>In article <1993May10.162032.3955@colorado.edu> perlman@qso.Colorado.EDU (Eric S. Perlman) writes: >> >>In a word:  utter and complete horse puckey.  Look the term up in the >>dictionary. >  OK. Lets look into this. According to my dictionary, Zi-on-ism: an international movement orig. for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel.  Now, I do not support the establishment of nations based on religious  principles, while I support the establishment of nations based on cultural identities.  So. Here are some questions I have to ask for anyone to answer. My point is what someone said long time ago: In politics, like with men, it is important to distiguish between what they say they do and what they are actually doing.  1) My mother is Jewish (and so is my father). If I apply for the Law of Return, do I get in as a Jew trying to return to his land, from which my family was expelled about 2000 years ago? 2) If I go back, which nationality would my ID show? 3) If I decided to go back to the land from which my relatives had been  expelled 2000 years ago, but first I convert to any other religion, can I  apply to the law of Return as a member of the Jewish Nation or should I  apply as someone whose mother is Jewish? 4) Which nationality would show my ID in case 3)? 5) What has change in me between the day before and the day after I converted to loose my being part of the Jewish Nation? 6) Suppose I want to get married to my current wife, who is non-Jewish in Israel, how do I do it? 7) How would my situation change if I decided, after going back to Israel, to convert to Islam?   Now, here is one more question. I do believe that most people in a country do not care about politics. They just want to be left alone. Suppose my father is Arab. Suppose he was born in Palestine, in some place  which now is part of Israel. Suppose that his father, and his grandfather as well as 20 or 30 generations before him were born in that place. Now suppose there is a war of independence and my father, scared by all the fighting going on, tries to take his family to a place more secure, among  people he knows, who speak a language he understands, who worship the same god. Now, suppose that that place is some other Arab country.  And, now suppose that the war is over and that there is a new country created where my father used to live, and that that country is called Israel. And, that in that country, Jews from all over the world are received. And that people whose family left thet country 200 generation ago are recieved and granted full-citizenship. Should I, if I decided to go back to my father's land, where he was born as 20 or 30 generations of my family were born, have the right to go back and ask to be recognized in the same way those who are returning after 2000 years?  Then, finally, people ask me how I would define a Jew, but that is irrelevant. I am not talking about how I would define a Jew, but about how people in  Zionist organizations, and more important, in Israel, define a Jew. How would those who are Zionist define a Jew?      > >>     Eric S. Perlman 				 <perlman@qso.colorado.edu>  >>  Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder >