Colonization and/or Conquest

Submitted by Robert (United States), Jul 10, 2022 at 23:45

I think it's a bit ironic that you chose to point out that Jews purchased the land they settled on before the state of Israel emerged in 1948, when Russia is currently conquering Ukraine.

But also, purchasing of land isn't related to Soverignty or Statehood. I think you were duped (don't take me seriously) into defending against the charge that Israel was built on "stolen land." The real issue is what you was recently stated by Alan M. Deshowitz: there should not exist a Jewish State with Jews in it. And he rightly calls this Antisemitism. I don't think anyone among the anti-Zionists gives a damn whether Jews bought the land they settled on. So was Manhattan purchased by the Dutch with $24 worth of trinkets. The issue was always that mostly Muslim Arabs, calling themselves Palestinians, should be forced to live with Jews out-performing them economicly. Although these Israeli Jews, after 1948, conquered more land, they did not forcfully evict the resident tenants from their homes or commercial enterprizes. Title to land was and is covered by Ottoman, British, and Israeli law, always. The alleged "theft" is really about Jewish Israeli Soverignty over land that the Palestinian Arab Muslims claim should be ruled under their political and religious system. The Jews are to be evicted to Europe by these re-conquering Palestinians, whether or not they bought the land. As far as I know, there is no plan to pay Israeli Jews for the land they own, when or if, they are evicted out of their homes and business.

So the argument over "stolen land" in Israel is really about displacement by successful immigration. I think you are merely sidelining the Left's romanticized hatred of Colonialism. We know that the Ancient Greeks were great colonizers who bough their great civilization with them everywhere they settled. But Colonialism got a bad rap after the Industrial Revolution brought the Modern World, to the underdeveloped and backward world of the rest of the planet. In this context, all civilizations are equal and morally the same. High Culture of Europe is "no better" than the "Orientalism" of Islam. All the progress the West achieved is not supposed to make it Superior. Any European with a university degree is equal in culture to any primitive in Africa, Asia, or the Americas.

Unfortunately, the history of Slavery and subsequent Racism in the United States, appears to prohibit us from acknowledging the simple fact that the Jews of Israel are culturally superior to the Palestinians in the West Bank or Gaza. Being superior in Culture should not be conflated, confused or merged with the horrible phenomena of Racism.

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