One of the last things Israel's Interior Minister Gideon Saar did before resigning from the Knesset was to recognize the Israeli Christians as members of the Aramean nation. The decision caused a media uproar, especially in the Arab sector, with most critics saying that there is no Aramaic nation and that the real reason for this step was an attempt to cause a split in the Arab population of Israel so as to "divide and conquer" and gain control of the Arab sector.He argues that it is valid to think in terms of an Aramean nation. Background here. There are very complicated historical and linguistic issues involved, not to speak of the political ones, and more than a newspaper article or a blog post would be necessary to address them properly.
This calls for an investigation and an investigation into the veracity of an Aramean nation's existence must be conducted on two planes: the historic-lingual-religious one and the civilian one.
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Past posts on speakers of Aramaic in Israel are here (scroll down to third story from bottom), here, here, and links.
