If the truth be told, most of the Arab-speaking world aren't Arabs. They may be called Arabs, yes, but they aren't. Mesopotamia is inhabited by the descendants of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians. Canaan (I will choose the most neutral term for the land of Syria that is, roughly speaking, south of the Litani) is inhabited by the same people that inhabited it in antiquity. So is Egypt, and so is Turkey.
And I largely agree with the rest too, except that there is some Arab blood in most of those countries, surely. Places like Kufa and Baghdad were newly created under the Arabic regime, and largely peopled by Arabs. In Northern Africa, one would imagine the initial amount of Arabs was rather limited, but there have been migrations of Arab tribes to Egypt and even to the Maghreb in later centuries, such as the famous Banu Hilal.
And in Turkey's case, do the Turkish migrations from the Altaic mountains matter so little in terms of genetic ancestry?
Jacqueline Rose on the Dreyfus affair and related problems, in the LRB
06/06/2010 11:28:14 AM
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*remains amused at the suggestion of the Dreyfus Affairs "pertinence" to "current" events*
06/06/2010 05:14:23 PM
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I agree in part and (strongly) disagree in part.
06/06/2010 05:40:26 PM
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"If it's an eternal struggle, how could there ever be a solution or a peace?"
06/06/2010 06:20:39 PM
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Purim may or may not refer to a historic event. Even if it does, Haman was not likely an Arab.
07/06/2010 12:00:05 AM
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I second your main point.
07/06/2010 12:09:42 AM
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I don't discount that there is Arab blood in many or even most "Arabs".
07/06/2010 12:18:32 AM
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The holiday is centuries old and real, regardless.
07/06/2010 12:28:59 AM
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You're still missing the major point here.
07/06/2010 12:44:08 AM
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That seems a rather limited view of history.
07/06/2010 01:10:11 AM
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I (coincidentally) stumbled across those infamous hadith passages about Jews the other day.
07/06/2010 09:41:39 AM
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So?
07/06/2010 10:50:49 PM
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are you claiming that people would pull some things out of holy text and ignore the rest?
08/06/2010 12:16:41 PM
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well, for me this just proves why we are not supposed to live among non-Jews
06/06/2010 11:39:45 PM
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couldn't get past the part where anyone who opposes Obama is a racist *NM*
08/06/2010 01:40:07 AM
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You hallucinated? *NM*
08/06/2010 08:39:37 AM
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No, that would've been one of the places where she should've shut up. *NM*
08/06/2010 08:58:11 AM
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No
08/06/2010 09:08:04 AM
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I think he's not talking about that bit, but about the very first paragraph.
08/06/2010 09:30:21 AM
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If there was more I didn't get far enough to hear it
08/06/2010 12:09:47 PM
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That's the problem with the speech - the large majority of what she had to say was worthwhile.
08/06/2010 01:15:39 PM
- 693 Views