Reply #25: It may not be anti-semitic, but you should be intellectually honest and state

[Warren DeMontague]

that you're arguing against the right of the Nation of Israel to exist. You are.

That's fine, that's your prerogative; however, when one is talking about the occupation of the Palestinian territories (and the '67 war which engendered that occupation) those events have not and did not take place in a vacuum; neither, for that matter, did the events of the preceding 20 years. Whether or not, as you say, the Holocaust was over "instrumentalized" to justify the creation of the state of Israel, after '48, the state existed. With the chance to create their own state, the Palestinians repeatedly chose war and attempts to eliminate the State of Israel.

Now, if your view is (and it sounds like it is) that Israel is an imperialist, colonial entity on "stolen land" which has no right to independent existence, whether or not that's borne out by the facts, like I said that's your prerogative. However, it's highly unlikely Israelis are en masse going to voluntarily choose self-extinction, which is just as clearly the reality facing them now were there no State of Israel as it was in '48. One can argue up and down against the policies of the Government of Israel, particularly its more recent right-wing incarnation, and whether they are unwise (I think they have been)- but arguing for a reasonable resolution to the occupation issue and a two-state solution is one thing... Arguing that Israel in its entirety is an illegitimate occupying, colonial "Zionist Entity" on "stolen land" (bought and paid for, for the most part, but. whatever.) that just needs to go away is something else, entirely.

That may not make you an anti-semite, but it sure as hell doesn't make you anyone that any sane Israeli would be interested in listening to, either.