Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

The German and Eastern European Jews are desceendants of the asians Khazars who converted to Judaism by edict from their ruler at the time. If it is accepted that you cannot be Jewish if your mother isn't Jewish then these peopel are not genetic Jews (ie descending from the original inhabitants of Israel who were expelled in the first century BC).

Rabbi Ari Enkin

I wish others would ask and explore the question you raise!

While the full answer is exhaustive - the short answer is: The Jews are both a race and religion.

Our religion is quite clear -- see your nearest Biible.
...

And, Lord Justice Sedley added, "it appears clear to us that Jews constitute a racial group defined principally by ethnic origin and additionally by conversion". .

"To discriminate against a person on the grounds that he or someone else either is or is not Jewish is therefore to discriminate against him on racial grounds."

So if you are saying that the inhabitants of Israel have no genetic link back to ancient Israel and are not a race anyway, why do they have any right to occupy any of the land that belongs to the Palistinians and call it Israel? A religion has no right take other peole's land.

No haystack, I'm not saying that. You are.

Of course a religion has no right to take a land.

The bit I'm struggling with is your questioning of Israel's right to exist and your refusal to accept that a legally constituted and democratic country (regardless of how it came to be) has every right to exist in peace and without constant bombardment from its neighbours. And that when subject to such constant bombardment that country has every right to defend itself by war, occupation, economic means, sanctions, political negotiation and any other legal means at its disposal.

Although the problem is complex to solve, it seems simple enough to describe. It's not a question of ethnicity, occupation, religion or race. Nor any of the other things you throw in to muddy the waters. It's certainly not a question of genetics. And as for your latest rant about khazers - that's just utterly irrational. Akin to saying there should not be any islamic democracies because Mohammed was only born about 1400 years ago, or Christian democracies because Christianity is only 2000 years old. Again - nonsense. It misses the whole point of democracy.

Isaacs , are you posting from Israel ?

Has he been conscripted?

Has he been conscripted?

what, twice?

With luck.

i was going to post something about being born jewish and that you cannot "become" jewish, but i think it would be too much like hard work having to sweep up the ensuing debris

Aldwickk - no just trying to balance the one sided cut and pastes on here.

Cynic - of course you can become Jewish if you take being a follower of Judaism as sufficient to be Jewish. You can convert to Judaism just as you can convert to most, if not all, other religions and it happens all the time. OK so you may not be able to trace your bloodline back to Abraham and Isaac but it doesn't mean you are not Jewish.

Sammy Davis Jr? Biblical Ruth? Everyone from Khazar? I probably know a dozen or so less celebrated.

My wife is named after Ruth the Moabite. However, in her case, she has had to convert to being Scottish. :-)

Gausie

"a legally constituted and democratic country (regardless of how it came to be) has every right to exist in peace "

That's a very interesting set of ideas. democracy has nothing to do with it. Plenty of non democratic countries have a right to exist.

That leaves 'legally constituted' and 'regardless of how it came to be.

Legally constituted is not really relevant as that is an internal matter regarding its own constitution and laws. One would expect it to be legally constituted.

That leaves us with 'regardless of how it came to be'. That is the point. It came to be illegally and and has never had its legality established. The land is Palestinian and does not belong to an occupying set of people who style themselves as Israel. Virtually all that land that is often termed Israel was part of the Ottoman empire. Turkey being the successor to the Ottoman Empire gave ownership of the land to Palestine at around about 2005 I think, just to emphasise the point. Of course the Palestinians want their land back. Hamas will never stop their attempts to regain their territory. It is going to be like this for all of our lifetimes at least, althouhg it is likely that it will get worse.

That, of course, leaves us with 'has every right to exist in peace'. That's is in dispute, especially the 'exist' bit. 'exist in pece', maybe if Israel stops settlling illegally held land and withraws back to previously held positions. At that stage, Israel might be able to come to an accomodation with the Palestinians. If not, then there is no chance of peace.

The US is wooing Palestine with grants. Some of these have been announced over the last few days. The PA will probably just take the lot even though the money is earmarked for Gaza. The PA are playing up to Obama and wants to be seen as being the good guys. This is just a temporary phase as Hamas have no intention of being conned into becoming another Fatah.

The West Bank at some point will see the pointlessness of appeasement. When that happens you can expect to see Hamas take a more dominant role on the West Bank. That is certainly their ambition. It is the main reason that Hamas has been trying to stop the rocket attacks recently.

isaccs - you can convert to judaism, but that does not make you a jew

c, Why not? Can you explain please?

I beg to disagree Cynic. I presume you would say new converts become Judaist or some other such word rather than Jewish. I guess you prefer a much narrower definition which perhaps you might share.

I think what Cynic is trying to say is that Judaism is the religion of the Jews whose people are considered to have near-Eastern ethnicity. So anybody whose forefathers didn't originate from those lands, wouldn't technically be a Jew.

hilary - effectively so .... in fact, and i promise i won't go into long discourse or even discussion, unless i am much mistaken (far from impossible), the orthodox powers that be, do not allow converts to marry in an an orthodox syngague ..... and the other side is that our family on both sides is jewish for as many generations that we can trace (not many in poland!), and though i am definitely a non-practicing "judaist", i am nonetheless still and de facto jewish

Cynic - that's bollocks. Orthodox converts are treated in exactly the same way as all other orthodox jews.