Philip N CohenNov 14, 2023
This from Yossi Klein Halevi is so depressing. Ezra Klein picked him to represent the reasonable Israeli, and he considers the possibility of a minority Jewish state, even if peacefully attained, equivalent to the mass murder of Jews. I don't doubt most Israelis agree, but it means no peace ever.
#israel #palestine https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/podcasts/transcript-ezra-klein-interviews-yossi-klein-halevi.html
Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Yossi Klein Halevi

The Nov. 10, 2023, episode of “The Ezra Klein Show.”

The New York Times
Show threadDavid ManheimNov 14, 2023

@philipncohen His objection is not that it's a minority Jewish state, it's that it would be a majority Muslim Arab state.

Jews do fine today as minorities in western countries. But try to find an example of Jews living in an Arab state as a safe minority in the past 50 years, and you'll fail.

Show threadoatmeal

@davidmanheim define safe. Is the USA currently safe for Jews with all the whitesupremacist attacks? Jews still live in Iran today and are protect by the state and are relatively safe. Jews lived in Morocco into the 1970s. Jews managed quite well before 1948 clearly, especially in Iraq, where they were integrated fully, until the Farhud (which some historians claim is a pattern of state violence not specific only towards the Jews) and elsewhere too, at least until the Deir Yassin massacre and escalation in violence in Palestine that followed.

cc @philipncohen

Nov 15, 2023 at 3:22pmWeb
Show threadPhilip N CohenNov 15, 2023
@oatmeal @davidmanheim people who think Jews are only safe in Israel have a metaphysical conception of safety, unmoored to earthly statistics. Or what they really mean by safety is ethic/religious domination.
Show threadoatmealNov 15, 2023

@philipncohen or which groups of Jews we’re talking about…

The Zionist movement increasingly tried to universalize Jewish suffering and extend the European experience everywhere, but it’s not true factually. As a minority Jews lived safely in Muslim majority territories for centuries for very particular reasons.

With that said, if this is even possible in a Muslim majority modern “nation state”… I don’t know. Strangely, Iran shows it’s sort of possible, with caveats.