Joseph Sarandos
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Does Israel have a "Right to be"?
http://aish.com/jewishissues/amongthenations/Ishmael_and_israels_existential_test.asp
Ishmael's & Israel's Existential Test
by Rabbi Noson Weisz
EXERPT:
RIGHT TO BE
The existential problem we face as a people is precisely this. Do we have a right to be here in Israel or are we thieves who have stolen someone else's land and justified our theft on the basis of our need?
If we do have such a right and it is our land, than we should be able to solve our problem. We certainly have sufficient military might and economic clout to suppress the Palestinian opposition to our presence here. What we do not have is the inner belief in the justice of our cause.
Many of us have bought the
Arab message that we
have actually stolen this land.
Many of us have bought the Arab message that we have actually stolen this land and really do not have the right to be here at all. Lacking the clear sense of being in the right we are much too ready to give away large parts of our tiny territory for absolutely no return. As we don't feel easy about the possession of our own land our posture is much too defensive. Only when the immediate rescue of Jewish lives requires the application of force do we feel entitled to apply any of our might and even then only in precisely measured amounts. This uncertainty about the moral right to be in our own land is the real source of our anguish and is the focal point of this particular exile.
The existential test of the exile we are undergoing is directed at the entire Jewish people. To successfully meet this test we must have the information at our disposal that demonstrates conclusively our right to be here. What information is there at the disposal of the entire Jewish people that could help it to know that it did not steal the land of Israel from the Arabs?
There is no doubt that Israel was the Jewish homeland at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple. There is no doubt that we were driven out of it by force. Josephus Flavius, and other Roman and Greek historians, whose writings form the basis of everything we know about the ancient world, testify to the truth of both these propositions. The usurpers who settled here did so at their own risk. We always said that we would be back. We are not thieves.
-END OF EXERPT-
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Putting This Into Perspective as an American
by Joseph Sarandos
(second-generation Greek/American)
No one can deny, and no one is denying that North America was indeed the homeland of its tribal aboriginal peoples...the ones now alternately referred to as "American Indians" and "Native Americans".
It is also freely acknowledged and admitted that our European forefathers had indeed forcibly usurped control and possession of this land, with the ultimate exception of those parts that were "deeded back" to the original owners as Reservations under the Sovereign Rule of their respective Tribes (but with interventionist oversight by our own Government).
Was it "nice," or was it "fair" of our Founders to displace the Natives and seize the bulk of their land? Of course it was neither. But, doesn't both Biblical and Secular History show that the very same pattern had been repeated very many times in many other lands?
So, for Americans to now agree with and support the Jews' position that they still have a Right to the land from which their forefathers had been evicted, that they have the Right to forcibly displace and kill the current descendants of those who had defeated their forefathers at war and taken their land, and that America has some moral, legal, political or religious obligation to assist the Jews in such efforts, is equal to their agreeing that the Native Americans hold similar Rights, that they would be justified in exercising those Rights against the current generation from our foreign Founders, and that they are deserving of and should receive the assistance of another of the "Big Three" world powers (Russia or China) in such efforts.
Should the concepts of "Right" and "Wrong" be dependent upon how each situation affects each individual, group, nationality or race?
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4/23/2006, 2:47 am
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