There is no Biz like God Biz!

MUST READ!

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  There is no Biz like God Biz!

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By Hany Ghoraba

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=== For centuries Islam in Egypt managed to maintain a moderate stance that inspired other nations from all around the world. During the darkest periods of religious wars in Europe, Egypt maintained tolerance to with Muslims alongside Christians and Jews living together in harmony. All monotheistic religions were tolerated and practiced freely for centuries all the way till 1952 coup d’etat . ===
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Part A Posted April 14, 2012  http://goo.gl/sPGll

Part B Posted April 16, 2012  http://goo.gl/5qBIr
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Just finished reading Joseph Agassi's:-  
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"Religion and Nationality"

 Towards an Israeli National Identity

--Bein Dat U'Leum: Likrat Zehut Leumit Yisraelit.--

Papyrus, 1984

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. . Enlightenment-Education & Freedom from religion .

This book was written in the shadow of the air of distress and despair which is spreading throughout Israel, a country which many of its residents think is progressively deteriorating. The book was written in 1984 and is even more relevant today, in 2012. Identifying the spreading distress and despair is important forunderstanding the proper ways to heal and repair it. Israel is now in an extremely abnormal and difficult situation --Israeli governments have refused to recognize the existence of an Israeli nation and so cannot see the existence of the state as an instrument of political initiative and as a tool in the service of the nation and citizens who residewithin its borders. The lack of normality in Israel stems from ignoring the national interest of Israelis. Israel sees itself not as the land of theIsraeli nation, but as the land of the Jews scattered throughout many other countries. Therefore Israeli has no prime mission of concern for the welfare of the Israeli nation (which it does not recognize); it is concerned for the welfare of the Jewish diaspora, a situation which is impossible because these people live in the diaspora as citizens of other countries. Since the declaration of Israel's independence, the progression of changes which was seen as natural and accepted throughout Jewish history was utterly distorted and chaos ensued. At first the traditional Jewish nation was a collection of scattered communities unified by a religion, a culture, and an ethnicity. This changed with the rise of modern nationalism, which began in modern Europe and America, because the modern nations assimilated the Jews as their own sons and daughters. An exception was Eastern Europe, where Jews were not permitted to join the local nationalist movements and instead formed a Jewish nationalist movement which aimed at creating a new Jewish nation with an independent state within geographical boundaries; these movements became the Zionist movement. When this aspiration was fulfilled, as happened to other nations, there should have been an announcement of the new Israeli nation and the revocation of the Jewish nation. (Revocation of the nation but not of the religion, culture, and ethnic identity.) The advantage to this would have been that the existence of an Israeli nation would support and strengthen the existence of Jews of other nationalities, as Herzl envisioned it. It would have added a new dimension: Jewish political policy (without the revocation of the traditional elements of religion, culture, and Jewish ethnicity.) Had the leaders of Israel truly aspired to fulfill these hopes and found a normal state, they should have announced the start of a new Israeli nation as heir to the movement's political hopes and as its embodiment; they did not do so. The leaders of Israel do not recognize the changes and exchanges which have taken place in the modern world -- the development of liberal democratic nation-states which are concerned with the welfare of its citizens -- and remain with the viewpoint of the pre-national world. They treat it as one largeJewish ghetto, and maintain an army to keep the Jewish community concentrated within it. The Jewish nation remains scattered throughout the nations but isunited, be it by a shared religion, shared culture, or shared ethnicity. It lacks nationality in the modern sense. In the modern world its sons and daughters belong to various nations. Some of its children have an additional plot of land guarded by a Jewish army, but without its own nationality. This is Israel's single innovation -- a ghetto for members of the Jewish religion,guarded by a Jewish army. As a state of a religion-nation, Israel recognizes only the Orthodox stream of Judaism while adopting the fiction of religious equality which allows it to ignore its children who are organized into communities which are not Orthodox, much less its children which are not Jewish at all. The only solution which could save Israel from the chaos in which it languishes is to draw a distinction between members of the Israeli nation and members of the Jewish religion and to separate government of the nation from that of the community, separate religious institutions from the state. Thus Israel can try to fulfill the dreams of thefathers of emancipation: renewal and revival of an ancient race returning to its soil. Israel must recognize the Israeli nation and an Israeli national identity whose purpose it is to establish a government which will be concerned for the welfare of the nation and the benefit of its children while revoking the mystical messianic goals in whose name the governments of Israel have professed to preserve the members of the Jewish religion, culture, and ethnicity throughout the world.

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