From "The Revolt: Story of the Irgun" by Menachem Begin. "Land of Our Fathers"

Nor can we forget that there is a permanent dilemma facing humanity: how to combine and reconcile the urge for individual freedom with the striving for social justice. The freedom of the individual requires that the State should not interfere with his life; yet elimination of unjust inequalities is impossible without some calculated intervention of organised society, or in other words the State. I have no doubt that the solution is to be found in the golden mean. But the baffling question facing the wise men of the age is where is that happy mean, and how can we discover it?

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Northwest · M

Interesting fun fact about Begin: the midwife who attended his birth in Belarus was the grandmother of Ariel Sharon.[

The latter looked the other way, as Christian extremists committed a massacre in a Palestinian refugee camp in 1982, causing an international, and internal furor, that brought down Begin's government in 1983.

I did not read the book, so I don't understand what he means by "Land of Our Fathers", because the land of his lineage is present day Belarus and Poland.

LeopoldBloom · M

@Northwest If the Bosnian Ahed Tamimi can be an "indigenous Palestinian," then so can Begin.

All Jews have at least some Levantine background, and the majority of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi. The Jewish people also maintained a connection to Israel over 2000 years of diaspora. There has also been an unbroken Jewish community in Israel since antiquity.

Northwest · M

@LeopoldBloom why? Because Tamimi looks “white” then she can’t be Muslim Palestinian?

Bumbles · 51-55, M

Not sure the point of your post.

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Bumbles · 51-55, M

@LeopoldBloom All due respect, seems somewhat tone deaf given what is happening in Gaza.

LeopoldBloom · M

@Bumbles If an Arab country was involved in Gaza after a similar Oct. 7 style attack, you wouldn't have even heard about it.

Bumbles · 51-55, M

@LeopoldBloom If Lebanon invaded Gaza I would hear about it, but not sure how such a hypothetical lack of news coverage means my point lacks validity.

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

Good job quoting a genocidal Israeli as they complete his project - and you don't even mention that! That's how you normalize the unthinkable.

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Roundandroundwego · 61-69

@LeopoldBloom Hamas goal is to stop that genocide. It's okay. The entire world understands.

MoveAlong · 70-79, M

@Roundandroundwego What do you mean by that?

Roundandroundwego · 61-69

@MoveAlong Israel USA openly in genocide. We know everywhere. That's impossible to grasp, of course,! Never Again.

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