THE GOOD SENSE

“Well, I mean, the Kurds have never been offered statehood, despite treaties promising such.”

“Okay, but that’s the whole world.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’ve read the news. You've picked up a book before. You know all these names. We could talk about the Tuaregs and Basques, Chechens and Tibetans, Tamils and Shans, and Uyghurs—”

“The Tuvans and Rohingya.”

“Yeah, the Rohingya. And so many more. All in a state of statelessness and fighting, in their own way, to be free.”

“And I guess you could talk about the Welsh and the Québécois and a million others, too.”

“Yeah, the world: it's complicated.”

“So what explains there being little-to-none of the international recognition, support, or protest for any of these people or their causes?”

“Well, there's some recognition. I mean, I’ve read about these things. So the word is out. These people and their commitments haven’t been perfectly quashed. At least word of these and UN resolutions and such haven't been silenced.”

“But certainly folks on the other side of the world are not involving themselves.”

“No, there's no mass protest in China or Iran or Bolivia over the lack of Chechen or Québécois statehood.”

“No.”

“Nothing at all like what we get for Palestine.”

“No. And the Palestine issue is practically brand new compared to so many others. 75 years? That's nothing.”

“So why is Palestine the only one anyone cares about? Why is it the only one that threatens to blow up the whole world? What is that about? What is it actually about?”

“It’s about anti-Semitism.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I think it’s obvious.”

“Is it?”

“Well, no one disputes that Arab leadership in Palestine sided with the Third Reich in the ‘40s, that they associated themselves with Egyptian anti-Semitism and brutality in the ‘50s, and that they backed and themselves engaged in international terrorism since the ‘60s.”

“Oh, I'm sure someone disputes all of that. Have you heard the shit coming out of these people?”

“Not anyone with access to a library or newspaper archives or an internet connection. Not anyone who isn't working on behalf of the regime in Iran.”

“Perhaps.”

“And no one disputes that when Israel declared statehood the Arab population of Palestine chose to declare war instead of their own statehood.”

“Fair.”

“And they don’t dispute that all the neighbouring Arab states joined in to end Israel and rid the region of Jews. And they can't if they wanted to because the declarations of their intended extermination were never private but made in newsprint throughout the region.”

“Also fair.”

“Too, no one disputes that hundreds of thousands of Arabs left or fled or were forced out of fledgling Israel, now fighting for its existence, while hundreds of thousands of Jews left or fled or were forced out of Arab countries and Arab-controlled regions."

“And, of course, no one disputes the Arabs lost the conflict they brought to Israel.”

“And then lost again.”

“And then lost again.” 

“And no one disputes that Israel took more land, including all of Southern Lebanon and the Sinai.” 

“And also relinquished them.”

“And also relinquished those plots: an area far larger than the current state of Israel.”

“Right. So they've given up more land than they've ever acquired.”

“Doubtless. And that's universally understood by everyone that matters, especially everyone in the neighbourhood.”

“They also don’t dispute that Jordan, while officially siding with other Arab states, was secretly negotiating its take-over of the West Bank with Israel, which it eventually did. Something never considered the worst of all crimes: the 'occupation of Palestinian land.'”

“Right. Nor does anyone get excited about or even refer to the control of Gaza by Egypt.”

“Right. So this isn't even about land, exactly. I mean, it's exactly about removing all Jews from all the land in the Middle East. So it's about land. But what's animating people is their hatred of the Jews.”

“That seems obvious.”

“I mean, no one disputes that the Arabs were granted effectively all the lands liberated from the occupying Ottamans by European powers at the end of WWI. Nor do serious people pretend statehood was unavailable to the Arabs of Palestine.”

“I suppose if it was available to the Jew it was available to the Arabs.”

“Right.”

“Now imagine if those other ethnic groups were not pushing up against Niger, Spain, Myanmar, or China but instead the Jews. The world would be aflame over the apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Tuaregs, Basques, Rohingya, or Uyghurs.”

“You think? But these are all very different cases.”

“Are they? I mean, there are a lot of parallels in there. And often much worse. The biggest difference is often the crackdown against them being far more harsh than Israel has executed and not defensive in nature, either.”

“Like what?”

“Well, I was just looking this up the other day. The Rohingya have been carrying out an armed insurrection since the 1940s, just like folks in Palestine. And they faced a significant military response from Myanmar in the ‘70s, ‘90s and again in the 2000s.”

“Right. That sounds a lot like Palestine.”

“But the Rohngya were never offered their own state five times over during that period.”

“I don’t really know.”

“Well, they weren’t. But we all know that, what, a million were displaced by 2018 — with calls of crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. And with many documented cases of arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and forced labour, disappearances, summary executions, widespread sexual violence, and more."

“Right.”

“And despite this and how visible it is, how many fucks are given about all of that by all these kids and sociology professors and career activists who are in the streets today?”

“Sure. None. I see all that, and it’s terrible, but where’s the anti-Semitism, exactly?”

“Why is there no talk whatsoever of the evil 'Buddhist settlers from India' 'confiscating' and 'occupying' Rohingyan land? I mean, and you would know better than me, haven't the Buddhists only been in what is now Myanmar for like 1,000 years or something?”

“That sounds right. Yeah, the Buddha lived around 500 BCE or something. And the Buddhist heartland was the Ganges Valley.”

“But Buddhism didn't hit Southeast Asia for another 1,000 years or so, right?”

“Yeah, and it wasn't dominant within the kingdoms there for many more centuries, like not until the 13th century or something.”

“So the Buddhists have been in Myanmar for far less time than the Jews in the Holy Land. But Jews in Israel are labelled vile 'settler-colonialists' — enemy aliens said to be from Europe and with no basis for any legitimate purpose in the Middle East other than empire-building, resource stealing, and exploitation of the natives, no different from the Arabs in Zanzibar, the Dutch in Indonesia, or the Portugese in Angola? Bonkers!”

“That seems to be the claim.”

“Right. And that seems to be the claim from folks with history and anthropology and sociology degrees. Without anti-Semitism, what explains the outlandish focus on these one people? And why the impossible standards no one else has ever been held to? Well, the only unique element to be found is their faith. Isn’t it?”

“I suppose.”

“And this plays out in all kinds of ways. I remember reading about a top official at the UN arguing that descriptions of what took place in Myanmar as ‘ethnic cleansing’ are incorrect and needlessly divisive. I mean, just imagine the UN saying that with regard to Israel. You can't. And yet the case doesn't even make sense with regard to the Palestinians and is explicit in a variety of ways between the Buddhists of Myanmar and the Rohingya.”

“That’s interesting. Yeah, I remember there was a fact-finding mission, maybe the UN or EU, that returned with legitimate suspicion of something like 400 villages having been razed to the ground and then many of those bulldozed, erasing any evidence there were ever settlements there. Crazy.”

“Yup. And at least 18,000 cases of sexual violence and 24,000 deaths, or something along those lines.”

“Sadly for the Rohingya, all of this was carried out by Buddhists; otherwise college kids in California and Ontario and the West Midlands and Grand Est would all have noticed and demanded something be done about it.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“Yeah, and why has no one ever heard Rohingya supporters chanting ‘From the (Lancang) river to the (Andaman) sea!’?”

“And why was no one found attacking Buddhist-owned businesses or Buddhist schools or trying to burn down Buddhist temples in Canada or Britain or Germany, either? Why were Buddhist children never afraid to go to school? It's curious, right?”

“Right. And no Myanmar flags were ever set alight. And no one shared video of themselves and 800 others screaming ‘Burn the Buddhists’ at the goddamned Sydney Opera House.”

“And there were no Muslim caravans driving through the streets of Britain, cars draped in Rohingya flags, yelling through a bullhorn, ‘Fuck the Buddhists, rape their daughters! We have to send a message to the Rohingya!’”

“Nope. And no one was there looking into a camera, pointing and yelling, telling their neighbours in London ‘Jihad is a responsibility on you! Wipe out the Buddhist states!’”

“And, because none of that happened, you also didn't have celebrities and members of parliament and academics claiming that all of that was a peaceful protest, ‘words are just words’, and all of it is universally understood as and inspiring not violence but a social or inner spiritual struggle.”

“Isn’t it rather conspicuous that there's never been any significant gatherings of Muslim organizations and college campus solidarity groups in Canada and America calling Myanmar an illegitimate state and seeking to have it eliminated? What could possibly explain that? I mean, just given what people insist is inspiring them.”

“Sure. I get it. You’re saying there’s seemingly little or no solidarity for this other Muslim community being repressed and brutalized when those cases are many and in some cases far worse. I agree, it is a bit weird.”

“It’s not like the Rohingya are hated for some reason. Or that people here are only indifferent to them. You’ll notice there were also no mass protests like we see with Palestine during or after the Syrian dictator exterminated hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Syria. And no one was seen marching off their campuses for the hundreds of thousands of Yemenis killed by the Saudis. No t-shirts or banners or slogans being chanted for the Ethiopian refugees slaughtered at the border and brutalized in camps. Right? Did you see or hear of any global campaigns or weeks of angry protest in a thousand cities across the West? Where were the hunger strikes? Where were the claims of Islamophobia and indifference to Brown lives? It never happened. But this is exactly what they tell us stirs them so. I mean, point to the current protesters, so animated over Palestine, who spent all of July and August in front of the Saudi embassy after hundreds of photos and videos of the indiscriminate murder of innocents came to light on social media.”

“You can't."

“And you can't because there weren't any.”

“Right.”

“Right. And on that point we might also consider who hates Palestinians more, the Jordanians or Egyptians? If you watch the news you’ve heard of Palestinians (as well as Syrians, Iraqis and Libyans) joining ISIS and other groups to carry out massacres at Egyptian mosques and churches and downing passenger planes. More righteous acts of Palestinian liberation, I suppose?”

“Right. They don’t need to be demonized, but it’s not like we’re talking about a uniquely passive or benevolent people who’ve won over the hearts and minds of the world.”

“Fact. And we aren’t talking about people even any of their neighbours or fellow Arabs or Muslims trust or even like.”

“Right. So there’s no love there. The only common denominator to be found is, well, a rather glaring and significant one, and one that all these folks can get behind and call upon: not their mutual faith or ethnic identity but their thousands of years of anti-Semitism backed by the many religious sanctions they’ve all read and heard and endlessly repeated between themselves and for their children and grandchildren.”

“Right and then you just label one group as a minority, even when doing so is so perfectly senseless on a number of fronts—”

“Right. And package it all in the trending and meaningless language of oppression and race, for the post-secondary social media class—”

“Right. Many of whom have their own mild or burning cases of racism and anti-Semitism that needs only the most tepid encouragement for it to become expressed.” 

"And all in support of a people who demand refugee status in perpetuity for all their friends and family and even while living in their own homes."

"Or if they've been settled abroad for generations."

"Even with EU or American or Australian citizenship."

"And even if they're millionaires.”

“Or billionaires.”

“Or billionaires.”

“Yeah, and with understood by everyone, you’ve got teens and associate professors waving Hamas and Hezbollah and ISIS flags, tearing down the posters of kidnapped children and grandmothers, and calling for the murder of their dentist and barista, all framed as part of a just and necessary act of emancipation."

"Emancipation for a people insisting upon and enacting a self-immiseration."

"Right. A people who demand their freedom can only be attained by the extermination of another."

"And when they spell that out, clear as day, everyone, on their behalf, takes on the role of defence counsel, pro bono—"

"Yes. And twisting themselves inside-out as they attempt to do so."

"Yes. Working, again on their behalf, to explain away their shameless genocidal intentions through elaborate moral, legal, and logical arguments Palestinians themselves never pretend to need or want."

“Doubtless. And they do so between op-eds and podcast episodes, PhDs sporting their favourite Yeezys, blasting The College Dropout through their AirPods as they dance upon the roof of a burning police car in front of a Starbucks being looted of its travel mugs and tagged with a Star of David as it's splashed with pigs blood.”

“That is what we’re seeing.”

“Alas.”

“If only the Rohingya had the good sense to be oppressed by the evil Jews.”