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Can You Cancel a Country?

(Substack) Prof. Russ Roberts - One of the stranger and more disturbing aspects of the world since October 7, 2023, is the increased support for the Palestinians in the aftermath of the atrocities of that day. Rape and murder and kidnapping are not the usual way to make friends and influence people. Somehow, the atrocities of Oct. 7 invigorated the Palestinian cause rather than shamed it. The protests aren't about criticizing or reforming Israel. They're not about getting Israel to improve the daily life of Palestinians in Gaza. They're not about pressuring Israel to accept a two-state solution. They're about erasing Israel. They're about a utopian ideal of returning Palestine to the state it was in as if the last 76 years hadn't happened. At the root of this idea is the concept of settler colonialism, taught in courses in Harvard, UC-Berkeley, Cornell, Williams, McGill, University of Toronto and others. It views the settling of the U.S., Canada, and Australia by Europeans not just as something that happened in the past. It's an ongoing sin that demands atonement. Israel is a remarkably dishonest example of settler colonialism. Jews have lived in Israel for millennia. We're the indigenous people so we can't be settlers. Some of us are white Europeans. But most of those who are white are descendants of Holocaust survivors who were almost murdered for not being white enough. We Jews were instrumental in throwing real colonizers - the British - out of Palestine. We didn't steal land from the indigenous Palestinians. We lived here alongside them. We bought land from our Ottoman rulers as well as from our Palestinian neighbors. We accepted the UN compromise that our Arab neighbors rejected. When we declared a state, our Arab neighbors invaded us. A few hundred thousand of our Palestinian neighbors stayed in their homes. We let them. That population grew into the 2 million Arab-Israeli citizens who are my neighbors today in Israel. The existence of Israel does not rise and fall on an academic debate. We're here. We're not going anywhere. We have the best army in the Middle East and we finally have the opportunity to pursue justice for those who rape and murder and kidnap our people. More than ever, we understand that a Jewish state is a necessary sanctuary for our people. The writer, President of Shalem College in Jerusalem, is a Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
2025-01-09 00:00:00
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