Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 41 No. 21. August 28 1978

The "Children of Israel"

The "Children of Israel"

Carson then went on to examine "the five main arguments the Zionists have used to justify the existence of Israel". The first justification he looked at was the biblical promise. "But who are the children of Israel?" Carson claimed that in that context the Arabs were also the Children of Israel. But if it meant Jews, he went on, how might one determine who were the Jews that were the Children of Israel? "There is no single factor which determines Jews", he argued, "one cannot point to any characteristic which could be used to recognise all Jews." He went on to say that the Eastern Jews are not descended from Moses, but from Kazad who converted to Judaism in 740. In that sense he said it is meaningless to talk about the Jews of Eastern Europe having Israel as their historic homeland. "Ultra-orthodox Jews don't support the return to Israel. [ unclear: Judaism] is a religion, it has nothing to do with states, much less a state taken and held by force."

Prison fro Palestinian Arabs in Israel