Tom Toles for December 13, 2011

Perfect.

If you know history, you know that most nations are invented. What he meant to say was that the Palestinians are a “relatively recently” invented people. At least they’ve been there, and their ancestors, right on down the line for centuries. Most modern Israelis are descended from immigrants, many of them illegal immigrants (see the movie “Exodus”), who only arrived in that part of the world during the 20th century. The Israelis have a right to the land of Israel because their ancestors lived there 2000 years ago? That is just nuts. Native Americans have a better claim to the United States, than the Israelis have to their country if we are going to allow ancestral claims to come into it.

Of course, Israel has a right to exist; of course Israelis can legitimately claim their country. But that claim has NOTHING to do with anything that happened a thousand years ago. And as the Zionists who traveled to Palestine and built the modern state of Israel came from all over the world, speaking all sorts of languages, and having little in common but their religion, the Israelis are themselves a recently invented people.

In fact, you could almost say that the Palestinians and the Israelis invented each other. Israeli unity was built on the foundation of resistance to a common foe, and the Palestinian identity was built on opposition to Israel. Neither people would be who they are without the other. Neither nation is any older than the other.

Out of many slimeballs, the one.

Mitt Romney: Corporations are people too!

I think Newt wants to change the motto to “E Unibus Plurum”?Out of one (bus) many (clowns)!

@Rx71Wm29 – There is a phrase for that. It’s called “Republican debate.”

There is a particular irony in this, given the “In God We Trust” motto absurdity a few weeks ago: “E Pluribus Unum” was our unofficial but accepted motto until they changed it in the 1950s to “In God We Trust” in the course of anti-Communist hysteria. It’s time to take it back and remind the politicians — especially the GOP — of WE the PEOPLE.

Many of the Palestinians who were forced off their land in 1948 had owned that land since before there WAS an America

If the Repubs wanted to be honest aboutheir values and intentions, they’d lobby to change the motto on our currency to the one from the movie, They Live, ’This IS Your God."

Palestine was created after World War II by England to make a place for homeless Arab refugees. They were not any kind of nation before that. Surprise – Newt was right. Maybe our government schools do need to get some real history professors!

before 1948 it was trans jordan before that ottman empire the country of palestine is a recent invention one can only wonder what if the arabs living in what is now isreal had joined with jews instead of joining up with neighboring muslim countries who tried to destroy isreal at the beginning

Mr “E unum me-um”, is a Metamucil lump. Considering Arabs and Jews are BOTH Semites, and came from the same region, and it was the Hebrews who became so intolerant and vicious they were kicked out for nearly 2,000 years, Newt, and others might reconsider “invention”. That is also notable as those in the truly “invented” country arising in 1948 mostly spoke Russian, English, Polish, and non-“Middle Eastern” languages. Even sabra Netanyahu spent much of his life, and gained his education, in the United States.

While I respect a lot of folks in Israel who have more rational views, the extreme Zionists and right-wingers are just like Newt, “What’s mine is mine, what’s yours is mine too”, is their philosophy. “Sharing” doesn’t enter into the picture. Please, don’t go saying those whose family and land ownership DOES go back that 2,000 years are the ones unwilling to “share” what has been theirs for millennia. And that INCLUDES the minority of the Jewish population that CAN also trace their ancestry back that far.

Frankly, it’s the hypocrisy bloated “Christians” in the U.S. that have done the most to make the region dangerous and hate-filled. The “rapture” ruptures all efforts at common sense and decency. Newt is just a variant on the theme.

Lots of countries are more or less invented. Belgium, for example. Germany, in a way. Maybe all countries are invented — after all, they aren’t a fact of nature or a result of divine fiat.

go back to the brook newt, you haven’t evolved yet

I expect that he can. He is very smart and a good debater but the quality of his voluminous ideals is, IMHO, about one good for every ten baD.

The only real “invention” may be the “chosen” part. If there are now 7 BILLION people on the planet, how can a mere 15 million, world-wide, proclaim themselves yet the only “chosen” ones? Doesn’t it seem China, India or Islam, let alone Christianity, all with over a billion each, be more likely to have been the “chosen”, just by a survival, and breeding rate, of the fittest It’s just a question of numbers folks, not bigotry OR favoritism.

I am a strong supporter of the state of Israel (that is, its right to exist within secure borders — not every jot and tittle of Israeli policy, which is often quite offensive) — but even as a supporter, I would argue that Israel does seem to count among the invented countries, just as much as Palestine.

People are sent to jail for being convicted of breaking the law, why not the CEO of corporations?

Does that mean you’re gonna start counting like this?

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X

If Corporations are people, then why isn’t Mitt doing life without parole?