The journalist who invited me is a controversial figure. One of my prospective publishers in Ukraine even asked me to remove a quote from him from my book.* Obviously, I didn’t publish with them because I’m not escaping from one form of censorship to plunge right into another one.
Matt Walsh has 2,8 million YouTube subscribers, and with the US population plus the global reach of an English-speaking journalist, you can imagine the equivalent of 500,000 subscribers for a dude in Ukraine.
* Most of Ukrainian publishers, news outlets and cultural projects exist on Soros money. The one I finally chose for my book is not a huge publisher but it’s independent and despises Soros money. As a result, nobody had a single objection to the content of the book.
Clarissa's Blog 
Just thought I’d show you this news of censorship, cancel culture, and possible antisemitism from a US university that won’t get the outrage that others typically get https://x.com/isaiah_bb/status/1800514094648422628
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“censorship, cancel culture, and possible antisemitism”
A US university doesn’t want to employ a person who doesn’t understand the basic terminology of the field he’s supposed to be an expert in. Excuse me while I retire to my fainting couch and sip brandy until I can face the world again….
…anyhoo, in popular usage “genocide” has been degraded to “policies I really dislike that sometimes harm civilians” but that is very far from anything Israel is doing.
I can criticize lots of things Israel does but I’m not going to sign on to nonsense.
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I knew you’d justify it, and that’s alright. Lol.
But when you return here next time to complain when a professor you like is denied a job because of their point of view, we’ll remember.
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“I knew you’d justify it”
What’s your preferred endgame for ‘Palestine’? What borders do you want for it and what kind of relationship between state and individual and religion do you want?
Spell it out.
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Thanks for asking.
If I’m making the decision, which I’m not, the piece of land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea will be one country for everyone who calls it home and have ancestral or patriotic links to it: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Arab, European, Ethiopian, Haredi, Ashkenazi, Orthodox, Bedouin, etc, with equal rights and opportunities for everyone.
In short, the Noah Yuval Harari position.
In short, a pluralistic democracy. Like America. Like every modern country. With no one a second-class citizen and no one’s live valued more than others, where everyone is judged not by their religion, colour of skin, or ethnicity, but by content of character.
Radical, right?
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Yes, Harari is a radical.
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Well, as has often been quoted, most positive changes in the world depend on these radical “unreasonable people”.
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Not all of us want to jump on the posthuman bandwagon.
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Nobody in the region itself is remotely interested in this option. But who cares that people in faraway places don’t want to be “like America”, right? You know what’s best because you are so superior.
For the fourth time, I’m politely asking you to go away and take these childish ramblings elsewhere.
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You make a great point that warmongers in Israel/America and in Palestine do not want a one-state solution. Hence the perpetual state of war. Likud wants Israeli sovereignty from River to the Sea. Hamas wants no Zionist government from River to the Sea. The conflict continues because we keep listening to these right-wing warmongers on both sides.
In the middle, however, are fair-minded people who KNOW that the land will have to be shared one way or another. Who recognize the humanity of the other side and are looking for genuine peace. Until we elevate those people and marginalize you warmongers, the conflict will continue — which you like because it gives you a chance to continue to demonize the other side, like Hamas does, while the weapons manufacturers continue to smile to the bank, and lives keep getting lost on both sides.
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I’d say most people in SA want to live like America. They just don’t want to live like East St. Louis.
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“Radical, right?”
Actually it sounds incredibly arrogant and condescending… what on earth makes you think a significant number of Palestinians want to share a secular state with Jews? All the evidence is that Palestinians want a Jew-free Islamic theocracy.
You do realize that an attempt at creating such a weird thing (for the region) as a single secular state would be meet with violent resistance, don’t you?
How would that be dealt with?
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You lie (and you know it). Before Balfour, Jews and Arabs and Christians lived in Palestine with no “violent resistance”. Try again.
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There are millions in the West today who don’t want a secular state here either. How do we deal with them? You marginalise them and keep everyone equal under the law. Seems so condescending only because you don’t want it.
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How would you even write, with a straight face, that a people with “approximately 6.5% Christian population” want “a Jew-free Islamic theocracy.”
I mean, why not think a bit through these things before you press “send”. Breathe, for a few seconds, first. You might see the idiocy in the comment before I have to point it out.
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“Before Balfour”
So… you’re advocating a return to a colonial administration? Ottoman or British?
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I was thinking time travel (I’m not the original anon).
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I’m advocating for a return to civility, yes. Before Jewish terrorism and before Muslim terrorism. Before the occupation of the European Jews. When neighbourliness was not a dirty word. Before the IDF tiktoked themselves committing genocide and wearing victim’s women clothing. Before Hamas, before violence replaced conversation. Yes.
Madness is continuing what is happening now and expecting a different result.
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“Before Balfour, Jews and Arabs and Christians lived in Palestine“
By “before Balfour” I suppose you mean the Southern Syria vilayet of Damascus (further divided into various Sanjaks) in the Ottoman Empire? There was no “Palestine” before the British mandate.
Under Ottoman rule non-Muslims (such as Jews and Christians) lived as third-class citizens and had to pay the jizya. They were never secure and their lives were held at the whim of the Turkish authorities: remember the Armenians? Muslim heterodox minorities were also persecuted – the Druze, the Yazidi and countless others. There never was this edenic utopia of a peaceful symbiosis between different faiths so often imagined by fantasist Leftists with Orientalist leanings: the Arabs, the Jews, the Armenians, the Assyrians, the Kurds were all under the same Ottoman yoke. If they belonged to the same Sunni Islam as the Turks they were slightly better off, but not by that much.
“the piece of land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea will be one country for everyone who calls it home and have ancestral or patriotic links to it: Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Arab, European, Ethiopian, Haredi, Ashkenazi, Orthodox, Bedouin, etc, with equal rights and opportunities for everyone“
Do you seriously think that Hamas would go for that kind of Western colonial concept of a state? Honestly? Also, you are mixing everything in a totally hotch-potch fashion which does not accord with reality: one can be a European and a Haredi, or a European and a Muslim, a Christian and an Arab, and so on. Ethiopians have no claim whatsoever to the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean: I cannot imagine any Arab – whether Muslim or Christian – ready to accept such a phantasmagorical notion.
The idea that such a venerable and totally Western concept as a secular democracy with equal rights for all under due process of law would be acceptable to anyone affiliated with the Muslim Brothers as Hamas is, is either ludicrous or delusional or both, though such a fantasy is regularly entertained by Leftists in the West who have – at best – only imperfect knowledge of the history and the geography of the area they are so passionately sentimental about.
Moreover, Hamas have repeatedly said that they do not want any Jews in a future single Palestinian state. What does it take you to believe them when they tell you? They are serious about it. I do not think they would even make an exception for Jews who can prove direct descent from Jews established in the Holy Land before the British Mandate. And that does sound like apartheid, checking if one has got the right blood, I mean. Just as when you mention “Before the occupation of the European Jews“, what does that mean if not the distinction between “good Jews” vs “bad Jews”? All Jews, qua Jews, originally come from the land of Israel, by definition.
“Before Hamas, before violence replaced conversation.” Enough said, I rest my case, mate.
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At least now we are talking now. Not just dismissing each other’s position like the blogger did earlier. So this is a good first step.
Now to the crux of your argument, I noticed you kept saying “Hamas won’t do this or that.” And those things you mentioned are mostly the things that Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition also won’t do. Which is my point all along. The warmongers on both sides want the exact same thing: a zero-sum victory, which will never happen without considerable bloodshed.
I mean Netanyahu still hasn’t accepted a deal that HIS OWN GOVERNMENT put together to bring the hostages home because it can lead to the end of the war. So as long as we acknowledge that peace of elusive because TWO crazy partners continue to decide how we proceed, we can have a rational conversation about how to proceed.
Stop elevating Likud and Hamas, who enjoy the complementary assistance. Let Netanyahu go face his crimes in court. Maybe we can find a way to peace for everyone else.
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See also: New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke.
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“thinking time travel”
Yes, let’s go back to a time before the holocaust and the rise of political Islam and redo everything!
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Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust, so shouldn’t have to suffer it’s consequences as they’ve done for 75 years.
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I also am completely innocent of the fact of your existence yet have to suffer your presence because you don’t seem to understand polite requests to go away.
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I assumed it’s already clear by now that I’m a fan of your blog — not just because I like a number of things you write, but because it gives me a chance to also challenge your blind spots, which are many. So no, I’m not going away, until I have nothing else to strongly disagree with.
(Normally, bloggers are happy to have engagements on their posts so this your futile requests to send me away continue to be curious. Do you feel insecure about your positions? Seems that this is where you should spend your energy).
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“it gives me a chance to also challenge your blind spots”
And it gives me a chance to challenge your blind spots… like the blind spot you have about culturally dependent values…. people from other cultures often have very different values and agendas from yours and don’t care what you think would be a good solution.
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Again, a good point.
Which should lead to a reassumption of American/Western arrogance in thinking they can solve the conflict by taking a side.
Either agree that you don’t understand it and let them fight it out without calling one side an ally and the other terrorists (not my preference);
Or just present a solution that represents YOUR values of plurality and democracy. Choosing to intervene, but doing it behind values that don’t even represent you, is the problem.
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“Either agree that you don’t understand it and let them fight it out”
Pretty much my position… To the extent that I have a side it’s the Israeli one (though I have lots of criticisms of Israeli policies both in abstract and specific terms).
My quick method for choosing sides in conflicts (to the extent I do)
-Which side would I rather live under? No question, for all its faults Israel is a nation state with (imperfect) rule of law. Palestinians are not up to running a state at all and are mired in religious fundamentalism neither of which appeals to me.
-Which side lies more (taking it as a given that in times of conflict both sides will lie to some extent). Again, Israel, Israeli lies don’t come close to Palestinian lies.
It’s roughly the same rationale I use with Ukraine/russia… again Ukraine comes out handily ahead on both counts.
In cases where I don’t have enough of an understanding of the sides or conflicts I keep my mouth shut and don’t volunteer my unwanted opinions (like Syria or Congo among others).
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“either… or”
i.e.
“I will dictate the rules of the discussion and you will all play by them.”
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I’m so sorry this is happening to you. Whatever personal troubles cause this unhealthy attachment to me on your part, you can’t resolve them by giving in to them. Please reach out to friends or relatives. I can’t help you.
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Lol. I have great friends and family, thank you. The fake concern is cute though.
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Then talk to them. You are not well. Your behavior is not normal. There’s a bunch of people here telling you this. Take care of yourself. That’s the most important thing right now.
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I’m going to ignore you now, and focus on those actually willing to have a conversation.
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translation: “I am going to try to hijack your combox and commenters for my own purposes, because when I post on my own blog nobody reads it.”
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It’s an absolute mystery why nobody is interested in these fascinating arguments so beautifully delivered.
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It’s not me you are ignoring but your own well-being. I hope you hear what I’m saying and start taking care of yourself.
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“I’m a fan of your blog“.
Love the gaslighting, I really do. Keep it coming, everybody needs a good laugh, bro.
Also, get a name, for fiesta’s sake.
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You already identify me, so what’s the need?
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“what’s the need?”
to be (very slightly) less annoying?
basic communication rules….. you don’t seem to know them.
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\ How would you even write, with a straight face, that a people with “approximately 6.5% Christian population” want “a Jew-free Islamic theocracy.”
.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-christian-crisis-612032
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I know A LOT of Palestinian Christians who don’t want “a Jew-free theocracy” so I come with this with knowledge that defies your isolated statistics. And all the churches that Netanyahu’s goons have been bombing and harassing in Gaza and the West Bank do not lure them to the idea of a Jewish theocracy either.
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\ Or just present a solution that represents YOUR values of plurality and democracy. Choosing to intervene, but doing it behind values that don’t even represent you, is the problem.
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.”
― Otto von Bismarck
Bismarck “masterminded the unification of Germany” and “created the first modern welfare state, with the goal of undermining his socialist opponents.”
USA chose to help FSU in order to stop Nazi Germany, which was the correct decision at the time.
I am sure the modern ‘politicians’, who follow your suggestions, have achieved greatness too, or haven’t they?
\ “the piece of land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea will be one country for everyone who calls it home and have ancestral or patriotic links to it
As an Israeli Jew, who would love to live in peace and surrounded by friends like people in today’s EU, I find this suggestion insulting.
We want our own nation state.
Palestinians claim to want their own state too, even if their leadership doesn’t help them much to constructively achieve this goal.
I would’ve understood, had you supported “two states for two peoples.” If this promised to put an end to bloodshed, I would fully support this vision too.
But one state is what no one wants and something that 100% will never be.
Why present oneself as utterly detached from reality? Do you truly think this is what politics should be and people like Bismarck were limited by their times to discover this new approach to diplomacy?
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We’re having a conversation, which is great.
I, personally, believe that one state for all connected to it, will lead to lasting peace. You seem to disagree, and that’s fine and good. I believe that you came to that in good faith.
But Netanyahu and Hamas disagree with both you and I, so you see why the conflict lingers? Netanyahu wants neither a two state nor a one-state democracy. Hamas wants neither a two state solution nor a one-state democracy. The Palestinian Authority who is fine with a two-state solution has been rejected both by Hamas and by Netanyahu.
At least if there was a partner for peace, who negotiates in good faith, we’d have either a two state (which the US at least publicly pretends to) or a one state democracy. But here we are.
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