>
> > Ah. You don't understand. The document is consistent with the PLO's
> > denial of Israel's right to exist. Chomsky adduced the document as
> > evidence that the PLO--in flat contradiction to its own
> > charter--accepted Israel's right to exist back in 1976.
Chomsky understood the document to modify, or, if you like, revoke, the statement in the Charter, on the principle that a later more specific statement supercedes an earlier general one. Fara s I knwo the PLO Charter doesn't have a Supremacy Clause.
>
>Why is it that the settler colonial state israel has more people that
>support
>its "right to exist" than palestinian refugees have people who believe in
>their
>Right to Return?
>
>In all honesty I do not believe Israel has a right to exist. Did rhodesia
>have
>a right to exist? "Portuguese" Angola? apartheid south africa? why is it
>that
>israel is given such leeway in this matter? is it the whole "religious
>justification?"
> western guilt over the holocaust?
>
>israel is a state made up of mostly caucasian european foreign settlers who
>displaced
>the indigenous population. why does this have any right to exist? when
>algeria
>gained its independence, did the world say: "ok, france gets to keep the
>half
>of algeria that has the most arable land and water supplies, indigenous
>algerians
>get the rest." why is israel different?
>
>the only solution that can even be close to "just" is a one-state, secular
>solution,
>with full and unconditional right of return for all palestinian refugees,
>where
>citizenship is based on being born within what is now known as israel, west
>bank,
>and gaza. and if this means this state becomes majority arab, and if
>zionist
>and fanatic jews don't like it, then they could leave as settler
>colonialists
>have left other colonies after independence. they should have never been
>there
>in the first place.
All of this is foolish. Israel has has much or as little right to exist as any state, although I am not sure I like talk of states rather than individuals having rights. It was established by violence, so were all states. But Israeli Jews have a right to live there and to govern themselves, subject to respect for other's rights. What do you expect them to do, go to Miami? At this point many of them are third, fourth, and fifth generation. They're from the Near East now.
As to the unified secular democratic federated state of Palestinians and Jews, it is a worthy aspiration. It's also not worth talking about in the real world. Right now, the main thing is to end the occupation and get a real Palestinian state set up on the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli state policy will be unjust as long as it continues to be a Jewish state, but that's likely to be a while. There's no percentage in making that a main challenge, you'll just lose the support of many Jews and Israelis who want that but also want an end to the fighting and would accept a Palestinian state. I'm not a Zionist because of general Enlightenment principles--I oppose religious and ethnic states--but this is one of those times when the best is an enemy of the good.
jks
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