Well, racism is something the other guy practices, right? I mean, what's the point of winning a war if you can't control the narrative after? That's why WWII was caused by excessive reparations leveed against Germany by vengeful powers, why the Holocaust was an out-of-nowhere anomaly practiced only by those guys we tried and hanged at Nuremberg, why the Marshall Plan saved the world for Truth, Justice and apple pie and why the Euro is the world's best bet for transcendent capitalist enlightenment. Never mind that France permits Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite unless you want to wear a veil. Never mind that Greece's ascendant political party are literally Neo-Nazis. Never mind that the Notting HIll Race Riots of 1958 were in response to a - wait for it - 2% black population. Racism is that dead'n'buried thing that only happens in the US, right? Europe, ever cosmopolitan, ever free-thinking, doesn't have any. That "Black Pete" thing is about culture, not racism. See, the US wears its racism on its sleeve. We talk about it. We fight over it. It's a struggle that we make progress on. Europe? Not so much. And that's why the Jews are now Israelis and the Gypsies are found beaten half to death in shopping carts. Here's the last chapter of Postwar. It's a PDF. It's also an essay called "From the House of the Dead: An Essay on Modern European Memory." It's worth a read. ____________________________________ As far as a timeline/history of the Palestinians, that's just it - there isn't any. The Middle East was tribal, is tribal, remains tribal. Under the Ottoman Empire, those tribes were kept under thumb lest they get unruly. The Palestinian "people" were basically the nomads that happened to be there at the time - as Dore Gold and others have pointed out, if anything it was the "palestinians" that turned the verdant, green land of the Bible into the over-grazed wasteland that is the modern Middle East. This much the Zionists can claim: the Holy Land was their country until they stone cold lost it to raiders in 600BC. They can also claim this: Islam isn't so much about building holy sites as it is about reclaiming existing ones (and destroying the ones that offend it). That's why three different religions can claim the Dome of the Rock but only one of them owns it. _____________________________________ RE: Oslo Accords: Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by Israeli right-wingers. Ariel Sharon, meanwhile, was directly responsible for Sabra and Shatila: Both sides have to want it. And neither really does.
Thanks for the reply, I think a lot of palestinians would argue with you regarding their lack of a history, especially in the modern sense, meaning recent history. Thank you for the link to the last chapter of Postwar, I'll check it out now. Anyone reading this, watch the film kb links to "Waltz With Bashir," it is fantastic.
the "lack of history" is an interesting rewriting technique used by the victors of war. it was beneficial for the original zionists to point to Mandate Palestine as a "land with no people" aspect. Check out Zerubavel's "Recovered Roots" for a good side by side comparison of how each group's history was distorted to support the needs of Western colonizers.
Sure - it's not like Israel was empty. But then - it's not like the Zionists came in guns blazing. They bought Tel Aviv, and then when open warfare was declared they kicked ass. The whole "we were here first" angle kinda went to shit in 1948 anyway, considering the argument was being made against the very Jews whose land and property and freedom and very lives were confiscated by Europe. It's funny. Piketty makes the point that inherited wealth took a breather in the 20th century because WWI and WWII annihilated it all. He very pointedly does not point out how much of that wealth is Jewish. He also points out that having land was pretty much what made you aristocracy in Europe... but very much doesn't point out that the Jews weren't allowed to own land. Let's be clear: the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians what the United States did to the Apache. Golda Maier and Ben Gurion both made this point. The "Palestinians", however, have become a rallying point for Arabs of all stripes - Shia, Sunni, Wahabi, you name it. So the actuality of the Palestinians takes a back seat to the idea of the Palestinians. Like I said, Yasser Arafat was Egyptian.
This. My dad went to college in England and to this date cites the racist actions he received there. This in spite of the fact that, internally, his racial group perceives itself as "white".Europe, ever cosmopolitan, ever free-thinking, doesn't have any. That "Black Pete" thing is about culture, not racism.