Why do some Israelis look Arab?
Keep in mind that "Arab" itself is a very broad term. You can have very dark skinned people that identify as such, but until recently (and still in some places), Arab=white on official forms, and many Arabs do look that light skinned. It's the same with Jews. You have some that are the darkest of tones, and then some that are pale. Even within the same family, even (like mine)! Keep in mind that ~50% of Israelis are Mizrahi or Sephardi, meaning from Mediterranean cultures or Arab land Jews in origin. These communities often predate a lot of things, for example most Mizrahim trace their ancestry in the Arab world farther back than the influx of Arabs and Muslims in the area, and also claim ancestry to the original Hebrews, a cousin culture to the Arabs. However, while this is controversial with some, the dark skinned tones of many Ashkenazi ('east European') Jews shows a similar ancestry, and I know many who can pass as Arab. Your concept of Israel is probably lily-white skinned. Actually, most Israelis are very tan people, and fit in well with the Mediterranean. True, there are those with skin that is light in tone, but olive is a term that most would use for a lot of Israeli Jews. It's ironic, since this noticeably darker skin was the stereotype of the Jew from the Roman era up until the 1950s.
What does a Jew look like?
Here's a typical jew http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2978452224/n... he is one of the sexy jews. He is a Hollywood star. A Us role model. He is always wearing fake-leather sandals too. Steel
How come some Israelis look like White People and others have darker skin and look more Middle Eastern?
Because Israelies are from all over the world just like in the United States. In israel the fair skinned, fair eyed people are descended from Europe and the darker ones are descended from the Middle East and Persia.
Do Jews identify as white?
White is a very specific categorization which applies to the US but nowhere else. The US is the only country in the world that has a “race” category in the official census. All other immigrant based countries like Canada, Australia and the Latin American countries are using poll studies conducted by statistics specialists to determine the ethnic composition of the population.Needless to say, this kind of categorization is based around 18th and 19th century race theories, which are extremely Eurocentric and were developed to legitimize colonialism and imperialism and to divide the human race into “civilized” ethnicities and “uncivilized” ethnicities. We now know that all these race theories are pseudo-scientific and to talk about race is to talk about an unscientific concept which no true contemporary anthropologist, sociologist or biologist would accept.Now to tackle the question regarding the Jews.Jews are a religious group, not an ethnic group. The idea of Judaism as an ethnicity only arose in the late 19th century with Zionism and the emancipation movement in Europe.There are Jews all over the world, and they are similar in appearance to other indigenous locals of their respective country or the country of origin of their ancestors.In terms of whether or not Jews self-identify as white. It is a personal matter and each one self-identifies however suits him/her best. From experience I can say that Jews do not identify themselves by a specific skin tone but by their cultural background.Semites are only those who speak a Semitic language, that’s the only definition of Semitic.Levantine is a geographic term, it carries no cultural or genetic meaning. Genetic markers that are considered indigenous Levantine are shared by other groups in different regions of North Africa, Anatolian and southern Europe. So there is no genuine Levantine genetic marker, and certainly there is no cultural uniformity in “Levantine”, not in the present and not in the distant past all throughout the historical timeline of human settlement in the Levant.