It all boils down to a few acres of the most contested real estate in the world: the Temple Mount, which is the crown jewel of East Jerusalem, which is the crown jewel of Israel's existence. Political power in Israel resides among the Orthodox, and the equation there is an unequivocal "no Temple Mount, no Israel." Evangelical sponsorship is fixated on the Third Temple. The Vatican is the Church of Rome.
Memory of the Holocaust is the Achilles Heel of the Jewish Left, due to the chilling reminder that, historically, antisemitism does not discriminate between Right and Left. But Zionism is the most potent National movement in the world. And yet it is here where the Jewish Left is forced to close ranks with the evangelical Right. It will take a generation "who knew not Joseph" to sever these bands.
Finally, no Muslim can relinquish the "unoccupied" right of the third most holy place in Islam.
Ultimately then, the City of David will be either the Capital of Israel or of Palestine. It will never be of both.
39
"European Jewry"? Not Quite. Though I admire this writer, I do think she needs to do a little more homework on this subject before using NYTimes opinion column as a bully pulpit. While the idea of Israel being a land of colonizing Europeans persecuting an indigenous society might be true to US History; and while the idea of White Europeans persecuting people of color might be true to US History; neither is true in the case of Israel's history, despite voices on the Left so vehemently wanting it so. The simple, historic fact is that there have been Jews in the land of Israel/Palestine/whatever you want to call it, for thousands of years, long before their Christian and Moslem cousins. As for the question of right of return, I suggest looking at another example from history that sheds light on this complexity: Liberia.
272
It's hard to believe no prejudice against the Jews is involved when there is no similar outcry or idea of a boycott against China when the human rights abuses are so egregious. I imagine it's easier to do without Israel than to do without China.
400
This article has more factual errors and baseless conclusions than I have seen in a major US newspaper in a long time. Does the Times fact check its Op-Eds? Here are just a few:
- Israel does not occupy Gaza. It left in 2005.
- There are no "Jews only" roads in Israel and the West Bank. Many newspapers have had to issue corrections in the past on this.
- The Adalah list of laws you cite has been debunked numerous times. Its inclusion in the article was irresponsible.
- Most of the approximately 750,000 Palestinians that were displaced in 1948 were not forcibly displaced. They left on their own at the behest of the invading Arab armies.
You want to "Break the Silence on Palestine? What silence? Israel is maligned every day in newspapers, on college campuses and in protests and demonstrations in faux-support of Palestinians. Israeli visitors to NY are told not to tell strangers that they are Israeli for fear of being attacked.
If you truly want to improve the lives of Palestinians, you should try to pressure the Palestinian government to stop paying terrorists, to stop calling for the death and destructions of Jews and Israel, to hold an election so their own leaders can be held accountable for their poor governance and, most importantly, to not reject peace offers that they haven't seen.
Israel has made numerous offers of land for peace with the Palestinians. All were rejected out of hand.
618
I haven't noticed that anyone has called out Ms. Alexander for falsely stating that Gaza is under Israeli occupation.
Despite her deep knowledge of civil rights, she is clearly not familiar with the complexities of the situation about which she attempts to write about. The readers of the NY Times deserve better.
385
Some years ago, Germany invaded Europe. In response, millions died (and many Germans too). Was that a bad thing? Yes, it was, but it was necessary. Seventy plus years ago 4 Arab nations tried to snuff out the Jewish state, with the aim of massacring its citizens. In the process many local Arab people lost their homes. It was tragic, but it was war. It happened again in 1967, 2000-2002, and many died as a result. There have been four wars with Gaza since Israel left that territory -- the stated goal of HAMAS is to kill every Jew while they "liberate" Palestine. The weekly protests have the same purpose. The Palestinian Authority has refused every Israeli offer of peace, and continues to refuse any offer of peace. They pay people to murder Israelis. Following the logic of the author, why didn't the west just roll over for "German Rights." Germany claimed it was liberating Europe, just like this author claims that Palestine must be liberated. She is not opening our eyes to injustice, but encouraging another worse injustice: the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world. Wrap it flowery language, but so did Goebels.
296
Michelle, Once again you have failed to dive deep. The New Jim Crow was wrong as proved by subsequent books indicting prosecutors, not the war on drugs. Similarly, the blame for the current situation of the Palestinians lies with their leaders refusal to accept Israel as a legitimate sovereign state. You reap what you sow.
183
Thank you for that.
62
Senate bill S1 supported by Charles Schumer provides up to a $1million fine and jail time for supporting an economic boycott of Israel. This is a travesty which violates the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, yet it is the first thing on the agenda of the new US senate session. I believe it is no accident that Schumer got $117,000 in campaign contributions from NORPAC, which is the political campaign contribution arm of AIPAC which supports Israel's human rights abuses in the US.
136
When I went to Israel-Palestine, I had been deeply involved in Jewish-Christian dialogue and had been to the Holocaust Museum multiple times.
After seeing the abomination of the wall and the images too redolent of the Warsaw ghetto images in Bethany, I simply was unable to go to Yod Vashem.
Nothing in the world is more heart-breaking to me than the effects [unto anti-semitism in some, in the narrow sense of semite] of Israel's lawless predation of those who lived in Palestine. It does violence to both peoples, and the rest of us.
113
Should the US give more comprehensive compensation to native americans for taking their land, killing their people, breaking treaties, etc etc.........also to black people ..are they owed back wages for their bondage, building the southern economy, being beaten and inched ....
Or do the winners get to keep it all ?
What should Israel do ? give back the land ? pay arabs for the land they took over with the blessings of other colonial imperialistic powers who lived elsewhere ?
not easy...not clean ....not clear...and not satisfying to anyone
who can be so certain what is right ?
33
Not once do you mention Hamas or the Palestinian Authority. Your blame of Israel alone for the situation in Gaza and for Palestinian strife completely frees the democratically elected Palestinian officials and funds from any obligation to its people. Egypt with its shoot to kill edict for protestors in its border with Gaza and its failure to protect its Coptic Christian citizens is also not held responsible forviolating Gazans rights. Boko Harum, the Rohingya, etc. also not mentioned. Israel alone is held to the highest standard and is under the world microscope. Let's be fair and balanced and realize that a hyperfocus on Israel practices, however wrong, is indeed anti-semitic.
211
I fail to see the validity of Ms. Alexander's criticism of Canary Mission. It's no different than what black activists do. They grab screenshots of social media or youtube videos or things they deem anti-Semetic. Most clearly are. I don't remember Ms. Alexander standing with the embattled professor at Evergreen College, Yale, or UCLA for non existent anti-black racism that caused mob harassment in which in two of the cases the professors were forced to resign because of black activist harassment. Even in the instances I disagree with Canary Mission that what they captured is anti-Semitism I fail to see how it's more disturbing then the harassment of both professors and students who criticize affirmative action, BLM, Islam, and illegal immigration. The idea that pro-Israel activists are better at intimidating and censoring then black, Muslim and illegal immigration activists is false. Perhaps we can ask why those so quick to defend people like Marc Lamont Hill and Angela Davis of charges of anti-Semitism are never there to back up the thousands of people who's reputations and careers have been destroyed for offending blacks.
78
One commenter cited Ghandi who said: in 1938:
"The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?"
That quote from Ghandi only shows that even an otherwise great man like Ghandi can make a great mistake. A few years after Ghandi uttered that statement, fully 90% of the Jews in Europe were exterminated - turned into ashes.
The Arab states including the Palestinians would do the same to the remaining Jews in Israel.
.
No thank you.
152
BDS does not support the destruction of Israel, it supports equal rights for all the people who live in the same place.
87
The brutal truth of the matter of activism for Palestinian rights is that it will remain a huge waste of energy until such time as the movement affirms the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state. Till then all the movement is accomplishing is actually increasing, not decreasing, Palestinian suffering. Till then Israel, by far the strongest military power in the region, will continue to crack down on what they correctly see as a threat to their country and countrymen's lives. This does not hinge on US military or monetary support. Israel has had to defeat enemies many times with little to no help from the US throughout it's history. Turn the whole of the US against Israel and it will only make the Palestinian's suffering worse as Israel becomes progressively more alarmed.
Supporters of Palestinians need to understand the violence Palestinians are directing at Israel. I recommend becoming familiar with https://www.palwatch.org/. Yes, they are a right wing organization, but what they report is what Palestinians themselves declare in their own media. Israel will defend itself, and it's not going anywhere. You want to help the Palestinians? Really? Get them to stop attacking Israel.
108
WE are such hypocrites. What about our own Native Americans who have been treated abominably from the establishment of our nation to this day. Shouldn't we clean up or own act before telling others how to live? Native Americans were taken from their land, moved to areas no one else wanted; their religious areas desecrated. Their reservation schools are poor, their health care even poorer, and their infrastructure almost nonexistent. What right do we have to cry for Palestinians when we don't do anything for our own downtrodden Native Americans? Palestinians cheer when they kill Israelis we killed a lot of Native Americans in the past so pioneers could keep the land stolen from them. Opening the West was glorified; it was a giant land grab. Movies made the Indians the bad guys; the victims were the pioneers. So, NYTimes, what have you written lately to advocate for Native Americans?
118
Another King said
"Can't we all just get along?"
22
Thank you for speaking for me. Expect to be attacked.
62
Merdreus kleptocracy leads the Palestinian -
that’s the only reason for the lack of peace
In the Middle East.
43
While I appreciate the opinion of this writer and share her hopes of self-determination for the Palestinian people, her comments and expectations of Israelis are sadly bereft of historical context. Unlike African Americans (or South African blacks), the Israelis didn’t “impose” the countless wars and their resulting boundaries on the Palestinian people. Nor do the Israelis relish maintaining separation and occupation of Palestinians. One only needs to open a history book to find all the unequivocal evidence of Arab and Palestinian leadership advocating and engaging in war and terrorism and systematically committing to deny Israel’s right to exist. To this day, Israel continues to fight these vile threats to their existence daily on their Western border (Hamas) and Northern borders (Hezbollah and Syria/ISIS).
Let’s agree that the Palestinians deserve a state and self-determination. But, please don’t oversimplify history and try to hold Israel to expectations to standards that NO OTHER country in the world would subject themselves. Israelis have time and again shown themselves committed to peace in exchange for painful land and security concessions (eg, Sinai Peninsula and Gaza). Please. PLEASE. Be reasonable. Set expectations for the Palestinian Arabs. What should expect of them?
Regards
JRM
Palo Alto
131
Having read many posts here, one thing keep coming to my mind: it is easy to try to rationalize the events if we don't look close enough, if we don't try to put ourselves inside the clothes of individuals.
Yes, there are stupid violent criminals that let their hate dominate their actions and don't care about the consequences they have on the existence of other people, but this is not what the majority of the people involved in this long conflict do. This sort of brutes and assassins are on both sides.
What keep me perplex is that we let these ignominious, hateful and bigoted beings dominate and, ultimately, determinate the direction of civilizations.
What is even worst, it happened uncountable times in societies history. We really never learn.
27
One comment cited Ghandi who said: in 1938:
"The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?"
That quote from Ghandi only shows that even an otherwise great man like Ghandi can make a great mistake. A few years after Ghandi uttered that statement, fully 90% of the Jews in Europe were exterminated - turned into ashes.
The Arab states including the Palestinians would do the same to the remaining Jews in Israel.
.
No thank you.
36
There is an old Yiddish expression, " A half-truth is worse than a whole lie." I think this applies to this article.
140
The Palestiniansare in a tough spot but anybody who. Was alive during the Intifada when wedding parties at hotels and 13 year olds eating pizza eating pizza were being blown Union by suicide bombers might be inclined to think that Israel has a point.
74
The Great Reverent Martin Luther King, Jr. said “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity,” he said. “I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
I believe Ms. Alexander may not consciously understand her subtext thinking. African Americans see Israel as a white colonial power that reminds them of the Europeans that colonized Africa. As a result, they interpret the Palestinians as being the Africans of 500 years ago. They do not see the false equivalency. Unlike the Europeans of the 16th century, Jews wanted to live with the native population peacefully. The Jews purchased property that the Arabs were only too glad to sell at exorbitant prices. Arabs were offered 80% of the land Under the Peel Commission which they rejected in 1937. Only a few years later Mohammed Amin al-Husseini the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem actually watched with glee through a glass slit in the door as Jews were being gassed in Auschwitz.
How about the letting the Jews live in the one-tenth of 1 percent (1/1000) of the landmass that makes up the Middle East.
116
I was born in Amman Jordan exactly 78 years today ago. My ancestors come from the ancient town of Salt. I immigrated to my country the US of A in 1964 and never looked back. As a 7 years old growing in Amman I heard about the Palestinian Jewish conflict and over six months period my little town of Amman was filled with hundreds of thousands Moslem and Christian Palestinian refugees. All were escaping the war or were cleansed from their peaceful villages by the so called Israel Defense soldiers. None of them left voluntarily. I know the ragged Arab armies were planning to stop the creation of the State of Israel. They were defeated by the brave well trained European Jews who were centuries ahead of the primitive armies that tried to attack them.
Now the State of Israel is a fact and no can undermine the strongest armed to the teeth with nuclear and biological devises sovereignty. But history is NOT on its side unless it changes directions and admit the fact that, like my own country the United State, Israel was established not because the All Mighty willed it as some of the hypocritical born again evangelical Christian hallucinate as true. But it was established simply by the hard working determined European Jews know how and by taking the land of Palestinians who were still living in the Middle Ages. Simple as that. And that will be the first step. So recognize this, compensate the Palestinian victims. Offer them dignity and respect and may be we will have peace.
48
This is unfortunately typical and arbitrary.
Maybe you should focus on Tibet. The whole culture is being annihilated but the Palestinians are a far greater tragedy. In the context of international conflict, including such paces as Tibet, Southern Sudan the DRC, Myanmar, the Palestinian conflict is a hangnail. You seem to have no recollection of Yasir Arafat's rejection of Clinton and Barak's generous offer.
Or why don't we just focus on Gay rights. Why don't you try being openly gay in the west bank. Maybe we should focus on the horrible treatment afforded homosexuals in the occupied territories.
That would run counter to your narrative which deep down is probably motivated by anti-semitism.
I am not a Netanyahu supporter and currently lay the blame for stalled talks at the feet of Israel's Donald Trump.
This was not the case in the past.
Let me recommend "One Palestine Complete" by Tom Segev. It actually has a pro-Palestinian bent if anything. But at least it's even handed. Unlike this article.
63
How brave of Michelle Alexandrer to spell out the reality of and in the occupied territories. Political porpaganda by all sorts of lobbies, in Congress and mainstream media, must be denounced.
Enough of intellectual blackmail: to denounce the Apartheid-like situation in occupied Palestine has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. It is a moral duty, just like denouncing the Tibet ordeal under Communist China. Enough of the lies that the "fault" always sits on the Palestinian side, usually described as "terrorists" or unwilling to accept offers that would only futher break down territorial integrity and self-determination. As far as facts tell us it is Israel that occupies Palestine and terrorizes its civil population.
The good news is that righteous Jews across America have been fighting for Palestinian rights toward nationhood. So, this is not a "religious" matter, only a political one. Anyone who has spent one day in Hebron would be horrified by the reality on the ground as well as the amount of untruthful messages they have been fed for decades back in America.
62
Please read Matti Friedman’s OpEd in the NYT on January 16th: “There Is No Palestinian Conflict”. It includes all the history and context that this article sadly lack. The conflict is much more far-reaching and complicated than Alexander and her like would have us believe.
80
When I read the title I thought she was going to discuss the atrocities committed by Hamas and other Palestinians against their own people and Israel. Such as laws which make it punishable by death to sell land to Jews, religious persecution, missile and terrorist activities, stealing of tax revenue etc.
It is a fact that Arabs, Christians and Muslims enjoy better opportunities and rights in Israel than they do in Palestine. The right of return would make Palestinian a majority and turn Israel into Palestine. (see above)
Then I read the article and is all nonsense. This has been going on for quite some time. There are certain people who are incapable of reason, so it is pointless to reason with them. This would include Hamas, Hezbollah, Michelle Alexander and a terrorist with a suicide vest.
The sooner Jews and other somewhat rational people come to that realization the better. We need to change the minds of those people we can reason with and isolate those we can't.
94
So Mr. Non-Violence would have taken the side of Hamas?
47
The Jews took the deal in 1947 and created Israel in 1948, the Palestinians rejected the deal and still have no state. Don’t blame Israel for not having a state when you were offered one and turned it down.
One side (the Palestinians) calls for the complete destruction of the other side (Jews); Jews do not call for the destruction of Palestinians. It’s hard to negotiate in good faith with a partner who calls for your death.
Palestinians deny the factual history of the region and leverage the Arab and Muslim influences as well as general anti-Semitism in international organizations to turn that denial into resolutions.
“Jerusalem is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Its holy sites have never been safer, or open to more people, than in the 49 years since it was reunified under Israeli administration."
Israel holds regular elections and is governed by the rule of law. Israel has non-Jews in the Knesset (Parliament) and on its Supreme Court. The current Palestinian leader (Abbas) is in the twelfth year of his first four year term. You can determine for yourself what that means in terms of corruption, the rule of law, and a leadership that looks out for its people.
Palestinian leadership groups support terrorism. Period!
120
The United States has not been an honest broker in debates involving the Middle East in general and negotiations between Israel and Palestine in particular. Above all, there must be a separate Sovereign Palestinian State on Palestinian territories rather than the occupation of their territories by Israel as presently sanctioned by the US Government. It is clear by this time that Arabs and Jews are inherently incompatible and need legal territorial separation. The current system of apartheid has run its course.
27
The idealistic cry of “Never again” was heard loud and clear as Israel’s colonial corner stones were laid on someone else’s land, revealing just how deeply intrenched our worst human instincts are. The nightmare continues.
37
Reverend Barber: "To hold fast to the image of God in every person is to insist that the Palestinian child is as precious as the Jewish child.”
Enough said. Amen, Reverend.
Excellent and way overdue opinion piece.
55
The tide of comments bashing the author for having the courage to openly say what every fair-minded person already knows is, in itself, proof of her statements.
71
Peace, We all want it. Well except for those who put religion and wealth above all, your family, friends, animals, those two are the true sins of the earth. So willing are many to give up everything for so little?
I think what humanity seems to not understand is that we are animals. No different are our instincts to thrive, reproduce, and survive. The only thing to set us apart is the ability to choose. Choice of what to fight about, why, only thing I dont understand is why people choose it for religion and wealth?
I will stand with Israel any and everyday, now that doesnt mean I completely agree with everything they do and you cannot blame a country or state for the minority as I know there are wonderful Palestinians who I'd care for and help as have the Israelis. But again the minority will set the pace for the steady flow of filth that is spewed by articles like this.
I am beyond frustrated by the lack of respect for Israel as depicted by this article, as if Palestine has yet to commit any crimes against humanity, its screaming Pollywood. NEVER AGAIN. That is what Israel swore to the world and to it's people and by any means to survive and you know what I dont blame them one bit.
There has always been and always will be war and trust me it's only going to get worse. Some will be fought over resources, some over wealth, some desperation, and of course the number one killer of humanity, religion. Israel deserves a place to live free, the Arab nation will not allow this.
30
After reading through several hundred comments in the thread, the Israeli position (and the position of its supporters here) seems simple & straighforward:
Israel has the right to exist, and so do the Palestinians--as long Israelis control their imports, their exports, their roads, their water, their electricity, their crops, their universities, their schools, their mosques, their hospitals, their factories and--most importantly-- their laws, their security forces, and their borders.
And, it goes without saying, if Palestenians resist these controls, Israelis have the right to imprison them without trial, to demolish their homes, and to kill them at will.
51
Anti-Zionism is not 'violence', it's an opposition to an European colonialist ideology that has created a brutal Apartheid state.
Just because the brutal Apartheid state claims to be Jewish unlike Christian South Africa & Rhodesia, doesn't justify its crimes. BDS defeated Apartheid once and can again. None of the ANC, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and others ever accepted an invitation to visit the only apartheid state still standing. Great article, thank you.
48
Ms. Alexander writes about breaking the silence on the Palestinians. I agree with this idea. I guess you forgot to mention that Yasser Arafat, a paragon of peace, refused to accept Jerusalem in return for peace. In your empathy for the Palestinians you forgot to mention all the bombings,missiles, stabbings and senseless murders committed by the Palestinians. All justifiable, I am sure.
If Martin Luther King Jr. were here and read your article, he would most likely tell you the simple truth: The Palestinians want nothing less than a Palestinian state in place of Israel. And if that were to happen, the Palestinian suffering would not end, not as long as they have "concerned" supporters like you.
Like most other "concerned" individuals like you, nothing is mentioned about the violent, hateful and corrupt state of affairs in the Palestinian leadership.
It's a crying shame that you evoke the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., who never defined himself by his circumstances, to portray a absolutely one-sided picture of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
You did not break the silence, on the contrary. You are motivating the Palestinians to maintain the status quo.
80
Since the Middle East is sometimes called "The Holy Land", I think it's appropriate to use Biblical terminology when examining Isreali occupation of the state of Palestine. Sinful is the most appropriate word to describe the Israeli's treatment of Palestinians.
39
If Martin Luther King were speaking today, his remarks might well concentrate on the economic and educational state of Black America. Not that great for about 1/3 of Black America, which is sinking along with the rest of blue collar America, only even faster. I think Martin Luther King would have been discussing drug use, fatherless families, graduation rates, not the plight of the Palestinians.
35
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the human rights crisis of our generation. It is made into one though because it fits a narrative. Israel is cast as a symbol of the white European oppressor of the indigenous population. This ignores the fact that Palestinians in Israel have full citizenship rights and that many Jewish Israelis escaped persecution from Arab/Muslim lands. Of course Israel also welcomed (airlifted!!) about a hundred thousand starving Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the 1980s.
57
The photo at the end of this piece says it all: “The Said al-Mis'hal cultural center in Gaza was hit by an Israeli airstrike in August.” Of course there is no mention of the thousands of rockets fired into Israel from Gaza. Or the tunnels drilled by Hamas and Hezbollah. Or the fact that Arab countries do not give Palestinian descendants of refugees rights so that their refugee status continues generation after generation in a bid to keep the conflict forever alive and give their constituents something to focus on besides their own ineptitude.
56
If every essay, comment and speech about the human rights of the Palestinians was not accompanied with a disavowal of being antiSemitic or antiZionist and included a repudiation of every nation and their various human rights violations and subsequent boycotting of their products too, Jews might be more open to taking these actions seriously. However, every single pro-Palestinian pro-BDS word is so much baloney, if no other nation is condemned and held to the highest standard as Israel always is. Where is the BDS movement against China, North Korea, Africa, India, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, etc? Why only Israel if there are no ulterior motives? All nations, including our own, which has separated thousands of children from their parents in the past two years and basically locked them up somewhere, is guilty of far worse abuses of power than Israel, who endured years of suicide bombings, tunnels of destruction under their land and war after war just to survive. Human rights organizations should fight and boycott for human rights everywhere and not just target Israel. How about our American treatment of immigrants, Native Americans who never got most of their land back, and Africans who never were treated fairly since the writing of the Constitution? Please check out the human rights violations, much worse than Israel’s, every single day in the news including the Saudis, Syrians and Yemenites. Then you can talk about Israel. Why only Israel if not anti-Jewish?
63
Every so often one hears an American politician claim that
" Americans are a fair and compassionate people".
Not only does it not seem to apply to the Palestinians , we send
billions to the Israelis and therefore are complicit in the oppression that they inflict on the Palestinian people.
36
The majority of Israelis are Jews from Asia and Africa, not Europe. [King] "recognized European Jewry as a persecuted, oppressed and homeless people striving to build a nation of their own." This is a common mistake that feeds a misperception that Israel is populated primarily by Europeans.
32
Congratulations to both Michelle Alexander and the NYT for being the first to break the silence.
The individuals and organizations which use their political and financial clout to silence criticisms of Israel and defend the indefensible will, as usual, incessantly seek to get the article withdrawn and the author punished, as they have done in many cases including the recent ones mentioned in the article.
The fate of the Palestinians was sealed with the decision at the first Zionist congress in 1897 to create a homeland for Jews in Palestine. Implementation of that fateful decision started and proceeded without any consent or consultation of the Palestinians living there.
The Palestinians can hardly be blamed for using whatever means were open to them to resist the implementation of that decision. While Jewish immigration into Palestine has continued unabated, Palestinians have found themselves mostly confined to the tiny Gaza strip, the ever-shrinking West Bank or living as refugees in other countries. Gaza is under such a heavy blockade by Israel that many have described it as worse than a maximum security prison as even such prisons usually have adequate supplies of drinking water and electricity.
One side in what Israel describes as its wars against Gaza is a regional superpower and the only nuclear one in the Middle East. The other side has not a single rusty tank, leaky naval boat or shaky propeller plane to defend itself with. Shooting fish in a barrel of water?
45
The Palestinians have been offered a state five times -- once by the United Nations in 1948, and four times since by Israel. Yet, Ms. Alexander faults Israel.
And the Palestinians held the West Bank and Gaza Strip but never made a move for statehood. But only after Israel captured the West Bank did the Palestinians demand their state. This is as baffling as Donald Trump shutting down the government all for a wall which he could have had in the first two years of his presidency when the Republicans controlled both houses.
Like Ms Alexander, I too was not a fan of Hillary Clinton's Presidential bid. But in the face of a Donald Trump presidency, I campaigned for and gladly voted for Senator Clinton. Ms. Alexander on the other hand wrote an article in the Nation titled "Why Hillary Clinton Doesn't Deserve the Black Vote". In effect, Ms. Alexander stumped for a Trump presidency. She was wrong about her assessment of Trump; She is wrong on her mis-assessment of Israel.
I have cancelled my subscription for the NYTimes. A great paper with some great writers. But I strongly disagree with the Times' championing anti-Israel positions. I'll send my monthly subscription fee instead to The Hebrew University of Technion.
59
Would Ms. Alexander's conscience lead her to describe anywhere in this article the conditions and the violence that led and still does lead to the harsh Israeli response? Apparently not. Her column traffics in the long time anti semetic trope that Jews are being given some special place of honor undeserved in world society; the only honor the Jewish people have been singled out for in real life is continuing attack from their "neighbors."
34
Israel was created in 1948 and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. All Americans are in debt to his courage but it is significant that he stood with Israel for twenty years of its existence before his cowardly assassination.
The author points out the tragedy of the Palestinians and all can agree that their plight has continued for too long. There's plenty of blame to go around but the author fails to note that, in return for peace, Israel returned the entire Sinai to Egypt and bull-dozed Israeli settlements there. Sadat paid for his life for daring to make peace with Israel in return for Arab lands. Israel also abandoned Gaza to Palestinian rule and has been rewarded with rockets and tunnels so that women and children in southern Israel do not feel safe in their homes. The number of bombings on buses, in malls and restaurants has also escaped the author. Peace requires mutual compromise and it was Arafat who could not accept those compromises proposed by Bill Clinton. Israel is not about to suffer the fate of Jews in the twentieth century because of voices like that of the author.
45
I wonder if the PLA and LIKUD really represent the voices of their constituents.
5
I believe all fair minded people would believe that to denounce the apartheid actions of the Israeli State is not anti semitic. What the Israeli State still appears to be facing from it's neighbours is annihilation. If we just look at Israel we see a flawed democracy a garden in the dessert, surrounded by very violent, failed and nearly failed States. The Palestinians do not deserve their treatment in and around Israel, but what is the alternative? Does anyone believe that if the land of Palestine/Israel were opened up and all the people laying claim there given a democratic government that we would have peace and a functioning state?
15
I believe any human would feel sad for many of the Palestinians. I do believe they should have a better life. So what can the world do.
Implement the first UN 1947resolution regarding Palestine and have the Arab governments recognize Israel
Have a Palestinian leader who is willing to compromise and bring peace. Stop preaching hate of Jews and the idea that there is not historical basis for Israel and the Jewish holy sites.
Have a Palestinian leader offer a realistic peace plan (like the Israels have done multiple times)
Too easy to recognize a "victim" Hard part is to have the victim stand up, face reality and the "other side" and recognize how the victim can be his own agent in his future.
38
When the Palestinian state comes it won't, despite this columnist's assurances, be a democracy. We don't have to speculate. We have two Palestinian governments functioning right now. Besides which, there's a reason the territories are closed off. Egypt closes them off too. When you open them up they cross over and try to kill you. Pretending this is not the case won't change the reality.
48
I disagree with the anti-Israel sentiment here, but in particular I take issue with the author's conception that the issue of Israel and its Arab neighbors, including the Palestinians, is characterized by "silence".
This is objectively wrong. Israel receives disproportionate attention and criticism. The war in Gaza dominated the news cycle--in Europe, the Middle East and the U.S. There were hunger strikes and marches and protests around the world from Sweden to Indonesia and Jews outside of Israel were even targeted for reprisals. Per capita, there is probably not another nation on Earth that generates as much attention. There are organizations such as B.D.S. with a singular anti-Israel creed. The New York Times publishes a piece about Israel every week at least.
In a curious parallel, the discussion of "the Jews" comes up disproportionately frequently as well. We all know about Louis Farrakhan and David Duke, who regularly smear the Jews. But in the Middle East and the West, there are countless articles and discussions about dual loyalties of the Jews with respect to Israel.
And of course mainstream religious teachings prompts certain negative characterizations and generalizations about the Jews--just read the Koran and the Gospels. This is one reason why criticisms of Israel from a Christian or Muslim religious perspective are inherently suspect to Jews.
43
It's fascinating that the writer & I can look at this situation from 2 different perspectives. When I think of Martin Luther King Jr. related to Palestinians, it's about how the use of nonviolent protest and resistance by the Palestinians would have led to very different results. Why are you portraying Palestinians as if they were in the same place as African Americans? As if they aren't threatening the destruction of Israel? I don't remember African Americans attacking whites, saying they want every place to be African American property from river to sea. I don't remember African Americans saying that white America doesn't or shouldn't exist. I don't remember African Americans becoming suicide bombers, knife stabbers, car rammers, tunnel diggers, tire burners, rioters, large rock and boulder throwers. I don't remember African -Americans sending over kite and balloon bombs. African Americans deserve the same opportunities as everyone else in the country. Israelis deserve safety in their country. Why Israelis should be held to some impossible standard is beyond me. Point out the country that Israel should look to as a model of how they should treat the diverse ethnicities in their country.
56
Years ago a Palestinian owner of a corner convenience store gave a explanation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I never have forgotten. In his opinion when it was just a mix of Jewish/Palestinian (Christians too) and Muslim people, native to the region going back thousand of years, these cultures lived relatively peacefully together. Post WWII settlement to the area witnessed a preponderance of European jews who occupied the land by the droves. They were considered opportunistic intruders with money to buy up Palestinian land (yes, Palestinians sold off land indiscriminately...sad) Like all colonialist type tendencies we witness Israel and Palestine today. The walls and occupying once shared land by Israel settlers continues on but in a highly unbalanced manner favoring the Israelis. This was not by chance. Yes, Arafat should have taken the deal land yes, Israel today holds sway and needs to take up the mantle of the Christian American hero of civility, Martin Luther King.
11
Thank You, Michelle and the NYT.
We need to have this discussion openly; time and human lives demand this.
I reject the violence bestowed upon the Palestinians -- it is hatred and bigotry at its core. The right-wing politicians, especially LIKUD, want to completely remove Israeli Palestinians from Israel, and by any means.
As we approach the anniversary of Dr. King, we need to distribute this insightful piece by Ms. Alexander in the NYT to our friends, especially the Jewish ones. I am NOT anti-Semitic -- I am anti-Likud! Just as I am not anti-American, but am anti- trump (and all the hatred and bigotry that encompasses).
Thank you NYT and Michelle Alexander for this timely and thoughtful piece.
36
Congress, on a bi-partisan basis. needs to tell Israel that the bank is closed and US aid to that country is to be phased out over a short number of years. Congress needs to shut down AIPAC and its corrosive influence on American political campaign financing. Israel is all grown up now and is free to make its own mistakes.
25
“....There will not be a territorial compromise, there will not be peace on the basis of the country’s division, mainly because the Palestinians cling to their desire to have control of the whole Land of Israel and to eradicate Zionism.....They (the Palestinians in 2000) were offered a contiguous territorial bloc of 95 percent of the West Bank, and they rejected it. But the story here is not one plan or another, but the fact that they want 100 percent of the territory of Mandatory Palestine. They were merely playing a game when they said they were ready for a compromise....The Zionist national movement did agree to a compromise – in 1937, in 1947, in 1978, in 2000 and in 2008 – on the basis of two states for two peoples. It’s true that at the moment there is a government in Israel that is not ready for a compromise. Some say that if Rabin had lived we would have already reached an agreement with the Palestinians. That’s nonsense. Rabin, too, would not have been capable of bringing about a change in the basic ethos of the Palestinian national movement: that the whole of Palestine is theirs and that the refugees must return to their homes and their land. And if that happens, it will only be on the basis of Israel’s destruction.”
Benny Morris, Interviewed in Haaterz, Jan. 19, 2019
32
While Alexander is correct that Israel's behavior toward the Palestinians is reprehensible, and it must leave the Occupied Territories, she also illustrates the dangers of hyperbole in service of antisemitism.
Certainly, the ongoing genocide of the Rohingya in Myanmar; the decimation of Yemen; and the never ending bloodshed in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Syria's despicable civilian massacres -- all are much more wdeserving of immediate action than the Palestine issue.
The history Israel/Palestine conflict does not compare to the India/Pakistan/Bangladesh wars and skirmishes that have seen the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians and the uprooting of millions. Yet, we accept this conflict passively, as if it's okay for dark skinned people to commit atrocities against each other without question.
Unfortunately, the Israel's behavior toward the Palestinians is not the exception, it is the rule. Unless we are willing to challenge the more egregious and destructive behavior of nations around the world -- including our own United States -- calling out Israel, alone, for its misdeeds is antisemitic.
16
Allow me to "break the silence" on this absurd column.
In 1948 the Arab countries went to war to destroy the modern Jewish state the moment it was born. In 1967 they tried again. In 1973 they tried again. In 1979 Israel returned thousands of square miles of territory in the name of peace with Egypt. In the late 1990s Israel offered Palestinians 94% of their pre-1967 territory and a capital in East Jerusalem -- they said no. Instead, they launched a catastrophic suicide bombing campaign within Israel that killed thousands of people, including many women and children. In 2008 Israel tried again for peace (same offer as 1990s) -- again, the Palestinians said no. Instead, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon launched multiple "rocket wars" against Israel.
Yes, Ms. Alexander, let's surely "break the silence" on this "grave injustice" -- i.e., how the Palestinian leadership has consistently chosen denial, war, and terrorism instead of a peaceful future. Those who suffer most are the Palestinian people. Those who make believe it's Israel's fault make a mockery of history, facts, and justice.
56
On May 11/1949, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution 273(111) to admit Israel as a state to the U.N. on the condition that it implements two resolutions - the Partition Plan and the the Right of Return.
"Recalling its resolution of 29 November 1947 and 11 December 1948, and taking note of the declaration and explanation made by the representative of the government of Israel before the ad hoc Political committee in respect of the implementation of the said resolutions, the General Assembly … decides to admit Israel into the membership of the United Nations.”
7
Among Michelle Alexander's elementary conceptual errors are [1] failure to distinguish between "the Occupation" and the *conduct* of the occupation of West Bank, and [2] careless use of "Palestinian rights" without distinguishing between Palestinians in occupied areas and Palestinian citizens of the nation of Israel.
Remember: the Occupation exists because of the stunning, surprising success of Israel's defensive 1967 War. It persists because Arab nations rejected "land for peace" offers, followed by rejectionism by Palestinian leaders (Arafat & successors, Hamas). This all but obliterated belief, even among liberal Israelis, that peace can be achieved soon.
Hence, on a fundamental level, this is an *existential* issue; attacks like Ms. Alexander's only feed anxieties that irredentist Palestinians (there are many) need only wait, and not make serious moves toward peace.
Much of Israel's conduct toward West Bank occupied areas has been reprehensible. It could have been avoided had there been enlightened Palestinian overtures; now, it's become a festering sore in Israeli domestic politics. Shotgun attacks like Ms. Alexander's simply promote intransigence on all sides.
Her column is a propagandistic screed. Because it contains too many facets for individual Commenters or Letter-writers to address. I hope the Times will grant equal space and prominence to a reasonable, liberal defender of Israel, e.g., someone from the American Jewish Committee.
30
If the intent was to be provocative, it was accomplished. If the intent was to approach the problem with significant imbalance and bias, it was accomplished.
While there are key actions of the Israelis that I disagree with, the Palestinians have created a huge part of this problem. This piece neglects to mention that multiple times the Palestinians were offered large swaths of land including East Jerusalem and they declined it. No mention of how corrupt the Palestinian Authority has been, allowing their people to suffer while greed and patronage dominated. No mention of how when Hamas was simply given Gaza without any preconditions, Hamas chose to dig tunnels to attack Israel rather than provide for their people. Nowhere is it mentioned how the Arabs have turned their backs on the Palestinians.
This does not mean that the Palestinians do not deserve a place to call their own and to self-rule. But what it does mean, for the purpose of balanced reporting, is to present the facts accurately and fairly.
81
hhmmm, I wonder why those safety and control measures are in place?
23
Ms. Alexander writes that Israel has refused to "even discuss" the "right" of Palestinian Arab refugees to return to their homes. However, that is not true. Israel has offered a mix of financial compensation and repatriation, and such offers have figured in several of the proposals for peace. What has not been discussed at all is the right of the displaced Jewish people to return to their homes (or receive compensation) in neighboring Arab lands. Over 850,000 Jews were expelled or otherwise driven out by Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, from communities that were thousands of years old. There was also an existing Jewish community in the Old City of Jerusalem which was expelled by Jordanian forces in the 1948 war. The Palestinian Authority now claims the Old City as being part of "East" Jerusalem, which it intends to maintain as being an Arab-only, despite its long history as a multicultural city.
We cannot and should not ignore how the neighboring Arab nations have denied Palestinian Arab refugees the right to claim citizenship, instead keeping them in a state of perpetual refugee-hood and without basic rights.
We cannot and should not ignore how Arab schools have been working in opposition to the very peace agreement their government claims to be working towards.
We cannot and should not ignore the fact that the "right of return" is not guaranteed by international law, nor by any of the agreements signed by the parties involved.
59
That it is suddenly “Time to Break the Silence” is an absurd notion. There hasn’t been silence about the lsraeli-Palestinian conflict for decades. There have been mountains of books, articles and opinion pieces written about the subject. Thankfully, many of them have been much better informed, nuanced and insightful that this article.
Alexander’s premise that there has been silence about this issue, in a column that doesn’t mention suicide bombings, Arafat’s walking away from the peace talks in 2000, Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, and the role of Hamas and Hezobollah in maintaining this tragic conflict, is like Trump suddenly calling the long-brewing immigration chaos on our Southern Border a “humanitarian crisis” to justify a wall that is not part of comprehensive immigration reform.
JR
Stamford, CT
55
Israel will cease to exist as we know it today in 50 years, maybe less. This piece goes a long way in explaining why. The current model is simply not sustainable and will implode in the name of basic human rights.
24
It is amazing how history gets rewritten. In this lengthy piece where lots of what ifs are spoken about there is not one mention of the PLO or Hamas terrorizing Israel over the years. There is not one mention of the complete lack of support that the Arab community as a region has provided to the Palestinians. But oddly enough there is a reference that Palestine is a country. No comment about the 6 day war and no mention of the countless attacks that this little country has had to deal with over its entire history. This piece just seems very one sided to a conflict that is highly multidimensional.
61
Nothing will change for the better, so long as the Arab world refuses to recognize Israel. Monumental changes will occur when the Arab world does recognize Israel. What can you expect from Israel, when its citizens are subjected to continuing rocket attacks?
39
The self-righteous hypocrisy of Alexander's piece is monumental, especially as it claims to be predicated on a consistent moral stance "validated" by invoking selected aspects of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life.
When I see Michelle Alexander advocate for a BDS movement against China (have you heard of Tibet and the Uighurs, Michelle, or is having your cheap cell phone morally more important to you?), Russia (have you heard of Crimea and internet efforts to destabilize the U.S. and other democracies, Michelle, or are the Ukranians and believers in democracy morally inferior?), India (have you heard of honor killings of women and pogroms against Muslims, Michelle, or are call centers and cheap curry morally superior?) Saudi Arabia (have you heard that women can't vote nor mostly even go out alone, Michelle, or is cheaper gasoline morally more important?), or Syria, (have you heard that the killing of civilians there is literally orders of magnitude greater than that of Palestinians, Michelle, or are Palestinian lives morally superior to Syrian lives?), when I see Alexander come out for BDS movements of those countries, I will begin to take her seriously.
Unfortunately, while one can and should criticize some actions of the Israeli government, self-righteous harangues such as this one by Michelle Alexander merely serve to discredit legitimate criticism of Israel and lead many people to conclude that disparity of indignation often reduces to plain, old-fashioned anti-Semitism.
64
"Those to whom evil is done/Do evil in return." W.H. Auden, in "September 1, 1939."
Now both sides can claim that as an explanation or excuse for the tit-for-tat bloodshed since 1948. And now both sides will settle for nothing but control of all territory, from "river to sea." Blame the (un)wise white men of the West for their unwillingness to give the Jews a homeland carved out of the land of those who tried to annihilate them. (Austria would have been the right size and was where Herzl dreamed the Zionist dream.)
4
@escobar
And yet the brutal truth is that only side has, and will in the future, win a violent conflict. It is time for the Palestinians to give up the war and settle with victors. Brutal, but true. If you really honestly care about the Palestinians you must persuade them to give up the violence and plots. Encouraging them increases, not decreases, their suffering.
24
But you don't mention that Israel, as shelter to millions of Jews from the Holocaust, has suffered from eleven wars and ten peace attempts only to watch the Palestinians walk out every time with peace negotiations without legitimate excuse-for why should they come to an agreement when they the world will always blame the Jews, and they can always count on lavish world support-anti-Semitism for over two thousand years has just been the greatest key to power-you have now also fallen for the rouse!
53
"…practices reminiscent of apartheid…"
If Americans–or Palestinians–want to understand what apartheid really is–in a few minutes–watch rap artist "Ari Lesser Apartheid" on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsOH2Y_CZE0
Become enlightened.
12
Suffering and Ill treatment doesn't justify treating others the same. From a practical stand point Israel's treatment of the Palestinians will never result is lasting peace. Violence and suppression never results in peace. One of the few times you can see how to end a conflict well is in the case of Japan and Germany after WWII. The western allies did not exact revenge on a national scale and did not burden or suppress the defeated unduly and both Japan and Germany are not the threat to world peace as they once were. The US has forgot that lesson in Afghanistan and Iraq, Russia has not learned that lesson in eastern Europe and central Asia and Israel has not learned the lesson for it's treatment of the Palestinians.
15
@jim chongo
"One of the few times you can see how to end a conflict well is in the case of Japan and Germany after WWII."
Exactly! And the behavior of the Palestinians is exactly opposite that of the Japanese and Germans. They lost, they acknowledged it, and they settled and cooperated. They did not plot for the elimination of Allied countries and kill and civilians. As soon as the Palestinians give up their war they can start to live peaceful lives, not before.
21
So many of the comments talk about nuance and context in criticizing this article. But it's really simple, this is a case of occupier and occupied people. The occupier is a nuclear armed country with the support of the US the world's biggest economy and most powerful military. They have all the power, physical and political. And if that's not context enough consider what the peace process has accomplished. What it accomplished is provide Israel with a cover; what once was internal unrest has become an external threat and suddenly you can use jet bombers and launch rockets from war ships, and use live munitions on mostly unarmed protesters all the while politicians defend your right to do so.
30
Now there are scores of great grandchildren demanding repatriation to each of the olive groves of their forebears. It sure complicates the problem.
6
This article is encouragement that the civil rights movement is moving decisively to the side of the victims of an historic injustice.
20
A good friend of mine has been deeply involved through Stanford's International Center on Conflict and Negotiation with peace and reconciliation efforts in both Israel/Palestine and in Northern Ireland. He speaks of the "hampster wheel of violence". Unless there is a courageous will to get out of the vicious cycle of violent conflict, there will be no end. The conversation cannot be a litany of persecutions and violence inflicted. It must be an exploration of common ground and paths to tolerance and coexistence. If we only attend to the rectifying past injustices with physical brutality, the true existential threat is that we will become what we have suffered from and abhor.
9
I commend Ms. Alexander for her thoughtful and wise commentary on Israel-Palestine. I also deeply appreciate her describing her own awakening to the injustices of Israel's racist policies and actions towards the Palestinian people. As someone who has been to the region several times and has been an advocate for Palestinian human rights (human rights for ALL) for many years, I am encouraged by the Times featuring the analysis she has provided. She talks truthfully about the sad truths and destructive power of racism and colonization no matter where in the world they occur. To build a safe haven for one group of people with disregard for the suffering created for another group is not only unjust, but very unwise.
27
After centuries of senseless violence, the "Irish Question" was finally addressed by difficult and painful compromise by both sides.
So here, it will take difficult and painful compromise to resolve the "Israel/Palestinian Question."
The op-ed here does not, unfortunately, recognize the need for both sides to engage in honest discussions leading to very difficult and painful compromise. Both sides can engage in rhetoric and hatred and violence that leads nowhere.
At the present time, the Israeli fist is stronger than the Palestinian one but that will inevitably ebb and flow.
Someday both sides will understand that they must accommodate the essential and just needs of the other. Until that time comes, the innocent will suffer. But the intractable policies of both sides are wrong and self defeating.
Ms. Alexander, undoubtedly with the best of intentions, fails to address the inconvenient fact that both sides have legitimate aspirations which must be acknowledged and respected before progress on resolution of the conflict can be begun. There is no excuse for Israel's right wing government's vicious, short sighted and discriminatory policies. But there is no excuse for the failure of Palestinian leadership to unequivocally acknowledge that Israel, as a homeland for a despised and persecuted people, is a reality that no amount of hatred or violence can change. Ms. Alexander unwittingly perhaps is mistaken in encouraging Palestinian inflexibility.
19
As an atheist religious nations states are anathema. Secular government works for me. A one state solution with its citizens having equal rights works for me. If ME nations sighed onto EU all could seek work and the pursuit of secular happiness. That's my dream MLK.
4
The simple fact is that both sides are to blame and both sides must change and make compromises in order to create peace and prosperity. Anyone criticizing only one side, including the author of this article, is a big part of the problem.
The current Palestinian leadership’s position calls for the elimination of the State of Israel. On the other hand, Israel has implemented policies which are creating a new generation of strongly anti-Israel Palestinians, further harming long-term prospects.
I disagree with Israel’s policies, as do many Israelis. But the underlying problem cannot be solved by punishing Israel or pressuring Israel to change; the Palestinians, and indeed the Arab world as a whole, must also change, and accept the existence of the Israel state. The simple fact is that Israel’s population of 6.5 million Jews cannot simply leave. To suggest otherwise is to promote war.
Both sides must be equally asked to compromise, end violence, and accept a stable, long-term peace plan.
16
Michelle Alexander mentions students on college campuses who are reluctant to discuss Palestinian rights, because they are afraid of being blacklisted by organizations like Canary Mission. Yet, while she mentions the 57% increase in antisemitic events in the US in 2017, there is no mention that an almost doubling of antisemitic acts over two years on college campuses contributes significantly to this overall number. Why is there no discussion of Jewish students being harassed in record numbers by groups like SJP and others, whose aggressive tactics have been well documented in the press? The reality is that on campuses, the Jewish students who support Israel are truly the ones afraid to express their views without becoming the targets of antisemitic acts or intimidation.
To have an honest discussion of Israel, questioning Israel’s policies is not antisemitic, but at the same time, intimidating those students who are pro-Israel, or just because they are Jewish, is unacceptable if the goal is respectful discussion of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. A one sided approach serves no one if discussing solutions is the goal.
46
Ms. Alexander has a right to her opinion, but it is outdated. This period would be best described as Post- Failed Two State Solution. The Palestinians have forfeited their right to sovereignty by rejecting statehood proposals in 1947 and 2000 because it was unconscionable to them that a nation of Israel would be permitted to co-exist. Their position has been so weakened by this intransigence and poor leadership that their fate was inevitable. Now they should best be classified not as an emerging nation but two pools of refugees who are hostile to Israel but have been reduced to little more than a nuisance to Israelis. If Palestinians still truly want statehood, they are going to have to seek it -- and territory -- from the neighboring Arab nations, who don't like them much more than the Israelis. The tragedy here is not Israeli indifference to Palestinian suffering, but Palestinian indifference to how they and their leaders contributed to their fate.
31
This article reminded me of some painfully familiar propagandist clichés from my teen years in the Soviet Union when the state-controlled media fed us the "news" about the evil Israeli military crushing innocent and helpless Palestinian children. Those stories invariably were one-sided and predictable. Understandably so - the USSR was at war with the US, and, by extension, with Israel as the US's ally in the Middle East.
And when the author mentioned "the civil rights icon Angela Davis, who has been a vocal critic of Israel", I remembered the childish pride of the Soviet TV talking heads at having such a courageous Communist Angela Davis fighting for justice in the US. Like most of us back then, I understood that the Communist Party of the USA, of which Ms. Davis was a member, was bankrolled by the Soviet Union. Our suspicions were later confirmed when the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union brought about a mass exodus from the communist parties all over the world. (Ms. Davis left the Communist Party of the USA in 1991.)
The Soviet Union may be dead. But those who rule Russia today are the same people who knew how its propaganda machine worked all too well. And, as the recent elections in the US have shown, the machine has been recreated and is running at full power. Its communist ideology may be gone but its goals are as vital as ever - to sow discord between America and its allies and to exacerbate divisions among Americans themselves.
26
Ms. Alexander makes excellent points about the complexity of the situation in Israel and about the right of people to criticize Israeli government policies. Since she says her concern is for justice and displaced native peoples, I assume she also will write as eloquently about the million Muslims incarcerated by China, and about the decades-long occupation of Tibet. She will write with compassion about the Kashmiri's described in today's Times, the ones suffering under the supposedly democratic Indian government. Please speak for justice for the ignored Rohingya as they suffer from genocide. The list goes on. The point is that if Alexander's concern is really justice, then her focus on Israel alone does come across as antisemitic. I do agree with many of her points regarding Israeli government behavior and settlements, and further agree that suppressing speech isn't desirable, but the world's focus on Israel to the exclusion of all other peoples is antisemitic.
22
Trying to speak reason to a totally irrational situation may be considered noble and even worthwhile. However, its effectiveness could thereby be regarded sadly, tragically as at least questionable. It would seem comparable to an eternal attempt at squaring a terrible circle. But when not being "mesmerized by uncertainty," in the name of humanity, some kind of attempt must still be made.
How disappointing. While I share Ms. Alexander's criticisms of Israeli government policy, the path she takes there is misleading, reductionist, and emboldening to anti-Semites.
First, she quotes an organization that places the root of the conflict with "Israel's establishment." This suggests, as many BDS supporters do, that Israel's entire existence as a nation-state is illegitimate. She compounds this point by referencing a "right of return" without acknowledging that it would mean the end of Israel's Jewish character, and would undoubtedly lead to violence.
Also, referring to Palestinian Arabs alone as the "native peoples" of the Levant reduces a complex history to a facile analogy with Native Americans and other groups. In fact, Jews and Arabs have both lived in the area that is now Israel continuously for centuries. So who is indigenous?
Finally, it's misleading to describe Palestinians as powerless underdogs without mentioning the support they have received from the Arab governments and Iran over the decades (although that support has often promoted violence rather than human development).
Ms. Alexander's admirable rejection of Anti-Semitism would carry more weight if she avoided the satisfying but distorting narrative frames of Israelis as Western colonizers and Israel as uniquely illegitimate ("the Jew among nations").
30
An excellent piece. It also expresses well my own quandary. I believe in the right of Israel to exist, both because of the circumstances of its founding and because I believe in trying to preserve national boundaries established through international agreements. I also realize that the right of Israel to exist has not been accepted by many Palestinians and the groups that act in their name. Yet the actions of the Israeli government, from the very beginning and more and more up to the present day, have resulted in a situation intolerable for Palestinians, contrary to international norms, and offensive, in my opinion, to any human being who believes in dignity and justice for all. So I support much of what I hear from voices in support of the Palestinian national cause. I am, however, offended by the anti-semitism into which much pro-Palestinian rhetoric lapses, and by all other expressions of anti-semitism, clearly on the rise in America and around the world. The temptation is to be pro- or anti- an entire "side" in a conflict, but the belief in there being only two sides, one of which is "ours" and always to be defended by "our" tribe, is both a product and a cause of the side-taking that accompanies political breakdown and the pursuit of militaristic and imperialistic solutions that only exacerbate already unbearably difficult problems. Michelle Alexander does well to invoke the spirit of MLK and now Dr Barber, one of the best spirits of our age.
8
It's interesting that many of the criticisms of this article center on the ideas that there are other bad countries in the Middle East or that the author shouldn't bring MLK into it, but do not address the Israel policies she mentioned.
12
The situation in Israel/Palestine is not that of a beleaguered state fighting for existence. It is a case of occupier and occupied. And no matter what rhetoric Israel may employ regarding Gaza, Israel has it completely surrounded, its infrastructure devastated by bombardment, all movement of goods an people controlled by Israel with Egyptian cooperation.
Ms. Alexander need not provide evidence about Israel's treatment of Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank or the mass incarceration of two million Palestinians in Gaza. One can simply read the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz any day. Columnists like Gideon Levy and Amira Hass have been making the same case.
Breaking the Silence founded by ex-IDF members speaks truthfully about the abuse of Palestinians. B'Tselem, Israeli human rights organisation tracks casualties of the occupation.
This is an open secret nearly 70 years old. A state with all the economic, military and media might has been claiming victimhood against a largely unarmed, oppressed people. Palestinians tried defending themselves-- some committed crimes in doing so. They tried nonviolence -- in this round in Gaza IDF snipers are shooting dead (or maiming) people of all ages, medics, journalists in PRESS vests, doctors in medical garb.
When a population is sold fear by leaders, it is silent. Fear is real, but its rhetoric is largely false.
Silence is no longer an option.Not in Israel, nor in the US.
24
India and Pakistan accepted partition and live with it, such as it is. Israel and the Palestinians must do the same. Continuing annexation in the West Bank is a road to unending war.
5
If Palestinians and their allies would accept Israel's right to exist as a nation the burden would be on Israel to take the next step. I think Israel is over reacting and is treating Palestinians harshly because they are (justifiably) concerned about their own safety. Even in America, the support for Israel will go down significantly if Arabs, in general, would accept Jews' presence among them. They have nothing to lose, considering sufferings of their brethren in Palestine.
4
Thank you for this article. I read your book The New Jim Crow years ago and it inspired me to look at our penal system with a few other women. I married a Bethlehemite in 1967 and never envisaged that Israel would still be occupying and oppressing Palestinians fifty one years later. There is no excuse for our country to continue to facilitate it. 43 US vetos at the UN over Israel's behavior and our continued aid make nonsense of our professed moral conscience and international law.
17
The problems in the Middle East come from too many groups who think that God chose their people alone to live there.
Talk of human rights is useless. Any group which Is given rights is going to use it to try to dominate and eventually expel the other.
The only solution is for all groups to get to the point where they realize humans are more important than beliefs, and I'm afraid it is not going to happen without much much more bloodshed.
4
@S.R.
If there was ever a weapon of mass destruction worth creating...it would be one that erases Religious memory. Or at least the parts that are used to justify divine privilege.
We could use it here on domestic soil too...
7
The grave injustice of our time. How many refugees have been created by the conflict in Syria?
13 million?
How many killed in the various genocides and ethnic cleansings that have taken place in the last 50 years? (Rwanda, Myanmar, Serbia and Croatia, etc.)
There are so many points of pain and evil in our imperfect world. This unbalanced focus on Israel—still a tiny country, the only democracy in the Middle East, engaged in a perpetual struggle for existence surrounded by enemies, some with publicly stated goals of annihilation—this is the grave injustice of our time?
One doesn’t need to argue that Israel is perfect and its enemies blameless to suggest that perfect justice in this world is difficult to find and the solution to this situation has been elusive because NONE of the sides are able to find a path. And that there are forces manipulating sympathies and emotions for cynical and self-serving purposes.
Speaking for justice is always to be admired. But other qualities—mercy, compassion, humility—are also admirable qualities.
I didn’t sense much understanding of either the larger context or the specifics of how we got to this place in this op ed. Perhaps I read too quickly—I’m sure others share my reflexive aversion to judging the behavior of others from a place of safety and comfort.
28
This article is a balanced and well-conceived summary of the Arab-Israeli situation. My hope is that we can get past the idea that anyone who speaks out in this way is an Anti-Semite. It is important to understand that friends can and must tell us when we are in error and in need of correction.
Once we address the injustice in a meaningful way, Peace can follow. Then and only then.
20
After each conflict, Israel had the opportunity to be generous to the defeated - a Marshall-style plan would have created an ally in those who could become some of the greatest defenders and allies of the State of Israel. Instead they squandered their historical place to be nothing but a center of a boiling point in a region that needs fewer, not more, such boiling points. Sadly, our current president will do nothing to appease his big Jewish donor base and conservative Christians who all seek to keep Israel as some kind of prize that needs to be saved. I know very little of deep readings of Dr. King - but I know, somewhere, he would be disappointed and speak out on the injustice of this all.
13
I'm heartened that Ms. Alexander says she will "speak with greater courage and conviction about injustices beyond our borders." I look forward, then, to her columns about the tyranny and violence of Hamas in Gaza, the authoritarianism of the PLO in the West Bank, the military dictatorship of General Sisi in Egypt, the butchery of the Assad regime in Syria, and the relentless intimidation carried out by Hezbollah in Lebanon. I'll also look forward to her columns discussing the failure of the Palestinian political leaders to prepare their people for compromise with the Jews for more than a century and their violent rejectionism, again and again, of the Jews' efforts to create a democratic state and society of their own. Oh, and finally, I'll look forward to her columns on Palestinians kept for decades in refugee camps in illiberal Arab countries, prohibited from integrating into those societies so that they can be used as pawns in the international effort to isolate and delegitimize Israel. I really, really can't wait for Ms. Alexander to tackle these important topics.
38
I doubt that a single commentator in this list could truthfully argue with the central tenet of this piece : Individual and collective human dignity is non-negotiable.
In order for the polity in Israel to begin to take notice, the massive support of US evangelical orders would need to decrease or cease altogether. This can only happen if the underlying belief that the return of the Messiah can be jump started is questioned.
4
Israel returned the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. How did that go?
Itzhak Rabin offered a plan for a Palestinian homeland, returning the West Bank and setting aside part of Jerusalem to be the Palestinian capita. The offer was rejected by Yasir Arafta, who siphoned away hundreds of millions of dollars so that his widow can live in luxury in France.
Why were the Palestinians unable to secure a homeland on the West Bank and Gaza, with the Old City of Jerusalem as their capital at some point between 1948 and 1967 when all of that territory was under Arab control?
None of this is meant to justify the policies of the Netanyahu government, and discrimination against non-Jews in Israel is especially outrageous.
But I question those who seem to concentrate on the plight of the Palestinians and seem to ignore other people's plight. How many demonstrations are there supporting a homeland for the Kurdish people.
I also question those people who seem to concentrate on the cynical politics of Netanyahu and the Israeli right, but never touch on the corruption and bigotry endemic to the Palestinian leadership.
35
As a life long admirer of Dr King and the principles of non violent protest that he practiced and taught , I have often wondered why the Palestinians have never embraced these tactics as a way of protest rather than their counterproductive violent demonstrations. Were this the case, The Israeli left would have a much easier time stating their case to the rest of Israeli society.
Until that happens, I cannot support the authors contention that Israelis are to blame and that the US government is an enabler of the status quo.
15
Martin Luther King Day is not, and never was, only about Dr. King himself, let alone about Dr. King’s opposition to the Vietnam War. The day celebrates the successful struggle led by Dr. King to raise the-consciousness of the American people and the not-quite-so successful yet ongoing efforts to achieve color-blind equality in our United States. Those efforts were not Dr. King’s alone. Many others, not only of his own race, put their lives on the line, including many Jews, and indeed some of them lost those lives, like Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
I have not read the totality of literature on the Israeli War of Independence, nor on Israel’s wars of defense from the attacking Arab countries in 1956, 1967 and 1973. Yet, in my extensive study of that literature, I have encountered not one single reference to African-American participation in defending Israelis from those that would “drive the Jews into the sea.” Ms. Alexander might write with more justification about Israel’s oppression of Palestinian Arabs if she herself were to have joined Jews in defending against the wars and terror attacks conducted by Israel’s Arab neighbors. It is those neighbors’ refusal, as much as a century ago, to accept real Jewish presence in the Holy Land that constitutes “this grave injustice of our time.”
20
The equivalence drawn between Vietnam and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a false equivalence, not the mention the fact that it reveals a stunning and frightening lack of historical understanding.
28
I am a Canadian and have visited Israel and seen first hand the humiliation that Palestinians go through daily when crossing check points. We were stopped on the way to Tel Aviv airport by young gourds waving their automatic weapons, this brief experience shook me. I can't imagine living like this on a daily basis. Thank you for this brave article, I hope you will not pay any hardships for writing this.
22
People are still afraid to speak out about the injustices of the Palestinian people for fear of being labeled anti Semitic. As a Christian, I hesitate to tell the Jewish people I know that Palestinians need a homeland and deserve the same rights as the Jewish people of Israel because they will say I am anti Semitic which I am definitely not. The Palestinian lands have been confiscated by the Israelis and left them with no where to go. These people live in dire poverty and often live in settlement camps which are anything but ideal. They deserve to live under decent circumstances as do the Jewish people.
I do not condone the violence against the Jewish people of Israel one bit. They deserve to live in peace and not fear for their lives. But at the same time the horrendous conditions in which the Palestinians find themselves must end. They are human beings too and needed to be treated with dignity and respect. There needs to be an equitable solution for both and it can be achieved if both sides are willing to talk. Time is of the essence and it must start now.
15
I read this column with a bit of alarm. I've always like the Times' op-ed colomnists for their general ability to write and take nuanced approaches to their positions, whether I agree with them or not. Ms. Alexander's column lacks historical context and lays the blame squarely on the shoulders of Israel, while suggesting that change is afoot now that two Muslim American members of Congress publicly support The Boycott, Sanctions movement without acknowledging the appearance(I don't know Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, positions on religious diversity)of one sided religious support. Bizarre. It read like a polemical screed, ignoring the deep complexity of the issue and is a disservice to the memory of Dr. King, Israel and the Palestinians.
33
Missing from the article and from the comments I have read thus far is mention of the 800,000 Jews resident in North Africa who were forced out of their homes after the establishment of Israel. Also missing is why the greater literacy of the Palestinians has not led them to develop a more advanced state following Israel's example. Struggle over land began in the Iron age when nomadic people developed agriculture. It is easier to complain about the consequences of this ageless war than focus on the underlying causes. Let's treat the disease and not just the symptoms.
24
The lack of any mention of the lack of assistance by other Arab countries, and Hamas itself as well as the PLO in the past, to the plight of the Palestinians makes this Opinion piece just another attempt to blame Israel for everything wrong in the Middle East. If you are concentrating on the civil rights of the Palestinians, then you must include the actions and non actions of these other entities in the suffering of the Palestinian people. Israel has offered peace solutions in the past that were rejected by the leaders of the Arabs who used to live in the area of Israel. Their people would not be suffering much of what they currently suffer if other Arabs and their leaders didn't turn a blind eye to human suffering in the name of their ultimate solution; no Jewish State.
If this is an article just aimed at the errors in Israel leadership, write one on the errors of other Middle Eastern countries or you are not a serious civil rights advocate. Picking one cause and ignoring others that are not convenient for your narrative is telling.
21
Excellent article, thank you, but by reading the comments, it seems to have fallen on def ears; the pathetic desperation of people’s entitlement over righteousness.
15
Not once does the author recognize the long history of Palestinian terrorism. Attacks on innocent civilians starting in the 1960s. The U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the anti-apartheid movements preached and largely practiced non-violent protest. The Palestinian do not. Terror or destruction is all they seem to know. Starting with the PLO hijacking planes, taking and killing hostages at the Olympics, hijacking an Air France flight and separating Israeli and American Jewish passengers to hold hostage at Entebbe in Uganda. Hijacking the Achille Lauro and murdering an elderly wheel chair bound American Jewish man. They contributed to the destabilization of Lebanon and the destruction of Beirut, the Paris of the Middle East. Today we have Hamas. Israel exited Gaza. What did Hamas do with it? Build a decent society? No. Hamas fires rockets into Israel targeting civilians. Hamas attempts to tunnel under the border from Gaza and kidnap young Israeli soldiers. "Youths" in their own right. Sorry Ms. Alexander, the Palestinian people need to change their ways. The Israelis have built a modern, first world, democratic state in only 70 years. A state that contributes to the economy of the world in technology, health care and other 21st century industries. The Palestinians just attack and destroy. The U.S. gives them aid too. It did not go to build schools, hospitals, or universities. It went to terror. Even the Egyptians help enforce the blockade of Gaza.
31
The level of response to this opinion piece speaks volumes. It also confirms the author's contention that there is a well-organized movement afoot to discredit and demonize any and all criticism of Israel.
21
with the united states ascent to being a world power, this country took up all of the horrible habits of all previous world powers. and with that, this country has killed democracy in the name of democracy around the globe. wonder why iranians hate us? it's not about the jeans or rock & roll, it's because we propped up the shah. but, for some reason, the "average american" seems to have forgotten (meaning never learned) that. and that is just one example. we've trampled on democracy in the name of "democracy" in more places than can be named. and then there is palestine. a place that had been inhabited by people of all faiths for millenia, but suddenly becomes cannon fodder for israel by colonialist decree.
6
In law school long ago a discussion in the commons an otherwise progressive fellow student made the statement (paraphrased from memory): “I don’t approve of warfare or force as a policy choice but I have to respect its outcomes & the Israelis after 67 should have just claimed the entirety of Palestine by right of force & pushed the West Bank Arabs onto Jordan & then organized a generous financial package as compensation & be done with it. It would take the world a long time to accept this outcome but eventually it would”
I was shocked @ this. I was of the opinion these people could live side by side in peace & a better course would have been to take an active role in ensuring a quality education for Palestinians especially women & provide avenues for opportunity
I was probably right then. But now what? I’m not so sure. Inside the pre-1948 Palestine, Jews are now a minority.
I studied Islamic jurisprudence & highly recommend Bernard Wiess’ “Spirit of Islamic Law.” He states that Islam is not based upon faith but certainty: “creation is evidence of a creator”
The concept of certainty vs faith intrigued me so I looked for stories of ex-Muslims turned Christians. I recently read “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” by the late Nabeel Qureshi. One point he made: in Christian/West truth creates authority, in Islam/East authority creates truth. I think that last point makes democracy&peace difficult in the Islamic world
It’s becoming hard 2 bring truth 2 both sides.
Thorny problem.
6
Wikipedia says, "The government of Israel does not view the admission of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel as a right, but rather as a political issue to be resolved as part of a final peace settlement."
2
Martin Luther King clearly saw the future in this regard (read the linked article). He understood that on the one hand, the criticism of "Zionism" was becoming, in many cases, a cover for outright anti-Semitism. Yet he also saw that after the 1967 war, Israel was in danger of becoming "smug and unyielding." Both of these have come to pass, and there is no obvious way to unwind this unfortunate history.
3
Thank you for this: a reminder of MLK's most courageous self and a reminder to act on this courage each day, and to connect the struggles for equality and liberation wherever the lead--from #BlackLivesMatter to #SayHerName to #Palestine.
9
Thank you so much for this piece by Michelle Alexander. Her words spoke to me deeply, as a Jew grounded in the Torah of compassion and justice for all people, and raised on the words of America's prophet, Dr. King. I am also very aware of the harsh reality in this country where anyone who dares to speak of the humanity and suffering of the Palestinian people is demonized as an anti-semite or self-hating Jew.
I can myself remember as a young adult, coming of age during the Vietnam War, how hard it was for many of us to speak publicly about the inhumanity of our own country's acts. We, too, in the beginning, were branded as traitors. Undoubtedly, Michelle Alexander and the NY Times will be similarly attacked. So I thank you for your courage and pray that it will help to wake up the caring people who exist everywhere.
16
Nowhere in her piece does Ms. Alexander address the Palestinian leadership's actions, over many decades, that have contributed to the current situation. She blames Israel for virtually everything and appears to support actions that would mean the end of the Israel and its inevitable replacement by a single Palestinian state. If it is wrong to demand Palestinians accept their situation in a single Jewish state that controls all of what was the Palestine Mandate, how can it be right to demand the opposite from Jews?
17
A helpful read on this very topic was posted earlier this week (1/16) in NYT Opinions, by author Matti Friedman, "There is no Palestian-Israeli Conflict", premised on important distinctions that should be made when discussing this topic, that it is sometimes important to look at the conflict from a regional point of view, and to "zoom out", as the author suggests, for a more nuanced understanding of the conflict. To "zoom-in" only, and not understand the larger regional forces, is not seeing the forest, for the trees, i.e. the Iranian, Russian, Hezbollah-Lebanese, Islamic State forces at work.
Yes, to see Palestinian suffering, under the boot, as it were, of the Israeli Army, is horrifying and tragic. The regional problems in the Mideast are staggeringly complicated, however, and require a more nuanced understanding, and hand, something not employed by either side of the Palestianian-Israeli conflict, and certainly not usually employed by many of our American interventions, or ideas about, that part of the world.
6
Regardless of which side of this - or any - issue one supports (or leans to), King's Vietnam stance over 50 years ago and its parallel to the Israel-Palestine situation today is a stark reminder of how rare political courage is today. "Even when the issues...(are)... perplexing...we must not be mesmerized by uncertainty...we must speak." Alexander, as King earlier to a larger audience, have done so.
6
Michelle, you have formulated a good argument, however, you left out too much factual information to make a fair judgement. Nobody should condone Israeli behavior in Palestinian Territories nor the 1947 refusal by Palestinian leadership to create two states per the UN resolution nor Arafat’s refusal to accept a peace plan he had helped shape with Clinton and Rabin because he had created a culture of hatred for Jews and Israel’s among Palestinian youth nor the reality of surrounding Arab and Persian states that have invaded, threatened and shown no sustained support for the Palestinians nor a movement toward peace. I’m thinking Mr. King would have done his homework to ensure a reasonable judgement.
5
I understand authors point of view. But it fails in the presentation of the facts. A simple quote from the article illustrates this: “Ultimately, King canceled a pilgrimage to Israel in 1967 after Israel captured the West Bank.” It fails to convey the act of aggression that lead to this unfortunate situation. This article illustrates why it is so difficult to find a solution.
1
I lived for eight months in Israel and Palestine in 1973 just before the Yom Kippur War and there were only a handful of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, primarily along the Jordan River and East Jerusalem. Palestinian Muslims and Christians were some of the friendliest people I ever met, and I knew many Israelis and Palestinians who wanted peace.
I researched Canary Mission, a completely opaque organization who fear listing an address or naming principals but willing to take donations to defame others. Albert Einstein said tyrants strike the careers of political opponents first like Canary does. Israel violates the the 4th Geneva Convention, particularly Article 49 that it "shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies". People have every right to demand Israel uphold international law, a position that strengthens Israel's right to exist.
11
I would hope that everyone reads as a companion piece, Matti Friedman’s article in the Times this week. He lays out the profound and massive political complexity that sits at the heart of the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. Mr. Friedman has the bona fides to comment clearly and rationally. I hope Ms. Alexander reads it, too. Although I am sympathetic to her empathy and moral stance, it’s just not that simple.
8
This is a problem that began decades ago with Great Britain, the Palestinian Mandate and the United Nations.
And, unlike the position the author takes, is not one sided. With few exceptions the Muslim world has worked tirelessly at stoking the flames of conflict both inside and outside of the disputed lands. Of course Israel hasn't helped with some actions. But they are being left to make the least bad of a world of horrible choices.
The failure to establish a Palestinian State at the same time as Israel is at the core of this problem. Nothing would have erased the age old hatred between the Muslims but it would have given them one less log to toss on the fire.
6
Not a single major player on the Palestinian side embracing or practicing the teachings of Gandhi and Dr. King.
Not a one.
16
Long overdue. Thank you Michelle Alexander. Couldn't be said better.
12
This article, like others who support this contention, does indeed amount to anti-Semitism. If it isn't, why this obsession with Israel? Why not focus on China for its invasion of Tibet, Russia for its invasion of Crimea, India for its continued occupation of Kashmir? Come to that, how about England for occupying Scotland and Wales? How about all of us North Americans, including the writer, for our total occupation of native lands? True, Israel is no more blameless than the rest but this overwhelming preoccupation with Israel, the only Jewish homeland amongst dozens of Christian, Islam, Hindu or Buddhist based nations whose sins are just as bad, can only be deep-rooted anti-Semitism.
15
Does Ms. Alexander allot any sympathy to the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab lands in 1948, or grant the fact that when Egypt largely controlled Gaza between 1948 and 1957 they likewise hemmed the Palestinians, and made no provision for their repatriation elsewhere?
21
This 71st year Israel-Palestine conflict soldified by UN charter decision to accept Israel is an independent state.
My generation born in to thsi conflict ( if you are politically aware person) and grow up and worn out ( Rabin assasinated).
In core Israel-palestine conflict is nothing but stemmed from land sharing, not even ethnic or Muslim Jewish conflict, started in Ottoman era.
As always happens land conflicts is the most bloody . persistant conflicts ever known ( religious - ethnic usually solved one way or another), ( see recent bombings of New IRA in N. ireland)
Israel and Palestine ( in fact Arab political backers) fuel this problem and Today The rich Arabs abandoned palestine.
It is obvious that Netanyahu's heart is not in making peace or solving thsi problem, It is obvious that palestine is not reperesented by a single political entity. That is the recipe for long lasting conflict.
And as a world people who is not Arab, Muslim, Jew or Israeli , we also express our pain about this conflict : Yes because of Israeli -Palestine conflict thousands of people were killed in terrorism. The concept of 20th century terorism means that Israeli-Palestine conflict, what ill befallen on the world in the name of terrorism came or originated from that one conflict.
It is culminated it self in 9/11 Attack. The Role of partys feeding this terorism is not going to be forgotten.
Palestine, an entity of suicide bombers who sabotaged the Oslo Accord. They must be contained as we contain lions and tigers in the zoo. Arab Israelis by contrast have more freedom and security than in any of the surrounding Arab lands. Both the West Bank and Gaza are dictatorships. Palestinians are their own worst enemy and the other Arab countries couldn't care less about them. They are now focused on Iran and ally with Israel.
It is true that the so called settlers are extremists and pose as great a threat to Israel as their violence prone neighbors.
Netanyahu is an authoritarian who needs to be replaced.
9
I can't help but ask "what silence?" I can't think of another issue - other than, recently, Trump - that gets nearly as much attention as "Palestine." And I can't think of another country that gets criticized - almost always unfairly - as Israel.
16
Unfortunately, Michelle Alexander is just another one of those who doesn't seem to understand what is really going on in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. First of all, I find it apples to oranges to relate this to what MLK Jr had to go through. He never did preach any acts of violence. Had he been around to see the actions done by either Hamas or Fatah, he would most likely condemn such events. Also, many of the recent protests of the Palestinians were hardly peaceful as they were throwing a lot of rocks and explosives, which are more of a riot than a peaceful protests. She also forgets the fact that there were two occasions where a Palestinian state could have happened either back in 2000 and 2008 with both PA heads rejecting them. King did believe that the Jews did deserve a home state such as Israel and that anyone against it was being anti-Semitic. Let's not forget that in his famous march to Selma, there were a lot of Jews in that march that agreed with him on fighting segregation. As for King not going to Israel after the Six Day War, had he known better the causes of why Israel captured the lands, he would know why Israel wound up with them in the first place, which was mainly because they were being attacked from them originally. Meanwhile, the claim that Israel mistreats it's minority population in the claim for apartheid has been false as they have the same rights as the Jews do unlike minorities in Muslim nations, but most don't seem to care about that.
14
And where would the Jews of "Palestine" be today if the Arabs had won?
15
They would be where the once vibrant Jewish communities in Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Yemen and Syria to name a few are today. Annihilated. .
14
It is of no consequence or import to speclate on what MLK would think. While he was a great leader fighting Negro mistreatment in America, he had no credentials to be an expert on the geopolitical mess in the Middle East. As for MS.. Alexander, just another blind voice making self-inflicted suffering more important than liberty, equity or reality.
9
“Similarly, many students are fearful of expressing support for Palestinian rights”
What an utter crock of malarkey. There has never been an instance when Hillel or any other Jewish group on campus has violently protested, shouted down, or otherwise prevented a Palestinian or Palestinian Speaker on a Campus. Nor has Hillel ever vandalized or made a bomb threat (as recently occurred at NYU) against a Muslim or Palestinian activist group. The same cannot be said in reverse
24
Ms. Alexander: as soon as you get done solving Israel/Palestine, could you get to work giving all Mexicans the right to return to California? It was stolen from Mexico less than 200 years ago.
18
Isn't America Israel's main client? Is American ashamed of this, of its partitioning of Palestine instead of having room for Jewish refugees, of its weapons based economy, its nailing of national-lie revealing whistle blowers, its disastrous financial and environmental debt for its progeny, its offering its people the choice between a war-mongering crook and a political amateur who believes in good deals for everyone, its unbroken record of gratuitous invasion and targeted murder, its native trail-of-tears origin, its stealing half of Mexico, its unceasing slavery of racially half-European 'blacks', its bloodbath of its geographic half devotedly trying to separate, its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan, ...?
1
This article is full of lies, too many to stay here. Also, there is no such country as Palestine.
20
Oh, lots of old Jewish people making angry comments here. And inadvertently (I guess) comparing the state of Israel with...China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar,etc. Note to commenters, those are all repressive dictator/autocracies and Israel claims to be a modern democracy. If this is your argument, you have lost.
14
MLK Jr. said "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking antisemitism." Michelle Alexander's piece contains a level of hostility towards Israel and Zionists that I would expect to see from the leader's of the Women's March. It also neglects to mention: 1) Palestinian terrorism that necessitates Israel's security measures;; 2) Anything about how the Palestinian Authority prefers to pay Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars each year to carry out acts of terrorism on Jewish men, women and children. 3) Anything about the thousands of rockets that Hamas has fired towards Israeli civilians after Israel withdrew from Gaza, 4) Anything about the Palestinian schools which teach children to hate Jews and that Israel will be wiped off the map and replaced with Palestine.
Ms. Alexander decides not to mention at all Palestinian's refusal, multiple times, to peace offers Israel has made in the past, which gave Palestinians much of what they wanted.
She neglects to mention that the "Palestinian homes being bulldozed" belonged to suicide bombers.
She mentions, in support of her argument, the organization, Adalah, which supports BDS and has in the past engaged in various anti-Israel activities. She also mentions 2 recently elected Congresswomen, Omar and Tlaib, both of which support BDS, called Israel evil & are avid supporters of the rabid antisemite, Farrakhan.
It's unfortunate that Ms. Alexander has sullied MLK's name with this hate-filled attack on Israel.
23
Amen.
10
That's Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel seated at left of the photo.
5
Hiding behind MLK to launch antiemetic attacks.
16
I couldn’t care less about Palestine. I guess the Palestinians have suffered some injustice. But then again, so have Jews and hundreds of other ethnic groups. So...get over it, and stop supporting terrorism. End of story.
10
You rightfully harangue Israel as do I from the so called Amen corner. Word on the street is that Israel is doing an injustice. I say, halt and hold your thought and check your outrage. Israel is not criminal anymore than the world and I daresay God was for the wrongs done to the Jews for over 2000 years. We were hounded and dogged around the world for 2000 years. We went up in smoke and perished in the Holocaust. Wouldn't you rebel against such a fate? Israel was and is a heroic revolt against the fate of history and the chains of the gentiles. You, as a gentile, are responsible for Israel as much as Israel is for Palestine.
Solve the Palestinian fiasco without bringing back the classical Jewish problem.
Peace is a victory for everyone. Justice is for everyone.
History God knows has not all our answers, but history is the cause of our problems, and you are blissfully ignorant.
We drafted your Bible and gave birth to your God, so please give us peace. The Jews did not bring war into this world so do not make war on Israel even with justification.
Peace in Arabic and Hebrew are nearly identical and we're all human
4
Part of the problem is a vile Op-ed like this which even uses Dr. Martin Luther King to make its point. That is terrible. He understood anti-Semitism. When Dr. King spoke of Israel he first and foremost talked about the right of the Jewish people to defend themselves and then he talked about peace solutions. In Harvard he answered a student who called for denouncing Zionism: »When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.«
... Lies like read here and money-for-Jew-murder policies lead to even more violence in the name of ‘Israel criticism’, ’protest’ at the border, B.D.S. – which is sadly concealed anti-Semitism and wishful thinking to wipe Israel from the map.
'Palestinian' was a geographical concept, up until, well, incentives changed: The term has been invented as a power move by the PLO and is prolonging the suffering of Arabs who are held hostage by their Arab rulers as ‘Palestinian refugees’ for a region free of Jews.
This is not a joke but Nazi logic. We should call out a newly elected Rep. who wraps herself in a ‘Palestinian’ flag while changing her platform to a one-state solution in front of a map of the region without Israel. Should we read a little from ‘Mein Kampf’ to get what Hitler’s intentions were?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated in his »The Other America« speech in 1967: »conclusion...leading a nation to the point of killing about six million Jews. This is the tragedy of racism because its ultimate logic is genocide.«
14
Take note Ms. Alexander:
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of America’s most eloquent voices for civil rights, for humanity and for peace. Here are memorable quotes about Jews and Israel that contain King’s stirring calls to live up to our potential and to look at others with fairness and warmth.
When King was invited to address the American Jewish Committee convention in 1958, he noted the great similarities between Jews and African Americans, who both experienced hatred and prejudice and who worked to overcome that hatred:
My people were brought to America in chains. Your people were driven here to escape the chains fashioned for them in Europe. Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility.
Anti-Semitism and racism:
There are Hitlers loose in America today, both in high and low places… As the tensions and bewilderment of economic problems become more severe, history(‘s) scapegoats, the Jews, will be joined by new scapegoats, the Negroes. The Hitlers will seek to divert people’s minds and turn their frustration and anger to the helpless, to the outnumbered. Then whether the Negro and Jew shall live in peace will depend upon how firmly they resist, how effectively they reach the minds of the decent Americans to halt this deadly diversion…. (May 14, 1958 address to the National Biennial Convention of the American Jewish Congress)
10
@Jay
Martin Luther King understood the necessity for defending Israel and the existence of the Jewish state, necessary for the existence and safety of the Jewish people.
Ms. Alexander has twisted what MLK stood for and has equally twisted the meaning of the existence of the state of Israel. She does not understand at any level the existential threats to Israel and the Jewish people. She does not understand the motivations of the Arab nations and the Palestinians. Nor does she begin to see her own virulent criticism as dangerous, indeed fatally lethal to Israel and the Jews.
Ms. Alexander needs a lesson in history and deeper understanding of the words and life of Martin Luther King. She needs to carry on King's legacy not twist it for her personal, misguided beliefs.
10
Wrong! Islam started around 650 A.D. and Judaism started thousands of years before that. Henceforth the Jews were in Israel (Palestine) first. Before people like you pipe off and open your mouth you should check your facts first.
14
@Mr. and Mrs. Robert Curley Jacobs
The land which is now subject to this endless conflict was settled between 3000 BCE and 2600 BCE by a West Semitic people or possibly the Canaanites, the common ancestors of Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and Jordanians, and (to include a religion) Jews.
Some of these West Semitic tribes converted to Islam...some didn't.
9
Uh... didn't Dr. King say when you attack Israel, you are really attacking Jews? How did his sentiments get so twisted to mean the opposite of what he said?
12
Israel, under the right wing government of Netanyahou and the dominant influence of fanatical Orthodox Jews who are no better than the Taliban have become the biggest terrorist organization on the planet.
Obama understood this, Trump is an idiot.
10
What might Dr Martin Luther King have thought about Palestinian suicide bombers blowing up Israeli children (both Jewish and Muslim I might add) on busses and in restaurants?
You have conveniently left that out of her lengthy tirade against Israel.
24
For those who opine the 1, 2, or 3 state solution, or oppose the so-called "occupation," it is quite simple: Arabs/Moslems refuse the concept of Jews living amongst them in any way as reiterated in a 2015 poll. Commissioned by The Washington Institute and conducted by a leading Palestinian pollster, the poll comprised face-to-face interviews with a standard random geographic probability sample of 1,200 adult Palestinians, yielding results with a 3% statistical margin of error. "60 percent of those polled, including 55 percent in the West Bank and a commanding 68 percent in Gaza, reject permanently accepting Israel's existence and instead suggest their leaders "work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea." Further "...those amenable to a two-state solution view such a move as “part of a ‘program of stages,’ to liberate all of historic Palestine later.” In the meantime, Palestinians have been engaged in a full time program of cold blooded murder against innocent civilian Jews incited by the ruling PA/Hamas. Nothing more need be said...
20
This is what Martin Luther King said about anti Zionists "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!" Yes this op-ed is Antisemitic. It is a one sided piece that doesn't bother to mention the hatred and terrorism that Israelis are subject to or the fact that many of their neighbors including the terrorists Hamas and Hezbollah have adopted as their central policy the destruction of Israel. The author also ignores that two million Muslims live in Israel in equality. There is no safer place for Muslim women or Gay Muslims in the Middle East... I could go on and on but I think the best response one could have to this one sided article is what was said by Golda Meir “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.” Until the policies of institutional hated, supporting terrorism and Antisemitism changes there will be no Palestinian State in the territories. Israel would be insane to consent to this without fundamental changes in the morals of the Palestinian Authority and its corrupt leadership.
27
This opinion piece is replete with misunderstanding, mistruths, and ill-conceived suggestions. I expect more from NYT columnist - not that they provide a certain opinion that they at least provide accurate information.
26
This article is full of misrepresentations and falsehoods cloaked in the mantle of "social justice", but with an implicit aim of eliminating the State of Israel and targeting Jews. There is no "Silence on Palestine"; the author's own bully pulpit in the New York Times belies her claim. We see the old anti-Semitic canards: "Israel's political lobby holds well-documented power". This is classic hyperbole; poll after poll show that the majority of people (Jew and non-Jew) support American policy towards Israel. We see deliberate factual inaccuracies: "continued occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza". Israel left Gaza in 2005 and in 2007 the Arabs there elected the terrorist group Hamas to lead them. Since then, misery not liberty has been their self-inflicted lot. Take note of how many Gazans are voting with their feet and are now are leaving voluntarily through the opening of the Rafah border crossing. While the Jews were and remain the original indigenous inhabitants of Israel and Palestine, there is no point in debating who has what land rights when both have legitimate claims that can only be resolved by negotiation. The fundamental obstruction to such a resolution has always lied with Arabs who have rejected Jewish self-determination.
27
A terrible wrong was committed on the Palestinians that won’t go away.
Germany who has committed terrible crimes on the Jews should have been made to give up land for a Jewish State (Austria as well). That would have been fairer than taking land away from the Palestinians who never did any harm to the Jews.
15
@Brigitte Wood
Your comment is well meaning, except it has nothing to do with the Jews indigenous claims to the land of Israel, and their forced expulsions in 733 BCE, 63 BCE, and 70 AD, yet their interrupted presence throughout the land despite mass deportations and emigrations. If you just look at place names, Jews have an historic claim to their land. So do the Palestinians. So you simplify a very complex problem. Consider this: on what date should the Tibetans right of return to Tibet expire? Should Mexicans have the right of return to California which was stolen from them in war a mere 171 years ago? Palestinians, who I agree have a legitimate claim to land (a claim that was recognized in the just 2 state solution promulgated by the United Nations in 1947), are relatively recent arrivals to the area, best counted with the fall or Roman Palestine and beginning of Islamic expansion into the land, 634-644.
7
@Brigitte Wood. So lobbing rockets is “doing no harm”? How about suicide bombers?
7
Amen. Anti-semitism is a problem, Palestine is not the reason. Don’t make it the collateral damage of white supremacists.
8
I will urge Israel to return the West Bank to the "Palestinians" when Muslims recognize that they stole the land that is today Egypt, Syria, Iraq, all of North Africa and most of Arabia and the Yemen and offer to return it to its original Christian and Jewish and pagan owners from whom they took it by force majeure.
11
Clearly this has become a battle between the worlds greatest victims. The Palestinians have for now, created themselves as the current world's greatest victim. The Jews however, will eternally be the world's greatest victim and can not be outdone. Just see Louis Farrakhan.
Palestinians should not be giving a pass to hide behind the murderous ideology of the Israeli hatred doctrine followed by Hamas and Hezbollah as well as many Islamic nations around the world including NATO member nations. By taking orders (in some cases to kill themselves on their leaders orders for optical effect), is evil and will ultimately betray their real purpose.
12
Not so sure the Reverend would appreciate being used to go after the Jews, oh no but that I meant Israel’s policies of course, excuse my biais.
8
While israel is far from perfect I find this article incredibly one sided therefore reducing it's credibility. The author puts the full blame on Israel without even touching on the role of the Palestinians. She totally disregards the antisemitism and hate taught in Palestinian schools, the violence Israel is subjected to through terror tunnels, missiles and attempted terror attacks. She totally ignores the tens of thousands of Jews expelled from Arab lands with nowhere to go but to Israel with little more than a shirt on their back. She even attempts to claim that Israel is apartheid like within the '67 lines which is absolutely false. She ignores the violence inflicted on Palestinians by Hamas and their own government. Foreign aid in the bank accounts of leaders, supplies like cement used for terror tunnels instead of hospitals and schools. While reading I thought of Tamika Mallory who couldn't bring herself to say that Israel has a right to exist. I'm a Democrat but the far left who claims to be the champion of rights for all people fails me when it's everyone except Jews and Israelis.
27
If you're going to invoke Dr. King, please remember his statement:
“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism.”
24
This is what you get when people don't know or don't care about history. As Abba Eban said, "The Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." We know what the Palestinians want to drive Jews in Israel into the sea.
19
Go read Matti Friedman’s Op-Ed piece “There is no Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the least the NYT should have placed a link to that column following the current one. Shame on them for not doing so!
9
Perhaps it's time to recognize that Zionism originated as British war propaganda and then took a life of its own. See
James Renton, "The Zionist Masquerade: The Birth of the Anglo-Zionist Alliance, 1914–1918"
"Stemming as it did from the wider frame of thought of the [British] Government’s ethnic propaganda policies, British advocates for the [Balfour] Declaration were united in their desire to use Zionism to create pro-British propaganda in the USA, Russia, and anywhere where Jews could be found."
4
The Palestinians and their leaders have long decried violence and hold life sacred and have always been ready to form a peaceful partnersh--- a hahahahaha. No. They haven't. Israel's neighbors on all sides have long espoused an official doctrine of seeking Israel's destruction. Their schools teach that Jews are an accursed race, less than human. They champion the bombings that take Israeli lives and cheer when those Israelis are children.
Israel is here to stay, get used to the idea. There will never be a "repatriation" of Palestinians, accept this. The neighboring Islamic countries can welcome the Palestinians in with open arms. And once Israel's neighbors stop advocating for its destruction a significant dialogue can begin. Until then, articles like this one are nothing more than college freshman navel gazing.
21
One would think after the Holocaust, the Jews would be the last people on earth to hate someone enough to occupy them and treat them as if they were not human. My Jewish Great grandmother would be appalled.
10
@Molly Ciliberti. Exactly where are they occupying?
3
@Jackson if you don’t know by now; it is hopeless.
6
It is sad to see the same old accusations appear again and again. Israeli control of Congress, Israel silencing critique, Apartheid-like conditions. All accusations we've heard before, and yet not a single concrete example is provided.
Apartheid means something clear, discrimination under a system of laws within a nation. But the West Bank, historically known as Judea and Samaria up until Jordan's illegal attempt to annex it, and Gaza are not part of Israel. There is a government of those territories, and an agreed upon process to establish those territories as a state. Unfortunately the leadership of the Palestinian Arab people has persistently refused to finalize any peace deal, just as the Arab League refused to do so in the years up to and after their attempt to destroy Israel in war.
Within Israel, 1.8 million Arabs live as citizens with full rights. There is nothing remotely "Apartheid like" to be found. In the West Bank it is a capitol crime to sell an apartment to Jews. Yet this racist exclusivity is accepted as normal.
No nation grants its neighbors unlimited access, but when Israel fails to do so it is discrimination. The Palestinian Authority promotes hatred and violence in schoolbooks, ironically using money from the USA and other nations to do so, and has a program that rewards those who kill Israelis, no matter what age the victims are. Yet it is Israel that bears the bulk of the criticism for not making peace.
MLK saw this for what it was. A lie.
18
I'm not Jewish and old enough to remember the following that come to mind.
The Palestinian approval of fellow traveler actions and leaders ... Hezbollah, Hamas, Black September 1972 Munich Olympics, Syria, Iran, Yasser Arafat, Entebbe, Achille Lauro, Navy SEAL Robert Stethem death, suicide bombers ... on and on.
In 1948 the UN gave Palestinians most of the East end of the Mediterranean but they wanted it all and launched two wars and lost ... now they whine.
Palestinian leaders have never accepted Israel's right to exist over the past 60 years.
Why should Israel negotiate anything until that good faith baseline exists?
Do Mexicans have Right of Return to USA? Grow up.
25
No true. The Palestinians did not launch two wars. The Arab countries around Palestine launched two wars, and if they won, they were not going to cut the Palestinians in for much. But anyway, if I took over your house but gave you back your side yard, would you be happy?
2
I just love the piousness of Ms. Alexander, conflating Dr. King's message with the Palestinian cause while wincing at the apparently external evils of the 'anti-semitism' she seems hardly aware of in her own lopsided and dishonest piece.
I am glad that Ms. Alexander sees in the terrorist organization that is Hamas and in the kleptocracy that is the Palestinian Authority willing partners for peace. I see no mention in her article of the execution of Jewish Olympic athletes in Munich, the thousands of missiles that rain down on Israeli civilians, kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizens and the teaching in Palestinian schools that Jews are 'sub-human.' Perhaps facts do not concern Ms. Alexander so much as her desire to punish Israel (BDS) for the crime of existing and prospering in a sea of hate.
I too hope that Israel and its Arab neighbors can one day live together in peace and mutual prosperity. But that peace will not arise (and Israel will not die) so long as there is no accountability for the ongoing campaign (cloaked in the nice language that Ms. Alexander so politely wields) of purposeful anti-semitism manifested in this article.
Am Yisroel chai.
21
Equating the "Palestinian" situation to the US Civil Rights movement is ridiculous. There are injustices in dozens of countries where their own populations are abused and ethnic minorities are murdered and raped.
Yet somehow, Michelle Alexander is morally outraged by Israel. Israel accepted a partition in 1948 and was attacked by multiple Arab armies and internally Jews were killed before the partition trying to live in peace.
There are Arabs who are citizens of Israel and live there peacefully and have for years.
The horribly abused black population of the USA never threatened or intended harm to their abusive white co-citizens. Israel is still surrounded by countries and factions that wish to destroy it regardless of how the Palestinians are treated.
Look only at how Arab populations are treated in their own countries.
Find a real cause.
14
Thank you Michelle for your eloquent and brave stand against the silence of our major institutions on the searing question of Palestine. No doubt you feel you are risking your career. Indeed you are. But in my opinion the tipping point in our contemporary culture in favor of Palestine has already passed. Unlike in King’s day, there is just too much awareness today of the injustices which have been inflicted on Palestinians by Zionism.
The haters will be in pursuit, with their ridiculous, false, ad-hominem, whataboueries, but I don’t think they will be able to touch you. The majority of informed American citizens are with you.
And thank you to the Times, which continues to surprise me. You have provided a needed shock to the complacency of the pro-Israel crowd.
15
@FB. So have they stopped lobbing rockets? Remember when Arafat turned down offers of more land?
10
I find it utterly absurd that on MLK Day this author would choose this topic instead of trying to heal the racial division and self-defeating resentment people of color have against Jews and Israel based on false historical premises, particularly when what has been lost in history is the enormous contribution Jews made to black civil rights (remember the founding of the NAACP, the Mississippi Three, etc., etc.). All of this being particularly relevant today given the issues surrounding the woman’s march organizers, one of whom cant seem to separate herself from the bigoted Farrakhan and another on record as praising Hamas, which calls for the destruction (not reformation) of Israel, in a world where Jews are picked off by Islamist and white supremicist gunman (yes, like Pittsburgh; yes, like the trial in Belgium underway). But, oh, two thirds through the piece there is a paragraph mentioning that sometimes anti-Zionism slips towards anti-Semitism. (Sometimes slavery was about racism and not just bad economic theory.)
The great moral challenge of our day may also have something to do with why far more ink is spilled than Palestinian blood on that conflict while ignoring the hundred of thousands (again, hundreds of thousands) of innocents killed next door in Syria, with chemical gas and barrel bombs, and in Yemen, and across Africa, which hasn’t elicited a single mass movement.
MLK loved Israel; he glorified it; and he stood among rabbis - his friends and fellow soldiers.
21
You offer this undisputed quote:
"To hold fast to the image of God in every person is to insist that the Palestinian child is as precious as the Jewish child.”
Most Americans (and Israelis) agree with this and treasure all children. However, when will you insist that the Jewish child is as precious as the Palestinian child?
In 1957, future Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir said:
"We can forgive [the Palestinians] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them from forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with [Palestinians] when they love their children more than they hate us."
10
So many inaccuracies, hard to know where to start...
18
Thank you for saying this.
I wish, though, that the article had been even clearer about the fact that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians didn't begin with Netanyahu, but has been consistent Zionist policy even before the 1948 Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe).
I'm an atheist ethnic Jew. So I'm sure what I'm saying will be described as "self-hatred" by the propagandists of Zionism. But I believe from my heart that the creation of the state of Israel is the second-worst thing that ever happened to the Jews. Antisemites can kill our bodies, but only we can kill our souls.
9
If the Nazis or other organized Jew hating mob, were coming to your city, and Israel was the only place you or your family could be safe, would you still believe that?
8
This is not to condone the apartheid political system of the government of Israel, but how can one write an article on the Israeli-Palestinian issue without using the word Hamas ? By establishing a "Jewish homeland" a segregated state was created, a state based on religion, a state to doomed to repeat the insanity between Hindus and Moslems in India, between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, between blacks and whites in South Africa,... - a lose-lose entity.
Write an article suggesting ideas out of the mess, not a one-sided mis-comparison to M.L. King's superb efforts in the U.S. An article that totally ignores the mantra of the Arab Palestinian powers-that-be to obliterate Israel, that fosters hatred of all Jews, is hardly worthy of its ink.
5
Very cheeky to use the memory of Dr. King on the weekend in which we commemorate the anniversary of his birth to toss off an anti-Israel message. I know, it isn't anti-Israel, it's pro-Palestinian. Cheeky indeed.
14
You cannot expect a child to change his behavior if you keep spoiling the child.
- Israel is by far the largest recipient of US foreign aid;
- No American politician would dare to criticize Israel for grabbing Palestinian land and building settlements (other than saying "unhelpful for peace");
- Every time a Palestinian kills an Israeli condemning it as terrorism but every time an Israeli kills a Palestinian defending it as Israel's right to defend itself.
As long as AIPAC and similar pro-Israel lobbies have the financial and political power in Washington, they will continue to systematically label any and all criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism as a way to intimidate people and make Congress invite Netanyahu and order Congressmen/women to give him a standing ovation.
I am tired of my tax dollars supporting Israel's colonialism and oppression of Palestinian people. If Jews and Evangelicals in this country want the "chosen" people to have all the holy lands and annihilate Palestinians, fine; they can go ahead and support settlements out of their own money and donate to the Israeli government. But stop giving my tax dollars to Israel!
11
So should we also give “occupied” California back to Mexico? I don’t hear any of you Leftists calling for China to give back Tibet. Why is it only Israel? Hmm, I wonder. Palestinians are treated better in Israel than any Arab country and yet we never hear about that either. Why is that? Hmm, I wonder.
17
So-called leftists have been for years calling on China to stop occupying Tibet. Where have you been that you didn't notice?
If you had a strip of paper with one end labeled "right wing" and the other labeled "left wing", if you put the two ends together, you would have a never-ending circle and would not know where the extreme right blurred into the extreme left.
The problems of Israel and the so called Palestinians are often cast as a single issue when they is actually a part of many interlocking anathemas. Chief among them is the promise by many in the Arab World as well as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to "destroy Israel and kill all Jews."
When the agenda is genocide, there is no basis for discussion.
10
I read about 20 posts with the same message: Israel is a bad actor. Ok, all you self- righteous moralists , lets see how many Democratic candidates will be courageous enough to agree with your viewpoint(not mine). How many will embrace BDS? And you will be call an Anti Semitic by so many of the Israel can- do- no- wrong crowd .
No I do don't share that view but by your sneering responses. you could care less about the past Palestinian terrorism.
5
Did I miss the solutions part of Michelle Alexander's piece? Should Israel knock down its wall and dismantle checkpoints so that we could return to the terrorism of the past? Should Israel allow free passage of rockets and arms into Gaza so that more Israelis will be killed? Should Israel allow a doomed state, one that is sworn to its destruction and likely to create a vacuum for ISIS to have borders within a few miles of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Should Israel do nothing to stop the introduction of more powerful Iranian rockets in Syria and Lebanon? Should the entirety of West Jerusalem be given away so that Jews could no longer pray at the Western Wall as was the case before the 1967 war? And should Israel allow the right of return which would effectively eliminate Israel as Jewish State? Or maybe the author would prefer that the Jews in Israel just pack up and leave to return to.....where? Her failure to say what her solution is makes me think it does not include a safe, stable Jewish Israel.
18
A good intention, but in current times no one in the western media can say anything much about the suffering of Palestinians without attracting allegations of religious hatred against another group I don't dare to name.
6
Martin Luther King on Zionism and Anti-Semitism:
On October 27, 1967, just a few months after the Six Day War, King had dinner with students from Harvard University in Boston. Professor Seymour Martin Lipset was present and recalls how one of the students criticized Zionists. King was incensed, saying “Don’t talk like that!” - and continuing:
When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!
The following year, just days before his tragic murder, King addressed an annual Jewish assembly and explained his pro-Israel feelings at greater length. He explained that Israel and Arab states had different conceptions of what constitutes “peace”. Arab states are consumed with inequality and require fundamental changes in their societies before they can feel secure. Israel, in contrast, desires only secure borders and for the world to recognize its right to exist.
Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs. I see Israel, and never mind saying it, as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality. (March 26, 1968 address to the 68th annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly)
11
The grave injustice of our time is that Palestinians have been using international aid to build concrete tunnels to Israel with the purpose of killing Jews rather than building schools and businesses and creating a society that cares more about contributing to the world's good than about vengeance.
Israel would be a much smaller country today if the Arabs had not vowed to exterminate its presence in their midst. Such a tiny, irregularly shaped little land cobbled out of little towns that had been Jewish for thousands of years.
If the Jews could do it, so could the Arabs who are residing in what they'd like to call Palestine. Then there would be peace. I wish them sincere good luck.
13
While I appreciate your concern on the topic, this article manipulates the true meaning of social justice to push forth a blatantly anti-Semitic agenda. Especially over MLK weekend, it is truly troublesome as an American Jew to wonder how someone could have the audacity to claim MLK's work should mean condemning Israel. If one were to accurately examine the full history of Israel, one must accept that its been the fight of a small nation against the entire Arab population. MLK believed in fair treatment of everyone. If we were to honor his memory, we would condemn the Palestinian people for: electing a terrorist organization as their leader, using foreign aid for terror instead of helping their own people, structuring rocket-launch sites at schools and hospitals so that Israel is forced to target civilians and for teaching its population that it is ok to hate (Palestinian media airs anti-Israel shows to teach kids to hate and reward killing Jews). Holding Israel to a double standard is nothing short of cowardice and cruel - MLK would be embarrassed, especially as Jews were those who led the freedom rides. By the mere suggestions that Israel has brought upon conditions similar to South African apartheid and Jim Crow era laws clearly indicate you have never been to Israel and should not be discussing this matter. What would you do if your neighboring country rejected every peace attempt with suicide bombings and endless rockets? I bet you would do the same as Israel.
19
No doubt the situation in Palestine is a tragedy and worthy of remedy, but anyone who would talk of this conflict -- among the least bloody in human history -- as if it is the moral crisis of the day, has his/her priorities messed up. Palestinians have healthy population growth, above-world-avg life expectancy and below-world-avg infant mortality. Israelis have it even better. Meanwhile elsewhere, there are concentration and "re-education camps" in China, ethnic cleansing of Rohingya, massacres of Kurds, etc. If Palestine is your main 'human rights concern' I question whether it is mere human rights that is motivating you.
13
Try to separate the leadership of Israel from the country of people called Israel.Anti semitism does not exist in wanting
To keep your home in Palestine and not see it bulldozed to make room for new apts. for Jewish people that the
Government of Israel is building.This will not build acceptance,
Only more hate.when will we learn to pass by authoritarian
Leaders and see all children are alike no matter their religion
Race,or gender.
3
MLK is/was widely known as the modern-day Gandhi, the father of India. He peacefully 'forced' the British to end its colonial rule in India.
Since Gandhi did not believe that the creation of Israel was just, he refused to recognize Israel, and India continued that practice until 1950 when Nehru figured that the non-recognition was not having any positive impact on the issue.
Here is what Gandhi had said in 1938 about Israel: (https://www.pambazuka.org/governance/mahatma-gandhi-israel-and-palestine)
The Jews [September 1938]:
..... But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.'
Ok, there you have it. Now go check your own conscience.
4
Anyone claiming that the current regime in Israel is the heir to idealistic Zionism is saying that Donald Trump is the heir to Abraham Lincoln. Oh, and that Ann Coulter is the next Pope of Rome.
2
Invoking MLK distracts from the facts, he was a big supporter of Israel as a Jewish State. Your knowledge of history is limited. The fundamental question- Does Israel have the right to exist as a Jewish State? If your answer is no- then clearly you have neither compassion for the plight of a victimized people or knowledge of the facts that led to Israel's establishment as a sovereign state. (which has contributed disproportionately to humanity in science, technology and agriculture-its irrigation science has saved millions of lives in Asia and Africa. If yes, at what point did Palestinians free themselves from responsibility of their condition? Five Arab nations having approximately 100 times the population attacked Israel with the stated goal of driving the Jews into the sea while forcefully throwing out hundreds of thousands of Jews. For the following fifty years the stated Palestinian goal was to destroy Israel and its Jewish population Hamas,freely elected, still vigorously asserts this goal as do the majority of Palestinians.How many missiles(aimed to kill your children) would you tolerate being shot in your neighborhood on a daily basis? Bill Clinton engineered a two state solution-it was rejected by Arafat. You naturally believe you are speaking on behalf of the oppressed,- but your view is borne from a myopic snapshot -with no accounting for history or responsibility of the current supposed victim who has actively maintained an uncompromising state of war.
11
Dear Ms. Alexander, have you ever visited Tel Aviv? Have you seen first-hand how Arab-Israeli are treated in Israel? Have you traveled to the Middle East? Have you been to Syria? Why don’t you talk about human rights over there? Isn’t that a better comparison with Vietnam? Intellectual honesty is important for a contributor of your caliber. I would appreciate if you answered the questions above.
10
Yes, it's time.
6
Many focus on the the last 70 year's worth of Palestinian unrest (violence) as justification for Israeli restrictive, confiscatory, and apartheid policies. But the complicated story goes back a couple of thousand years before but more precisely to the late 19th century with the birth of Zionism, a political viewpoint that basically rationalizes that Jewish people have a right to occupy the lands currently known as Israel. But let's get this straight--that right is bestowed by some 2000 year-old book of questionable factual authority who rode the wave of a successful public relations campaign after the Holocaust but is certainly not a time immemorial deed.
So how would you respond today if someone confiscated the property you own--would you not do the equivalent of kicking and screaming to be heard about the injustice? More so, the current Zionist, right-wing faction practices Apartheid and Colonialism period; confiscating and settling property in violation of Peace agreements. All Zionists may be Jewish, but all Jewish people are not Zionists. Further, the anti-Semite activists like to conflate the two. Regardless of Dr.King's position, Apartheid is wrong.
7
Ms. Alexander speaks of "silence." Where? Much of the world has been screaming about "Palestine" since before the Holocaust ended.
The simple fact is, the Palestinian leadership LIKES the occupation and wants it to continue. So do most Arab states, as it is a distraction from the traditional tyranny in much of the Middle East.
The BDS movement is antisemitic first and pro-palestinian second, if not third. It has always been thus since it was first founded by the Arab leage in 1945 (a mere eight months after the concentration camps were liberated).
The Palestinians walked out on a deal three times and now refuse to budge. Assad of Syria's father refused to take back the Golan when offered.
The Arabs are at fault. That's where the silence is.
10
I hope her heart is in the
right place but her thinking
is rather convoluted. It is also
presumptuous to invoke the
voice of MLK. For the record,
check the history. Israel has
offered many times to make
peace and has been met by
the response that Israel must
be obliterated. It offends me
that the NYT deploys many
efforts to punctuate their
vision of American Jewish
negativity towards Israel.
In this case, rather than using
the voice of an American-Jewish writer
you have used an African-American.
It is rather cynical.
7
No mention of Palestinian leaders to accept peace. They teach only hate and wish to destroy Israel completely. Their education and media are full to the brim with anti-semitism. Have Hamas leaders done anything but start serious conflicts on Israeli citizens since they took over Gaza and are quite independant of Israel.
And Abas's speeches are full of hate. And are opposed to 'normalization'. What is Israel to do ?
12
Of course this is anti-semitism.
It’s the bigotry of double standards and low expectations.
Millions of Jews were forced out of Arab countries. Where are the articles about their right of return?
The Palestinian Authority has criminalized the private sale of property to Jews. Presently an American Palestinian is sitting in prison for selling a home in Jerusalem to Jews. Why don’t you write about that?
There are no laws in Israel preventing Arabs from engaging in commerce or owning property on the same terms as Jews.
What other country is condemned for winning a defensive war? What other country is immoral for keeping territory won in such a war?
The whole naarative is upside down. Jews are the native people of Israel. That Israel has continued to host and try to accommodate Arabs is the aberration from international norms.
Arab states abandoned their brethren in Israel to have a rallying cry to prop up their various regimes. The Left, instead of addressing this, can not resist the temptation to condemn the Jews.
17
The Palestinians have suffered enough. Israel needs to either offer a place at the table or become a major benefactor for an actual Palestine, not Ghetto Palestine.
I’ve heard all the arguments. It’s all apologetics to spin away from the truth: Palestinians are an oppressed people.
8
Zionism: the scourge that keeps on giving.
Zionists portray the same pathological traits that American 'exceptionalism' portrays. They are both forms of racial superiority based on the false doctrine of security that is really an excuse for hegemony and control.
Judaism has given and still gives great and wondrous gifts to the world at large. Zionism-the opposite...
10
Yasser Arafat was no Martin Luther King Jr. and the Palestinian suicide bombers are no sit-in heroes.
15
I so disagree with this. After centuries of persecution, pogroms and genocides Jews just wanted a land of their own. This was granted by the UN in 1948 and almost immediately this tiny country was attacked by Arab armies. And then attacked and attacked again. Given the opportunity Hamas and Hezbollah with their Iranian and Arab sponsors would not hesitate to murder every Israeli and Jew. And that cannot be allowed to happen.
13
To hold Israel to a higher standard than any other country in this world IS antisemitism. There are no " occupied territories". These are conquered territories and no country in the world gives them back without a fight. The UK is not giving back Gibraltar. it is not giving back the Falklands..It actually sent the whole british navy at-the other end of-the world to defend the UK ownership of these islands. France spent one to 2 millions men to get back Alsace- Lorraine.
But the Jews, who gave back the Negev, and the Gaza band..etc never will give back enough. And what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians is worse than what North Corea is doing to its own citizens,or what is happening in the Soudan, or is it Kenya..or is it both, is certainly not worth the attention of Ms Alexander...
According to her Israel, and its very existence is THE moral problem if our times...
One cannot be more blind, or biased or both...
15
This column is entirely one sided. Israel would act differently if not not threatened by Palestinians seeking to wipe Israel off the map.
13
King wrote from a Birmingham jail in 1963, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens' Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.
Likewise the greatest barrier to Palestinian freedom is not the right wing zealots in the Knesset but the liberal Jews of the diaspora who unconditionally back Israel because it makes them “feel safe.”
7
The title iof the column s misleading and it is a shame. When I read it I thought the columnist was going to comment about the evident corruption of palestinian leaders (so very wealthy) and their consistent refusal to accept any offer of peace from israeli governments-Barack and Olmert among others- willing to surrender to almost all their conditions in exchange of a peace deal.Palestinians always said No to peace and it is easy to check. But the columnist had other intentions: she blames israelis for destroying palestinians houses, forgetting to say that they only destroy the houses of palestinian terrorists who kill babies in their beds or teen agers looking for an auto-stop. The columnist also blames Israel for not accepting the right of return for palestinians whose number ,now,is more than ten times what it was 70 years ago and knowing that their return would mean the end of the tiny State of Israel.
The title of the column is misleading and the content of the column is unfair.I wonder what is happening to the NYT?Why is it so bias against Israel,the only democracy in the Middle East?
10
You have to go back, way back, to the beginning and inform yourself of the history of the state of Israel. You can't just form an opinion from afar about "colonists" and presumably "native" people.
The territory called Israel today has been a contentious band of real estate since history was first recorded. It exists at the junction of three continents. It is holy to three versions of monotheism.
Before embracing one side as wrong and the other as oppressed, please read the HAMAS charter. It includes a reference to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a false
conspiracy theory invented by Czarist Russians, accepted by Hitler, and spread around the world, including to Turkey, India, and Palestinians, among others. It is the essence of
anti-Semitism. It killed millions of people.
Follow the history of attacks by Arabs, Egyptians, Jordanians, and other states upon Israel. Look at Israel's geography. Without an aggressive defense of borders, Israel could not hope to defend against neighbors' attacks.
Finally, look again at the history of the United States. There is plenty here to actively work for in terms of justice and equality for all.
No state is pure and good. The Palestinians have been extremely violent and this has brought a violent response.
What is needed is the building of trust between the two parties, but Palestinians have a split and corrupt set of leaders.
8
The Israelis are in a tough situation. They pulled completely out of Gaza, whose population then voted in Islamic extremists (Hamas). Hamas then indoctrinated the youth, and proceeded to shoot missiles into Southern Israel, dig tunnels to invade Israel and so forth. Israel thought it had let go of the wolf, but the wolf is always at the door. Then 'activists' have the nerve to lecture Israel. But apart from that, from what I've seen, people like the author of this article don't lose sleep over the fact that about half a million people have died in the war in Syria (next door to Israel), or that Palestinians in that area have also been killed, that millions of people had to run for their lives, and many are in refugee camps, that whole civilian neighborhoods were leveled, and so forth? Its not just Michelle, the Islamic Mr. Farrakhan accuses Jews of the black slave trade, but Muslims and Christians were much more responsible for that then the Jews were.
7
“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-Semitism.” Martin Luther King
King immediately recognized anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism – refusing to indulge what he believed was simply another manifestation of the same hatred confronting Blacks. As Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who worked closely with Dr. King during the civil rights movement, observed that “he knew that both peoples [i.e., Blacks and Jews] were uprooted involuntarily from their homelands. He knew that both peoples were shaped by the tragic experience of slavery. He knew that both peoples were forced to live in ghettos, victims of segregation. He knew that both peoples were subject to laws passed with the particular intent of oppressing them simply because they were Jewish or black. He knew that both peoples have been subjected to oppression and genocide on a level unprecedented in history.”
Here are some other quotes from Dr. King:
“I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world… as a marvelous example of what can be done… how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.”
“Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality.”
“I solemnly pledge to do my utmost to uphold the fair name of the Jews.”
12
I don't understand how scholars who claim,expertise in the region... From Lamont Hill to West to Sarsour to this person...
All choose to selectively excoriate Israel and implicitly absolve literally every Arab nation from,their culpability in,thia ongoing humanitarian disaster.
BDS and the constant pressure on Israel plays directly into the hands of every regional power and shows them that keeping the people of Gaza under constant duress is political currency.
Your support for these tactics extends their suffering and your myopic refusal to condemn regional powers with equal fervor is not anti Zionism. It is selective, and it is by design.
When you raise your voice for equal rights in Egypt. When you demand they stop throwing homosexuals off rooftops in Gaza. Stop stoning women in Saudi Arabia. Hold free and democratic elections in Jordan. When any of you "scholars" shine an equal light on the other nations in the region, you may earn the right to have yoir voice actually listened to.
Until that time, your agenda and your hypocrisy are transparent for anyone who is paying attention to see right through.
12
Ms. Alexander would do well to devote her history lessons to her own nation of birth rather than sputter such absolute nonsense in a region of which she displays such paltry knowledge. If Ms. Alexander would take the time to read and absorb the history of the USA and UK during WW2, she perhaps would appreciate how Israel has managed to maintain it's democratic way in the face of continued warfare imposed by Moslem neighbours. From 1948 to 1967 Israel absorbed waves of penniless refuges driven out of Arab lands where they had lived for 2,600 years, altogether some 900,000 souls. Their descendants today comprise some 50% of Israel's Jewish population. Moslem Arabs, some 17% of Israel's population, comprise 16% of university students, 40% of Israeli pharmacists and a growing number of doctors and engineers. Statistics show the truth …. today 60% of Arab Moslem women work in regular jobs outside the home, as opposed to 30% ten years' ago. Our Palestinian neighbours could learn from these efforts if only their leaders had the will. Grass root efforts on the part of Israelis and Palestinians working together will in the end provide a meaningful co-existence … it will take another one to two generations to achieve this goal and it will follow by example the ever closer working relationships between Israel and its rational Moslem neighbours.
11
Both the Jewish people and the Palestinians are Semites. Harm to either group is by definition anti-semetic.
4
@Michael
Anti-semitism is prejudice against Jews. Period. There. Now you know.
8
What’s ironic is that if the Palestinians had adopted the beliefs and non violent strategies of Dr. MLK then they would’ve had a state a LONG time ago.
8
@Mat
Israel has used live ammunition to stop unarmed peaceful Palestinian protesters. You want them to try again?
3
Maybe MLK would suggest that as a first step Israel get out of the Gaza Strip?
3
First of all, I question why the considerable focus by the progressive left -- including today's black activists -- on Israel? Where's the equivalent outrage towards other persecuted minorities in other countries of the world?
Secondly, I believe calling for an end to the state of Israel (by calling for the right of return of Palestinians) is implicitly anti-semitic. The welfare of Jews is inexorably linked to Israel and vice versa: The ability to prevent another Jewish Holocaust is dependent on the existence of Israel, which itself is dependent on the support of Jewish people everywhere.
9
Another one-sided pro-Palestinian piece. The “unrelenting UN violations”? What? Complaining about the occupation of the West Bank? Was the author old enough to remember the 6-Day War when the Arabs were on a blood-quest to destroy Israel and kill Jews, and lost, badly? So, Israel simply should have given all of that land back as if nothing happened? Complaints about searches at checkpoints? In light of constant physical attacks by individual Palestinians on Israelis, this is a most prudent course. Right of return after 70 years? Don’t be ridiculous. The author should feel more guilty about what our forebears did to Native Americans. How about deeding back her home to the first Native American she sees (assuming she can find one off the reservation). If you have a bleeding heart for oppressed people, how about your concern for the Kurds under the Turks- haven’t hear a peep out of you. Hypocrite!
12
Israel is in a no win situation. If they allow a two state solution with Palestinians a war on the border of Jerusalem and all of Israel will happen in a short time. Millions of Muslim fighters will join and a blood bath will happen. This is what happened in Gaza but at least there is some distant from the populated parts of Israel. The other choice is being a occupier of Palestinians with world condemnation.
3
There is no silence on Palestine. Welcome to the conversation!
2
This is a all very well but it should have been in this newspaper twenty years ago. Israel has slowly squeezed much of the life and all of the human dignity out of the Palestinian people. It is the crime of this century. And it began in the last century.
The American Jews are always hinting, behind their prayer books, that they are not fully in support of the right wing nuts that run Israel like a banana state. OK? I'm waiting. Do you need an ethics transplant?
The Jews of today need to remember what brought them to this place in time. They need to remember the details of the horror they lived in and died in. Was their great sorrow endured for this? So they, in turn, can be the oppressors of the weak?
Is this the great lesson that all Jews have come to accept? To oppress is better than to be oppressed? There is a third choice out there. This can only end in tragedy for israel, in my opinion, and I hope I am wrong on that.
5
The media has supported the myth that Israel was founded on, "A land without people for a people without a land." American Jews, who were the leading vanguard fighting for justice for the oppressed, were blind to the injustice perpetrated against the Palestinians. This was the reaction of a people traumatized by the holocaust. Every narrative concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the NYTimes was always presented from a deeply pro-Israel bias. The bias was so strong that in peace negotiations Israel demanded that Palestinians be prohibited from using violence, while Israel maintained the right to kill Palestinians at will. What Ms. Alexander neglected to mention is that the U.S. is regarded by the world as aiding and abetting the 70 year long cruel and brutal occupation of Palestine, and that Americans suffer terrorist attacks because of its knee jerk support of everything Israel does. American politicians fear displeasing AIPAC, more than they care about justice or the lives of American citizens.
5
I don't find the words bomb, suicide bomber, rejection (of peace deals), or phrase "pay to slay," or HAMAS. Enough said.
14
It takes chutzpah to state with such certainty what Martin Luther King would say about Israel now, as he has been dead for fifty years. By the way, when Jordan had possession of east Jerusalem, Martin Luther King was not allowed to visit there. Seeing how Arabs are treating Arabs and other people today in places like Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, why would anyone think they would act otherwise with Jews? The Israeli handover of Gaza illustrates the reality of what would happen. Stepping around anti-semitism by saying it is different than being anti-Zionist is a calculated lie. When Arab terrorists, who are viewed as heroes by those who wish Israel to be destroyed, hijacked an Italian cruise ship, they murdered a New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer, because he was a Jew. When the Air France jet was hijacked to Entebbe, all Jews were selected to be held as hostages, not just Israelis. Indeed, the call for the destruction of Israel is really because it is the Jewish State. The one state solution is code for the destruction of the State of Israel. What is left out of this narrative are facts, such as how the Palestinian Authority withholds money from Gaza because of its ongoing fight with Hamas, and how Israel has to collaborate with Qatar to provide alternative funds. And if life for Palestinians living in the West Bank is so universally oppressive, why did I see large luxury homes in Jericho, and people peacefully going about their daily lives, when I visited there in 2017?
13
This is nothing but an obscene and thoughtless tirade against the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Sure, it is fashionable to designate Palestinians as the uber demographic amongst world’s historically aggrieved victims - but that is only because their feckless cheerleaders and apologists ignore the historical record of fanatical aggression by the Arabs to abort the State of Israel at birth; and of course, the vile bigotry and racism that they continue towards the Jewish people. Simply because the aggressors are now impotent and incompetent doesn’t mean that the danger has passed nor that they are vicious enemies of the State of Israel. In the face of such continued threat, it would be a dereliction of its duty if Israeli government and by extension, the military don’t undertake robust measures to protect its citizens. Incidentally, while it is careful to invoke right of return for the Palestinians, the op-Ed ignores recognizing a similar right for Jewish populations which were forced out of their homes in Arab lands. Frankly, such one sided rules of engagement, apparent historical amnesia and exclusive concern for Palestinians rights does begin to emit an odious whiff of anti-semitism.
11
Angela Davis’s “commitment to liberation for all” is predicated on a selective “all”. She approved of the oppressive regimes in the Soviet bloc and, when asked to support the cause of political prisoners in the Soviet Union, dismissed them as “Zionist fascists and opponents of socialism”.
Among civil rights icons, you should be able to find a better example than one whose thought is a bundle of Leninist clichés.
11
For the past 70+ years, Arabs in the region (themselves the descendants of invaders and colonizers) have been waging war and terrorism in a bid to liquidate Israel, while simultaneously and mendaciously decrying the consequences of waging war and terrorism. What?
In fact, apart from Jordan (the defacto Arab Palestinian state), Arabs identifying as Palestinian could have achieved statehood many times over...but ‘statehood’ was not their endgame in 1948. Nor was ‘statehood’ their endgame during the illegal 19-year Jordanian occupation that ended with the Six Day War...and ‘statehood’ is not their endgame today.
Despite failing in their objective to destroy the Jewish state, Arab Palestinians contIinue their hostile, homocidal efforts while simultaneously dictating to Israel and the international community their ‘demands’...all the while promoting fraudulent narratives denying Jews their own history and rightful claim to their indigenous homeland.. Israel, a tiny speck on the map as compared to the vast territory (5 Million sq miles) controlled by Arab Muslims across the Middle East. Who are the imperialists?
Meanwhile, since when do losers in wars they started get to dictate the terms of the peace to the victors? I’ll tell you when: Never. And yet the international community continues to enable this mendacity and antisemitic vitriol by way of propaganda to proliferate decade after decade. Stop it!
10
Arafat the baby killer and now Abbas the incompetent have led their people down a dark hole (tunnel?) and those people fully deserve to be in the circumstances they’ve in.
15
The injustice of 70 years of Arab neighbors refusing to accept Israel's right to exist.
Israel never kicked out the Arabs in 1948, their own leaders told them to leave because within 2 weeks the jews will be destroyed.
The injustice of Palestinian leaders stealing money that is supposed to be used for aid so these leaders can fatten their European bank accounts.
The injustice of Hamas and Hezbollah indoctrinating young children to hate.
The injustice of firing tens of thousands of rockets into Israel from Gaza, many from batteries that are located in schools or hospitals and then crying victim when Israel tries to defend itself.
The injustice of Israel leaving a thriving agricultural industry in Gaza when they pulled their troops out and having Hamas destroy the infrastructure.
I could go on but there are two sides to every story.
26
I wonder why Ms. Alexander ignores Martin King Luther Jr.'s support of Israel.
"Israel... is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world."
27
@Shadai
At the time of Dr. King this may have been true. Not so today.
2
Well this is entertaining, The Israeli's are no saints and their settler movement doesn't accept Palestinians have rights agreed. neither are the Palestinians the innocent woolly put upon lambs the author claims. May I remind the author of Suicide Bombers being rewarded by other Muslim States, Hamas's unending supply of rockets and small arms. Not to mention there hasn't been anyone who could speak for all Palestinians and make it stick since Arafat died. So bluntly thre is no real interest or ABILITY to negotiate peace. On one side there is no one to discuss peace with. On the other an influential group that isn't much interested in peace. Not much to work with on either side.
2nd Point UN resolutions are completely and utterly IRRELEVANT They don't bind anything they don't mean anything. They are nothing but public relations. Meaning in the real world NONE. Sorry the UN is irrelevant in this situation, It has NO leverage and no real enforceable authority. Unless of course someone is willing to send in the troops to enforce its decrees? I'm not holding my breath.
Lastly why the other Arabs states would sooner cut off their right hands then accept the Palestinians A little history for those unaware of it. They called it Black September:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September
https://www.thoughtco.com/black-september-jordanian-plo-civil-war-2353168
14
This piece ignores the rejection by Palestinians of their own state in 1948 (offered by the UN), in 2001 (President Clinton’s plan) and in 2008 (offered by Israel). These plans, accepted by Israel, would have given them nearly all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza (more than that in the 1948 plan).
Instead, Palestinians resorted to airplane hijackings, suicide bombings in restaurants and buses, and wanton attacks on Israelis everywhere (e.g Munich Olympic and Achille Laura Cruise ship).
And Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 has been met with thousands of missiles launched into Israel.
There is so much more.
Did you know pre-1922 all of what is now Israel and Jordan was called Palestine, but in 1922, Britain created “Trans-Jordan,” and today Jordan is well over 50% Palestinian?
Did you know that in 1948, just as 700,000 Palestinians fled of were evicted from their homes in Israel, 700,000 Jews fled or were evicted from their homes in neighboring Arab countries?
So I am being one sided you argue? So is the author of this article. There are legitimate arguments and injustices on both sides - which is what differentiates this situation from the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
In fact she has it backwards. It’s Jews who struggled for survival in the Twentieth Century; first from the Nazis, and then from Israel’s Arab neighbors. Blacks have more in common with Jews than Palestinians, which is why Jews were in the forefront of the civil rights movement.
26
Nearly all of the West Bank but with settlements and barrier roads.
1
@Steven Roth:
The Clinton/2008 proposals weren’t as generous as the 1948 at least in terms of territory. Munich & Achilles Lauro occurred long before this.
The problem for Israel is that Jews r now a minority inside the 1923-48 boundaries & would be an even smaller minority inside the 1919-22 boundary & the majority is not a docile Christian or Hindu or Zoroastrian population but a mostly Islamic population that is not prone to docility or self development.
The DNA for Islam is planted inside the life, sayings & habits of Mohammed. When he & his fellow travelers moved to Medina they were impoverished. They could have set out on a course of work, labor & development to improve their situation but instead they chose a methodology of conquest & banditry which proved both lucrative & expedient but left Islam bereft of an ethic of internal development.
@ its peak during Roman times North Africa had a population of 10-12 million & was a bread basket to Roman Europe (25 million) thanks to investment in infrastructure: aqueducts, terracing, irrigation. After Islamic conquest the population stayed under 10 million until after 1800 (by then Europe was a highly developed 300+million) & relied upon piracy.
Turks took Cyprus from Venice in 1570s. Venice invested in irrigation to grow $ugar. They left it to ruin & it became marshes rife w/ malaria bearing mosiquitos until British came in 1870s. Ottoman literacy <4%.
W/out big changes they probably won’t ever make very good neighbors.
1
Oh good hearted but naive American! Have you ever wondered why the rich Arab nations surrounding Palestine haven’t brought their wealth to bear on their impoverished cousins? They could endow hospitals and universities to make the territories the envy of the developed world! But they don’t. Just family subsidies for martyrs.
As with many things, follow the money. Does it not benefit the kleptocrats of Saudi Arabia to have a focus for their misdirection? Poor miserable self sacrificing terrorists to attract the attention of the Arab world away from the crimes of their leaders.
17
Dan Robinson et alia, Israel has clearly followed a policy of dispossession and oppression of Palestinians since the 1947-1949 Arab-Israeli wars; it has merely continued what early Zionists planned after capturing the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai in 1967. The fact is, Israel continues to violate UN resolutions to which it is a signatory—in the main, that you cannot keep land conquered in a military struggle; that a military occupier is legally and morally responsible for the people under its occupation; and that refugees have the right to return to their homes at the end of the war. Add to this the extremely immoral siege of Gaza which has immiserated nearly 2,000,000 people, and you have a case for the Hague. Palestinians deserve the same human rights we Americans demands for ourselves. AIPAC and Israel's right-wing should be censured by Congress and the President, and we must stop send Israel billions. Israel's attack on the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967 is reason enough to end our support.
9
As usual, the narrative in this situation is completely skewed. Here are some major issues with “facts” you presented: 1) Gaza is NOT occupied. In 2005, at the behest of global pressures, we completely evacuated Gaza. This left a power vacuum and led to HAMAS’, a terrorist organization, rise to power. So you can’t occupy an area you have zero presence inside. 2) In Judea and Sumeria, Israeli military presence has helped keep terrorism lower than in Gaza. So yes we have a presence, but we can’t just leave and then Leave a direct line for our enemies to march in on us from the West. 3) You complain about Canary Mission with complete disregard for all the times BDSers have pressured performers and sports teams from coming to Israel, including last year when these groups THREATENED the lives of the Argentina Soccer team’s families which led them to cancel. But it’s always okay for that pressure because you agree with BDS, right? 4) At the most recent conference of Arab nations, the conflict was a minimal part of it and mainly just lip service. Until that one, it used to take up days. This time it took less than an hour. So even Arab nations know Palestinians need to get on board with Israel’s place in the Middle East and how it helps all of them. 5) You also mention discrimination, yet ignore the laws in Lebanon and other nations that are far worse. You’re understanding of the conflict is the same rehashed arguments and just a regurgitation of what you’ve heard. MLK would be sad
17
Dan Ehrlich That's because Israel has become the scapegoat for the vicarious atonement of US human rights crimes since the Korean War...as I have said in the past, in 100 years of Arab-Jewish violence stats show 120,000 people on both sides have been killed. Yet, during the 12 year long Vietnam War, in a country bore no threat to the US, about 2 million civilians were killed. In Iraq, another needless conflct, between 250,000 to 500,000 civilians were killed.Of course, then there are the Arab civil wars in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya where another 650,000 people have been killed. But, Israel bares the blame for all this because it's a small country that some people feel shouldn't be there. Why? Because it wasn't supposed to win in 1948, 67 and 73.
9
Here is the stark reality of life and death in Israel-Palestine with numbers compiled from reliable international sources.
The population of Israel. is 8.7 million.
The population of Palestine is 4.8 million.
The number of persons killed by someone from the other side in Israel-Palestine since 2000:
9,838 Palestinians
1,260 Israelis Israelis
This includes:
2,172 Palestinian children
134 Israeli children
Those injured by someone from the other side since 2000:
99,968 Palestinians
11,949 Israelis
The numbers speak for themselves. This web site, last updated Monday January 14. 2019 is an excellent way to keep track of the unfolding tragedy on both sides.
https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/charts/
11
Martin Luther King was the greatest American of my life. But I can't help but admit that when it came to Israel and the Palestinians he too was a bit deluded. I say this as one who
has actively worked against the occupation since its inception.
But with all the rejection and hatred that the Muslim World,
as well as the Palestinians refusal from the start to accept
Israel's right to exist, it's literally obscene to make the comparisons you do between South African apartheid and the ongoing fight for equality of Afro Americans. King understood
that the only way to prevail in America was to use non-violence,
but in a world that has accepted violence as an everyday form
of life - and the sins of the Arab countries against their own
peoples make whatever Israel has done wrong pale by comparison - the only way tiny Israel could survive was to meet
it head on. You talk of 1967 when immediately following the war
Ben Gurion offered to return everything but Jerusalem, from whose holy places Jews had been totally excluded, in exchange for peace but was totally rebuffed by the Khartoum Conference's
infamous Three No's: No peace, no recognition, no negotiations.
To jump ahead, Arafat's scuttling of Camp David2 and abettment
of the second intifada killed peace, as did Hamas's taking over
Gaza after Israel's total withdrawl. So I'll stick with far more honest folks like Amos Oz, who also, unlike this writer, fought for peace by telling us the truth.
11
I think MLK would have rejected all hate, including the Hamas charter "
"Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors"
There can never be any reason, fairness or sanity in the area when the Palestinians support Hamas and its stated goal: eliminaiton of Isreal.
11
Great article! Of course there is fear of anyone that says or write anything negative against Israel. The nonsense it is not the religion or the terrible things that have happened to Jews one is attacking it is the government of Israel and the two are not the same. With a Prime Minister facing serious criminal charges and who is in bed with those other upstanding nations, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE etc. who is the evil. I have always loved it what exactly is the definition of Occupied it seems to me to say it all. In addition many Jewish organizations and Jewish people in North America are breaking and understand this Israel is not the one that became home to Holocaust survivors. This is a right wing state and what I love the ones that take the land and demand all the benefits do not serve in the military. Lets stop with the nonsense Israel has committed many crimes against humanity shooting medical people. They do it because they can get away with it. Maybe they need to read the history of the Nazis and think about it. Walled cities, checkpoints, stealing land. I have had a problem with their government ever since the day they killed 32 sailors and Marines on a ship called the Liberty. She was flying two large American flags, and had been a listening post that picked up the chatter and recorded who the aggressor really was. Of course politicians here are like always do the bidding of whomever pays them the most. Jim Trautman
10
How surprising that you do not mention the brutal and murderous regime of Hamas.
Not mentioning it serves your article well, but at the same time makes it worthless.
Where is your mentioning of the billions of dollars Hamas officials have stolen (some from your own government) for their own benefit, rather than for providing food, infrastructure and homes for the Palestinian people?
Where is your mentioning of the funds used to build rockets and attack tunnels, rather than schools and hospitals?
Where is your mentioning of constant executions by Hamas of their own people?
Where is your mentioning that when Israel opens the passages, they get suicide bombers and knife stabbings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem?
Where are all these facts in your article? Did you not have the time to write them? Did they skip your mind?
Writing a one-sided article is easy. For the next article, it would be only fair to your readers to write the whole truth and correct facts.
Israel is surely to be partially blamed for the Palestinian situation, but equally responsible is the Palestinian side!
And finally, Martin Luther King has nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Exploiting his name and guessing (at best) his views over a conflict he was never part of, is a cheap writing strategy.
20
Bravo. Beautiful piece. The times they are a changing. And they can’t change fast enough. Israeli apartheid must fall. Freedom, justice and equality for Palestinians and all. We must make this dream a reality.
12
There’s a reason this person doesn’t single out the occupation of Tibet or the occupation of the southwest in China where Huigars are mass incarcerated in concentration camps or the many other places in the world where there are much worse violations of human rights. There’s a reason this person doesn’t mention the attacks against Israel by Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and other Arab countries or never mentions the ongoing terror campaigns by Arab terrorists that have killed thousands of Israelis. What is the reason Ms. Alexander you don’t focus on those violations? Let me guess.
11
@lester ostrey - Let's turn that one around. What is the reason you do focus on those violations? Let us all guess.
2
Is there a criticism here of Israel that couldn't be multiplied tenfold and applied more accurately to virtually of the Arab countries that surround Israel and are pledged to destroy it? The lack of that any mention of that context is what makes this vainglorious attempt assert moral authority on par with Dr. King's antisemitic indeed.
12
Gee whiz, folks. Whatever one may think of the writer's views, can we stop calling her courageous? She wrote a NYT opinion piece that echoes the increasingly held mainstream view.
8
Abuse of religion started this conflict about five thousand yrs. ago.
Blame Abraham, Jesus, Moses and Moh. for it, bringing religion into the state.
Thank God because of the founding fathers for creating it and Lincoln saving it, we have separation of church and state and are free from this horror story.
If the people in this area did not abuse religion, the area today would most likely be called land of the semites, since that is what most of the native people there are.
The best Israel can do now is to put survival at the forefront but don't get down to the level of some of its adversaries with land grabs, torture, discrimination, favorable kill ratios etc. etc.
3
On December 16, 2018 The Times published an article entitled:
"China’s Detention Camps for Muslims Turn to Forced Labor"
There were 66 responses to the article. This present article already has 425 responses, with many of course condemning Israel. Why is that? And please don't tell me it's because of America's economic aid to Israel. There are plenty of countries with dismal human rights records who have received our aid and have not been subject to BDS or harsh criticism from Times readers.
11
@ZHR
Update that to 1322 comments--many if not most anti-Israel-- and counting
3
Also we have sent enormous amount of money to the Saudis and China and just because we bought things doesn’t negate the fact that it dwarfs the contribution to Israel which was almost matched in aid by aid to Egypt.
2
it is unfortunate to read an incredibly one sided article of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In the case of Ms. Alexander the omissions are glaring. Dr. King foremost was a believer in non violence. The Palestinian cause, unfortunately, has been led by leaders who subscribe to violence, whether through suicide bombers or rockets fired on civilian areas or the use of human shields. Ms. Alexander fails to mention the equal if not larger number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries - Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco - who were absorbed in Israel. A similar development occurred in the partition of India with over a million Hindu and Muslim refugees. All were absorbed. To call Jews colonialists is to deny history. Arabs hail from Arabia and conquered and colonized all the area along the Mediterranean from Syria, Lebanon and Israel to all of North Africa — Egypt, Libya,Tunisia and Morocco as well as Algeria and Sudan. The Arabs are as indigenous to Israel as the Spanish are to Mexico. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have a right to be there or to establish countries but indigenous they are not. It’s instructive to note the ethnic cleansing of Jews in areas that were lost in 1948 — the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and certain Jewish communities outside of Jerusalem. Jews were either killed or expelled, all the synagogues were destroyed and tombstones were desecrated. If Ms. Alexander wants to focus on human rights she can start with Syria.
12
When the threats to Jewish survival - including those from Reverend Farrakhan - are eradicated, we can discuss the right of return. Until then, Israel must remain a nuclear-protected haven for the Jewish people.
8
I am one of those non-Jews who has always felt a kind of knee-jerk support for Israel and have, over the years, been determined and consistent in that support. The mitigating circumstances, most obviously the determination on the part of Israel's neighbors to "drive Israel into the sea" have excused a great deal. As Leonard Cohen wrote, "There is only one choice between ovens and the weariest patriotic arrogance."
But this false equivalency between the continued threat to Israel's existence and Israel's day-to-day mistreatment of Palestinians is confusing and misses the point among those of us who feel a kinship with Israel.
It simply isn't logical to say that Israel has to mistreat Palestinians because the Arab world treats Israel badly. Are Israel and her supporters here in the comments section really saying they have to deny the humanity of Palestinians because they are threatened?
Very poor argument. I have watched this decline in moral conscience in this grand nation of a people who surely know better than anyone what their behavior means. Netanyahu is the culmination--another junk-yard bully joining the ranks of the same all over the world.
Israel, you can do better--better than the hostile peoples around you, much better than America. You are there because you are a people of ethics and reason. Don't let us down.
6
Great article and a nice counterpoint to Bret Stephens’ Zionist propaganda.
10
I am so appreciative of the comments.
4
This is a timely piece. The conflation of anti-semitism with criticism of Israeli oppression in the occupied territories is a a common tactic that needs to be called out as clearly as here.
8
While Ms. Alexander has been commended for her views what she sees as a "grave injustice" I see an unbalanced diatribe against Israel. To be sure, Israel has made mistakes, many of which have been brought to light by its own citizens and/or supporters but where is the justice in blaming the country for all of the problems faced by the Palestinians? Why has there been little or no hue and cry when Jewish children have been killed on school buses? when families (including infants and toddlers) have been blown up or shot in their homes or synagogues? when hundreds of missiles have been fired into border cities or towns? When Israel ceded Gaza to the Palestinians, among the first steps taken by the latter was the destruction of viable and costly hot houses (paid for by generous Jewish donors) which provided the local residents with fresh fruit and vegetables. Over these 70 years Israelis have built a vibrant, modern, technologically and scientifically advanced democracy while the Palestinians have wallowed in self-pity and, according to what I have read, mass corruption by their leaders, who have apparently used them as pawns in their schemes. Why should Israel be responsible for the poor condition of Palestinian housing, electricity and other services while the heads of the PLO live in splendor? Arab and Palestinian lesbians and gays move to Israel, where they know they'll be safe and even welcomed while they fear for their lives in their home countries.
14
Did I miss the Fatah, Hezbollah, and Hamas embracing nonviolence?
The demonstrations in the areas they control for free and open elections? Missed them too.
Walking into an area full of children and detonation a homicide vest isn't nonviolence. Nor is paying wages to people that slaughter civilians, some of them infants.
Nor are random rocket attacks at civilian areas.
You would be assassinated for showing the movie "Ghandi" in their areas of control.
13
Michelle,
I absolutely agree with you on deploring the exclusionary Jewish nationalist legislation of Israel's right wing gov't, as well as the McCarthyite tactics being deployed by supporters of that gov't - BUT - please don't turn this into a colonialist/racist issue. For one thing, close to half of Jewish Israelis are from the Middle East, and in fact more closely resemble people in the region than the lighter skinned Ashkenazim. Many of them are more right wing politically, and they will tell you that it is because they are familiar with the "Arab" mentality, and don't believe that the Arabs will ever accept a Jewish state in their midst.
For another, the Zionists who came to settle Israel did not see themselves as colonizers. They saw themselves as returning home, and did not have a place to return to. And if some of those European Zionists who settled in Israel did see their culture as superior, the fact is that many left wing Israelis who support a secular pluralistic society have very little in common with the conservative, patriarchal societies that are the norm in the Middle East, and have no desire whatsoever to live in a country which is dominated by said people.
Things like honor killings, forced marriages and multiple wives still occur in modern day Palestine.
So yes, the Palestinians are living in an untenable limbo and the settlements are violating laws - but - denouncing the entire Zionist enterprise as racist just strengthens the right wing.
6
If you are concerned about displacement of native peoples, I assume you will also be writing about our own country's displacement of Native Americans
9
Why is it, I wonder, that of all the conflicts in the world, Ms. Alexander chooses to focus on this one? What about China’s oppression of the Uighur Muslims, Turkey’s of the Kurds, or Saudi Arabia’s of just about any dissenter?
If human rights are her concern, why do Palestinian rights rise to the top of the heap?
Is Israel perfect? Definitely not. But is Israel the worst human rights violator on the face of the earth? Hardly. And what about the atrocities committed by the Palestinians such as scores of suicide attacks against civilian populations? Do they get a free pass?
There is a word for treating Jews differently than anyone else. Let’s be clear: anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism.
14
What about
China
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Brazil
Malaysia
North Korea
Qatar
Hungary
Turkey
Russia
Iraq
Using MLK is a cheap trick.
What might he have thought of gay marriage? Me too?
13
If you go to the website below*, you will see how many wars and lesser "fights" have happened since Israel won its' independence in 1948. Each and every one of these has been initiated by the Arab world, including by the Palestinians (except when retaliation was needed in response to killings of Jews by Palestinian raiders into Israel.
The Arab world can keep on initiating wars against Israel and can keep losing. However if Israel lost 1 war, that would be the end of Israel.
There are 423,000,000 Arab people in 22 countries Middle-East Arabic countries, plus millions more around the world in other countries,while Israel has about 8,450,000 Jewish people. Based on latest figures and estimates, the Arab League has a total GDP of approximately Int$7.695 trillion (6.0% of the world) at purchasing power parity, or US$2.841 trillion (3.55% of the world) at nominal values.** That's an awful lot of money, and how much of it ever goes to the Palestinians? Not very much. Do we see improvements of the Palestinians by contributions of their brethren - No!
If the Arab world and the Palestinians could show the world that they could co-exist with Israel, then maybe there might just be some hope for the 2 enemies to live side-by-side. But that isn't going to happen any time soon.
Moreover, Arab countries are fighting each other. What does that say to the world?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Israel*
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arab_countries_by_population**
9
I am perplexed by the term "occupied territories." is Texas and New Mexico, which we took away from Mexico after a war "occupied territory?"
11
The Palestinians have been given billions of dollars over the years and yet have done nothing to create an economy for their people.
Instead they build tunnels and make suicide vests for their “martyrs”.
I ask you why other Arab countries offer the Palestinians no help or support? Maybe it’s because they do nothing to help themselves. They just ferment hate and terror toward Israel?
12
“Human rights nightmare”???
Are you talking about the West Bank and Gaza or the countries surrounding that region where it is ok to stone women to death for any number of things?
17
Earlier today I sent a positive reply to Andrew Fishman's comment. I doubt that Michelle Alexander reads commentary in Hebrew daily newspapers, except perhaps English translations of hate articles from Ha-Aretz. Here are 2 positive stories from page 6 of today's (20/Jan/2019) edition of Yedioth Ahronoth, a leading daily newspaper in Israel: The lead story at the top of the page is an article about a lieutenant in the Israel army who refrained from using violence against Palestinian women who shouted insults and hit him in the course of arresting a Palestinian teenager who protested paving a road by heaving stones at Israeli soldiers. Under that article, there is a story about the announcement by Jerusalem municipality permitting members of the Hamas terrorist political group to establish a sports club in eastern Jerusalem ; the representatives of the municipality are quoted as stating that a permit is granted if the building plan complies with the releant zoning law without regardless of who owns the land.
6
In 2009, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was quoted in "The Guardian" stating: "I've been deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land. I have seen the humiliation at the checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about…Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice…If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land."
In 2005 I was in Jerusalem and began a series of interviews with nuclear whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu who told me:
"President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons. In 1963, he forced Prime Minister Ben Guirion to admit the Dimona was not a textile plant, as the sign outside proclaimed, but a nuclear plant. The Prime Minister said, ‘The nuclear reactor is only for peace.’
“When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.
“Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.” -excerpted "30 minutes with Vanunu" at YouTube
2
To those who say a two-state solution is a non-starter, I agree - the only solution is one state, incorporating all the occupied territories, with full and equal rights for all. You can either have democracy or an apartheid Jewish state, but you can't have both...
5
If any aboriginal tribe were to return to their native homeland Michelle Alexander would be among the first to celebrate but not if it is the Children of Israel returning to their native land, the Land of Israel. Ms Alexander should look into the origins of the Arab Palestinians and she would soon discover very few have any connection to the Holy Land prior to 1889.
10
There are just two problems here to be solved.
One is the Jews. Their right wing is a Machiavellian ill wind blowing, and it has firm and powerful roots in Aipac here in the US.
The other problem is the Muslims. The religious wing of the Palestinian cause is ruinously toxic and backwards and ruthlessly undemocratic.
These two give voice to our animal rage, our id, our readiness to claw our opponent to the death, our primal paranoia. The fact that these two political strains are currently dominating the Middle East means our era is in red alert mode. How does de-escalation and trust building and interrelationship happen from here? Is regional prosperity and trade enough?
2
In the US, the most strident support of the Israeli right comes today not from Jews but from Evangelical Christians.
2
According to the United Nations and Arab League the death toll in Syria was about 400,000 people two years ago. Why aren't people {anywhere} marching in protest {or at least complaining} about Russia and Iran? A better read than this article is Matti Friedman's recent piece "There Is No ‘Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’ To understand why, you have to zoom out."
10
Michelle Alexander does not understand the serious existential problem facing the Jews of Israel. They now face serious enemies on all borders--Hamas in the South and Hezballah in the North and the powerful Iran hovering in near proximity--all shouting "Death to the Jews!"--and refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist. This was the same attitude they demonstrated when the UN presented the partition plan and the Arabs on all borders refused to allow the Jews to live in peace and instead viciously attacked from all sides. To allow the defeated Arabs the right to return would add an internal existential crisis to the external existential crisis they now face. An Arab majority in a democracy would erase the Jewish character of Israel. A two state solution could be countenanced if all those who now preach hatred and destruction of the Jewish state would change their open hatred. Only diplomacy by well-meaning and peace-loving leaders on both sides can resolve this crisis---just as apartheid and segregation was ended by good people on both sides who were willing to compromise. But a one-sided compromise , where only one side is well-meaning and the other side is dominated by those who seek the annihilation of Jews is hopeless.
11
Israel does many wrong things. But Ms. Alexander's hypocrisy is revolting. Major Palestinian leaders call for the destruction of Israel. The most vile anti-Semitic propaganda is rampant throughout the Palestinian Territories. Suppression of women's rights, homophobic violence, and honor killings is common. And Israel is surrounded not just by relatively weak Palestinians who crave its destruction, but a large and hostile Moslem world. Look what Arabs do to each other in this world and you can imagine what they would do to Jews given the chance. I'm also not what sure what Dr. King would say about this situation but I think he might condemn Ms. Alexander's hypocrisy.
11
Of all the horrific human rights abuses in Society IThe Sudan/Sudan, Myrnmar, Syria, and Yemen, THIS is the “oppressed people” in need of America’s attention and assistance? Why this perennial focus on the plight of the Palestinians when thousands other people are being starved to death and slaughtered?
And the amount of aid the Palestinians receive during a time with higher number of refugees than after WWII is obscene—1/5, 20%, to people neither homeless nor starving. Why?
7
Why do we have to quote MLK to criticize violence against others based on their nationality when it concerns Israel?
6
Thanks to the "McCarthyite" tactics of the org Canary Mission, a palestinian medical resident was recently outed for threatening to purposely give the wrong medications to Jewish patients on Twitter. This is in addition to the many vile anti-semitic tweets posted to her account. Free speech holding people with loathesome views to account. These are hardly McCarthyite tactics, they are holding those who make real statements on public social media to account, not creating false charges to torpedo peoples reputations.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lara-kollab-cleveland-clinic-doctor-fired-after-saying-she-would-give-jews-the-wrong-meds/
10
This blatantly Israel bashing article is too outrageous for words. Israel gave up Gaza in a land for peace for deal and gets constant rocket attacks in return for that gesture. Why do Israel's numerous detractors conveniently ignore that Israelis constantly have take shelter against Palestinian rocket attacks which originate from Gaza? Israelis are hurting from Palestinian attacks and everyone treats this little fact like it's no big deal. Israel is a tiny country and there's so much land to go around. The anti-Israel double standard is unfair. Even the other Arab states have washed their hands of the Palestinian nightmare because their "sacred cause" of wiping Israel off the map never materialized.
I'd like to share a secret with Ms. Alexander--the Palestinians don't want an independent state of their own. All they want is the opportunity to kill as many Jews a possible.
13
Nicely stated
5
Comparing the American invasion of Vietnam with Jews emigrating to Israel is stunningly ignorant of history. At the time of Israel's establishment, 30% of the population was Jewish. Could the world have done a better job finding a place to deposit Jews? Perhaps, but that didn't happen because no country wanted the Holocaust survivors.
As Jew, I certainly don't agree with Israel's policies toward the Israeli Palestinians. However, I do support Israel's right to exist, which many in the Alt-Left do not. The Israel -Palestinian conflict has been used by the alt-Left to spread anti-Semitic tropes worldwide, including 1) 9/11 theories involving American Jews and Israel, 2) global Jewish cabal conspiracies. Again, Jews have become the scapegoated Others that people rally against.
Then Alexander complains about pro-Palestinian college students being discriminated against for speaking out against Israel, when in fact, its the Jewish students who have been verbally and physically attacked for supporting Israel's right to exist. It's been Jewish students' dorm rooms painted with swastikas and Hillel houses vandalized, all by educated liberals. Anti-Semitic acts on campuses have exploded.
It's too bad that Alexander didn't make a clear distinction between global Jewry and Israeli policies. By confusing Jews with Israel's politics and falsely equating the Israel-Palestine conflict with America's invasion of Vietnam, Alexander validates the anti-Semitism of the alt-Left.
7
I support Palestinian human rights. I am Spartacus.
5
As a Jewish ex-South African who grew up during apartheid, I do not agree with comparing apartheid with Palestinian-Israeli issues. Blacks in South Africa were not walking into public markets strapped with explosives or bombing Israelis across the border. Whites in both South Africa and America created systems to segregate blacks and whites simply based on skin color. The issue in Israel is not that simple. One side wants the other to die. Palestinians teach their youth to hate Jews. This occurred before any walls and occurs in other Arab countries that hate Jews (including Iran which backs Hamas). To equate these issues is to ignore the complicated history and current politics in the region. The whites in South Africa were absolutely racist and wrong and had no basis for their incorrect belief system that was solely based on skin color. That is not the situation in Israel and to suggest it makes Israelis just seem like racists/supremacists and continues to perpetuate simplified beliefs that provide “reasons” to hate the Jews. Congratulations on perpetuating anti-semitism by equating two completely different situations.
16
It used to be very difficult to find articles that speak the truth about the Israeli occupation and denial of human rights for the Palestinians. As Israel moves increasingly forward with the apartheid policies in the occupied lands, more writers are courageously speaking up. Yes, they will be tarred with cries of anti-Semitism, but moral imperatives impel them to say what the US media and politicians have been reluctant to say for years: Israel openly discriminates against non-Jews and openly practices a form of apartheid in the occupied lands. Just as in the old South Africa, it is time for action to end this moral travesty and injustice.
5
Questions for the author: How many Palestinians spoke out against the systematic killing of Jews in Germany and Russia in the 1930s/40s? How many Palestinians opposed the Arab Nation's attacks on Israel in 1948. or 1967. or 1973? How many Palestinians spoke our against suicide bombings and rocket attacks launched against Israeli citizens? Where is the 'moral outrage' of those for whom you advocate?
11
While thoughtful the article assumes the position of one side as the victim. There is no real mention of the victims on the other side, something the news including this newspaper rarely reports.
4
It is essential to the woke progressive activist agenda to equate Zionism with racism, as a way to link muslims and blacks against American Jews. It is happening in the women's march, and it is happening in Congress. It is core to the DSA agenda. It is not enough to have white men, working class, and high scool educated as an enemy, these groups need to call out Jews too, along with Christians. Nasty agenda and implications.
5
What a one-sided evaluation of the situation. It's op-eds like this that create the very strong impression that criticizing Israel amounts, in the end, to anti-semitism, even when it may not be the case. There's not a single mention of the hundreds of Israelis killed by terrorists infiltrating Israel from the West Bank, Lebanon, or Gaza. Wonder why?
7
How does your conscience feel about the Yassir Arafat Fatah Palestinian Leadership? Yes, its the same as 1960's
How does your conscience feel about the many more Palestinian refugees' in war torn Syria,Lebanon,Lebanon,Jordan with even less rights?
How does your conscience feel about the denial of Israel's existence? Mossan Hassan Yusef son of Hamas founder said it best" If you didn't have Israel to blame,you'd have no one else to blame but yourselves.
Finally ,Israel captured the West Bank,after Jordanian attack. Misleading on your part , though i respect your selective knowledge and outrage.
7
The tide is turning. U.S. Jews and Israeli Jews are going their own ways. More than 70 per cent of the former voted for Hillary Clinton, while most Israelis support Donald Trump. He is more popular in Israel than in the U.S.
Israel is led by a party, whose origins lie in the revanchist and racist views of Vladimir Jabotinsky, an early Zionist who wanted to expel Palestinians from Palestine and was in favor of free-market capitalism. A crucial year was 1977, when his disciple, Menahem Begin became prime minister, and turned Israel sharply to the right. Over the years, it has become more right-wing, led by the Likhud Party. When Benyamin Netanyahu leaves office he will likely be succeeded by Bezalel Smotrich, an extremist who wants to implement Jabotinsky's plan to expel Palestinians from a greater Israel.
The United States remains an ally of Israel, because it is by far the strongest military power in the middle east and getting stronger. And because a powerful evangelical group in the U.S. believes the Messiah will come to Israel and try to convert the Jews to Christianity. Those who refuse will be burnt at the stake.
4
Wow. Three plus full columns of text and apparently no space to at least mention the carnage directed upon Israeli men, women, and children in acts of savage violence. And apparently no text space to ask why the Gazans spend international funds on rockets in place of the basic necessities that the population lacks. Not a single mention of Palestinian accountability of any kind.
If only the Palestinians adopted Dr Martin Luther King’s legacy of nonviolence. Then and only then can we without hesitation and with moral clarity fully condemn the occupation.
19
@Victor G: This makes sense only if one side in the conflict has to be all good, and the other side all bad. So, until the whole Palestinian community follows Dr King's very difficult principles (which earned him plenty of hatred and condemnation from the white establishment of his day) until then we can't condemn the proliferation of illegal settlements? Illegal settlements which are making the prospect of any just future more and more difficult to envision? But you want even more of them? Until the Palestinians are finally so oppressed that they turn into saints? That's not the way it works.
2
Curious that no one mention the 'right of return' for the 850 thousand Jewish citizens of Arab countries that were forced to flee their homes in 1948.
850 thousand people and their descendants: lets see, that makes ... hmm... how many people?
Their return to Iraq (1/4 of the population of Bagdad one time was jewish), Syria, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc. etc.
Never included in discussions....
18
Well said - Thinking logically - but it will fall on deaf ears.
Hence Israel’s need to defend itself and our need to support a fellow democracy regardless of the problematic ‘Bibi’ regime in place now
4
Why does the United States have such knee-jerk support of Israel?
One need look no farther than our Vice-President. He believes, along with most evangelical Christians, that we are in the "final days", that in order for Jesus to return to Earth (the second coming), Israel must be ruled by the Anti-Christ, that there will be a horrific war called Armageddon in which half of the world population will die horrible deaths, and that true Christian believers (including him, presumably) will be lifted up to Heaven, or "raptured". This is also the official view of most evangelical spokesmen or women, including Jerry Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, and many others.
It follows that all Israelis are righteous people of God, and all Palestinians are tools of Satan.
Until we as a society can confront this problem, it will continue to grow. Yet, I've never seen anyone in the media actually question Pence about this belief.
3
Ever hear of the ‘Holocaust’ or ‘The Bible’?
1
@Jack from Saint Loo: I don't think you have the timeline of the last days quite right, but that's OK, it gets pretty esoteric. If anybody offers to explain it to you, no need to take notes, IMHO. If it happens, it happens.
But seriously, you're right, the support of Israel by Christian evangelicals is pretty bizarre, and it must feel weird for those Jews who understand it to accept Evangelical support, knowing that it's based on the idea that they are going to turn Christian pretty soon -- which presumably isn't part of their plan...
Not a single mention of Palestinian terror and murder perpetuated by regional terror and rogue networks.
Israel is the only country to give up land after winning wars. Important to note that these wars were always initiated by evil and hateful neighboring countries. Israel should have expelled Palestinians half a century ago when it had the chance and as any other country would have.
The “crisis” is a reality of life with an enemy at your gates to preserve itself and keep safe its citizens. Unfortunately, most of the world—people looking for an excuse the deploy their anti-Semitism—jump on the chance to gobble up a very narrow and edited side of the story.
17
What silence?....the most noised. over written issue in the world.
11
Anti semitism from Germany? How about anti semitism right here in nyc? Anybody heard of louis farrakhan here? Yep, the same one that tamika Mallory refused to denounce, the same one that so many celebrate and the same one that says jews are termites. Don't look for anti semitism that's far away. Anti semitism is right here, alive and well in the USA. Yes, I voted for Hillary. Better than the guy in office. But the behavior of those like sarsour, tlaib, Cortez, and those in the womans march who systematically silence jewish voices have caused me to really wonder what I am part of. Is the treatment of Palestinians fair? Nope. Does Israel have a right to exist? Most certainly. In fact, Palestinians have turned down numerous opportunities for peace, so much so that it left bill Clinton shook. But you see dear author, articles like yours give a voice to those who systemically silence jewish voices. By shouting "But Palestine!" Every time anybody wants to have a calm dialogue with another person regarding this situation we're not going to get anywhere. It's time to lift the smokescreen and talk about core truth and rights, something that is conveniently being avoided by progressives. Yes we also want to resist, but we can't when we feel like were not even being given the right to exist.
19
Well said. Thank you.
5
How one sided. Many points raised are true. And there are some horrible things, like the confiscation of people’s land to expand settlements, which many Zionists abhor. But where is the balance? Why no mention of incitement to violence on the Palestinian side (I have been to a West Bank town where murderers of women and children are amblazoned on posters as “Freedom Fighter”)? Using civilians as human shields when acts of violence are committted, like at the protests on the edge of the Gaza Strip where that nurse/medic sadly was killed? How about the incessant corruption? Where is the democracy and self determination within the Palestinian communities? And how about death sentences that get handed down when an Arab Palestinian sells land to someone who is Jewish? And as for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions? Why aren’t other countries who oppress a majority of their own people, like Saudi Arabia oppresses women, not a subject of a Boycltt, Driveaent and Sanctions effort? Part of this comes from a commitment to delegitimization the Jewish State. Yes, Israel is doing some unsavory things, and is in violation of a number of international laws, and we must all press for a fair resolution to the conflict. But The first “right” we have is the right to be alive. And not a single word in this article about how centers political and armed power on the Palestinian side incite it’s cirizens to murder civilians, JEWISH non-combattants Shaneful.
12
Imagine that a people in Quebec were lobbing shells into New England and New York, and carrying out suicide bombings, targeting civilians that are Christian (please, please look at wikipedia "list of Palestinian suicide attacks"). What would the US government do? What would you insist that they do? Would you first stop to ask the question "are they justified in killing innocent children"?
12
Telling that Ms. Alexander omits any mention of terrorist attacks on Israel. Instead, half the article is dedicated to proclaiming her own courage and likening herself to MLK.
10
@David Kates
It’s a land grab. The result is a “brutal occupation force,” in the words of the late Avraham Shalom, a former chief of the Israeli internal security force, Shin Bet.
Nicholas Kristof NYT`s journalist:
“We planted 5,000 trees last year,” Mahmood Ahmed, a Palestinian farmer near Sinjil told me. “Settlers cut them all down with shears or uprooted them.”
Iit’s hard to see the threat posed by 69-year-old Abed al-Majeed, who has sent all 12 of his children to university. He told me he used to have 300 sheep grazing on family land in Qusra but that nearby settlers often attack him when he is on his own land; he rolled up his pant leg to show a scar where he said a settler shot him in 2013.
The allegations are fully credible... the larger pattern is undeniable: “the expulsion of Palestinians from wide areas of their agricultural land in the West Bank.
Palestinians say that their olive trees had been poisoned or their tires slashed & talked to an Arab family whose house was firebombed in the middle of the night, leaving the children traumatized.
They haven’t been able to set foot in the orchard for years, but I, as an outsider, was able to walk right into it. A settler confronted me but the Palestinians who planted the trees cannot harvest their own olives.
Israeli soldiers soon showed up . if they were really there to administer the law, they would dismantle the settlement outpost, which is illegal under Israeli as well as international law.
3
There is a difference between antisemitism and anti apartheidism. American politicians are afraid to speak against Israel's policies for fear of being labeled antisemitic.
14
@Duncan
American politicians biggest fear is losing the support of AIPAC. So peace and justice and American strategic interests be damned. There are elections to be won. So what if their perceived indifference to the suffering of the Palestinians makes Americans targets of hate. The politicians will keep their jobs.
5
The problem here is that there are several million refugees in Syria, a huge humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and arguably genocidal attacks on Islamic communities in China Burma and other countries. Yet Ms. Alexander believes it is courageous to single out Israel for criticism. Perhaps this is not antisemitism, but isn't it somewhat selective?
10
@Mike Livingston
Mike, the US does not support Syria and shows some concern for Yemen, and Americans can freely criticize those regimes with impunity. Criticism of Israel is not allowed, and those who criticize sometimes lose their jobs.
3
@Mike Livingston: You can make a case that we in the US are intimately involved with Israel in many ways, and that therefore it's appropriate to express concern over Israel's policies. It would be hard to write a single article that covered all the humanitarian crises of the world in some balanced way, and propose some appropriate response to all of them. Our relationship to Saudi Arabia is very problematic and should be criticized, along with other aspects of our foreign and domestic policies -- but any one writer can only discuss one issue at a time.
2
@Mike Livingston
Yes, two or three wrongs often make a right.
Conjuring and conflating Dr King to demonize Israel as we celebrate his birthday is an affront to his memory. As I recall he was a clear supporter of Israel as a nation with the right to exist. Perhaps you could also find some out-of-context paragraphs from Abraham Lincoln’s speeches. No doubt the Palestinian people’s suffrage is untenable but if they could just stop murdering and promising slaughter of Jews at every opportunity there could be some progress towards peace and prosperity.
BTW, your url link to the “Canary Mission” goes to another screed about Israel’s wicked ways.
9
Dr. King would be an "incisive critic of Israel’s current policies."
What would Dr. King have said about Palestinian tactics putting innocent civilians at risk, including airplane hijackings and terrorist murders of Israeli civilians inside and outside of Israel, including at the Munich Olympics in1972? Or the three Palestinian intifidas, one in direct response to the Clinton peace initiative in 2000?
I'd like to think that Dr. King would have seen both sides of the issue and applied his ideas accordingly. Who knows, perhaps he would have convinced Yasir Arafat to take a different path in 2000.
Footnote: Isn't that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel at the leftmost end of the table behind Dr. King?
10
It is time to hold the Palestinian leadership responsible for every problem you complain that they have. Yasur Arafat was offered 98% of what he wanted but refused to accept the peace plan. Abbas refused to do anything except hold power he should have relinquished more than a decade ago. Hamas, which runs Gaza, is a terrorist organization whose only aim is to destroy Israel completely. Although Israel was created by the UN, that organization spends its time condemning Israel for abuses which are rampant in every Arab country. The Palestinians are fake refugees. No other group has its own refugee agency which has supported them for 70 years. Gaza has no working government but the media quotes the Gaza Health Ministry's statistics as the truth about how many are allegedly injured or killed by Israel. Let the Palestinians accept that Israel will continue to exist. They need to make a society of their own instead of longing for the destruction of Isreal.
Until you fully support giving back all of US lands to the indigenous peoples you have no right to condemn another nation for acquiring territory in a war they did not start. Ask the First Nations how about how the Europeans wiped out the culture, stole their religions by forced conversion to Christianity, kidnapped their children, and deliberately infected their reservations with deadly diseases. Israelis are not mistreating the Palestinians, their leaders are.
14
Just one question: Would you rather be an Arab living in Israel or a Jew living in Gaza?
Whatever its faults, the government of Israel is far superior to the corrupt government in the West Bank and the corrupt and violent government of Gaza. Palestinians could have had their own state decades ago if they had honest leaders who were willing to accept the existence of a Jewish state.
11
"Time to break the silence on Palestine?" Is this for real? it seems to be all the left can talk about. Ms. Alexander, I am a Jew who is a huge critic of the black lobby, Muslim lobby, and Hispanic lobby. I can assure you the plank you have in your own eye is huge and it's ironic how black activists seem to get such a thrill over always pointing out the wrongs of Jews.
She acknowledges anti-Semitism, but omits the huge role blacks and Muslims play in it. She brings up the discriminatory laws in Israel but says nothing about the discriminatory laws against Jews in every Muslim country. She also seems to have no problem with the discriminating laws in the US called affirmative action.
To say that Marc Lamont Hill was fired for supporting Palestinians is like saying Trump is vilified for supporting Americans over Hispanics invading this country. She criticizes Canary Mission whose tactics are no worse than Shaun King. Why are black activists so concerned with students "fearful" of expressing criticism of Israel when the black, Muslim and illegal immigration lobby have behaved every bit as bad. You think students feel comfortable criticizing BLM? Where is Ms. Alexander when people are vilified, fired, kicked out of school for critiquing the black lobby? Amazing the silence from Ms. Alexander and co.
6
The reason there is no Palestinian State today is largely because of the actions and inactions of Palestinian leadership overcthe last 70 years.
The U.N. voted to create a zpalestinisn
7
Israel is a garden that the Jews planted and cultivated in the Middle East. They are surrounded by many enemies whose shared goal is the destruction of Israel—and with all of their oil wealth have chosen to live like hedonists and not help the Palestinians they claim to care for. MLK Jr would have understood the spiritual undercurrent which most secular pundits are oblivious to. And so I do not think he would be championing the cause of Palestinians—he would have seen through the subterfuge and understood that all of the handwringing over Palestine is in fact part of a larger plan to destroy Israel.
6
In reply to Daniel Robinson who decried that Ms. Alexander's article did not mention acts of Palestinian terrorism. Nor did it mention Israeli terrorism such as dropping one ton bombs on West Bank apartment buildings because it was believed a single terrorist harbored there, or firing from helicopter gunships on school yards, market places, roof tops, and porches when the inhabitants mistakenly believed the Israeli imposed curfew had been lifted. The article did not mention Deir Yassin. The article did not mention settler terrorism. The bottom line is that Palestine was 83% Arab, and Jerusalem was 70% Arab until 1947.
9
The Palestinians have never agreed to Israel's right to exist - nor will they. Perhaps the occupation can be done in a more humane way, but an actual end of occupation will be a more energized Palestinian effort to 'drive the Jews into the sea' (euphemism for genocide ... like the Turks did to the Greeks at Smyrna after WWI - literally driving them into the sea to drown). Some advocates for Israeli trade land for peace are naive. The rest of them are cynical, knowing full well what will then happen to the Jews (and indeed hope for it to happen).
6
Ms. Alexander’s op ed “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine” omits much and distorts more. For example:
- Jews have resided in what is now known as Israel for millennia as evidenced by the fact that they built the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem two thousand years ago and of course Jesus and his disciplines were Jewish.
- The Palestinians are not “native peoples.” Most migrated to the area from North Africa and Arab countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
- It is not true that 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced. The record shows that the vast majority left before the Arab-initiated 1948 war at the urging of Arab leaders so they could murder all the Jews there or from understandable fear of war. A small number were expelled by Israel because they were living in strategically important areas. Those Arabs who wanted to stay did so and as Ms. Alexander notes they represent 21% of Israel’s current population. The implication of ethnic cleansing is misleading and offensive.
- the West Bank and Gaza were controlled by Jordan and Egypt respectively from 1948 to 1967 and they made no effort to establish a Palestinian state.
- After the 1967 war, the Arab League met in Khartoum and passed their infamous three no’s resolution- no recognition, no negotiation and no peace. And to demonstrate they meant it they expelled Egypt from the League after Anwar Sadat had the nerve to negotiate peace.
Additional comments cut off
13
And I always thought that the worst oppressions of Arab and Muslim people were the autocratic despots when rule over hundreds of millions by denying rights and tolerating women and LGBTs. Who knew that the realized dreams of Israelis would lead to such a rebuke. Hint: I suggest that the writer redirect her ire at people like Assad and Erdogan.
7
What silence? BDS , UN Resolutions, protests in Europe, protests in USA...? Are we the model for a righteous country?
3
The right of Israel to exist as a state is good and obvious; as a Jewish state, it is not so clear. The land belongs to the people who live on it and it is not anti-Semitic to say some of that land belongs to Palestinians. At the end of WWII, the world owed persecuted Jews something and support for Zionism was the result. Now, Zionism is no longer needed; Jews everywhere know Israel will harbor and protect them. A Palestinian Zionism is now required to foster prosperity to a people pushed aside by Jewish migration. This small real estate belongs equally to both.
1
Whatever misery this Arab population suffers is completely self-inflicted. Full-stop.
More appropriate to champion the Kurds and the Tibetans...two distinct ethnicities that actually deserve statehood and sovereignty.
10
President Carter called out Israel’s policies as apartheid in 2006. That was a lonely stance. That was speaking truth when no one wanted to hear it. It was accurate then and now.
5
The opinion is nothing but a propegnda tool on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. It’s fake news at its best. It’s using MLK Day and Black issues in the U.S. to find sympathy with the Palestinians. The two issues are mutually exclusive in history and in reality and Ms. Alexander shows no intellectual integrity in equating the two issues. Instead of offering an objective analysis, she became a one-sided mouth peace for the Palestinian cause.
8
Is Ms. Alexander willing to condemn the random missile attacks out of Gaza on Israeli homes? Israelis being blown up in buses and pizza parlors? Widespread corruption in the Palestinian Authority? A dictatorship in Gaza that will not allow free elections?
Last December, a Palestinian gunman shot a pregnant woman. She survived; the baby did not. Will Ms. Alexander condemn that atrocity?
13
While Ms. Alexander accepts the need for Israel following WW II, she fails to recognize related history. After Israel's 1948 establishment (which included East Jerusalem), Palestinians were advised by their Arab brethren to leave their homes so that the surrounding Arab countries could wipe out the Jewish interlopers. Moreover, Jews were quickly expelled from their homes in those surrounding countries.
As Israel miraculously defended itself from the multiple Arab forces, Jordan seized East Jerusalem. Yet when Israel succeeded in taking it back during the Arab-initiated 1967 war, THAT was considered illegal seizure.
In the decades since, Palestinian children have been taught to hate Israel and to deny its right to exist. A regular flow of terrorism forced construction of physical barriers and well guarded check points.
Were Israel's right to exist accepted, there would be far less need for the physical barriers and military-guarded check points. Arabs living peacefully in Israel live a far better life than those trapped in the West Bank and Gaza, where their officials spend their scarce resources on continued attacks on Israel rather than on improving their citizens' lives. Visit Israel's souks with their Arab merchants or their world class universities welcoming hijab-clad students and see for yourself.
14
This is a problem that goes back nearly 2000 years. And who is responsible for it? Yes, everyone wants to blame the Israeli's or the Palestinians, but the real culprits are early European leaders of the Catholic Church and later Christian sects, and the political leaders of Europe beginning in the early days of the Holy Roman Empire.
Jews were demonized then and for centuries to come. What was the solution. There were many: laws restricting the rights of Jews go back centuries, the creation of Jewish ghettos, and ultimately, the holocaust.
But why did the 20th century leader of Europe create the state of Israel? I suspect the core reason was to persuade the Jewish People to leave Europe for the Middle East. These leaders had no desire to continue living with the Jews, they just wanted them out of their own backyard. They wanted to the "problem" to go elsewhere. They had no real desire to solve the problem as it existed within their own lands.
And now, the Israelis are just repeating that history with their actions toward the Palestinians.
Sadly, history repeats itself over and over. Never again? Just take an honest look.
4
My 8 year old daughter asked me about the Israel-Palestine issue and why they don’t accept the status-quo. My explanation and understanding in a nutshell: there were Jews in the neighborhood that everyone wanted to get rid of. They neighborhood decided that Jews will be housed in the garage of this big house called Palestine. Their justification was some holy book that said god gave that land to Jews. The police ignored the Palestinian. The Jews moved from the garage to the main house, moved the Palestines to the garage, build a wall around the garage and control all movement in and out of garage. Even my daughter understood why this is not fair.
I am sure lots of pro-Israel people will poke all kinds of holes and cite all kind of treaties. The basic story above still holds true.
3
@Realist
Only one big hole: When Jew’s were never “housed in the garage of the big house called Palestine”. As indigenous people to this land (with all the archeological, place name, linguistic, historical, and social evidence to prove it) the United Nations granted them a return to HALF of their own house, and with the other HALF to Palestine. Why not teach your daughter about the historical consequences of what happens when you don’t accept international justice? Oh—and maybe you should let her know about the methods of non-acceptance, such as suicide bombings and rockets. After you get done with that lesson, please explain to her how Mexicans should have the right of return to California, since it was stolen from them less than 200 years ago...
9
Amazing how many commenters reflexively side with oppressors over oppressed, and powerful over powerless. I wonder how they would react if their land was encroached on? Would they allow strangers to build settlements In their back yards?
Sticks and stones and rockets against the massed military might of Israel bankrolled by the world’s greatest superpower. Tanks, fighter jets. It’s like spears against the British Empire. If you were encircled, walled in, starved, bombed, wouldn’t you fight back any way you could? Of course MLK would speak out for Palestinians. He always sided with the oppressed.
4
It is equally interesting how some people side with who they see as more miserable. It is certainly true that Palestinians under Hamas are more miserable than Palestinians under Israeli rule. But just because you see pictures of distraught Palestinian mothers on the front page of the NYT does not mean that Israel is the villain. Unfortunately, the oppressed-oppressor binary, while easy to rally around, does not capture the situation.
Education is supposed to foster the ability to think critically about a situation instead of seek an easy target to blame for misery.
2
Ms Alexander, an intelligent and passionate writer, compromises her call to arms against Israel by never asking the Palestinian people to take any responsibility. There is nary an allusion to 850,000 Jews ethnically cleansed from Arab countries, multiple peace opportunities that the Palestinian people have rejected, or that the only independent Palestinian entity, Gaza, voted into office terrorists who proudly proclaim their goal of destroying Israel. Ms Alexander offers no solution other than to critique one party of the conflict, when both sides should be taken to the woodshed, and then wonders why these views will be called out.
The Op Ed attempts to paint the situation as black or white and further uses Jews to legitimize it's positions, however the nuances of the situation elude the author. For instance harsh critic of Israel and Jew, Roger Cohen, writing for the Times wrote. "Mellifluous talk of democracy and rights and justice masks the B.D.S. objective that is nothing other than the end of the Jewish state.... The movement’s anti-Zionism can easily be a cover for anti-Semitism."
I hope for an Op ed that would either critique the actions of both sides which prevent resolution, or offer a path forward. All else is noise and an obstacle to peace.
8
The article is based on false information. There is no 'occupation' of land. That woukd necesitate that another soverign country has claim to the land, they don't. That the 'settlements' are illegal, they are not. Israel is not 'forcibly transferring' populations. As stated earlier, their Right to Return is predicated on their desire to live in peace, they have no such desire.
Jewish Voice for Peace, by their own admission, supports the stabbing murder of Jewish children and their families in the West Bank as a legitimate form of 'resistance'. They need to cease using 'Jewish' and 'Peace' in their name.
6
Ms. Alexander believes that Israel should not exist as a Jewish state.
She ignores the dream of many factions in the Middle East and many groups world wide that Israel should be destroyed and Jews killed and exterminated.
Denying this fact, makes her reasoning false.
"False in one thing, false in all things".
6
It's shameful to attempt to bolster your own arguments by claiming the support of a man who isn't able to refute your claim. You should make your own argument and depend only on your own stature to make the case.
6
Ms. Alexander should read this- also in the NYT for a better perspective on this issue and see how it may impact her accusations against Israel and sympathy for only the Palestinians.
There Is No ‘Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’
To understand why, you have to zoom out.
Matti Friedman
By Matti Friedman
Contributing Opinion Writer
Jan. 16, 2019
5
I wholeheartedly applaud and appreciate Ms. Alexander's, and NYT's, courage to publish this article.
In this country, as Americans, we can criticize anything and everyone, including our government and leaders, except Israel; any criticism of Israel is political suicide for politicians and anyone who dares to criticize Israel and its occupation of Palestinian lands and treatment of Palestinians would be labeled and shamed as anti-Semite. Enough with this intimidation!
Not all Palestinians are terrorists; not all Israelis are peace-loving, victimized people; and Israelis aren't the only people who have a right to defend themselves and have a right to self-determination.
Condemn and fight anti-Semitism just like any other racist and bigoted ideology. But as much as Jews like to see themselves as the "chosen" people, there is nothing special about Jews and Israel - we should be able to talk about extremists in that religion and Israeli policies just like any other religion and country.
As long as the US unconditionally supports Israel, has nothing to say other than "unhelpful for peace" for Israeli settlements and land grabs, gives standing ovation to Netanyahu at the Congress, and keeps on giving Israel by far the largest US foreign aid, Israel will have no incentive to change its behavior like a spoiled child.
4
The Palestinians are deprived-they are deprived of mirrors.
Israeli has been bled dry trying to establish a state for a people who have engaged in generations of corruption, incitement, outright murder, and built a society without due process, rights, and oppressed women and homosexuals. Thousands of Israelis have been viciously murdered attempting to create a Palestinian state.
Never again. The Palestinian Authority has no democratic mandate. It tortures its opponents and steals our money. What money it isn't stealing it is giving to the families of terrorists as a reward for killing, not just Israelis, but Americans like Taylor Force.
Israel's democratically elected government has learned security comes through strength and pursuing your national interests. These tired accusations of human rights abuses are exaggerated hysterical nonsense. MLK supported Israel because he supported democracy, due process, human rights, and understood nations have a right to defend themselves. Visit Israel, see for yourself.
The organizations she mentions have the right to their opinion, but too often their selective outrage bleeds into anti-Semitism. Anyone can choose not to buy Israeli products but our government shouldn't enter into contracts with any company which targets one ethnic group. This is consistent with our values.
I will honor MLK by buying Israeli products and supporting the only democracy in the Middle East. Ms. Alexander should do it by donating a mirror.
12
Razan al Najjar was killed by a bullet that bounced off another object .Her death is tragic but the direct result of Gazans directed by Hamas to breach the border and kill innocents.
Gaza is not occupied but blockaded by Israel and Egypt to diminish their ability to cause harm.Said al Mishal was attacked because the Israelis thought that Hamas had offices in the basement.It is not uncommon for Hamas to plant their rockets and offices among civilians.Angela Davis is on the wrong side of history,member of the Communist Party,Black Panthers and friend of Fidel Castro.Just because I agree with her stated goals her road to achieve them are not acceptable.
To single out Israel for economic boycott is anti semitic.
7
Yes, breaking the silence on Palestine is long overdue.
Alexander is sure to be widely attacked for her courageous and morally accurate denunciation of a political establishment and media which for decades have cravenly served as the propaganda arm of the Israel Lobby, which ensures that the gross violations of Palestinian human rights and racism now institutionalized in law in Israel are never treated with the same outrage they have nearly universally received in South Africa or the Jim Crow American South.
The foundation of the modern Israeli state is built on an extremely violent and well-documented ethnic cleansing that has never stopped in 70 years, whose victims are Palestinians.
Not a single Palestinian village from 1948 survives intact in Israel. Three quarters of a million Palestinians were forced from their historic homes through war and terror and are banned from ever returning because they are not Jewish. Meanwhile anyone with a Jewish mother can legally emigrate to a country with which they may have no geneological connection whatsoever.
It is the behavior, not the religion or ethnicity of the Israeli Jews who have perpetrated this ongoing and historic atrocity, that must be universally condemned, and their false narratives challenged.
It is correct to compare the shameful dehumanization of native Palestinians by Israel with the same behavior done by the racist Boers and the Bull Connors the American South.
3
The author states that Israel occupies Gaza but this is not true.
Israel doesn't occupy Gaza, it pulled out in 2005. Two years later when Hamas took over Gaza, they started sending rockets into Israel, targeting civilians. This has been going on for 12 years. Please get your facts straight.
8
Israel is doing everything it can to create a permanent underclass of Palestinians, poor, uneducated, and politically and religiously extremist.
Israel should, instead, be trying to encourage the education of Palestinians, so that one day they can live together in peace, whether in one country or two.
There is room for some political compromise, if people would remove their us-vs-them blinders. Let Israel have all the land it wants, based on their Biblical beliefs, give all residents the right to vote, but have strong guarantees of minority rights (knowing the Jews will likely be the minority in 30 years) and perhaps seats distributed by regions (so both groups have veto proof numbers).
Eventually I hope they will stop thinking there are only 'two groups,' i.e. a third more secular, rational, and scientific group made up of both Jews and Muslims will become the largest group...larger than either the Jewish fundamentalists or the Muslim fundamentalists.
2
If the Palestinians had been led by a Martin Luther King instead of an Arafat/Hamas/Hizbollah, they would have had peace a long time ago. Besides, the other Arab nations need Israel to distract everyone from their own human rights abuses. That being said, Israel has lost its moral authority. Bibi is a Jewish Trump and the settlements and use of disproportionate force make a mockery of Jewish ideals. The whole region makes me sick.
2
Michelle Alexander cautions readers that "While criticism of Israel is not inherently Anti-Semitic, it can slide there." It seems logical that the context of this paragraph (growing Anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and America) would include recurring statements by Minister Louis Farrakhan and his Nation of Islam. But conveniently, Mrs. Alexander remains silent on the rabid Anti-Semitism (see "Satanic Jews") spewed by this group for generations. With this group, it's not that Anti-Semitism may slide there; it's already there. Yet, what do American Jews hear from critics of Israel on Farrakhan and the NOI? Ambivalence at best, outright support at worst. This reader, and admirer, hopes the author's silence on Israel's illegal expansion of settlements in the West Bank and demeaning treatment of Palestinians is coupled with criticism directed at blatant Anti-Semites in the United States.
2
During the first 10 months of 2018, 52 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli army. How many Israeli citizens were killed? None.
https://www.presstv.com/DetailFr/2018/11/19/580531/Palestine-Israel-children-Defense-for-Children-Gaza-West-Bank
Each life is precious. And so it was tragic that during the last Intifida Hamas which I consider an awful organization fired their shabby so-called 'rockets' at Israel killing an innocent Israeli citizen. Israel government's response: In retaliation the hard line Likud Israeli government government powered by extremist settler parties and hard right extremist orthodox religious parties, killed 400 innocent children. The total number of Palestinian killed was 1800. Any objective pro-Netanyahu Jewish Republican would characterize this 'excessive'; objectively, however, Israeli government committed a massacre, and is morally responsible for the death of 400 innocent Palestinian children.
(NOTE: I consider Hamas as an awful organization, and I deeply regret the decision of the Israel government in years past to support the rise of Hamas as a vehicle to fight PLO. Just as I regret the British and American governments' support of Ikhwanu-al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brothers) to counter pr0-Soviet communist parties in various Middle Eastern countries).
3
Happy to have Israel share the land with the Palestinians. Since inception, the Palestinians oppose Israel's existence - it's in their charter. Let me know when they're interested in a two state solution, and we can talk. Resistance of course includes killing Israelis - women and children no exception. Also, no discussion about the corruption in the PA and Hamas - that humanitarian aid goes to politically motivated items (building tunnels) and to enrich it's leaders. Literally Billions have been misused. Yet, it's only Israel's fault?
7
A one state solution with right of return is a prescription for eradication of Israeli Jews since the resultant Palestinian majority state will be led by Hamas, assisted by Hexbollah and Iran. All are pledged to eradicate Jews in the Middle East.
4
I don't remember Dr King or his followers murdering school children or women or men in wheel chairs. Had the Palestinians taken the path that King and Gandhi ascribed too we would probably be looking at 2 states now or even 1 Israel with a very different ethnic make up.
4
Ms. Alexander lays out the same tired, simplistic and distorted narrative, which has been unleashed against Israel for decades. Unfortunately, she takes the argument a step further, by her imagined views of MLK, who was in fact, a strident supporter of Israel, Zionism and the right of Jews to national self-determination.
The long and short: the Palestinians were provided a nation state in 1948, much larger than the West Bank and Gaza combined. It was rejected by four wars in the subsequent years. The Palestinians who chant "Free Palestine from river to the sea" don't hide in that mantra, their rejection of a Jewish State. Unless and until the Muslim world stops its fanatical racism against a non-Muslim nation in the Arab world, the Palestinian people will suffer. That is, except the self-appointed corrupt Palestinian dictators (no free election in over a decade), such as Abbas, Erekat and Ashwari, who live like royalty by corruption and theft of their people's assets. P.S.-How about mentioning the horrific slaughter of young Palestinian women by their fathers and uncles, in the numerous "honor killings?' (Or may I use the word lynching of Palestinian women, Ms. Alexander?)
8
The abuse of the Palestinians by the State of Israel has, over the years, undermined my own support for Israel. I now harbor grave doubts about whether the State should ever have been formed. And, certainly the way that it was done was despicable - guaranteed to lead to the everlasting trouble we have seen. One might have thought that a people who were subjected to discrimination and genocide might have been more sensitive to the human rights of the Palestinians. Zionists might have tread more lightly. They did not, and do not today. I do not support the United States’ funding of Israel with my tax dollars.
3
Israel is a thriving country, which so far has defended itself militarily. This success masks Israel's very, very difficult situation. Every country on this planet has a majority that wants to stay the majority. Israel, a tiny country, is the only Jewish majority country on the planet, and its necessary majority is challenged by the Palestinians and sentiments described in this article. Israel has tried numerous times to make peace with the Palestinians. They always walk away, because they are convinced that they can get rid of the Jewish majority state entirely. And they have a four part strategy: overwhelm Israel with population, continue violence to demoralize and to discourage immigration investment and tourism, de-legitimize Israel in the international community and teach their people that the Jews stole their land, and Palestinians will get it back. Minorities are 25% of Israel's citizens. They live under the same laws as Jews. Their is an Arab on Israel's Supreme Court. Arabs have proportionately more representation in Israel's parliament than do African-Americans or Hispanics in the US Congress. Palestinians can have their own state and stop what some consider injustice any time by making a true peace with Israel. Articles like the one encourage the Palestinians to avoid peace and continue seeking the Jewish state's extinction. I do not believe that Martin Luther King, Jr would have called for extinction of the Jewish majority state.
6
When one group oppresses another so badly that the oppressed group will routinely commit suicide attacks, the oppressor needs to change.
4
What does "anti-Semitic" mean? How did Israel appropriate Semitism for itself when Arabic is far and away the largest Semitic language on earth? To be anti-Semitic then, must mean to be anti-Arabic, anti-Amharic, anti-Aramaic, anti- Maltese, to name a few.
Semitism refers to language, not religion. People who disagree with Israel are neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Judaism. In its crushing treatment of the Palestinian people, Israel is a brutal nation-state willfully aided and abetted by multiple billions of dollars from the U.S.
Thank you Ms. Alexander for speaking the truth.
3
Thank you, NYT and Ms. Alexander, for this thorough rebuke to Matti Friedman’s astonishing opinion piece yesterday, “There is No Israel-Palestine Conflict.” (At first I thought it to be a trick headline, intended to draw me into an intelligent analysis, but, shockingly, no! Ms Friedman pushed more propaganda entirely driven by the “Israel good/Palestinians bad” equation. It took two readings for me to realize that every assertion therein was false.)
Sadly, the US has ceded its leadership on this situation to Benjamin Netanyahu, so the attacks on Americans’ free speech, where and how to invest their funds, and any fair analysis of Israel’s behavior come from the White House itself. Not speaking out in 1948 and 1973 were huge mistakes on our part; we tacitly endorsed Israel’s growth on stolen lands. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem was another criminal blunder. Now Congress is considering legislation that would make it a crime for Americans to speak out against Israel by endorsing BDS. With AIPAC yielding an imaginary cudgel over our elected officials, there’s no hope for a fair, balanced approach from our country for the foreseeable future.
We can only hope that the rest of the civilized world continues its fight to “break the silence” imposed by Netanyahu’s policies of ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
3
Israel should learn to embrace the diversity within its borders. Palestinians include Muslims and Christians. There is a sizable Catholic Palestinian community. Recall that Bethlahem is in Palestine.
Ironically, there have been holocaust survivors who see no hypocrisy in Zionism. Palestinian homes and orchards have been taken. Families are forced into ghettos. Their movemements, their access to employment and capital have been restricted. Children have been arrested for misdemeanors and given long prison sentences. Homes are raided at night. Israeli troops shoot Palestinian red cross workers and journalists but make no ammends for the loss of innocent life.
Apartheid is never okay. Murdering journalists and rescue workers whose attire clearly indicates their profession constitutes crimes against humanity. Taking people's homes because they are located in choice sites is theft. Taking orchards that have been tended by the same family lines for hindreds of years is soul-crushing.
The way Palestinians have been marginalized in their native homeland cannot continue. This has been going on too long already.
3
If almost TWO MILLION Israeli Arabs are treated so badly in Israel, why are they not leaving and instead choosing to stay rather than migrate to one of the many neighboring Arab countries?
7
Well said. The US needs to stop funding Israel's destruction of Palestine. Someone needs to wake up and see what we are doing to a people who have had their land, home and jobs taken from them, all in the name of "religion". It's pitiful. Time to support Palestine.
4
Somehow people’s moral integrity stops when it comes to Palestinian or Muslim abuses. FGM? Honor killings? Refusal to engage in sports activities with Israelis? Murders and expulsions of Jews from Arab countries where they had lived for centuries? Previous boycotts against Israel? Denial of admission of Jews ( even US officials) to Arab lands? And don’t plan on going to Mecca or Medina if you’re not Muslim.
Israel is imperfect but its detractors are one sided, failing to see any evil anywhere else. Why is it acceptable for many countries to be Muslim (or adhere to another religion) but having one Jewish country in the entire world is so abhorrent? Israel regained Jerusalem in 1967 yet Jews are not permitted on the Temple Mount. When the Western Wall was controlled by Arabs Jews were not allowed access.
Israel has contributed greatly to technology and medicine. They offer help and support whenever a disaster occurs anywhere. They absorbed many Jews displaced and persecuted. They did not do that perfectly but which other countries did it at all? Did Arab countries welcome Palestinians or did they keep them displaced to be perpetual pawns?
8
My goodness, no mention of the border with Egypt. No mention of Jordan's role. Only Israel. Will the Arab countries also accept the return of Jewish people expelled from that land?
It's time to realize Palestinians are being used as pawns by their own governments.
7
Israeli terrorism in the West Bank continues unabated, and is supported by the United States. Retaliation is inevitable.
3
I am astounded by this one sided article. Not one word about the fact that the Palestine leaders' declared only purpose which is the abolishment of Israel. Israel have to lose one battle only and they are no more in existence.
If the leaders of the Palestinian people used the money given to them for the benefit of their people instead of spending it on weapons, there would be no reason to deny Israel's existence, they would be equel with their neighbor's economic conditions. Your kind of thinking only elevates the animosity between them.
6
The Israelis need the water that is far more abundant in the West Bank than in Israel proper. Better recognize that they will never give up one inch of the West Bank....at least as long as Sheldon Adelson can sign a check.
2
Thank you for writing this and for the Times for publishing this. The risk is great, American Zionists are powerful and they seek to silence all of us. Why would a state pass an anti-boycott law? Why would Israel go so far outside any sense of humanity to silence Americans? Because what they are doing to the Palestinians is a slow motion parallel to what was done to them. Yes, Israelis want safety but they also want revenge. The Palestinians are their scapegoats because they are weak. The Germans are too strong. Deep hate has driven Israelis to become the evil they once feared.
3
Right of return? I guess we should give the United States back to the Native Americans.
4
Israel is under threat not only for its survival, but the Jews there would be subjected to immediate and gleeful genocide. The Palestinians themselves are just pawns for Iranian and other Gulf state money that seeks their extermination. There is NO peace with Palestinians possible UNTIL the money dries up in the Gulf.
This isn't as impossible as it seems, we/Israel must just maintain the balance of terror there while we work to replace oil as a dominant fuel (which will help save all of humanity too). Once the age of oil ends, the money there will end and peace will be found. Until then, yes, we should press Israel to be better to the Palestinians, but not to expect or even try directly for peace. And we must state and back that Israel will stand. Anything else is just genocide.
4
Why the tilt towards Israel ? To keep the Arabs in place. And then there’s oil .
2
As a Jew, I know there is a lot of bad blood between Jews and African Americans, and we have to confront it. I am ashamed that many Jewish shopkeepers and landlords have treated African Americans badly. In New York, especially, Jewish teachers and social workers have looked down upon African Americans and not treated them as equals.
Even during the era of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, the role of Jews fighting for the rights of African Americans has been overblown. There were only a tiny number of Jews, such as Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel and the two Jews killed in Philadelphia, Miss. who stood up for black people.
it was a similar situation in South Africa, where only a handful of Jews fought with Nelson Mandela against apartheid. The other Jews were willing to look the other way.
I grew up in Brooklyn, NY, speaking Yiddish, in which, shamefully, there are pejorative words for black people. It is for these reasons, I understand, that so many African Americans are hostile to Zionism.
2
Let's keep these truths coming..political contributions by all Americans are roughly $ 3.0 billion per year . Jewish contributors contribute 50% to Democrats and 25% to Republicans or approx. $ 1.0 billion. For this investment Israel gets $ 3.5 billion in annual aid from U.S. or a return on investment of 350% . In addition these Mideast wars against Israel's enemies have cost the U.S. taxpayers $ 2.0 trillion . But most important our politicians who receive these donations have cravenly sent 25,000 of our soldiers to their death in these wars.
2
Now please write an article titled "Time to Break the Silence on Human Rights in the Muslim World"
I'd like to read that one! Please cover the lives of women, children, and non-muslims.
13
To Michael -- how blind can one be!? The UN Partition Plan offered the Palestinian majority of 1,3 million persons 43% of their homeland for their state, for the Jewish pop. of 660,000 55%. Who would accept such an offer?
You also disregard the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and afterwards, the oppression of Palestinian (citizens) living in Israel and many other facts, yes, facts mentioned in the article. Less than 5% of them have taken part in some kind of activity against the state of Israel or their Jewish fellow citizens.
So "let´s discuss it": Has the state of Israel, any govt, officially recognized the rights of the Palestionians to a state of their own in Palestine? The PLO recognized Israel´s right to existence already in 1988. From Golda Meir and until today the right wing and nationalistic-religious leaders don´t consider the Palestinians, or the Arabs, as human beings on the same level as Jews -- and you talk about the Hamas Charter, which leaders of Hamas have contradicted and continue to do so?
And to Carol -- there is really little hope for Gaza, but not because of Hamas, but rather due to the Israeli siege of more than 10 years which makes life there hardly livable -- and keeps the people there in a cage. Just read the UN reports on the situation.
The majority of Jews in Israel along with their supporters simply do not understand that a main element of security is peace and reconciliation, and not military might and oppression!
1
I have lived in Jerusalem for the past 18 years, much of this time working with Israeli Palestinians and Israeli Jews and Israelis of all walks of life. Israel is not a perfect country. But we provide national health care for every citizen and resident. On the recent election for mayor here in Jerusalem, there were polling stations on every street corner and it was a national holiday to ensure that people could exercise their right to vote. We have no super pacs and politicians cannot be given donations beyond a nominal sum. Many people pay an over 50% tax rate to fund numerous social services including mandatory pension for every person (Israeli Palestinian or Jew).
This is a small, very complex society with hyper-diversity (erroneously presented as a simple Jew-Arab, Israeli-Palestinian binary). Given all that, I would say people living in the USA would do well to take a long look in the mirror and then look at the countries surrounding Israel where people are literally slaughtering each other and starving to death. If Israel is the grave injustice of our time, as the author states, there are clearly selective blinders in place.
7
Just like you, I too can only speculate as to what Dr. King's opinions would be. Here's my speculation: Dr. King would be absolutely horrified by Hamas's use of UN schools in Gaza (filled with innocent Palestinian children) to launch missiles aimed at innocent Israeli civilians. And I speculate that Dr. King would be equally horrified by Palestinian suicide bombers who have claimed so many innocent Israeli lives. And I speculate that he would be horrified by the use of innocent Palestinian children as human shields to provide cover for untold amounts of arson. I could go on but, unfortunately, I fear it would fall on deaf ears.
6
“adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.”
I guess I missed the part of those stories where the blacks in South Africa and in the South in America resolutely threatened to wipe South Africa and the Unites States off the map.
The Palestinians have shown, for the last 50 years or so, that that have little interest in a two-state solution, and have no ability to govern themselves. Maybe look where the hundreds of millions of dollars of financial aid given by the US and others to the PA ended up? Certainly not social services or infrastructure. But Arafat’s family has a lovely flat in London.
4
@Steven
The foreigners (Israelis) have, on average ,killed 1 Palestinian child every 3 days in the 15 years ending in 2014. There were more than 7000 Palestinian children injured by the Israeli thugs in this same period. You cannot "shame" a country that has killed 1400 children (17 and under) in the past 14 years in the name of "combatting terrorism." About a third of them were 12 and under.
The rational world sees and understands who are the foreigners , colonists , land stealers , ethnic cleansers & brutal occupiers vs who are the indigenous people of Palestine who have been forced from their land or live gasping for life under the Zionist boot. (425 villages+12 urban centers were ethnically cleansed in 1948 alone, forcing 750,000 Pal`s from THEIR land to become refugees.)
1
The Palestinian situation is intolerable, as bad as the situation faced by the Jews after WWII. I am not anti-Semitic, yet it seems any suggestion that Israel needs to treat indigenous people with equal respect is condemned with knee-jerk accusations.
3
“Break the silence”? Are you kidding? This type of one-sided analysis is omnipresent in the media today. What’s kinda funny is that these writers are always deemed “courageous “ by numerous commentators—as if this is a dangerous undertaking.
5
The coverage and vitriol devoted to anti-Israel reporting and opinion in the Times is chilling.Subtleties of the situation and the fact that anti-semitism is at the heart of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are facts rarely addressed.The role of Jordan and other Arab countries in using Palestinians as pawns against Israel's survival is never addressed.
The concerns of the commenter who asks what Dr. King would have thought of China (or Myanmar or any of the Arab nations who rid themselves of Jews) are not addressed. In Israel, Arabs have rights; they work; they travel freely; they recreate at kibbutz resorts; they receive health care. They are equal citizens.
Jewish people have a right to their country, their thriving, modern, pluralistic society. They have a right to security. Dr. King understood this fact.
If Ms. Alexander and the thousands of people, especially college students, who receive an abbreviated and skewed version of the story of Israel's founding and development would similarly study the situation (as the author says Dr. King studied Vietnam), they would realize how much misinformation and claptrap is actually driving the narrative they believe.
And the Times is complicit, just as it was complicit during the systematic murder of Jews during WWII. When a Jewish state receives repeated condemnation, as other, worse state actors, including Arab states, do not, one cannot help but conclude that anti-semitism is at work again. So convenient.
6
Well, I'm appalled by much of what Israel is doing under bully-boy Netanyahu; also the way the government kow-tows to the crazy, parasitic Haredim (right-wing ultra-orthodox Jews who violently attack women for entering "their" neighborhoods without dressing "modestly") is horrible and embarrassing. BUT...
1. RE: "...the McCarthyite tactics of secret organizations like Canary Mission,..."
Don't abuse terms like "McCarthyite". McCarthy was a SENATOR, a political officeholder, abusing the power of GOVERNMENT to smear and ruin his targets. Is Canary Mission in any position to do the same? Does it hold, or control, any political office or wield any government power? If no, then McCarthy is not an appropriate metaphor.
2. Also, Canary Mission recently outed Dr. Lara Kollab, a viciously anti-Semitic Palestinian-American medical resident at Cleveland Clinic, for tweeting her intention to commit deliberate, purposeful medical malpractice against Jewish patients. She may have been joking, but even so, outing her was good work, for which we should be grateful.
3. Ordinary Palestinians are suffering much greater harm at the hands of their own "leaders" than from any Israelis.
2
It’s fashionable to be anti Isarel is Ms Alexander did she ever set foot in Isarel ? the Palestinians leadership deserve every year an Oscar they are great actors,peace was possible if Arafat wanted the President Clinton was his best chance but they are happy to be permanent refugees
4
We are willfully ignorant about Israel because the truth is too painful. We like to say that the allied powers won the war but how can we consider what happened a victory when Germany and much of Europe successfully eliminated most of its Jewish population? Even now, we calmly accept that the process continues as Jewish emigration to Israel from Europe remains at an all time high due to a rise in anti-Semitic attacks. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35317479)
Israel is the shameful child of western antisemitism. Israel has always been dependent on the support of the very same countries that have historically persecuted its population. The recent alignment of the Netanyahu government with the theologically supremacist evangelicals highlights a shared expectation for a final apocalyptic war.
The cruel and endemically destructive truth is that Israel was created by anti-semitism and continues to depend on anti-semitism.
The oldest canard in the world is this mythic power of the Jews, the power of a people routinely humiliated, attacked, and oppressed throughout the ages. This magical power has not prevented pogroms, ghettos being invented for us, massacres, or expulsions. Despite individuals such at the author of this article protesting (too much) that no one can talk about the Jews, there is no people on earth that are on the receiving end of more hate speech. And the proof of our immense and overwhelming power- Canary Mission, a small group of Jews that call out people harassing Jews. Now that’s power!
6
Has anybody noticed that it took the advent the Trump presidency to give the American Left (here exemplified by Ms. Alexander) the sudden collective “courage” (read: convenient cover) to start speaking out on this issue? Where have they been these last four decades since Menachem Begin started planting “facts on the ground” in the West Bank?
I’ll tell you who had courage on this point: Jimmy Carter. He spoke out in the mid-2000s, fearlessly, ethically, and without regard for the power of the Israel Lobby. And of course he got creamed for it.
It’s fascinating that it took the most pro-Israel president in American history (whom the Left nevertheless relentlessly accuses of pushing or facilitating anti-Semitism) to give the Liberals themselves the belated “courage” to express positions that are at least arguably anti-Semitic.
Israel has not occupied Gaza for 13 years. Prior to the entifada, Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews worked and lived alongside each other, understood each other, and had a viable line of communication to negotiate. The PLO’s strategy of terrorism and violence, has been the polar opposite of what MLK believed and preached. Do you really believe MLK would support Hamas, whose charter is based on eradicating ‘the jews’ through total violence?
Jewish only streets? Been all over Israel and never seen any place where that was policy. This article tries, by normalizing and maximizing extremes, to paint a picture that is inaccurate.....I promise you, an Arab Israeli enjoys far more freedoms and rights than anyone else in the Middle East, West Bank, and Gaza included. Visit Israel and see things for yourself.....
7
I would urge readers of this one-sided article to also read Matti Friedman's article in the Times a few days ago titled "There is no Israeli-Palestinian Conflict".
5
@Horace , No conflict ?
The foreigners (Israelis) have, on average ,killed 1 Palestinian child every 3 days in the 15 years ending in 2014. There were more than 7000 Palestinian children injured by the Israeli thugs in this same period. You cannot "shame" a country that has killed 1400 children (17 and under) in the past 14 years in the name of "combatting terrorism." About a third of them were 12 and under.
The rational world sees and understands who are the foreigners , colonists , land stealers , ethnic cleansers & brutal occupiers vs who are the indigenous people of Palestine who have been forced from their land or live gasping for life under the Zionist boot. (425 villages+12 urban centers were ethnically cleansed in 1948 alone, forcing 750,000 Pal`s from THEIR land to become refugees.)
1
For perspective, please read this piece about Amos Oz, in which the ambiguities and clarities surrounding Israel's right to exist alongside Palestinians are explored.
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/01/14/the-radical-empathy-of-amos-oz/
There is no doubt that there have been and are atrocities committed in the name of the survival of the state of Israel. This emerges from having lived under legitimate existential threat for the entirely of its existence (coming too from under the weight of two millennia worth of discrimination, disenfranchisement, pogrom, rape and murder). The establishment of the state of Israel was a watershed moment for the Jewish people, yet, at the same time, the preservation of it has extracted a good portion of the Neshuma Yehudi, willfully offered and taken as tribute as a perennial price of continued existence. The cost/benefit ratio of this will only be known generations hence, but in the meantime, survival in a hostile environment remains a key raison d'etre. Israel's existence has without doubt, emboldened Jewish people around the world, allowing them license to engage in active self-protection, rather than persist with the historically sanctioned approach to merely keep one's head down to weather the always passing storms, a strategy which generally worked well, that is, until Hitler and his industrial thuggery and murder machine came into existence. From this, Israel was born. Can anyone doubt what at the core, drives their behavior?
3
As we now know thanks to NYT reporting and Egyptian President SiSi's recent 60 Minutes broadcast, Israel has been using its high tech drones and other methods to protect Egyptian soldiers, policemen and Coptic Christians who have been killed by the hundreds by ISIS terrorists. There are likely hundreds of (Arab) lives saved thanks to the Israelis and the Egyptian soldiers and policemen can sleep more soundly at night.
Israel is closely aligned with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states regarding their conflict with Iran and Iran's nuclear weapons development. These countries recognized that while Palestinians want peace with Israel, the Palestinian leadership is lacking and not committed to peace.
It was 5 years after 9/11 that the Palestinians elected Hamas, a terrorist organization over Fatah to lead them and a Palestinian civil war with many deaths ensued.
In Sept., 1970 ("Black September") Palestinians hijacked 4 airliners to Jordan and tried to overthrow the govt with 3,000 Palestinians deaths as a result.
The first step for peace is for a new Palestinian election with the election of leaders committed to signing a peace agreement instead of sending missiles and digging tunnels into Israel as Hamas has done. Until there is new leadership given an electoral mandate, there can be no peace.
6
I relate a famous Jewish quote: If the Palestinians disarmed, there would be instant peace. If the Israelis disarmed, there'd be instant slaughter. Palestinian rights come with peace, not BDS, IMHO.
7
It's pretty sad that someone would use the New York Times to co-opt the memory of Martin Luther King to support a political stance supporting terrorism. As long as Hamas is in charge, the Palestinian people will be hostages to terror. The money that other nations send in order to help these people will be misappropriated by Hamas to carry out its terrorism against Israel, and its propaganda against the world. Hamas is responsible for the malnutrition and squalid living conditions of thousands of Palestinians, and for carrying out rocket and mortar attacks at Israel. Any American who supports such a regime should be ashamed.
6
Amen, Ms. Alexander.
Perhaps we should withhold aid and loan guarantees from Israel until its government renounces land grabs and violence against the Palestinians.
2
I am an Israeli and I am 100% with you, Ms. Alexander. We Jews must learn that criticism of Israel's policies does NOT always equal "anti-Semitism." -Yael
3
it is impossible to be progressive and be a Zionist.
David Friedman, US ambassador to Israel lives in a settlement which is illegal under international law. Israel continues to play at making peace to keep taking more territory. Zionists keep saying the problem is recent, that the old days were pure. They fail to recognize the beginnings of the state were always to take all the land with no Paletsinians.
Benny Morris, Israeli historian was blunt:
“If [David Ben-Gurion] was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job. I know that this stuns the Arabs and the liberals and the politically correct types. But my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all. If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country – the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion – rather than a partial one – he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations.”
1
Thank you Michelle for your eloquent and brave stand against the silence of our major institutions on the searing question of Palestine. No doubt you feel you are risking your career. Indeed you are. But in my opinion the tipping point in our contemporary culture in favor of Palestine has already passed. Unlike in King’s day, there is just too much awareness today of the injustices which have been inflicted on Palestinians by Zionism. The haters will be in pursuit, but I don’t think they will be able to touch you. The majority of informed American citizens are with you.
And thank you to the Times, which continues to surprise me.
3
Another one sided biased opinion piece. Martin Luther King enjoyed wide support from the Jewish community and would be offended by this distortion of his views.
If you have grievances at least acknowledge that the other side has some legitimate arguments as well. By focusing all blame on Israel and treating the palestinians as quasi angels you bring nothing to the discussion.
It is so hard in the era of Trump to find people who do not twist facts and selectively edit the truth to serve their own partisan views.
20
@joe s
Irony.
If you have grievances at least acknowledge that the other side has some legitimate arguments as well. By focusing all blame on Palestinians and treating the Jews as quasi angels you bring nothing to the discussion.
While Israel’s supporters will no doubt aim the usual stuff about bias and anti-Semitism at Michelle Alexander, hers is a remarkably balanced but powerful piece of writing.
As someone who has been to the West Bank and seen for myself the hideous injustice of Israel’s occupation, theft and colonisation of Palestinian land, her argument that progressive journalists, commentators and politicians should show some backbone and speak out is well made.
It’s long since time that the pro-Israel thought police were finally faced down and exposed as the shameless hypocrites they truly are.
I am insulted that American Black civil rights is conflated with the Palestinian situation. This article purposely blurs the current and historical differences in order to further anti-Israel sentiments. You dishonor Martin Luther King and use his name falsely to garner sentiment for your biases. You dishonor American Blacks. There are huge differences between the two situations and huge differences between their leaders.
23
@wonder
Differences? You didn't mention any. Is that because there aren't any relevant ones?
@wonder
By Desmond Tutu
Published 21:56 14.08.14 in Haaretz
The past weeks have witnessed unprecedented action by members of civil society across the world against the injustice of Israel’s disproportionately brutal response to the firing of missiles from Palestine.
If you add together all the people who gathered over the past weekend to demand justice in Israel and Palestine – in Cape Town, Washington, D.C., New York, New Delhi, London, Dublin and Sydney, and all the other cities – this was arguably the largest active outcry by citizens around a single cause ever in the history of the world.
A quarter of a century ago, I participated in some well-attended demonstrations against apartheid. I never imagined we’d see demonstrations of that size again, but last Saturday’s turnout in Cape Town was as big if not bigger. Participants included young and old, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, blacks, whites, reds and greens ... as one would expect from a vibrant, tolerant, multicultural nation.
I asked the crowd to chant with me: “We are opposed to the injustice of the illegal occupation of Palestine. We are opposed to the indiscriminate killing in Gaza. We are opposed to the indignity meted out to Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks. We are opposed to violence perpetrated by all parties. But we are not opposed to Jews.”
I admire the courage of Michelle Alexander to write such a balanced opinion without fear of the censors. I hope they will never succeed in silencing her.
15
And what is your solution?
The impasse is the same as in 1947 when the UN mandated two states for two people and the Arab world made never ending war on Israel. Only Egypt and Jordon have made peace and acknowledged Israel’s right to exist.
The Arab refugees, united under Arafat, into the Palestinians who have rejected the two state compromise demanding nothing less than the removal of Israel and the Israeli’s.
The question you raise is “ Why should we tolerate Israel” ? That is an easier question than dealing with “ should we tolerate immigration, minorities, women?
Your article is an effort to deflect attention elsewhere.
Shouldn’t you and the new Congress deal with American oppression: violence against American women, immigrant children and American minorities?
let’s deal with OUR “Palestinian” problem.
13
@Philip
Israel is the side that has pledged to never end the war. The "Arabs" gave up the war 50 years ago. Israel continues to invade and occupy its neighbors.
1
Sadly, her article suggests a very strong bias against the State Israel and perhaps Jews as well. While there are clearly a lot of difficulties surrounding the Palestinian issue nothing in the article makes any reference to Palestinian firing missiles on civilian populations. Her article is exclusively one-sided, factually incorrect such as saying Israel occupies Gaza, and I am sad to say it attempts to bury an anti-Israel agenda under the good name of Dr. Martin Luther King.
16
@Errol Uhr
It's not bias. The only bias I see is from you: you refuse to acknowledge her reasoning, and you reflexively call it bias.
1
"some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States."
Apartheid is a strong accusation; many have characterized it as a gross misrepresentation of the reality in Israel/Palestine. If you do not provide specific examples to substantiate it, it can't be challenged on the merits. That's conviction without trial.
11
@Michael I fail to see how Ms. Alexander and company don't see affirmative action as apartheid and segregation. It clearly is. As is the cultural leftist norm of treating slights towards blacks like they are crimes against humanity while ignoring far worse hatred, and even violence, by blacks.
@Michael
Obviously it is a controversial label, but it is also one which is becoming more mainstream and is supported by serious academic discourse. The parallel between the treatment of the Palestinians and apartheid have also been explicitly drawn by people who lived under apartheid in SA, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the ANC:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analogy
Apologies for posting a Wikipedia link, it is hardly a peer-reviewed article but there are many specific examples.
I must acknowledge Ms. Alexander’s courage in engaging in this contentious issue in which many pundits have ventured but few have emerged unscathed. That said, her effort to identify an equivalence between Dr. King’s condemnation of America’s war in Vietnam and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian struggle is wrong-headed, ill-informed, embarrassingly one-sided, naive, and, dare I say, pathetic and unworthy of publication. I won’t elaborate as other commenters have expressed the problems with her analysis far more effectively, but I would urge the NYT, which is a national treasure, to exercise a bit more discretion in what appears on its pages.
6
I "love" how the opinion writer invokes over and over again the approval for her views by a man long dead. Brilliant!
7
Brava! Thank you. It is time for the NYTimes and our government, all aspects of it, to reclaim a commitment to morality and stop, just totally stop all support of Israel, and stop broadcasting the absurd rationalizations that Israel supporters use to defend Israel's more than half century of suppression of the Palestinian people. (They do not recognize our right to exist, therefore we shall confine them to a ghetto and poverty till kingdom come. We have a God given right, promised us in the Bible, to us, the chosen to subjugate, even slaughter them if they rebel.) The moral sickness and corruption of the United States has no more significant manifestation than in our support for Israel.
9
Right of return means millions of Palestinians returning.THat is end of Israel as a Jewish state.Author stretches things a bit.If no Israelis live in Gaza is Gaza an occupied state
4
@richard addleman
Israel dispossessed MILLIONS? And that doesn't bother you? You just proved her point about the uncaring cruelty of Israel.
1
Such a balanced article.
1. Good explanation of how the Ottomans and Arabs helped establish a state of Palestine.
2. Good explanation of how the Arabs supported the Palestinians to accept the state they were given.
3. Good explanation how Jordan and Egypt help establish Palestine after 1948 war.
4. Good explanation of how the surrounding Arab countries offered peace after the 1967 if just Israel would give the land back.
5. Good explanation of how Hamas helped rebuild Gaza after Israel gave back the land and refused weapons so they could bring in food.
6. Good explanation of how Hamas flies balloons with cards to celebrate the Jewish holidays.
7. Good explanation how the Arabs and Palestinians teach their children to love their Israeli neighbors.
8. Good explanation of how the Israelis and Arabs and Palestinians can make peace with the safety of Jews.
9. Good explanation of what antisemitism isn't as you avoided conspiracy theories and controlling the press and government and colleges, as you know that is old time vicious antisemitism.
10. Good that you pointed out opposition from church groups as churches don't ever utter a word of criticism of Jews. Pope Pius XII for Sainthood!!!
11. Good explanation of how welcoming the Palestinians and Arabs were to peace proposals.
12. Good point as to how much Hamas and others love their children by blocking bullets.
13. Great example of democracy supporter Angela Davis.
14. Great humility to not compare yourself&DrKing
26
@Wayne lol good to know there are sensible people around with heavy doses of sarcasm :)
4
The article in question is so full of problems, it is hard to know where to begin. I am particularly put off by the tactic of using MLK as a shield. As one responder explained, the analogy does not hold. But, it makes you sound like you are righteous and on the side of the angels. At the heart of the piece, however, is a not so hidden agenda. She calls for the refugees (most of whom are dead) to be allowed to “return” to Israel. She falsely claims that all the refugees were forced out. She claims East Jerusalem for the Palestinians, including, one assumes, all the neighborhoods built since 1967. She ignores virtually all the history which got us here: the times the Palestinians turned down a state; the history of terrorism; the split between Hamas and the PLO, the moral and political bankruptcy of the PNA; the open, and recently restated goal of Hamas to destroy Israel; she conflates the Arab citizens of Israel with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Her ignorance shows through in any number of places, claiming at one point that Israel is in occupation of Gaza. There is no recognition that the plight of the Palestinians is, to a large degree, of their own making. Decisions have consequences and Arafat and those around him, have much to answer for. But the author either does not know this history or does not care.
12
I could write a column ten times longer than Ms. Alexander's, pointing out all the historical errors, omissions, twisting of facts, and misguided views expressed in this article, that completely ignores the decisions and actions taken by the Arabs, including the Arabs of Palestine, over the last almost 100 years, that have led to the current situation on the ground. But of course the NY Times would never print that.
But I will summarize it all in one paragraph. The Arab/Israeli/Palestinian conflict is not a human rights or civil rights issue. It is a war, and a war that has been going on now for almost 100 years. The root cause of this war is the refusal of the Arab side to accept the legitimacy and rights of the Jewish people to self-determination in the historic Jewish homeland of Israel. The situation of the Arabs of Palestine today reflects the historical facts that time and time again, their leadership has chose the path of terror, violence and war, over compromise, negotiation and peace.
21
If we woke tomorrow and the relative military might of Palestine and Israel was reversed, Israel and the jews living there would be wiped from the face of the earth by end of day.
Since Israel's creation in 1948 the outright destruction of Israel has been the stated goal of its Arab neighbors and continues to be the goal of Hamas and the Palestinian government today. Israel's government has done numerous things that I disagree with, but the circumstances Palestinians find them in today is one of their own making.
"Peace will come when the Arabs start to love their children more than they hate us." - Golda Meir
18
I have travelled in Palestine and met many Muslims, Christians and Jews all of whom practice non-violence and seek a humanitarian solution to the Nakba. History will confirm that US policy was morally corrupt on the question.
9
Comparing Jim Crow segregation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would make sense if blacks in the Deep South had refused to recognize the United States, and set out to push whites into the sea.
The Vietnam War might be analogous to the Israel-Palestinian conflict if Gaza was located 8000 miles from Tel Aviv, and Israel had attacked it on the basis of the “domino theory”.
Would Martin Luther King support teachings that call for the annihilation of Israel? Would he approve of a people who teach their children that killing Jews is more sacred than life itself? Of all of the corrupt and unfair nations of the world, including our own, why must only the Jewish nation be constantly and eternally justifying its right to exist?
The idea of building parity with Israel would certainly make more sense than destroying Israel, but no one is talking about that.
Alongside many courageous Jews, Martin Luther King fought to ennoble humanity, and not to single out one people as a pariah. As he had the courage to oppose the Vietnam War, I hope he would also have had the courage to stand up to the wave of anti-Semitism that is currently masquerading as a call for justice in the Middle East.
16
Ms. Alexander’s column is grossly one-sided, filled with half-truths, and illogically assumes the mantle of MLK in a failed effort to gain credibility. In her telling, Israel is responsible for all of the problems facing those who live in Gaza and the West Bank areas. She uses the language and excuses of those she refers to as “Palestinians” despite there not being and never having been a sovereign nation of Palestine in all of history. The people living in those areas are Arabs and it is themselves and other Arabs who keep them living in squalor. Israel merely keeps them separate to stop them from killing Israelis, which they do at every opportunity.
Israel is imperfect, as are all nations. But only Israel, the only Jewish state, is singled out for refusing to be denied its very existence, as would be the case by following the implications of Ms. Alexander’s holier-than-thou critique. No other nation in history, including ours, has ever been required to give up its sovereignty and the land which guarantees it.
Comparing MLK’s objection to the Vietnam war to the Israeli-Arab conflict is historical and factual revisionism at every level. The two conflicts and our involvement in them have nothing in common.
Anti-Zionism and BDS mere proxies for anti-Semitism and Ms. Alexander’s column represents but the latest chapter of the perverse anti-Semitism spreading deep within the modern American political left.
20
• To relate to Michael´s points: The UN Partition Plan offered the Palestinian majority of 1,3 million persons 43% of their homeland for their state, for the Jewish pop. of 660,000 55%. Who would accept such an offer? You also disregard the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and afterwards, the oppression of Palestinian (citizens) living in Israel and many other facts, yes, facts mentioned in the article. Less than 5% of them have taken part in some kind of activity against the state of Israel or their Jewish fellow citizens. So "let´s discuss it": Has the state of Israel, any govt, officially recognized the rights of the Palestionians to a state of their own in Palestine? The PLO recognized Israel´s right to existence already in 1988. From Golda Meir and until today the right wing and nationalistic-religious leaders don´t consider the Palestinians, or the Arabs, as human beings on the same level as Jews -- and you talk about the Hamas Charter, which leaders of Hamas have contradicted and continue to do so?
And to Carol -- there is really little hope for Gaza, but not because of Hamas, but rather due to the Israeli siege of more than 10 years which makes life there hardly livable -- and keeps the people there in a cage. Just read the UN reports on the situation. The majority of Jews in Israel along with their supporters simply do not understand that a main element of security is peace and reconciliation, and not military might and oppression!
4
Liberal logic is using Martin Luther King Junior to defend a people who have historically embodied none of his philosophy of nonviolence and love for his fellow man.
10
Perhaps the writer would like to see what kind of response the U.S. would give if people in Mexico started to throw fire balls, shoot guns or fire missiles at south Texas. Just remember that when one Mexican who had no official standing, Pancho Villa, attacked Columbus, NM, we sent a whole army to invade Mexico despite the protests of the Mexican government.
And we still have the Guantanemo Bay naval station in Cuba though the people and government of Cuba don't want us to and we only have it because we seized it from Spain.
All this doesn't make all of Israel's actions right but it's easy to say what others would do when we know we wouldn't do the same ourselves in similar circumstances.
Dr. King followed the dictates of Ghandi but as many have pointed out over the last 70 years, the British in India, while harsh and at times cruel, were not the Nazis in Poland and that his non-violent tactics wouldn't have worked against them.
7
Thank you for your courage in writing this persuasive column. Please continue to use your perch as a rallying cry for the most oppressed of people. Abandoned by corrupt dictators who
haunt the Muslim world and vilified by Israel and the ubiquitous Jewish lobby, Palestinians have no advocates except for those with a conscious. They have no billionaires who through the purchase of political process control the US policy towards the Middle East for the benefit of Israel. All they have are their bodies to offer as a sacrifice at the alter of peace and justice.
3
Jewish Voice for Peace has a miniscule following among the Jewish community. #IfNotNow captured the attention and hopes of some of my friends when it started, but they have largely abandoned it due to unpalatable political positions by leadership. These organizations do not represent and never will represent a substantial proportion of American Jews.
This isn't to say that there are not many, many American and Israeli Jews who oppose the occupation. But far greater in number and in political power than JVP and their ilk are Jews who proudly call themselves Liberal Zionists. Social justice movements that want to help Palestinians would do well to stop antagonizing us at every opportunity.
4
Kinda funny how they totally twist his actual statements on Israel. In a statement to the Rabbinical Assembly in 1968, Dr. King said:
“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs. Israel is one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security, and that security must be a reality.
He is also attributed with having said, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism,” in response to a student who had attacked Zionism during a dinner event with Dr. King in 1968.
17
Friends invited me to a several day gathering of Jewish Voice for Peace. Nothing positive was said about Jews and Israel. Laughter followed negative remarks about Israel and I left convinced that this was an anti-Zionist organization masquerading as pro-Jewish.
I worry that people will listen to arguments like those put forward by Ms. Alexander and think they are getting a fair and balanced view of the Israel-Palestinian problem. But they are wrong.
11
It doesn't take courage to criticize something you know little about, especially when you have no skin in the game like this columnist and many who have written comments condemning Israel. Israel is a tiny country, the only Jewish majority country in the world. Its success masks the fact that its existence is threatened and its future not guaranteed. The Palestinians will never accept Israel's right to exist, and Israel is dealing with that better than any other country would. Twenty percent of Israel's citizens are Arabs who live under the same laws as Jews. There is an Arab on the Israeli Supreme Court. Arabs have more representation in the Israel Parliament than Blacks or Hispanics in the US Congress. Most water, electricity and food for Gaza come from Israel. Many Palestinians from the West Bank have good jobs in Israel and are treated in Israel's hospitals. Martin Luther King Jr applauded Israel and would defend Israel today.
18
Netanyahu’s government is without a moral compass as is Trump’s government.
1
Biased and simplistic. Maybe you should speak to Brett Stephens who really understands the issues and nuances.
9
A very thoughtful piece, careful not to be anti-Semitic, but absolutely right to call out the fact that more than half a century after Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza, its behaviour there has turned it into something very different from the original Zionist dream of the Jews having their own utopia.
1
When so many honor the memory of Martin Luther King with anodyne messages of fellowship, bland and toothless enough to offend, inspire or discomfit no one, Ms Alexander shows the courage and insight to reveal what was transformative about Dr King's beliefs and, more important, his practice.
Thank you so much for such a brave, incisive and ethically intelligent piece,
11
An argument relying heavily on what a famous figure might have said or felt nowadays isn't a good basis for anything; and even if MLK's thoughts could have been divined, as great as MLK was, he could still be wrong. Make the argument and leave MLK out of it.
9
I was struck that Michelle Alexander’s opinion piece “Time to break the silence on Palestine” was a great example of the “rationalization camp” in your papers article: Why do people fall for fake news?
“The rationalization camp, which has gained considerable prominence in recent years, is built around a set of theories contending that when it comes to politically charged issues, people use their intellectual abilities to persuade themselves to believe what they want to be true rather than attempting to actually discover the truth.”
The surrounding countries are repressive and brutal regimes: A Syrian dictator gases and bomb civilians, Saudi women fight for equal rights, dare to discus a religious conversion or be openly be gay and face imprisonment or death.
From freedom of religion to gender equality, Israel is a thriving, vibrant democracy. A great US ally and like all democracies, imperfect and growing.
Shame on you Ms. Alexander for your continuing to promote and advocate this distortion of the Middle East’s shining democracy.
18
This article might as well of been written by Farrakhan himself. Sad is the day when the liberals criticize the only liberal country in the region and stand with people who embodied the very opposite of those ideals.
20
@Mat
What is "liberal" about a law which says Israel is for "the Jewish people" when 21& of the population is not Jewish? What is liberal about occupation?
1
I am surprised why some bring the question of the Arab states and how they dealt with Israel. Many of us know very well that Arab states stabbed the Palestinians in the Back.
We are talking about the Palestinians here, not the Arab states. This is a cannon fodder that has been used so effectively in the past to deny Palestinians their rights and to hide Israeli's gross violations of their rights. Palestine is not Egypt and is not Lebanon and is not Syria and is not Jordan.
8
Just as after the success of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions and the establishment of the Kim Il Sung Regime in N. Korea where millions were internally exiled or exterminated, after the fall of Saigon about two million Vietnamese left under desperate circumstances with an unknown substantial number perishing at sea. Another possibly half million Vietnamese or more, were placed in re-eduction camps where many were tortured and starved. Not to mention what happened in Cambodia. So trying to save the South Vietnamese who were attacked by the North with support from the rest of the communist world, from this fate was a perfectly moral undertaking. The application of the progressive imperialism, oppression, liberation analysis to Vietnam and currently to Israel Palestine renders wrong and perverse results as both were at one time, and one has continued to be under siege for destruction or extermination by much larger forces than just their local opponents. The author is looking for injustice where it hardly exists and averts her eyes from places where its presence is glaring.
7
Israeli hard-liners will always try to convince us that any and all criticism of the actions of the current government of Israel are simply "anti-Semitism" and should be dismissed without further thought. Their refusal to engage in a rational discussion of these matters is proof that even they know there is no rational support for their side.
(And their dilution of the term "anti-Semitism" makes it so much harder to fight that particular evil when and where it really is present. Those of us who are genuinely trying to protect Jews must resist this.)
4
While I agree with many of the points in the article, the tone against Israel is biased. By example, stating that 750,000 Arabs were forced out of Palestine is incorrect because not all, but certainly many were forced out and some, yes, remained; 20% of Israel with a rising voting influence and a Palestinian judge on the Supreme Court.
I don’t wish to dispute numbers because I don’t believe this is a football game with scores. But, even so, what about the close to the million Jews who were kicked out of the Arab countries at the same time as the Palestinians? Jews who had lived there for centuries.
I never cared for comparisons and conflating of one tragedy as connected to another. Poor African American neighborhoods are not “Ghettos” and the civil rights movement has nothing to do with the tragic plight of the Palestinian refugees. You want to help? Don’t distort for the sake of convenience.
The Middle East history is far more complex and extends way beyond Israel. This includes atrocities like the Black September where Jordanian troops killed, according to some reports 25,000 Palestinians. Imagine if Israel had done that?
The Syrian conflict in addition to the Yemen and sectarian violence in Iraq dwarf the actions of Israel, but this does not absolve Israel. I point this out as an argument for fair opinions.
Argue for human rights but stop isolating Israel as the only player.
13
Spot on response!
1
The most troubling thing about Ms. Alexander's piece is that she -- along with many others within The Times' readership -- believe its truth.
Anything approximating truth in the Middle East requires perspective and breadth. Ms. Alexander's piece provides none of this. In short, there is no commentary or explanation for why the Palestinian's plight has yet to be resolved or why the Israelis may have cause to tread carefully.
Among other things, Ms. Alexander neglects to mention:
-the continuing Palestinian terrorist attacks on Jews since well before the creation of the State of Israel
-continuing attempts by Hamas and Hezbollah to assault and harm Israel via rocket fire, tunnels, etc.
-Palestinian rejection of every peace and territory-sharing proposal since 1948
-Palestinians' denial of Israel's right to exist and of any claim to the land by Jews who have populated the area for thousands of years
-Palestinian textbooks that have never acknowledged Israel
-The 850K Jewish refugees who were expelled from Arab countries following the creation of Israel.
No fair-minded person could rightfully assert that Israel is blameless. Israel, however, continues to be the Middle East's only true democracy, with an impeccably fair judiciary, a vibrant electoral process, the freest speech and debate in the region and strong protections of minorities.
The true silence to break is Ms. Alexander's, on any sense of fairness and truth on the drivers of the region's problems.
20
Americans spend way too much energy, thought and money on this conflict. Israel seems to be a good ally...other than that, I just don't care about this conflict anymore.
2
I question the author’s timing. Why try to imagine how The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. might respond to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians? Use your broad readership to write about how little the arc has bent toward justice for the rights of African- Americans. Tragically, that would require less of Ms. Alexander’s imagination.
5
I've read this opinion several times this morning. I don't know how to express my outrage and repugnance at this outrageous display of ignorance and total disregard for the people of Israel and the Jewish people and communities across the United States.
This is not plea for the standards and yearnings of Martin Luther King. Mr. King did not call for the destruction of the state of Israel. He did not call for the destruction, indeed the total annihilation of the Jewish people.
Ms. Alexander is calling for an end to Israel. She is demanding that the Jewish people accept into their midst, into their nation and their cities and communities, a multitude of people, the Palestinians, who wish only to annihilate the Jews and destroy Israel. They don't want rights. They want the Jews to leave.
It is not courageous to seek the destruction of Jews. In this time of Trumpism and Pan Arabic Nationalism it is very popular to portray Israel as a terrible tyrant and brutal oppressor. Arabs and the Palestinians have painted themselves as upholders of human rights. They claim they are victims. They are refugees forever at the hand of Israel and the evil Jews.
What gall! What chutzpah! Suddenly the Arab nations, Hezbollah, and Hamas are the peace makers and the humanitarians. Ms. Alexander has turned history and facts upside down.
I strongly suggest that Ms. Alexander live in Israel for the next two years. Let her live as an Israeli, a Jew. Then let her write about fear of annihilation.
24
@Jay
BAM! You nailed it!
3
I’m not an enthusiastic supporter (understatement) of Israeli actions in the West Bank, I think they do more harm in the long run to the citizens of Israel as much as they do to Palestinians.
However, what I really have a difficult time grasping is the complete pass the Saudi’s, Hezbollah, Iranians, (please name your despotic Arabic sect or regime) get at their treatment of dissidents, women, LGBTQ, other strains of Islam.
Where’s the outrage, the boycott, the thoughtful analysis?
Take this on as ardently as you seek to punish Israel and ill hop on the bandwagon.
13
Unquestionably correct statement of the current state of affairs in Israel. Clearly, Americans must be made more aware of what this particular ally has become. Actions must be taken to curb the terrible excesses mentioned in the article.
At the same time, one must not forget the highly hostile environment in which Israelis continue to live. One must not put aside the continuing efforts by their neighbors to “drive [Jews] into the sea,” against which Israelis continually are forced to defend themselves. Overall, it’s an intractable problem to which there are no easy answers.
2
Thank you for this column! Trenchant criticism of Zionism like yours still takes considerable political courage today, decades after the 1947-1949 Nakba (involuntary exile of 750,000 Palestinians to make way for the large Jewish ethnic majority in the State of Israel) should have mobilized people of conscience to resist. What about taking the next step by fully endorsing the non-violent Palestinian BDS call? Maybe you'll be honored by being inducted into the community of justice-lovers on Canary Mission's website.
George P. Smith, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri
1
@George P. Smith
Which Native American tribe’s land is your home in Missouri on? Also stolen in bloodshed, why not mobilize with that tribe to resist? One grows weary of these double standards, hypocrisies, and simplistic reductions. At least the Jews are an indigenous people of their land in Israel, and the Israeli’s had a United Nations vote for the establishment of their nation? What do you have: Indian Wars and Minifest Destiny? PuuuuuLEASE! (All that said, I’ve been an activist for a Palestinian State for 41 years. And a Zionist.)
1
I'm an admirer of Michelle Alexander, but find her support for the "right of return" to be wrongheaded and antihistorical. As other readers have pointed out, the existence of a Jewish homeland is embedded in the UN Partition Plan and was a reaction to the Nazi holocaust. Further, Ms. Alexander ignores the movement of refugees in both directions during the 1948 war that took place in reaction to the creation of Israeli.
Ms. Alexander also ignores the difference in how the mirroring refugee crises were handled. Jewish refugees were assimilated into Israeli life, while Muslim refugees were purposely isolated by the surrounding Muslim nations. The creation of refugee camps in Muslim nations was avoidable and a cynical reaction to the refugee problem created during the 1948 War of Independence.
30
Exactly. And today, still, Lebanon forbids any Palestinian “refugee,” even those born in the country (the majority) to own any land/property. They justify that by saying the Palestinians living there will get their land back after returning to Israel and driving the Jews into he sea.
The Arab countries only care about the Palestinians in so far as they can leverage their plight to foment hate and turn attention away from their corrupt and authoritarian ways
4
1. Dr. King was a great man. He was not a prophet whose words from 50 years ago on Vietnam should be applied to the Middle East, where multiple, many-sided conflicts make for a complex, confusing and, so far, unsolvable situation.
2. Arab countries have not been uniformly welcoming and supportive of the Palestinians over the last 50 years. When they have supported the Palestinians it has been as much about destroying Israel as it has been about Palestinian rights. Israel needs to do better, but it cannot choose national suicide in order to do so. Perhaps Arab countries need to acknowledge Israel's right to exist as part of the solution to this problem.
3. Where is the international outrage when Hamas sets up military operations next to hospitals and residences? Where is the international condemnation of Iranian sponsorship of terrorist groups that fight against Israel as well as other Muslims in its bid for religious and political hegemony throughout the Middle East? Perhaps if Israel were a large oil producer it would be viewed differently.
4. Saudi Arabia beheads its citizens by the score, supports state sanctioned murder in other countries, makes war against its neighbors, and severely limits the political and civil rights of its citizens, all of it supported tacitly and actively by the U.S. The world clucks about this, but does nothing and continues business as usual with Saudi Arabia. Do I smell oil?
25
Excellent piece. Thoughtful, compassionate, accurate. This is issue that has festered now for many decades and needs resolution for all sides to be able to move forward with their lives.
9
This is perfectly said, Ms. Alexander. Any government that obliterates the rights of the people living under its rule (not even “citizens” as Israel does not accord citizens to occupants of the west bank and Gaza) deserves to be called out for those practices.
I say without qualification: Anti Semitism is real and a scourge on our modern day existence. Its stubborn pervasiveness, however, does not give any government the license to destroy homes, kill children, deny the right to exist. In doing so, the Israeli government perpetuates a blind hate that is not dissimilar to anti Semitism itself.
The Israeli people are lovely and deserve to live in peace. But their Palestinian counterparts are worthy of no less. Systemic efforts to violate their most basic rights are wrong, and everyone in the world should be able to say so without being accused of being hateful.
10
The Israelis do not rule Palestinians. They are sovereign peoples. Israel has been sending them aid for decades. Israel will not, however, allow them into Israel. Palestinians live in misery because there is no economy in their territories.
2
This opinion piece is very timely as the Trump-Kushner-Saudi so-called ultimate "peace proposal" nears publication. Any peace proposal that is not based on international law and concepts of basic human rights needs to be rejected outright. Better that it be condemned outright.
8
@Greg
@Greg
And in 1947-48 when the UN created a two state solution that was based on international law and basic human rights. And who didn’t accept that framework? And who attacked Israel? And who prevented Israeli’s from visiting their holy sites until Israel captured Jerusalem in the 1967 war? What planet do you live on in which actions of war, violence, and willfully engaged in failed diplomacy do not have lasting consequences?
5
@Greg
This article was made because MLK, Jr Day will be on Monday, but I take it they don't have that day over in France.
1
Recognizing our combined history and respect for Jews in the US, who have excelled as leaders and humanitarians in science, business and the arts, we need to take the more difficult path that should have been taken in 1945. We should establish a homeland network within US borders. The $3 billion currently spent annually (over the next 30 yrs) should carve out ample and desirable space wherever they’d like to set up. Farmland, waterfront, city and mountains. Let’s share what is ours vs sharing someone else’s. And we’ll find peace for all.
1
I'm glad Ms. Alexander admits that anti-Semitism exists, but I'd feel more comfortable if she would admit that it exists in Palestine. To seek an example of it, she goes all the way Germany? There's is very little examination of Palestinian actions here, or consultation of Palestinina attitudes about Judaism or Jews. But I've read those things elsewhere, and it isn't any more encouraging than sitting in on a Likud meeting.
12
What is this "silence" of which Miss Alexander speaks?
Perhaps it is the silence of anti-Semitic pro-BDS agents to history, the willing ignorance of Jewish claims on the land of Israel, the collective amnesia that the war for Israel's independence, the Six Day war and the Yom Kippur war were not started by Jews. Or perhaps it might be the BDS whitewashing of generations of atrocities perpetuated by Muslims against Jews in the Jewish homeland (witness building a Mosque atop the Holiest site in Judaism), or remaining ignorant of the mass murder of Jews by Arabs in Hebron, or mass murders targeting Jewish children and families celebrating Passover, or the murder of Jewish athletes or the terrorist attacks against Jews in the 19th, 20th & 21st centuries.
For both sides, the pain is real and raw, whether it happened yesterday or ninety or a thousand years ago.
Do not make this about your history, Ms. Alexander. Anti-Semitism still is the defining hatred of civilization. Dr. King would not have ignored the impact of overt anti-Semitic US immigration policies that eventually sent millions of Jews to their deaths, or Pan-Arabic policies erasing thousands of years of Jewish presence in Arab lands. Even the grand mufti of Jerusalem had been convinced that the Jewish race was about to end in WWII.
When examining a just peace between Jews and Arabs, Dr. King would have acknowledged that a selective, convenient silence on the toll of one of both sides contributes to the stalemate.
20
Congratulation Ms Alexander! Both troubling and inspiring, but inspiring definitely!
8
What is equally true about both Vietnam and Palestine is that the US -- as a North American nation -- has no business what-so-ever interfering in the internal disputes of Asia. We accomplish nothing in the process but to generate anti-Americanism while making local problems worse. How many more fiascos must occur before that sinks in?
6
Ms. Alexander claims that "many students are fearful of expressing support for Palestinian rights" due to the "McCarthyite tactics of secret organizations like Canary Mission..." In what way is Canary Mission secret? Their webpage is open and public, and they do nothing more than document statements freely made by individuals on social media platforms. A recent example that has gained public attention was that of a medical student who posted her intention of purposefully giving the wrong medications to Jewish patients. She continued to make such statements during her medical training. In what way are such statements "support" for Palestinian Arab rights? Should we just ignore such statements of racial hatred, simply because Israel is somehow involved?
Canary Mission notifies the holders of such accounts that they have been documented by Canary Mission, and it is possible for the individuals to request changes to the 'dossier' that has been collected on them. This is hardly secret or McCarthyite.
In fact, there is a strong correlation between the presence of BDS and other such groups and anti-Semitic incidents on campuses. Speakers seen as being pro-Israel are often shouted down or harassed, and even a career Palestinian Human Rights figure such as Bassem Eid was confronted with threats because he was not seen as being sufficiently pro-Arab by the students.
There is a difference between being pro-Arab and anti-Israel, and Dr. King certainly knew where to draw the line.
19
Vietnam was a mess in lives lost but the impact of the Palestine issue has been much broader, more divisive and creates a bigger shackle around US State Department than Vietnam ever did.
Palestine is the single biggest issue that the US has in its policy options to turn overall public opinion in its favor in the 3/4 of the world.
It is also the single biggest way to quench Islamic radicalization and fundamentalist terrorist recruitment ability around the world.
Solving the issue in a just way would do more to fight terrorism than all the bombs and lives that are currently spent each year.
Being a just broker for a settlement is not a threat for Israel its a way to save them from themselves. They have a right to live in peace.
China and Russia would also be pushed back in the sense they can no longer use their 'neutral' stance pointing to the US as the Israeli shield in their lobbying of the region...
'Silence IS betrayal' .
2
Finally, some one at the Times with the courage to face up to this terrible moral problem. We need more voices like this!
8
Thank you Ms. Alexander for your column. Whatever MLK would be saying now, it is long past time for Progressive Americans to break with the "Israel can do no wrong" policy that has been in vogue, seemingly forever. One can be in favor of Israel's right to exist and still condemn the racist policies it enforces upon the Palestinians, who also clearly deserve a state of their own. Current US policy with regards to Israel, dominated as it is by Sheldon Adelson and his millions, is way out of step with virtually everything for which America should stand. The Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians is both despicable and counter productive.
8
Israel and the international community have offered the Palestinians their own independent state on at least 4 (or more) occasions. Each time the Palestinians have refused because they do not just want their own state, they want to destroy the State of Israel. Under these circumstances, what would you have Israel do?
13
It is wrong to take someone's land and put settlements on it. It is wrong to treat a group of people as second-class citizens on their cantonized land. One can apparently write endlessly to obfuscate these self-evident truths--and some people do--but at the end of the day, the truth is what is, and more people seem to be recognizing every day.
7
@JB
The rational world sees and understands who are the foreigners , colonists , land stealers , ethnic cleansers & brutal occupiers vs who are the indigenous people of Palestine who have been forced from their land or live gasping for life & freedom under the Zionist boot. (425 villages+12 urban centers were ethnically cleansed in 1948 alone, forcing 750K Pal`s from THEIR land to become refugees.) After the 1967 war Israel expelled ~260K Palestinians from the West Bank + 80K Syrians from the Golan.
The indigenous people of Palestine had nothing to do with the Holocaust yet via a rigged UN resolution #181 they have been made to pay for it. UN res. #181 passed by the bare minimum of votes needed (33). Historians record that many of these votes were obtained by coercion. Eg. Haiti`s vote (yes Haiti had a vote) was purchased by a loan. Liberia`s vote was obtained by threatening an embargo on it`s only export product (natural rubber).
1
@JB
California was stolen from the Mexicans less than 200 years ago. As soon as the Mexican freedom fighters start suicide bombing and propagandizing on American Universities, should we stop obfuscating this self-evident truth, too? (I’m for a Palestinian State, a two state solution, but comments like yours are simplistic drivel....)
3
@Duncan Lennox
Spin and propaganda gets you nowhere. The Palestinians werewhere prior to 633 and the Islamic conquests? Let’s grant they were there under Roman Palestine. No—let’s even grant that they were there in the 12th century BCE as the “Philistines.” Were were the Jews? When was the Kingdom of Israel established ? You see: you have two indigenous peoples (and even that is generous of me considering the legal weight the nation-state organization of the Kingdom of Israel confers on the Jews) in conflict over the same land. People like you would love to over simplify, spin, and then wine about the political machinations of the UN vote in 1947. You want Israeli Jews to stand in for all colonial occupiers, and Palestinians to stand for native rights; that is a deluded fantasy tale. You are unwilling to face the hard task of solving a conflict between two legitimate indigenous peoples for the same land, a conflict that was pretty well solved by the two-state solution. Moreover, that UN vote confers more legitimacy on Jews rights to Israel, than your right to be in Canada, unless you by chance descend from a first people of that land.
1
Thanks for the link to Canary Mission.
This organization does what needs to be done so that those who devote themselves to the destruction of the Jewish homeland will be outed and exposed.
This is a war for the lives of the Jewish people in Israel.
Our opponents have never hesitated to attack us and our homeland.
Canary Mission, as well as other groups and organizations, must be doing something right if people like this author are upset about them.
Do the author and her friends truly believe that we will allow them to escape responsibility for their hateful actions?
9
I am a Jew who supports a two-year solution I deplore the Israeli hardliners and the influential right-wing evangelicals who push their agenda.
That said, I do not hear BDS supporters offering to give THEIR land back to its original owners, robbed of it only a few decades before Israel was established. Our Native American population is largely disenfranchised, impoverished and relegated to barren reservations. We could certainly return more of their valuable property with far less risk than it would involve for Israel to do that with its territories. It's always easier to tell other people what they should do than to set an example of it.
Alexander needs to acknowledge the complicated history of this region, and the shared culpability of the European colonial powers and the neighboring Arab states who use the Palestinians as pawns in a game of power, and who have twice waged wars to destroy Israel. We invaded Iraq and abuse Latino migrants on far lesser threats.
11
Every American has a right to boycott Israel, oppose Israeli policies, and support Palestinian aims without being accused of anti-Semitism. But the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict is not Vietnam, nor is the situation of Arabs in the Levantine remotely comparable to that of African-Americans for whom Dr. King fought. Indeed, it is unseemly that Goldberg cloaks her views with the mantle of Dr. King. Major Palestinian, Arab and other regional forces remain committed to destroying Israel. Israeli occupation of the West Bank is the result of Arabs waging and losing a war to drive Jews out and cannot be given up without a permanent settlement. Hamas, Hezbollah and various West Bank terrorist groups continue to attack Israel and Israelis. There can be no resolution of this rolling crisis unless the PA, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Arab atates are prepared to recognize and guarantee Israel's permanence.
8
The notion that one needs to "Break the Silence on Palestine" is one of the many flawed claims in this article. The reality is that for the last few decades, the Arabs of Palestine (or Palestinians) have been the favorite poster child of left wing "progressives" in the US and Europe (in my youth, this same crowd idolized the Viet Cong, Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara).
There are no other people on this planet who get the attention in these circles, or from the UN, EU, etc.. that the Palestinians do. How often does one hear calls for statehood for the Kurds, or the Tibetans, or Kashimiris, or Basques, or Uigurs...?? And of course, in screeds like this one, you never read about the almost 100 year record of the Arab Palestinian leadership in rejecting compromise peace proposals and choosing the path of war, terror and violence over negotiations, compromise and peace.
12
I wouldn’t have minded if Michelle Alexander posed insightful, probing and even leading questions about Dr. King’s response to the current situation. But to make statements as she does, in a piece rife with misinformation, missing information, and no discussion of the wider geographical context—almost unanimous desire to destroy Israel; Israel caught in a vice between Sunni and Shiite (which has existed since Israel’s founding) —IS HORRIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE.
11
@Michael
Gandhi was asked & gave this view of Palestine in 1938.
“The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine.
Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French.”
Gandhi did not foresee the holocaust but his worst nightmare has taken place in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the European colonists.
Live Free or Die is the state motto of New Hampshire.
The 8000 pound gorilla in the room is the fact that Israel is growing at a rate that will not sustain. What happens when there is no more room to build more settlements? Will Israel invade and take over Gaza? Will Israel try to obtain property from hostile neighboring nations? To me, more than anything, this is the biggest and important question that will shape the future of this region.
Just as after the success of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions and the establishment of the Kim Il Sung Regime in N. Korea where millions were internally exiled or exterminated, after the fall of Saigon about two million Vietnamese left under desperate circumstances with an unknown substantial number perishing at sea. Another possibly half million Vietnamese or more, were place in re-eduction camps where many were tortured and starved. Not to mention what happened in Cambodia. So trying to save the South Vietnamese who were attacked by the North with support from the rest of the communist world, from this fate was a perfectly moral undertaking. The application of the progressive imperialism, oppression, liberation analysis to Vietnam and currently to Israel Palestine renders wrong and perverse results as both were and are under siege for destruction or extermination by much larger forces than just their local opponents. The author is looking for injustice where it hardly exists and averts her eyes from places where its presence is glaring.
8
Dr. King advanced reconciliation and creation of "The Beloved Community"-a realistic, achievable goal of a society based on justice, equal opportunity, and love of one's fellow human beings that could be attained through nonviolence. Dr. King held complexity with compassion and recognized both Israelis and Palestinians have committed and suffered atrocities. As co-facilitator of a Middle East Peace Funding Circle, Board member of Friends of Taghyeer Movement, and American Friends of Combatants for Peace my active engagement and philanthropy is inspired and guided by Palestinians and Israelis that see themselves in the other. I differ with Ms. Alexander's assessment on two key points. The Palestinian right of return has been considered. Ms. Alexander fails to note that the Palestinian community is the only community- to my understanding in history- to be given refugee status indefinitely across generations. This includes survivors of the Holocaust and the hundred of thousand of Jews whose property was confiscated and driven out of the entire Arab Middle East from 1948 through 1970. That is a complexity I don't think Dr. King would have ignored. It has been documented many students are not in fact fearful of expressing support for Palestinian rights-nor should they be. However they have demonstrated their advocacy through hostility and aggression to those they perceive disagree with them. It is time to apply equal discernment, and hold all participants accountable.
12
Dr. King also said that, "Only Love can conquer Hate." He opposed violence as a means of achieving an end. All the points made in this article are true. What is going on in Israel now is abhorrent and is heart-breaking to me as a human and as a Jew who used to be an ardent Zionist. BDS seems to be a response built on King's beliefs in non-violent resistance. The article, however, ignores the years of bombings, murders and wars perpetuated by Arabs since 1948. I believe King would have condemned Israel's actions and policies, but would have also called Palestinians, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Syrian state to task for the violence they have inflicted upon Israelis. He would have called upon both sides to recognize their years of collective trauma as a first step in moving forward. Other steps? We all know them: an immediate halt to the settlements, to violence and a recognition that both sides need the security and hope that nationhood provide.
4
I agree with most of what you say, but you omit the glaring fact that Hamas is dedicated to the total elimination of Israel. (Iran and others share that sentiment.) The Israeli right then uses this genuine threat as an excuse for all the things you accuse it of.
The upshot of what you are saying is that there should be a two-state solution. I fully agree. There just happen to be forces (Hamas and the Israeli right) refusing to accept this. So, can we, should we, denounce one side without equally denouncing the other?
9
Thank you, thank you, thank you. It takes an inordinate amount of courage in this country to take the brave stance you have, especially in a newspaper that, while intermittently cognizant of the suffering of the Palestinian people, has been heavily sided towards the Israeli-oppressive state, as has, frankly, the rest of this country. I applaud and thank you, and sincerely hope that other intellectuals and leaders of conscience follow your example. God knows it is not easy to do so.
2
Just as neoliberalism - free market fundamentalism, privatization of public services, hostility to unions - is still a bipartisan ideology shared by leading Democrats and Republicans, so is the knee-jerk defense of the state of Israel and it's polices still a bipartisan ideology in the same circles. The good news is that both of these ideologies are loosing popular currency as the reality of the disastrous effects that they produce become increasingly clear to the American public. This is partly the result of the explosion of social media and the consequent flood of grass-roots coverage of world events, making it possible to bypass the traditional information gatekeepers of the mainstream corporate media with their default defense of the status quo. Despite the fact that neoliberalism and Zionism remain unquestioned among elites, both political and economic, they no longer remain unquestioned among ordinary working people, including a growing number of young American Jews. Opposition to them is now even allowed to appear in the pages of the New York Times, and this excellent article by Michelle Alexander becomes one among a growing number of like-minded pieces that have been published lately by the paper. It's hard not to see the writing on the wall. No matter how fierce and hysterical the counterattack from elites and their political and media representatives, change is coming, and as it often does it's coming from outside the precincts of elite power.
2
I find it difficult to understand how Michelle Alexander can disregard the role that Palestinian terrorism has played in the struggle for Palestinian rights. In order for those rights to be made whole, the ideological struggle between those who promote the use of terror, and those who find it morally bankrupt, as did Martin Luther King Jr., must come to conclusion. Either the terrorists, including many members of the current Palestinian leadership, are going to win that argument, which will lead to further war, or the other side is going to win, at which point war will end, and a peace can be negotiated. Where is the Martin Luther King Jr. of the Palestinian people ?
14
Ms. Alexander --
As an American citizen and a Jew, I agree strongly with you, and I thank you for your courage in publishing this article. (It's sad to realize that it takes courage to write what you did.)
How many US citizens -- who are paying for many of the wrongs listed in this article -- have the courage to acknowledge that this criticism of Israel, and of us for letting this situation continue, is entirely justified?
Leslie Cohen
5
Finally, someone sees the light. Thank you Michelle Alexander for a wonder analogy to the great man and the current situation.
4
Thank you for speaking up on this. I, too, object to Israel's policies which have resulted in walling themselves into a belligerent and defensive position.
Every day is a good day to remember Dr King.
7
Well, I was hoping to read something about Dr. King on his weekend in the 'Times', but this certainly misses the mark. For one thing, it is rather repulsive to try to put thoughts into his mind on what he would think about the Palestinian/Israeli conflict more than 50 years after he was assassinated. No one knows, and shouldn't try. Speaking more broadly, Ms. Alexander paints what's happening in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as exclusively a moral issue, when it is much more than that. It must be seen also, for the U.S., as a geopolitical concern in a conflict-ridden and hate-filled area. Israel is our one true friend, and one of the few democracies there. It is important that we maintain our friendly tie; that doesn't mean we can't disagree on some of the injustices noted in this article. There is always room for that in a true friendship.
12
@David Godinez You're right, David. Total mystery how Martin Luther King Jr. would feel about Zionism and the IDF. My guess: he'd have preferred water canons to sniper fire.
The one sided nature of this article undermines what the author is trying to do and shows that she is a victim of group think.
Why does she not mention that the Arab nations have from the first moment of Israel's creation until recently tried to grind the entire country oblivion.
Why does she not mention that the Palestinian establishment does every action to undermine any chance of exercising the two-state solution. This convinces even left-leaning Israelis that establishing a Palestinian state on its borders would be an act of national suicide.
Why does she not mention that suicide bombers are heralded, killers of babies are cheered, and hiding military forces behind civilians in order to be able to blame Israelis for the death of Palestinian civilians is an acceptable strategy.
Why does she not mention that Israel has already tried to begin the process of accommodating Palestinian national aspirations and UN requests by withdrawing from Gaza and giving the PA authority in the West Bank. Each effort has been rewarded by more violence.
Why does she not mention that every time a true moderate stands up among the Palestinians, that person is eliminated by the violent elements in their society, not allowing any mainstream moderate political party to develop.
A one-sided polemic does not serve any purpose whatsoever.
24
@HIF
"Why does she not mention that the Palestinian establishment does every action to undermine any chance of exercising the two-state solution."
The Palestinians have officially recognized the State of Israel in several past agreements. In addition, in the spring of 2014 when Hamas officially joined the unity government with Fatah, it accepted all previous agreements and adopted all the principles set out by the US and the Quartet for peace negotiations with "the State of Israel”.
When real peace threatened Netanyahu's colonization project, he started the 2104 war on Gaza.
2
@HIF
There's much irony here.
@Greg
Total nonsense. The spring of 2014 agreement has not been put into effect. Why do you think the PA punishing Gaza/Hamas by refusing to transfer salaries, pay for electricity, etc.
Hamas "accepted" previous agreements only as a temporary tactical position and still explicitly states that Jews have no right to any land in Palestine or to any national entity.
You refuse to see simple facts and live in a false reality of your own making.
5
According to this article, Palestinians do not bear one iota of responsibility for the enduring conflict. Not one iota.
14
@smvisa
Perhaps just one, but in comparison to Israel's hundreds of iotas.
Vietnam War Facts
- The North Vietnamese were actively trying to take over the South (a free and independent nation) and created the Viet Cong for their purposes. It was less a civil war (although obviously fought within one culturally homogenous group of people) than a hostile war between two states, with the North the aggressor. The Viet Cong was not a homegrown freedom movement but an instrument of the North for invasion.
- After the communist conquered South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia did fall to communism as a result of the North Vietnamese efforts to spread communism. Thus two dominoes actually did fall, causing the death of 2 million people at a minimum. (The straw man explanation of the domino theory seems to be popularly accepted on the other hand, that once the south fell the entire world would instantaneously poof and become communist. Since that obviously didn't happen the domino theory is now taught as a completely farcical "red scare" or a ridiculous commie witch hunt on par with how McCarthyism is taught. A strong case can be made however -but you can never prove something that didn't happen- that had American not fought in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia could not have suppressed their own communist insurgencies in the late '60's -often brutally- that those two countries would have fallen as well putting the Sunda and Malacca straits and massive oil reserves in communist hands, and causing far more deaths as well.
2
@Sam Freeman
The mention of "oil reserves" is quite telling.
1
Thank you for this highly needed article.
The truth cannot be hidden for so long.
8
Ms.Alexander, you have drawn a moral equivalence between the United States' responsibility for its own actions in Viet Nam and the United States' responsibility for what Israelis have, allegedly, done to Palestinians. In other words, you see a moral equivalence between our responsibility for fighting a war of our own making, 7,000 miles away from our shores, with our own troops on the ground, against an enemy who, absent our troops in their country, had no plausible means of hurting us, and OUR responsibility for a foreign nation's fighting an ongoing war against an enemy, in their midst, sworn to ending Israel's existence as a nation, on their own territory, with their very existence plasibly at issue. Why do I sense a bias here and not a high-minded statement of responsibility analogous to Dr. King's crusade for peace and justice?
8
Just as after the success of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions and the establishment of the Kim Il Sung Regime in N. Korea where millions were internal exiled of exterminated, after the fall of Saigon about two million Vietnamese left under desperate circumstances with an unknown substantial number perishing at sea. Another possibly half million Vietnamese or more, were place in re-eduction camps where many were tortured and starved. Not to mention what happened in Cambodia. So trying to save the South Vietnamese who were attacked by the North with support from the rest of the communist world, from this fate was a perfectly moral undertaking. The application of the progressive imperialism, oppression, liberation analysis to Vietnam and currently to Israel Palestine renders wrong and perverse results as both were and are under siege for destruction or extermination by much larger forces than just their local opponents. The author is looking for injustice where it hardly exists and averts her eyes from places where its presence is glaring.
4
These are banal arguments, made by those who have never spoken directly to Palestinians and asked them which solution they prefer. In addition, the article makes legally irresponsible claims about the violation of international law without specifying which one.
6
The "human rights nightmare" in Palestine is a manufactured phenomenon that caan be quickly and easilty resolved by the cessation of hostile activity against protagonists.
That the protagonists choose to continue the histility, makes it a problem of their own making and unworthy of our attention.
There are REAL human rights nightmares going on in Africa and in Asia that definitely are worthy of attention, and action.
But that requires intervention into other nations internal affairs.
If we're going to do that, we should start in Central America, where the impact would be greatest. And not because of human rights nightmares, but because killing - all - the narcos and imprisoning - all - of their barking dog politicians, and making those nations US Territories, would be in everyone's best interest.
Palastine isn't one of them.
3
what few seem to appreciate within America proper is that you really did need these wars from Vietnam on up to the present day ...
these controlled wars have become a way to move sufficient product to market or (if you like) keep your factories humming.
it's a sad comment on where the country has gone / now is and, of course, must be supported -
I know this because, along the way, when you were looking for a country to fight (to shake off the lethargy and keep yourselves robust),
of all the places wishing you some degree of harm,
you fellows chose Grenada.
I understand this desire to show solidarity with Jews. I grew up in a new post-war development outside NYC. It truly represented America at that point in time, as Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Buddhist families lived side by side, often sharing holidays together and backyard barbecues in the summer. There were no people of color though. Around 1960, a somewhat famous African American baseball player wanted to buy the house next to my parents. To their credit, they were delighted. Sadly many of the neighbors from all of the religions weren't. I came home one day as a 10-year old boy and asked my mom about what I had heard some of Jewish mothers discussing about African Americans. It was not at all positive. My mom's shoulders sunk, as she washed the dishes, and she took a deep breath grappling with what to say to me about these racist comments. Finally, she turned and looked at me. She said that many of these Jewish neighbors lost many of their family members in the Holocaust, which was awful, yet they still hadn't learned the horrors of discrimination and are now doing it onto others. This lesson has stuck with me about learning and not repeating.
3
Among other problems, the timing of this article seems suspect to me. I attended the womens matches the past two years. Yesterday, I did not. Antisemitism has been growing for the past few years with neoNazis on the right, Jeremy Corbyn on the left and Farrakhan who knows where. I cannot believe the reference to the 1967 capture of Gaza without the context of Israel's neighbors unprovoked military attack in an attempt to wipe the country off the map. And I don't think MLK would have approved of the Munich Olympics. The Palenstinians have been the victim-darlings of repressive (and antisemitic) Arab governments such as Iran and the Saudis for years. Now they are the victim-darlings of the left. Why not the Kurds? The Rohyngas? Ask Farrahkan.
13
At the heart of this issue, is a complete lack of language as to how to have it. Whereas MLK and most in the Civil Rights movement (excluding MalcolmX, and the Black Panthers, all of whom I also respect) were looking to be included in the great experiment, to be a legitimized part of the American dynamic. There is nothing like with Israel or the Palestinian leadership.
The Palestinians and their supporters want destruction of Israel. And Israel, for the most part, do not want to give the Palestinians an inch in any direction. Although there is movement among younger Israelis, to find compromise, but its not moved up the ranks, yet.
MLK, et al, were demanding long overdue inclusion, and the majority of white America knew they were right. Many didn't like it, but saw the crimes of slavery, racism and Jim Crow for what they were - deplorable. And un-American.
There's nothing akin to that in Israel. They don't see the Palestinians as victims of brutal policies enacted in the founding in '48. There is no language of tolerance in Hamas, the PLO, their benefactor Iran.
I'm all in for peace, or compromise. All in for Palestinians getting something of value to call their own.
But how, when neither party shares common POVs, or even the necessary language to reach compromise? Its the main reason why the US keeps failing. Our POV about such matters is vastly different then theirs. Our domestic models don't apply. Historic models (of peace) in the West don't apply.
5
So, like with Trump supporters who think all they have to do to avoid charges of bigotry are to avoid saying "I hate mexicans," no matter what else you say, it is apparently now okay to be openly bigoted against Jews and Israel as long as you pick a few of the "good ones" you can quote. This article doesn't make any effort to account for why the 1967 war happened (or 1948 or 1973), it doesn't account for rockets from gaza or votes for hamas, it posits that MLK Jr. would have supported anti-semitic attacks and genocidal hatred, and the fact that the "right of return" would result in immediate widespread slaughter. That's because, for people who think like Ms. Alexander, it's okay to support attacks on civilian populations if they're Jews, and they barely hide their bigotry anymore.
9
@OY It's the "you're a barely concealed anti-Semite" argument that one sees often in these kinds of discussions. Your narrative is incomplete. The 1948 war is not where the whole Jewish-Arab and later Israeli-Palestinian thing started. It began with the failure of the second Jewish revolt against the Romans during Hadrian's reign. The Jews were dispersed throughout the Roman empire. There were a small number of Jews living in Palestine for almost two millenia. When they started returning to their ancient homeland, the place was not empty. It was populated by Arabs. When the Zionists declared Israel as a state after the British left mandate Palestine, the Arabs resisted. They did not want to be a minority in a state of someone else's making. You don't address that at all. It's why the Palestinians call the event "nakba". As for the 1967 and the 1973 wars, they were a continuation of the 1948 conflict. As for the existence of Hamas, you can thank the Israeli secret services for undermining the PLO. Hamas is as much a creation of Israeli efforts as it is the creation of the Palestinians. As for the rockets from Gaza. Bad tactics. Morally indefensible. But Gaza is the largest open air prison in the world. Why don't you address that? There is only one statement you made that I agree with; the Palestinian right of return. It can't work in Israel proper. But it might work in the territories if the Israelis get out.
@Jules Korzeniowski this is hilarious, you think that even if your misstatements of history ancient and recent weren't risible (pop quiz, were there more Jews than Arabs in "Palestine" in 1918?) that they would somehow justify a continuous policy of genocide with zero attempts at a nonviolent movement--you excuse Hamas and pretend to support MLK Jr., basically you guys think MLK Jr. would have made a narrow exception for killing Jews. The Palestinian people voting in Hamas is a choice of genocide. If the Palestinians never fired another bullet there would be peace and a two-state solution, if the Israelis never fired another bullet they would be exterminated there and across the planet, you're just happy to overlook that because: Jews. As for the settlements: land swap, don't pretend the problem is one piece of land not a different piece and not that the policy of the Palestinian people has been genocide since they collaborated with the former Nazis in 1948 to take another crack at wiping the Jews off the planet. Oh and please say Hamas changed its charter, I always love that one lol "Hamas is a creation of Israeli efforts" - so is the KKK a creation of black American efforts?
4
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
This is our national creed. Israel's treatment of Palestinians, no matter how it is justified, does not meet this standard. When terrorist acts have occurred in America, we don't respond by dropping a bomb on the offender's neighbors.
1
Jews are a first people, equivalent to Tibetans or Aboriginees or Iroquois, with all the rights to land, sovereignty, nationhood that the United Nations and the world community recognized in 1948. Jews aren’t just a religion, or an ethnicity, or a culture. They are a people.
Therefore, when someone like the well meaning Ms. Alexander makes their sovereignty contingent, and promotes the alleged right of return of Palestinians—in other words calls for the destruction of the very nature of the State that Israelis have created—it is painfully obvious that her historical, anthropological, political, and legal background is woefully lacking.
When I visit them in Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, and long ago when it was safe for me to do so in Gaza, my dear Palestinian friends with whom I have struggled side by side, as an American Jewish Zionist, for Palestinian statehood, will commonly express to me that they would like to have the whole land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea, from the Golan to the Red Sea, for their rightful Palestinan State. But they understand that after foreign empire, the UN Vote for a two state solution, and 70 years of war, they will be lucky to get a State. More importantly: they accept that, unlike Ms. Alexander, who is clearly an unschooled Johnny-come-lately to this complex issue.
8
Facts are important, and Dr. King would not have ignored them. Ms. Alexander does him a disservice in doing so. First and foremost, Gaza is not "occupied".
The "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza is not Israel's responsibility. When Israel regained control of the Gaza strip in 1967, the infant mortality was among the highest in the region, life expectancy the lowest. Israel reversed both of those trends. From 1967 until 2000 there were no fences, no checkpoints and free passage between Gaza and Israel. One could take a taxi from Ramallah to Gaza City without stopping. However, the campaign of suicide bombings and other attacks known as the 2nd Intifada, made such open borders impossible. Even then, passage was easily managed until Hamas, which openly declares its goal of the genocidal destruction of the Israeli state, took control, at which point an embargo was put in place.
Rather than develop Gaza by building sewers or schools, homes or hospitals, Hamas has used its resources to build tunnels under its border with Israel. Hamas founder Mahmoud al Zahar has admitted that they could have developed Gaza into the Signapore of the region, but have rejected that choice. Hamas refuses to buy fuel from the Fatah controlled P.A., thereby dooming Gaza to regular blackouts, leaving sewage plants unable to pump, thereby contaminating the local water supply.
The embargo could end tomorrow if Hamas wanted it. But until they abandon violence, it cannot. Dr. King understood that.
14
There is no guaranteed justice for any peoples.
National boarders have been shifting since the dawn of humanity. Armenians and Greeks lost enormous territory after WWI, 35 million Kurds are nationless. Tibet may not exist in the future. The British and Ottoman Empires have contracted hugely.
I feel sorry for the Palestinians but they are one of so many peoples with no official country. Their time came and went.
The Palestinians have no official language or alphabet. They will assimilate into the Jordanian society and they’ll have to make the best of it.
5
So if the Arab states had obliterated Israel in 1967 you would have been OK with that, just some border shifting?
When Martin Luther King spoke at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, the West Bank was part of Jordan and Gaza was ruled by Egypt. The Arab world ruled all the territory that people nowadays speak of as the location for a Palestinian state. Palestinians were not mentioned in those days, although there was opposition to Israel's existence in all Arab states.
On August 31 and September 1 of that year, the National Conference on New Politics took place in Chicago. Martin Luther King gave the following speech:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/134362247/Martin-Luther-King-Jr-The-Three-Evils-of-Society-1967
He did not mention Israel or Palestine. However, at that conference, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic motions were passed. The New Left was officially defining itself as both anti-Semitic and anti-Israel.
Martin Luther King, however, never said anything of that sort during his lifetime.
4
It is difficult to believe that the author is so blind as to not acknowledge what the Jewish state of Israel has been subject to since it's formation. Attacked by warring Arab nations whom Israel defeated, Israel nevertheless has sought to make peace numerous times acceding to most (95% in the last serious attempt) of Palestinian demands and yet the Palestinians have vowed that nothing but a Palestinian state encompassing all of Israel is acceptable. Palestinian children are taught to hate Jews in their schools, Israel has been bombarded by rocket attacks, tunnels dug from Gaza aiming for hospitals and schools while Gaza keeps thousands of its people in refugee camps to play upon the sympathy of the world. Yes, Israel too has been in the wrong by continuing to build settlements and I find fault with many of Netanyahu's actions but much of what Israel is criticized for has been in response to attacks. When did it become wrong to defend one's country. Can you imagine the U.S. response with Dr. King in agreement were we to be subjected to all that Israel experiences. Is there a single Arab Israeli who would trade Israeli citizenship and the freedoms it grants? I suspect not. Find me a nation that does and has not oppressed segments of its population, our country included and this should be criticized and addressed but Israel's record pales in relation to the Arab states from whom by the way, the Jews were expelled.
11
Israel is just another one of the problems that the Europeans left starting after WWI and continued and worsened after WWII.
The creation of artificial states has created problems that will continue to foster armed conflict for ages.
I would not want to be an Israeli when the day comes when they cannot afford to support a military sufficient to defend against all the enemies arrayed against them.
They are only making it worse by some of their actions.
3
I've spent many hours digging into the long and dismal history of the Middle East.
I've reached but one conclusion:
The curse that infects that land is perpetuated by the agonies and lies it inflicts upon its only hope for a decent future; its innocent children.
The historical and current similarities here at home and elsewhere reveal that the issue is not Israel. The curse is the deliberate corruption of the human spirit, wherever the opportunity presents. Healing will only begin when leaders are chosen for their rejection of that evil.
1
There's an ache in your heart when your friends turn to you and say, "You're Jewish, how can this be happening in Israel?" It lodges next to the ache that's already there from asking yourself the same thing every day.
Why am I responsible for explaining this to them? Why am I the one who has to tell them that I have friends and relatives there who I love, who love where they live, who are doing what they think is right, and who are not responsible for the actions of their governments? Isn't that how we all live?
This essay reminds me of the label I now have pinned to me: "white Jew". With it comes the assumption that I don't and can't understand suffering and persecution. That I'm only welcome in the discussion if I accept that my presence is permitted, not assumed or welcomed, and only if I follow the rules of self-abnegation.
For me, the subtext of this essay is, as usual, "If only the Jews weren't there." Yes, that's a feeling, not a fact. But as a person of color in the USA, the author should be able to relate to that feeling.
7
Thank you Michelle Alexander for stating what has long been apparent but too long unsaid, esp. in the U.S., and thank you NYT for publishing this opinion piece. The ongoing crimes against Palestinians that the Israeli state is perpetrating must be acknowledged, critiqued, protested, and stopped. I hope this article contributes to that process, already being undertaken by many, as Alexander points out (and Code Pink is another organization on the forefront of this crucial struggle).
2
The link in the online version--"...holds well documented power..."--doesn't take me to a place that seems to have anything to do with the important assertion Dr. Alexander makes. "Our elected representatives, who operate in a political environment where Israel's political lobby holds well-documented power, have consistently minimized and deflected criticism of the State of Israel, even as it has grown more emboldened in its occupation of Palestinian territory and adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States." I think it is a fair assertion, but one that also can be, or be dismissed unfairly as, an anti-Semitic trope of Jewish media control and power. I sincerely want the right link since I share Alexander's observations and the direction of her conclusions. For her to state what she did there makes me anticipate for the sake of my own arguments, what she posits so clearly. (This is more a heads up to the editors than a public comment, I suppose.)
As a gay woman, in Israel, I might face some social discrimination - certainly the orthodox do not support GLBT rights. However, in any other Muslim country in the mid east, I would be put to death.
13
The self-righteous hypocrisy of this piece is monumental, especially as it claims to be predicated on a consistent moral stance "validated" by invoking selected aspects of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life.
When I see Michelle Alexander advocate for a BDS movement against China (have you heard of Tibet and the Uighurs, Michelle, or is having your cheap cell phone morally more important to you?), Russia (have you heard of Crimea and internet efforts to destabilize the U.S. and other democracies, Michelle, or are the Ukranians and believers in democracy morally inferior?), India (have you heard of honor killings of women and pogroms against Muslims, Michelle, or are call centers and cheap curry morally superior?) Saudi Arabia (have you heard that women can't vote nor mostly even go out alone, Michelle, or is cheaper gasoline morally more important?), or Syria, (have you heard that the killing of civilians there is literally orders of magnitude greater than that of Palestinians, Michelle, or are Palestinian lives morally superior to Syrian lives?), when I see Alexander come out for BDS movements of those countries, I will begin to take her seriously.
Unfortunately, while one can and should criticize some actions of the Israeli government, self-righteous harangues such as this one by Michelle Alexander merely serve to discredit legitimate criticism of Israel and lead many people to conclude that disparity of indignation often reduces to plain, old-fashioned anti-Semitism.
13
There is a good chance Dr. King, of blessed memory, would have been very critical of the Occupation while still supporting the existence of Israel as a Jewish homeland within secure and internationally recognized borders accepted by Palestinians and all Arab states.
There is also a good chance he would have been very critical of Hamas for launching thousands of rockets at Israeli civilians and kidnapping Corporal Shalit and building tunnels to infiltrate Israel--all this AFTER Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
There is a good chance he would have condemned the murder of eleven Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich in 1972, the bombing of an Israeli nursery school in 1974, the bombing of an Israeli pizza parlor in 2001, the bombing of an Israeli wedding hall in 2002, and the killing of a pregnant Israeli woman in her home in 2018--all homicidal acts committed by certain Palestinians who have absolutely no interest in a two-state solution.
There is also a good chance he would have criticized Yassitr Arafat in 2001 for rejecting the Clinton-Barak peace proposal without making any counter-offer, and presumably he would have criticized President Abbas for rejecting Prime Minister Olmert's peace plan in 2008 without making any counter-proposals.
7
Were there a responsible, effective entity with which Israel could negotiate, and which would be able to honor and enforce its commitments, I would be more sympathetic to the point of view expressed by Ms. Alexander.
Instead, what exists is an unbending determination to kill all Israelis and wipe Israel from the face of the earth. In short, since 1948 there has never been a committed, effective, responsible peace partner available to Israel. That makes Ms. Alexander's article irrelevant.
10
A poignant plea for justice for the Palestinians - met with the usual obfuscations, right-to-exist, Israeli security concerns etc.
These excuses for Israeli atrocities don't hold water and Israel has earned the scorn of most of the world, but the apologists keep repeating them. With the military, financial and diplomatic cover provided by Washington, the truth doesn't matter.
2
I could split moral hairs and argue history for hours on these issues. Both sides have suffered and have been cruel. Neither is a moral paragon, neither is completely a victim.
In a way, perhaps the guilty are the British, who promised the same land to both groups. Like the splitting of the Raj partition, the incorporation of British promises into the United Nations partition set the stage for future conflict.
It is counterfactual except in a Philip Dick story, but perhaps the best would have been to leave one state, and let the natural dynamics of population and economics decide the patterns of Jews living together with Palestinians.
Actually, some version of this is now happening in the shadow of The Wall. Jewish settlements and urban “collectives” are buying Palestinian land and the West Bank is now a mosaic:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-map-of-israeli-settlements-that-shocked-barack-obama
Hamas is a Palestinian Islamist political organization and militant group that has waged war on Israel since the group’s 1987 founding, most notably through suicide bombings and rocket attacks. It seeks to replace Israel with a Palestinian state. It also governs Gaza independently of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas’s charter long called for the destruction of Israel. It was revised in 2017 to allow for acceptance of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rather than the entire territory, though Hams still refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli state.
12
@Sam Freeman
In the spring of 2014 when Hamas officially joined the unity government with Fatah, it accepted all previous agreements and adopted all the principles set out by the US and the Quartet for peace negotiations with "the State of Israel”.
If you read the charters of the Likud and the other extremist parties in the current Israeli government, the legitimacy of the State of Palestine would never happen.
2
One of the things that increasingly bothers me about all discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian problem is the amount of dishonesty among those arguing for and against each side.
The argument for the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish (nationalist) state is because history has shown us that unfortunately Jews seem perpetually victims of discrimination and violence when living elsewhere. Israel was founded to protect Jews from the horrors they faced around the world. And an Israel blind to Jewishness and that accepts non-Jews completely equally with Jews is uncertain to be able to provide the safety that Jews deserve.
On the other hand, as long as Israel exists as a Jewish nationalist state it cannot be fair to the large non-Jewish population in its borders (and in the territories it continues to control). It's widely seen as sinister when Palestinians refuse to commit to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Well how can they commit to that? Their goal is to be equals in the land they also consider their homeland. Committing to the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is committing to their loss of equal rights in a land they rightfully consider equally their own.
The dilemma here is not easily resolved. On one side you have a people who have suffered too much already and need safety. On the other you have a people who have been displaced and relegated to inferior status in the land of their ancestors. A solution seems remote, but blame gets us nowhere.
Despite it being an unpopular opinion in circles like the NYC, we absolutely should not be quiet about the gross human rights abuses being committed. The Palestinians wanton suicide bombings against civilian targets followed by indiscriminate rocket attacks against civilians should absolutely be condemned. We should also decry the Palestinians record on LGBT rights. We should note that the PA is incredibly racist. Selling a house or land to a Jew is a crime punishable by death. The PA restricts press freedom. Hamas used women and children as human shields in their summer attacks on the fence protecting Israel. They've also routinely attempted to dig tunnels into Israel which they use to abduct Israelis (sometimes soldiers and sometimes civilians). We also shouldn't be silent about how the PA abuses international aid. Instead of helping their desperately poor citizens and improving their economy, they use that money to smuggle in arms and rockets and to make payments to the families of those who died in attacks against Israel.
Does any of this mean that Israel is blameless? Absolutely not! Many of their policies like the expansion of settlements, have exacerbated the conflict and amount to modern day colonizing. However when we compare the two sides, we have a flawed government that is largely just trying to keep its civilians from being murdered whereas the Palestinians are largely led by actual terrorists who lack only the means not the intent to commit genocide.
10
Dr King labored to create a powerful, representative, authoritative and peaceful movement to represent America's blacks against their oppressors.
There is no Palestinian equivalent.
Those who wish to use Dr King's example to resolve the problems of the Palestinian people have to first create one, and they're nowhere doing so.
4
Nowhere in this article does Michelle Alexander say that she supports the existence of Israel. I frankly don't think she does. And if that's her position, she has nothing to say to me.
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The core of the problem is a widespread and deeply held belief in Jewish exceptionalism--that Jews are a special people uniquely worthy of special treatment and privileges. This belief is mainly justified on either the secular ground that Jews historically experienced terrible discrimination or the religious ground that God simply cares more about Jews.
If you buy into this, Israel's actions make perfect sense. If you don't, they're morally problematic at best. And the real kicker is that it's nearly impossible to change anyone's mind one way or another.
As an American who personally doesn't buy into Jewish exceptionalism, I think my country should stay on the sidelines as much as possible.
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A seemingly reasonable approach that is fraught with selective facts and blindness to the aims of the Arabs. If the creation of Israel resulted in the displacement of Palestinians it also resulted in the displacement of even more Jews from Arab countries with enforced confiscation of their property. Many of these Jews belonged to communities that pre-date Islam.
It is high time that the displacements were recognized as population transfers similar to those in Turkey after WWI. Just compensation should be made two BOTH populations by the nations involved.
No right of return should be involved. Instead the Arab nations should relax laws that keep the Palestinians in a permanent state of subjection and allow them to assimilate into the nations of their residence.
Proper division of land should be made between the West Bank government and the Israelis allowing for consideration of the needs of both parties.
But this will never happen as long as the Arabs keep their maximalist demands. No people should be forced into a suicide pact. And the world must finally recognize that Jews are both a religion AND a national group. There is no dividing line between Jewish religion and national aspirations. This is a fallacy supported by The Anti-Semitic narrative.
6
All the Dems running for President in 2020 should have to address this issue. US Jews and non-whites, key constituents of the party are increasingly disaffected.
Up to now, Dems could get away with meaningless statements, such as that settlements "aren't helpful" and Gaza massacres "unfortunate." If they believe in a two-state solution they have to be willing to force Israel to be willing to create a viable one, something that serious students of past negotiations know has never been the case. See Nathan Thrall (2017) The Only Thing They Understand for documentation. That means no more military aid and UN protection.
Ms. Alexander makes several sweeping accusations but provides little evidence of her claims. More to the point, she blames Israel entirely for what she describes as a "human rights nightmare" in the occupied territories, all the while ignoring the historical context and the ongoing events that have brought things to the point that they are at.
She notes that Dr. King declared the necessity for Israel to return parts of the territory it recaptured in the 1967 war. However, she herself does not acknowledge that Israel did in fact offer to do so, only to have the offer rejected by the Arab League in the infamous Khartoum Resolution of 1967 in which they declared that there would be "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it..." This intransigent rejection has been continued by Yassir Arafat and his successor, Mahmoud Abbas. While they have indeed been willing to negotiate, each and every proposal has been rejected, even those drafted by Abbas himself. Arafat was open about his intention to use the two-state solution as a step towards creating a greater Arab state, and Abbas has admitted to journalist Khaled Abu Toameh that he cannot sign any agreement short of the "1967 lines" and full repatriation of all "refugees", and it is unsure if he would even sign that given that generations of Arab children have been raised to believe that the whole region is to be a single Arab state.
Dr. King would not have ignored all of that. Neither should we.
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Exactly. How ‘bout a little historical and geographical context Ms. Alexander. Some civil rights lawyer.
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@stop-art
"She notes that Dr. King declared the necessity for Israel to return parts of the territory it recaptured in the 1967 war. However, she herself does not acknowledge that Israel did in fact offer to do so..."
Actions speak louder than words.
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@stop-art I always appreciate the contortions in which Zionists must engage to justify the present day killing of children and bulldozing of homes. Going back to events more than 50 years is a popular one. Sadly it does not explain the current violence one bit.
Nice try, though.
203
This opinion piece is long overdue in the New York Times. Nevertheless, I'm grateful for it.
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