That’s not just an abstract distinction. Nationalism, the right to national self-determination, is the foundation of international law. You can’t join White, but you can become a Jew — and many ethnic Arabs are Jews. If every Arab in the occupied territories converted to Judaism next year, they would all be instantly eligible for Israeli citizenship.

Absurd? Not really. Every nation distinguishes between members and outsiders, and most have stringent citizenship requirements (many people would find it harder to become a Canadian than to undergo Jewish conversion, for example). Just because the U.S. defines every person born in its borders as a citizen, does not mean Israel has to use that definition — much less grant citizenship to all people whose grandparents or great-grandparents lived in what is now Israel.

You say that Jews should not elevate their interest in statehood above the needs of the Moslems in what used to be British Mandate Palestine. But what is the alternative? To live in an Islamic Palestine as non-Muslim aliens? Think of how poorly the Kurds or the Lebanese Christians have been treated. It is not “exploiting” the Holocaust to observe that living in other nations’ states got 1/3 of all Jews murdered in the 1940s. A Jewish State on historic Jewish territory was the practical, humanitarian solution. It still is.

In your zeal for the underdog, you also buy into some myths. Why call the current Palestinians “refugees” from their (great)-grandparents’ homes? Am I a refugee from Ukraine because my grandparents fled the Cossacks? Why gloss over the Moslem anti-Semitic storm at the Durban conference?

I share your outrage and horror at Israel’s very real moral failings and even war crimes. But I cannot agree that the solution is to void the Jewish right to national self-determination and idealize the enemies of Israel.

That said, I think the Israeli government’s policies regarding settlements are stupid, and that we need to come up with a reasonable compromise around east Jerusalem. And that there should be a Palestinian state that exists side-by-side (and probably very intertwined economically, at least) with Israel. I think that Israeli Arabs should have full citizenship rights, that the Israeli government should be doing more to make sure they have them, and that Avigdor Lieberman is appalling. I don’t believe the Arabic population of current Israel should have had to leave in 1948 (and accounts of the time are unclear on the reasons that they left- yes, some were definitely kicked out. some were definitely not. the majority? who knows?), and that having a Palestinian state would not make up for that, but would go some way towards repairing that wound.

I don’t believe there is a contradiction between these beliefs.

Regarding your statement about the September 11, 2001 attacks: Your comments about the Islamic world seem to be oversimplifying a very complex situation into a binary, us-versus-them worldview. This is the exact kind of worldview that might have led to the 9/11 attacks in the first place, since it is my understanding that the attackers viewed the United States and the West in just such a binary, us-versus-them way. Just as you presume to speak of the Islamic world’s interests, so too did the attackers view the West as equally monolithic.

can assure you of one thing: the Islamic world is not interested in peace

I’d say how, exactly, but I don’t really want to wade through a bunch of Islamophobic stuff, if that’s where you’re coming from on this. And I don’t think generalizations about an entire religion are appropriate on this blog.

Question: What is “historical Palestine?” I’m going to guess you mean the country that immediately preceded modern Israel. If so, that country isn’t all that old. “Palestine” is a British invention, as is Jordan and the rest of the countries on the Arabian peninsula. If you’re thinking about the ancient Philistines, they have absolutely no connection whatsoever to modern day Arabs.

Comment: On September 11, 2001, the country of Israel mourned. Israeli flags in Israel and around the world flew at half-mast. Arab children – in Paramus, NJ, and around the world – danced in the streets.

Perhaps, as you say, Zionism equals racism. I still don’t know; and I’m old enough to know that I’m not as smart as I thought I once was. Compromise is always necessary and you have to choose your bedfellows wisely. I can assure you of one thing: the Islamic world is not interested in peace – how you or I would define it – with you, me, President Obama or anyone else.

Along with anti-Zionists in general, I do not question the right of Jews to live in historic Palestine. Jews have always lived there, often in peace with their neighbors. There’s no problem there. The problem is with the belief that Jews have more of a right to be there than anyone else, and that the “right” of a state with an artificially maintained Jewish majority to exist trumps the rights of all the people in the region.

In a debate that so often – and so quickly – gets polarized beyond recognition, this is one of the most eloquent descriptions of ant-Zionism I’ve read. Nicely put.

I know there is an amount of risk for you speaking out that, as a non jew i don’t share, and i appreciate you doing it.

Palestine will be free!