oh, to the degree the word genocide has any productive meaning i'm very willing to apply it, as are i think nearly all honest interlocutors at this point. (i know a prominent poster here says otherwise, but whatever.) 1/

i don't think there was anything inevitable about Israel/Palestine arriving at this juncture. you can find plenty of fascists at Israel's founding and plenty of Arab fascists around an before if you look, but there are always fascists in and for every community. 2/

there really were moments when some kind of civilized accommodation might have been possible. assassinating Rabin really mattered. 3/

it's true that for three decades now Israel's ruling coalition has mostly been fascist, but that fact is not independent of how the miserable national projects played out on the ground. having your kids blown up on school buses and in shopping malls may make a fascist of anyone. 4/

fascism is a contagious illness. when one group of fascists casts you as the enemy preventing the flourishing of the people, those so identified tend understandably to adopt an obverse view, and then whoever wins, the fascists do. 5/

what's worth noting about Israel/Palestine is how unexceptional a story it is. this is what happens when ethnonational identity trumps formal identity in a state that provides for the rights of all of its residents. avoiding this story is why formal territorial states and should be supported. 6/

also unexceptional is that devoted ethnonational partisans outside the zone of conflict or the nascent state that must integrate to resolve the conflict do terrible mischief. 7/

by supporting the cause of their side while not suffering the consequences of failing to find a path towards peace and integration, they fan the flames. 8/

any nascent state more identified with one side than another perceives outside partisans of the other side as foreign actors seeking to weaken and undermine the state, so those who support accommodation risk being perceived as traitors. 9/

Israel/Palestine is so normal, so predictable, so straightforward a case of why prior, sentimental, an ethnicity-is-like-an-extension-of-family tribal groups are a terrible thing at attach rights to or define states around. 10/

It's not an unusual story. It's the most usual. It's just in the spotlight, and being so in the spotlight with such emotionally involved audience members has made reaching a settlement all the more difficult, and that has made the scale of the tragedy much greater than it might have been. /fin