-Even so, there were people living in the area -that's now Germany who were speaking some variety of German when that -country was created in its modern form. You can't say the same for -Israel.
So nationalism is dependent on a shared language? And the point is not the Germans in what is today Germany, but the Germans in farther off places that to this day have preferential immigration rights to Germany from whatever enclave they come from. And all the other countries with similar rules for their diaspora. Yes, the Jews had fewer folks in the home base of the environs of Jerusalem-- that's why there's conflict with the many other folks who were there. That may challenge their right to that particular piece of real estate, but I'm not sure why that makes their nationalism so different from others.
-In any case, I'm not particularly fond of nationalism of any kind, so -appeal to other nationalisms as a justification for Israel's (a -problematic concept in itself, as Seth Kulick just pointed out) won't -cut much ice with me.
And I have no problem with the left advocating the global abolition of nationalisms and borders of all kind. But when you pick out any particular nationalism as deserving special attack, then the issue is raised whether it's nationalism or the particular group involved that's being attacked. You may not like nationalism, but many of the countries who voted for Zionism=Racism are quite fond of their own nationalisms. So the anti-semitism of the attack on Jewish nationalism is pretty evident to me. To repeat, that doesn't mean that the actions of the Israeli state don't deserve global condemnation, but the attack should be on that, not some particularized denigration of one peoples right to assert their national identity.
>Within Israel, Palestinians can own property in Israel. Israeli bias
>comes
>out in a whole range of economic development schemes and handing out
>quasi-public property (even if stolen from previous owners, but nothing
>strange there).
-Over 90% of Israel is quasi-public property. Here's an excerpt from -an entry on About.com -<http://experts.about.com/q/Israeli-Law-936/Laws-regarding-property-ownership.htm> -written by an Israeli lawyer:
There is of course discrimination in Israel against Arab citizens, but this particular entry is a bit confusing in conflating discussions of foreigners versus Arab Israeli citizens. It's hard to sort through all the counter-information, but here is a page from a civil rights group within Israel, which makes it clear that, while in practice lots of discrimination occurs, Arab Israelis have the right to and have leased state-owned land. http://www.acri.org.il/english-acri/engine/list.asp?topic=17
The Israeli Supreme Court has declared that the law of the land prohibits discrimination against Arabs, but this is violated in the administration of the lands. All very bad, but again hardly unique in the world. Under the law, Jews get no special legal status in use of the land, even if racism and discrimination in practice happens.
As I've said, the Israeli government deserves condemnation for many things, but their is no unique racial or religious construction of the law in Israel that makes it much different from a host of other countries.
Nathan Newman