Friday, August 19, 2011

The perilous encounter between modern nationalism and ancient history

"Nationalism has been the source of much suffering, conflict, abuse and repression. But it is also built into modernity at its core level. No large, self-defining people can function in the world today -- which is made up of states and citizens of those states -- without being part of some national structure. Indeed, no individual can function in the modern world outside national structures. Try traveling without a passport, for example. Hence the particular plight of the Palestinians, by far the largest group of stateless people in the world. They find themselves outside the whale, not second-class citizens or citizens of oppressive states -- both of which can plausibly fight for their individual or collective rights within the structures of those states -- but noncitizens, citizens of no state whatsoever." Hussein Ibish

Mr. Mileikowsky and the "seal of Netanyahu": the perilous encounter between modern nationalism and ancient history


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