Bit late to lobby the Hill to change their minds, but that Texas law is also bullshit. BDS is a shitty movement but people should have the right to support it off the clock without losing their jobs. It's only if they support it on the clock that there's an issue.
"Zionist" is a motte-and-bailey term. There are 2 different definitions:
1) Someone who believes the state of Israel has the right to exist
2) Someone who thinks Israel should continuously expand its borders and annex more territory
The magazine I cited is Zionist based on definition #1, but not #2. Anyone who doesn't agree with #1 is Anti-Semitic as far as I'm concerned. There really is no lobby for Type 2 Zionism in the US or UK (both govt's are consistently against further settlement building), and Corbyn earned his reputation for Anti-Semitism by being against Type 1 Zionism.
No, Corbyn has just repeatedly called those who DO say 'Israel doesn't have a right to exist" his "dear friends", and given them money and shared stages with them, and welcomed them into the Labour Party.
Israel doesn't exactly have great options for how to deal with neighbours who want to kill every Israeli they can get their hands on. When you've got your boot on the neck of a venomous snake, you pretty much have to keep it there, because if you take it off you're gonna get bitten.
The onus isn't really on Israel to make its neighbours abandon their genocidal aspirations; groups like Hezbollah and Hamas have to do that themselves. Every time anyone says "From the River to the Sea", Israel has one more reason to continue the occupation pf the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.
Israel has the right to exist, which includes the right to self-preservation. Demanding the Israelis take their boot off the snake is demanding they allow themselves to get bitten, which they're not gonna do.
Every Western politician from Obama to Clinton to Boris Johnson has condemned Type #2 Zionism, so if there's a lobby promoting Type #2 then it's the most ineffective lobby I've ever seen.
If you want to talk history, there was no such thing as a "Palestinian" until the British drew some lines on a map of Arab territory and called it Palestine (IIRC it was part of Syria before that). Now Arab neighbours of Israel, like Hamas and Hezbollah, want to kill every Jew "from the river to the sea".
Israel's creation was an absolute clusterfuck. The Allied Powers had no right to give away someone else's land as reparations for what happened to European Jews. But Israel is there now, and it's not going anywhere, anymore than all the Palefaces are going to leave North America and all go back to Europe. It's just not in the cards.
For better or for worse, Israel exists now and they have a right to self-preservation. Sucks for the Arabs who lost their homes, but then Europeans showing up sucked for the Indigenous populations of North America and Australia. History doesn't come with a rewind button.
I'm Canadian; I figured snake is a more accessible metaphor than a wolverine. We have the latter here, but not really the former unless you count garter snakes. If you have your foot on the neck of a wolverine, you really, really don't want to take it off. If Israel lifts the blockade of Gaza, all that will accomplish is skyrocket (no pun intended) the volume of rocket fire coming over the border into Israel.
Nelson Mandela said in 1993 that the ANC affirms тАЬthe legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalismтАЭ, and in 1999 he called upon Arab leaders to тАЬmake an unequivocal statement that they recognise the existence of Israel with secure bordersтАЭ. So, sure, Mandela was right about Israel.
Has Corbyn ever met a Holocaust denier or a "From the River to the Sea" zealot he didn't consider his "dear friends"?
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/the-key-questions-jeremy-corbyn-must-answer-1.68097
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jeremy-corbyn-and-hamas-no-longer-friends-but-still-brothers/
That's about the saddest attempt at spin I've ever read. "I know you are but what am I?" isn't exactly hard-hitting journalism.
I did say Halper should not have lost her job. Not voting for a politician is not the same as canceling them.
Bit late to lobby the Hill to change their minds, but that Texas law is also bullshit. BDS is a shitty movement but people should have the right to support it off the clock without losing their jobs. It's only if they support it on the clock that there's an issue.
"Zionist" is a motte-and-bailey term. There are 2 different definitions:
1) Someone who believes the state of Israel has the right to exist
2) Someone who thinks Israel should continuously expand its borders and annex more territory
The magazine I cited is Zionist based on definition #1, but not #2. Anyone who doesn't agree with #1 is Anti-Semitic as far as I'm concerned. There really is no lobby for Type 2 Zionism in the US or UK (both govt's are consistently against further settlement building), and Corbyn earned his reputation for Anti-Semitism by being against Type 1 Zionism.
No, Corbyn has just repeatedly called those who DO say 'Israel doesn't have a right to exist" his "dear friends", and given them money and shared stages with them, and welcomed them into the Labour Party.
Israel doesn't exactly have great options for how to deal with neighbours who want to kill every Israeli they can get their hands on. When you've got your boot on the neck of a venomous snake, you pretty much have to keep it there, because if you take it off you're gonna get bitten.
The onus isn't really on Israel to make its neighbours abandon their genocidal aspirations; groups like Hezbollah and Hamas have to do that themselves. Every time anyone says "From the River to the Sea", Israel has one more reason to continue the occupation pf the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.
Israel has the right to exist, which includes the right to self-preservation. Demanding the Israelis take their boot off the snake is demanding they allow themselves to get bitten, which they're not gonna do.
Every Western politician from Obama to Clinton to Boris Johnson has condemned Type #2 Zionism, so if there's a lobby promoting Type #2 then it's the most ineffective lobby I've ever seen.
https://www.reuters.com/article/israel-palestinians-annexation-britain-idINKBN2424XL
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-usa-idUSKBN14U2JX
If you want to talk history, there was no such thing as a "Palestinian" until the British drew some lines on a map of Arab territory and called it Palestine (IIRC it was part of Syria before that). Now Arab neighbours of Israel, like Hamas and Hezbollah, want to kill every Jew "from the river to the sea".
Israel's creation was an absolute clusterfuck. The Allied Powers had no right to give away someone else's land as reparations for what happened to European Jews. But Israel is there now, and it's not going anywhere, anymore than all the Palefaces are going to leave North America and all go back to Europe. It's just not in the cards.
For better or for worse, Israel exists now and they have a right to self-preservation. Sucks for the Arabs who lost their homes, but then Europeans showing up sucked for the Indigenous populations of North America and Australia. History doesn't come with a rewind button.
I'm Canadian; I figured snake is a more accessible metaphor than a wolverine. We have the latter here, but not really the former unless you count garter snakes. If you have your foot on the neck of a wolverine, you really, really don't want to take it off. If Israel lifts the blockade of Gaza, all that will accomplish is skyrocket (no pun intended) the volume of rocket fire coming over the border into Israel.
Nelson Mandela said in 1993 that the ANC affirms тАЬthe legitimacy of Zionism as a Jewish nationalismтАЭ, and in 1999 he called upon Arab leaders to тАЬmake an unequivocal statement that they recognise the existence of Israel with secure bordersтАЭ. So, sure, Mandela was right about Israel.