larry-cripples

Speaking as a Jew and the descendant of Holocaust survivors, your level of bias toward Israel is incredible.

You assert that Israel is the greatest impediment against a peace deal and a two-state solution.

Israel is the greatest impediment – it literally holds all the power in the dynamic, and continues to refuse to engage in negotiations because it knows that offering any measure of sovereignty to Palestine will prevent the construction of future settlements, and any attempt to bring Palestinians back into the Israeli state will disrupt the demographic balance that privileges Jews. Israel is literally an ethno-state.

How do you reconcile that with the fact that in Hamas' own charter, "peaceful solutions" are explicitly rejected in favor of murder of Jews to reclaim the whole of Israel?

Is Hamas' charter justified in calling for the murder of Jews? Certainly not. But is it understandable given the fact that Palestinians have essentially been under a 70-year occupation by an ethno-state? I think so. Besides, since 2017 Hamas' charter has openly stated their willingness to find a two-state solution. When you're denied basic human rights and your own sovereignty, is it surprising that people turn to extremism? That's not an endorsement of Hamas' violence, but acting as though the Palestinian perspective is completely unreasonable is deeply dishonest and dehumanizing.

Yet last month, Mahmoud Abbas claimed that Jews in Europe brought the Holocaust upon themselves

In no way does that quote suggest that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves – Jews absolutely were reviled because of their perception as greedy money-lenders, which stems from the historical fact that Jews in Europe were disproportionately represented in the finance industry because they were historically excluded from other forms of legitimate work. Was that the sole factor? Absolutely not. But to act as though the social and economic ostracization of Jews in Europe didn't have anything to do with anti-Semitism is ridiculous.

First, given how much your parents suffered, do you agree that there is a need for a Jewish state?

No, all ethno/religio-states are inherently bad.

That is to say, the policies of Likud aside, why is it reasonable for any Jewish Israeli - even those on the center and left - to expect to find common ground and peace with Palestinian leadership that either elected on a platform of destroying Israel and the Jewish people

Equating Israel with the Jewish people is part of the problem – they are not the same.

pretense to steal land

Let's make one thing clear – Israel is the party that has and continues to steal land from the Palestinians.

Why should Israelis believe that after ending the blockade of Gaza, unilateral disengagement from the West Bank, land swaps to approximate pre-1967 borders, and taking any of a number of other actions, they could live in peace with an independent Palestine?

Because the alternative is untenable.

EDIT: Since this is getting a lot of attention, I'd encourage American Jews who support Palestinian rights to look into the work of groups like If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace, which are working to change the narrative around American Jewish support for Zionist policy. I'd also encourage you to challenge your families and communities on their stances – it's incumbent on us to be a voice for change, since so much of the violence is done in our name.

They really do, but I think that's all the more reason for progressive American Jews to speak up against their narrative.

Zoning incentives to construct some BMR (Below Market Rate) housing is one area that is a promising tool to help ensure housing affordability across a range of income levels, if implemented correctly. Specifically, I support a policy approach called inclusionary upzoning. It basically works like this: developers are allowed to build denser housing (duplexes, apartments, etc.) on a given lot if they set aside a portion of the units for housing people with lower-incomes at a rate below what they could charge on the market.

We have this in New York and it doesn't work. Ironically, the results are exactly what you worry about in the case of rent control -- a few people get lucky, but developers almost exclusively build for the luxury market and there is no corresponding drop in prices for older units. In fact, we now have far more empty apartments than we do homeless people (and by extension, real demand). The problem is that real estate is increasingly treated as an investment vehicle rather than a place to live -- housing as a commodity rather than a social need.

The inclusionary zoning proposal also rests on the assumption that there is enough demand on the higher end of the market to incentivize developers to build so many new units that the 20% or whatever they set aside per building for low-income residents would actually meet all the demand for affordable housing on the lower end of the market -- and that just does not seem like a logical approach. I know folks might say that the new developments would cause older developments to drop in price and therefore free up even more affordable housing stock, but again, we have tried this in NYC and it does not work. The fundamental issue is that developers and landlords want to turn around as much profit as possible, and it is very difficult to turn a profit off of low rents without exploiting the hell out of tenants. This is a fundamental contradiction of the market, and simply trying to tweak the system isn't going to change that.

I gotta say, I think your approach to housing affordability sounds very narrow-minded and disappointing. Have a little imagination! Community land trusts, social housing, etc. are much better ways to actually ensure affordable housing instead of trying to encourage landlords to go against what the market clearly incentivizes them to do.

There is no excuse whatsoever for the secondary claim

Asserted without explanation

Israel has not refused to engage in negotiations -- in fact, it has successfully negotiated peace treaties with some of its neighbors (i.e. Egypt, Jordan), offered peace treaties to others (i.e. Syrian in 1967), and made multiple peace offers to the Palesitnians (i.e. 2000, 2008)

Yes, and the Palestinians have engaged with each of these, only for the talks to fall apart whenever Palestine asks for territorial clarifications about the plans.

As to your contention that "Israel is literally an ethno-state," you could say the same of Armenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Malaysia... so what's your point?

Well have any of those countries corralled an existing native people off their land and denied them the right to return/citizenship because it would upset the demographic balance favoring their own minority? Do these country's legal codes explicitly favor people belonging to a specific ethno-religious group? Do these countries continue to embark on a settler colonialist project into lands they have no legal right to? Do these countries control the flow of goods, utilities, and people in territories that are supposed to be sovereign? Any state whose policies are explicitly aimed at defending a demographic majority and defining their country by ethnic/religious rather than civic standards is an abhorrent state and should be condemned.

EDIT because you added more points later:

So if I am ever oppressed by Christians, Muslims, or Hindus, I can call for their genocide worldwide, and you would think it's justified? Good to know.

No, you should not, but your view would certainly reflect your genuine mistreatment by those groups and those grievances would still be valid.

Hamas is the reason Egypt and Israel enforced a blockade on Gaza

And the reason Hamas gained popularity in the first place is because Israel refuses to offer Palestinians peace, national autonomy, and the right of return.

Hamas could have had a great opportunity to invest the millions of dollars it receives in international aid to engage in nation-building

How can you engage in nation-building when you don't control your own nation?

To pretend that this man does not hold vile views on Jews in general, and completely ashitorical views on the Holocaust, is nonsensical.

Frankly, I'm not concerned with debating the validity of Abbas' points. Some of them are wrong, some of them are accurate, some of them are nuanced. The important point here is that Palestinians do not simply desire the destruction of the Jewish people because they're rabid monsters – they desire the destruction of the state of Israel because it has been their oppressor for 70+ years, and given the right-wing's decades-long project to conflate the Jewish people with the state of Israel, there's bound to be some nuance lost there. Anti-Zionism =/= anti-Semitism. The Palestinian cause is valid.

According to Hamas, all the land that Israel is on was "stolen" from the Palestinians, because it's all Arab lands. Jews and other ethnic minorities do not have a right to self-determination in the Middle East, according to Hamas. Do you agree with this view?

All people have a right to self-determination, but in areas with mixed populations it seems clear to me that the only solution is a secular state recognizing the interests (and equality) of all parties. However, in the case of Palestine, this land was occupied overwhelmingly by Palestinians for literally hundreds of years – it does rightfully belong to them.