Things to Realize About Israel in View of Their New Nation-State Law

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

At the Knesset we see a menorah

" Israel passed a controversial new “nation-state law” last week that’s sparking both celebration and fierce debate over the very nature of Israel itself."  I don't see much changing in how this affects all the citizens outwardly.  It's what the government felt what was needed to be in print.

1. It states that “the right to exercise national self-determination” in Israel is “unique to the Jewish people.”
2. It establishes Hebrew as Israel’s official language, and Arabic — a language widely spoken by Arab Israelis —is given a “special status.”
3. It establishes “Jewish settlement as a national value” and mandates that the state “will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development.”                                     

   

   The Temple Mount
   Where Solomon's Temple first stood (961-920 BCE)
   Now Jews only have the Western Wall to pray  from
    Wall remains from King Herod (73 BCE-4 BCE)
   who built the wall, Wailing Wall/Kotel.
   Our History

Israel is the only Jewish state in the world.  Jews haven't had their own country since ancient Israel, established with king Saul existed in about 1030 BCE, over 3,000 years ago.    It continued until 70 CE when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans and the 2nd Temple of Solomon was destroyed.  Now, after having 6 million Jews murdered by Hitler, they have a state, and only make up 0.02% of the world's population.  They have taken special steps to secure their lives.  

There are at least 48 Muslim majority countries in the world.  About 10 have the state religion of Islam and are Israel's neighbors.  Egypt is the largest in population, then Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon,  and the looming awaiting Palestine would be right next door in the historical Jewish Judea-Samaria called the West Bank.  Gaza is also a part of the Palestine creation, where the rockets, mortars and missiles are shot from into Israel, populated by Muslims, mostly Hamas terrorists.

                                                               

In Jerusalem

Jews of the Diaspora have never thought of themselves as being nationalistic, having no nation since 70 CE.  They were of one religion, though, of Judaism.  Hitler tried to kill anyone with even 1/4 of their ancestry being Jewish.  We had said, we are a religion, not a nationality.  Here we are with the knowledge now that from what we know about Askenazi Jews, we are related to each other at least remotely. 

                                                            

 I'm surprised when I don't share at least a small segment of DNA with another Jew.  The finding usually is 5th cousin to remote.  We happen to be an endogamous society.  I bet a great many of Arabs are also endogamous.  I see that many Muslim men share the J1 haplogroup we call the Cohen gene because so many of our Cohens and others have a similar J1 haplogroup that shows Jews have it, too.  Indeed, the Bible is correct in that we are "cousins."  There are only about 14 million Jews in this whole world.  We're a rare group made up of Ashkenazi, Sephari and Mizrachi. 6 million are in the USA; 6 million in Israel and 2 million elsewhere.   14 million of us.  Calcutta, India (now Kolkata) has a14.6 million population.  

Pashtuns visiting Jerusalem at the Wall
Many claim to be from tribe of Benjamin taken by Assyrians in 721 BCE
Found in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India

                                                             

IDF now an Israeli of the Ingathering
Jewish Ethiopians waiting to be rescued came
in the 1980s.  They're not part of the 10 Lost Tribes
but more likely from days of Solomon wanting to return. 

  We lost 10 of our 12 Tribes to the plundering Assyrians in 721 BCE and where did they wind up?  It looks like they were able to end their slavery in Afghanistan and Pakistan and places around there.  It has been prophesied that the time would come when there will be an ingathering of our people, and we are in the middle of that miracle right now.  Since Israel has been re-created on May 14, 1948, Jews living under dire circumstances and Jews wanting to keep their faith have been streaming back to Israel.  They went from a population of 650,000 to 6 million Jews today.  1.7 million Arabs also live with them in Israel and are citizens.   Rabbis say the in-gathering  of Jews is to happen before the coming of the Messiah.  Of course Judaism, Christianity and Islam have different views of a Messiah.                                                     

Signs in Israel come in 3 languages
Hebrew, Arabic and English

                                                           

This tiny country's creation was for the Jewish people.  The 1st World War ended in 1917 where the Ottoman Empire had held Palestine for 400 years.  They had joined Germany's side in that war and lost the gamble.  The result was losing their empire.  It was in the hands of the Allies who decided that a Jewish Homeland would be made out of it and gave the mandate to do so to the English.  They also showed how little they thought of Jews no matter what the League of Nations had decided by giving away 80% of the promised land for Jews to an Arab of Saudi Arabia who turned it into Jordan eventually.  

                                                            

So now Israel is made out of a teeny scrap of land compared to countries surrounding them, and this teeny piece is to be divided again to accommodate the Palestinians whose family had come from all the surrounding states seeking jobs after our Russian Jews had first come and started building in the 1st Aliyah.  

Druze IDF on guard

                                                         

One of the Druze in the IDF
Their religion is from Islam.  About 120,000 live
in Israel living in the Galilee mainly in their own 18
villages and on Mt. Carmel.  They've fought with us since 1948.
There are Druze serving in the Knesset.  They have their own
religious courts and law. 

Other Druze live in Syria and Lebanon.  I read that a Druze Israeli feels hurt by the declaration.  Also, the Arab members of the Knesset are up in arms.  They must understand that they are a citizen of a unique country and are enjoying all the benefits of the Jews as equal citizens.  Arabs have the gift of not being expected to serve in the IDF if they don't feel they can do so.    What is changing for them?  Perhaps the Presidency and the Prime Minister position.  They'll lose all the rights they have with Israel if Israel is ever wiped out which their enemies keep trying to do.  That's why everyone is serving in the IDF; Israel's Defense Force.  They'll live as 2nd class citizens if they wind up in Syria or Lebanon.  This is Syria's President Assad's own personal problem.  He isn't a Sunni, like his other Arabs.  He's of a different group, the Alawites.    The Muslim Brotherhood tried to kill him.  

I have met a Druze lady in a meeting in the USA and admired her greatly.  She was a spokesman for Israel!  I would hate to hurt her or her community in any way.  I'm hoping this new law is not doing that.  I expect it's done to preserve what Israel has achieved.  

https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/31/17623978/israel-jewish-nation-state-law-bill-explained-apartheid-netanyahu-democracy
Update:  https://www.jewishleadershipconference.org/podcast/episode-8-zionism-and-israels-nation-state-law/?autoplay  with Professor Kontorovich.  

Update 8/24/18 : https://aijac.org.au/update/the-violent-gaza-deadlock-revisited-israels-controversial-nationality-bill/
Prof.  Kontorovich, however, released a statement citing the hypocrisy of Western nations who would take Israel to task over the new law.

“Israel’s nation-state bill is similar to provisions in many Western democratic constitutions, which provide for an official language and national character that reflects the majority of the population. Since Israel doesn’t have a formal constitution, it is imperative that the Jewish state has legislation that affirms the values and ethos it was founded upon.”

He added that “the Israeli bill is actually far weaker than constitutions of many European democracies, which unlike Israel even create an official national religion. The present bill does not violate anyone’s individual rights or create any special privileges for Jews.

“The faux outrage against the bill,” he stated, “is simply another attempt to single out the Jewish state and hold her to a double standard. What’s good for the United Kingdom and Spain should also be good for Israel.”