14 Comments

The only reason the history of this apartheid is "complex" is because Zionists have been very effective at convoluting a simple injustice with relentless propaganda and lobbying. Zionists have been able to weave a fantastical mythology of the modern genocidal apartheid state of Israel that even exceeds the density of bullshit that the mythology of the Torah has about the ancient genocidal slaver state of Israel. The moral duty of any honorable "black intellectual" is the same of that of all worthy intellectuals, and that is to boldly speak what they believe to be true and just regardless of its popularity among powerful factions or the masses. Thus, with regard to Palestine, black intellectuals who think Israel's apartheid and America's support of it is unjust should candidly say so.

People like Coleman Hughes or John McWhorter who grew their careers on disparaging racial tribalism and essentialism and arguing against clamoring for political privileges based on racial identity are making a mockery of themselves by enabling a narrative of a pseudo racial cult: Zionism (Jews are not a race despite what Nazis and lots of Zionists would like people to believe). The most powerful identity politics organization in the united states today is AIPAC. It is not BLM. I have become extremely disillusioned with intellectuals who are so focused on combatting "wokism" because of the racial tribalism and identity politics but have become outspoken defenders of the country's most powerful offenders of it. Congress is passing laws equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism, aka racism. But I'm not witnessing the kind of response we would witness from those "intellectuals" were congress to pass laws equating disparagement of critical race theory with racism. Either the "intellectuals" aren't particularly intelligent or they are more interested in pleasing powerful factions. Israel is carrying out a genocide against all non Jewish Gazans (not just Muslims despite what the propagandists want people to believe). This should not be just a concern for black intellectuals but for any person with a functioning moral compass. No American should want the country heading in the direction that Zionists are navigating it.

Reviewing Coates' book should begin with a celebration that there's someone with an audience of his size boldly disparaging a catastrophic injustice that Americans are being hoodwinked and coerced to subsidize at harm to national security and economic prosperity. What America lacks the most when coming to understand and act on this injustice are more "intellectuals" who have explored it, have a large audience, and are courageous enough to challenge the deceitful and pernicious narrative that congress and zionists want to enforce with laws.

My take from John is that he has some snobby condescending prejudice toward Coates and a mysterious unholy sympathetic bias toward a pseudo ethno-theocratic genocidal apartheid state. John thinks that Coates is uncurious but he might be projecting. John thinks that Coates is simple but he might be projecting with that too. "Benny Morris" he says as an example of a champion of Palestinian injustice. He need say nothing else to demonstrate his ignorance. Here is a taste of Benny Morris' perverted sense of justice for Palestine:

"If he [Ben Gurion] was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job. I know that this stuns the Arabs and the liberals and the politically correct types. But my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all. If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country - the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations."

and his despicable lack of imagination:

"That is correct. Even the great American democracy could not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians. There are cases in which the overall, final good justifies harsh and cruel acts that are committed in the course of history."

https://web.archive.org/web/20080607060238/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=380984

But who needs an imagination when you can just use ethnic cleansing to create a harmonious and clean state to keep your genocidal pseudo racial ancient slaver cult safe and stable?

I have not read Coates' new book, but I did read Between the World and Me and admittedly I found too much of it to be poorly written arguments wrapped in poetry for my taste. But on your suggestion and spite towards John's stupid, condescending, and detestable "what about Hamas" apologetics for the apartheid pseudo ethno genocidal state of Israel, I will purchase and read Coates' new book.

Glenn, I appreciate the concern that you shared for the injustices in Palestine. Here are more of my thoughts on it:

https://minorityreport.substack.com/p/the-children-of-amalek

Expand full comment

Astounding. But this is the sort of vile nonsense this entire departure by Glenn has wrought here. Zionism, according to Jeffrey is "a pseudo racial cult: Zionism (Jews are not a race despite what Nazis and lots of Zionists would like people to believe)."

Jews are indeed not a race, and Zionism is not a racial cult, and Zionists do not accept the category of "race" as legitimate. The Jews who make up the state of Israel, along with fully equal non-Jewish Arab citizens, are a mixture of a vast array of racial and ethnic groups and a wide variety of Jewish beliefs and affiliations, to say nothing of the plentiful numbers of Israel's Christian and Muslim citizens. Jeffrey's deeply hostile misunderstanding about all this is far more distorted than Glenn's much milder (but equally incorrect) view of Israel as an "ethno-state" at odds with the universalism of the Western Enlightenment tradition. Jews are a religion and a NATION. and Israel is a NATION-state, like most other sovereign political entities. For two thousand years, the Jews were ALWAYS a nation, even though deprived of their state. Just as Irish or Italians or Vietnamese in the United States see themselves as and are seen by everyone else as a national identity group.

None of this has a thing to do with the racist and sexist intersectional woke hierarchies both Glenn and John have been challenging here for a long time. The descent of their show into this morass is one of the saddest deformations of an intellectual project I have ever seen. Very sad.

Expand full comment

Try reading the recent short book by Bernard Henri Levy, "Israel Alone" to hear the views of an internationally recognized Public Intellectual on the morality of what has been happening in Israel for the past year plus.

Expand full comment

Israel isn’t alone. It has the backing of the most powerful military in the world. What a stupid title. It follows the pattern of Zionist propaganda though — just say exactly the opposite of what is true. Zionism is such a delusional cult.

Expand full comment

The analogy is a weak one. Your defense (that is what it ultimately is) of Coates is as perplexing to me as it is to John.

This post may not be the best ad placement for your book.

Expand full comment

Tonight I did unsubscribe. It took me a long time. Glenn’s “almost obsession with TNC” is less than intellectual/ rational. Sorry Glenn - you just have been over the top.

Expand full comment

I subscribed because of the post.

Expand full comment

"River to the sea"

Expand full comment

ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the notion of Palestinian statehood in a news conference on Thursday, claiming it “would endanger the state of Israel.” But he also invoked geographical language that has become a point of bitter contention as Israel’s continued military bombardment of Gaza continues in response to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, saying that “in the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea,” according to an English translation of the speech from Israeli news channel i24News.

According to another translation, Netanyahu said that Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River” — which effectively means the same thing.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/netanyahu-from-river-sea-israel-control-1234949408/

Expand full comment

Nuance is a trap. The bottom line: two distinct peoples claim ownership of the same land; either they will figure out a way to live together in peace or there will be permanent warfare until one side wipes out or expels the other. I don't expect to live to see how this will be worked out.

Expand full comment

The bottom line: the U.S. government is funding a genocide and an apartheid.

Expand full comment

So tired of Glenn trying to justify TNC and his lack of knowledge about the history of Israel. How about reading the intelligent comments from some of your subscribers? Far more informed than either Glenn or TNC.

Expand full comment

Despite any lack of knowledge by Coates about the history of Israel, that history backs up his moral sensibilities more than yours I'm sure.

Expand full comment

Debating the future of Power Whining.

Zzzzz

Expand full comment