Let Them Eat a State

Dear Readers:

Today, I am posting an unpublished piece written by Miriam Greenspan--with her permission of course. She is a retired feminist therapist, a poet, and a Second-Generation survivor of the Shoah. Like so many of us, Miriam has been increasingly horrified, traumatized, and enraged by the demonization of Israel and Jews and by the support given to it by many of her (former) colleagues and friends--as well as by "celebrity" intellectuals, academics, activists, and political leaders. I give you--Miriam!

Let Them Eat a State

by Miriam Greenspan

“Let them eat cake,” Marie Antoinette was said to have pronounced during the French Revolution when her people couldn’t afford bread and were starving. Since then, this turn of phrase has highlighted the obliviousness of the elite to the problems of the poor.

Gaza is starving. And the people and nations of the world are anything but oblivious.

Some say the starvation in Gaza is the result of an intentional famine induced by the cruelty of Israel, and specifically of Netanyahu, in a war of ethnic cleansing and genocide. A war Israel started on 10/8 for reasons that have been largely erased. (10/7 never happened. Or needs to be seen in context—a day in which the intentional murder, torture and abduction of Israelis was understandable, given the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians). A war in which (according to Hamas statistics) at least 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, half of which are women and children. An unconscionable war perpetrated by Israel that Israel is winning.

Others claim that hunger is the consequence of a protracted war initiated by the murderous atrocities of 10/7 perpetrated by 6000 Hamas terrorists and ordinary Palestinians—an open declaration of Hamas’ genocidal intentions towards the Jews of Israel which resulted in 1200 dead, countless homes destroyed and Israelis displaced, and 250 hostages, most of whom are dead, the rest starved and tortured in Gaza. A war in which ordinary citizens in Gaza are used as fodder by Hamas, which steals free food donated by Israel from out of the mouths of its own people and/or sells it at a high price that Gazans can’t afford. This—along with Hamas’ use of its people as ‘human shields’ by placing its tunnels in high-use civilian areas like hospitals, schools, and mosques, has intentionally invited the horrors of civilian death and starvation as part of Hamas’ propaganda war. An unconscionable war that Hamas is winning.

Still others say: This is war. War is hell. Civilians, especially women and children have been the largest population of victims in modern wars since World War II. Israel is in fact the only nation that has offered to feed the civilians of its mortal enemy. Currently, civilians are dying in disastrous numbers in wars in Sudan (where over 12.6 million people are experiencing food insecurity and famine has been declared) Myanmar, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Nigeria.

So why is the Gaza War singled out? Because Israel is a Jewish state.

Whatever you choose to believe about the war and starvation in Gaza, one thing is quite clear: Gazans are hungry.

So what are the justice-seeking liberal democracies of the world doing about it? Many are suspending or withholding some arms from Israel (Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Spain, Belgium, Italy, among them). Repeated ‘Ceasefire’ get-togethers have come and gone nowhere because they require Hamas to give up its hostages, which it refuses to do. Some Democrats in power in the U.S. are doing their best to legislate the disarmament of Israel while ignoring Hamas. All ‘good nations’ are signaling their abhorrence of what they claim is the intentional starvation policy of Gaza by Israel.

But now, something momentous has come along: France, Australia, and Canada have stated their intentions: Declare a Palestinian state! In this, they are adding their voices to the 147 out of 193 member nations of the United Nations that have already done so. The UK is sure to follow.

All together now, strike up the band and raise the chorus: LET THEM HAVE A STATE!

Here is the post-modern, post-truth, post-rationality entirely symbolic contemporary version of LET THEM EAT CAKE! A state—without sovereignty, without geographical boundaries, without centralized government rule over a population, without borders, without laws, without anything but a claimed identity.

It’s long past time for a Palestinians to have a state (a state they have repeatedly refused since before and after the 1948 UN-sponsored declaration of Israel as a state). Why?

Because there is hunger in Gaza.

Because Palestinians are a people who deserve self-determination. Unlike the Jews of Israel, who deserve to be expelled from the land they have claimed to which they have no rights, despite the fact that they have been indigenous to this land since the Bronze Age.

Because they are victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide. (In fact, these are mutually exclusive. Ethnic cleansing is a term for mass expulsion. Genocide is a term for intentional mass extermination. If Israel is engaged in a genocide—which is defined as the sole and exclusive intention to kill off an entire population—then there is no need for ‘ethnic cleansing.’ If they are engaged in ethnic cleansing, they are not engaged in genocide. You can’t have it both ways. But never mind. None of this has to be understood rationally. It’s all about the passion with which one blames Israel for Everything Bad happening in Gaza while erasing the very mention of Hamas.

Because Gazans need a place to call home. Let them have Palestine, for God’s sake! Let the dream of nationhood for Palestinians be realized. Let Palestine be a formal nation. Which is located—where exactly? Perhaps in Gaza and the West Bank (which have been sworn Arab enemies ruled by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority respectively—the two ‘governing bodies’ who have been at war and hate each other for decades?) Or, perhaps, even better, a Palestinian state in Israel? Hmm. How’s that going to work out? Via another ongoing war perhaps? Maybe via the ethnic cleansing and/or genocide of Israel’s Jews?

Maybe none of the above. Maybe in the air. The Germans have a word for it: Luftmensch. Luft translates as ‘air.’ Mensch means ‘person’. Luftmenschen are ‘air people’—people who live in the air, detached from the necessities and realities of everyday life.

Congratulations Palestinians! Way to go! So many nations are on your side! And your reward? You get to live in the air!