‘White’ is a social category, not a scientific one. Who is white depends on who the majority of white people want to be white. In many ways the initial exclusion and then later inclusion of Irish and Italian immigrants in the US hinged on them becoming part of the system that oppressed indigenous and black Americans.
In that sense it makes complete sense that an Ashkenazi (European) Jewish man, whose parents were colonizers from Europe who moved to Israel, who is exacting a genocide on a group of people that are decidedly not considered white, might be considered white by other white people. There is certainly a history (past and present) of excluding all Jewish people from the category of whiteness, but blinding ourselves to the racism of the present, along with who is benefitting and who is suffering, is unwise.
‘White’ is a social category, not a scientific one. Who is white depends on who the majority of white people want to be white. In many ways the initial exclusion and then later inclusion of Irish and Italian immigrants in the US hinged on them becoming part of the system that oppressed indigenous and black Americans.
In that sense it makes complete sense that an Ashkenazi (European) Jewish man, whose parents were colonizers from Europe who moved to Israel, who is exacting a genocide on a group of people that are decidedly not considered white, might be considered white by other white people. There is certainly a history (past and present) of excluding all Jewish people from the category of whiteness, but blinding ourselves to the racism of the present, along with who is benefitting and who is suffering, is unwise.