There’s a civil war, though not a very civil one, that’s been going on in the southern Levant at least since 1948. Let’s see if we can identify the combatants. But first a disclaimer. Any attempt to define the parties… Read More ›
October 7th
FROM THE YES-BUT-DON’T-SAY-IT FILE
The core axiom driving any cognising organism is to treat like cases alike. And this, of course, requires that it distinguish between this collection of things and that collection of things. These distinctions are not always easy. Are we in… Read More ›
THE FOG OF WAR
I’m told – though this could be apocryphal – that more Indians were killed in all those Cowboys and Indians movies and TV shows than the number of Indians there ever were in the Wild West. The number of kills… Read More ›
RIGHTS-TALK AND THE CURRENT PROPAGANDA WAR
Depending on when you start counting – and depending on who’s doing the counting – Jews and Arabs have been at war in Palestine since the first implementation of the Balfour Declaration in the early 1920’s, or since the Naqba… Read More ›
RIGHTEOUS KILLING
Most of us draw the distinction – and thankfully the law does too – between celebrating an illegal act and advocating one, and then between advocating one and inciting one. For example, I’ve made no secret that I thought 9/11… Read More ›
THE TOWER OF BABEL
Worrying about exactly how many Israelis were killed on October 7, or exactly how many Palestinians have been killed since, is a bit like debating whether the Holocaust killed six million, seven, or only five. Let’s just say that ’39… Read More ›
WHY ISRAEL DOESN’T HAVE A RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF
The thing about rhetoric is it can’t afford to ask itself what it means by the words it uses. For example, in justifying Israel’s response to the attack on October 7, the most oft-chanted mantra is that Israel has a… Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 