Gordon:
> In general, what right does a person have to be anywhere?
Forstater, Mathew:
> a farmer or pastoralist whose family has tilled the soil or herded
> livestock for generations as a basic mode of subsistence has a right to
> continue that way of life in the face of an invasion by outsiders
> carrying bibles and/or guns. no?
I don't know. I don't think too many of us would have a right to be anywhere under that sort of rule. Very, very few of _my_ ancestors have tilled any soil in a serious way going back _quite_ a few generations.
The primary reason most of the Ashkenazis wound up in Palestine was that some Germans didn't think they had any right to be in Germany -- a certain lack of soil-tilling was probably mentioned there as well. Of course they learned their lesson and made the desert bloom, etc.
Maybe I should buy a hoe or something.