Reply To: What Happened To the Forum I Loved so Well?

AAQ: Nobody is saying it is or was wrong to settle there. The discussion is just about Zionism.

Many hold that there isn’t an issue of the Three Oaths. I’m a little disappointed that the Zionist side of this debate didn’t bring that in sooner. I think your better defense is to just try to find sources like that and say you’re relying on them, rather than trying to revise history to make it sound like Israel wasn’t established by a war for independence.

“Not just some Jews lived there. I think we can’t easily use small old Yishuv as a justification for further expansion, but at some point pre-1948, there were masses of Jews in possession of Tel Aviv and multiple kibutzim without, seemingly, any violation of Oaths.”

For sure nobody makes this distinction. What would be the arbitrary cutoff for it to be enough Jews living there for the oaths to no apply? Even those small yishuvim had the right to defend themselves from attack, but that’s different than going in trying to establish a state.

Let me throw you a bone and try to force the other side on the defensive: I still have not gotten an answer from the Anti-Zionists as to what would have been wrong had they put the state in Africa, seemingly circumventing the Three Oaths.