Palestine: from the fall of the Ottomans to Today

Discussion of science, technology, politics, and other topics that aren't strictly philosophical.
User avatar
Tomas
Posts: 4328
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 2:15 am
Location: North Dakota

Re: Palestine: from the fall of the Ottomans to Today

Post by Tomas »

Diebert van Rhijn wrote:Tomas, if you'd have clicked, you should have arrived at the Editor's blog and noticed it was re-instated here.
Found it, thank you.
Don't run to your death
User avatar
Diebert van Rhijn
Posts: 6469
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:43 pm

Re: Palestine: from the fall of the Ottomans to Today

Post by Diebert van Rhijn »

Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is like saying the US is a White State by Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan.

Identity politics are an interesting issue. What is a Western identity? Is that some kind of "European civilization" in terms of culture and history? Are the US and Australia therefore Western nations? Can there be something like a Western state even in these times? What about Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Slavic or Latin countries of cultures? Like the Celtic nations: Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales. What if Scotland declared itself independent and a Scottish state? Or can it call itself at least a Celtic state then?

From that perspective I can understand the argumentation for a Jewish nation in terms of history and shared heritage. But what some in Israel appear to suggest is that a Jewish state would be like the "American" state with allegiance to the "flag", history and certain principles no matter ethnicity and religion. But is the U.S. an "American nation-state"? Every citizen is by definition American but in any proposed Jewish state only a part of the population would be called Jew by their definitions.

Interesting is that the only recent example of such thing is the "Germanic State of the German Nation" or "Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation" as devised by Hitler. Here Germanic points to historical, ethnic and various traditional elements (and also racial in those times) not only as people (nation) but also as something upheld by the state apparatus or "reich". Big difference! Also used sometimes was the term: "Christian-Germanic" state. Some countries do see themselves as "Christian" but in Europe most have "disestablised" that and only a few state religions remain.
Locked