Daniel Larison talks Israel-Palestine. He takes on the common straw man argument that Israel “has a right to defend itself” from the belligerence of its neighbors. In the abstract, of course, every sovereign nation should have the right to self-defense; the problem is that this argument doesn’t take any of the history of the conflict into account. The Hamas rocket attacks, Larison explains, have been a response to raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque, which were themselves a reaction to Palestinian protests in solidarity with victims of Israeli settlements. And besides, Israel only pretends that the Palestinians are “their neighbors” when there’s fighting—the rest of the time Palestine is just territory that in fact is being occupied by the Israeli government. We should always be wary of simply condemning one side, especially when one side  is so consistently mischaracterized in the mainstream media.

Discussed on the show:

• “Gaza Lives Erased: Israel Is Wiping Out Entire Palestinian Families on Purpose” (Haaretz)

Daniel Larison is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com, contributor at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and former senior editor at The American Conservative magazine. Follow him on Twitter @DanielLarison or on his blog, Eunomia.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

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