed to draw the necessary contemporary political lessons from their own politically most tragic, modern political history since World War I in the past one hundred years. This tragic, modern Maronite political history is basically constituted by a series of recurring, very serious missed historico-political opportunities towards establishing sustainable Aramean self-determination in the land of Aram from the Aramean coast, through the Aramean mountains to the Aramean desert.
Yet, especially considering that the Alawi, Alevi, Druze, Yezidi etc. denominations of Crypto-Jewish Priestly Judaism also used to be Judeo-Christian in Byzantine times – there is definitely potential & certainly need in Grand Liban for very serious religious-political-historical dialogue for peace and democracy between Maronite clergy on the one hand and Alawi clergy on the other. Alawis, who among the overt denominations of Priestly Judaism are the ones who have retained the most Christian customs from the Byzantine period have in fact much to learn from the past century of modern Maronite political history in Grand Liban in terms of the most tragic Maronite historico-political overreach since after World War I. This is also so as the tragic truth is that individual economic interests within the Alawi-dominated ruling elite in Syria are still most tragically prioritized over long-term Alawi people strategic interests in their very own mountainous, Mediterranean Alawi land, i.e. Alawistan. The current deeply tragic situation in Syria poses not a choice between Anti-Amian mass murder or Anti-Alawi genocide but rather one of ethnic/religious domination versus mutual self-determination.
Infamously, when the Maronite Western Arameans were given political opportunity to expand their small state after WWI they partly and indeed very tragically so chose the wrong territories. Furthermore, they no less tragically failed to establish automatic legal immigration rights to Grand Liban for Christian Arameans living elsewhere. Had Maronite Aramean political leaders at the time basically annexed only contiguous ethnically Aramean areas in nearby parts of Greater Syria plus the Anti-Lebanon Druze areas, then they would obviously also have chosen Aramean freedom, Aramean self-determination and Aramean statehood. Rather, Maronite leaders at the time tragically committed that most Middle Eastern sin of politically choosing ethnic/religious domination over mutual self-determination, a political sin which the Alawi ruling elite in Syria so immensely tragically continue to indeed commit every day.
Unfortunately, the internally severely politically divided, Alawi-dominated present Syrian administration has long been shown apparently quite politically incapable of getting together in choosing self-determination over domination, before and until the conflict in Syria reaches a certain extended, “permanent tipping-point” of military balance that would seem to most definitely swing against the cause of permanent perpetuation of Alawi ethnic domination in Syria as well as against any serious prospects for continued Alawi minority rule in Syria. It seems indeed that Syria is in fact getting tactically closer to that very point as Alawi kleptocrats and other politically influential, wealthy Syrian Alawis need to make the collective strategic decision to indeed cut their losses and patriotically prioritize the strategic interests of the Alawi land – Alawistan – and its multicultural Pan-Jewish peoples – including Alawis, Alevis, Arameans, Crypto-Alawis, Crypto-Arameans, Kurds and other fellow members of Pan-Jewish peoples in Alawistan. In fact, orderly diplomatic partition as implemented as early as possible is the best way to protect private property more generally in Syria & Grand Liban and entirely irrespectively so of ethnicity, nationality and religion.
Yet, if the military pendulum were to swing too heavily in favor of the Sunni Amian opposition, then the Sunni Amian opposition would then themselves in turn certainly be quite likely to be predisposed to very similarly commit the very same regional political sin by most likely choosing ethnic/religious domination over mutual self-determination. Sunni Amian forces in Syria will in all likelihood thus only remain somewhat receptive to the notion of diplomatic partition of Greater Syria as long as their people remain comparably militarily weak & indeed very tragically, desperately victimized. Unfortunately, too many in the Alawi ruling elite in Syria still share this political mindset of Middle Eastern Master-Slave Morality.
The fundamental political choice remains in fact one between domination and self-determination in the region generally which is rife with ethnic/religious quests for domination over ethnic/religious others, including most prominently on the part of Islamism such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt by seeking to impose the rule of Sharia law on the ethnic/religious Egyptian Christian minority who constitute 20% of the Egyptian nation in Egypt. (The designation “Coptic” for the Anti-Arabist Christian Egyptians simply means “Egyptian”.)
The word “Philistine” is an etymologically Hebrew term and that the ancient Hebrew biblical-era Philistine people who are widely believed to have migrated from the Aegean region adopted the Hebrew idiom as their own and certainly were not Arabic-speakers or Amian-speakers?
Israel carries no hypothetical demographic risk complex whatsoever considering the many millions upon millions of members of fellow Pan-Jewish peoples around the world who hypothetically would certainly be very interested in immigrating to the land of Israel once invited to do so and would even gladly undergo “reconversion” if required to do so prior or subsequent to immigration to Israel as in the case of Ethiopian Crypto-Jewry. Talk of a demographic threat in current demographic patterns is thus sheer demagoguery.
The Hebrew-speaking sector average fertility rate in Judea & Samaria at five children per woman is quite substantially higher than the “Pseudo-Philistine” fertility rate in the combined area of Judea, “East Jerusalem” and Samaria which according to official PLO statistics stands at three children per woman. However, the official demographic size of the “Pseudo-Philistine” population in that region has been severely inflated by Ramallah’s official demographers in order so as to (a) exaggerate Ramallah’s own geostrategic importance in the region, (b) fraudulently gain more foreign aid and (3) even politically preempt emergence of further Israeli civic support for comprehensive Israeli annexation of the entire Judea & Samaria as opposed to very legitimately Israel annexing only some half of it as through conclusive partition for conclusive peace.
This alternative strategic position has long been incorrectly portrayed as a strategic option for ending Jewish self-determination through a transitional so called “bi-national state” when it is in fact precisely the other way around as comprehensive Israeli annexation of the entire Judea and Samaria would end all prospects for Amian self-determination in these parts of region and would do so by means of permanent & comprehensive Israeli Jewish minoritization of the entire non-Jewish Sunni Amian population of Judea & Samaria. Few are aware that there is not one single existing officially “bi-national state” anywhere in the world although there are many that are officially bi-idiomatic, including Israel, Iraq and Morocco. At worst, Israel would become Macedonia or Malaysia since no sovereign state can become involuntarily officially “bi-national” and Israel like all sovereign states controls its own immigration policy according to its own discretion & sovereign criteria, including as relating to Crypto-Jewish communities outside of Israel.
The highly unfortunate fact is that the vast majority of voting members of Israel’s Sunni Amian national minority do elect members of Knesset who are enemies of open society, whether Arabist, Communist or Islamist.
That leading Haredi poskim (i.e. top rabbinical legal arbiters; meaning in practice religious legislators, singular posek) are particularly well aware of the existence of Priestly Judaism and its distinctive multiple, indisputably legitimately Jewish denominations (Alawi, Alevi, Bektashi, Druze, Kaka’i, Shabak, Yarsan, Yezidi etc.) whose very Jewish/Israelite respective ethnic/religious jurisdiction has always been implicitly recognized by poskim (rabbinical legislators) of each generation in observant Talmudic Judaism, including in Modern Haredi Judaism.
I say Modern Haredi Judaism because Israeli Haredi political culture in purportedly historically wholly rejecting modernity did in fact also incorporate some rather unattractive aspects of non-Jewish European culture, both pre-modern & modern. Much of Israeli Haredi Judaism is even parallel to & resembles Islamism in some very important political ways in relating to modernity, particularly in seeking to superimpose religious law as directly or indirectly elevated to the status of general governmental law.
Israeli Haredi political culture contrasts rather unfavorably with the highly entrepreneurial & in many ways highly respectable Diaspora Haredi Jewish communities who are economically well-integrated into modern multicultural societies other than modern multicultural Israel and quite unlike their Haredi kin in Israel – for the most part do not engage in public, collectively anti-social behavior & manifestly lunatic public discourse.
The need for a new philosophically Talmudically influenced Israeli democratically enhanced societal synthesis in the future federal Israeli member state of Judah (contemporary Israel renamed with new borders), responsibly-deconstructively merging ethico-politically worthy aspects of Zionist and Haredi intellectual discourse in Israel in ways fully compliant with values of multicultural, advanced democracy.
The international diplomatic focus now also needs to be on Grand Liban before the contagious Syrian armed ethnic conflict consumes Grand Liban as well. The necessary, even essential ethico-political diplomatic task is therefore certainly hence to put in place a new confederal political structure/arrangement in Grand Liban as a transitional political stage that would lend itself to subsequent region-wide partition of the biblical land of Israel more broadly and beyond, between a federal Amistan & a federal Israel once Syria becomes mutually ripe for bilateral partition.
There should under the new confederal structure/arrangement in Grand Liban thus be four member states of the temporary Lebanese confederation, (1) one Aramean-Druze state, (2) one Sunni Amian state, (3) one Twelver Amian state and (4) one Alawi-Aramean state. Political authority during the transitional confederal period in Grand Liban prior to partition of Greater Syria would be mostly delegated to the four member states with the exception of monetary & trade policies. Each member state would defend itself, maintain its own distinctive citizenship and determine its own immigration policies. Borders between the four constituent member states would be such that would later allow territorial or maritime contiguity for future regional member states of federal Israel and federal Amistan. The Aramean-Druze state (Aram) and the Alawi-Aramean state (Alawistan) would also not only include Crypto-Jewish Amian residential communities but also those Muslim Amian formerly Crypto-Jewish residential communities that would prefer to reclaim their ancient Pan-Jewish nationality. Partition would be optimal so as to ensure that as many majority neighborhoods as possible find themselves on the right side of the new transitional, confederal border lines that would ensure federal Amistani and federal Israelite member states that would each be contiguous by land or by sea.
It is also important to understand that while Tehran does not really care that much about the wellbeing of its own citizenry (certainly not about its own Amian ethnic regional majorities whether Twelver Amians or Sunni Amians), yet they paradoxically care a lot about the collective welfare of ethnic Twelver Amians in Grand Liban. In fact, the deposed Shah shared a similarly selective geopolitical disposition in this regard thus reflecting Twelver Persian imperialism more broadly whether secularized or Islamist.
The strategic formula for lasting peace & long-term stability in this shared broader Middle Eastern region of ours is quite simple, mutual and indeed equal for all peoples/nations of our region and entails simply strategically choosing self-determination over ethnic/religious domination. This very fair choice is the same for everyone in the broader Middle East and is indeed an ethico-political one of conclusive partition for conclusive peace. Therefore, choosing ethnic/religious domination instead of mutual self-determination is not an acceptable political choice or outcome anywhere in the broader Middle East as mutual self-determination is indeed pivotal to the noble cause of responsible, incremental regional democratization through universal expansion of global, now mostly digitalized open society, leading towards eventual establishment of democratic peace in this shared broader Middle Eastern region of ours.
Advanced democracy in the broader Middle East is surely not easy to achieve considering the still very substantial political strength of neo-imperialist Arabist/Islamist self-identified enemies of global liberal-democratic open society. Responsible democratization in the region therefore certainly requires (1) political patience, (2) particularly good political judgment, (3) strategic decolonization of Muslim neo-imperialism (Arabism, Islamism, Kemalism, Persian imperialism etc.), (4) the redrawing of obsolete colonial borders as well as (5) advanced political skills for indeed ultimately transforming regional non-democratic societies into open societies subsequently enabling responsible development & careful, incremental establishment of advanced democracy throughout our so very much contested, yet even so shared region.
From Union to Federal Democracy
It's necessary Pan-Jewish Zionism. The first potential tipping point would be constituted by increasingly consensual recognition within Syria’s powerful (mostly Amian-speaking and variously ethnically Crypto-Jewish; Alawi, Aramean, Druze and Ismaili) economic & political elite that the economic-political situation of status quo ante bellum in Syria cannot realistically be once more restored, thus politically transforming region-wide diplomatic partition between a federal Amistan & a federal Israel from the option of last resort for Syria’s remaining economic rejectionists into a consensual option of political preference for Syria’s rulers..
While the ethnically Crypto-Jewish – yet esoterically uninitiated – Alawi political elite in Syria in recent decades wanted the Mediterranean Alawi region to become an Iranian, so to speak “French-style” satellite protectorate in the event of Sunni Amian political takeover in Syria, this is no longer a viable strategic option for the Alawi-dominated Syrian leadership, considering shall I say the much less than promising political prospects for the Iranian regime and the fact that Alawi state accession to a federal Israel would be vastly preferable for the Crypto-Jewish Alawi people & leadership in every sense, including not least economically.
The Pan-Jewish nation is one that has long been suppressed and the peoples of significant Crypto-Jewish majority lands in Syria and beyond in the broader region would therefore be welcome at some point to fully voluntarily join a new Pan-Jewish Union of Israel. Accession to federal Israel would not be immediate for the simple reason that an increasingly unified federal nation of Israel must be an advanced democracy founded on a dynamically evolving open society & and a dynamic ethical-entrepreneurial economy.
While Israeli governments like other governments of advanced democracies are certainly not infallible and sometimes do make mistakes, no one can question Israel’s universal commitment to the wellbeing of Jewish communities everywhere. However, Ankara, Moscow, Ramallah, Riyadh and Tehran have been aware of the existence of Crypto-Jewish peoples across the broader region for decades now. Yet, Israel’s intelligence community unfortunately remained quite bizarrely unaware of this pivotal, broader region-wide dimension of Pan-Jewish esoteric ethnicity during the course of the 20th century and some years beyond. Obviously, Israel would not had unilaterally redeployed the way it did away from Aramean/Druze Crypto-Jewish regions in Grand Liban in 1949, 1978, 1983, 1985 and 2000, had Jerusalem been aware of this esoteric ethno-religious Pan-Jewish nature of things in the broader region at the time of these unilateral Israeli military redeployments.
Erudite scholars of comparative religion are well aware that secretive/esoteric religion is certainly not an exceptional or even uncommon phenomenon in the region & globally and is one which is particularly difficult to study through superficial, conventional non-Straussian methodologies since most things in esoteric religion tend to be based on plausible deniability pertaining to religious dissimulation often but not necessarily, so as to ensure collective discursive security from externally imposed persecution. Obviously, this pivotally important field of scientific inquiry is no longer a neglected academic discipline in Israel’s intelligence community and hence also Israel’s official, warm and heartfelt message to Damascene Alawis that they (as they are ethnically Pan-Jewish) are indeed most welcome to seek refuge on the Israeli Golan - implicitly as a first stop en route to the northern Alawi region – in the event that the regime were to implode and Alawis outside the Alawi region subsequently threatened by retributive Amian attempted genocide against Crypto-Jewish ethnicities in Syria. Israel is a global power and has a Pan-Jewish responsibility to look after the best interest & wellbeing of all the various culturally distinctive peoples of the Pan-Jewish nation, including obviously the Aramean people.
Pan-Jewish democratic unification certainly does not mean that any people or denomination of any member state of federal Israel should seek to impose its religious standards on other ethnicities & denominations of the Pan-Jewish nation. It requires however publically acknowledging at some point in the future that Pan-Jewish nationality is not reducible to (a) any single religious denomination, to (b) any religiously defined “personal status”, to (c) any particular ethnicity or even just some Pan-Jewish ethnicities and that rather, human members of the many culturally distinctive peoples of the Pan-Jewish nation together share an ancient-modern Pan-Jewish nationality.
Universal unified idiomatic statehood is about truly achieving self-determination for all human peoples & nations and thus ending quests for ethnic/religious domination over others. Yet, the Pan-Jewish nation is culturally, ethnically and religiously quite diverse and many such societal distinctions must of course be treated with a great amount of respect. However, it is essential to understand that the national transition of democratic unification from being part of mutually very much divided, more or less secretively esoteric Jewish ethnic groups and towards publically & collectively reclaiming a shared, universal ancient-modern Pan-Jewish nationality – will indeed in itself constitute a significant shift of political paradigm in the broader region. This Pan-Jewish, democratically unifying shift of paradigm will also crucially help engender a broader democratic shift of paradigm in the broader region even beyond Crypto-Jewish lands. This is so as dynamic economic & democratic developments in Crypto-Jewish lands as pertaining to Pan-Jewish democratic integration will in time ultimately spread to various neighboring nations beyond the Pan-Jewish nation, nations who like some Crypto-Jewish peoples such as the Pashtuns are currently more or less afflicted with that particular tragic and distinctly modern, yet very reactionary, political pathology that is the paradigmatic Islamist ideological dead end of political & religious tyranny as globally engineered by the Islamist Nexus of Evil.
There will indeed need to be a nationwide Pan-Jewish process of truth & reconciliation similar to the one in South Africa after Apartheid as the Pan-Jewish nation is one that for so many centuries has been politically segregated from within by intrusive religious imperialism emanating from both Europe & Arabia. Those who committed very serious political mistakes will indeed in time need to publically apologize as part of this Pan-Jewish national process of truth & reconciliation. Political leaders of descendants of no longer living collective perpetrators of wholly indefensible political acts will in time similarly need to publically express their profound sorrow for the full extent of such entirely indefensible acts committed by deceased predecessors, including at some point as pertaining to the Seyfo genocide committed against the Aramean people since the 1890’s.
Pan-Jewish democratic unification, albeit constituting a future shift of paradigm is a process that in no way is instant or automatic. This means that every Crypto-Jewish land will have its own process of accession to federal Israel at its own particular domestic pace, subsequent to public reclamation of ancient-modern Pan-Jewish nationality. When these Pan-Jewish lands/peoples formally enter the gate of treaty accession to federal-democratic Israel, they will do so as advanced democracies, open societies and ethical-entrepreneurial economies acting freely out of popular free will for Pan-Jewish democratic unification. The constituent member states of federal-democratic Israel will be legal equals and each member state will be entitled to forever preserve its own distinctive, yet obviously perpetually evolving cultural character, including by means – when is so preferred – through (1) member state-specific citizenship, (2) member state border controls and (3) member state-specific laws & policies on inter-national & intra-federal entry and immigration. Even so, every member in dispersal of any particular Pan-Jewish people should be entitled to immigrate to one actual or future Israeli federal member state.
Some Crypto-Jewish lands will thus stay mere members of the union longer than other Crypto-Jewish lands before subsequently joining the federation, yet each Crypto-Jewish land/people will need to carefully manage its own process of transition & accession while proactively learning from other prospective and actual Israeli federal member states (as well as from EU accession history) in these important political respects. This political process is about Pan-Jewish unification for advanced democracy, yet Pan-Jewish region-wide integration leading to accession to federal-democratic Israel must be gradual as well as of course mutually, consensually and trustfully agreed between the various culturally distinctive peoples of the Pan-Jewish nation.
Much like ancient Biblical Israel was an ethnically diverse tribal federation with twelve ethnic units, so will federal-democratic Israel be a fully voluntary federation of culturally diverse Pan-Jewish peoples of ancient-modern Pan-Jewish nationality. (1) Advanced democratic self-determination of Pan-Jewish peoplehood (Alawi people, Albanian people, Aramean people, etc.) will be exercised at the level of titular member states of federal Israel (unified Alawi state, unified Albania, unified Aram, etc.) while (2) advanced democratic self-determination of Pan-Jewish nationhood will be exercised through the federal parliament & federal government in the officially multi-idiomatic federal Israeli capital territory in Jerusalem.
It is also crucial to understand that a free Aram as fully open to Aramean immigration will be no less culturally, ethnically, genetically, politically and religiously diverse than is in fact the Aramean people itself. The denominationally endogamous modern Aramean people is (a) quite geographically dispersed while (b) constituting a significant number of various distinctive Aramean denominational communities, various distinctive Aramean ethnicities and various distinctive Aramean subspecies as most Arameans are descendants of geographically quite scattered, yet also culturally, ethnically and genetically diverse Aramaic-speaking Jews of Antiquity which prominently included the natively Aramaic-speaking Jewish Jesus and most other Galilee Jews.
Many of these Aramaic-speaking Jewish ancestors married Aramaic-speaking converts to ancient Judaism from which early Christianity emerged. Many such ancient Aramaic-speaking Jewish communities practiced Hellenist Judaism and therefore also knew Greek in addition to Aramaic and Hebrew. The Aramean-Hellenist Melkite churches are now like their fellow Arameans of Aramaic rite mostly demographically Crypto-Jewish as Aramean communities of pagan origin throughout the region have been almost entirely Islamized. While Christianity generally is a form of evolved Hellenist Judaism, both Alevis/Alawis and Aramean Melkite denominations are also the modern-day Hellenist Jewry that survived so many centuries of intrusive religious imperialism.
The Aramaic idiom was (as was in ancient Biblical times the Ammonite/Canaanite/Edomite/Hebrew/Moabite/Phoenician/Punic idiom in the Levant) indeed the predominant idiom for many of the peoples in the Fertile Crescent for so many centuries, including for most Jewish communities in the region and particularly so in late Antiquity. Yet, like their Crypto-Jewish Kurdish immediate neighbors, Eastern Aramaic-speaking Judeo-Christian Arameans are also to some extent partially descendants of the Hebrew-speaking ten Israelite tribe deported to the region from the land of Israel.
A free, united & democratically advanced Aram will indeed be quite culturally, ethnically, genetically and religiously diverse with (1) the staunchly freedom-loving Crypto-Jewish Maronite Arameans, with (2) the Crypto-Jewish Mandeans suffering so much under Islamist oppression & persecution, with Arameans of (3) Melkite Greek rite and (4) of Syriac Aramaic rite, with (6) Uniate and (7) non-Uniate, with (8) many of the now quite openly Judeo-Christian six million Arameans of India’s southern state of Kerala, with (9) the Muslim & (10) Judeo-Christian Aramean Maloula area of Crypto-Jewish Arameans including (11) Aramaic-speaking Melkites, with (12) speakers of Aramaic including (13) Eastern Aramaic, (14) Southern Aramaic and (15) Western Aramaic, with (16) speakers of Amian, with (17) speakers of the Malayalam literary dialect of the South Dravidian idiom, with (18) émigré speakers of different idioms that are official in various liberal democracies, with (19) many Crypto-Jewish Druze areas that are non-connectible in terms of absence of human geographic contiguity with a restored free Druze state in the Druze Mountain region, with (20) the on average socio-economically relatively low-achieving as compared to Judeo-Christian Arameans, yet still Aramean Christian demographic remnants of historically ex-pagan Christian Aramean communities within an otherwise now almost entirely Judeo-Christian remaining Aramean people, with (21) the Aramean various Crypto-Jewish subspecies of which Mandean Arameans are the most socio-economically high-achieving, with (22) non-Aramean Pan-Jewish citizens, with (23) local Armenians, with (24) local Amian minorities (25) Sunni and (26) Twelver Shia, with (27) the endogamous Greek Muslim Lebanese Crypto-Jewish community, with (28) Protestant Arameans and with some other Islamized, yet still (29) Crypto-Jewish Aramean and (30) Crypto-Jewish non-Aramean communities.
Just like the very few remaining Aramean Christian communities of ethnically pagan origin are part and parcel of the now almost entirely Judeo-Christian remaining Aramean people, so shall all Arameans in dispersal & citizens of Aram be free to retain their own particular heritage and if they so desire become part of the Western Aramean story of defiant peoplehood & democratic statehood. Being Pan-Jewish does of course not make the Aramean people any less Aramean, on the contrary so, being Aramean is one of quite many ways of being Pan-Jewish as Pan-Jewish nationality is certainly not reducible to merely Talmudically Jewish cultural expression or identity.
And yes in the affirmative, the Judeo-Christian Arameans are the original, indigenous Christians in the region and are in fact the indigenous people of the original Judeo-Christian church. The Aramaic idiom is of course also the closest living relative of the Hebrew idiom and the free Aram will furthermore be the only territorial neighbor of Judah (contemporary Israel renamed) within federal-democratic Israel aside from the federal Israeli capital territory in Jerusalem. One who already knows one of the two idioms can easily learn to read and understand the other without too much effort as most male contemporary Orthodox Jews do learn how to read & in fact extremely well understand Talmudic Aramaic of the Gemara, i.e. Aramaic rabbinical commentary to the Hebrew Mishnah, the oldest layer of text in the two Talmuds. While the Gemara of the Jerusalem Talmud is written in Western Aramaic, the Gemara of the Babylonian Talmud is written in Eastern Aramaic. Although Aramaic has a long regional history and was used by many different peoples, including as a lingua franca in the region, the Jewish Jesus and the Jewish John as revered by Mandean Arameans were in effect the first founders of the modern Aramean people as modern Arameans have remained no less genuinely Jewish than were in fact these historically very prominent symbolic first founding fathers of the modern Aramean people that is now thirsting for freedom of dignity in democratic self-determination.
Collective Judeo-Christian Aramean ethnic identity (“Christian communities of Jewish ancestry”) as culturally transmitted across the generations remained the shared & in fact historically accurate, indigenous historical narrative of Judeo-Christian Arameans before the divisive & historically most tragic intrusive activities of Western missionaries in the region in the 19th century. Western Anti-Jewish prejudice at the time was thus probably the predominant motivation in seeking to colonially divide the Aramean people and imposing de-Judaizing, anachronistic imperialist identities. The emergence of modern Muslim neo-imperialism (Arabism/Islamism etc.) with its usually burning genocidal hatred for all things Jewish, further entrenched these colonially imposed imperialist divisions. The esoterically initiated Judeo-Christian elite clergy of Aramean churches, albeit outwardly practicing some amount of religious dissimulation in terms of exoteric identity in accordance with historico-political circumstances so as to protect the Aramean people from persecution – have indeed always known the truth about Jesus’ Pan-Jewish Aramean people.
Collective Judeo-Christian Aramean ethnic identity (“Christian communities of Jewish ancestry”) as culturally transmitted across the generations remained the shared & in fact historically accurate, indigenous historical narrative of Judeo-Christian Arameans before the divisive & historically most tragic intrusive activities of Western missionaries in the region in the 19th century. Western Anti-Jewish prejudice at the time was thus probably the predominant motivation in seeking to colonially divide the Aramean people and imposing de-Judaizing, anachronistic imperialist identities. The emergence of modern Muslim neo-imperialism (Arabism/Islamism etc.) with its usually burning genocidal hatred for all things Jewish, further entrenched these colonially imposed imperialist divisions. The esoterically initiated Judeo-Christian elite clergy of Aramean churches, albeit outwardly practicing some amount of religious dissimulation in terms of exoteric identity in accordance with historico-political circumstances so as to protect the Aramean people from persecution – have indeed always known the truth about Jesus’ Pan-Jewish Aramean people.
The immigration of eastern ethnicities of the modern Aramean people from the land of the two rivers to a free Western Aramean state in the land of Aram will thus in a sense be a completion & indeed fulfillment of the ancient narrative & dream that descendants of the deported ten Israelite tribes will one day return home to the (broader) land of Israel, although it should be added that most Aramaic-speaking ethnically Talmudic Jews of Kurdistan & Iranian Azerbaijan who also partially share this ten-tribes descent (and whose villages often were not far from those of Judeo-Christian Arameans speaking phonetically similar Aramaic dialects), have in fact already long since immigrated to sovereign-indigenous Israel. There are thus dozens of Israeli villages that to this day are still natively tri-idiomatic in Aramaic, Hebrew and Kurdish.
As the ten tribes deported from the land of Israel to the land of Ashur were subject to significant Assyrian cultural influence, in addition to many other cultural & genetic historical influences throughout history on the diverse – now mostly Crypto-Jewish – remaining Aramean people (such as Alevi Hellenist Jewish, ancient Hellenist Jewish, Arabian, Armenian, British, Byzantine, Canaanite, Crusader, Egyptian, Esoterically Pan-Jewish, French, Hellenist, Judean, Kurdish, Median, Muslim, Ottoman, Pagan Aramean, Persian, Phoenician, Pre-Christian, Pre-Talmudic, Roman, Talmudic, Talmudically Aramean, Turkish, Zaza etc.); there is thus also some limited cultural element of truth even to the Neo-Assyrian narrative. While it is true that many Jewish communities of Antiquity converted to otherwise endogamous Judeo-Christian denominational communities of Greek rite & Aramaic rite and did so out of Messianic faith – yet remaining fully Jewish – others certainly did so in order so as to survive Roman/Byzantine persecution.
For those influential Alawis in and around the Syrian administration who still remain somewhat skeptical of early diplomatic partition, things are in a sense more straightforward for them than for their Judeo-Christian Aramean colleagues in power in Syria since the Alawis can obviously ultimately flee/retreat to the topographic security of the mountains of the Mediterranean Alawi region (the Armenian Diaspora which is particularly demographically well represented in Syria is entitled to automatic immigration to independent Armenia under Armenian law), yet for Judeo-Christian Arameans of various denominations in Syria – Melkite and Syriac – this is no game but a matter of sheer survival, both culturally and physically that should not be diplomatically belittled in any form or shape whether directly or indirectly. The tragic historical heritage of European imperialism has made international political support for indigenous Christians in the Middle East something of a Western political taboo beyond mere Eastern Christian exile groups & organized American Talmudic Jewry. Yet, the indigenous Arameans of Syria deserve security of property & life no less than do Sunni Amian citizens of that completely arbitrary European colonial construction that is Syria.
There will be no peaceful diplomatic outcome in Syria unless most indigenous Judeo-Christian Aramean economic/political leaders (Melkite & Syriac) who remain influential in the Syrian administration are indeed truthfully persuaded that Grand Liban will in fact be diplomatically partitioned simultaneously with Syria between a federal Amistan and a federal Israel, including through a mutual Syrian-Lebanese exchange of territory and that the Judeo-Christian Arameans – Melkite and Syriac – will not be politically manipulated into once more ultimately ending up stateless & dispossessed on the losing end of brutal regional power politics. Self-determination for the indigenous Aramean people in the land of Aram and Aramean personal & communal security generally in the region are thus an issue of great international, ethico-political & strategic regional significance for international peace & security.
To address mutually legitimate entitlement to self-determination to be mutually exercised through mutual idiomatic statehood for both the demographic 40% Crypto-Jewish regional majorities & the 60% Amian overall demographic majorities in Syria & Grand Liban – does truly mean respecting the region’s diverse cultural heritage & the legitimate concerns of both broader multiethnic nations in the broader region, Jews and Amians. Indeed, establishment of an ethnically and genetically diverse and religiously inclusive free Aram is one very important part of the cultural mosaic of conclusive region-wide partition between a federal Israel and a federal Amistan, serving indeed the noble, universal cause of ultimate establishment of advanced democratic perpetual peace throughout the region.
Yet, as some regional polities that publically identify as existential enemies of sovereign Jewish nationhood have been aware for decades now of the presence of Crypto-Jewish peoples across the broader region, including the various Crypto-Jewish peoples who emerged from medieval Jewish Khazaria such as the Khazari-speaking (Balkar-Karachay-Kumyk) Pan-Jewish Khazar people itself – Pan-Jewish traditional identities of various distinctive Crypto-Jewish peoples across the broader region should indeed be treated seriously & with appropriate respect for their ancient, ancestral historical narratives. European imperialists & Muslim neo-imperialists have tended to publically describe the broader Middle East as being mutually exclusively demographically divided between Christians, Jews and Muslims when in fact such distinctions constitute mutually overlapping cultural, ethnic, genetic, national, religious, social and taxonomic layers in much of West Asia and beyond, including partly so inside the evil Iranian polity whose pathologically Anti-Jewish, Nazi-style Judeocentric tyrants fear Pan-Jewish democratic unification more than anything else.
Considering the historically institutionalized officially inferior Jewish civic status as the untouchables of Muslim civilization, the peoples in Islamdom whose popular traditions claim Pan-Jewish descent should generally be believed (although not necessarily entirely literally so since the various Pan-Jewish peoples stem from different historical periods) as their general claims to Pan-Jewish descent are generally genuine. It does not make sense in any way to suddenly ex nihilo invent an elaborate genealogy claiming kinship with the socially and historically most disparaged & looked down upon human population segment in so many societies of Islamdom in the broader region and it certainly would not hypothetically make sense to continue to perpetuate such a prior invented genealogy after already having lived under Muslim imperialism for many centuries. Pan-Jewish identification & Crypto-Jewish ethnicity have been so widely retained precisely because Pan-Jewish nationality is indeed the shared ancient-modern nationality of the very real Pan-Jewish nation.
This is so considering that although Talmudic Jews have historically been culturally very much structurally disparaged, both in Islamdom & in Euro-Christendom, Euro-Christian Judeocentric Anti-Jewish prejudice considered Jews as ostensibly dangerous & evil and is indeed historically quite distinct from the lowliest of the lowly status as structurally marginal, sometimes “protected”, yet still severely oppressed & publically humiliated untouchables for the overtly Jewish Dhimmis of Islamdom. However, this status was quite similar to the political status of Crypto-Jewish Alawis in Ottoman times. The fact that Anti-Jewish prejudice of dual civilizational origins from within Islamdom & Christendom converged and even merged during the 20th century – as Muslim Anti-Jewish prejudice turned Judeocentric with coming of modernity – does not in any way alter this broader historical Pan-Jewish picture of Pan-Jewish peoples in Islamdom.
The general situation is good for the almost entirely Judeo-Christian Aramean people in both Israel and Jordan and conclusive partition of Greater Syria between a federal Israel and a Federal Amistan is thus the best possible, conceivable political outcome for Syriac & Melkite Arameans of Syria & Lebanon. This is so whether as ethnic components of a Pan-Jewish national minority in member states of a federal Amistan led by the responsibly pro-democratic Jordanian royal family, as ethnic minorities in various democratic member states of federal Israel or indeed as constituting part of a vast Aramean majority among human citizens of a prosperous and democratically advanced free Aram.
If You Will It, It Is No Dream
There are according to Wikipedia up to 30 million Igbos, up to 38 million Kurds and approximately 50 million Pashtuns – all of them Pan-Jewish peoples with their own majority Pan-Jewish lands as there are of course many other Pan-Jewish peoples as well, many with majority Pan-Jewish lands and many without.
In the coming decades, most of the remaining Talmudically Jewish Diaspora (the vast majority of which resides in the United States) is in fact expected to massively immigrate to Israel. For most Diaspora Talmudic Jews who have either visited or lived in Israel for some time; living in multiethnic, Jewish & democratic Israel is highly culturally attractive, yet as the Israeli economy continues to flourish and the standard of living increasingly continues to rise for the well-educated, living in Israel also becomes increasingly economically feasible for indeed increasing numbers of well-educated Diaspora Talmudic Jews, including not least for Talmudic Jewry in the United States.
Receiving Israeli citizenship. Israel will thus ultimately receive the entire remaining Crypto-Jewish population in Ethiopia which is particularly eager to return to Judaism. However, Israel has unfortunately made many politically correct mistakes in relation to absorption of Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish immigrants and Israeli society has thus paid a steep social price for not letting Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish new immigrants determine for themselves how to indeed rebuild their professional lives in the land of Israel. This is so as most Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish immigrants to Israel used to be third world subsistence agriculturalists in Ethiopia and simply wanted to become agriculturalists in Israel as well, yet were denied this opportunity. Therefore, current and future Ethiopian Jewish/Crypto-Jewish immigrants to Israel should certainly be offered the opportunity to build their own cooperative agricultural villages known in Hebrew as moshavim (singular moshav) as did successfully so many Mizrahi Jewish immigrants from Islamdom already many decades ago.
Although not every Jewish people will have its own titular member state within federal-democratic Israel, each and every Jewish people in dispersal should be entitled to immigrate to one particular future member state of federal-democratic Israel such as Igboland, Judah, Kurdistan or Pashtunistan. Federal Israel will be one increasingly integrated democratic nation with plural Zionist national homes for the many constituent peoples of an increasingly politically integrated Pan-Jewish nation. The Hebrew idiom as the national heritage idiom of the entire Pan-Jewish nation will thus be the primary shared official federal idiom of federal-democratic Israel. This would be in addition to many ethnically Pan-Jewish (and other) official idioms in future member states of federal-democratic Israel such as Igbo, Judean, Kurdish and Pashto which would of course also be co-official idioms in the future Israeli federal capital territory in Jerusalem.
Geographically minuscule contemporary Israel cannot conceivably and indeed will not receive mega immigration of major Crypto-Jewish peoples, especially not those Jewish peoples that are actually demographically & geographically capable of in principle forming their own majority Pan-Jewish federal Israeli member states even without any prior demographic changes. This is also so with regard to oppressed Crypto-Jewish peoples with their own majority Pan-Jewish lands such as the Kurds & the Alevis of the Republic of Turkey. Contemporary Israel is simply geographically far too small and is contrary to what historical Zionist leaders used to sincerely believe, certainly not the only Jewish land on this planet.
Specific Israeli federal member states would certainly be fully entitled to bilaterally or multilaterally increasingly open up for more or less unrestricted, mutual inter-state, intra-federal EU-style civic migration between particular Israeli federal member states that would so prefer and thus subsequently democratically decide and implement. To succeed, the universal process of Pan-Jewish democratic unification (which is not just political but also has many other important aspects as well) must be cautious, gradual and indeed very democratically responsible. However, all citizens of federal Israel should certainly have a common federal citizenship in addition to the state citizenship of each member state as is already the case for member states of the con-federal European Union.
Stateless Pan-Jewish peoples blessed with their own majority Pan-Jewish lands will have to organize & labor politically in close Pan-Jewish cooperation through globalized democratic Zionism in order so as to politically demand & indeed fashion their own Jewish democratic states as part of universal unified idiomatic statehood following in the profoundly ethico-political tradition of democratic realism that is at heart of modern political Zionism. This very demographically significant global Pan-Jewish nation can certainly empower fellow Pan-Jewish peoples to act rationally so as to achieve self-determination in their own majority Pan-Jewish lands as part of a broader universal agenda of universal emancipation.
Transitioning to National Unity
Considering the increasingly tragic situation in the region for the Crypto-Jewish ethnic Arameans – both Mandean and Judeo-Christian – and particularly so within Amian Iraq, the establishment of Aramean statehood within the shortest feasible timeframe should hence be considered an urgent ethico-political imperative for every free nation. Aramean statehood in the ancient-modern Land of Aram abutting the Mediterranean Sea should crucially include the famously still Aramaic-speaking town of Ma’loula and a number of other Aramean areas of contemporary Syria, yet the Aramean state would in contrast not extend to many other areas that are historically, culturally, religiously and emotively important to Arameans including Aleppo, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Khabur, Nazareth, Nineveh, Tur Abdin and Urmia. Yet many such areas would become part of federal Israel through various other Israeli federal subjects aside from the Aramean state itself. Political unity would thus indeed be achieved between the future state of Aram and many other ancient Aramean areas in West Asia, fully voluntarily joined together in a new federal Israel.
A successful national political transition for regional/global Aramean ethnicities does indeed require determined geopolitical focus on the Levantine ancient-modern Land of Aram and would once increasingly successfully achieved mean that Aramean demographic presence would probably be greatly reduced or even end in many current and historical Aramean areas of habitation in the region. Yet, this has already happened and is increasingly happening even in the distinct absence of Aramean statehood in the ancient-modern Land of Aram.
Current Arabist/Islamist/Jihadist political attitudes towards the sovereign, indigenous Jewish nation of Israel are in many ways akin to the political attitudes historically held against the old Talmudically Jewish communities of the Arabophonie, constituting the Dalits of Islamdom. However, the ongoing Arabist/Islamist/Jihadist treatment of the Crypto-Jewish, Judeo-Christian & Mandean Arameans is unfortunately increasingly similar to the very fate suffered by the Talmudic Jews of the Arabophonie in the 20th century.
As a consequence of large-scale Anti-Zionist persecution across the Arabophonie, over 99% among the 850 000 Talmudic Jews outside of Israel in the Arabophonie of 1948, did eventually see little choice but to escape the Arabophonie. Following these very extensive region-wide Anti-Jewish persecutions, land owned privately by local Jewish citizens as well as land owned communally by the ethnically diverse Jewish communities of the Arabophonie, together territorially corresponding to four times the size of Israel, were increasingly confiscated by Arabist regimes without any provision of financial compensation. Yet, it is increasingly clear that many Arameans in the region currently suffer extremely hostile treatment at Arabist/Islamist/Jihadist hands, indeed increasingly similar to that historically experienced by the Talmudic Jews of the Arabophonie in the 20th century, notably even in the distinct absence of exercise of self-determination through a free Aramean state to call their own.
While it is true that many Judeo-Christian Arameans (both Aramaic rite and Greek rite) were indeed displaced as a consequence of Israel’s 1948-49 War of Independence; it is also true that Lebanese political leaders at the time; both some Crypto-Jewish political leaders obviously ignorant of their own Jewish national heritage as well as Muslim Amian political leaders of Grand Liban, chose indeed to participate in the explicitly genocidal Arabist, invading alignment formed against nascent Israel. Even despite the political fact that most Arameans in the region and beyond identify with sovereign, indigenous Israel, Aramean communities remain severely politically exploited by the gargantuan, Saudi-powered, global PLO propaganda & corruption machine while deliberately denying Arameans of Judea and Samaria protection against local Jihadist persecution. In fact, Israel is the only country in West Asia with a significant Aramean community of citizens from which Arameans are not emigrating in proportionally large numbers.
Yet, what ethnic Arameans as a global community need from their Israeli siblings in Jewish nationality are distinctly not any immigration rights to already established Israel or reversal of historical Israeli land reforms. Rather, Israel must strategically and meaningfully assist its Aramean national siblings in two fundamental ways, (1) by following the example of ex-Iraqi de facto independent Kurdistan in establishing a general Aramaic school system in Israel for Aramean-Israeli pupils and (2) by consistently exercising Israel’s regional strategic capacities in ways that will ensure implementation of comprehensive Jordanian/Israeli regional partition simultaneously in Grand Liban and Syria, including establishment of an Aramean state as part of a new, yet fully voluntary Israelite federation.
It would certainly be vastly ethico-politically preferable if this region-wide partition between the Jewish nation and the Amian nation, including inside current Syria & Grand Liban, were indeed to happen entirely as a result of official diplomatic agreements. Yet considering that the current Syrian administration unfortunately remains deeply internally divided on the issue of region-wide partition – with some influential kleptocratic factions with remaining ties to Teheran still seeking to perpetuate kleptocratic Syria merely for their own further personal financial gain. Considering these distinctly unhelpful domestic divisions, conclusive partition in Syria & Grand Liban would otherwise need to happen as a consequence of an ultimately revolutionary fall from power of the current Syrian administration.
Yet, a successful political outcome through comprehensive regional partition, including establishment of Aramean statehood in the ancient-modern Land of Aram, requires constant Israeli geostrategic vigilance against Iranian attempts at interference and Israeli determination if necessary to deploy overwhelming force and rapid dominance against Teheran’s local mercenaries in the region. While Israel’s strategic capacity to facilitate the birth of an Aramean state in the ancient-modern Land of Aram is not in doubt, the matching of Israeli strategic capacity by the leaderships of Aramean and other Crypto-Jewish ethnicities throughout the region and around the world constitutes indeed the determining strategic factor for a desirable & optimal regional political outcome involving self-determination for all, something which Teheran and its stooges of course make every effort to derail.
Yet, there are many cases of historical grievances between various Crypto-Jewish ethnicities such as e.g. between Kurds/Turks, Alawis/Arameans, Arameans/Kurds, Arameans/Turks, Arameans/Druze, Aramaic rite/Greek rite, Eastern/Uniate and so on and so forth. Leaders of many stateless Crypto-Jewish ethnicities therefore need to learn strategically from Israel how to indeed politically transcend a tragic history of statelessness by working together across ethnic and denominational lines in the region and globally, with each other, with Jerusalem and with friendly Crypto-Jewish states. This certainly includes the de facto independent Kurdistan to the north of Amian Iraq, an independent state which has often been bestowed by its enemies with the flattering designation of indeed constituting a second Israel. A successful outcome of regional partition between a federal Israel and a federal Amistan would on the pan-Jewish side thus be secured through the combined strategic clout of Jerusalem and the mobilized political strength of Crypto-Jewish communities throughout the region and the world, both Aramean and non-Aramean working together as one diverse nation and turning diversity into strength.
To meaningfully encourage regional and global leaders of various Crypto-Jewish ethnicities to creatively and innovatively work together across ethnic and denominational lines in spite of various historical grievances, requires indeed articulation of the broader Jewish national interest in the widest, most inclusive and ethical fashion with respect to Crypto-Jewish ethnicities generally, including ultimately with respect to federal national Israeli inclusion of particular Crypto-Jewish ethnicities whose secretive Jewish status still remains distinctly unpublished even here.
Ethical geostrategic articulation of the broader Jewish national interest thus requires thinking both (1) in terms of one’s own specific statehood (whether future or already established) and (2) in terms of an increasingly unified, yet fully voluntary federal Israel of which all Jewish countries should form part. Crypto-Jewish ethnicities that may separately seem rather politically weak could potentially become significantly empowered by thus learning to work closely together for shared pan-Jewish, legitimate national aspirations throughout the broader region for a unified & free federal Israel. While the broader Jewish nation (both Jewish and Crypto-Jewish) is distinctly rich in cultural diversity, Crypto-Jewish ethnic leaders of this very nation do need to find appropriate and indeed ethical ways so as to strategically work together for federal unity in liberty and self-determination. What may indeed seem difficult to achieve for one Crypto-Jewish ethnic community solely on its own, could be very much strategically facilitated by working together across ethnic and denominational lines within the broader house of Israel.
Heterodox zone to join Federal Israel
http://geocurrents.info/geopolitics/the-heterodox-zone not just to immigrate to Israel but to join their independent new countries (Zazaistan, Kurdistan, Druzistan, Great Phoenicia...) to join a Federal Israel (Or United Israelite States) as Daniel Bart says again in http://jewishideas.net. I encourage you to read his web & show it to the government of Israel. In Iraq the Failis and the Shabaks have likewise been declared to be a different ethnic group. Be as it may, people themselves shall decide who they are. An Irishman is an Irishman not Englishman despite speaking English. Nor is the Irish who still speak Gallic as their first language make for a different ethnic group. Meanwhile, people speaking the same language, practicing same culture and religion, can be different in their ethnicity (Croats, Serbs, Montenegrins, Bosniacs).
Asahel Grant was of the opinion that the Yezidis, or devil-worshipers were descended from the Ten Tribes, as they observed the rite of circumcision, offered sacrifices, including that of the paschal lamb on the 24th of Nisan, and also abstained from forbidden food.
In this theme, it would be odd justify the careers of some of the most important Kurdish nationalist like Sheikh Reda and Sheikh Said (both being Dimili) in the past 100 years if we strip them of their Kurdish identity and dress them up as "ethnic" Dimili.
All the same, in time, many ethnicities are born while older ones die out or divide. Nothing odd or unusual about that. In the future, there may be many new ethnicities when/if the Kurds break up. Conversely, they might simply overwhelm their smaller neighbors by their sheer demographic weight that is getting heavier by the day. Syrian and Turkey are two good example of this.
Arab or Levantine (Christian) and Israeli Jew is only the offspring of Judah & Levi but an Israelite includes not just this two tribes but the other lost ten tribes. Please, make the promise of God of a Greater Israel with all its peoples come true.
Some began to call themselves Alawites to emphasise the link with Ali and Shiism, and distance themselves from the pejorative term Nusayri.
The Temne & the Hebrew Israelites
There are two groups of people that follow a type of Jewish religion that I consider to be very remarkable to miss.
One is the Temne. You can read about them here:
https://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/200644748/The-Hebraic-Origins-of-the-Temne-According-to-Biblical-and-Oral-History
I have come across many groups of people claiming an Israelite origin, but I think the Temne are among the ones that seem to be the most similar to the ancient Israelite traditions.
This community is in Salone, Free Town, Sierra Leone. This group of Salone Jews who some would label Messianic Jews, are a small minority in Sierra Leone, but are rapidly growing in numbers. "The Congregation of YAHUAH in Sierra Leone" was founded by a Temne descendant from the U.S.A., Yahshurun Obai Agyemang. When interviewing Temne elders, chiefs, and elders, Yahshurun discovered that the Temnes and other tribes in Salone, were Jews that were in the diaspora who had lost there identity. This led him to write a book intitled: "The Hebraic Origins of the Temne: According to Biblical and Oral History". Yahshurun, Samuel Turay, Abu Fofana, Gideon, Ugochukwu Timothy, Gideon, and others have established the Israelite culture back to the people of Salone.
The problem is that the Temnes that are following Judaism are lead by an African American (Yahshurun Obai Agyemang) that thinks that all blacks are Israelites & the white Jews are just false Jews. So these practitioners of Judaism don't want to get in contact with organizations like Kulanu, Be'chol Lashon, Shavei Israel... because of him. I want this people to get in touch with these organizations & make aliyah one day with other Israelites.
The Hebrew Israelites is the other group that you need to contact. I'm not talking about the tiny group that went to Israel in the 60's. These ones are a little hippylike. They branched off the main group that stayed in the U.S.A. I'm talking about Rabbi Capers C. Funnye jr.'s huge group. His group is being practicing Judaism, in a way or another, since the 19th century. I have heard different data about their membership numbers. I have heard vague numbers ranging in the millions in the U.S.A. More reliable data range from the 200,000 to the 500,000 people.
It's a pity that there are not more updated numbers. As I said before, these precious Jewish souls have been practicing different forms of Judaism since 1800s. Nowadays they're practicing a form of Judaism very close to Orthodox Judaism for several decades.
I'm of the opinion that mainstream Judaism should accept all forms of Judaism as Jewish (at least the ones that are a century old), even to the point of being part of the Israeli Rabbinate (when, if they migrate to Israel). In Christianity the pope leads & decides who is a Catholic, but not who is a Christian. If a person joins Lutheranism, who is the pope to decide if he's Christian? Nobody. Likewise with Judaism.
Perhaps expecting the Black Hebrew Israelites to be accepted as another branch of Judaism is too ambicious, but these good men & women should be accepted as Jews. Because being recognized as a branch of Judaism by the Orthodox rabbis would be too demanding, they should make a few arrangements to start being Orthodox in order to be accepted as Jews by an Orthodox bet din.
I know that Judaism is not a proselyting religion, but these people are already practicing a form of Judaism very close to Orthodox Judaism. I think that these Hebrew Israelites must have had Igbo (Israelite blood & the Lord might have reavealed to them in dreams their Israelite origin.
Somebody (you possibly) should make an updated book (maybe an atlas) about the modern Hebrew Israelites that are living in the U.S.A with statistics to know what congregation they attend, the different branches within it... & the whole global numbers. I have heard that there are some Hebrew Israelites in other countries too. They should also be counted for it.
The Hebrew Israelites should be proselytized & be one great organized Jewish group in the U.S.A. They might have to join white Jewish organizations like AIPAC. Can you imagine 500,000 Black Hebrews lobbying for Israel? Perhaps the Israeli cause would be endorsed by more African Americans & Africans (there are governments included & that would make it stronger. Eventually they should make aliyah, but in an organized & official way, not like the first tiny group of Hebrew Israelites.
I'm writing you this letter in the hope that you would contact rabbi Capers Funnye & convince him to make a mass conversion of Hebrew Israelites to Orthodox Judaism, join the zionist causes in America & eventually return to Israel in a mass aliyah.
The racism that is within some white Jews against Black Jews & in some cases within Black Hebrews should be tackled in order to have good coexistence among Jews. The debate is not about being black or white, but about being Jewish or gentile.
If I write to you is because I think you are a great man of leadership & very influencial among the Igbos. And many African Americans are descendants of Ibos, so you could be a great influence on them. I think this could be a great push for the Jewish case & for the Jewish State.
Hope somebody contact mister Funnye & the Temnes.
To be true Rabbi Capers Funnye's congregations are well in touch with mainstream Judaism & he even converted to Orthodox Judaism. Not his followers though.
Nevertheless I'm in despair about the Temnes' situation. Somebody needs to visit them, a rabbi, an emissary a scholar... Maybe all of them. I have written to agencies looking for Lost Israelites like Kulanu, Be'chol Lashon, Shavei Israel... to no avail. I'm just a white European Christian. I have hope that you pay attention to my request & make a change for these people.
The Nestorian Christians of Mesopotamia come from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel
Phoenicianism for a new Middle East
Phoenicianism is a form of Lebanese nationalism, especially popular from the 1920s through the 1950s. It promotes the theory that Lebanese people are not Arabs and that the Lebanese speak a distinct language and have their own culture, separate from that of the surrounding Middle Eastern countries. Supporters of this theory of Lebanese ethnogenesis maintain that the Lebanese are descended from Phoenicians and are not Arab. Some also maintain that Lebanese Arabic is not an Arabic dialect, but has become a distinctly separate language.
Phoenicianism embraces Phoenicia as an alternative cultural foundation by overlooking 850 years of Arabisation. The earliest sense of a modern Lebanese identity is to be found in the writings of historians in the early nineteenth century, when, under the emirate of the Shihabs, a Lebanese identity emerged, "separate and distinct from the rest of Syria, bringing the Maronites and Druzes, along with its other Christian and Moslem sects, under one government."
The first coherent history of Mount Lebanon was written by Tannus al-Shidyaq (died 1861) who depicted the country as a feudal association of Maronites, Druzes, Melkites, Sunnis and Shi'ites under the leadership of the Shihab emirs. "Most Christian Lebanese, anxious to dissociate themselves from Arabism and its Islamic connections, were pleased to be told that their country was the legitimate heir to the Phoenician tradition," Kamal Salibi observes, instancing Christian writers like Charles Corm (died 1963), writing in French, and Said Aql, who urged the abandonment of literary Arabic, together with its script, and attempted to write in the Lebanese vernacular, using the Roman alphabet.
Phoenician origins have additional appeal for the Christian middle class, as it presents the Phoenicians as traders, and the Lebanese emigrant as a modern-day Phoenician adventurer, whereas for the Sunni it merely veiled French imperialist ambitions, intent on subverting pan-Arabism.
Phoenicianism is also common amongst the Maltese people, eager to disassociate themselves from their Muslim past and often claiming that the Maltese language is dervied from Phoenician, rather than Tunisian or Siculo-Arabic.
We don't even need the Bible to prove it because even the Kuran says Eretz Israel should be given to the Jews
The Three Abrahamic religions have a remarkable roll in the Latter Days, no doubt. Even in the Temple Institute they say the Dome of the Rock shouldn't necessarily be taken from its place in order to build the Third Temple. Revelation 11:2 clearly says the Outer Court (where the Dome of the Rock is) should be left for the gentiles: the Moslems.
In the State of Israel Druzes support Likud because of their belief in being Jewish themselves that never left the Holy Land. My point is not just that Christian & Jewish groups (Reconstructionist, Reform, Orthodox, Conservative, Caraite..) would support this but also some Moslem groups & individuals. Even the Quran says too that the Holy Land should be given to the Jews: http://www.wnd.com/2004/06/25003/ We don't even need the Bible to prove it because even the Kuran says Eretz Israel should be given to the Jews: http://www.templemount.org/quranland.html The problem is that many Moslems avoid talking about it. According to this video many Palestinians are Jewish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPRgXAYTQlU. Apparently the Jews that came back to Eretz Israel are the offspring of the Judahites that left Jerusalem after the Roman destruction of the Holy City and many of the Palestinians are the offspring of the Jews that lived in rural Judea & Samaria that never went into diaspora and later with the Arab conquest were arabized & Islamized & before Christianized in the crussades.
http://www.british-israel.com and other Jewish/Christian/Moslem groups could help a lot for the cause. In Italy their was one fascist/antisemitic party lead by Fini that changed into being not fascist & philosemitic pro-Israel.
It's logical considering peoples like Curds, Zazas, Druzes... as remnants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel because not all could go to western Europe & Central Asia so some probably stayed in the area they were taken first. When the Romans dispersed the Jews (Judah with some of Levi) thruout their Empire it was just Jerusalem and other areas. Many Jews stayed in the Holy Land and thru out Centuries became Druzes & Palestinians as this documentary mentions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPRgXAYTQlU That means Palestinians must return to their roots & join their fellow Jews.
In this other link http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Levant_Ethnicity_lg.jpg we can see what you call the Heterodox. The explanations on the map are very interesting to read. What is today Lebanon plus the Alawistan & other Heterodox areas next to both Lebanon & to Alawistan until the border with Turkey can merge & create a new Phoenician State called simply Phoenicia. Nobody would have to leave this reborn Phoenicia & all people with Lebanese/Alawite roots could migrate & be nationalized.That migration would be promoted indeed (Economic funds...). The rest of Syria would, divide between Curdistan, Druzistan & Aram. A Greater Israel must be created as well. The migration shouldn't be restricted to Talmudic Jews. The Reform, Reconstructivist, Orthodox, Conservative, Caraites should be recognized as part of the Rabinate as the Lemba, Ibos, Anaangs, Efiks, Ibibios, Shinlung or Bnei Menashe (Mizos, Kukis, Chins), Kaka'i (Cacais), Balkar-Karachay-Kumyk, Pashtuns, Cashmiris, Batusi (Tutsi), Krymchaks, Subbotniks, Lurs...According to the Crypto-Jewish Latino-American there are 32 million Crypto-Jews in Latin American countries & they shouldn't be forgotten either. In regards to the Black Jews their look doesn't mean they don't have Jewish blood. It's like saying the Latino Americans don't have Spanish blood though some don't look like the original Spanish fro Spain. There's abundant proof that if not all part of the Japanese are Israelites as well. Not to mention the belief of the Mormons in which the native Americans & Polinesians come from Israelites of the year 600 before Christ. I wonder if the State of Israel is aware of these fellow Israelites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhlkuGwEecY
Kurds have traditionally identified with Judaic genealogy as the not so lost Kurdish tribes and while Kurdish nationalism tends to be a divisive partisan issue among ethnic Kurds, identification with center-right Zionism is the point where most Kurdish nationalists wholly agree, albeit mostly in private. Such matters are informally discussed within the Kurdish community, yet to express such identification in public has long been a rather strong societal taboo as in most other Muslim-dominated countries.Despite centuries of Muslim persecution, a third of all ethnic Kurds (including Dmilis and Goranis) remain faithful to this ancient Jewish religion (as do similarly many Albanians, Kosovars, Lurs and Turks) and many of those who are nominally Muslim continue to practice their religion as part of syncretistic Sufi orders. Furthermore, Alevism is also in part a surviving descendant of Hellenist Judaism as is of course also Christianity as well.The on average socio-economically high-achieving major Aramaic Christian community of the state of Kerala in southern India is for one no longer secretive about their Crypto-Jewish kinship while even the thought of their ancient Crypto-Jewish kinship still remains public taboo among similarly on average socio-economically high-achieving Christian ethnicities of West Asia.The Jews of secret Israel have always been halachically recognized by leading rabbinical authorities as indeed bona fide members of the Jewish nation. While some Crypto-Jewish ethnicities have become Muslim or Christian to some degree, they still retain a Crypto-Jewish ethnicity and thus Jewish nationality in crypto-form. Association with more recent religions such as Arabism, Liberalism or Marxism (or even Buddhism) is generally not deemed to affect the Jewish national status of members of the Jewish nation. The historically novel 20th century rabbinically Orthodox position that Crypto-Jews whose ancestors converted to Islam or Christianity must formally re-convert to rabbinical Orthodoxy through the full rabbinical procedure in order to be counted as Jews is wholly politically unacceptable since Jewish nationality and Jewish ethnicity generally is not fully reducible to adherence to any particular brand of Jewish religion. It should be added that there are similar disagreements with regard to recognition of conversions and national status among the various denominations of secret Israel. Indeed rabbinical leaders have historically always recognized the Jewish nationality and Jewish status of secret Israel and still do.
Above the first is my non-finished map of the New Middle East.The rabinate should be one of more openminded ways & composed of Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, Reconstructionist Karaite & even Messianic Judaism. One in which all currents of Judaism would have room. Once somebody is accepted as Jew it doesn't matter if it's Christian or whatever it wants. You should look for the 32 million Latinoamerican Crypto-Jews as well. It would be revolutionary having 32 million settlers. Spanish would become another national language probably. The Negev would be inhabited and the whole of Israel too. The Arabs would be a minority even if Israel adds Judea & Samaria. The would be several cities of 1 million people or even 10 million for Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. A high percentage of Palestinians are the offspring of Jews that never left. They should be taught that to comeback to their roots. The Druzes are often not considered Arabs nor even Moslems & they even recognize that. Now that Syria maybe falling apart it can be created an associated State to Israel called Phoenicia made of current Lebanon plus the coastal Syrian Alawistan in which all the millions of Lebanese (Which are mainly Christian) can return to their ancient land, plus the other ethnic/religious groups that are included in this area. This map shows the Non-Arab coast: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Levant_Ethnicity_lg.jpg (Interesting points of view in the map as well).
In Jewish Ideas net http://jewishideas.net, as shown before, Daniel Bart talks about other hidden Jews like Alevis, Kurds, Zazas...http://jewishideas.net/2012/07/02/explaining-pan-jewish-nationhood. He even points out the cconcept of "Alevi Judaism" meaning that Alevis are Hidden Jews/Israelites http://jewishideas.net/2012/01/29/accession-to-federal-israel/. Maybe the way to create the Great Israel is atracting the people of the Heterodox Zone http://geocurrents.info/geopolitics/the-heterodox-zone not just to immigrate to Israel but to join their independent new countries (Zazaistan, Kurdistan, Druzistan, Great Phoenicia...) to join a Federal Israel (Or United Israelite States) as Daniel Bart says again in http://jewishideas.net/. I encourage you to read his web & show to the government of Israel. Don't forget that an Israeli is either a Jew, Arab or Levantine(Christian) and Israeli Jew is only the offspring of Judah & Levi but an Israelite includes nit just this two tribes but the other lost ten tribes. Please, make the promise of God of a Greater Israel with all its peoples come true. Best regards!
First of all we should consider the Druzes as non-Arabs as this map shows: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Levant_Ethnicity_lg.jpg
The explanations in the map are good too. There it's explained why every religious group is a different people. Especially the Druzes. They are Israeli patriots & eternal rivals of Sunni Arabs. Many vote for Likud & even say they are offspring of Jews. Israel shoul help this allies against against al-Qaeda & Hizbollah.
Promoting Judaism worldwide & bringing all the Israelites back to Eretz Israel
If we do a good job of promoting Judaism worldwide, using the internet and shluchim it is not a dream to grow the Jewish people to 180 million people by the year 2050. The interesting thing is you don't need to proselyte among gentites, but would be enough looking for the tens of millions of Jewish & other Israelite origins scattered all over the planet.
Explaining Pan-Jewish Nationhood
“Universal Jewish national liberation is the beginning of universal emancipation.”
Isaiah 49:6 (translation by means of abstract terminology which did not exist in pre-modern Hebrew)
What is Pan-Jewish nationhood? This is certainly an important question to ask considering the existence of so many different Crypto-Jewish peoples in the broader Middle East and indeed around the world. While there is clearly an openly and proudly Jewish nation that has restored its Hebrew national heritage idiom and indigenous-sovereign independence, who else is also Jewish and whose preserved Jewish national status therefore remains to be officially restored?
Israel's Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948
The Pan-Jewish nation includes both (1) historically overt Jews (overt Ethiopian Jewry, Karaites, Samaritans and Talmudic Jewry) and (2) a tremendous ethnic diversity of historically Crypto-Jewish peoples around the world as Crypto-Jewish peoples outside the Middle East and North Africa have in the past 64 years of renewed, restored Jewish independence in the land of Israel tended to become increasingly less secretive and more assertive identity-wise about their own respective Pan-Jewish ethnological status.
Although it is true that there are certainly such things as many different cognitively distinctive Pan-Jewish subspecies (both overtly Jewish ones and Crypto-Jewish ones) that historically developed higher average intelligence than surrounding historical populations and usually primarily so as an evolutionary response to persecution & discrimination – yet there is no such thing as non-miscegenated Israelites living today although the ancient Israelites seem to have been quite genetically distinctive and may possibly have constituted one cognitively distinctive human taxon.
This is so as the Homo genus despite pervasive contemporary prejudicial Eurocentric diversity denial (simplistically pretending that all humans are idealized cognitive Europeans) even today constitutes so many different human species & human subspecies. That diversity should be a source of pan-human pride & mutual appreciation and certainly not one of inter-taxonomic stigmatization & derogation.
The main underlying contemporary structural problem is not racism or average cognitive differences in measured intelligence quotient between different human taxa but rather civilizational oppression/derogation more generally against persons with “comparably low” intelligence - whether they are non-human or human - as eurocentrically compared to normative Europeans. The strategic political challenge for global open society is thus to accommodate & embrace the value of cognitive diversity more broadly among persons generally irrespective of taxa since cognitive diversity is in fact the very foundation of open society.
Many Jewish/Crypto-Jewish ethnic groups have in part shared common Israelite ancestry, yet other Pan-Jewish ethnic groups have very little Israelite ancestry if any at all. However, even those Jewish/Crypto-Jewish ethnic groups with more or less noteworthy, shared Israelite genetic ancestry are also in part descendants of converts to Judaism as ancient Judaism generally welcomed converts to Judaism. While there are many specifically Jewish/Crypto-Jewish subspecies, other Pan-Jewish ethnic groups do not belong to statistically cognitively distinctive Jewish/Crypto-Jewish subspecies, yet of course this does not in any way whatsoever make them any less Jewish.
The Pan-Jewish nation is not one single subspecies but a rainbow nation of various Jewish/Crypto-Jewish peoples around the world, including in pigmented Africa as Pan-Jewish nationhood is very much about national inclusion of Pan-Jewish cognitive, cultural, ethnic, genetic and religious diversity.
In fact, there is no other country in the world where contemporary domestic miscegenation is more prevalent than in liberal-democratic, sovereign-indigenous Israel. This is not only increasingly common between Israeli Ashkenazi Jews and other Talmudic Jews in Israel but even to a much larger degree between various genetically distinctive Israeli communities of non-Ashkenazi Talmudic Jews, many of whom like the Ashkenazi subspecies historically constitute various cognitively distinctive Jewish subspecies. Ashkenazi ethnicity therefore is not demographically limited to the Ashkenazi subspecies – and the same is true of the various other Talmudically Jewish ethnicities in both Israel & Diaspora.
Continuing immigration to Israel of Ethiopian Crypto-Jews as well as continuing arrival of immigrants from the former Soviet Union of often mixed genetic origins along with also often non-Jewish spouses – are adding significantly to this dynamic, genetic melting pot that is multicultural & multiethnic, liberal-democratic, sovereign-indigenous Israel.
There is absolutely nothing shameful about becoming ethnically initiated into a tribal people, on the contrary so, it should always be regarded as a great honor for both those initiated and for those who initiate them. Furthermore, it is indeed very normal in human genetic history for neighboring human populations to in fact exchange genes to at least some degree. This is so despite the fact that taxonomic endogamy where easily socially accessible does mostly remain a universal human procreative norm except for xeno-rape which instead tends to be mostly inter-taxonomic in more taxonomically diverse human societies.
However, only an Anti-Jewish racist would presume that historical descent from converts to Judaism makes a Jew non-Jewish. Only Anti-Jewish racists of the worst kind hold the view that non-miscegenated Israelite “genetic purity” is a requirement for sharing in Jewish nationality. Rather, all Jews/Crypto-Jews of noteworthy shared Israelite genetic descent have in fact mixed ancestry as a result of very legitimately welcoming converts to Judaism throughout much of Jewish history. In fact, even the first Israelites must have originally been descended from ethnic non-Israelites prior to the first ancient Israelite ethnogenesis as well as indeed prior to the ultimate evolutionary historical development of what may have been the ancient human Israelitic taxon.
Arabist Anti-Jewish polemicists often claim that contemporary Talmudic Jewry is “non-Jewish” due to Jewish ancestors having in fact welcomed converts to Judaism where Talmudic Jewry resided in Diaspora for generations away from the land of Israel. Islamist Anti-Jewish polemicists add to that very racist libel by claiming that Biblical Jewry and prominent Jewish historical figures like King David, King Solomon and Jesus were actually Muslims (sic!) to which Arabist Anti-Jewish polemicists further add the equally absurd libel that Ashkenazi Jews are actually Christian European imposters! While it is certainly true that Ashkenazi Jewry is genetically most prominently of Israelite & Italian descent, having historically welcomed Italian converts (or their descendants) into this particular Jewish tribe should be a badge of tremendous pride & honor for Israeli-Italian and Israeli-European relations. This should certainly not be a source of shame as contemporary Anti-Jewish racist bigots would have it, following in the path of Nazi Germany in trying to racially stigmatize Jewish genetic origins.
The Pan-Jewish nation is a tribal federation and was so already in ancient Israelite times. Most indigenous peoples around the world are also tribal so the Pan-Jewish nation is in very good company indeed. In fact, sovereign-indigenous, liberal-democratic Israel is internationally still very much discriminated & semiotically oppressed by third world nations for in fact constituting a tribal fourth world nation – i.e. the historical & contemporary structural untouchables of Islamdom. The contemporary (1) Augustinian notion of diverse urbanizing (2) multiethnic society is one based on embracing (3) societal pluralism and is obviously originally derived from (4) Jewish prophetic vision of the future of the city of Jerusalem as contemporary Jewish democratic Israel is so eminently emblematic of all four ideas.
Although the fanciful notion of non-miscegenated so called “lost” Israelite tribes with intact endogamous Israelite tribal divisions still being around there somewhere – does remain a source of fascination – Pan-Jewish peoples have all historically welcomed & married converts to Judaism and so did Jewish descendants generally of the original twelve tribes of Israel. Even King David is described in the Hebrew Bible as a great-grandson of the Moabite Ruth who chose to join the Israelite tribal federation.
Jewish nationality is carried and maintained through Jewish/Crypto-Jewish ethnicity and while a non-Jew may practice Judaism, s/he becomes Jewish only when s/he becomes part of an existing Jewish/Crypto-Jewish ethnicity or even forms a new Jewish ethnicity! S/he thus becomes part of the tribes of Israel by adding to its multicognitive, multicultural, multiethnic, multigenetic and multireligious rainbow human diversity. However, when a particular people make an apparently somewhat substantiated claim about being “the lost Israelite tribes”, this tends to rather be an exoteric sign of Crypto-Jewish ethnological esotericism.
Alevi Judaism is certainly a demographically important and very interesting case, where Hellenist Judaism forms the inner envelope of its esoteric core, while many popular exoteric – often syncretistic – Alevi practices have developed over the ages, often in response to intrusive religious imperialism.
Although Alevism & Alawism are quite distinctive from each other in exoteric popular practice; the Hellenist Jewish inner envelope that contains the core esoteric teachings is essentially the same as that very envelope has not changed that much since Antiquity.
Bektashi Temple in Vlorë, Albania. "Kuz-Baba is the patron Saint of the city of Vlorë and is revered by all inhabitants both Christian and Bektashi. Christians refer to the place as Saint Kozma, after a pre-Ottoman period Christian saint, although there are others who maintain that a pagan temple and god worship on the site existed even before Christian times."
Alevis of hereditary priestly lineage are recognized in Alevi esoteric tradition as having ancient Pan-Jewish patrilineage which in the case of a minority of these Priestly Alevi families is esoterically recognized as proper Levitic patrilineage from the priestly Israelite tribe of Levi. The patrilineage of Common Alevis is in contrast considered in Alevi esoteric tradition to be derived from descendants of mostly Greek-speaking Hellenist converts to ancient rural Hellenist Judaism – including particularly under Byzantine rule – many of whom were originally non-Jewish fellow sincere practitioners of Hellenist Judaism.
Common Alevis are obviously no less Jewish than are Priestly Alevis, having been Jewish for many, many generations as Alevi-identified Alevis generally have in fact long been oppressed as Jews – i.e. as the structural untouchables of Islamdom – by Muslim religious imperialism. In addition and even aside from the traditional prominent societal functions of Alevi hereditary priests (dedes), there is also secretive hierarchic initiation into Alevi Judaism both within and beyond the open Bektashi denomination of Alevi Judaism and this is not entirely closed to Common Alevis. This form of Hellenist Judaism that is Alevism also remains structurally similar to the historical Judaism of the Pharisees in the land of Israel in the sense of being largely rural & decentralized, yet also structurally similar to the historical Judaism of the Sadducees in Jerusalem in the sense of prominent community leadership by hereditary patrilineal Jewish priesthood.
The designation Alevi/Alawi is strictly speaking an historical misnomer, yet according to Alevi esoteric tradition, this designation emerged as Priestly Hellenist Jewish religious officials in Antiquity were often publically referred to as Halevi/Levite in the slightly incorrect sense as “Jewish priests” (as opposed to the proper meaning of patrilineal Jewish descendants of the priestly Israelite tribe of Levi) and this designation eventually came to denote what became the Alevi-identified Alawi/Alevi/Bektashi Crypto-Jewish community.
Yet, there is no question that those closely related Near Eastern Crypto-Jewish denominations functionally very much founded on hereditary priesthood do in fact constitute Priestly Judaism in the same sense that Talmudic Judaism constitutes Rabbinical Judaism. Ancient Priestly Judaism generally, including what eventually became the Druze, the Kaka’i, the Shabak, the Yarsans and the Yezidis, with functionally very prominent hereditary priesthood leadership – generally used to warmly welcome converts to Judaism in Antiquity.
Druze hereditary priest (ʻUqqāl)
A fusion of Priestly Judaism & Hellenist Judaism that became Alevi Judaism became integrated as a popular low-status predominant cultural substratum of Greek Christianity in Byzantine Anatolia, the northern Levant and the southwestern Balkans at a time when Asia Minor was mostly Greek-speaking, yet Priestly Judaism later had to struggle immensely to existentially survive the historically subsequent, yet in contrast extremely hostile Muslim religious imperialism.
There are many Jewish traces & clues in exoteric practices of esoteric Alevi Judaism that have been deliberately left to those Alevis who are sufficiently curious to know what to look for. Alevi Hellenist Judaism is primarily a life-embracing philosophy where (1) continuous historical (re-)appearances of human angelic avatars, (2) transmigration of souls and (3) bi-gender divinity form the main pillars of its cosmology outside eschatology. The Torah & the Quran are for learned Alevis purely esoteric, human-made text collections where only esoteric interpretations have valid philosophical meaning. Neither the Torah, nor the Quran is considered to have validity as historical narratives and Moses & Muhammad are therefore both regarded as belonging to the realm of exoteric mythology. The rest of the Hebrew Bible is in contrast acknowledged as both esoteric and in large parts historical in narrating the early Canaanite history of the Pan-Jewish nation.
It may perhaps surprise some that the structurally very similar Crypto-Jewish Ismailis are virtually indistinguishable from Alevi Judaism in esoteric teachings, despite like Alevis being outwardly a special kind of purported “Shia Muslims”. Ismailism (which actually is really “Israelism”) is thus another form of esoteric Hellenist Judaism. Ismaili Judaism warmly welcomes non-Jews into its ethnic fold who upon community integration subsequently become no less ethnically Jewish than natively born Jews/Crypto-Jews – whether Talmudic, Alevi, Ismaili, Judeo-Christian Aramean, Samaritan or otherwise.
However, the historical, contemporary and future task of the open Bektashi denomination of Alevi Judaism is primarily to welcome back Islamized descendants in Crypto-Jewish ethnicities (especially Islamized descendants of Alevi/Hellenist Jews) more or less forcibly converted by Muslim religious imperialism.
Shiite Calligraphy symbolising Ali as Tiger of God. Symbol of Ismailism.
There are a number of very important Jewish loose threads in the history of religion of Turkey & Kurdistan. Both the deported ten Israelite tribes and Hellenist Jewry are supposed to have somehow disappeared from the history of this part of the world, yet there is of course no evidence of this purported disappearance or even ancient collective migration elsewhere. The contemporary Crypto-Jewish communities of Alawism, Alevism, Bektashism, Druzism, Yarsanism (including Kaka’i & Shabak) and Yezidism are all led by hereditary priests and the shared historico-religious origins of these denominations prior to intrusive religious imperialism is supposedly unknown. These important historical dots have thus for far too long remained unconnected. However, Hellenist Judaism and the ten deported Israelite tribes certainly did not disappear.
Large-scale conversions to Median Judaism took place mostly in the eastern and western parts of the Median Empire. (The Median Empire is marked in yellow.)
The Judaism of the ten tribes welcomed converts to Judaism in very large numbers in the Median Empire, primarily in eastern and western sections of the Median Empire as according to the respective esoteric historical narratives of Priestly Judaism and Pashtunwali Judaism. While Median culture had a tremendous influence on Priestly Judaism which gradually became increasingly influential in the Median Empire, Priestly Judaism with time also came to develop a certain cultural flexibility of esoteric dissimulation whereby Priestly Judaism later came to learn to co-exist within predominant state-supported religious traditions from Zoroastrism to Islam.
Pasthunwali Judaism developed from the eastern branch of Median Judaism and has remained openly Pan-Jewish for much of its history, not only in very important ancient Jewish practices but also in exoterically claiming to constitute the ten deported Israelite tribes.
The Jewish Wilderness (Dasht-i Yahudi)
That ancient Judaism that is Priestly Judaism did survive by pragmatically adapting to religious imperialism as at least nominal Christians within the Byzantine Empire and subsequently within Islamdom as purportedly “Ghulat” denominations. Alevi Judaism & Byzantine Christianity emerged from within ancient Hellenist Judaism in a parallel competition that ultimately became symbiotic in Anatolia between Hellenist Judaism & Hellenist Christianity. The Judeo-Christian Melkite Arameans who traditionally use Greek as their main idiom of liturgy even today remain as ethnic survivors of such Hellenist Judeo-Christian cultural symbiosis. Furthermore, the additional fusion of Hellenist Judaism & Priestly Judaism that became Alawism/Alevism/Bektashism thus survived, spread and prospered in Byzantine times as what became the tolerated and even increasingly predominant – yet low-status – rural Alevi folk religion of Byzantine Anatolia (which was mostly Greek-speaking), the northern Levant and the southwestern Balkans.
However, the situation did turn distinctly for the worse during Muslim rule due to enforced Islamization as conversion to Alevi Judaism subsequently remained possible mainly through the open Bektashi denomination of Alevi Judaism. Even so, Alevi Judaism partly managed to demographically survive by exoterically adapting to Muslim religious imperialism. However, it is particularly important to profoundly understand that restrictions & prohibitions on conversion to various forms of Judaism & Crypto-Judaism have historically very tragically emerged due to imposed, enforced religious imperialist prohibitions on conversion to Judaism & Crypto-Judaism.
Rather than a simplistic ethnological dichotomy between either historically overt Jews & Crypto-Jews or between Jews & non-Jews, the Pan-Jewish exponential logic of eschatological Pan-Jewish national re-unification as indeed long since prophetically envisioned in esoteric Alevi Judaism may be quite appropriately described as follows:
.PNG)
However, while Turkish Hanafis use the same Turkish literary dialect of the Oghuz idiom as do Turkish Alevis – Turkish Hanafis are predominantly descendants of more or less involuntarily Islamized Crypto-Jewish denominations in Anatolia and primarily so historically Judeo-Christian Alevis as Alevi/Yezidi etc. cultural elements very much remain in rural culture & Sufi practices in genetically diverse Anatolia. While Alawism, Alevism, Bektashism, Druzism, Yarsanism (including Kaka’i & Shabak) and Yezidism have survived as overt denominations of Priestly Judaism, many other much less documented Crypto-Jewish denominations remain in Crypto-form in West Asia & the Balkans as secretive rural societies & rural Crypto-Jewish communities locally retaining various Crypto-Jewish traditions.
Obviously, any profound discussion of the history of religion & ethnicity of such phenomena has remained an almost complete taboo in the brutal dictatorship that is the Republic of Turkey – as have indeed so many other aspects of the history of Turkey & Northern Kurdistan. Thus, elements of this very ancient Judaism – parts of which became contemporary Alevi Judaism – is still practiced as part of rural culture & Sufism in many more or less involuntarily Islamized rural communities of West Asia and the Balkans.
Contrary to the heavily censored & deliberately forged official Turkish historiographical regime narrative; Central Asian descent is not a predominant or even prominent genetic factor in the gene pool of the major constituent ethnic groups of Turkey & Northern Kurdistan. Turkey’s Anti-Christian historical genocide is certainly not the only thing swept under the official Turkish historical carpet. Most human beings do change or amend their respective prior ethnic identity when they receive evidence of having a different origin, descent or ethnological status that has been deliberately hidden away from them and this tends to be particularly so with rediscovery of either Jewish descent or Crypto-Jewish ethnological status as seen already with so many Crypto-Jewish communities outside the Middle East and North Africa.
Therefore, Plan A should certainly be for a unified Israelite Turkey (minus unified Israelite Kurdistan) to become an Alevi democracy as part of an increasingly integrated federal-democratic Israel, albeit obviously this ultimately requires Turkish Hanafis to at some point collectively, publically and very officially so re-appropriate their very own Pan-Jewish nationality by themselves, of themselves and for themselves. The prospect of Turkish Hanafis generally – among whom Bektashi Alevi Judaism to this day remains popular – ultimately embracing Pan-Jewish nationality & Alevi-Bektashi cultural heritage subsequent to learning of their real history prior to Islamization, a history that has indeed been deliberately hidden away from them by tyrants of the republic – may seem quite remote to some observers, particularly after a decade of Saudi-engineered AKP Islamization policies and especially considering the deep inter-ethnic hatred mutually maintained by some Turkish Hanafis and some Turkish Alevis.
Yet, it certainly remains very important to keep in mind that not only Crypto-Jewish Turkey but also Crypto-Jewish Albania recognized Israel as early as in 1949. The current Saudi-owned slave regime in Ankara with its increasingly waning administrative structural influence, yet at the same time trying to very publically reassert Sultan Erdoğan’s comical image as The Dictator is thus for Qutbist motivations very much committed to causing a permanent rift between the peoples of Israel & Turkey (and not just diplomatically between the two governments) by means of regime-sponsored “de-Judaization” such as Anti-Alevi Islamization and structurally discriminatory Anti-Zionism through mass dissemination of systemic Anti-Jewish prejudice.
What began with AKP-instigated trumped-up charges against journalists & high-ranking military officers in the Turkish republic did later lead to similarly AKP-instigated trumped-up charges against senior Israelite military officers and even against one pianist in the Turkish republic who happened to wittily paraphrase medieval Persian poetry on Twitter!
Now perhaps we should all expect AKP-instigated, trumped-up charges against not only Israelite journalists who happen to disagree with the Saudi-owned Slave Sultan in Ankara but perhaps also against any Israeli musician – Jewish, Muslim or otherwise – daring to paraphrase on Twitter the purported “Jahiliyyah” of artistically particularly advanced pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. Perhaps the post-Kemalist Qutbist regime in Ankara will then decide to boycott Twitter for “recognizing” Turkey’s Anti-Christian genocide! Clearly as during the 2011 Gaza territorial waters crisis between Jerusalem & the Saudi slave regime in Ankara – a crisis which actually never militarily materialized – the Saudi-owned AKP slave regime now seeks to reassert long lost former Ottoman sovereignty over areas that clearly were never part of the Republic of Turkey.
Now is the time for Turkey’s real friends in the international community of responsible governments to very seriously pressure Sultan Erdoğan & his no less criminal accomplices so as to end all trumped-up charges, drop the charges against Fazıl Say and release all imprisoned journalists & military officers in the Republic of Turkey. The democratic world of open society must not give up on promoting responsible democratization in Turkey & Northern Kurdistan because the consequences of deeper Qutbist Islamization could become very serious indeed.
Yet, – Turkey is not Syria and Turkish Hanafis should certainly like all other Crypto-Jewish peoples have the political opportunity to re-appropriate their ancient Pan-Jewish nationality and specifically in the case of Turkish Hanafis also embracing their own Alevi-Bektashi, historical, cultural heritage. However, there is and must definitely be a very realistic alternative Plan B involving instead establishment of an Israelite Alevistan in much of the territorial interior of Anatolia that would also include adjacent fellow Crypto-Jewish Kurdish enclaves. As Turkish Hanafis like all other Crypto-Jewish peoples are entitled to make their own decisions in this regard once they learn the historical truth, so are also Turkish Alevis perfectly entitled to make their own independent decision pertaining to public, collective re-appropriation of Pan-Jewish nationality and indeed wholly independently so of any option chosen by Turkish Hanafis.
If Dmili/Zaza Kurds (who are still 60% Alevi-Bektashi) who speak the northern Dmili literary dialect of the Zazaki (Dmili-Gorani) idiom would so prefer – they could rather than being part of Israelite Kurdistan have a Dmili/Zaza Israelite member state of their own (i.e. Israelite Zazaistan) that would neighbor Israeli Kurdistan and also a potential Israelite Alevistan. Both these two Alevi-majority Israelite member states (Alevistan & Zazaistan) would under such respective political scenarios be established in addition to an Israelite Alawi state that definitely needs to be re-established in current western Syria, southern Turkey and northern Grand Liban. There would thus accordingly be several Israeli federal member states with civic majorities of Alevi-identified communities – Alawis, Alevis and Bektashis. Certain Oghuz-speaking Alevi communities in the Republic of Turkey would under Plan B hence also be part of neighboring Israelite Kurdistan & potentially also neighboring Israelite Zazaistan rather than what could be non-Israelite unified federal Oghuzistan due to such areas of Oghuz-speaking Alevis certainly not being geographically contiguous with Israelite Alevistan.
The point I seek to make here is that not only should every human nation (including the Pan-Jewish nation) be entitled be to universal self-determination through unified idiomatic statehood, but every Crypto-Jewish people will need to themselves decide on the matter of restoring Pan-Jewish nationality of themselves, by themselves and for themselves. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the vast majority of Alevis & Kurds (including Kurds still speaking Zazaki i.e. Dmili-Gorani) will want to join in Pan-Jewish national re-unification as part of an increasingly integrated federal-democratic Israel. However, it certainly remains something to be very much hoped for that Turkish Hanafis will want to join as well upon learning the historical truths about their heavily censored history and non-Turkic Pan-Jewish descent from Greek-speaking Judeo-Christian Hellenist Anatolians. Furthermore, Crypto-Jewish speakers of Oghuz are certainly not the only Crypto-Jewish communities speaking a Turkic idiom as do the very genuinely Crypto-Jewish Khazar-speaking Balkar-Karachay-Kumyk Crypto-Jewish people of northern Caucasia. Again, historical descent from converts to Judaism does certainly not ever make a Jew/Crypto-Jew any less Jewish.
Although many Talmudic Jews are certainly not aware of these beliefs; traditional Talmudic Judaism is somewhat superficially open about its otherwise mostly esoteric beliefs in angels, transmigration of souls and bi-gender divinity. In Talmudic Judaism as in Alevi Judaism there are both (a) core esoteric teachings and (b) exoteric lifestyle teachings. Alevi Judaism and Talmudic Judaism each have extensive and very impressive written religious literary canons, yet other forms of esoteric Judaism are not that different in maintaining popular exoteric lifestyle practices around a Pan-Jewish esoteric core. However, there are forms of esoteric Judaism whose religious literature is mostly or entirely oral.
The very good news of course, is that there are not just one Jewish people but indeed a plural number of various distinctive Jewish peoples who are quite geographically dispersed around the region & the world, whether as intra-human majorities or as intra-human minorities. Indeed, there are also a plural number of various majority Pan-Jewish countries with various different respective historical Pan-Jewish regional ethnogenesis. While perhaps difficult to accept for some who ethnocentrically identify as the very lone center of universe, various Pan-Jewish peoples emerged in different historical eras, in different geographic locations and under different political conditions.
Esoteric Judaism was not invented as a reaction to religious imperialism which it historically preceded; yet resisting culturally intrusive oppression under religious imperialism has been a major historical force for Pan-Jewish survival. Although there were many forms of Judaism in Antiquity, Alevi Priestly Hellenist Judaism survived under religious imperialism as both (1) religious elitist esotericism and (2) as low-status folk religion.
Pan-Jewish geopolitical re-unification thus ultimately requires publically redeeming both Pan-Jewish nationality & Pan-Jewish identity for concerned Crypto-Jewish peoples around the region & the world. Before Jewish sovereignty inside the land of Israel was re-established in 1948, the world knew little of Crypto-Jews, mostly except for some Sephardic (i.e. historically Catalan/Portuguese/Spanish) Crypto-Jews.
Yet, since 1948, more and more Crypto-Jewish peoples outside the Middle East and North Africa have become increasingly open about their own Pan-Jewish ethnological status and many are increasingly adopting quite public Pan-Jewish communal identities. E.g. the six million Judeo-Christian Arameans of the state of Kerala in southwestern India have increasingly and rather publically so re-adopted overtly Jewish communal identity. Nevertheless, such public identification still very much remains taboo for their oppressed Crypto-Jewish Aramean kin – both Mandean and Judeo-Christian – in and of the Middle East who even so like many other fellow Crypto-Jewish peoples in the region & around the world tend to privately and communally strongly identify with Israel in general and Israeli defense policies in particular.
So the public reclamation of Pan-Jewish nationality – as denied & negated by religious imperialism – has increasingly so already been in the process now for over six decades. The inclusive term Pan-Jewish (which literally includes all Jewish peoples) is therefore increasingly more and more appropriate than the Jewishly excluding term Crypto-Jewish, not least as pertaining to historically Crypto-Jewish peoples whom like the Kerala Judeo-Christian Arameans are no longer particularly secretive about their very own Pan-Jewish ethnological status! Yet at the same time, it is crucial to properly understand how Crypto-Jewish peoples in the Middle East and North Africa still tend to remain much more secretive about their respective Pan-Jewish ethnological status than do generally & increasingly so many Crypto-Jewish peoples outside the Middle East and North Africa. The difference is mostly due to both pre-modern & modern stigmatization of Jewish communality in the Middle East and North Africa as the structural untouchables of Islamdom.
Pan-Jewish emancipation does not require making public all the secrets of esoteric Judaism, but it certainly requires publically & collectively redeeming Pan-Jewish nationality. Keeping far too many things far too secret, for far too long as pertaining to Pan-Jewish nationality and Pan-Jewish ethnological status of Crypto-Jewish peoples in the Middle East and North Africa – has since 1948 mostly benefitted existential regime adversaries of democratic, unified Jewish nationhood. This is so considering that there are such regimes whose intelligence services have now closely studied Crypto-Jewish esoteric Judaism for half a century already.
Once both Jewish identity & Pan-Jewish nationality are collectively & overtly redeemed among the Crypto-Jewish peoples of the Middle East and North Africa – as already increasingly happens to a very significant extent among Crypto-Jewish peoples outside the Middle East and North Africa – many things are then likely to begin to change politically in the broader region and shall I add in some cases rather rapidly so. However, this is both a political and a cultural process and we are still not at that point yet in the Middle East and North Africa. When Pan-Jewish peoples geographically closer to Jewish democratic Israel also begin to officially reclaim Jewish nationality of themselves, by themselves and for themselves – then that should indeed help begin the political process of closing the Pan-Jewish ethnological circle in beginning the geopolitical re-unification of the Pan-Jewish nation.
The various exoteric popular lifestyles of esoteric Judaism – Alawi, Alevi, Bektashi, Beta Avraham, Beta Israel, Druze, Dönmeh, Ismaili, Judeo-Christian Aramean, Kaka’i, Karaite, Khazaric, Lemba, Mandean Aramean, Odinani Igbo, Pashtunwali, Samaritan, Shabak, Talmudic, Yarsan, Yezidi, Zaydi, Zikri and others – are all about ensuring Jewish/Crypto-Jewish ethnological survival so that the Jewish nation as a whole can then eschatologically redeem the entire world from oppression when the envisioned appropriate era arrives. There are so many different Pan-Jewish (Jewish and Crypto-Jewish) religious and/or ethnic exoteric lifestyles, all of which religiously serve the underlying teleological & eschatological imperative of ethnically surviving culturally intrusive religious imperialism by maintaining, preserving and indeed preparing the nation of Israel for its coming role in redemptive history.
While Talmudic Judaism until modern times was all about politically waiting, waiting and waiting for the absolute other to arrive, Zionism is precisely about not waiting for “someone else” to come to redeem the Jewish nation but rather to do this ourselves. Yet, in order for the entire Pan-Jewish nation to liberate itself from the shackles of religious imperialism – Zionism needs to take seriously the universal eschatological mission of the entire Pan-Jewish nation as do in fact so many passionate Talmudic Jews in the United States of different Talmudic denominations. This universally Jewish eschatological task is widely known among North American Talmudic Jewry through the concept of tikkun olam or Jews eschatologically literally repairing the world. However, this pivotal, eschatological Nietzschean political task of comprehensive reinvention of morals & organizations involving comprehensive conceptual revolution (PMO transcript) must certainly not repeat or endorse the many serious structural mistakes as committed by both historical & contemporary religious imperialism – secular and religious – of various civilizations.
In order for universal Pan-Jewish liberation to indeed universally succeed, this emancipatory project needs to be part of a broader universal emancipation that must certainly not be reducible to the metaphysical moral prejudice of contemporary modern religious imperialism such as Fascism, Islamism, Liberalism, Marxism and the imperialist metaphysics of intensely oppressive humanist idealization which they all tragically share. What is truly hopeful about Zionism is its firmly Nietzschean, ethico-political rejection of Master-Slave Morality in relation to fellow human peoples & nations. This is an intrinsic rejection which indeed is a crucial condition for universal emancipation to indeed politically succeed and not solely so in relation to fellow human persons as Master-Slave Morality – the wicked morality of religious imperialism – is indeed the hallmark of civilizational oppression all around this suffering planet.
The responsibly democratic quest for universal Jewish national liberation can therefore not be realistically separated from its much broader universal redemptive mission of what I prefer to refer to as universal emancipation, including universally established, unified idiomatic statehood. A comprehensively Pan-Jewish Zionism should thus serve to bring liberation & democratic peace in the region & the world by also truly embracing its broader universal Jewish eschatological mission – as Nietzsche following upon his fellow Hebrew prophets indeed very prophetically indeed envisioned – rather than merely patiently wait for “someone else” to come to do the job in our stead.
Clearly, the task is not to simplistically once more re-introduce another slightly modified form of prejudicial religious imperialism of oppressive humanist idealization which affects very negatively Earthling persons generally subject to secular/religious imperialism – since no person of any taxon fits the idealizing description. Rather, the task is to deconstructively scandalize such prejudicial elements of civilization more generally while at the same time politically paving the way towards carefully considered, responsibly ethico-political universal emancipation founded on embracing the value of cognitive diversity more generally among persons of various more or less canonized & non-canonized bio-categories.
The fossil-fuel-funded & particularly well-oiled global Saudi/PLO propaganda machine and its systemically deployed Anti-Jewish discursive discrimination against the sovereign-indigenous, liberal-democratic Jewish nation as well as against Israel’s Talmudically Jewish Diaspora is meant to not only strategically, literally destroy this liberal-democratic open society in West Asia that is Jewish democratic Israel though structurally Anti-Jewish defamation, denial and discrimination. The political purpose is certainly also very much tactically to divide Pan-Jewish peoples within & between ourselves and distract Jews (meaning all Jewish peoples) from our universal ethico-political mission in both contemporary politics and indeed very much the future politics to come.
Understanding Islamism
Both Qutbism & Khomeinism represent historical syntheses of Islamism with Marxism during the Cold War era when both Sunni Islamism & Shia Islamism were under strong covert Soviet intellectual influence – although conservative Qutbism fought a war against the USSR in Afghanistan in the last decade of Cold War I. Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) the then leader of the now increasingly globalized Muslim Brotherhood did thus very much hence shape Sunni Islamism in this regard by introducing a Communist political eschatology of transitional reign of terror. Ali Shariati (1933-1977) very similarly had a comparable formative Marxist influence on Twelver Shia Islamism. Yet, both Saudi-engineered Qutbism & Iranian-engineered Khomeinism remain strongly influenced by Nazism and especially so in terms of their Anti-Jewish Judeocentric worldviews as both movements/regimes tend to believe in Anti-Jewish conspiracy theories such as the notorious czarist forgery known as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. Eschatologically redeeming terror thus remains a particularly important European genealogical influence over both Qutbism and Khomeinism.
Riyadh & Tehran as the two main political patrons, governmental guides and funders of Qutbism & Khomeinism respectively are thus ideologically quite united in their rival geopolitical goals of Islamist world rule. While engaged in a multipolar Cold War II against the democratic world of global open society – Riyadh and Tehran are also the two main rival sources & poles of power within the distinctively neo-imperialist Islamist nexus, very comparable indeed to the rival neo-imperialist, yet between themselves politically quite similar Soviet Union & Nazi Germany in the 1930’s.
While being very similar to each other in terms of diplomatic & terrorist tactics as well as in overall ultimate geopolitical goals, Qutbist Saudi Arabia and Khomeinist Iran each has its own particular imperialist geostrategy reflecting its own particular ethnic & sectarian outlook as well as overall geostrategic position.
The main current geostrategy of Riyadh and its subservient Muslim Brotherhood is thus to (1) gain full political & military control over the Arabophonie using various available means, (2) create an Arabist-Islamist Saudi Caliphate, subsequently (3) build up an enormous Soviet-style Jihadist war machine, then (4) use the Arabophonie as a launching pad to conquer Israel & Europe and finally to (5) strategically appropriate European and Israeli technologies & platforms for the purpose of conquering the rest of the world in the style of medieval Muslim imperialism. Riyadh’s Qutbist geostrategists – like the Hitlerists and the Stalinists before them – thus view gaining control over Europe as very pivotal indeed to subsequently establishing their own neo-imperialist world rule.
Part of the political challenge is thus to prevent Riyadh & the Muslim Brotherhood from hence succeeding in metamorphosing the current Cold War II into World War III as strategically envisioned by Riyadh. Such a Mediterranean World War III can thus in practice only be prevented by very effectively minimizing the political influence generally of Qutbist political movements in the Arabophonie such as the Muslim Brotherhood & the Salafists. Surely, a responsibly pro-democratic overall strategic victory in Cold War II would be much less costly to achieve in both blood & coffers than would the achievement of strategic victory in a World War III against an Arabist-Islamist Saudi Caliphate with a gargantuan Nazi-style Jihadist war machine. Global Saudi-directed Qutbist Jihadist terrorism in places such as Afghanistan, France, Gaza, India, Iraq, Israel, Judea-Samaria, Kenya, Kurdistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Yemen serves indeed the important Qutbist political purpose of making political Qutbism increasingly more popular among Sunni Muslim communities generally around the world.
The global geostrategy of Tehran is also based on the Jihadist tactics of establishing a global reign of terror, including by means of Tehran itself politically benefitting from the very realistic threat of Iranian-sponsored WMD terrorism. In addition to the Iranian apocalyptic threat of nuclear weapons terrorism by Islamist-Jihadist proxies of Tehran, the danger of Iranian-sponsored biological, chemical and radiological (“dirty bomb”) terrorism would become particularly serious if the Iranian regime were to have its own nuclear weapons arsenal. Iranian nuclear weapons would thus ensure the Iranian regime a significant degree of international “Soviet-style” political immunity as well as effective impunity from serious military retribution for acts of major Iranian-sponsored terrorism. The fact that Tehran has invested so much political prestige & financial resources in its policy of military nuclearization which combined with Tehran’s officially determinist Anti-Jewish apocalyptic eschatology are precisely what makes it particularly challenging to shall I say dissuade the Mullah regime from proceeding on its diplomatically deceptive nuclear path intended to lead increasingly towards full development of Iranian nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran’s Islamist-Jihadist neo-imperialist leadership.
While Qutbism and Khomeinism are politically very similar – yet there is literally a regional abyss of profound hatred between Qutbist Wahhabi Saudis and Khomeinist Twelver Iranians across the Amian Gulf.
Since Qutbism & Khomeinism and Riyadh & Teheran strongly believe in Anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, they are therefore as part of this very worldview also convinced that destroying Israel and its Talmudically Jewish population is actually pivotal to the cause of extending Islamist world rule to Christendom and the rest of the world.
Responsible democratic realism is crucial in achieving a carefully calibrated transition to genuinely pro-democratic open society and only subsequently towards responsibly promoted advanced democracy in politically unified nations of Amistan, Bejaland, Egypt, Nubia, Persia, Tamazgha and so on in addition to similar societal processes in many prospective new member states of a new & increasingly politically unified Pan-Jewish federal-democratic Israel.
Intended Genocide
Q. Why would the Islamist nexus want a second Six Day War, is not that fundamentally an illogical proposition from their perspective?
A. Clerical political leaders of the Islamist nexus make a completely different assessment based on their own Weltanschauung. They believe that the Arabist genocidal alignment was defeated in 1967, not because it was genocidal (which surely would have merited divine intervention!) but because these Arabist leaders were then predominantly secularists and hence according to the Islamist/Jihadist school of thinking therefore simply divinely punished. Of course, that onto-teleological assessment leaves out the important fact that the 1967 Israeli political leadership was also predominantly secularist as indeed all Israeli governments throughout modern Israeli history, so from this peculiar Islamist/Jihadist perspective why did Israel always win militarily whether tactically or strategically? It is therefore indeed important that genuine friends of open society engage in such critical religious inquiry to show the appalling logical unfoundedness of such Islamist/Jihadist political argumentation. I once did precisely that with a Muslim Brotherhood imam while myself a Modern Orthodox student of Islamic studies at Stockholm University and I was shocked by his appallingly low level of argumentation which was in fact devoid of any coherent logic whatsoever other than imperialist Master Morality.
1937 Peel commission partition proposal
A. Because they assess Israel is going to be destroyed. That was a working assumption for many European leaders in 1948, 1967 and 1973. It is interesting in this context that such governments publically in effect tell Israel to shrink to suicidal borders.
Q. Why don’t Europeans understand Islamdom?
A. Because they think Islamdom is one harmonious holistic phenomenon rather than constituting immense diversity, to the inclusion of both friends and enemies of open society.
Q. Were 1920s Germans an oppressed, discriminated and dominated group?
A. NSDAP believed that Germans were in the thralldom of ethnocratic Jews by means of a worldwide Jewish structure of domination. NSDAP believed that socio-economically successful German Jews were successful entirely due to what the NSDAP believed constituted Jewish structural discrimination.
Q. Why are Islamists/Jihadists so keen on achieving a second Shoah?
A. Because Islamist-Jihadist geostrategists, like the Nazi geostrategists before them assess that Anti-Jewish genocide is the way to undo what they believe is a conspiratorial worldwide Jewish structure of domination. Islamist geostrategists view Christendom as the very cultural manifestation of that purported worldwide structure of Jewish domination and hence as an existential, parallel competitor to their own neo-imperialist project of religious imperialism for global domination.
Q. Are hypothetical suicidal borders realistic and viable?
A. No, absolutely not. Israel is not about to commit suicide under any circumstances and the Ramallah regime has refused to engage in meaningful, substantive permanent status peace talks with Israel since the PLOs founding in 1964. So to think that suicidal borders are realistic implies being detached from reality in the extreme.
Q. Why does Mr. Abbas present increasing preconditions as a diplomatic opening?
A. Because substantive, meaningful permanent status peace talks with Israel run contrary to PLO ideology which only permit temporary agreements with Israel.
Israel’s future permanent defensible borders are highly dependent upon the topography of the land of Israel. The restored indigenous Jewish communities of Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria provide Israel with otherwise unavailable strategic depth through a redesigned strategic topography that gives Israel the time needed to call up the reserves in the potential instance of major regional aggression against Israel as in 1948, 1967 and 1973.
Q. Is it in the independent Jewish nation’s national interest generally and Jerusalem’s national security interest specifically to cede Jewish regions in Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria while rather retaining Amian regions of Israel under any hypothetical permanent status agreement?
A. No, obviously not.
Q. Why the constant incitement against the restored indigenous communities of Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria?
A. This is a matter of energy-based Saudi geostrategic influence really unrelated to Israel. Yet, it is thematically closely modeled on the 1930’s Nazi incitement against German Jewry.
Q. Anti-Jewish polarization?
A. Israel’s existential enemies in Islamdom seek to extend into Christendom their own Anti-Jewish, Anti-Israel polarization agenda by means of war propaganda & evil advice by proxy.
Q. Land for peace?
A. This already failed tragically and disastrously with thousands of casualties between our nations; rather there should be land for land and peace for peace in the sense that Israel needs to be ready to cede its three main non-Jewish Sunni Amian regions (Central Galilee, the Bedouin northern Negev region and the so called “Triangle” communities just west of the Green line in Central Israel).
Q. If European nations are supposedly so morally superior to fellow liberal-democratic Israel as regards diplomatic conflict resolution, then why does not the European Union and its members act to magically first conclusively solve the Gibraltar and Cyprus territorial disputes, give up remaining European colonies using non-European idioms (such as New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean region), promptly evacuate their settlers from those colonies and instantly solve the Macedonia name dispute before publically engaging in irrational, ignorant and determinist, hypocritically moralizing Neo-Nordic Supremacy in relation to the indigenous independent Jewish nation and our defensive-indigenous and existentially vital indigenous territorial claims?
E1 is being planned for in a very small section of the mostly uninhabited Judaean Desert. The red lines map the geographic extension of the entire Judaean Desert of which E1 is but a very small part.
A. Well-oiled Judeocentrism no doubt. To describe the increasingly restored indigenous communities of Judea, Jerusalem and Samaria as “illegal settlements” is not merely prejudicial, eurocentrically projective secularized pseudo-absolution; this is how many contemporary Europeans tend to in effect discursively & projectively blame the Jews for the burden of sins of both the European Shoah and historical European colonialism.
Q. Was not Israel created by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947?
A. No, Israel became independent on May 14, 1948.
Q. Is not Israel colonialist?
A. How can one be a colonialist in one’s own indigenous land?
Q. Is not Israel imperialist?
A. Israel is geographically miniscule, only territorially twice the size of the Gambia and the Israeli people are historical victims of religious imperialism, European as well as Muslim.
Q. Was not Israel created by White Christians as compensation for the Shoah?
A. Indigenous Israel became independent despite the Shoah and despite European imperialist powers preventing Jews from fleeing to the land Israel during and after the Shoah.
Rethinking Regional Strategy
The Iranian regime is in a state of strategic retreat as seen in its recent retraction of its official military threats against Turkey, a country which happens to no longer be part of the Islamist nexus following the ongoing military “slow coup” in Alevi-land, which I informally call so as most citizens of the Republic of Turkey, including Northern Kurdistan, are either (1) more or less overtly ethnically Alevi Crypto-Jews, (2) ethnically Crypto-Alevi Crypto-Jews or (3) still ethnically Crypto-Jewish descendants of usually less than freely willing Alevi converts to Islam.
The racist conspiracy theory, according to which the sovereign-indigenous, liberal-democratic Jewish nation is ostensibly an “alien” American-European implant into the region – is especially ridiculous considering the significant Crypto-Jewish territories of the broader region from South Asia to the Balkans. While Israel’s enemies make every effort to portray Israelis as intrinsic aliens by ostensible racial essence.
The PLO was originally devised as an international Cold War I subsidiary of the KGB and was sold to the Saudi polity following the Soviet defeat in Cold War I.
Defining Victory
Victory in Cold War II is most accurately defined as ultimately successful democratization throughout Islamdom and especially so pertaining to peoples currently languishing under the Islamist-Jihadist boot. This requires not merely regime change, but also no less crucial, increasingly expanded domestic support for open society, political freedom, representative government and universal emancipation in nations of Islamdom and beyond.
There was once a broad political consensus during Cold War I in the Arabophonie that Socialism was allegedly “the solution” to virtually all problems, then this was replaced by a consensus during Cold War II to the effect that Islam is instead the alleged political panacea and now nations & governments of open society whether demographically predominantly Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim or otherwise, need to nurture a new emerging paradigm of consensus whereby open society, political freedom, representative government and universal emancipation are regarded as the solution in Islamdom as well. The Arabist consensus was powered by the KGB and the subsequent Islamist consensus is powered by intelligence services of the Islamist nexus tasked with foreign political/religious action. Now, the world of open society needs to be of significant assistance in educating promising intellectual leaders for a future non-polarizing, pro-democratic consensus in favor of open society generally in nations of Islamdom and beyond.
Empowering privately pro-Israel sympathizers & admirers to eventually come out of this political closet is a shared pro-democratic strategic national interest as it is crucial for this nascent pro-democratic revolution to ultimately politically prevail throughout Islamdom and beyond, notwithstanding the immense political dangers posed by the evil tentacles of the Islamist nexus. Nations of Islamdom may tend to be religiously conservative, yet the Muslim world is neither homogenous nor unchanging.
It is important to emphasize that Muslim public support for Islamist movements is largely derived from the historical association in Islamdom of Secularism with 20th century nominally “Socialist” dictatorships.
One of the central goals of the modern Jewish movement for national liberation has always been for the Jewish people to become just another independent human nation among other yet also independent human nations. Israel’s existential enemies thus make every effort to indirectly make sure that Israel is publically excluded from normative diplomatic etiquette among friendly nations.
Why is it so difficult for non-Muslims to understand why it is culturally much easier for honor-centric Middle Eastern Muslim-dominated supremacist societies to make peace between fellow Muslim-dominated polities than it would be to officially and conclusively make semiotically contaminating peace with the historically & structurally most utterly despised population segment of traditional Muslim civilization, a certain national population segment that have historically been perceived in ways akin to how Roms have long been perceived & treated in Europe and how Dalits have long been perceived & treated in South Asia. This systemic civilizational contempt for Jews also helps understand why so many ancient Jewish communities in Islamdom instead found it easier to survive in crypto-form. To be sure, this distinctly asymmetric relationship of treating Jews/Israelis like untouchables certainly did not commence with the coming of the modern Jewish movement for indigenous national liberation in our own land.
Russophone Israelis also tend to be immensely skeptical of the rhetoric of humanist idealization precisely because this was used to forcibly assimilate Soviet Jewry and before that for the purpose of implementing the Nazi extermination of that very Soviet Jewry.
The existing peace treaty between Jerusalem and Amman makes it distinctly possible for the two to formally and conclusively resolve and subsequently conclusively end this long war against the Jews through conclusive regional partition between the Pan-Jewish nation and the Pan-Amian nation, both having long been negated by the Secular/Muslim imperialism of Arabism/Islamism.
At best, Israel’s existential enemies acknowledge their mistakes of aggression (as did Nasser in 1967 and Nasrallah in 2006) after we have once more resoundingly defeated and indeed very much crushed those very enemy combatants who declare themselves our existential enemies. European foreign policy therefore needs to be reoriented on the basis of the understanding that an increasingly unified Israel is also increasingly an emerging great power in the broader Near East. Yet, quite unlike those entities – governmental and non-governmental – that constitute the Islamist Nexus of Evil and which declare themselves Israel’s existential enemies; Israel does not seek domination over other human nations.
While Eastern Kurdistan and Western Balochistan constitute occupied territories in accordance with the 1907 Hague Convention as pertaining to hostile martial administration, something which applies irrespective of sovereignty, the notion of (military) occupation is otherwise used in international discourse in two distinct senses that are usually deliberately confused in relation to Israel. The first usage is meant to rhetorically merely convey mere performative non-recognition of territorial claims by other nations pertaining to territory that they control such as between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.
The utterly disgraceful fact is that Israel has now for decades been rhetorically discriminated within quasi-legal discourses for indeed adhering to the very letter of codified international law and living in a land where the Jewish nation constitutes the historical indigenous population, albeit constantly subject to threats of genocide.
Israel has long been told that measures that would quite indisputably and significantly weaken Israel in a very dangerous neighborhood are rather somehow in Israel’s national interest as if Israel were somehow a greedy European colonial power rather than an indigenous, sovereign nation in our own land, distinctly uninterested in ruling others, yet those who offer this evil advice usually do not care to explain that they are mere conveyors of evil advice from Israel’s existential enemies of the Islamist Nexus of Evil.
Islamdom has throughout history to various degrees treated Jews rather akin to the ways Dalits and Roms haven been treated throughout history as the Arabist/Islamist opposition to liberal-democratic, sovereign-indigenous Jewish self-determination is a mere pretext for perpetuating ancient prejudice of dual civilizational origins in modern genocidal shape. Anti-Jewish aversions in Islamdom did not exactly first begin to surface with Israeli independence following the defeated Arabist/Islamist Anti-Jewish genocide against Israel as the eventual escape of over 99% of the 850 000 Jews of the Arabophonie of 1948, from severe persecution was preceded by many years of Arabist/Islamist Anti-Jewish religiously racist incitement as largely orchestrated & financed by Nazi German intelligence in cooperation with local willing Arabist and Islamist collaborators. Subsequently, the Soviet Union came to gradually take over this political role from the Nazis after the German defeat in WWII.
Third parties who seek to resolve this war against the Jews, using imperialist, obsolete socialist academic theories of conflict resolution based on unfounded and distinctly prejudicial Eurocentric humanist idealization, usually do not understand that they are very much discursively and indeed paradigmatically complicit in the very discursive perpetuation of this war against the Jews by publically clinging to anachronistic formula that pertain to conflict perpetuation rather than to conclusive conflict resolution, including indispensably mutually conclusive partition between the two nations.
Pragmatic not Moderate
Considering that the ruling Egyptian military is apparently incompetent as regards civilian matters, they should thus largely delegate responsibility for Egyptian national guardianship & responsible democratization to the Egyptian royal family which currently resides in exile in the open society of liberal-democratic France. Egypt should also become an officially bi-idiomatic nation with Modern Egyptian and Amian as its two official idioms in education, administration and public service broadcasting.
The Egyptian royal family has long lived in France and its members are very familiar with the workings of French liberal democracy. While a responsibly pro-democratic modern Egyptian Pharaoh would lead the nation to freedom, peace and prosperity, the military would serve in a support position in relation to the new Pharaoh as is successfully done in both Jordan and Morocco towards the legitimate king and where responsible democratization is increasingly promoted by each country’s royal family.
The Soviet-instigated unseating of the Egyptian monarchy in 1952-53 was a major mistake as regards the fortunes of the nation of Egypt, a historical tragedy which ended the country’s national experiment in responsible democratization. While restoring the Egyptian monarchy is admittedly not an easy political task considering the very detrimental political developments since Egypt’s 2011-2012, really disastrous parliamentary elections, which installed a vast parliamentary majority of sworn enemies of open society – what the Egyptian military in contrast needs to do is to cancel the scheduled presidential elections in Egypt and restore Egypt’s so immensely tragically and illegitimately unseated constitutional monarchy.
Sometimes the right and necessary thing to do politically may seem quite difficult; yet the alternative would certainly be even more difficult if it leads to either Jihadist civil war, war with Israel or both. Restored royal parliamentarism is the right thing for the proudly ancient-modern nation of Egypt, it is the right thing for regional stability, it is the right thing for peace with Israel, it is the right thing for responsible democratization in Egypt and it is certainly the right thing for international peace and security. The international community of responsible governments needs to assist the ruling Egyptian military to do the right thing so as to prevent what could otherwise risk become very disastrous developments considering the economic and political incompetence of Egypt’s certainly well-intentioned military rulers. A restored royal house of Egypt would clearly be something politically off-limits to Islamists, thus restoring political legitimacy for a responsible and genuinely pro-democratic Egyptian national transition which would include vastly improved and far more secure checks on Islamist governance in Egypt.
Unfortunate political mentality complex of slave morality
Permanent borders should be drawn so that Pro-Zionist national minority – local majority communities remain part of Israel if they indeed so collectively desire. Indeed, good fences tend to make good neighbors between human nations on this planet.
A problem with Middle Eastern Crypto-Jewish ethnic groups is that whilst they often seek to get closer to Israel in various ways, they usually have little to no emotional interest in getting closer to each other. This is how exaggerated Crypto-Jewish esoteric secrecy in the broader region rather serves the interests of existential, genocidal enemies of unified, democratic Jewish nationhood. While the esoteric secrecy as pertaining to Pan-Jewish ethnological status in the past actually served to protect Crypto-Jews; now and increasingly so since 1948, this now highly exaggerated secrecy serves increasingly to merely reinforce their very own state of structural oppression inside Islamdom. This is particularly complex in the Republic of Turkey whose mostly variously Crypto-Jewish major constituent peoples tend to severely hate each other quite intensely. It is very important to therefore take note of the fact that Turkish Talmudic Jewry is thus much, much better treated in the Republic of Turkey than are Alevi Jewry which still keeps its Jewish nationality secret – when this secrecy in fact is completely unnecessary and even counter-productive under a state secularism that is under threat from regime-sponsored Islamism. Publically re-embracing a long denied Pan-Jewish nationality is therefore the first step towards a very necessary cultural liberation from slave morality as imposed by religious imperialism.
This Pan-Jewish multicultural, regional complexity means that Pan-Jewish democratic unification must be both careful and gradual. Stateless Crypto-Jewish peoples thus need to overcome their own state of political mentality of slave morality as has Talmudic Jewry for the most part successfully already achieved in relation to other human peoples and nations. Israel can help in this regard, yet this transition requires patience considering the endemic sectarian problem in the Pan-Jewish nation of Jews/Crypto-Jews exoterically not accepting each other as fellow members of our very tribal nation. This tragic, yet certainly understandable historical condition is not only common among contemporary denominations of Talmudic Jewry, but also more or less so among Crypto-Jewish denominations as well. Thus, Pan-Jewish denominations – both Talmudic and non-Talmudic – have technical religious definitions of who belongs to the tribe; ethno-denominational definitions that are erroneously often presumed to supposedly apply generally beyond the particular denomination itself.
While this is obviously impractical and certainly unhelpful in terms of Pan-Jewish democratic unification, it is also inaccurate in the sense that various Jewish/Crypto-Jewish ethnicities/denominations have their own distinctive standards for ethnic membership. Pan-Jewish nationhood is thus the sum of all those disparate Pan-Jewish ethnic memberships plus all those Jews/Crypto-Jews religiously excluded from ethnicities of which they are in fact constituent parts. Religious imperialism has sought to reduce the Jewish nation to mere denomination/religion, including by attempting to prevent tribal-ethnic initiation into the Jewish nation by historically seeking to outlaw conversion to Judaism. Intra-Jewish attitudes as regards the deplorable practices of intra-Jewish ethnic excommunication are thus genealogical outcomes of this externally imposed religious imperialism. The modern Pan-Jewish nation is in fact no less a tribal federation than were Biblical-era Israelites. Therefore it is important to acknowledge that each tribe in our nation has its own criteria for ethnic membership, yet that there are also other tribes in our nation aside from our own that as a matter of anthropological fact maintain different membership criteria. Thus, no Pan-Jewish denomination (whether overtly Jewish or Crypto-Jewish) has a monopoly on defining Jewish nationality.
Israel is a geographically very small country which cannot conceivably receive all the Crypto-Jewish peoples of the world. If sovereign-indigenous Israel had been the geographic size of Australia then that would certainly had been a different situation. Rather, the political solution is for Crypto-Jewish majority lands to democratically unite with Jerusalem towards the goal of an increasingly, yet cautiously and incrementally integrated federal-democratic Israel and then there will be much greater capacity to receive and absorb immigration of Crypto-Jewish minorities from elsewhere, whether oppressed or not. Zionism is about uniting the Jewish nation through democratic self-determination in statehood and now we very much need a different and new stage in the global democratic movement for universal Jewish national liberation – namely geopolitical Pan-Jewish unification in advanced democracy.
We must understand that the political pathology in much of Crypto-Jewish political mentality is rooted – as once used to be the case for most of Talmudic Jewry as well – in structural self-hatred as manifested in communal slave morality. Yet it must certainly not be overlooked that there is also a more general political pathology in the geographic core of Islamdom – which afflicts both non-Jews and Crypto-Jews.
There is no doubt that Pan-Jewish democratic unification is a process that must be carefully calibrated and indeed very cautiously, gradually considered at many different stages. Most Pan-Jewish peoples are still unprepared for federal-democratic unification precisely because the political mentality must change as well as has already been achieved for most of Talmudic Jewry in relation to other human peoples and nations. A Union of Israel as an intergovernmental organization of regional cooperation will therefore serve as a political vehicle for transitional regional, responsible democratization in majority Crypto-Jewish lands while ensuring increased Pan-Jewish integration on the political path towards an increasingly unified federal-democratic Israel.
Zionism is not about establishing new forms of ethnic/religious domination or inventing denominational hierarchies of ethnic excommunication, but is rather about ending ethnic/religious domination and the distinctively Anti-Jewish practice by religious imperialism of reducing Jews/Crypto-Jews to mere denomination/religion. Yet, Zionism is also about being capable of making very difficult ethical choices in defending liberal-democratic Israel and to safeguard Israel against those very dangerous people from both left and right around the world who seek to discursively re-impose & re-inscribe the sovereign-indigenous Jewish nation into matrices of oppressive, simplistic Master-Slave Morality by means of Anti-Jewish discursive discrimination. Rather, the Zionist revolution is a Nietzschean one in structural opposition to Master-Slave Morality of religious imperialism.
Now, this is a crucial lesson that needs to be internalized by both leaders & politically concerned members of Crypto-Jewish peoples. Understanding how Master-Slave Morality is central to structural suppression through the machinery of religious imperialism against much of the Pan-Jewish nation, is indeed a crucial element in politically preparing for Pan-Jewish democratic unification as is certainly overcoming historically quite understandable religious practices of ethnic excommunication within the Pan-Jewish nation.
Pan-Jewish democratic unification initially also very much requires becoming publically aware of the Crypto-Jewish nature of secretively Pan-Jewish peoples and subsequently freely embrace a long denied ancient-modern Pan-Jewish nationality. Pan-Jewish national re-Judaization will thus involve warmly welcoming back Crypto-Jewish peoples into our big Pan-Jewish universal family of shared ancient-modern Pan-Jewish nationality, by means of striving together towards federal-democratic unification of our shared, yet historically so tragically divided nation.
What is therefore required is real political partnership on equal footing, not only as pertaining to Israel & Talmudic Jewry in relation to the peoples of majority Crypto-Jewish lands & their geographically dispersed Diasporas, but also certainly between Crypto-Jewish peoples. While sovereign-indigenous Israel was reestablished as the homeland for Talmudic Jewry and is already one of the more densely populated nations in the world, this small indigenous, sovereign space is completely insufficient so as to house all Pan-Jewish peoples of the world. Therefore, the successful Israeli democratic model needs to be adopted, adapted and replicated in majority Crypto-Jewish lands around the region and beyond.
The pro-democratic path forward for not only nations of open society, but also for responsible governments seriously aspiring towards responsible development of advanced democracy – is therefore democratic realism as constituting the ethico-political middle road in foreign policy between myopically delusional master morality of cynical “realism” and the no less myopically delusional slave morality of naïve “idealism” as derived from baseless humanist idealization. The democratic interest is not limited to defending existing open societies, but extends to the fundamental universal interest of ensuring, promoting, safeguarding & defending the growth of open society everywhere (especially digitally), including where necessary by symbolically excluding real domestic enemies of open society from its midst.
There is no doubt that if political reality in the short term – as is currently the case in much of Islamdom – necessarily dictates a political choice between democracy and open society; then open society without democracy is certainly vastly preferable to procedural democracy without open society. As regards the Arabophonie, Islamdom and Crypto-Jewish majority lands in our broader region, the responsibly pro-democratic path forward is to first ensure establishment of genuinely pro-democratic open society and only subsequently – once this is in fact successfully achieved – establish truly sovereign democratic procedures. As now increasingly seen in Egypt, tragically premature elections are not only a domestic threat to the growth of open society in nations that unfortunately arrange such tragically premature elections, but may also threaten both established & emerging open societies as has indeed already happened as regards the Gaza region with the military/political takeover there by the Neo-Philistine branch of the global Qutbist Muslim Brotherhood.
Furthermore, the parliamentary jurisdiction of federal-democratic Israel would initially be limited to certain purely economic, civilian matters (without powers of taxation) in addition to an intergovernmental, yet well integrated, mutual military alliance built in the image of NATO along with a closely coordinated foreign policy. With time as Pan-Jewish cultural integration progresses (as is long since increasingly happening within Talmudic Jewry) – would there indeed also be additional, increasingly broadened and deepened federal authority in various different fields of political jurisdiction. Certainly, there would also have to be development of a unified Pan-Jewish civil society. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to understand the necessarily cautious, gradual and careful nature of Pan-Jewish, responsibly pro-democratic unification & cultural integration.
Zionism, the global democratic movement for universal Jewish national liberation is still in its early political stages as the immense future challenges in culturally liberating & democratically uniting the wider Pan-Jewish nation in the broader region is one that is still very much before us.
Obstacles of the Mind
The “one-state” discourse is a mere superficially secularized imperialist desire for at best once more subjugating Jews to renewed Dhimmi status, i.e. legally second-class citizenship in Islamdom (meaning turning Israeli Jews into the local equivalent of Egypt’s Copts).
Not even one officially “bi-national” sovereign state exists in the international community although there are many tolerant nations which like sovereign-indigenous, liberal-democratic Israel are officially bi-idiomatic?
The ancient legal precedent for the indigenous Israeli Samarian unrecognized village of Migron and other indigenous Pan-Jewish communities in the land of Israel – is a political history of three millennia of documented continuous indigenous Pan-Jewish demographic presence throughout the land of Israel. Many contemporary Pan-Jewish communities in the land of Israel generally, (Migron is documented twice in the Hebrew Bible), were already present and well-established in Biblical times. In fact, this very ancient legal precedent of documented indigenous Pan-Jewish demographic presence throughout the land of Israel long predates the emergence of international law. Even the very notion of national sovereignty as articulated first by elite Catholic scholars literate in and knowledgeable of Hebrew & Aramaic rabbinical legal literature and later secularized by the Aufklärer – is indeed genealogically derived from rabbinical legal literature and the very concept of Jewish national sovereignty in the land of Israel. Of course, even the modern basic concept of nationhood is one derived from non-Jewish readings of Hebrew scripture.
Thinking Islam
What is known as “Islam” in the widest possible sense of the word tends to be viewed from the outside within the cultural world of Christendom through the contemporary, simplistic dichotomy of moderation/extremism that is itself so prevalent in Christendom, yet this is an imposed mode of thinking that currently adds little constructive to neither defense against defamation of Muslims as persons, nor to legitimate critique of Muslim civilization.
Rather, the Muslim world with its disparate societal practices and communities are surely not one single phenomenon as are of course not other major religious civilizations either, whether Buddhist, Christian or Hindu. Therefore, the various international phenomena of religious/secular Islam that are found in various parts of the world need to be understood as separate, albeit in various ways interconnected societal phenomena. While I certainly do not pretend to present an exhaustive list in this regard, the following is an introduction to the fact that – to once more paraphrase Luce Irigaray – that the Muslim world and indeed Islam in the widest sense of the word, constitute phenomena that are indeed not one [singular Metaphysical Islam] as both Islamist movements and Anti-Muslim movements indeed would have it. The hierarchy of categories of phenomena of the world of Islam in the sense of what-is-an-example-of-what: also does need to be reconsidered as e.g. hereby initiated:
Anti-body prejudice
Structured societal oppression certainly exists in Muslim civilization as it does in Christian civilization (or for that matter in Buddhist civilization and in Hindu civilization) and hence needs to be rigorously critiqued. After all, how can political freedom, open society and representative government become ethically adapted to and sustainably introduced into Muslim-dominated societies as long as only critique of non-Muslim culture is permitted in the public space of so many Muslim countries? Islamist apologists often xenophobically claim that oppression in Islam is somehow mystically and inherently “non-Muslim”, yet this ignores that syncretism is an integral part of how historical Islam emerged and indeed developed throughout the past fourteen centuries.
Denominationalism
Beyond, but not necessarily exclusive of the four major denominations in Sunni Orthodoxy (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali), there are many heterodox denominations of Islam including Ahmadiyya, Crypto-Jewish denominations, Islamist denominations, Shia denominations and indeed Sufi denominations.
Winning Cold War II
An international military operation should be combined with finally dividing both Afghanistan and Iran and subsequently politically unifying Persian areas of Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. Persian Tajikistan and its current political leadership should thus form an important element of the new federal, political order in a unified Persia on the path towards political freedom, open society and representative government.
It should be kept in mind that Persians of Afghanistan and Tajikistan are predominantly Sunni Muslims unlike most of their fellow Persians in and from the Iranian polity who tend to be Shias.
Aram vs. Iran
The Jewish nationality of Alawis and of Alevis generally is no longer a secret and sovereign Israel is obviously the appropriate political partner for the Crypto-Jewish Alawi community, a relationship which crucially would not be one of domination, but of equality, federalism, incremental civic evolution and gradual, mutually agreed integration.
Jerusalem and Amman should move discreetly to offer legal immunity from prosecution as well as protection of all local economic assets, to those in the Syrian political and military elite who would make every effort to ensure and facilitate the necessary peaceful transition & partition. It would no doubt be preferable if Syria and Grand Liban were to be divided by treaty in an orderly fashion rather than through chaotic disintegration.
The political situation in Syria is particularly complex and it is easy to understand that the Islamist regimes of Ankara, Riyadh and Teheran would want to reintegrate secular Syria once more into their regional Islamist nexus of power. Washington in this and the prior administration has in effect remained rather passive towards the incremental Islamist takeover in the Gaza region, Grand Liban and Turkey. It is hence crucial that Jerusalem, Amman, Brussels and Washington provide credible ironclad, legally binding guarantees that Syrian leaders who play constructive roles in peaceful transition & partition will not be prosecuted and that their properties across Syria will indeed be fully protected post-partition.
This is especially true with regard to influential and prosperous members of Syria’s indigenous Christian community who indeed need to be assured that a state of Aram will be simultaneously established to a partition of Syria and to which they will hold automatic immigration rights while completely protecting all present private and church properties of indigenous Christians in Syria. It is certainly entirely understandable that influential and prosperous Syrian leaders from its Crypto-Jewish Christian communities would indeed be particularly concerned about their future, yet simultaneous partition in both Syria and Grand Liban is ultimately the only way to effectively alleviate these very real concerns. Yet, such important leaders are unlikely to fully cooperate with a peaceful transition & partition in Syria unless they are indeed assured that Grand Liban will be simultaneously partitioned and that a state of Aram is established in which they would be entitled to citizenship by default. Agreed transition in Syria will not work unless prominent leaders from its Christian communities are assured that partition in the two countries will indeed be simultaneous and orderly, that Christians in Syria will not have to face the terrible destiny of their ethnic kin in Iraq and that all property owned by indigenous Christians inside Syria will be fully and completely, legally and physically protected.
Yet, it is precisely the scenarios of disorderly transition that pose a strategic and existential threat to Syria’s Judeo-Christian Aramean indigenous community. The international community needs to understand that this is a matter of personal survival for Syria’s indigenous Arameans and that the policies of America and Europe so far with regard to safeguarding the interests of Christians in the region as well as with regard to the effective European and American tolerance of Islamist takeover throughout West Asia, does not particularly inspire confidence in the stateless people of Aram which is increasingly persecuted and dispersed across the world.
Israel and the Shoah
The Nazis nearly defeated the global grassroots movement for Jewish national liberation, by exterminating most of its members and the vast majority of intended & potential Talmudically Jewish immigrants to Israel. In the absence of Anti-Jewish genocide, Israeli independence & sovereignty would rather have been established in the entire area between the River and the Sea without further national partition, considering the very rapid pace of Jewish immigration to pre-state Israel at the time. While it is true that post-WWII public documentation of Nazi crimes contributed to increased international sympathy for the Jewish nation; Zionism as a popular movement of Jewish national liberation emerged long before the Shoah and had already since the end of WWI enjoyed broad international support for the re-establishment of Jewish self-determination in pre-state Israel.
The official Social Democratic policy in pre-state Israel was in significant political contrast to the profound political realism exhibited by the intellectual leader of the secular liberal camp in pre-state Israel, Ze’ev Jabotinsky and the immense moral clarity of vision of his daring 1936 Evacuation plan for the Jews of Central Europe, a plan which if implemented would have saved millions of Jewish lives but was – despite official Hungarian, Polish and Romanian agreement – so immensely tragically vetoed by the then British imperial government.
The Jewish political leadership in pre-state Israel and the enemies of the Jews at the time were decidedly not aware of the existence of demographically very significant Crypto-Jewish populations in the broader region; a distinct knowledge which would certainly have framed the issue rather differently, including in terms of geopolitics.
Demography is not the problem at present as birth rates are converging and as Israel could in theory welcome millions of practicing Hellenist Crypto-Jews – known among the uninitiated as Alevis – to immigrate to the land of Israel, thus creating a far greater and indeed overwhelming Jewish demographic majority in a combined sovereign Israel plus the entirety of Judea/Samaria.
The key strategic existential issue for Talmudic Jewry is thus not demography in the sense of fearing historical return to vulnerable minority status, making renewed Anti-Jewish persecution & genocide once more a possibility, but rather that it would be distinctly politically unwise for Israeli Jewry to strive to permanently coexist within Israel’s future borders with a demographically very significant Neo-Philistine minority, far too many of whom would almost certainly engage in a Second Shoah were they given the distinct opportunity as reflected in overwhelming Neo-Philistine public support for Jihadist ethnic killing that targets civilian Talmudic Jews generally, including through suicide terrorism.
Geographically minuscule, already established Israel is not nearly as large enough so as to reasonably house all Crypto-Jewish peoples, the demographically larger of whom have their Jewish countries where Crypto-Jewish ethnicities constitute overwhelming regional demographic majorities among local citizens. Conclusive regional partition would in contrast end political discourse on demographic competition which unfortunately serves to fuel Arabist/Islamist/Jihadist hopes of destroying sovereign, indigenous Israel, including in the sense of projecting what is invariably perceived as “Israeli defeatism” by Arabists/Islamists/Jihadists of Islamdom who seek Israel’s destruction.
Despite the Neo-Philistine political rhetoric of time-limited “two-state solution” leading “inevitably” towards “one-state solution”, there is no question that very real PLO strategic fears over a hypothetical political strategic outcome, whereby Israel would annex the entire Judea/Samaria and encourage Crypto-Jewish mass immigration in the millions, is indeed one key strategic factor among others that prompted the 2011 PLO international provocation campaign. Yet, there is no question that properly ensuring end of conflict requires among other things conclusive partition between the two nations in the region, in ways that would mutually minimize minoritization of majority communities between the Jewish nation and the Amian nation. The hypothetical strategic option of Israeli annexation of the entire Judea/Samaria would in contrast if implemented likely serve to strategically perpetuate and severely aggravate this globalized discursive conflict, including most likely through Israeli civil war between Jews and Amians.
Of course, it needs repeating that the Shoah would hardly had happened, at least not at the gargantuan extent it did, had either (a) the British mandatory power not limited Jewish immigration to pre-state Israel in 1939 or (b) had the internationally recognized Jewish national home in pre-state Israel already been independent at the outset of World War II in 1939 and hence fully officially open to every kind of relocation of persecuted Talmudic Jewry to Israel. Yet, this immensely tragic historical Jewish experience crucially teaches us (1) the absolute ethical necessity of (2) ensuring universal emancipation in (3) national self-determination through (4) idiomatic statehood for (5) all human nations including the Dom, Lom and Rom nations.
Aram: Vision and Strategy
Considering that the West Bank of Jordan is rather likely to be conclusively partitioned in September, the Arameans and other Crypto-Jewish ethnicities of Grand Liban should look at parallel political opportunities so as similarly and simultaneously with a conclusive Israeli partition of the West Bank of Jordan also divide Grand Liban between Jordan and a free Aram. Alawi communities, including nominally Sunni, yet still Crypto-Alawi communities in the north of Grand Liban should instead become annexed to a free, new Alawi state to the north. Even if the September brouhaha is ultimately cancelled by Ramallah, this is still a suitable time for conclusive and peaceful partition of that misguided French colonial construction originally known as Grand Liban.
The ancient-modern Aramaic idiom is one that brings together contemporary Crypto-Jewish Arameans with Talmudic Jews, considering that the Talmud is largely written in Aramaic. The Aramaic Kaddish prayer is in its various versions the by far the most commonly recited prayer in rabbinical liturgy. Modern Aramaic is still spoken among the Talmudic Jewish communities of Kurdistan and Iranian Azerbaijan whose members now mostly live in Israel. Indeed, Aramaic used to be natively spoken among many more West Asian Talmudic Jewish communities and the Judean idiom (a very distinct Semitic idiom usually known under the historical misnomer of “Judeo-Arabic”) is very strongly influenced by both Aramaic and Hebrew in a great many aspects.
Aramaic Christians, Mandeans and some Muslims have retained the Aramaic idiom to various degrees, yet both Aramaic Christians and Greek rite communities in the region do belong to Crypto-Jewish ethnicities and even those communities that traditionally use Greek rather than Aramaic in their liturgy were indeed Aramean-speakers before being Amianized under Muslim rule. The Crypto-Jewish Druze community similarly also spoke Aramaic before becoming idiomatically Amianized. The respective Druze and Greek rite communities of Lebanon & Anti-Lebanon, would therefore as neighboring Crypto-Jewish communities, be fully welcome to join a free Aram, their respective historical/political dissimulation and grandstanding notwithstanding. Members of Greek-rite ethnic units of the region should thus have the same immigration rights to Aram as should indeed the Aramaic Christians and the Aramaic Mandeans. In addition, there is also some neighboring, nominally Muslim, Crypto-Jewish communities in the area that should indeed also be quite welcome to join Aram. It needs repeating that a free Aram and other federal subjects of a new federal Israel would for as long as the citizens of a state so prefer or deem necessary, each retain their own distinct state citizenship and control over their own state borders, including full control over international immigration and intra-federal migration while focusing on economic, military and intellectual integration within and among the constituent states of an emerging, new, free, federal Israel with Jerusalem as its federal capital.
Syria’s main Crypto-Jewish regions of Alawis, Druze, Ismailis and Kurds, together with some Aramean and Greek rite areas are to be expected to take the political opportunity to secede following the end of the present Syrian form of government. Indeed, the Druze people should have their own titular immigration rights to a reestablished free Druze state in the Druze Mountain region in present southern Syria as should the Alawis, Syrian Ismailis and Kurds to their respective Israelite states.
Yet, the Druze of the Chouf & Anti-Lebanon regions should be made to feel no less welcome in a free Aram than do the Israeli Druze in sovereign Israel. All young citizens of a free Aram should indeed be educated through the ancient-modern Aramaic idiom which means that many Greek-rite areas and Druze areas of Lebanon & Anti-Lebanon would become an intrinsic part of the Aramean people by means of both Aramean citizenship and Aramaic state-financed general education pertaining to a rich cultural, idiomatic and historical heritage which is indeed theirs as well.
An Ismaili state in the Syrian Salamiyah region and a Druze state in the Syrian south should each be territorially contiguous with Aram through territorial intersections through the desert as completely voluntary member states of a new federal Israel and the Aramean part of the Syrian Desert will indeed be badly needed territory for millions of Aramean (including many Near Eastern Greek rite) immigrants to Aram. September presents indeed an opportune time for conclusive partition between Israel and Jordan with regard to the Palestinian dispute, yet also so with respect to national partition simultaneously in neighboring Grand Liban as well as increasingly likely so in Syria too. The parliamentary representatives of the Crypto-Jewish ethnicities of Grand Liban should therefore take this strategic opportunity for peaceful partition which this September and their own parliamentary majority status present. Amians of Grand Liban (and indeed of Syria) are invited to join a new Jordanian-led Amian federation with their own self-governing federal subjects, just as predominantly Crypto-Jewish territories are invited to join sovereign Israel as part of a new Israeli federation.
However, if the Iranian polity and its military proxies in the region were indeed to be instructed by Teheran to engage in military aggression and even attempted genocide so as to prevent mutually peaceful partition between Amians and Jews/Crypto-Jews, both here and there, similar to what was indeed attempted against the Jews of Israel in 1948, then that would indeed be quite regrettable. The Amian Shia community of Grand Liban would be rather well-advised to view this as a beneficial, political opportunity to achieve national unification and official regional self-government for ethnically Shia Amians as part of a unified federal Amistan under royal Jordanian leadership on the path to political freedom and representative government. As native speakers of the great Amian idiom, the Shia community of Grand Liban speaks natively neither Persian, nor the long-since dead Arabic. Breaking free from Iran’s colonialism and imperialism is surely not easy, yet this is the only reasonable option for the Shia community of Grand Liban, although mere reason in and of itself is certainly not a guarantee of peace and peaceful partition.
The Iranian polity’s tyrannical, yet highly secretive, clerical deep state would therefore be extremely well advised to carefully make sure not to select the path of imperialist aggression against the broader Jewish nation, whether against Israel, against Kurdistan, within Grand Liban or indeed elsewhere such as against the US Jewish community.
Solidarity among Democracies
One important contributing reason why economic development was for so long held up in virtually all Roman-speaking (Spanish-Portuguese-Italian etc.) countries in the Western Hemisphere, was the existing geopolitical fragmentation within the Roman-speaking world that has indeed been in place since the 19th century. Yet, the young democracies of the Western Hemisphere have discovered the significant political and economic dividend of solidarity among democracies as devoted to political freedom, open society and representative government.
Much like liberal democracy was denied in Roman-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere throughout the Cold War with Communism, due to the fear that Communists would take over power, so has liberal democracy been denied in countries of Islamdom on account of similar fear that Islamists would indeed take over power as part of the ongoing Cold War with Islamism. The degree to which these fears had or has justification, varied and varies of course from country to country, yet the Roman-speaking world knows that transition to liberal democracy is by no means easy.
Considering the tragic experience with dictatorship in the Roman-speaking world, it is particularly disappointing that the Islamist Nexus and its brutal, dictatorial proxy in Ramallah, indeed managed to coerce many Roman-speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere with direct and indirect threats of both Iranian-sponsored terrorism and Saudi-sponsored terrorism, so as to force them to side with unwarranted tyranny against the liberal-democratic, sovereign indigenous Jewish nation of Israel. Yet, this seeming weakness is part of a structural, discursive pattern of toleration of semiotic mistreatment of indigenous nations in Roman-speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The ethical shortcoming and indeed serious strategic error vis-à-vis the existential conflict in the Middle East earlier this year; distinct mistakes which were indeed committed by governments of many Roman-speaking countries through official endorsement of provocation paperhood – should hence be corrected as part of a wider acknowledgement of the entitlement to indivisible self-determination of indigenous nations generally, including for indigenous Israelis on both sides of historical ceasefire lines of distant past as both Israel and the Judea and Samaria mountain range of the West Bank of Jordan, in addition to other parts of the region, do need to be conclusively re-partitioned between the two nations of Israel and Amistan. It is of course often far too easy to trample on the entitlement to self-determination of indigenous nations, yet governments of Roman-speaking countries should internalize that there is in fact no contradiction between democratic unity & solidarity among Roman-speaking democracies and the granting of self-determination to indigenous nations.
Israel is different from most other semiotically oppressed, indigenous nations in the sense that Israel is an independent liberal democracy, yet the fact is that Israel is trampled on in ways very akin indeed to how many other indigenous nations are systematically semiotically mistreated and how their entitlement to self-determination is denied, including by de facto policies of enforced idiomatic & religious assimilation as under both Muslim and Christian imperialism.
While Israel supports self-determination for Amians: the PLO specifically and the Nexus generally are explicitly opposed to indigenous Jewish self-determination in Israel and this distinctly discriminatory pattern of discourse is indeed very similar to how many other indigenous nations are denied self-determination.
The PLO scheme of initially expelling 500 000 indigenous Israelis will never materialize, yet to lend support to provocation paperhood, directly or indirectly towards this distinctly unethical end, will unfortunately only serve to aggravate and perpetuate, rather than ending the very existential opposition to indigenous Jewish self-determination in Israel that underlies this very existential conflict. Modern history shows amply that external Anti-Israel meddling in the conflict over our very demographic existence specifically and generally: does indeed perpetuate and severely aggravate the conflict and promotes permanent strategic instability as does unilateral Israeli territorial concessions to parties committed to undoing indigenous Jewish self-determination in Israel. While the Western Hemisphere may seem safe and far away from the permanent strategic turmoil that is continually generated by the Islamist nexus and its proxies, this is a distinctly false confidence as experienced with the Iranian attacks against Argentina in 1992 and 1994 and with the Saudi attacks against the US in 2001. Yet, giving in to direct and indirect threats of terrorism from the Nexus and its proxies around the world by (1) undermining open society and (2) obeying the dictates of the Islamist Nexus, will only further harm the common interests that all democracies share and cherish – in addition to increasingly bring further international subservience of Arabist/Islamist imperialism.
This is no doubt a particularly appropriate occasion to say no to religious/ideological imperialism, be it religious or secular, Muslim or Christian or indeed otherwise and support unity in sovereignty for every idiomatic nation, including for the people of Israel and for our Amian neighbors.
Rethinking Turkey’s Future
Anyone who has ever slightly reviewed the wide rural geographic distribution of Crypto-Jewish Alevi villages throughout most of the Republic of Turkey and is at least superficially aware of their long secretive Crypto-Jewish nationality – understands well that ethnic Turks generally like ethnic Kurds generally, like ethnic Lurs generally and like ethnic Albanians generally do indeed constitute a distinct Crypto-Jewish ethnicity of their own. The historically rather successful, yet esoteric Alevi religious dissimulation permitted Alevi communities when so needed to pose as Christians under Byzantine rule and later as Muslims under Muslim rule, while throughout both historical periods accepting converts in rather large numbers to Alevism which is of course the Crypto-Jewish continuation of ancient Hellenist Judaism. There were always significant demographic back and forth flows between Alevi Hellenist Judaism (including the Bektashi denomination) and the respective official denomination of the reigning religious imperialism of the time.
Map depicting rural distribution of overtly Alevi villages, areas and regions with rural overt Alawis shown in purple and other rural overt Alevis shown in red.
Hostile Kemalist/Islamist regime awareness of this rich cultural heritage made the current Islamist regime and the Kemalist regime that preceded it particularly receptive to Anti-Jewish conspiracy theories with Turkey usually portrayed as the center of universe. The fact is that most citizens of Turkey are rather friendly towards Israel when speaking strictly off the record as opinion polls in brutal dictatorships such as Turkey are not exactly reliable, yet the widespread identification with sovereign, indigenous Israel has become an increasingly strong societal taboo under this Islamist regime as the Crypto-Jewish ethnicities of Kurds and Turks alike and their shared Crypto-Jewish nationality, in Ankara’s paranoid weltanschauung is projectively considered an “existential threat” to Turkish statehood. The deliberate state-sponsored diffusion of hatred has systematically taken place due to a conscious policy by this regime to promote Anti-Jewish hatred in Turkey’s neither free nor independent mass media.
While Turkey’s military is increasingly sincerely supportive of establishment of liberal democracy, Turkey’s high-ranking officers have indeed failed to act resolutely against what is effectively Turkey’s own tragic version of 1933.
Jerusalem must not be defensive of or apologetic about its relations with Turkey and its constituent peoples but should rather publically embrace Turkey’s predominantly Crypto-Jewish, yet multiethnic society and its various Crypto-Jewish denominations, including Alawis, Alevis, Yezids, the Dönmeh and the Christian Arameans. While Turkey’s Talmudic Jewish community increasingly lives in constant and acute existential fear for Islamist persecution. The brave among them do need to overcome these pervasive fears that are due to regime Islamist stigmatization by their own government - before the Talmudic Jews of Turkey literally lose everything – and instead become Turkish intellectual leaders in bringing about significant civic change in Kurdistan and Turkey by aligning with the full range of the Crypto-Jewish ethnic mosaic that constitutes most of the citizenry of the Republic of Turkey. While Kurds, Lurs and Albanians do indeed constitute Crypto-Jewish ethnicities, so do ethnic Turks no less. The Turkish oppression of the Kurds is a mere remnant of Constantinople’s Ottoman imperialist domination and there is no acceptable reason why one Crypto-Jewish ethnicity should deny self-determination to another. Rather, Turkey should proudly reclaim its Crypto-Jewish nationality and Hellenist Jewish heritage and together with other significant Crypto-Jewish territorial units across the broader region, join an emerging federal Israel in which Turkey would constitute a very important part.
The slave regime in Ankara should indeed commence its equivalence of a walk to Canossa by acknowledging and expressing its profound sorrow for the culturally continuous and culturally seemingly never-ending genocides committed since 1914 and onwards against Arameans, against Armenians, against Kurds (including against Zaza-speakers) and against Pontian/Anatolian Greek-rite Christians, considering that the Turkish republic never really ended its policy of ethnocide and enforced brutal assimilation against ethnic minorities, including against Alevis and against the Zan (Mingrelian and Laz) people. Furthermore, the Islamist Slaves of Ankara should apologize for their shameless political support for Jihadist terrorist organizations as well as for engaging in state-sponsored Nazi-style deliberate mass diffusion of Anti-Jewish prejudice, including against Turkey’s Crypto-Jewish Dönmeh ethnicity.
Turkey has never had a better friend than Israel as the Masters of Riyadh and their Slaves in Ankara are keenly aware that Turkish integration with Israel combined with embrace of Turkey’s ancient-modern Jewish nationality that is shared in crypto-form by the Crypto-Jewish ethnicities that make up most of Turkey’s citizenry – as opposed to further integration within the regional Islamist nexus – are indeed pivotal for ensuring establishment of wide-ranging political freedom in Kurdistan and Turkey as well as self-determination for all.
Rethinking Jewish Ethnicity
The doctrinal differences between various Talmudically Jewish denominations have, in contrast to what is usually claimed and what is usually assumed, much less to do with disputes over metaphysics than with differing vertical, denominational social community strategies that are continually rearticulated in response to a changing modernity and its developing technologies. Diaspora Talmudic Jews were historically spatially defined in terms of geography of residence and rabbinical leaders of each spatial community were committed to develop textual and legal interpretation in ways that would be strategically conducive to the survival of their own specific, geographically defined, local or regional, Talmudic spatial community, something which often allowed considerable legal flexibility for local rabbis in the continual reinterpretation and adjudication of rabbinical law. With the historical emancipation of Jewish minorities in many countries, Talmudic Diaspora Jews came to be more defined by new emerging vertical, parallel global denominational communities rather than spatial judicial communities. The different community strategies of various global, vertical Talmudic denominations thus have less to do with doctrinal differences than with cultural differences in terms of how to successfully relate to surrounding religious imperialism and its invasive brands of metaphysics whether “religious” or “secular.”
The religious leaders of Crypto-Jewish Secret Judaism (in Kurdistan etc.) had to be similarly religiously and politically flexible so as to ensure the survival and wellbeing of their communities and ethnicities. Both Talmudic Judaism and Secret Judaism have quite understandably been historically committed to ensure ethnic survival of their own ethnicities rather than shared global, Jewish national interests. This was supposed to change with Zionism, yet so many “faith-based”, vertical, denominational Jewish community leaders have persisted in privileging denominational vertical community interests in elaboration of rabbinical jurisprudence over Jewish national interests more broadly. Reform and Orthodox leaders thus do not understand how they mutually harm each other’s vertical community by means of narrow and myopic denominational policies.
The Jewish nation is one that is culturally, ethnically, religiously and genetically diverse, yet traditional and ethnic Jewish community leaders need to find ways to not only ensure the future and wellbeing of their own spatial and vertical communities, but that of the Jewish nation generally considering the significant enmity faced by sovereign Israel and many Jewish and Crypto-Jewish ethnicities outside of Israel. Ethnic and denominational community leaders of the Jewish nation more broadly thus need to defend their ethnic community interests in ways that also serve to aid the survival, wellbeing and future of the broader Jewish nation generally. How is it e.g. possible that Israel and Grand Liban have been formally at war since 1948 despite Grand Liban having had a considerable Crypto-Jewish parliamentary majority since its inception in 1920 and especially so considering that Grand Liban long remained demographically majority Crypto-Jewish?
While Israel will need to significantly commit to defend the interests of Crypto-Jewish ethnicities outside of sovereign Israel, Crypto-Jewish ethnicities will in turn need to closely align their respective political strategies with those of sovereign Israel – leading to a unified federal Israel. Bringing together sovereign Israel and Secret Israel politically towards a federal Israel thus requires significant policy changes among the various concerned governments and community leaders, including in sovereign Israel. It is not merely that Sovereign Israel and Secret Israel will need to work closer together, but also that Crypto-Jewish ethnicities (such as those that form a significant majority of deputies in the parliament of Grand Liban) will need to learn to work closely and constructively together, between themselves across denominational and ethnic boundaries to the benefit of the shared global, national interest of a broader unified nation of Israel.
The coming of modernity made rabbinical leaders feel a distinct need to formally determine which aspects of modernity that should be embraced, indirectly meaning also a determination of what aspects of traditional Talmudic culture that should thus be retained. The common understanding among religious Talmudic Jews has long been that one Talmudic denomination is metaphysically right and the others metaphysically wrong in this regard. Yet, few religious Talmudic Jews have considered that the strategic responses of Talmudic denominations generally to modernity may all be more or less wrong. Indeed, these decisions were largely made in relation to an invasive Christian cultural norm as part of inter-denominational competition and angry, unhelpful sectarian rhetoric between the emerging Talmudic denominations.
The entire contemporary rabbinical spectrum tends to share the view that what is foremost valuable and worthy of retaining in traditional Jewish Talmudic culture is its metaphysics. Yet, metaphysics in globalized ideology/religion, no less so in “secularity” than in “religion”, tends to constitute a form of intrinsic prejudice that is hardly worthy of perpetuation. This does not mean that everything metaphysical in ideology/religion is bad. Considering that so many aspects of Talmudic Jewish culture have been sacrificed, this question needs to be revisited to once more consider what is indeed valuable and important in Jewish culture:
Learning multiple and disparate, yet profound and advanced modes of reading not limited to Jewish canonical literature, needs to be recognized once more as both the historical and future basis of Jewish culture. Critical theory, including deconstruction is a fundamentally Jewish endeavor and the current common prevalence of structural Anti-Jewish prejudice in critical theory makes it even more essential for Jews generally to make close text study – of texts generally – the central and defining focus of Jewish culture. While Strictly Orthodox Jews have all along understood and affirmed the cultural centrality of text study in Jewish culture, this needs to be recognized and reaffirmed by other Jewish denominational community leaders as well.
One of the things that were deliberately abandoned with the coming of modernity was the use of Jewish idioms within Talmudic Diaspora Jewish communities. One of the things that are indeed needed in fulfilling the Zionist revolution is for Jews and Jewish communities globally, even outside of Israel, to become either bi-idiomatic or multi-idiomatic by reclaiming the Hebrew idiom as the restored shared idiom of the entire people of Israel, not as a replacement to but in addition to other community idioms. Yet, this certainly requires adopting successful and proven educational frameworks and methods in this regard and indeed doing so on a global scale. Ensuring effective Hebrew education for Diaspora pupils should indeed be the first step towards making possible, demographically significant aliyah by choice.
While Israel’s enemies tell Israelis that Jewish genetic heritage is something to be ashamed of, Jewish and non-Jewish genes that facilitate emergence of special skills should not only be celebrated but freely and generously shared with other nations. This requires of course no longer accepting the Nazi and Arabist stigmatization of Jewish genetic heritage. There is not necessarily any connection between cognitive excellence and supremacism as is widely and indeed counter-factually assumed.
Thinking Islam
Ethnicity
While the universal community of Muslims generally or Ummah, contrary to Islamist claims, certainly do not constitute one single universal ethnicity or for that matter one single universal nationality (as do in contrast Jews), many Heterodox (Shia and other) Muslim communities tend to have ethnicities that are distinct from those of other Muslim neighbors speaking the same idioms. There are also ethno-religious groups where distinctly Muslim ethnicity distinguishes Muslims from non-Muslim neighbors speaking the same idioms such as with the Tigrinya-speaking Jebartis and the South-Slavic-speaking Bosniaks and Pomaks. Muslim sectarian identity is also part of ethnic identity for many predominantly Muslim ethnicities. In addition, there are various Crypto-Jewish ethnicities that to various degrees may associate themselves with Muslim religious practices.
Imperialism
Islam did historically mostly spread following Muslim territorial conquests, mostly by Muslim imperialism, coupled with subsequent economic incentives, whereby conversion to Islam was induced by means of tax breaks for Muslims only, including for those who converted to Islam. While Islamism and Jihadism are imperialist, so is Arabism as well as it negates all ethnicities, nationalities and natively spoken idioms in its geopolitical realm of claim, the closest political parallel in this regard being historical State Nazism. All these three forms of contemporary Muslim imperialism are characterized by structural Anti-Jewish Judeocentrism, a distinctive discursive practice, historically derived from Christianity and Christendom.
Islamism
Contemporary Islamism is a mixture of traditional public, political aspects of Islam and European modernity. Virtually all Muslim states were ruled through Sharia prior to modernity and Secular/Christian imperialism. An important difference between Sunni Islamists and Twelver Shia Islamists is that while Sunni Islamists are monarchists seeking to establish a global Caliphate that rules every country through Sharia, Twelver Shia Islamists are republicans who seek to extend Iran’s Sharia republican political system to every other country. Islamism is similar to other universal, modern, political, imperialist ideologies in the sense that it seeks to impose its ideas on everyone else and indeed everywhere, even in absence of consent of those locally concerned. Yet, Islamism, both Shia and Sunni, is strongly influenced by European Communism and European Nazism. Forms of Islamism have indeed become nationally normative Islam in some countries such as with regard to the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and Wahhabism in the Saudi polity.
Jihadism
Jihadism is constituted by acts of war, terrorism and/or genocide on the part of military Jihad to primarily further Islamic political interests. This does not mean however, that just any Muslim religious endorsement of particular armed efforts, makes these efforts intrinsically Jihadist. There are the Jihadists who (1) direct or personally engage in military Jihad (the minority in Jihadism) and there are those who (2) support/endorse them religiously, ideologically, politically and/or financially (the majority in Jihadism.) While Jihadism is not limited to Islamists, contemporary armed Jihadism is in practice the armed wing of contemporary Islamism, seeking to impose Sharia rule in every jurisdiction on this planet through the use of arms and in many cases Marxist-style and Nazi-style political rhetoric. The only significant, contemporary example of non-Islamist, armed Jihadism is constituted by the suicide wing of the Neo-Philistine, Arabist Fatah; the Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades which is certainly Jihadist, yet not Islamist.
Orthodoxy
The highly conservative Sunni Orthodoxy is much less authoritative in the world of Islam than commonly assumed, as variously heterodox denominations (including Sufi denominations and Islamist denominations) in fact make up most of World Islam and hence the acute vulnerability for Islamist takeover within Orthodoxy.
Sufism
Sufism (tasawwuf) is the predominant form of Muslim religion in most Muslim countries. Sufism is mostly constituted by male-only denominations that practice esotericism and syncretism through mostly global Sufi denominations. Sufi meditation (Dhikr) through recital of Quranic and other sacralized words and sentences remains central to Sufism in addition to practices specific to particular Sufi orders and cultural regions. While there are Islamist Sufis, especially in and from Pakistan (including prominently in the UK); Arabist Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Wahhabis do tend to be extremely hostile towards Sufism, as Sufism is even prohibited in the Arabist-Islamist, Saudi polity.
Traditionalism
Most urbanized, practicing Muslims around the world pray in mosques once a week, in often large so called Friday Mosques. Practicing Muslims tend to have – as do practicing members of other traditional religions – a highly idealized identification with their particular traditional religion and hence the gap between how Muslims and non-Muslims perceive the various, disparate, heterogeneous social practices known under the rubric of “Islam.” While practicing Muslims tend to be communitarians and do tend to warmly perceive Islam as itself constituting communitarianism: interested or concerned non-Muslims do tend to be concerned with Islamism, Jihadism and Muslim imperialism generally since these are very real Muslim world social phenomena that negatively affect non-Muslims generally through non-defensive, armed aggression and institutionalized discrimination and subjugation of non-Muslims in Islamist polities.
Towards open society through deconstruction:
Sustainably bringing political freedom, open society and representative government to the Muslim world generally will indeed require making the crucial, public distinction between critique of Muslim civilization and prejudice against Muslims as persons. Responsible, ethical critique of civilization is indeed a crucial element in open societies. It is not merely that the very phantasmatic entity of metaphysical Islam needs to be either wholesale “opposed by everyone” or wholesale “endorsed by everyone” as indeed assumed and advocated by Anti-Muslim movements and Islamist movements respectively, but it is moreover unethical Muslim metaphysics in Secular/Muslim civilization that do need to be critiqued and deconstructed in ways distinctly transformative: just as deconstruction currently remains primarily a transformative, yet highly critical critique of unethical Christian metaphysics in Secular/Christian civilization.
Indeed, political deconstruction is no less ethically required with regard to Muslim civilization (or for that matter Buddhist civilization and Hindu civilization) than it is indeed for Christian civilization. Transformative critique and deconstruction of religiously derived unethical metaphysics in Muslim civilization would not merely be a certain kind of anti-thesis of Islamism (as it certainly would be) and hence needs indeed to be strategically mobilized in the ongoing Cold War with the Islamist nexus, in the sense as offering an interesting and indeed highly attractive and intellectually profound alternative to Muslim religious imperialism for young presumptive intellectuals who question ideological and religious authorities of various kinds in the Muslim world and beyond.
Greater Middle East
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Ethno-cultural maps of the Middle East
Here is an ethnic map of the Middle East: in this map the Druzes are not classified as Arabic, nor the Christians...
Every religious group in the Middle East is an ethnic group because they only married within the group:
http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Levant_Ethnicity_lg.jpg (don't forget to read the explanations)
This other map is the traditional ethnic map of the Middle East:
http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Mid_East_Ethnic_lg.png Cultural map: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/MidEast_Cultural_Historical_Zones_lg.jpg
Religious map: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Mid_East_Religion_lg.png Ethnic Syria: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Syria_Ethnic_Detailed_lg.png Ethnic Greater Syria 1935: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Syria_Ethnic_1935_lg.png
World map in pink non-muslim areas: http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/images/maps/Islamic_World_Basic_lg.png
Habbani Jews
If the belief of non-Mormons & Mormons for which Amerindians are Israelites is true, & if the Cuban capital, La Habana, is an Amerindian name, then it could be related to this Yemenite area populated for a long time by Israelites. The personages of the Book of Mormon crossed & stopped in southern Arabia for several years. It wouldn't be surprising, after all yemen has been a Jewish state (kingdom of Hymiar) & it has attracted jews & had strong relations with the Israelite kingdoms of Canaan. Even today despite their Muslim religion, most Yemenis have the Israelite Cohen gene.
The Habbani Jews (Hebrew: חַבָאנִים, Standard: Habbanim) are a Jewish tribal group of Yemenite Jews from the Habban region in eastern Yemen (in modern Shabwah Governorate). The city of Habban had a Jewish community of 450 in 1947, which was considered to possibly be the remains of a larger community which lived in independently in the region before its decline in the 6th century. The Jewish community of Habban disappeared from the map of the Hadramut, in southeast Yemen, with the immagration of all of its members to Israel in the 1950s.
There are several legends that place Israelites in Arabia as early as the First Commonwealth of Israel. One such legend has three divisions of Israelite soldiers being sent by either King David or King Solomon while another places the earliest migration just prior to the destruction of the First Temple. Yet another legend, shared with northern Yemenite Jews, states that under the prophet Jeremiah some 75,000 Israelites, including priests and Levites, traveled to Yemen. The Jews of southern Yemen have a legend that they are the descendants of Judeans who settled in the area before the destruction of the Second Temple. According to tradition, those Judeans belonged to a brigade dispatched by King Herod to assist the Roman legions fighting in the region.
Chaibar and Yathrib were two Jewish communities in Arabia that initially maintained a measure of independence. The Jews shared Yathrib with two Arab clans that who were sometimes friendly and other times quite hostile. According to legend, the Jews of Chaibar were descended from the Rechabites who, under clan founder Yonadab ben Rechav, led a nomadic existence. Following the destruction of First Temple, they wandered as far as the region of Chaibar, drawn to it by its oasis of palm trees and grain fields. The oasis was strategically located on the Arabian route up to Israel and Syria, ninety miles north of Medina. The Rechabite warriors of Chabibar built a line of forts and castles with the strongest of them being Kamus, built atop an inaccessible cliff.
Benjamin de Tudela was one of the most celebrated Jews & one of the most celebrated Navarrese (Born in Tudela, Navarre, an ancient kingdom in northern Spain)Between 1165 to 1117 Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela traveled through Arabia arriving as far south as Eden. According to Tudela's travel log he found an independent Jewish warrior tribe living in several mountainous areas near the district of Tehama in Yemen. He noted that this group of Jews were at times in armed combat with various north African tribes and also had contact with Jewish communities in Persia and Egypt.
Local Yemenite accounts place the establishment of a substantial Jewish presence in Southern Yemen after the Himyar tribe accepted Judaism, approximately 100 C.E. According to Habbani Jewish sources Jewish migrants, traveling south from Saudi Arabia, first settled in an area known as "Ilmarkh" (אלמרך) near a mountain known as Ishav (אשב) which is 10 km east from the city of Habban. The area, once known as Mount "Da'ah" (הר דעה), was said to have once been the seat of a Jewish rulership that may have also been connected to the Himyar tribe.
The major clans of the Habbani were the al Adani, Doh, Hillel, Maifa'i, Ma'tuf, Shamakh, Bah'quer (Baquer, Baqué, Baquero... are considered to be Sephardi last names, so there might be a relation between both) and D'gurkash,. All but the last two exist in Israel today. They did not have Kohen or Levites among them. Their traditional occupations included silversmiths, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, and making household utensils, and the men particularly engaged in long-distance trading.
In the 16th century, thanks to the advice of a Habbani Jew Suleman the Wise, the Jews received a special quarter of Habban. And in the late 17th century, a severe drought hit Habban, resulting in considerable demographic changes. Habbani families came under intense pressure to reproduce to help repopulate the community, despite an acute shortage of women. But the most significant impact of the drought was an large-scale exodus of Habbani Jews across Yemen and far beyond.
The drought of the 1700s decimated the Habbani. The Bah'quer and D'gurkash clans specifically left the valley to seek sustenance for their families. They traveled all the way to India, but when they returned they found that most of their families had died from starvation. They left Yemen again to travel on the Indian Ocean, settling in India and East Africa along typical Hadhrami settlement routes, finding work as mercenaries for the Nizam, the Mughal emperors and the Al Said. Most of these tribes assimilated into local populations, adopting the surnames of their patrons. The remaining Habbani tribes in Yemen of al Adani, Doh, Hillel, Maifa'i, Ma'tuf and Shamakh, were reduced to 1-4 adult males each and their families. The entire Habbani Jewish population was estimated to be no more than 50 people at the end of the 18th century.
The Jews of Habban, though isolated from the majority of Yemenite Jewish communities, were able to maintain various levels of contact with larger Jewish populations in the north and shared in many of their common traits. They possessed religious texts such as the Talmud, Mishnah Torah, Shulkhan Arukh, and Duties of the Heart. Yet, the Jews of Habban also developed their own traditions and customs which made them distinct.
Upon emigration to Israel, the Jews of Habban did not possess many written texts due to a number of factors such as constant travel of men from their communities as well as the theft of their exisitng texts. In order to bridge the gap Rabbi Shalom Yitzhaq Maatuf Doh compiled a prayer book based on the traditions from Habban, in addition to the traditions of both Baladi and Shami Yemenite communities as well. He did not live to see the first printing of his siddur, but the work was completed by his sons and his son-in-law Avner Maatuf.
Population shortages could result in marriages outside of traditional family lines. Around the mid-1800s, one Habbani man from the al-Adani clan whose wife had died married a woman from al-Bedhani. The woman allegedly seduced and married a non-Jewish neighbor, and the ensuing backlash resulted in the family moving to Dathina, never to return. Although intermittent persecution did occur, the biggest threat to Habbani Jews during this time was conversion (The Jewish origin of Yemeni Muslims is reinforced by the fact that throughout Yemeni history from the very beginning to more recent times Jews have joined Islam & other religions in mass. DNA also supports the Israelite origin of Moslem Yemenis.) due to assimilation. During the great famine of 1724, 700 Jews voluntarily converted to Islam to receive greater food rations. Despite the lack of forced conversions, Habbani Jews also converted to Islam to improve their social status, to pursue romantic affairs, and when seeking refuge due to internal feuds.
An example of these types of feuds was an inheritance dispute in the 1930s between the daughters of a man with no sons resulted in one line of the lineage migrating to Aden and avoided conversion, and them migrated to the Palestine Mandate.
Several weeks before Pesah Jews in Habban would begin with preparations such as whitewashing the walls of their homes using a stone known in Arabic as a (קטאט) "Qtat" which had been melted in water and would give the color white. Special utinsils, such as pots(אלטסות) "Iltsut", kettles (אלדלל) "Ildelal", and serving plates (אלתחון), which were specifically used only on Pesah were brought out and set aside.
A special breakfast meal was prepared on Shavout with a type of pastry known as (מעצובה) "Mi'tzubah" served with honey and fried butter which symolized the Torah being like honey and milk. This was based on the section of Psalms 19:11 which states: "and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb."
After breakfast they had a tradition of pouring water on each other as symbol of the people of Israel receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai with the water being symbolic of the Torah, based on Isaiah 55:1 which states, "all who are thirsty come for water." The first to start this tradition was Mori Yitzhaq ben Salem who would pour drops of water into his hands from a can say, "I threw pure water on you and it purifies you from all of your impurities," from Ezikiel 36:25.
In 1912 Zionist emissary Shmuel Yavne'eli came into contact with Habbani Jews who ransomed him when he was captured and robbed by eight Bedouin in southern Yemen. Yavnieli wrote about the Jews of Habban describing them in the following way.
The Jews in these parts are held in high esteem by everyone in Yemen and Aden. They are said to be courageous, always with their weapons and wild long hair, and the names of their towns are mentioned by the Jews of Yemen with great admiration.
According to Rabbi Yoseph Maghori-Kohen:
The Habbanis were mighty heroes. I heard a lot from elders in my youth about the Habbanis, about their wars, how they would fight ‘according to names’. What does it mean ‘according to names’? –the letters: They would make the shape of the [Hebrew] letters with their hands, and by this they would be victorious. Also the Shar`abim–from the city of Shar`ab–were strong, but not to the same degree as the Habbanis. Once in Yemen there was a wild tribe of murderous Arab warriors that conquered town after town, slaughtering whomever they found. Thus they moved forward from settlement to settlement: killing, destroying–may their names by blotted out–until they approached a city of Jews, 13,000 Jews roughly. Everyone felt hopeless-even the Arabs among them put up their hands, searching for a place to escape. Suddenly ten [Jewish] Habbanis arrived and waged war with them–ten against a thousand–and vanquished all of them. Not even one of those warriors was left alive, and not one of the ten fell.
Yavne'eli indicated that in 1911 there were only 60 Jewish families left in Habban. Bin Ibrahim Habbani, who was born in Habban and emigrated to Israel in 1945, indicated there were 700 Jews in Hadhramaut, 450 of which were in Habban.
Habbani Jews were extremely reluctant to migrate to Israel, citing their good relations with their neighbors. In 1945, a Habbani Jew claimed to be the Messiah, gathering both a Jewish and Muslim following from Hadhramaut and made his way to Beihar. He became known for his pomp and extravagance, decorating his horse's saddle with gold and silver. Following a large battle where the alleged Messiah and his followers were vanquished, tensions between some of the Muslim rulers and the Jewish communities were accentuated. Some Habbani Jews blamed activities and letters by the Jewish Agency of aggravating tensions further.
After 1948, small numbers of Habbani Jews made their way to Aden, sometimes fighting hostile Arab tribes along the way. From there they were airlifted en masse to Israel as part of Operation Flying Carpet.
The vanguard of the Habbani Jews was led by Zecharyah Habbani who kept after the officials in charge of immagration to accelerate the transfer of the Jews from the Hadramaut to the Land of Israel. They are in dere distress," he reported. "They are suffering from hunger and from the edicts of Hussein Abdallah of Habban and his sons. They are also in debt to the Moslems, who charge them exorbiant rates of interest." The Jewish Agency took action, and few families left the Hadramaut. After 1948, small numbers of Habbani Jews made their way to Aden, sometimes fighting hostile Arab tribes along the way. From there they were airlifted en masse to Israel as part of Operation Flying Carpet.
Describing the route followed by most Habbanis who participated in the Israeli airlift, Operation Magic Carpet:
The way [to the airfield] was generally in the direction of Ihwar. In Ihwar they would stay for some time, collecting food, money, and afterwards continue from there to Sheikh `Uthman and `Aden, to the camp Hashid—and from there they would wait their turn for the airplane to the Land [of Israel]. The problem was getting to camp Hashid, for they [the locals] wouldn’t always allow entry, and not to everyone. Therefore the first emigrants remained a relatively long time in Sheikh `Uthman. And when the pogrom in `Aden happened, they were in danger.
Eyewitnesses Gamar bath Hassan `Adeni, Sa`id bin Yusuf and Sa`id bin Musa Mif`i, who were present and participated at the time of the uprising, and presently live in Salame [Kfar Shalem] – Tel Aviv, recount the might of those Habbani Jewish individuals who fought with bravery and strength, and that they killed a great number of Arabs. And with what weapons did they fight? Like axes, pickaxes, knives, and iron bars and wooden bats, and the like.”
In Israel the Habbanim settled in two moshavim: Kefar Shalem, near Tel Aviv and Bereqet, two miles from Ben Gurion Airport.
The vast majority of Habbani Jews left Yemen in the Spring of 1950, after Operation Magic Carpet and the riots in Aden had concluded. The largest impetus for them was that the earlier migrants over the past few years had left Habban with considerable outstanding debts, and the remaining community was concerned about being held responsible. In January 1950 they traveled from Habban and arrived in Mahane Geula in Aden.
Habbani Jews in Israel and America today experience an acute threat of cultural assimilation. By the 1960s, none but the elders wore traditional clothing, and many in Israel complained about discrimination at the hands of Ashkenazim. They were often referred to by other Israelis as "primitive" and "wild Indians.". This resulted in some Habbanim fighting back against what was perceived as "cultural imperialism." Through the practice of extensive endogamy, many Habbani Jews were able to retain their identity. Up to 88% of Habbani Jews chose to marry within their community.
The Jews of Habban, for most of their history, were separated from the main centers of Yemenite Jewry, and isolated geographically. Despite their isolation they succeeded in developing their own resources, religious as well as economic, and created an environment of their own.
Religious fervor was common among Habbani Jews. Even the most uneducated among them were capable of conducting the role of cantor, and many were advanced legalists. The most notorious legal scholar among them was Musa bin Rom Shamakh in the 17th century, who was the last individual able to make binding legal decisions. Despite this religious zeal, voluntary conversions of Habbani Jews to Islam were not uncommon, which often put the community in conflict with each other.
There were a number of characteristics that made the Jews of Habban in modern times distinct from the Jews of Northern Yemen.
Their outer appearance and clothing. Their food and its preparation. Their distinct profession (they were silversmiths). There were no Cohanim or Levites among them. Their unique traditions on holidays and happy occasions. Their version of the prayers and piyutim. Though isolated, the Jews of Habban did maintain some level of contact with other Yemenite Jewish communities though said contact was infrequent and usually resulted from some quarrel over some point of Jewish law.
Habbani Jews were described as taller, more muscular, and darker than their Muslim neighbors. The men did not sport peyot like other Yemeni Jews, but wore an oiled thong through their characteristically long hair. They plucked their mustaches, distinct from other Jews, but similar to neighboring Muslims as well. They wore a blue prayer shawl over one shoulder, or walked bare chested, smearing their torso sesame oil and indigo. A corse calido loincloth died indigo covered their bottom, and they typically walked barefoot or with sandals. The women wore their hair in tiny braids, and wore loose-fitting embroidered dresses.
Unlike the Jews of northern Yemen the Habbani Jews wore a Jambiyya or curved knife, Matznaph (turban) and Avne`t (sash). It was very uncommon for Jews in Yemen outside of Habban to wear the Jambiyya.
Sultans in Arabia to use Habbani Jews as soldiers in their armies or as personal guards. Habbani Jews sometimes served as mercenaries; Abdullah I of Jordan, who preferred Circassian and other non-Arab bodyguards, had a number of Habbani Jewish guardsmen, including Sayeed Sofer and his brothers Salaah and Saadia.
Habbani Jews practiced polygyny, which usually accounted for 10-20% of marriages. A co-wife in Habbani culture was referred to as "sarra", or trouble, and was brought into the household without consent of the existing wives. Most women were prepubescent at the time of their first marriage.
Hadhrami people
I'm including this Yemenis with the rest of Israelites because Yemen once was converted to Judaism, so Yemenis had & still have Jewish origin. Not to mention that ethnic Israelites flooded Yemen for centuries. These Hadhrami Arabs have a very spread & old diaspora as Jews do. Nowadays even Muslim Yemenis have majoritarily the celebrated priestly Cohen gene.
The Hadharem have a long seafaring and trading tradition. Hadhrami seamen have navigated in large numbers all around the Indian Ocean basin, from the Horn of Africa to the Swahili Coast to the Malabar Coast and Hyderabad in South India to Maritime Southeast Asia.
There are Hadharem communities in the trading ports of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The money changers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia have usually been of Hadhrami origin.
The Hadhrami have long had a notable presence in the Horn region, especially in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. Hadhrami settlers were instrumental in helping to consolidate the Muslim community in the coastal Benadir province of Somalia, in particular. During the colonial period, disgruntled Hadhrami from the tribal wars additionally settled in various Somalian towns. They were also frequently recruited in the armies of the Somali Sultanates.
Some Hadhrami communities also reportedly exist in Mozambique and Madagascar.
The Hadhrami speak Hadhrami Arabic. It belongs to the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.
Diaspora communities
Arab Indonesian, Arab Singaporean, Chaush, in India, Sodagar (Gujarati Shaikh), Arab (Gujarat) (some claim to be of Hadhrami descent), Labbay, Nawayath in India, Mappila in India (some claim Hadhrami descent)
South Asia, Malaysia, North Africa, Horn of Africa, Swahili Coast, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Singapore, East Timor, Barkas, Hyderabad, Asifabad
The Sectarian & Ethnically Divided Middle East
Very often we ten to simplify the Middle East as an area of Muslim states with the little Jewish state of Israel. The truth is very far from that. Even the division if we add the Christian minorities & the division of Islam between Shia & Sunni Moslems we still simplify too much. The truth is that the Middle East is a diversified sectarian area of the world.
In regards to ethnicities we summarize it into Jews & Arabs, but Kurds, Turks, Persians... are also part of it.
Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait are mainly Sunni Arabs.
Abrahamism
Bahrain is lead by Sunnis but, the majority of the population are Shia Arabs. Iraq is lead by shias. Iraq is complex because the north is ethnically Kurdish, a people divided between Sunnis & Shias, although the Iraqi Kurdishtan has Turkmens, Assyrians (Christians; not to confuse with Arab Christians), Yazidis (a non Abrahamic religion whose practicioners are sometimes regarded as ethnic Kurds), Mandeans (believers in John the Baptits, but not Christians), Shabaks (regarded as Kurds too sometimes; believing in a mix of Islam, Christianity, Yazidism)... In the west & center they are Sunni Arabs. Finally in the east & south they are Shias with some Chaldean Christians.
Iran has a majority of Shias with Sunnis, Christians, Jewish, Zoroastrians, Bahais... The ethnic composition is mainly Persian but, with important Kurdish, Azeris, Jews, Assyrians, Turkmen, Arabs, Talysh, Baloch...minorities.
Turkey has a Sunni Turkish majority with Shia, Christians, Dönmehs. Minorities are the Kurds split in Turkey between Shia & Sunni. The Shia Turks are Alevis. Alevis are secular mainly & have been the core support of the Kemalist secular political parties. The Alevis are so heterodox as compared to orthodox Muslims that are often regarded as not being Muslims. The Dönmeh are a Muslim group with Jewish origin. Most of the Christians in Turkey are ethnically Greek & Armenian. There are other ethnicities that practice Sunnism: Bosniaks, Albanians...
Syria is a majority Sunni Arab country ruled by a Shia Alawite dictator. The Alawites are so secular & different in beliefs (having wine in their rituals) that are not regarded as being Muslims as the Alevis in Turkey. The Druzes are also in theory regarded as being Shias, but as other heterodox sects they have so many non Muslim traditions that are often categorized as non Moslems. The Druzes believe in Jethro to be their ancestor. Their practices are deeply secretive. The Druzes are regarded as having Jewish origin. Many Christians in Syria are considered by themselves to be Arameans. Many of them, with the mentioned Assyrians of Iraq, speak Aramean. The Alawites are concentrated in the Syrian coast. The Druzes in the areas next to Israel & Jordan.
Egypt has a Sunni Arab majority with important Arab Coptic Christian minorities.
Saudi Arabia is mostly Sunni with important Shia minorities in the eastern coast.
Israel has a majoritarian Jewish ethnic & religious state. The Sunnis are the largest majority. There are some Christians especially in the area of Nazareth & surroundings. The Bedouins are mainly Sunnis, but inspite them being Arabs the Israeli government separates them in a different category from the other Arabs, because they are pro-Israelis & are allowed to join the Israeli army, contrary to the prohibition to other Arabs to join the army. The Druzes are also pro-Israelis & happily join the Israeli army. It's the same with the Christian Arabs in Israel & with the Sunni Circassians. The Circassians are an ethnicity that came to the Middle East in the XIX century.
Lebanon was created as Christian state by the French in the middle of the 20th century. Little by little the entrepeneurial Lebanese (as their Phoenician ancestors) migrated to Latin America, being mostly the Christians that left. Nowadays the Christians are large minority of about 40%. Among the Christians there are different religious groups. The Muslims are Sunnis & Shias. The Shias in Lebanon are not secular, but very religious in general, similarly to the Iranian orthodox Shias. The Ayatollahs remote controlls these shias. The Lebanese are generally regarded as an Arab people, but many deny it saying that inspite they speak Arabic they are just Lebanese because their ancestors were Phoenicians & European Christian Crusaders. Truly they have a point. Lebanon is a very westernized country too.
As seen above the Middle East is more complex & heterogeneous than ususally assumed. The reason why there are so many different religious groups is because in olden times, like in the middle age, Islam was more tolerant than it was regarded or than in current times. It was definitively more tolerant than the intolerant Roman Catholic Church that directed the Crusades & created the "Holy" Inquisition that expelled the Jews from Spain, Portugal...
The Zionist movement for Jewish national liberation was formed and established in the late 1890s by Jewish thinkers influenced by the then contemporary philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Zionism was philosophically established in principled opposition both to what Friedrich Nietzsche understood as Master-Slave Morality as well as to what Zionist intellectuals in so many words understood to be the pathological condition of Master-Slave Mentality. While Master Morality is the notion that might is right, so is Slave Morality similarly the notion that weak is right and Master-Slave Mentality is thus the tragic political mass psychology of Master-Slave Morality.
Zionism as a politically and philosophically revolutionary movement was certainly not established so as to supplant Jewish Slave Mentality/Morality of the Diaspora with a new Jewish Master Mentality/Morality, as is typically claimed by Anti-Jewish polemicists, but rather with the determined philosophical purpose to end Master-Slave Morality/Mentality, which already early Zionist intellectuals were right to identify as ethically indefensible. Zionism as a form of indigenous activism offered the prospect of political realization of select aspects of the traditional religious promise of Jewish national redemption. However, Zionism was certainly not formed to promote sectarianism but rather in principled opposition to sectarianism as Zionism today is primarily the civic religion of modern liberal-democratic Israel. Yet, Israel is still widely exhorted to revert to Diaspora Slave Morality while simultaneously standing falsely accused by Anti-Jewish polemicists of being founded on Master Morality.
Nevertheless, the very selectiveness in Jewish political redemption certainly left out a few ethically important aspects of the traditional promise of Jewish redemption. Isaiah’s biblical vision of a future vegetarian society as part and parcel of Jewish redemption is rapidly being realized in our days as vast numbers of Israelis increasingly choose a vegan future in making Israel the undisputed leader in the global vegan revolution. While Israel’s second president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi researched already known Para-Jewish peoples worldwide and Israel Belkind and David Ben-Gurion (Israel’s later first prime minister) researched the Jewish origins of Palestinian endogamous clans; the question of Para-Jewish peoples has otherwise with the main exceptions of Tsvi Misinai, Michael Freund and the Kulanu organization been mostly disregarded in the Zionist movement since its founding until this time.
While the existence of many Para-Jewish peoples became known during the era of Euro-Christian colonialism, the partially shared ancient Pan-Jewish history of Para-Jewish peoples has not been appropriately scientifically reconstructed and their status as distinctive Jewish peoples has not been publically recognized as most rabbinic Jews still typically presume that there exist only one Jewish people in this world. Yet, despite the many historical encounters between Para-Jewish peoples and the often Anti-Jewish Euro-Christian imperialists, most Para-Jewish peoples in Islamdom have in contrast long remained particularly secretive even to themselves about their being Jewish due to the hegemonic predominance of Anti-Jewish polemics (Anti-Judaism, Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism) and both historical Muslim imperialism and Muslim neo-imperialism (Arabism, Islamism etc.) in Islamdom.
The World Pan-Jewish Organization (WPJO) is a project whose liberal-democratic vision is a federal Israel that would democratically unite Para-Jewish countries worldwide with Israel as this is indeed the next paradigm in the Zionist revolution. However, research, documentation and education are rather indispensable elements in forming the foundations of the future global Pan-Zionist political movement for Pan-Jewish national liberation and Pan-Israeli liberal-democratic unification. As Crypto-Jewish awareness and Jewish identity are increasingly rapidly spreading among Para-Jewish peoples in the Middle East, the World Pan-Jewish Organization was initiated to provide knowledge and vision for the shared Pan-Jewish future.
Michael Freund in Commentary Magazine: predicting the Jewish future
Historians estimate that during the Herodian period two millennia ago, there were approximately 8 million Jews worldwide. At the same time, the Han Dynasty conducted a census in the year 2 c.e. which found that there were 57.5 million Han Chinese. Jump ahead to the present, and the numbers are of course quite different, with China home to 1.1 billion people, even as world Jewry barely numbers more than 13 million souls.
During the past 2,000 years of exile, we lost countless numbers of Jews, whether through assimilation or oppression. Many of their descendants are now clamoring to return. This development is testimony to the power of Jewish history and the triumph of Jewish destiny.
The world, it has been said, is growing smaller by the day thanks to the processes of globalization and growing economic and strategic interdependence. In order to thrive in this global village, the Jewish people will need Chinese Jews and Indian Jews no less than American and British Jews.
This means that we not only need to do more to keep Jews Jewish, but we must also begin to think outside the box about how to boost our numbers. We need more Jews, so why not reach back into our collective past and reclaim those who were torn away from us due to exile and persecution? Many descendants of Jews are already knocking on our door, asking to be allowed in. All we need do is turn the knob, pry open the entrance, and they will come.
This nascent process is already under way, and I call on Israel and Jewish leaders worldwide to recognize this salient development and to act.
Five decades hence, the Jewish people will be one nation with many faces, far more numerous and diverse than anyone could possibly have imagined at the start of the 21st century.
People will gaze back and see the turning point that we have reached, as we stand on the cusp of a tidal wave of return, one that will see millions of Jewish descendants reconnect with Jewry. Demographically and spiritually, the Jewish people will be stronger for it.
Samaritans with Torah scroll marking Passover on Mount Gerizim.The diverse multicultural mosaic of very closely connected ethnic groups that is the Jewish people is a small remnant of the long history of Jewish civilization. Due to religious imperialism and the associated intolerance, persecution, genocide and forced conversions; the number of rabbinic Jews worldwide is now estimated at only above some 13 million people, with now close to half of those living in Israel. However, Rabbinic Jewry is not the sole Jewish people; Samaritans, Karaites, Dönmeh and overt Ethiopian Jews have survived history as distinctive Jewish peoples, indeed ethnically and historically separate from the main, core Jewish people of rabbinic Jewry.
But these are not the only ones. The colonial era produced great confusion as numerous Para-Jewish peoples were rediscovered by European explorers. The missing link between Rabbinic Jewry and these “rediscovered” Para-Jewish peoples is Priestly Judaism (i.e. Median Judaism) with denominations in the core Middle East known as Alawites, Alevi-Bektashi, Druze, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Yarsanis and Yezidis.
These denominations are mutually and structurally quite similar and have a common historical, ethnic, cultural and religious origin in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, most of whose population was deported by Assyrian conquerors to and near what is now Kurdistan. Druze tradition correctly points out that there is related denomination in China, a people and denomination of Priestly Judaism known as the Qiang. With the exception of Mandaeans and Bektashis are these denominations in the Middle East religiously all led by their own Kohanim.
Denominations of Priestly Judaism in the Core Middle East: Alawites, Alevi-Bektashi, Druze, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Yarsanis (including Shabaks and Kakayis) & Yezidis.
As the Medes accepted the Kohanim of the deported Israelites, these Kohanim were known as Maggidim (Hebrew for preachers) and while travelling the world they very syncretistically brought Median Judaism to many Israelite peoples worldwide in Africa and Asia in hence giving rise to a great multitude of Para-Jewish peoples worldwide such as part of the Japanese and the Igbo people in Nigeria. The Maggids become known by historians in Latin as the Magi. Yet, Para-Jewish communities have sprung both from the Jews of the southern Kingdom of Judah and from the Jews of the northern Kingdom of Israel, both of which were globalized and dispersed.
Rabbinically Jewish denominations have a universal, yet unattractive habit of disagreeing among themselves on who is officially religiously recognized as Jewish due to divergent social strategies with regard to how to ensure continuity in Diaspora Jewish life. Such sharp disagreements specifically with regard to acceptance and recognition of converts now even exist within and between Orthodox denominations of Rabbinic Judaism despite the fact that merely a few decades ago Orthodox Judaism used to be quite unified on this issue. Therefore, more and more Rabbinic Jews have a denominationally disputed personal status as Jews (Hebrew sofkim meaning doubtfuls) and are therefore in effect becoming Para-Jewish in becoming partially excommunicated from the (rabbinically) Jewish people.
Essentially, in neutral terms there are two ways of being Jewish/Para-Jewish, either being officially recognized as a constituent member by a Jewish or Para-Jewish religious denomination or being part of a Jewish or Para-Jewish people, ethnic group, subethnic group, community and/or lineage. Being Jewish is in philosophical terms therefore performative rather than ontological.
Ritual discouragement as part of the initiation into the Bektashi order.Rather, the process of conversion is meant as a process of being initiated, welcomed and integrated into an indigenous tribal people with its own tribal religion. A convert to Judaism/Crypto-Judaism is Jewish if either s/he is also ethnically Jewish; i.e. either by family background or by virtue of having become absorbed into Jewish/Para-Jewish culture even if not having had any prior Jewish personal background or ancestry.
Rabbinic law (halakhah) distinguishes between Jews who are either Muslim or Christian who are still considered fully Jewish by descent but are nevertheless religiously acted towards as if they were non-Jewish in most religious technical aspects despite being fully Jewish by descent even under rabbinic law. Para-Jews who are neither Muslim nor Christian and whose cultures to at least some degree still practice some form of Crypto-Judaism are not only considered fully Jewish by rabbinic law but can marry Rabbinic Jews and have the same right under Israeli law as non-Israeli rabbinic Jews to immigrate to the state of Israel.
Druze Zionist youth movement on pilgrimage to the Shrine of Jethro in Israel.Yet it is important to understand that the rabbis and rabbinic law do not have religious jurisdiction with regard to those Jews whose religious origin is in the northern Kingdom of Israel, but rather they are under the religious jurisdiction of their own religious leaders, including with regard to defining who is recognized as part of a particular Crypto-Jewish denomination not historically derived from the southern Kingdom of Judah. This religious judicial authority is historically derived from the ancient unified monarchy of Israel as this jurisdiction was therefore also split into two main branches when the unified monarchy of Israel was divided into two separate independent states, the southern Kingdom of Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel.
In the future Federal Israel, Para-Jews without a land of their own should be fully entitled to immigration to a particular member state of an increasingly integrated Federal Israel. But generally, the solution is obviously not for all Para-Jewish peoples (numbering in the many hundreds of millions) to immigrate to the already existing Israel but rather to have their own states within the future Federal Israel. Para-Jewish communities that wish to revert to their own form of Judaism should certainly be enabled to do so as a crucial historical step in the gradual formation of, accession to and integration of Federal Israel.
This indigenous reversion will eventually also pave the way towards the goal of free migration for citizens of member states within a religiously pluralistic Federal Israel. However, every step of integration would have to be consensually agreed to by any particular state and its people and a future or existing member state would therefore be fully entitled to opt out of particular aspects of federal Israelite integration.
All this means that the task is no longer as traditionally ethnic excommunication as a means of precarious survival for an oppressed tribal nation but rather territorial unification, indeed unity in diversity through the gradual democratic formation of a future United States of Israel.
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