@ScottCreative2@JonahPlatt Palestinians are not even "A people" not people. Of course they are people. But they were never a people until they were invented n the 20th century. They never had a group identity before and if they ever for a state - they'd kill each other.
Reading from the Quran at the Harvard graduation is not diversity. It’s stupidity. It’s naivety.
This book literally calls for war on everyone who rejects the rule of Allah, and that means the United States.
This book is behind more than 60,000 Islamic terror attacks in the last few decades alone.
Ignoring these facts, pretending, because you happen to know some nice Muslims, that the Quran is just another religious book, is what will end Western civilization.
Never ask someone if they "accept Israel’s right to exist.”
Ask them if they "accept Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people."
The first question is easily dodged by ideologues:
a) "No country has a right to exist," or;
b) "Yes, as a democratic country that doesn't show a preference for any one people or religion."
The second question gets to the heart of the dispute.
For Western anti-Zionists and communists, the objection is to the Jews as a people entitled to self-determination. And the idea of a Jewish State that favors Jews.
So when they say they object to any "ethno-state," ask them whether they similarly reject countries constituted as the national homes of particular peoples, such as Croatia, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania & Albania.
And when they say they object to any country that shows a "preference for a religion," ask whether they object to the more than 80 countries that either have an official religion or give preferential treatment to one, including the UK, Denmark, Greece, Spain and Argentina. Or the 27 countries that have Islam as their official religion.
When they backtrack a little and say they object to Israel privileging Jewish immigration ask them whether they similarly object to Germany privileging ethnic German immigration, Armenia privileging ethnic Armenian immigration, or Greece privileging ethnic Greek immigration?
When they narrow it down further to objecting to not allowing the descendants of Palestinian refugees to immigrate, ask them whether a similar hereditary right should be granted to the descendants of war refugees from all 20th century wars?
When they change course and say “Israel is an apartheid state,” ask them what rights are denied to Israel’s 2m Arab citizens, who are prominent in medicine, academia, sport and business?
When they shift focus to the West Bank and say Israel shouldn’t rule over West Bank Palestinians without making them citizens, ask them when was the last time Palestinians demanded Israeli citizenship?
Ask them whether they know that more than half of the West Bank Palestinians (1.5 million) live under the non-democratic Palestinian Authority.
Ask them whether they know another 400k Palestinian residents live in East Jerusalem, where they are entitled to Israeli health insurance, National Insurance benefits, education, employment rights, access to Israeli courts, freedom of movement within Israel, and to vote and run in municipal elections.
Yes, Israel and the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) present complicated historical, legal and security questions.
One can criticize and oppose government policies without opposing Jewish self-determination, which since 1948 has been realized in the State of Israel.
Most likely the person you are speaking to really doesn’t like the idea of a Jewish State, but hasn’t yet settled on the reason. When the objection comes first, the rationale is flexible.
@Palestinia12961 You are not a "nation of refugees" You are Arabs. Most of you settled in this land in the past 200 years. You started a genocidal war against the Jews because you could not tolerate not having total Arab domination, fled that war and lost a war. Hardly an injustice.
Confrontation during an interview with the Iranian crown prince:
German journalist asks Pahlavi: Are you an Israeli agent?
Prince Reza Pahlavi: NO, but my grandfather gave refuge to Jews when you burned them in the ovens.
@lokshensoupjek Oh the flag of Arab imperialism, representing the Muslim caliphates - representing conquest, slaughter, erasure of indigenous cultures and Muslim supremacy.
@cenkuygur Most wars in the Middle ast are among Muslims. Most slaughter is among Muslims or Muslim slaughtering the few indigenous people that remained in the Middle East. Israel never started a war.
@ElliotMalin I think you are underestimating how stupid the people who yell GeNoCide are. They can’t focus on more than two facts. So a one word jab works best.