PrintJuly 24, 2011
Israel's War of the Words
Almost everyone agrees about Israel's military superiority over its adversaries. After all, it has won all the conventional wars, as well as the non-conventional ones -- Hamas's fantastic victory declarations in 2009, amidst the ruins of Gaza City, notwithstanding. But there is another war, an ongoing war, in which Israel suffers nothing but defeat after defeat. And in the long term this war might be even more important than the military wars, the economic wars, and the political wars.
That is the War of the Words.
The war over the very words which people use to talk, and therefore think, about the conflict.
There are too many examples. Even the very name, "State of Israel," is one: the founders of the new nation chose that name for legitimate reasons, to be sure, but failed to foresee that, over time, it has come to seem, to all too many people, that today's "Palestinians" must be by definition the indigenous people of that region long known...(Read Full Article)
