Beach Runner wrote:
> The Torah except for a few evangelist is not considered a literal
> document. Besides, Judaism was recreated when the Jews were thrown out
> of their homeland. It has never been anyone else's homeland.

Explain that to the Palestinians.

> The dietary laws were one of the factors that have kept the Jews a
> people long after their enemies have gone into the dust of history.

Diet played no role.

> The Greeks,

Are still a people in a certain geographic region, with a culture all
their own. While the Jews were dispersed, the Greeks were still in
Greece. Maybe it was their diet? Nahhh.

> the Romans,

Are still in Rome, with their own culture, too. The empire did flounder
and fall, but that was because of various management issues rather than
dietary ones. Rome is still in Italy and filled with Romans (and various
immigrant populations).

> The Nazis,

Were something of a temporary "culture" -- not all Germans embraced Nazism.

> Hamen,

Haman. And Persian culture, like Greek and Roman, remains fairly intact.
There was no Persian diaspora. And Iran -- Persia -- is one of modern
Israel's enemies.

> the Philistines, and so many
> others no longer exist.

And plenty more do, see Iran.

> But Jews still exist,

So do Greeks and Romans and Persians.

> and their dietary
> standards were considered a factor that united them.

I disagree except to the extent that Jewish identity can be linked to
such external traits.

> To call them a sickness is anti-Semitic.

No, it isn't. Anti-Semitism is "Hatred, prejudice, oppression, or
discrimination against Semites," which includes Palestinians as well as
Jews but most often is used only with respect to Jews. I don't hate
anyone, not even Jews. I'm not prejudiced against anyone, not even Jews.
I've never oppressed anyone, not even a Jew. I've never discriminated
against anyone, not even a Jew.

You're making a mountain out of a molehill when you throw out such a
serious charge for such a mild disagreement. That's the kind of charge
better suited for those who maliciously attack Jews just because they're
Jews -- something I have never and would never do.

> Much of the Bible is clearly nonsense, and a scholastic study shows it
> was written by several sources that contradict itself. Yet that tiny
> country is the leader of R&D in the world.

Non sequitur.