Re the "war that we supposedly won", Russ, after which the Bolsheviks took over much of Europe and Israel was formed - that may or may not be what the Bible was talking about; it is hard to draw a straight line. It may be what the Bible refers to, but maybe not. I personally can live with this ambiguity and uncertainty.

What kind of eats me up is the fact that those crummy little countries, mainly Israel, of the socalled "middle east", they are nothing more than gravel pits & rock - no soil, no natural fertility left, no natural forests, only manmade landscrapes and pathetic ones at that - and these little nations are constantly at the heart of world politics! It looks like with the apparently soon-to-come war in Iraq, WW 3 will commence - and for what? One of the most unwelcoming, desolate areas on earth! Shouldn't big conflicts be over some beautiful, fertile, live-giving areas? Feh.

Yes, I am waiting for the day when "knowledge of the lord will cover the earth" (Isaiah?).

The English are descended from Judeans? The English are largely blonde and rosy-cheeked and physical. The Judeans are dark, with different kinds of features, and I don't know what you mean by warning me that I'm making assumptions. I am making a bold statement that middle-eastern-based peoples are as different from Europeans as cats from ducks, and I am not casting aspersions on either the cats or the ducks. Anyway, couldn't the matter of lineage by solved simply by DNA tests?