>On Behalf Of Doug Henwood
>Hence the early urge toward Zionism.
>
> ...which ended up creating a state in which eligibility for
> citizenship was a matter of blood, not place of birth or allegiance...
Not a very accurate description for a country that has accepted folks ranging from Ethiopia to Russia - unless your idea of blood is so wide-ranging. Eligibility for citizenship is based on religion and anyone who converts to Judaism can become a citizen. The controversial part of Judaism is that once someone converts, all a woman's matrilinear descendants remain Jews, although this makes it little different from religions such as Hinduism. And it is simpler to convert to Judaism than to become a Brahmin.
Now theocratic rules for immigration may be unattractive for a range of reasons, but it seems no more objectionable than most rules for immigration in other countries, from German's long-time real blood rules to Canada auctioning off citizenship to the highest bidder.
Israel can rightly be condemned for treatment of the Palestinians, but accusations of racist immigration rules seems highly selective in a world of real race-based immigration rules. Israel is far more multi-racial than most countries, and that is largely due to its expansive immigration rules, which in their allowance for theocratic conversion are clearly based on allegiance.
-- Nathan Newman