What evidence do you have that the Palestinians truly consider themselves ethnically distinct from other Arab Muslims and are seeking self-determination? If they were seeking self-determination wouldn't they have dropped the demand for a right of return to Israel so that they could have their own state next to Israel?
I recently read the newly published book from a German historian named Matthias Kuntzel. It's called: "Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East'' and it explains the evidence explaining why the Arabs of the Middle East didn't accept the partition plan and decided to launch a genocidal effort to wipe out the Jewish state instead. Before that I read a book that explained how this effort was transformed into a perpetual “refugee” claim, facilitated by UNRWA ever since: “The War of Return'' by Einat Wilf. And before that I read a book that outlined evidence for how the Soviets/Russians influenced the propaganda aspect of the war against Israel: “History Upside Down” by David Meir-Levi.
Thanks Joe for reading - I do not think it is relevant, or up to us, whether or not there was historically a Palestinian people. I know Einat very well and agree with most of everything she says - and even she will agree that for Israel to remain a Jewish State, for Zionist to fulfill its calling as the movement for the liberation of the Jewish People, we need to first and foremost separate ourselves from the mass of people who do not want to be part of Israel. Since Zionist is and always was a liberal democratic movement that agreed with the ancient Hebrew value that "there should be one law for all of the people in the land, even the stranger among you," then we cannot allow ourselves to continue a situation where millions live under military law while others live under civilian.
That means we need to declare borders, or create a Federation that enables self-determination of local communities under a security envelope, or create autonomous regions like Spain has for national peoples that remain under the national control of the Spanish Crown. Whatever it is, the underlying requirement is to recognize that there are people who want to self-determine, that those people do not want to be contributing and loyal citizens of Israel, and that Israel can only live up to its Zionist and Jewish/Hebrew values if it enables their self-determination.
"the desire for Palestinian self-determination"
What evidence do you have that the Palestinians truly consider themselves ethnically distinct from other Arab Muslims and are seeking self-determination? If they were seeking self-determination wouldn't they have dropped the demand for a right of return to Israel so that they could have their own state next to Israel?
I recently read the newly published book from a German historian named Matthias Kuntzel. It's called: "Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East'' and it explains the evidence explaining why the Arabs of the Middle East didn't accept the partition plan and decided to launch a genocidal effort to wipe out the Jewish state instead. Before that I read a book that explained how this effort was transformed into a perpetual “refugee” claim, facilitated by UNRWA ever since: “The War of Return'' by Einat Wilf. And before that I read a book that outlined evidence for how the Soviets/Russians influenced the propaganda aspect of the war against Israel: “History Upside Down” by David Meir-Levi.
Thanks Joe for reading - I do not think it is relevant, or up to us, whether or not there was historically a Palestinian people. I know Einat very well and agree with most of everything she says - and even she will agree that for Israel to remain a Jewish State, for Zionist to fulfill its calling as the movement for the liberation of the Jewish People, we need to first and foremost separate ourselves from the mass of people who do not want to be part of Israel. Since Zionist is and always was a liberal democratic movement that agreed with the ancient Hebrew value that "there should be one law for all of the people in the land, even the stranger among you," then we cannot allow ourselves to continue a situation where millions live under military law while others live under civilian.
That means we need to declare borders, or create a Federation that enables self-determination of local communities under a security envelope, or create autonomous regions like Spain has for national peoples that remain under the national control of the Spanish Crown. Whatever it is, the underlying requirement is to recognize that there are people who want to self-determine, that those people do not want to be contributing and loyal citizens of Israel, and that Israel can only live up to its Zionist and Jewish/Hebrew values if it enables their self-determination.
Thanks Joe - I appreciate your inquiry here. I've written a bit about all of these in the past, and given the timing would appreciate the opportunity to just point you to some of those points. For example, about Federalism, I made the case here https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/a-long-term-solution-to-israels-constitutional and about Israel's relationship with the non-Jewish communities, here: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/israels-future-includes-arabs and here: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/abraham-inside
As for Spain and Autonomy, see the Basque and Catalan and Andalusia regions especially, but there are other options here: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/many-possible-palestines
Apologies for the lazy answer - hope this is helpful