Israel's founding was unjust and abhorrent. There's no reasonable way to dispute this if you see the Palestinians as equal human beings. Just as, for example, what Europeans did to the Native Americans or the Aborigines or any number of indigenous peoples was unjust and abhorrent.

I don't have any particular disgust for America or Australia or Israel however, though I have disgust for the people who did these things. And let’s say I’m not too enamoured with the people who defend them or lie about them. The difference with Israel is that these things are still happening today and there is actually an opportunity to do something about them (and also the fact that the West is funding and providing political cover for them).

1. Israel is currently disrespecting the 1967 borders. Netanyahu and others have repeatedly admitted as much and refused to change. This gaslighting is so exhausting. Just because you wish something were true doesn't make it true.

2. The settlers are not merely "nasty and obnoxious." They are, in many cases, violent extremists and terrorists. And even when they're not, they're cold, unfeeling criminals (I suspect you won't be able to stomach watching the videos in these links, but I invite you to click on them and see why people like myself are upset about this situation). To my knowledge, there has only been one Israeli leader, Yitzhak Rabin, who made any effort to curtail their activities. Rabin was honest enough to compare the settlements to a cancer. Israeli extremists assassinated him for his efforts, of course.

3. That's fine. Once Israel establishes its borders it is perfectly entitled to defend them. I obviously assumed this would happen anyway. But what it is not entitled to do is occupy another state. I suggested UN peacekeeping forces within the Palestinian state because I think it would be good to have some force within Palestine ensuring that Hamas or whoever complies with any demilitarisation agreements. Israel cannot be the ones who do this. It will never be accepted, and rightly so. Just as Israelis would never accept a hostile foreign nation within their territory.

4. Yes, I can say exactly the same thing about black people in white countries. For almost all of modern history, white-majority countries have brutalised and dehumanised black and brown people. The aforementioned colonisation of America and Australia being just two of countless examples. Bigotry exists. It sucks. That doesn't justify practising that same oppression on a different group of people. Today, Jews live in many countries in the world with equal rights. As do black people. Before Zionism, Jews and Muslim allied together and protected each other from Christian oppression.

And also, although this brings us onto a separate tangent, if you're so convinced that Jews could never be treated as equals by Arabs, if you're convinced that the Muslims' hatred of Jews is intrinsic and, of course, had nothing to do with Zionism (despite the fact that Jews and Muslims lived together in Palestine for thousands of years before Zionism), then what, exactly, is the rationale of building "the safest place in the world to be a Jew" in the most dangerous place in the world to be a Jew?! This narrative that Muslims simply hate Jews and that Zionism has nothing to do with the current turmoil is an obvious lie.

What you object to most is my presenting facts that make you uncomfortable and that educate people who have been misled by Zionist propaganda. Again, the response to this article has been especially telling. I've lost count of how many morons have called me an antisemite for nothing more than providing a fully sourced collection of verbatim quotes from Zionist leaders.

And while they are morons, I feel for them! Because if they can’t be honest, what else are they supposed to do?? They can’t say I’m lying, every quote is referenced and taken in context, they can’t say these people don’t matter, they’re all key Zionist figures and/or Israeli leaders, they obviously can’t claim these people were antisemites or argue with them, so pretending these criticisms have something to do with hating Jews is all that’s left.

You, and they, want me to tell a story where Israel is at least mostly innocent of any wrongdoing and where the real problem is those dirty, evil Arabs. Well I'm sorry, I can't do that. Because it's not true. And it's not my job to hide that fact. In fact, my job is the opposite. And my position has been perfectly clear from the outset.

I oppose colonialism, which is what Zionism is. Whether or not you're uncomfortable with the word, several Zionists leaders (as you can see in the article) were open and honest about this fact. I oppose this current “war” in Gaza, which any honest person can see is not a war at all but, at the very least, a fifteen-month, one-sided massacre (I know you don't like the "g" word either, but it fits). And I oppose any state where rights are apportioned by identity.

I would oppose all of this whether it were Muslims or Mormons or black people doing it.

In fact, I recently wrote an article musing about a black state, where black people all over the world were given preferential rights and treatment because of the horrors of racism and slavery. I'm very glad the black nationalist groups who’ve tried to build it failed. You cannot build a nation out of trauma. All the attempt does is hold the trauma ever present in a way that twists your soul.

I've come across many black people over the years whose souls have been twisted in this way, by insisting to themselves that racism is eternal and everywhere and that the whole world is against them. I shudder to think what would have happened if these people had built a state, especially one surrounded by white states.