Things to Read

Moorish Girl offers "What I Read About Lebanon." Among other things, she notes the positions of extremists who deny either the Palestinians' or Israelis' rights to exist as a nation. I've argued before that whatever the situation a century ago, the Palestinians have developed a national consciousness and are the legitimate national heirs of an Arab population which took pride in living in the holy land before the State of Israel came into being. At the same time, whatever the circumstances under which Israel was founded, at least two generations have put their souls and backs into building a state there, a state which how has an Arab majority and of which even the Jewish population is at least half Arab and thus able to claim a piece of an Arab homeland. What's more, I don't believe either people can destroy the other without sacrificing many of the best aspects of their own society. In this as in so much else, Israelis and Palestinians are bound together by fate even in the midst of their conflict.

Meanwhile Mark LeVine questions whether the global left has gone insane. I recognize some of this from his response to questions in his December 2005 visit to Madison. It would seem that the response of some to the Lebanon war has inspired him to develop his argument in full. He is generally further left than I, but an often insightful thinker, and I hope those who currently crowd around the likes of George Galloway take note of what he has to say.