Althouse: So much for grandma.

August 16, 2019

So much for grandma.

1. "Israel has decided to approve a petition by U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to enter Israel on 'humanitarian grounds' so she may visit her Palestinian grandmother, the Interior Ministry announced Friday, this after it barred her from entering the country due to her support for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement." Haaretz, this morning.

2. Shortly thereafter, CNN: "Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Friday she would not visit Israel after the country granted permission for her to enter the country on humanitarian grounds to visit her family in the West Bank a day after blocking her and fellow Rep. Ilhan Omar from visiting the country. 'I have decided that visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions stands against everything I believe in--fighting against racism, oppression & injustice,' Tlaib said in a tweet."

3. In writing, you should be careful about putting things in absolute terms. Think before using words like "everything," as in "stands against everything I believe in." That would mean that you don't believe in visiting your grandmother!

212 comments:

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J. Farmer said...: Well I'm off to bed, folks. Just to reiterate my first comment: "Reasoned debate about the US-Israel relationship is nearly impossible in modern America..."

I submit the above exchanges as evidence. Goodnight.; 8/16/19, 10:25 PM
narciso said...: Mass migration from russia after 1920, no not really now begin was certainly from nearby polamd but for different reasons; 8/16/19, 10:33 PM
J. Farmer said...: @narciso:

Mass migration from russia after 1920, no not really now begin was certainly from nearby polamd but for different reasons

That was sloppy wording on my part. I was referring to the first two aliyahs. My choice of 1920 was only to demonstrate the massive influx of the population between then and the end of the Second World War and was pushing back on Drago's claim that a quarter of the Jewish population of Palestine in 1939 had immigrated from Muslim countries, though there was some immigration from Yemen and Syria, but it was very small compared to those coming from Europe.

Okay, now I really am off to bed. Sweet dreams and good wishes everyone.; 8/16/19, 10:50 PM
Drago said...: Farmer: "Drago's claim that a quarter of the Jewish population of Palestine in 1939 had immigrated from Muslim countries,"

I claimed no such thing.; 8/16/19, 11:33 PM
Drago said...: I claimed ONLY that a quarter of the population of what is now Israel and the West Bank were jewish.

I also pointed out the Arabs had conducted many pogroms in the middle east over centuries.

My comment directed at your comments was to call out your wording that implies the jews in that area before WW2 were transients who moved in.

A significant % were descendents from that area for millennia.; 8/16/19, 11:37 PM
Martin said...: Tlaib said EXACTLY what she meant--politics before family. Clear as a bell.; 8/17/19, 12:59 AM
Nichevo said...: J. Farmer said...
@Nichevo:

I hope so, but, as you have said to many other people, I don't care what you think of me.

I've never asked you to care. And I don't consider opposition to mass ethnic cleansing to be moral preening.

Sure you do. Every time someone describes the horrors that will follow your preferred policies and you say but we can't do anything about the Congo, well, I'm not sure whether that's preening or whether that's accusing others of preening, but it's pretty much what you're doing. Ethnic cleansing is not the worst thing on earth. It's going on a lot and it will probably continue to go on a lot and it's probably going on right now. If it avoids killing it's probably better than killing.

Well, your views on my moral degeneracy make no difference to whether or not transfer or exile would solve the problem.

Rounding up African-Americans and expelling them would reduce social ills in the United States, too. But I don't support that, because I don't believe the ends justify the means.

So you admit that transfer would in Israel. In America, how about rounding up Hispanics and expelling them?; 8/17/19, 1:12 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Drago:

I claimed ONLY that a quarter of the population of what is now Israel and the West Bank were jewish.

I'll ask again, what is your source for this claim? Prior to the first aliyah, Jews were less than 5% of the Palestinian population.

My comment directed at your comments was to call out your wording that implies the jews in that area before WW2 were transients who moved in.

They were. That was the point of Zionism. The first aliyah did not begin until the 1880s. And the Jewish population increased by more than a quarter million in the 1930s.

A significant % were descendents from that area for millennia

No, they were not. The overwhelming majority of Jews in Palestine did not arrive there until the late 19th century. Read the link I referred you to in my earlier comment.; 8/17/19, 5:40 AM
Roughcoat said...: Take a knee, Farmer. Sit out a few plays. Stop bothering anymore.; 8/17/19, 8:51 AM
langford peel said...: Joo haters never sleep.; 8/17/19, 2:10 PM
Michael McNeil said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/18/19, 6:36 AM
Michael McNeil said...: Right, civilian settlements in places like Hebron are designed to protect Israel from destruction.

In a way, yes. All of Israel depends on Jewish memory, and Hebron is one of the four traditional holy cities of Judaism (the other three being Jerusalem, Safed, and Tiberias). All except Hebron are geographically within modern Israel, but one can understand why Israelis — and Jews in general — wish to keep a civilian presence in Hebron.

Note that this doesn't mean that Hebron must be incorporated into Israel, but it does mean that the residents of Hebron must learn to tolerate (horror of horrors!) a Jewish presence in the city.; 8/18/19, 6:40 AM