Middle East Judo

In diving into the Palestinian perspective on the establishment of the State of Israel, I am fascinated by the approach.

It’s a kind of verbal judo.

For example: “Let’s claim that Jews are trying to deny the peoplehood of Palestinians and, in so doing, deny the peoplehood of the Jews by saying they are “only” a religion, not a people.”

In the literature, there’s no mention whatsoever of the existence of Jewish civilization in Israel over 2000 years ago.

Similarly, “let’s claim that the Jews are committing genocide when the actual goal of the Palestine liberation movement is the genocide of Israelis.”

I grudgingly admire the effort and the marketing and it provides a good lesson in disarming your opponents in order to earn public sympathy.