Jews, Zionism and the European Right of Blood Part VII

Jews in America often cannot relate to what the Jews in Eastern/Central Europe went through.

There have been demonstrations by some Jews in the US against Israel and Zionism. The reason they saw the need to demonstrate in America was because they were as 100% American, just as anyone else in the US. Hence, they really saw no need for Israel to exist. No one ever denied them the right to live in the US. They have never had strange ID cards saying that they are not part of the ' autochthonous population'. Not many have been screaming at them, " Go back to your Israel!". Not in Williamsburg, anyway.

However, there were no such demonstrations in Russia or Ukraine because Jewish people there could never become Russians or Ukrainians. And they still aren't fully so. They are happy that if the things get nasty and attacks against them begin, they always have a country to go to.

Although now the Fifth Paragraph has been abolished, its ugly heritage in the former Soviet states has not yet disappeared completely. The Jews can never truly be accepted as Ukrainians or Russians socially unless they start intermarrying with the indigenous population and then, only their grandchildren can feel like they truly belong. And slowly, but surely, it is happening. Over the next century many more "Hebrews" will intermarry. And it is not a bad thing. If you ask me, nothing good seems to have come out of being a person of "Jewish nationality" in those countries.

Israel also differentiates between Nationality and Citizenship.

You thought Israel would be a country that would not adopt the blood laws after all the problems that these had caused to Jews in Europe. It did. In Israel, there is again a "nationality"- either you are an "Arab" or a "Jew"; and then there is a "citizenship"- "Israeli". So, Arabs there can have the 'citizenship' but not the "nationality". Looks like the Jews borrowed the same very ugly Jus Sanguinis principle from Europe and superimposed it on the Middle East, a region that traditionally never practiced it except in the cases of modern Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and other Gulf states but even then it has been a very recent phenomenon.

Did the Jews know any better when they set up that nationality system? Maybe not. After all it was like that in Poland. Let’s create the same system here, too.

A yet another unexpected twist- Jews looking down on each other in the new land.

After Israel was established in 1948, a yet new identity was formed, a whole new concept- "a native-born Israeli". A "Sabra"- cactus, that is - supposedly a modern Israeli person, who just like a cactus is "tough on the outside, but soft on the inside". He is Hebrew-speaking, he usually does not know much about life of Jews in other countries and sometimes he looks with condescension on immigrants from outside of Israel. "We are warriors, we fought for this country, we are Israelis. And you are all "Russians". We don't like you- go back to Russia".

Can you just imagine that? You take one group of people that were persecuted so much and you put them together in one place and, guess what happens?-almost immediately they start forming a pecking order amongst themselves- "I was born here! You weren't". "I was here before you, but I am poor and now you come here and you get subsidies from the government, but I don't get anything". The Jews who were "Hebrews" in the USSR, were now "Russians" in Israel. Some are now even being beat up by those who are supposed to be their brothers- of the same blood as them. Jewish police sometimes insult Jews from USSR by calling them "Rasputins", "Mafiosi", and "Russian pigs". There have been reports of them getting roughed up by the cops- the proud, "native-born Israelis".

Things are now different in Europe, too.

Things have also changed in Europe but for the better, at least, as far as the Jewish situation goes. Many of the countries that used to persecute Jews and treat them as foreigners, no longer do so as much. If there are haters, they now unleash their xenophobic fury on the new Arab, African and Asian immigrants. Many Europeans would even prefer that the Jews were back, as the Poles, the Germans and the Russians now have to face these newly arrived groups that are even more different and even less assimiliable than the Jews. At least, the Jews knew the local culture. and the Europeans were also somewhat used to the Jewish ways. They were part of the landscape for so long. They were better than these fanatical Chechens and not as different from us as the Africans that are now coming in droves to our shores. And these are the devils we don't know.

The US and the UK are now starting to export their concept of multiculturalism and tolerance to the traditionally intolerant societies of Central and Eastern Europe. Germany is inviting Jews to come back. And the new importance of money is changing things, too. Now a Jew can go to Ukraine with money and marry a beautiful local girl. Many no longer care about him being Jewish. There are still anti-Semites and occasional hate attacks, but things are getting better. From the long term point of view, Jus Sanguinis in Eastern Central Europe is destined to be a thing of the past, something that most people will one day forget about. And racial hatreds of yesteryear will one day be also forgotten, for sure.

The Jus Sanguinis is no longer on government law books, even though it still raises its ugly head in informal situations. With the present or upcoming EU membership, a lot of things have become different and more things will change in the future. Turks in Germany are now Turk-Germans. Russia and Ukraine have identity documents that just say: “Citizen of Ukraine” or “Citizen of Russia”. As they have to adopt EU standards to prepare for either entry into, or some associate status with the EU, “Blood Laws” are now being replaced by “Soil Laws“- the Russians have begun to replace the ethnic name “Russki” with “Rossiyanin”- a term that can be applied to anyone who is a citizen of Russia and/or who was born there. Things are definitely getting better.

Tens of thousands of Jews are going back to Germany and Russia. Many are now buying property in Ukraine. The Jewish heritage of many European cities is being revived. It is just a pity that there was so much suffering for such a long time, and that so many lives have been ruined. Maybe the Arabs were right, maybe these Jews should be called 'Europeans', after all?

What could have been done in the past to prevent the Palestinian tragedy?

America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina as well as all the other countries in the Americas could have taken more Jews in. Jews could have converted to Christianity and stayed in Spain without ever reaching Germany or the Russian Empire. They would have been accepted and could have become good Spaniards. They could have converted to Islam and become as Arabian as all the other Arabs while they were in North Africa. Didn't many do so? Some people say that many Palestinians are simply descendants of Jews who converted to Islam a long time ago. Many even have that traditional Jewish look but names such as Ali or Mohammed.

They could have all gone to France after the French Revolution when the revolutionaries declared that all people in France who had allegiance to the Republic were now Frenchmen.

European countries could have adopted the "Jus Solis" law and declared all those Jews just Poles and Russians and Germans. They did not. Hence, you have the mess on your hands that you see on TV every day.

Arab countries could have taken in more Palestinian refugees and naturalized them after the Arab-Israeli conflict took place, too. It surely would have helped.

Jus Sanguinis still exists in some places.

While many countries, including Germany have abolished Jus Sanguinis, some countries still practice it. In Gulf Arab countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Arabs from poorer countries, and also, children of African immigrants cannot get the local citizenship/nationality even if they were born there. Beduin tribes in Kuwait who cannot prove that they are from well-established Kuwaiti families remain stateless. Kuwait expelled most of its Palestinian population after the first Gulf War( many of whom were born in Kuwait) because its leaders decided that these Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein. In Saudi Arabia, many children of immigrants from Chad and other Arab countries are still not Saudis. Born and raised there, but not Saudis. Why?

In Japan, children and grandchildren of Korean immigrants still have hard time getting jobs, apartments and participating in the Japanese society because they are not Japanese. Some African countries such as Zimbabwe abuse that law, as well, by refusing to naturalize children of foreign-born parents.

And even though Russia has been making progress by abolishing the fifth paragraph, If you do a search anywhere on the ethnic composition of the population of Russia, particularly in the CIA World Fact Book, you will clearly see that the Russians up until this day say that only some 80% or so of the population of the country are Russians. All others are not considered to be. It is no longer a legal stance but it is still mentioned. Why?

Even in countries where non-indigenous population can obtain citizenship, they are still not treated equally from the social perspective. They have problems finding work, places to live, friends and mates. Such things happen to children of Indians, Pakistanis and Arabs in various European countries. Jews who have stayed in the former Soviet countries no longer suffer legal discrimination against them, but it may be a long time before the local people from those countries start considering them as their true nationals.

All that shows that while the law may be waning, and things may be changing, the cultural practices of Jus Sanguinis are still lingering. When will they ever go away completely? Do you want me to be optimistic? I will say, several generations - a century or two.

Conclusion

Those who take sides in the Middle Eastern conflict by listening to only one side and not studying the whole issue are really missing the point. They also waste energy on hating the "bad guys" on each side. In addition to that, everyone's perspective is clouded and slanted because of one's own cultural background and the tendency to see events from one's own cultural perspective. People tend to simplify such a multi-faceted problem as this.

Many plead for Israel's right to the land because they are either Jewish themselves, or have close friends who are Jewish. Many Muslims and politically correct Westerners support the Palestinians. Blames are often directed against the British, the Muslim fanatics, the religion of Islam, the United States interests in the area, the militant Jewish settlers, the hawkish leaders of the Knesset and other such villains.

However, very few know about the profound role that the Eastern and Central European countries such as Poland, Romania, the Russian Empire (and the USSR) and many others played in driving millions of their Jews into Palestine; Jews who were born and bred in those countries. They did that by instituting against them a policy of persecution based on the legal principle of Jus Sanguinis. These nations have not taken any blame for what is happening in the Middle East and it has rarely occurred to anyone, including the Arab leaders, to at least say to them: "Quit kicking your Jews out and onto our lands". Their part in creating a huge Jewish population in Palestine is hardly, if ever, discussed and has almost never been brought up in any important public debate.

The sanctimoniousness of those countries is seen in how arrogantly and phonily they talk about self-determination for the Palestinians, while it was their governments and churches who practically made the Jews emigrate from the countries; the places where they had lived for generations, in order to seek shelter in that arid Middle Eastern land called Palestine.

Although many Jews are returning to Eastern and Central Europe, those countries still have Jewish populations that are miniscule compared to what they used to be in the past, and while some Jews are happy to re-embrace the lands of their births, many of the locals still treat them as outsiders. Poland has only a few thousand elderly Jews left and not many Jews are going back to Poland. The government and the general public of Ukraine consistently refuses to consider local, native-born Jews as Ukrainians. Citizens of Ukraine, yes. Ukrainians, no! Few real steps are taken to bring to justice many anti-Semitic elements in the country that consistently publish slanderous articles against the Jews in the press further fanning inter-ethnic hatred in the country. The strange mechanism set into motion by those racist organizations still feeds on human suffering and creates a sadistic loop of these malicious steps: 1) Slander the Jews so that they get discriminated against and emigrate from the country. 2) Let them go to Israel and push out more Palestinians. 3) Let more Palestinians get displaced and rebel against the Jews.4) Let the Jews fight back and more Palestinians get killed, 5) Now the anti- Semites can slander Jews again and more of them again can get discriminated against. 6)They again emigrate to Israel in even greater numbers, push out more Palestinians and the World Zionist Conspiracy is blamed. More weapons are then sold to both sides. More funds are channeled to terrorists. A vicious cycle. Who suffers in the end? The innocent Palestinians and the innocent Israelis.

Bullets are still flying, Palestinian children die, terrorists blow up and kill innocent Jewish people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Bearded and bespectacled, mature-looking commentators with PhDs talk about aggression and terrorism committed by each side. Fanatical Muslim and Jewish elements continue to plot murderous acts against each other.

Establishing a state in Palestine called " Israel" may not have been a wise step, but the policy by the Central and Eastern Europeans to treat the Jews as a nation from that ( the Middle Eastern) part of the world, and to refuse to acknowledge them as their own nationals, was one of the principal factors that forced compelled the Jews to take that step. Now, the Jews in Israel are paying for their ancestors' difficult decision to build such a country on the land that the local Arabs considered their own, by living under the constant threat of terror attacks in a society devoid of peace.

Will Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Romania, and other such states, ever apologize for making their own countries "Jew- free" by simply dumping their Jews on the Arabs in the Middle East, while causing great sufferings to both the Jews and the Arabs? Will the Palestinian leaders ever realize that this is one of the main reasons why all these people are on their land, and understand who is partially to blame? Will there be huge demonstrations in every Arab and Muslim capital in front of the embassies of the Russian Federation, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Romania with youngsters in Hamas and Hizbullah uniforms shaking fists in the air and carrying slogans?

That would be a sight to behold, wouldn't it?