Month: July 2012

Critiquing the Critique of Nationalism: A sociological defence of Rousseau and Kant

It’s easy to criticize any form of nationalism on the basis that it promotes exclusion of the interests of people outside your state. But this criticism supposes that nationalism is actually a barrier, not a hypothetic one, but a real one, to greater cross-national solidarity, to greater recognition of the rights and moral value of […]

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The Invention of the Jewish People

In a post published yesterday I wrote about different meanings of “people”, and I concluded it with some remarks about what role these ideas can have in liberation and in oppression. These remarks are obviously influenced by the work of Sand, whose 2009 book “The Invention of the Jewish People” I have been reading. The remarks of the last […]

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Romney on a “United Jerusalem”, and why you’re a bit thick for freaking out about it

Yes, Romney has made statements about keeping Israel the united Capital of Jerusalem. Yes, the comments are unacceptable. And the internet has been experiencing a proverbial freak-out over them, with lots of all-caps action of the “HOW CAN HE SAY THIS?” variety. But, seriously, calm the [expletive] down; these comments are in line with what every American […]

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What no one is saying about the shooting dead of a Palestinian at the Al Za’im Checkpoint

You can read on a thousand news sites about yesterday’s killing of a Palestinian attempting to enter East Jerusalem. Each of them tell either the Israeli story or the Palestinian story. The Palestinian story looks like this: Israeli soldiers have shot dead one Palestinian and wounded two others after opening fire on a car at a checkpoint in […]

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What’s wrong with Western Palestinian Solidarity Movements

Apologies in advance, this might be a bit curt. They focus overwhelmingly Palestinian victimhood, which strengthens the humanitarian rather than liberation understanding of the Palestinian situation. They glorify resistance only if it adheres with the Western obsession with non-violence. They criticize authority without respect for the need for political movements to be strong as well […]

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Do Israelis want Peace?

Rather than the usual endless continuation of rhetoric about the colonial character of Zionism, we should sometimes check what Israelis actually say about their desire for peace and co-existence with Palestinians. Do they want it? So, I did some googling, and tried to find some numbers. 

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Through Republicanism to Thought

What is a republic? More fundamentally than now commonly used definition, a state where the highest office is elected, it means a state which belongs to its citizens. A republic is the Rousseauian response to the problem of how authority could be justified, how it could be a fulfillment rather than limitation of freedom to […]

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