The poster above claims that as a Jew one has an obligation to other Jews. This is how ‘treason’ is constructed in times of conflict. If i chose to save someone not from my ‘nation’ I am a traitor.
Being Norwegian, I am happily far away from a situation where I will ever be labeled a traitor (although it happens frequently enough if one participates in online discussions where ‘the good of the country’ is criticies – ie. not being anti-immigration), which means I will stay miles away from that reference to shooting rockets, but I feel a lot more solidarity to like-minded people the world over than to just any Norwegian.

In the end, nationalism is about creating borders between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Like the poster above correctly states, when someone is not from ‘us,’ we have less of a responsibility to help them and that is ok. Too bad that most people the world over so readily embraces the idea.

Whether or not forming groups or categorizations is natural per se is something I’ll leave to the scientists to sort out–regardless, that tendency, if it is one, is sometimes useful, and sometimes useless. When we make the group too expansive, to the point that what we say is something held in common between all members is not actually held in common, then we make mistakes.

It may be so that in Jewish folklore there is animosity towards one figure or another. The same can be said about characters in Christian and Islamic liturgy. But would it not be a mistake for Jews to assume that those characters in the Bible actually have modern day parallels, or for Muslims to assume that those Jews referred to in some Qur’anic passages (the ones that were local to Mecca and Medina) are actually references to all the Jews throughout time immemorial? Or what about Christians blaming the death of Jesus on Jews contemporary to them, an idea that has fueled anti-semitism for ages? To me, all of these examples are examples of ‘racism,’ in addition to what you’ve said about what the Jewish people are and are not. Even with my examples above, are you really certain that if you approach every single Christian on this planet, they will tell you that they blame the Jews for Jesus’ death, and by Jews they mean their neighbors and colleagues, not that handful of people responsible for turning Jesus in (according to the prevalent narratives)?

I am not in a position to ask this person any more questions, but I am pretty sure by “They” they meant Jews, and not anything fancy like neo-cons etc. And I didn’t mean to assert that Jews are a distinct race–this question is muddled and something that Jewish scholars disagree on amongst themselves (who is Jewish?). But regardless of whether or not they are, they are often ‘racialized’ and treated as if they are one.

The real root of the problem of racism in America, and in the world, is the fact that people believe that there really is a scientific thing called “race”. Any attempt to divide people into races can only be subjective, bogus, and pseudo-scientific. The fact that you use the word “races” in your post only gives legitimacy to the notion of “race”, and implies that you think there really are some differences between these monolithic groups known as “races”, in which case it follows that some “races” must be better than others.

Obviously there are differences (visible and otherwise) among people, depending on where there ancestors lived, but these cannot logically lead to the categorization of people into races.
Anyone who does believe in this thing called race is, as you say, making a “logical error”, and I think this also makes them a racist.

I think it is important that we ask ourselves, “why is racism condemned so much in our society, and why is ‘racist’ such a dirty word to call someone?” The answer is that Racism(with a capital R) was the official ideology of the Nazi regime, and since they lost the war, racists are considered losers, and nobody wants to be a loser. If Germany had won the war, people would proudly call themselves racists(even if they were good-intentioned people arguing for noble causes like equality).

this website is interesting:
http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm

The second component of this issue is the human tendency to form groups. There are practical and evolutionary reasons for this. In a family people care for and look after one another. The concept of “nations” and “peoples” is merely an extension of this idea.

All too often, people confuse nationalism(or some other group-ism) with racism. This is the mistake of self-righteous academics like Judith Butler and Hanna Arendt. They fail to see how, by being a part of the Jewish people, a person has an obligation toward his fellow Jews (same goes for other groups).

Imagine you have to choose between saving the life of an innocent stranger or the life of your own brother. Any normal person would pick their own brother. This is not because they believe he is “racially superior” to the other person, but because you have a sense of love and loyalty to him. When Israelis bomb buildings containing rockets aimed at crowded Israeli cities, its not because they believe “Israeli blood is more precious than Lebanese blood”.

Also, please keep in mind that Jews do not consider themselves a “race”, and they were not considered a race by others until the Nazi’s invented “Racial Science”.

Anyway, I think that you are wrong when you dismiss the theory about Jews having a grudge against Babylon. In many ways, the Jewish people, as well as the state of Israel, ARE the culmination of many thousands of years of history. If you need evidence, look at the origin of any Jewish holiday, e.g. Passover, or maybe just read a Jewish religious text, such as the Babylonian Talmud.

It is true that there are many references to Nebuchadnezzar being a terrible person and an enemy of the Jews. This is not surprising, since he destroyed the first temple in Jerusalem and brought the Jews as captives to Babylon. When the Persians conquered Babylon, Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He is praised and honored and loved by the Jewish people.

Please ask your friend if this is the reason “They”(read neo-cons(read Jews)) want to attack Iran.