Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago

Both the United States and Israel were shaped by political systems built alongside racial hierarchy and contested citizenship.

Each proclaimed democratic ideals while simultaneously managing populations excluded from the full promise of those ideals.

They are both profoundly unfree and racially riven societies..

That shared history matters.

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#iran #history #histodons #israel #blackmastodon

Image: Benjamin Netanyahu hugs Joe Biden at Ben Guirion Airport on October 18, 2023. AFP.

Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago

The United States declared universal liberty in 1776 while sustaining a massive system of racial slavery.

After emancipation, the system reorganized itself through Jim Crow—disenfranchisement, segregation, and racial terror.

For nearly a century, American democracy functioned fully for some citizens and only partially for others.

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Image: Each time word of a lynching reached the NAACP, a simple, somber flag flew outside the group’s offices at 69 Fifth Avenue in NYC. (Library of Congress).

Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago

Israel’s political structure emerged from a different history but a similarly unresolved conflict over land and sovereignty.

The creation of Israel in 1948 produced a Jewish national state alongside the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Today Israelis and Palestinians live on the same land under profoundly unequal legal and political systems.

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Image: Cover of the 1st edition, showing part of The Snake Charmer by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Clark Art Institute.

Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago

In both societies, the language of democracy operates beside enduring structures of hierarchy.

Those shared contradictions shape how each country understands security, territory, and political control.

That parallel history does not fully explain the alliance.

But it helps explain why the two states often recognize themselves in one another.
it.

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Video: Ex-Marine Brian McGinnis is removed as he shouts, “No one wants to fight for Israel.” USA Today.

https://youtu.be/tN-aTVkI5W0?si=vzVpgvZa-EkYs1tIA

Marine gets arm broken amid Iran war protest as police, Senator Tim Sheehy eject him from hearing

YouTube
Show threadRichard Paul4d ago
@Deglassco These countries are not unique in this regard. One could say of Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda (just to name a few) that “each proclaimed democratic ideals while simultaneously managing populations excluded from the full promise of those ideals.” In all of these societies, “the language of democracy operates beside enduring structures of hierarchy.” In Nigeria it's the Hausa over the Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. (1/2)
Show threadRichard Paul4d ago
In India, it's Hindus over Muslims. In Congo, it's Bantu over Kongo, Luba, and Mongo. In Rwanda, it's Tutsi over Hutu, except when it's Hutu over Tutsi. As with the countries you mentioned, “those shared contradictions shape how each county understands security, territory and political control.” (2/2)
Show threadLa Dame d'Azur4d ago
@Spacehistory And all these countries have the same thing in common: a history of colonialism.
Show threadRichard Paul4d ago
@blueorchestra All of these countries have the same thing in common: they are made up of humans. I cited these specific countries because they were all founded as pluralistic, democratic nations (which fit with the narrative of the original post). I could’ve picked Germany, I could’ve picked Argentina, I certainly could’ve picked Japan. I could have picked Australia. I could go on.
Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago
@Spacehistory @blueorchestra At the moment the United States and Israel are engaged in a conflict that is being framed almost entirely in terms of security—threats, deterrence, stability, defense. But that language sits on top of something deeper. In both cases, ideas about security have long been shaped by how each state has dealt with populations marked as different, subordinate, or outside the full bounds of political belonging.
Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago
@Spacehistory @blueorchestra
The point isn’t that every country has inequality. Of course they do. The question is what kind of inequality gets built into how the state actually works. I’m pointing to something specific here: that both developed through expansion and control of land while managing groups of people who weren’t given full political rights—and those distinctions were not just political, but racialized over time.
Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago
@Spacehistory @blueorchestra When those kinds of divisions are built into the foundation of a state, they don’t just fade away. They shape how threats are defined, whose lives are prioritized, and how force is justified. Security becomes tied not just to defending borders, but to maintaining a particular social and political order.
Show threadDr. D. Elisabeth Glassco4d ago
@Spacehistory @blueorchestra That’s why the comparison matters. It helps explain why the language of security carries so much weight—and why it often obscures the deeper structures of inequality that continue to shape policy and perception in both countries.
Show threadRichard Paul4d ago
@Deglassco @blueorchestra No one is going to change anyone’s mind here. This is two historians of American civil rights arguing. I will say this: 1. Only by looking outside of one’s paradigm can anything close to an objective analysis be given in this case. There is no question that the United States has been expansion. There is considerable debate over whether Israel has been. 2. (1/2)
Show threadRichard Paul
To me, this “Two worst countries in the world” narrative is narrow minded and (by lumping in Israel), more than a little bit racist. (2/2)
Mar 18 at 8:03pmWeb
Show threadJakeKb4d ago
@Spacehistory Israel is not an expansionist state? Have you seen the west bank or Lebanon recently? How many other countries have a minister of settlements? Which of the countries you mentioned actively steal land from other populations and put them under apartheid? These are the two worst countries in the world, not only because they are among the most racist, but because they are also extremely powerful to get away with genocide. There is nothing racist about that.