Israeli Ministers promote racist vision for Israel (and Judaism) http://mondoweiss.net/2011/08/israeli-ministers-promote-racist-vision-for-israel-and-judaism.html

In June of this year, Israeli President Shimon Peres convened a conference in Jerusalem called “Tomorrow 2011“, which was attended by intellectuals and industry leaders from all over the world. At one of the conference’s most well-attended panel discussions, two of the highest-ranking government ministers presided: Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Justice Minister Ya’akov Ne’eman.The panel in question dealt with a controversial issue: Will conversions officiated by non-ultra-Orthodox streams of Judaism be recognized by all of the governing bodies in Israel, which are dominated by the ultra-Orthodox? Most Jewish people living outside of Israel are non-Orthodox; but in Israel ,

the political establishment is beholden to ultra-Orthodox parties, who reject the legitimacy of the more liberal streams of Judaism.The two Israeli ministers who spoke on the panel, Yishai and Ne’eman, made scandalously racist remarks. Yishai touted non-existent scientific studies that purport to prove there is a ‘Jewish gene’, echoing eugenics theories first proposed by the Nazis. Ne’eman then warned that Africans must not be allowed to convert to Judaism, and repeated the disgusting refrain that Jews who assimilate are perpetuating a second Nazi Holocaust.

The preoccupation with a fictional Jewish race — maintaining its purity and increasing its numbers — represents the lowest form of fear-mongering and panders to our basest xenophobic instincts. Of course, it is inevitable that every ethno-cultural group will spawn its own racist extremists. But it is disappointing and pathetic that these Jewish supremacists are allowed to occupy positions of power in the Israeli government