Israel

Answers from various contributors:

There seems to be a theory based on a religion that started in the carribean, according to them they are descendants of one the tribes of israel the religion that i speak of is the rasatafarin religion. Some historians believe the lost 10 tribes of Israel migrated west to populate what we know as Europe, Australia and the United States. However, there is a branch of the Tribe of Judah that is in Ethiopia that are the descendents of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Answer 2

Several years ago in Biblical Archaeological Review, an article appeared that discussed this question. Apparently there are towns in northern Iran and Iraq where family names exist similar to those from Israel, which the Assyrians conquered in 722 BCE. Most of the residents of the towns of Israel were carried off and dispersed throughout Assyria, and the remnants of these people apparently still live in these remote regions of Iran and Iraq.

Jewish Answer:

When they were carried into captivity (traditional date: 555 BCE), the Ten Tribes were brought at first to Assyria, but later spread further afield, to points now unknown.

As to the location of the bulk of the lost Ten Tribes, because of the lack of a continuous tradition in this particular matter, we can only speculate. Some well-known claims, such as the suggestion that the Native Americans or African Americans are the Lost Israelite Tribes, we can confidently dismiss offhand. Other claims, such as that which has been suggested concerning the Pathani (Pashtun), are less far-fetched but must for the time being remain nothing more than a guess.

The capital of Israel is Jerusalem.

West Jerusalem was established as the national capital in 1950; and in 1980 the Jerusalem Law made the entire unified city of Jerusalem the Israeli capital.

The Debate

It is understandable that Israel, being of holy significance to 3 major religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and being one of the most fought-over and conquered pieces of land in the history of mankind, will spark a monsoon of debate, as to who owns what. But, the fact remains that the capital of Israel was proclaimed by the Israeli government and this capital is Jerusalem.

The issue that a lot of international groups have with the Israeli Declaration that Jerusalem is its capital is that the city defined by the Israelis as Jerusalem contains both de jureIsraeli territory (West Jerusalem) and the de jurenon-Israeli territory (East Jerusalem) which is owed, theoretically, to a Palestinian State. The UN Security Council Resolution 478 crystallized the international stance on this issue. If Israel, like East Germany, claimed that half of a city was its operating capital (i.e. West Jerusalem - but East Berlin in the German case), many international observers would have fewer objections to recognizing it as the capital of Israel. However, as the official Israeli capital contains territory that is not technically Israeli, many organizations and countries prefer to treat Tel Aviv, a city that is unequivocally Israeli and the site of David Ben Gurion's Declaration of Independence, as the working capital. Therefore, all embassies in Israel are in Tel Aviv.

The word "race" is wrong here. There are only a few races in the world: White, Black, Olive, Indian, American Indian, East Asian, and Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander. A better word here is "ethnicity".

Concerning Israel: There is also no "Israel" ethnicity. The dominant ethnicity of Israel is Jewish. The Jews have been in existence for at the minimum 2500 years, as verified by historians. According to their traditions they have been in existence for 3800 years.

Concerning Palestine: The Palestinian identity has really only existed since the 1950s and 1960s. It previously refered to any inhabitant of Mandatory Palestine, regardless of whether they were Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Druze and regardless of whether they were Zionist, Zionist-affiliates, or opposed to Zionism. (For example, the right-wing Israeli newspaper "The Jerusalem Post" used to be called "The Palestinian Post", even though it was run entirely by Jews.) The Palestinian identity applies to those people who historically identified as Levantine Arabs. The Levantine Arabs are an amalgam of different Levantine peoples who began to acquire a new homogenous Arab identity in the days of the Islamic Caliphates. The Levantine Arab identity coalesced roughly 800-900 years ago. Prior to that there were numerous different ethnicities such as Aramean, Phoenician, Canaanite, Samaritan, Moabite, Ammonite, etc. whose descendants were subsumed into the Levantine Arab identity. Since they were disunited, it would be unfair to consider them one ethnicitiy.

Jews (as a unified idenity) have existed for at least three times as long as Levantine Arabs (as a unified identity).

Some left, but many remained. There was a Jewish community of hundreds of thousands in Judea until three hundred years after the event which you named, and the Talmud provides names and locations of tens of their congregations and communities.
Those who did leave, did so because of the Roman and Christian persecutions. See also:

The history of the Jews in the land called Canaan/Israel/Judea/Palestine

Answer 1

The term describing the state of Israel as the Jewish Republic of Asia is inaccurate. The state of Israel as we know it today is also not a republic. The form of its government is called a parliamentary democracy.

Answer 2

The term "Jewish Republic of Asia" is not a commonly used term to describe Israel. Contrary to the view of Answer 1, a parliamentary democracy is a type of representative republic, making the moniker, "Jewish Republic of Asia" factually correct even though it is rarely used (It is a republic that is founded for the Jewish people on the continent of Asia). More often, people describe Israel as the "Jewish State".