Rich, since the 9/11 Muslim-terror atrocities in the U.S., how much study have you committed yourself to on Islam? Have you read any good objective scholars on the subject? Scholars that are not apologists for Islam? Perhaps you might begin your search here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/ This has nothing to do with race or racism. Islam is not a race. Because Islam's 'holiest' book calls for faithful Muslims to slaughter, convert and / or subjugate Jews - because we are considered sons of apes and pigs according to the Qur'an - it seems to me Jews have sufficient cause for concern. Don't we?

Maybe I should not have exempted "life" itself from my list. Only when devout Muslims say the 'Jews love life as much as we love death', they may be on to something. The law of Moses (the Torah) is indeed life-affirming, while the Qur'an celebrates martyrdom and death. The sacfifice of one's life (as you say, for the sake of God) may be one's only choice; yet it is not to be celebrated nor desired according to my reading of our scriptures. You wrote, "the major difference between Muslims and Jews: In Judaism, the educated rabbi acts as supreme judge, as a middleman between God and man...." Not according to this Jew. Israel's chief rabbi, Moshe Rabbenu, did not seek, nor did God seek that he be a middleman between God and man (or between God and the Israelites). It was 'the people' that demanded this of Moses. "All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin." (Exodus chapter 20) There is no requirement that Jews seek a middleman between God and man. God is our judge. We are talking about Christianity when we speak of a middleman or a mediator between God and man.

מזדהה עם מאמרך, וחבל שקול כמו שלך שייך למיעוט ונשאר בדרך כלל כקול קורא במדבר חג שמח יהושע זילבר

The idea that Jews can be united is absurd. There is a chasm between religious and secular that is unbridgeable . The religious believe that Adam and Eve were put there by a creator , in fact they see the world through the eyes of an ancient brain of 5000 years ago which in reality understood nothing in terms of science or even questioning the given belief of their time. All religion spells disaster for mankind simply because it bestows some sort of ridiculous favoritism on its followers.

You are so right, like that religious Mathmetician Professor Auman

Jews didn't demand Israel's chief rabbi, Moshe Rabbenu to be the middleman, unless they were blinding him from their planes to worship the golden calf. Hagigah 27a. States that no rabbi can ever go to hell. Baba Mezia 59b. A rabbi debates God and defeats Him. God admits the rabbi won the debate.

idomeans were not arabs, they were cnaanites, and they were part of the judean kingdom. the story about how the rebels overcame king herods soldiers is a nice story, but so totaly untrue, since the revolt against the romans happened 75 years after king herods death. king herod didn't build the second temple, the second temple was built 500 years before herod's birth. the rest of your post is filled with nonesence, but i would like to adress this notion i seem to read from your posts about the origins of people who do not exist you sure do have a nerve to make claims on things that can't be tested, and this is the most obvious example since mans origin is from the ape and then first man was found in africa, you can say that as much as africans are arabians, so are africans cnaanites, and russians, and assians etc.. but then again, if cnaanites were arabians in stone age is still unknown. maybe they were asians? maybe they were europeans? their ancient cities resemble other stone age cities of the mediteranean & since cnaanites no longer exist, no one can tell genetically, except those that decide they can make history as they go along... in late iron age (13th century bce) moses had led the jews to cnaan, where cnaanite tribes were the constant dwellers on the land for thousands of years. since then the cnaanites have mixed with jews in israel & judea for 1500 years of jewish majority. the cnaanites did no mix with the arabs in israel and judea, as the land was taken by the jews and not by arabs at all. all the cnaanite tribes that were present are accounted for by many sources. there are many sources to confirm the data asbout the jews also. anyway, the edomites have become jews, they were the last cnaanite people too become a part of judea. the philistines were thought to have dissapeared in king davids times that's 1000 years before jesus was born, but they excavated ekron and found what probably was a philistine ritual place from 6th century bce, which means that after 6th century philistines have merged into jewish majority. as for roman skeletons in masada, it is not proven they were or were not jewish. it is believe by 77% they were jewish through c-14 tests that were carried out on the fabric. see Jerusalem Post, Sept 20, 1991 as well as the Addendum, "Human Skeletal Remains from the Northern (sic) Cave at Masada—A Second Look" by Joseph Zias, Dror Segal, and Israel Carmi, Masada: Final Reports, Vol. IV, pp. 366-367

what are you talking about? 1 incident of arab attacking a jew and we send f16? is that a new label or have your minds froze in canada? there are jewish areas and arab areas in canadians cities, and don't say it's not so, only in quebeq you can't get by unless you know both languages. try put french people like celine dion's family in an english city and they wont get by. in other parts of canada people get by knowing only english. and these people weren't fighting against each other for centuries. still, 10 years ago quebeq wanted independence, and some of them refuse to speak in english. try to take an arab who studied only in arabic at school in israel, all his mind is set against israel, and put him in a jewish neighbourhood... you are funny.

Around 19 BCE, Herod began a massive renovation and expansion of the Second Temple complex. The Temple itself was torn down and a new one built in its place. what do yo call a complete dismantling and rebuilding by Herod? Herod was never Jew, but a Torah observant; just like the majority of Ashkenazim converts who came Khazaria. You cant call a Jew Jew if you cant prove the otherwise. The skeletons and hair braids at the Masada have been proved Jewish: http://www.uhl.ac/blog/?m=200706 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286607,00.html

I'm an atheist, but I have to tell you that your comment about the "primitive racial myths of Judaism" is offensive and intolerant. And as far as being in harmony with the rest of the world, Americans, for instance, are far more religious than Israelis are...much to my dismay.

i am sorry if my statement offended you it was merely meant to point out the Jewish definition through the mothers origiin. Most other religions glady accept converts As far as i know Judasism is about the only religion that rejects even those who desperately wish to convert and accept its laws. Hower aside from this, coming from a thoughly jewish family myself and being brought up to accept that somehow we were specially chosen by god whilst in harsh reality we were only chosen for abuse, does make me question the aspect of that particular myth ,

what's bad in the article??? what's sound in the desert?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,425687,00.html ethnic khazars were assimilated by Turkic speaking tribes, Tatars and Mongols. This is the view taken by Israeli and Russian archeologists. Jews came to Russia from central Europe as late as the 20th century because of world wars. many of whom followed the footsteps of the jews that were pouring into Russia because of persecutions in Europe, and the opportunities presented by Russians who invited jews to come to develop Russia since middle ages. Some jews came to Russia from iraq and iran. As for herod the great http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07289c.htm king herod the great was idumean, and the idumeans were a part of judea long before king herod the great was born. after him was another king herod of judea, and as his father before him was considered idumean too, because the grandfather was idumean. even though his mother was from samaria (shomron), he was named antipas after the grandfather antipatros the idumean. The Samaritans were the only people that the romans didn’t really touch, but the idumeans took a part of the jewish revolt against the romans, and were expelled or killed like all other jews. Today there are secular jews, and jews with all kinds of degrees of belief, and all kinds of customs and traditions, brought from all over the world, and all are considered jewish none the less. western semitic tribes like cnaanites and the jews, merged for many centuries culturally in a small area (cnaan, Israel ,Judea), and therefore created a culture that jews from all over the world can recognize as jewish.

As far as I'm concerned, after the Inquisition, the pogroms and the Holocaust, the next time I hope to hell God chooses somebody else. But, having said that, I thought your comment was unduly harsh because "chosen" doesn't denote any sort of superiority, rather it was that the Jews were chosen to spread the word of God (or something like that) but, unfortunately, this misinterpretation has been used to heap ignominy on the Jews for centuries. Also, as far as Jews rejecting converts, that's not quite accurate. Admittedly, they don't make it easy, but that's because they want to be sure the prospective convert is really serious about accepting Judaism. And while I personally feel that the stringent requirements for an Orthodox conversion are extreme, that's a problem for Israel to deal with since there are other options such as a Reform or Conservative conversion. In fact, it's probably time to end the monopoly of the Orthodox since the vast majority of Israelis aren't Orthodox to begin with.

itill the jewish capital with no jewish artifacts at all... how can they claim they were jews?