Clever Comments

Recently a visitor to this blog (a Palestinian with excellent English language skills I assume) posted a comment regarding the op-ed in Haaretz entitled "10 Commandments for Israel and Palestine." I wanted to highlight his/her comments regarding the difference between Zionist and Palestinian claims.

"...[the author] sells the conflict as a 'Islam vs. Judaism', when it is anything but. It is Zionism vs. everyone who gets in their way. Palestinians are made up of Muslims, Christians and Jews. All of whom oppose the Zionist state and its occupation. This is not a trivial point. We (Muslims and Christians) do not have a faith based claim on Palestine... it is the natural claim of people living there, and who have lived for over 2 thousand years. This applies to Palestinian Jews, but I list them seperately for it is my understanding that Jews have a faith based claim on Palestine (their promised land) when the Messiah returns to release them from the exile, and to restablish Palestine. This is not the Zionist claim, not the Zionist aim in Palestine. Their aim is to establish a land for Jews, and to reenter the European domain as an independenent Jewish state and people. So that they will be respected, and be freed from the subbordinate status that the Europeans subjected them to (this is what I got from the book 'From Hertzl to Rabin: a history of Zionism'). The two claims are NOT the same."

I think this really adds a great deal to the original article and helps to clarify some of the author's statements. Thanks for the comment and analysis!