I believe Mr. Cohen was talking about 1948, not now.

The mistake that you and Richard Cohen make is that Israel is not a bunch of European refugees, but Jews from all over.

I know that, and I strongly suspect Richard COHEN (wink; nudge) does, also.

Anyway, there is an Israel, curling up and dieing is not an option. You lefties need to come up with something better.

Neither Richard Cohen (with whom, please note, I often disagree) nor I have suggested Israel should curl up and die. You righties need to learn to read. Oh, and think.

They deserve any attacks that they receive.

should be here, unless they delete it

I agree with you that the jews would probably not have accepted any other homeland. Doesn’t make it any less a mistake, IMHO.

-me

Given the significance of Jerusalem and the Temple to Judaism, I suspect the Jews would not have been satisfied with any other homeland. Keeping it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier for them, though.

a) He makes the point that Jews in Europe were being persecuted, which they were, so they had good reason to go to Israel. IIRC, when the idea of a Jewish Homeland was gaining steam in late 19th early 20th century, several locations were considered, including one in South America, and one that Stalin tried his best to create in Russia. I can see why they wouldn’t want to trust Stalin, and why they decided only Israel itself would do, but in retrospect, I do think it was a mistake. They should have chosen a different location.
b) The Partition Plan, at the time it was presented, looked like an insanely bad deal to the Palestinians. And it was. It was by NO means a “reasonable favorable compromise proposal”. Rejecting it was not gamesmanship or luck-pushing on the part of the Palestinians, it was simply a really, really bad deal for them. In retrospect, they should have accepted it, absolutely.

So … I agree with Yglesias that rejection of the Paertition Plan was a mistake, but I disagree with him that it was MORE of a mistake than siting the Jewish Homeland in Israel was. In both cases, the motivations of the people who made the mistake are perfectly, completely understandable and reasonable … and woul have had a profoundly positive impact on the history of the region if the mistake had not been made.

-me

(went away to read the Cohen column before actually posting this, and I actually agree with almost everything Cohen says. It will be rough on the Israeli people, but the best thing Israel could possibly do is NOT respond to violence with violence — long term, that’s the best strategy to gain security for Israel — short term, it’ll hurt so much I doubt any politician under a democracy could implement any such policy)