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This Was My Comment.

Reader comment on item: The Arabs as Seen Fifty Years Ago
in response to reader comment: Isa, your comment just doesn't make sense!

Submitted by Isa Almisry (United States), Mar 16, 2012 at 00:29

"One can go back even further, and read the words of Ahad Ha-'Am in 1891"

That's it. Hardly rambling.

The rest are Ahad Ha-'Am's comments, from his "Emet m'Eretz Yisrael" (" A Truth from the Land of Israel), a pamphlet published in 1891 to warn Jews of the folly of "a people without a land for a land without a people" because it was based on a lie, a fact he knew from taking part in the First 'Aliyah at the end of its first decade. If his contemporaneous comments ramble too much for you, maybe you would prefer the words of his colleague Judah Leon Magnes "If the only way of establishing the Jewish National Home is upon the bayonets of some empire, our whole enterprise is not worthwhile, and it is better that the Eternal People that has outlived many a mighty empire should possess its soul in patient and plan and wait."

In case you do not know Ahad Ha-'Am, he established modern Hebrew prose, and Judah Magnes founded Hebrew U. Both founded "cultural Zionism" in opposition to Herzel, holding that the Jews should raise the Yishuv as a cultural and spiritual model for the Diaspora, rather than swindling the people in the land, i.e. the Palestinians, and impose a racist state doomed to perpetual warfare within and without to sustain it. As Ahad Ha-'Am said in 1891 (hopefully not too rambling) "we surely must learn, from both our past and present history, how careful we must be not to provoke the anger of these people by doing them wrong...and what do our brothers do? Exactly the opposite!...they deal with the Arabs with hostility and cruelty...and these people will be revengeful like no other." The warning went unheeded then, and Zionism since then has been reaping what it has sown.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (39) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
< In 2062, tell me how Im doing > [6 words]Jay1Mar 12, 2012 21:24194308
2The dark age [67 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
YovenMar 10, 2012 14:29194229
1Dominant religion [116 words]UgriMar 12, 2012 04:10194229
15Cairo and Egypt almost fifty years ago [409 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
dhimmi no moreMar 8, 2012 10:23194157
Arabs' imperial past [58 words]BenMar 7, 2012 09:18194079
6Islam was indeed different 50 years ago [133 words]saraMar 6, 2012 19:43194036
9Re:Sara [384 words]Rohit PatnaikMar 7, 2012 02:50194036
2Going out to the kings of the earth [178 words]UgriMar 7, 2012 03:10194036
from exotic to unicultural [117 words]mythMar 7, 2012 07:23194036
2This was a miniscule liberal elite [84 words]AsokMar 7, 2012 12:19194036
1Response to Rohit [269 words]saraMar 7, 2012 18:22194036
I agree, Rohit, with some caveats [558 words]saraMar 8, 2012 17:23194036
11Sayyed Qutb and el-ikhwan [504 words]dhimmi no moreMar 10, 2012 07:29194036
1Historical details [265 words]saraMar 10, 2012 17:45194036
What lands? [55 words]Amin RiazMar 23, 2012 14:44194036
2Lands that were at any time considered Muslim lands [85 words]saraMar 26, 2012 19:00194036
5You also forgot [174 words]Peter HallMar 26, 2012 19:57194036
taqqiya [12 words]cmtljnpkirptsvji1683Jul 7, 2013 08:14194036
Go back 92 years [22 words]smg45acpMar 6, 2012 19:20194034
The Arabs as seen over a century ago [618 words]Isa AlmisryMar 11, 2012 00:30194034
Isa, your comment just doesn't make sense! [18 words]Peter HallMar 14, 2012 03:59194034
This Was My Comment. [303 words]Isa AlmisryMar 16, 2012 00:29194034
9I guess it took a while, but you have shown your true position [547 words]Peter HallMar 16, 2012 20:33194034
Colouring Racism [242 words]Amin RiazMar 23, 2012 15:03194034
8... Amin, the master of double standards. [483 words]Peter HallMar 24, 2012 05:30194034
1peter [91 words]cmtljnpkirptsvji1683Jul 7, 2013 08:48194034
2Your Views are rather narrow! [292 words]Peter HallJul 8, 2013 20:53194034
Fifty Years Ago [188 words]Peter HerzMar 6, 2012 18:55194029
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1I can only wonder who had funded such misinformation. [80 words]David FiresterMar 6, 2012 12:30194007
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5What is the Opposite of Fantasy? [698 words]Ron ThompsonMar 6, 2012 12:24194005
2The coming dark age. [134 words]
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Asif W.Mar 6, 2012 12:22194004
Ahab [44 words]AlbertE.Nov 4, 2014 15:12194004
1Islamic tolerance [35 words]trans-parereMar 6, 2012 11:59194000
The Arabs as Seen Fifty Years Ago [213 words]
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Matthew NicholasMar 6, 2012 09:33193983
Daniel Pipes Seen From 2062 [51 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
DaveMar 6, 2012 09:10193982
12012-onward will make the 60's seem like the 50's [24 words]Michael Hanni MorcosMar 7, 2012 00:21193982
1Camel [28 words]AlbertEl.Mar 10, 2012 17:17193982

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