Tobi Haslett

Here’s another thing for the history fans: the problem is that all your other pet methods also do not work. We’re in a situation of generalized, systematic failure

Apartheid South Africa did not have a right to exist as such, neither did Rhodesia, neither did Jim Crow Mississippi. This isn’t hard.

The "right to exist" of a state has no basis in international law and no precedent in diplomatic practice. Simply put, a state's right to exist does not exist. If Israel nevertheless proclaims a "right to exist", the only reasonable basis for the existence of such a right is that it is a universal one, equally applicable to every other state at the time it was first raised, and particularly applicable to those whose legitimacy, like that of Israel, was also challenged. If it is a right that applies to Israel alone, it is not and cannot be a right. It bears recalling that there were at least two other states that had a similar claim to a "right to exist" when Israel first invented it, on the grounds that their legitimacy and continued existence were also challenged: Rhodesia and the USSR. Yet neither the Soviet Union nor Rhodesia claimed a "right to exist". Nobody and no other state ever claimed either of them had an inherent right to exist, or claimed any fundamental rights would be violated if these states ceased to exist and disappeared from the map. In the case of Rhodesia, there was in fact an international consensus that it cease to exist. This succeeded and Rhodesia was replaced by Zimbabwe, to universal acclaim. It is also important to recognize that Israel's claims of a "right to exist" have nothing to do with achieving a peaceful resolution of the Question of Palestine, and are fundamentally about preventing one. Israel's "right to exist" was first raised precisely because the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), recognized by the international community as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, appeared to be amenable to accepting earlier demands by the United States in exchange for recognition of its mere existence: PLO acceptance of United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, renunciation of armed force, and recognition of Israel. The demand of a "right to exist" was proclaimed by Israel precisely in order to prevent Western recognition of the PLO, and in the expectation that the PLO would reject it out of hand as an unacceptable absurdity. Needless to say, Washington and its Western partners eagerly embraced the Israeli innovation, and never required Israel to define the borders within which the entity was supposed to enjoy a right to exist. When the PLO formally accepted Israel's "right to exist" in the context of the 1993 Oslo Accords, it was careful not to formulate it as an absolute right: "The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security". Palestinian negotiators had wanted to add "within the 5 June 1967 borders", but this was categorically rejected by Israel. It was made unambiguously clear that addition of this clause would have made agreement impossible. Israel demanded and the PLO accepted the above formulation, but it changed absolutely nothing. Several years later, Israel began demanding that the Palestinian not only recognize its "right to exist" but recognize "Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state". It once again did so on the presumption that this would be embraced by its Western sponsors and allies but that the Palestinians would reject the absurdity of this innovation. Israel's objective was to make negotiations and thus a diplomatic settlement impossible, and to ensure that the Palestinians rather than Israel were held responsible for the stalemate. It largely worked, as Western leaders and "mediators" once again embraced the Israeli demand and tried to pressure the Palestinians to accept it. I would not expect Tucker Carlson to be aware of this history. I would however expect Zanny Minton Beddoes, the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, to be at least generally familiar with the issue, particularly since she made a point of interrogating Carlson about it. Yet, once again, when it comes to Israel, journalists believe themselves perfectly entitled to be zany, and virtually always get away with it.

@tuntenverbot Well no

@tobihaslett Is it lit again .. been trying to figure this out

Back on twitter and it’s apparently still perfect here mwah

@tuntenverbot This is one of those things I never traced back to the source but I support you

@tobihaslett please signal boost

I stand with nasty pig. Saying it again

Letter to an Israeli Soldier — Muin Bseiso and Mahmoud Darwish madamasr.com/en/2024/10/06/…

#footnote-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">phenomenalworld.org/analysis/hezbo…

I’ll never be able to get his face out of my head. A precious life destroyed in an act of pure cruelty.

Except Alex Pretti wasn’t “holding a weapon” like Rittenhouse was. As we’ve now seen from multiple camera angles, he never drew his gun. He was disarmed by ICE agents before they shot and killed him. The Second Amendment only stands for MAGA chuds.

Alex Pretti, a healthcare worker, was murdered for engaging in the kind of community care we hope all care workers to embody: the kind that doesn’t stop at the threshold of the hospital, the clinic, but that aims to care for and support the community where and how they can

Alex Pretti was a VA nurse and dues paying member of AFGE Local 3669 at the Minneapolis VA hospital

Why is the @nytimes’s new Metro hire boosting right-wing tabloid reporting on DSA?

Someday—in utopia—we will be able to have a lucid conversation about the neurotic social symptom that is the black political establishment

You're not wrong - a storm *IS* blowing from Paradise. Here's why that's bad news: • The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead and make whole what's been smashed. But its wings aren't strong enough. • What we see as a chain of events? Actually, it's one single catastrophe.

@stalecooper …as if they know Capital Vol. 1

listen guys love to all marxists but please respect that literary criticism and film studies, disciplines that kept the light of marxism lit for decades, are whole ass disciplines and you have to actually know more than Capital Vol. I to understand how cultural objects work

CFP for an important conference on the centenary of the League Against Imperialism organized by Disha Jani and Burak Sayım socialhistoryportal.org/news/articles/… abstracts due March 1

NEW: NY State Attorney General Letitia James reached a settlement with far-right Zionist group Betar US, which will result in the group disbanding. The AG's office investigated Betar for "violence against and harassment of Muslim, Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish activists."