The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93785   Message #1813307
Posted By: artbrooks
18-Aug-06 - 05:49 PM
Thread Name: BS: Israel European?
Subject: RE: BS: Israel European?
The numbers at the Jewish Virtual Library are essentially the same as Wikopedia's. The numbers you quoted, which are the ethnicity percentages, indicate that about a quarter of Israelis (32.1% of 80.1% is 25.7%) are "European/American, which is still hardly a majority. I these numbers are suspect, since there is no allowance for any ethnic merging. Most Israelis (68% of 80.1%, or 54.5% plus 19.9% non-Jews, for a total of 74.4%) were born in Israel. Or would you consider an Israeli with one European-born grandparent "of European descent?" Or 2? Or 3? Or 4? How about the ones descended from Europeans who immigrated in the 1800s? The 1700s? That all sounds as racist to me as the idea that any Black American with any fraction of African descent cannot possibly be "white", whatever that word means.

All of which has nothing whatever to do with why Israel plays in European football leagues.