"A stunning victory."

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Perhaps but the converse isn't really true, is it? Israel may be Jews but Jews aren't Israel. Many Jews identify with the countries they live in. The reaction among European Jews to Netanyahu's recent "invitation" is proof of that. So is the phenomenon of Israeli Jews returning to their European roots.



There's Babylon, of course, but that's more about territorial conquest than anti-Semitism. And, after the Persians conquered the Babylonians, Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to go home and assisted them, as did his son and successor Darius the Great, in rebuilding the Temple.

There was even a Jewish Persian queen, Esther. (Luckily for the Jews!)

There's also Casimir the Great of Poland who gave extended an open invitation to the Jews when they were expelled from much of the rest of Europe (because they caused The Plague). He gave them full religious rights and forbade their persecution.

So, yes, the Jews (to put it mildly) have had their enemies but they have also had their benefactors. What annoys me is that many Jews omit the latter from their narrative.

So who said everybody hates the Jews? Tom Lehrer, not me. My contention is, and has always been, that there is an enormous, pretty much world-wide animosity toward Jews. And that it's a significant majority of non-Jews world-wide who carry fear and anxiety of Jews, and/or animosity and hate toward Jews. So they've had friends and/or benefactors here and there...big picture...so what?

Originally Posted by Boreas

This, to a large degree, is self-imposed.

But this is the comment that interests me most. Why would you say this? What's your evidence for this?