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The hypocrisy of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Palestine intervention

Ta-Nehisi Coates' chief concern is how Jews have taken their among 'The Strong'. Credit: Getty

September 24, 2024 - 8:00pm

Ta-Nehisi Coates developed his reputation as a progressive darling through his wordy essays in The Atlantic, filled with his trademark saccharine prose that centred on race in America. These essays proved to be hugely influential on the discourse around Black Lives Matter and the 1619 Project, earning him a rather awkward anointment as the heir to James Baldwin by Toni Morrison. Over the past year, after a period in self-imposed exile writing comic books and a novel, he has found his new “obsession”: Palestine.

“I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” Coates divulged to New York magazine during a profile of him for his forthcoming book, The Message. In it, he relayed his experience of travelling to the occupied West Bank last year as the typical ignorant yet curious American writer, only to be horrified at the fact that the Palestinian Arabs under Israel’s dominion in the West Bank are treated as “unpeople” with no rights. Immediately, these scenes brought to his mind images of the Jim Crow South, with imposing IDF soldiers echoing the belligerent racist sheriffs of Georgia.

The origins of Coates’s advocacy for Palestine lie in his infamous essay “The Case for Reparations”, in which he used the reparations Germany awarded to Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust as a positive precedent for a potential reparations programme for black Americans. He recalled how he was challenged by an activist at a public discussion for using this example, because it erased the tragedy of the Palestinians whose dispossession and partial expulsion during the 1948 war necessarily facilitated the creation of Israel.

Coates is open that his newfound affinity with the Palestinians stems from a “warmth of solidarity of ‘conquered peoples’” that is connected “across the chasm of oceans and experience”. The irony is that before the Seventies, black American writers, activists & intellectuals such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Bayard Rustin and Paul Robeson would have said the same thing, but about the Zionist cause. Many black nationalists, from Edward Wilmot Blyden to Marcus Garvey, made analogies between the Zionist project to “return” the Jews to Zion and their own “back to Africa” schemes.

They, too, felt a deep and authentic affinity with the Zionist cause, out of a warm solidarity between conquered peoples. Ever since, Western Leftists and black radicals have had a guilty conscience for not initially “seeing” the Palestinian struggle. This is the guilt that is fuelling Coates, which also fuels the smug presumption that Israel’s iniquities in the occupied territories are “covered up” and he is the one who will enlighten the ignorant American public on the apartheid that their taxes are sponsoring.

While Coates repeatedly insists that the moral dimensions of the Israel-Palestine conflict are rather simple, contrary to the frequent invocation of its “complexity”, he isn’t vulgar enough to skirt over the Jewish tragedy that helps give Israel its moral legitimacy, as his visit to Yad Vashem demonstrates. His chief concern, nevertheless, is with how the Jews became the conqueror, or as he put it, how “the Jewish people had taken its place among The Strong”. In other words, through Israel, the Jews are no longer part of the fraternity of the subalterns but assimilated into white Western power.

Those who have long had some knowledge of this conflict know that progress isn’t waiting on a pronouncement from Coates. His plea for respect for Palestinian rights may be a revelation to the elite American liberal audiences — but to the rest of us, he is stomping on familiar ground.


Ralph Leonard is a British-Nigerian writer on international politics, religion, culture and humanism.

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J Boyd
J Boyd
17 days ago

If Israel is an ‘apartheid’ state, how come:
1. Israeli Arabs have the vote (unlike Black South Africans under Apartheid).
2. The captain of the Israeli national football team is black, and the side includes Arab players. Apartheid South Africa segregated sport on racial lines.
3. The majority of Israelis are descended from immigrants from other Middle Eastern countries whereas White South Africans were descended from European colonialists.

And how come nobody notices that Hizbollah’s rocket attack on a youth football match killed Arab (Druze) Israelis?

Billy Bob
Billy Bob
17 days ago
Reply to  J Boyd

If the entirety of the land is Israeli (which it currently is as there’s no country called Palestine) then why can’t those in Gaza and the West Bank elect MP to the Knesset? Why can’t those who live there travel to other parts of Israel?

Judy Englander
Judy Englander
17 days ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

They could visit Israel ‘proper’ until the advent of terrorism. Palestinians from the West Bank visited the Med beaches. Jewish Israelis visited the markets of Ramallah.

Jae
Jae
17 days ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

Too busy firing rockets and building tunnels under hospitals and schools.

Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith
17 days ago
Reply to  Billy Bob

Whilst I feel the Palestinian people should get a better deal, I would have a lot more sympathy for them if they were not so responsible for their own misfortune. The problem is they don’t want a better deal, they want it all to themselves and they quite simply cannot have it.
Just maybe, 40 years after they stop indoctrinating their young children to kill Jews and become martyrs, all those wonderful opportunities might be open to them.

Andrew
Andrew
12 days ago
Reply to  Adrian Smith

“…if they were not so responsible for their own misfortune.”

You might consider stopping believing relentless indoctrination. I realize it’s challenging for several reasons, not least because quality information/context is absent in mainstream media. But the subject is too serious to settle for it. Ultimately you are responsible for going along with indoctrination that leads you to accept such a cruel distortion.

There are so many good quality alternative resources available. As a good primer, you could try Miko Peled’s “The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.”

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
11 days ago
Reply to  Andrew

Miko is an extreme outlier, as one can find in any situation. The Pals are 99% responsible for their own situation. Why do none of their Arab brethren want them? They are essentially Jordanians, and yet…. Try learning truth, not some distorted shihte from Miko, who’s a self loathing Jew.

Andrew
Andrew
10 days ago
Reply to  UnHerd Reader

I’ll give you this: Miko Peled is definitely not a herd animal. He was one, though.

Among many other “extreme outliers” who were once right in the core of the herd, whose minds were freed by experience, are former heads of Shin Bet such as Yaakov Peri, Avraham Shalom, Carmi Gilon, and Maj. Gen. Ami Ayalon (also former Commander of the Navy).

Yaakov Peri:

“Why is it that everyone – (Shin Bet) directors, chief of staff, former security personnel – after a long service in security organizations become the advocates of reconciliation with the Palestinians? Because they were there… We know the material, the people in the field, and surprisingly, both sides….

“I can say that from whatever aspect you look at it, whether the economic, political, security, or social aspect, in each of these aspects we are going in the direction of decline, nearly a catastrophe. And that is why, if something doesn’t happen here, we will continue to live by the sword, we will continue to wallow in the mud and we will continue to destroy ourselves.”

Interview, Maj. Gen. Ami Ayalon:

If you were Palestinian living in the West Bank or Gaza, what would your view be of Israel?

“I would fight against Israel to achieve my liberty.”

How would you fight? How dirty?

“I will do everything in order to achieve my liberty. And that’s it. You cannot deter a person or a group of people if they believe that they have nothing to lose. We Israelis, we shall have security when they will have hope.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53G_Pkz2wAo&t=1s

Appeal to numbers is all you have. You’re saying, “I”m a herd animal. There are many more of us in the herd than outside, so that makes us right.”

Erik Hildinger
Erik Hildinger
17 days ago

Political fashions change, and he’s following the current fashion. He just lacks the insight to see it. What sort of logic leads to the position that the stronger party is, by definition, always morally inferior to the weaker power? Has he bothered to think this through?

Josef Švejk
Josef Švejk
17 days ago
Reply to  Erik Hildinger

Exactly my thoughts. He is handicapped as many are by being an American commentator forced to view through travel the world outside the USA in a wider context than his insular familiarity. He definitely shows naivety and has not thought it through.

Cathy Carron
Cathy Carron
17 days ago
Reply to  Josef Švejk

‘Naivety’?. You’re being kind, very kind indeed.

Andrew F
Andrew F
17 days ago
Reply to  Erik Hildinger

Strange how all these people claiming they are not antisamite, always complain and protest against Israel but not against other genocides and injustices.
What about Kurds in the same region?
Why should not they have a state?
Is situation of Palestinians in the West Bank worse that situation of people in North Korea?
What about Africa? There is not a single functioning country there.
Regarding reparation; it is total joke. African Americans are much better off than 99% of Africans.
People forget that in Russia serfdom was only abolished by Tsar in mid 1860s, so not that different from USA and much later than slavery in British Empire.
Ignorant people like Coates somehow occupy position of intellectual.
Total joke.

Andrew
Andrew
16 days ago
Reply to  Andrew F

To judge if your criticism has merit, one needs to know specifically who “these people” are, not just accepting a vague generalization, and to see at least some evidence that they don’t also complain and protest about other genocides and injustices.

Andrew Vanbarner
Andrew Vanbarner
15 days ago
Reply to  Andrew

It’s a safe assumption they only advocate for “conquered peoples” when the conquerors, or the group they stereotype as conquerors, are “white.”
Many Muslim movements are utterly merciless towards other religious minorities, from Yazidis to Parsis to Coptic Christians. Not a word of sympathy for them – they’re nearly extinct – but their exterminators aren’t a group one may safety criticize.
So the race card is an easy one to play. African American groups like the Panthers or the Nation of Islam have a rich, vibrant, diverse history of seething anti-semitism, and every neo-Marxist needs his neo-bourgoise. Liberation can’t occur without a struggle, and a struggle requires an opponent. If they’re a successful group, so much the better!
Ta-Nihisi Coates, then (is “Ta-Nihisi” even a real name in a Yoruban or Swahili language?) the Jews are an easy target, just as the white working classes are easy to denigrate, for any Marx-Mao-Marcuse style “progressive.”

Andrew
Andrew
15 days ago

Sometimes I envy people who allow themselves vague generalizations and clichés and misreadings to support their opinions. To actually believe that one’s opinion obtains substance from them!

You complain that “they” hypocritically advocate only for “the group they stereotype,” while your own scornful commentary indulges in, and depends on stereotyping a group, in this case “progressives.”

But who, specifically, are “they,” who have “not a word of sympathy” for those groups?

Who, specifically, do you have in mind as a “Marx-Mao-Marcuse-style ‘progressive'”? Where have they denigrated white working classes? If they exist, what is the extent of their representation among progressives as a whole?

I have not heard or read progressives that I am acquainted with denigrating white working classes. Of course there are confused people and bad actors in every camp. I’m sure there are people who believe they are progressives yet denigrate white working classes for some reason. But it does no good to be so imprecise, to throw around vague inferences.

You claim that to “Ta-Nihisi Coates… the Jews are an easy target.” But nowhere in the article is it stated or even implied that he is talking about “the Jews.” It is clearly stated that he is talking about the actions of the state of Israel. This misreading makes Coates seem like an anti-Semite, though nothing in the article supports that conclusion.

The aside about the legitimacy of his name gives you away. Why so petty, so bitter? What happened? It will have nothing to do with progressives or Ta-Nihisi Coates.

Andrew Vanbarner
Andrew Vanbarner
15 days ago
Reply to  Andrew

Oh, please. Race obsessed progressives, many of whom despise Israel but venerate midwitted hucksters like Coates, see working people as troglodytes.
Everyone knows this. Progressive journalists and writers say as much in the NY Times, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, etc. Progressive politicians pass laws that harm the middle and working classes with higher food and energy prices. Progressive voters see themselves as morally and intellectually superior to those who didn’t get pricey liberal arts degrees (though few progressives are classically educated, most are profoundly ignorant).
Nuclear families, tightly knit communities in small towns, traditional morality, and religious belief – the things that the working classes cherish – are seen by progressives as retrograde, declasse, and useless.
They tell us these things all the time. You’d need to be deaf and blind not to notice.

Andrew Holmes
Andrew Holmes
14 days ago
Reply to  Andrew

Perhaps you have not heard of the Unicause. Your demand for specific citations appears to me to be disingenuous. Progressive groups turn in unison to the flavor of the week, whatever its lack of connection to what they say is their focus. And it is always dressed in claims of the highest degree of morality. Curiously, their highest morality rarely impels activity focused on like cases. In my opinion, the majority of organizations self-identified as Progressive are characterized more by arrogance than principle.

Andrew
Andrew
14 days ago
Reply to  Andrew Holmes

Still just vague generalizations from both of you. What supposedly progressive politicians, journalists, writers? The media named is liberal mainstream media, dominated by a liberal perspective.

What groups “turn in unison to the flavor of the week”, and so on? If you had specifics rather than pronouncements, surely you would have said by now. A reader could take your opinion seriously then, and understand how you came about it. If the examples are so plentiful and so easy, why hesitate to clarify what has influenced these blanket assertions?

Andrew Vanbarner
Andrew Vanbarner
13 days ago
Reply to  Andrew

“Toxic masculinity”
“Basket of Deplorables”
“Right wing extremists”
“We believe in science”
“Israel is committing genocide”

Are any of these things that progressives regularly say?

Andrew
Andrew
12 days ago

One of those things progressives say regularly is describing the Israeli attack on Gaza as genocide, but then orthodox rabbis say this regularly too, as do former Zionists. The reason for this range is because to fail or refuse to recognize genocide, for any reason, denies our own humanity.

Including Hilary Clinton’s infamous ugly comment as if it was uttered by a progressive is risible. It only showcases ignorance. If you can’t distinguish a neoliberal from a progressive your opinions just can’t be taken seriously.

Equally important as the ability to distinguish broad ideological orientations from each other is the ability to distinguish rigorous thinkers from sloppy ones within each persuasion. I think this is the most important quality to develop. I’ve learned much by attending to perceptive sources from diverse camps. There are always going to be lots of doltish takes, progressive or otherwise. Maybe the majority of them. Poor quality of thought is common, hardly limited to progressives. Lumping all progressives into a single deplorable basket is no better than lumping all conservatives into the same. People do this for reflexive, emotional reasons, not for thoughtful ones. It’s tribal. We have to overcome this.

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
17 days ago

The victimhood fraternity must be an exciting project. I wonder if he includes the murder and kidnapping gangs of Oct 7 in his group?

Helen E
Helen E
17 days ago
Reply to  Bret Larson

No. According to one review I read, the name “Hamas” is entirely absent from the four essays that make up his newest book “The Message.”

Bret Larson
Bret Larson
16 days ago
Reply to  Helen E

Ignoring what you don’t want to see kinda invalidates your message.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
17 days ago

Another gaslighting grift job. Yawn.

Brett H
Brett H
17 days ago

He encapsulates everything about the pro Palestinians and anti Zionists, whether it be politicians, students, academia or writers; they’re all opportunists for their own individual reasons. When the time is right they’ll abandon the cause just as quickly as they took it up.

John Murray
John Murray
17 days ago

Coincidental that Kendi is, “oh, so over now,” that Coates re-appears again to take up his position as a prophet?
Anyway his views are wholly predictable without the need for reading them. Another American who thinks that there is no foreign conflict or culture so complex or different that analogizing it to the United States history cannot immediately provide him with the answers.

Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
17 days ago

“I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in Israel,” says Coates. Israel being one of the racially most diverse countries in the world, all that this declaration tells you is that Coates never really visited Israel, even as he visited Yad Vashem.

Buena Vista
Buena Vista
17 days ago
Reply to  Danny Kaye

Wait…what? Ta-Nehisi Coates said something stupid? Imagine that.

UnHerd Reader
UnHerd Reader
17 days ago

Coates is just another race hustler

Jae
Jae
17 days ago

Just another race baiting grifter looking for ways to make money off the latest source of Liberal stooges “White guilt”.

Ugly character.

mac mahmood
mac mahmood
17 days ago

A nonsensical effort based on conflating disparate propositions. There may be a zionist ’cause’, which remains undefined, but seems to me to be the forcible removal of the habitual residents of Palestine in order to make room for Europe’s unwanted Jews. As observers on the side lines, what we need to decide is whether or not we agree with that cause.
There may have been a Jewish tragedy but I have no idea what that has to do with the Palestinians. Woke people going overboard in expressing sympathy for zionists is a sorry sight. They are not unlike those who wish to exonerate a murderer on the ground that he/she had a difficult childhood. Now, I am not without some sympathy for anyone in that position, but I draw the line at blaming the victims for the killer’s growing pains and requiring them to indemnify him.

Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith
17 days ago
Reply to  mac mahmood

Thanks for demonstrating that anti-zionism is the new “acceptable” face of age old anti-antisemitism.

Andrew
Andrew
16 days ago
Reply to  Adrian Smith

There are many Jews who reject Zionism, including Orthodox rabbis. By your logic, they are all antisemitic. If enough people swallow this, it makes criticism of Zionism impossible. It’s the rhetoric of authoritarianism, intended to stifle dissent.

Danny Kaye
Danny Kaye
16 days ago
Reply to  Andrew

You are wrong. Let me explain. Jews have lived for 1900 years everywhere as minorities at the mercy of the non-Jewish majorities. Zionism is the restoration of political independence of the Jews in one location, in their ancestral land. If a Jew thinks, for religious or ideological reasons, that to remain powerless is the proper fate of Jews, one can debate the wisdom of such a position, but it is not antisemitism. However it is very different if a non-Jew thinks that Jews should forever and everywhere be at the mercy of the non-Jews. That some Jews agree to remain at your mercy does not mean that you can demand of all Jews to remain at your mercy. This is why a non-Jew who opposes Zionism is by definition an antisemite.

Andrew Vanbarner
Andrew Vanbarner
15 days ago
Reply to  Danny Kaye

Half the world’s Jews, roughly, live in Israel, and half of them live in the US.
Those two nations are the only ones that haven’t tried to obliterate them, and the US, though certainly less dangerous than Europe, has a far from perfect record.
Israel is seen as a provocation to the world’s most fervent Muslims – the Levant (and parts of Arabia) are areas they’re completely unwilling to share, particularly with the first major group to resist their prophet.
Instead, perhaps, we should oppose a movement that’s warlike, merciless, and entirely intolerant of western values, Judeo-Christianity, and really any group who refuses to submit to Islam.
Our opposition to them may from time to time involve our fearsome militaries, which is often a sadly necessary requirement, when we’re in a conflict with militants.

Andrew
Andrew
12 days ago
Reply to  Danny Kaye

The phrase “at your mercy” reveals the presumption that I am not Jewish. I wonder why you presume that. It is certainly convenient given that I am critical of Zionism and its creation, the apartheid state of Israel.

There are a couple of workarounds to the special rules Zionists impose to shield themselves from criticism. One is the blessing of anonymity. The key requisite of your censorship rationale is knowing someone’s status as Jew or Gentile. So, according to your own bullying logic, if you don’t know a critic’s status, the weaponization of anti-Semitism loses its power to intimidate.

Another workaround to this deterrent is to simply acknowledge that Zionists do not speak for all Jews, and given the fact that many Jews reject the conflation of Zionism with being Jewish or with the Jewish religion, a Gentile is thus under no obligation to accept the Zionist rationale as having universal application. It is therefore not anti-Semitic by definition to criticize Zionism. In fact, a better case can be made that Zionism is anti-Semitic itself, and is responsible for kindling anti-Semitism generally.

To supply a couple of examples of the latter criticism, I’ll play the part of a messenger by quoting a couple of articulate, orthodox New York rabbis. Source: Glenn Greenwald interview, “Orthodox Rabbis on Condemning Israel’s War,” June 18, 2024.

div > p:nth-of-type(9) > a”>https://rumble.com/v52i3gf-interview-orthodox-rabbis-on-condemning-israels-war.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss: 

“The whole concept of Zionism is really antithetical and contradictory to Judaism. The rabbinical authorities around the world were in total opposition to this movement of Zionism prior to the establishment of the state of Israel while it was being developed in Europe…

“The destruction of the Temple that happened 2000 years ago was not because of our physical lacking. We were warned by the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, they warned the Jews when they were living in the Holy Land that they were not living on that level of pureness, of holiness that is required to remain as a nation, and we would be rejected and sent into exile. And that came about with the destruction of the Temple. We do not, for one minute, think that God is less powerful. God is the same God… from since He created the world until today. But we have changed. We are under an exilic existence, and forbidden to re-establish a nationhood. Zionism comes and says ‘Where was God to protect you by the Crusades, by the Inquisition, and so on till Hitler?’ Although they [Zionists] were before Hitler. Basically they scorned the religious Jew who looks to God and says ‘God is our protector, and to Him we have to have a covenant to follow his laws. And if He says that we are forbidden to re-establish a Jewish nation, not only will [a nation] not be a protection for us, but it will be to our detriment, as the Torah warns us that if we attempt to leave exile we will be hunted like animals.’

“And as we see, the state of Israel is a quagmire of its 76 years of death and suffering, of course to the Palestinians that we are standing by, and mourning, and just beyond words watching their suffering in Gaza.

“[Zionists] have made a death trap for both Jews and Muslims since [Israel’s] establishment. There hasn’t been a year that goes by that there’s not more death and suffering, and it’s purely because of their establishment of a nation. Every time they’ll use an excuse and try to vilify, and claim that it’s because these people are anti-Semitic… totally ignoring that what they’re doing is [anti-Semitic] because they’re rebelling against God by establishing the state, and that will cause, as God warns us, that we should suffer. They are exacerbating anti-Semitism and creating a rift between us and the people who are living in [Palestine]…

“So Zionism in its root is based on heresy, on blasphemy, on rebellion against God, saying ‘Where is God to protect you? We have to have an insurance policy.’

“[Y]ou can’t run away from the hands of God. If you do, at least don’t have the audacity to use the identity of the Jewish religion that clearly specifies… that we are forbidden to establish our nation, and it will only bring to catastrophe if we attempt to do such a thing.

“They always use fear-mongering. They use panic. They tell the Jewish world that we just suffered through Hitler, and the Palestinians, Muslims, are haters of the Jews, and they are to be conflated with the Nazis and therefore they want to destroy and kill the Jews and you simply have to protect yourself.

“Many Jews unfortunately buy into this. They have the most expensive propaganda firms, they have an endless well of money, and they use that money to re-educate Jews. The narrative of our co-existence with Muslims is disappeared. What it is, is Muslims against Jews, Palestinians against Jews, and they they’re going to swallow the Jews alive if their land is given to them… They don’t countenance another people… They tell Israeli citizens, you have to fear for your lives. They’re going to come back to rule here, or any part, they’re going to murder you, they’re going to throw you into the sea. They use panic and fear-mongering and the dehumanization of the Palestinian people.”

Rabbi Dovid Feldman:

“We need to understand the great difference between Judaism and Zionism. Judaism is a religion, and a religion only. No politics to it. While Zionism is a purely political movement that in no way represents the Jewish religion… 

“Unfortunately what Zionism has done to the Jewish people and to the Jewish religion is basically replacing Judaism with something new, something different, and something counter to what Judaism was for thousands of years. Therefore you find people who insist on identifying with Judaism, which is a nice concept, and they refuse to give up the Jewish identity, which is excellent. But unfortunately if they drop what Judaism was for thousands of years, and they take up something new, they end up adopting Zionism, which is the replacement…

“We believe that this movement of Zionism is the most horrific and embarrassing uprooting of our religion, and for us to take part in this, and to join this, or to help assist this in any way is basically the greatest violation of our religion. We would never do that, and we would give our lives for this. 

“[The treatment of Palestinians] was criminal from the very beginning. In addition to how anti-Jewish this is, how contrary to Judaism this is, this is criminal, and we have to also be very clear that this is not only crimes in international law… Killing and stealing from an entire people, all what was done from the very beginning, is a true violation of Judaism.

“Finally people are waking up and seeing what is going on. That this was the intention of Zionism in the first place. Supposedly this was ‘a land without people for a people without a land.’ Being peaceful and not harming anyone. But this was not the reality. From the very beginning they’ve had an intention of overtaking the rule of the land, oppressing or expelling, making room for the new Zionist movement to settle. This was criminal from the very beginning.”

Jonathan Story
Jonathan Story
17 days ago

Respect for Palestinian rights begins with Hamas dropping the rabid anti-jewish bits in its constitution. It would mean telling the mullah’s to go hang.

Andrew
Andrew
10 days ago
Reply to  Jonathan Story

Ignorant or biased opinion parrots this without acknowledging that the charter platform of the Likud party explicitly states there can never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River:

“The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable… therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”

This is an open demand for the destruction of Palestine. It’s a safe bet that rationalizations are cued up to say “But it’s different.”

The reference is always and only to the Hamas charter, which until 2006 called for the state of Israel’s destruction. It was created by a minority under conditions of siege in 1988. Hamas’s early ideology is a mirror image of Zionists, who believed that all territrory from the Nile to the Euphrates (Egypt to Iraq) belongs to Jews.

Israel has long wanted Hamas to dominate Palestinian politics, and has even helped organize it. Israelis have been open about the reason, so there’s no excuse not to know. It’s because Israeli leaders fear moderate, secular, nationalist Palestinians since they press for negotiations and diplomatic settlement. That can’t be tolerated. 

The history of this approach is longstanding. You can read it in statements by Zionist leader and first President of Israel Chaim Weizmann. He made it plan that the problem is the Arab moderates, not the radicals.

Much later, one saw it in the example at the beginning of the intifada, when Israel sponsored Islamic fundamentalists to run interference, bussing them in to disrupt Palestinian strikes and protests. Or Israel’s protection of Sheikh Yaseen, extremist leader of the fundamentalists who was going around shouting “Kill the Jews.” Same in Lebanon, when Israel backed extremists to frustrate the moderates, greatly contributing to the growth of Hezbollah.

Similar results of this strategy arose in Afghanistan. Bin Laden was an early recruit, who established a funding network, which the CIA was instrumental in helping him develop. The tactic cannot be controlled.

Ami Ayalon, former commander of Israel’s Navy, and head of the Shin Bet:

“Should we speak with Hamas? They have blood on their hands. I have more blood on my hands… I killed more terrorists than they killed Israelis… Until we understand what a Palestinian child draws when he looks at an Israeli, what is the meaning of an Israeli soldier, what is the meaning of an Israeli checkpoint, what is the meaning of humiliation, we won’t truly understand what they are going through.”

Michael Cazaly
Michael Cazaly
17 days ago

I’ve no idea who this man is…is he of any consequence? Or just “famous for being famous”…to some at least…
And does he have “any skin” in the Israel/ Palestinian conflict…or just seeking PR by commenting on it?

Matthew Freedman
Matthew Freedman
16 days ago

None of the far-left advocates for Palestinians have a plan for peace and coexistence between Arabs & Jews i n the Holy Land. Many I see regularly advocating for Jews to leave the region with no reference to why many of those Israeli Jews moved from their previous places.

Jerry Carroll
Jerry Carroll
16 days ago

A left-wing writer obsessed with race. Why should any attention be paid to him?

Josef Švejk
Josef Švejk
16 days ago

What an odd name, Coates.

MJ Reid
MJ Reid
16 days ago
Reply to  Josef Švejk

Plenty Coates come from or live in Paisley, Scotland.