On Fri, 22 Mar, pradeep quoted Norman Finkelstein as saying:
"Dr David Rabeeya (Iraqi born American rabbi), talks of a caste system in Israeli society, where the Arabs are clearly at the bottom, but also the non European Jews are considered to be of lesser value. He claims that the wholesale importation of Russian Jews was to ensure the demographic majority of secular European Jews over their Sephardic countrymen for generations to come."
That is partly true. There certainly was a base intention by the Ashkenazis to gain allies against the Sephardim and their much higher birth rate. But
(1) it had as much to do with the fight against increasing religification of every day life as anything else (religosity vs. secularism being one of the fundamental faultlines between the Ashkenazi and Sephardim). And this provided much of the reason why allowing large number of non-Jewish relatives was something the Ashkenazis fought for. They thought it would provide an unshakeable base for secularism. And fighting for the broad interpretation of the right of return -- against the Sephardic rabbis, who want to vet the newcomers by religious tests -- was in itself considered a blow for secularism.
(2) it completely failed. The Russians seem more allied with the Sephardim every election, thanks to their enormous, Russia-derived, ethnic nationalism. The clever Ashkenazi hoist themselves with their own petard.
Finkelstein continues:
"There is some truth to that, because a large percentage of the so-called 'Russian Jews' are not Jewish. In recent years, it has been more than 50%, and the reason why is because the Israeli establishment likes the blue eyed, blonde haired Aryan types as a racial group."
Anyone who thinks most Russian Jews are blond haired and blue eyed has never seen many. And where does earth does Norm get the idea that most non-Russian Ashkenazi Jews look like that? Brown hair is lot more common for both groups. So are brown eyes. Isn't that what he looks like?
Michael