>
> Is this a joke?
>
> Are you seriously suggesting that the actions of Hebrew tribesmen
> 3,000 years ago have some bearing on the present state of Israel?
I don't see what's so surprising about that. After all, the writings of those Hebrew tribesmen form the basis of a moral, ethical, and even historical outlook for millions of people today-- and not only those who run the state of Israel. Also, consider the degree to which basic citizenship in Israel requires a lineage from those same "Hebrew tribesmen."
Yes, three thousand years is a long time. But where else in the world is there such continual re-citing of three-millennia-old legends and battles? I don't think China dwells on any history older than three or four centuries, Egypt's glorious past as the Kingdom of the Nile doesn't seem to affect its current politics, and as for the remnants of Mayan and Aztec civilizations of the era, well, forget it. Only in the Levant (and _The 700 Club_) does one see events of more than a thousand years ago turning up in modern political debate.
> As an aside, I find it interesting that to accuse the Jews of genocide
> one must go back three millenia. It would be nice if this were true
> for all the earth's peoples, wouldn't it.
And it would be nice to ask if there's a statute of limitations on genocide. I'm sure there are Germans who are wondering when they don't have to labor under the legacy of the Holocaust-- after all, if the mass murder of the Amalekites can be forgotten or forgiven or thrown into the dustbin of history, then why not they?