Being Jewish

I HAVE NO INTEREST in despising the nation of Israel, nor anyone else, nor have I ever. But I despise arrogance, including my own, (except when it manifests in cats, as it inevitably does. As we know well, cats can be and usually are quite arrogant). We are all God's "chosen people", are we not"? If memory serves, there are only a few million Jewish people in the world, a vanishingly small minority. Because they have been systemticaly persecuted for centuries, most recently by Christians, they have justifiably developed an "us against the world" mentality. And if I were Jewish, or had converted to Judaism, I might be somewhat resentful of a Jewish rabbi who two thousand years ago suddenly appeared out of nowhere with the audacity to believe that he could in any way augment or improve upon an ancient, venerable religious, ethnic, and cultural group. An upstart, a trouble maker, bringing a radical and divisive message to a people deeply proud of their religious beliefs and traditions. Under these conditions, it is perfectly understandable why Joshua ben Joseph was rejected and murdered, under the pretext of justice. It is widely considered that the Romans crucified Christ. And indeed, they were in control, responsible by choice for all that took place within this remote, insignificant outpost of the Roman Empire. Others would have you believe that by convicting him and turning him over to the Romans for punishment, the ball was passed to the Romans,unfairly, and the Jews themselves crucified Christ. Your choice. Certainly there is enough blame to go around. As I understand it, the people of Abraham are still awaiting their messiah, in theory. But what need have they of one now, in modern times? Are not the centuries of the diaspora over? Have the children of Abraham not been brought back together, and given their promised land, fulfilling their own prophecy? I cannot recall ever having a friend or even an acquaintance of the Jewish faith-ethnicity. My loss. But, is Jewishness an ethnicty, race, or some seperate sub species of homo sapien sapiens? Opinions vary. Nobody seems to know for sure. I don't, and never have. I am ashamed of this, because I have a doctorate in modern European history, and should know better, should know the answer. So connected are the Hebrew people,conncected by their distinctly seperate religiosity and ethnicity,that they emerged as a seperate and distinct cultural entity, seperating themselves from all other Semites, a Semite being defined as anyone whose ancestors originated within the Arabian "penninsula", or land mass. Ironically, Jews, at their core, ethnically, are Arabs. Would it have been better for them and for the world had they, upon escaping their enslavement from Egyptan bondage, immediately scattered to the four corners of the flat Earth, taking their monotheistic religion with them? Their invention of monotheism is arguably their greatest contribution to history. Among their greatest achievements is that they stayed together geographically as long as possible, were scattered assunder by the vicissitudes and circumstances of history, and that even during the many centuries of their disapora of scattered seperation, remained intact as an identifiable ethnicity and religion both. And now, together again they are, or at least many of them, in the arid wasteland they claim was promised to them by God, and, verifiably, the United Nations. God is stingy, for he gave them a small piece or arid rock in the midst of a vast wasteland, a desolate desert of a homeland. They are gathered together in their super powerful nation state, made so by the American and British empires, and by Christian European guilt. Perhaps the monstrosities of Hitler had an unintended but desirable consequence. It reminded and reinforced the self described chosen people of their responsibilities to their creator,to their fellow humans, and, most importantly, to each other.