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From: matt@AMSAA.ARPA
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: Re: Press Censorship - really anti-Zionism
Message-ID: <12240609567.25.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sun, 21-Sep-86 01:16:35 EDT
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Posted: Sun Sep 21 01:16:35 1986
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Larry Campbell writes:

>Now, if Anti-Zionism finds Jews "uniquely undeserving" of a state,
>then I assume Zionists find that Jews "deserve" a state.  Well, then.
>Do Catholics "deserve" a state?  Shall we restore the Holy Roman
>Empire?  Do Moslems "deserve" a state?  Shall we restore the Ottoman
>Empire?  What makes Jews so unique in all this?  As far as I can see,
>it's because they have the only religion that thinks it deserves a
>state.  Somehow I thought that this was the twentieth century, and
>that theocracy was an outmoded concept.  Frighteningly, Israel and
>Iran are proving me wrong.

Yes, Catholics deserve a state, and they have several -- start with
Spain.  Yes, Moslems deserve a state, and they have several, most of
them more tolerant than, say, Algeria, where the law says you can't
*become* a citizen unless you're a Moslem, and more tolerant than
Jordan and Saudi Arabia, where Jews are flat out forbidden to live.
Saying that the Jews deserve a state is not the same as saying that
that state is, has to be, or even should be, a "theocracy" like Iran
(religion: Shiite Islam) or the Soviet Union (religion:
Marxism-Leninism).

Check out the constitutions of the European states of Christendom,
including Great Britain, and see how many have state religions.  Check
out the constitutions of the Arab states and see how many have state
religions, although they are not absolutist theocracies like Iran.
Here in America, we have built the United States as a place for people
who don't want a state religion, by including the Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment in our fundamental law.  That doesn't mean that
we should impose our structure on Catholics, Protestants, or Jews who
want state religions in their countries.

                                                -- Matt Rosenblatt
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