I would like to commend Prime Minister Netanyahu for taking a strong stand against the discrimination which Ethiopian Jews have experienced in Israel. I can't say I have always been his fan. He certainly can speak like a boor at times. But in this matter he has been right on.
When I was a young man I once asked my mother just out of curiosity, "would you rather I marry a girl who is Black and Jewish or one who is White and Gentile?" Her answer was "Black and Jewish because she would be one of us." It was not just a matter of religion. It was a matter of usness (identity). Although today most Jews live in North America where we are free of the worst excesses of anti-Semitism and in Israel where Jews are the majority, this feeling of Jewish identity was hammered into us by 2 millennia of being an outcast minority of us to a surrounding majority which did not accept us as part of their us.
I am sure that the time will come when all Jews in Israel will assimilate as one Jewish people. It is also important for the security of Israel that the feeling of usness will extend to all the citizens of Israel, Jewish or not.
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