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Maybe Jabotinsky isn't the best writer to quote

Reader comment on item: Further on Israel's Winning Its War

Submitted by Georges (United Kingdom), Apr 8, 2006 at 06:20

If I had to pick one document to make an outsider support the Palestinian cause and oppose Zionism, it would probably be The Iron Wall. Jabotinsky acknowledged that the Zionist project, of turning an indiginous Arab majority land into a Jewish settler majority land, could only be done against the wishes of the indiginous population. That's reason enough for most decent moral humans to have opposed the project as fundamentally unjust. Jabotinsky proudly idetified himself as an indecent immoral human.

More recently, some of the Yugoslavs who attempted to implement their own Jabotinsky program found themselves in a Dutch courtroom - which is a kind of moral progress. The Mladi?s and Karadži?s of 1948 are still regarded as heroes in Israel. Their "liberation of Jaffa" was the liberation of Jaffa's buildings from their Arab human occupants.

Israel exists. Ethnic cleansing was the necessary precondition of its founding. But no good can be served by the reverse ethnic cleansing of Israelis; any more than the reverse ethnic cleansing of Germans expelled from eastern Europe at the end of World War Two. Two wrongs don't make a right. The children of Jewish refugees expelled from neighbouring Arab states make up a significant proportion of Israel's population. They can't go back to where they came from, and should not be expected to.

Israel exists, and should go on existing, so long as the people who live there wish to think of themselves as Israelis. I support them unequivocally, and will support - vigorously - their right to use force to defend themselves. But I can't lie to myself. Israel was founded on the dispossession of its original indiginous majority. It's not unique in that. The whole Western hemisphere, plus Australia, has a similar story. At best Jabotinsky was Israel's John L. O'Sullivan. At worst, I don't know.
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Reader comments (22) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Re Gods war [60 words]franklinMay 15, 2006 06:0645635
Gods war [25 words]franklinMay 14, 2006 14:3545585
Winning an Unjust Colonial War [57 words]Fred SchlomkaApr 21, 2006 04:2443698
Reply to the Jerusalem Post's 4/18/2006 article "Peace is better than the West Bank" [129 words]Tzvi Ben-davidApr 18, 2006 15:5943501
Don't be too hasty and don't jump to conclusions [49 words]Ibrahim RamadanApr 11, 2006 17:1442959
Israel and its Victory Problems [146 words]Al OrtizApr 10, 2006 22:4642889
Waiting [254 words]orange yonasonApr 9, 2006 18:4142807
Vietnam? [585 words]rickApr 9, 2006 15:2142802
Israel has accepted being in eternal war since Entebbe 1976 [155 words]Nabil ShwarmaApr 8, 2006 11:2742724
Understanding the Moslem world [271 words]F. ShakkiApr 8, 2006 09:1542710
F. Shakki Nails Muslim "Charities [151 words]orange yonasonApr 9, 2006 19:0442710
to orange yonason: islamistic charities are a real problem [252 words]Farid H.Apr 12, 2006 23:2142710
Maybe Jabotinsky isn't the best writer to quote [302 words]GeorgesApr 8, 2006 06:2042703
"...Israel was founded on the dispossession of its original indiginous majority."????? [247 words]bernard rossAug 16, 2006 12:2142703
No 1975 retreat in Vietnam [135 words]Ross HowardApr 7, 2006 21:4442682
Because the Palestinians have nowhere else to go. [101 words]anonymousApr 7, 2006 16:5542651
the minor premiss [271 words]john w mcginleyApr 7, 2006 16:5442650
1Jabotinsky and Pipes are right [143 words]Richard MILLMANApr 7, 2006 16:0542645
Memo to Israel: encourage Islamic Jihad and Hamas to fight each other [183 words]Dr RJPApr 7, 2006 15:5342642
Israel & Its Victory Problem [130 words]Adina KutnickiApr 7, 2006 15:2242638
Limits of Force [264 words]SteveApr 7, 2006 11:5042620
The lost endless war [204 words]ramsesOct 3, 2006 13:5342620

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