In a saner and more informed political environment, Josh Hammer’s anti-Palestinian tirade in support for Trump’s apartheid plan (Orwellianly called a “peace deal”) would not be worthy of serious engagement. But in Trump’s America, where fiction and demonization are a part of national discourse on virtually every political issue, it is critical to respond to erroneous perspectives, no matter how distasteful, in the hopes of evolving our discourse on the basis of facts, common sense, and a commitment to justice.
Hammer kicks off his take with a series of historical arguments in defense of Israel’s erasure of Palestine, which started with the establishment of Israel in 1948 at the expense of more than 500 Palestinian villages that were destroyed, and over 750,000 Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed. He correctly notes the continuous Jewish presence in Palestine from ancient times, but the question was never whether there was a legitimate Jewish connection to the land (of course there is); the question is only whether this historical connection justifies dispossessing other indigenous communities in Palestine of their land and their rights in order for a European-driven effort to impose exclusivist Jewish rule over the land. To anyone with a functioning moral compass, the answer to that question is, of course, no! The fact that there has “never, ever been an independent Arab state” in Palestine is about as relevant to Palestinian dispossession as the fact that Native Americans never conceived of their indigenous presence of this land as a “nation state” is to their ethnic cleansing by European settlers.
Hammer mentions the 1967 war without noting that Israel started it. He references the second Intifada, but neglects to mention that Israel initiated the violence by killing several unarmed demonstrators in Jerusalem, and that Israel was killing thousands more Palestinians during the Intifada than the other way around. In short, Hammer turns reality on its head by erasing Israeli aggression and violence.
Most absurdly, Hammer claims that all peace requires is Palestinian acceptance of Israel, pursuant to UN resolution 242. Reality check: The Palestinians already recognized Israel, making the painful compromise of giving up 78% of their homeland, despite the aforementioned ethnic cleansing, and have been calling for the implementation of resolution 242 for decades, for a state on just 22% of the land. Indeed, the entire Arab League endorsed the “Arab Peace Initiative” calling for peace on the basis of 242. It’s Israel that rejects this basis for peace, and has been relentlessly expanding illegal settlements that have made Palestinian independence impossible. That’s why the UN Security Council has repeatedly condemned Israel for entrenching the occupation.
While previous American presidents have criticized Israel’s illegal settlement expansion for undermining peace, Trump has endorsed this expansion, and is offering Palestinians a small, open-air prison and wants them to pretend it’s a state. Treating Palestinians like an inferior people who are not deserving of the same freedom that Israelis enjoy is no recipe for peace, it’s apartheid, and the world is right to reject it.