Does American law determine who is American and who is not? Does Russian law determine who is Russian and who is not?
Yes, but an American can become a Russian at will. A Jew cannot become a gentile no matter how hard he tries,
Yes, that's right but that is irrelevant to the point I just made. You agree that it is American law that allows an Russian to become a American, and Russian law that allows an American to become Russian. And it is American law that decides who is and is NOT an American to begin with. And if he's not, he has to go through a naturalization process to become one.
As far as I know, American law does
not allow an American to become a North Korean. Or at least North Korean law does not. But again, that is irrelevant. The point is the same. A gentile CAN become a Jew, based on the parameters set by the Jewish nation. And the Jewish nation always sets its parameters based on what G-d outlined for us in the Torah and the halacha.
Nonsensical. Judaism is not a race. We are a group of people descended matrilineally from the tribes of Yaakov. (Including a class of kohanim descended patrilineally from Aaron, etc). That is sufficient. Why do you need it to be a race?
Well, replace race with ethnicity. Ethincally we are a sub-race known as the Hebrews. Who was the original Jew? an Arab? that's what we are then.
Genetically in that sense, yes we are "Arab"-like. But we are not defined merely by genetics. That's the whole point. We are Jewish. You want to change the word race to ethnicity. Well ok. Then my question has a new word in it. Why do you need it to be an ethnicity?
And even if we are genetically similar to Arabs, or originally we were genetically Semitic, that has changed! Jews who went to different areas acquired the characteristics of different places and different peoples.
Why do you take them to be true.
Because nowhere in history have Jews came forward and said, "Hey gentiles, we are not a race, we are just people of the ____ race who choose to practice this religion".
Why would they have had to say that? In any case, it's also not true. Jews are a people of mixed races. The race part is irrelevant. The whole point is that race is irrelevant. Especially since we ended up in different places, our "races" changed. It is a question of whether you can trace matrilineal descent from Jewish ancestry, or whether you converted to join this nation. Yes, we are different from other nations and how they define themselves. And we are distinct based on our own definition which we received from the Torah.
That being said, a Polish person is similar in "race" to a Ukrainian person. But they consider themselves very different. And the Polish considers himself Polish based on a number of characteristics, not just how he looks, and they are of his own definition. This includes political realities and identity. The Polish never announced to the world, hey world we are not our own race but just happen to be the Polish nation. Nobody does that. Because that is silly.
So yes, antisemitism is not a truthful thing. In that sense, it is a fiction. It is not justified. I realize this surprises you. But the phenomenon of certain people having a hatred for Jews does exist.
I understand this, but I just want you to look at the term, anti-semite, if Jews attribute this to us we would have to be idiots not to know it means anti-people of the semitic race.
Who is "us" ? You seem to be exposing yourself here as having a different association with SF then you first claimed.
And you're wrong. It doesn't mean "anti people of the semitic race." That was merely the term psychologists and/or sociologists first used to describe the phenomenon of Jew-hatred. Of course the gentiles considered us a race in their inaccurate racial hatred. So they were quick to latch onto this term and in part to try to justify themselves. But that doesn't make it so.
Once again, Jew-hating gentiles and neonazis consider Jews to be a race and you are quick to accept their claims. I am not quick to do so, and I do not do so.
It would then just be anti-Jew, like anti-Islam and anti-Christian.
No, again you are misunderstanding. Being Jewish is not
just a religion. Just like the continuation of the jewish people is not based on "faith." It is a mistake to think this way. It is not merely that someone believes a certain thing he is a Jew. We are a religion and also a nation. It is a dual nature to our identity, and if that is different from how other people define themselves, so be it. We were given the Torah to be a different nation than the others. We are unique. Nothing wrong with that.
And if you mean 'antisemite' really means "Jew-hater" and is an imprecise term to really say Jew-hater then yes I agree with you.