Oddbean new post about | logout
 Hot take.  Many here will disagree with me on this, but this is nostr and damn it, I get to say whatever I want to say.

My sympathies have always been with Palestine over Israel, not because they are the underdog, but because they are the aggrieved party.  The United Nations agreed as to how to settle this long ago and Israel is the one violating that agreement.  Israel inflicts huge amounts of suffering on them, and suffers tiny amounts in comparison.  They "settle" (flat out steal) their land, cut their land into pieces so that they cannot travel, bulldoze their houses, and block them from International trade. It is illegal for Israelis to travel to Palestine, lest they see the horror and develop sympathies for them.

Israel must withdraw from all of Palestine to the 1967 lines, and then there will be peace. That is already a huge compromise from the 1947 lines, which was itself a huge compromise from Palestine originally being 100% of the region. There is no reason to expect them to continue to give more to Israel over and over and over again. It has to stop, and 1967 is where it stops according to the UN, the PLO, and other international bodies.

Bad arguments for the ethnic cleansing and land stealing from Palestineans:

* We used to live here four thousand years ago
* God gave us this land
* We have a bigger economy
* Hitler killed a bunch of us in Germany
* They teach their kids to hate Jews (I believe in freedom of thought, freedom to hate, freedom to love)
* They present a security risk, so we have to kill them first
* Palestine started the violence again this time, not Israel (to think they shouldn't fight to reclaim their land from Israel because there have been ceasefires is status quo bias)

Those are all morally vacant arguments, and give zero consideration to what is just and right.

I never understood why people in the American right-wing are on Israel's side. They make the above arguments and I just cringe.