A little game I played after Kamala Harris said something about the two-state-solution

In contrast with many videoclips shared in the virtual space showing presidential candidate VP Kamala Harris in the worst possible light, she does come across as presidential in the under six-minute speech she gave after having met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I take issue with some of the content in her speech, but I am not going into that here. One thing struck me and sent me to Google to see what I would find.

At 4:30 minutes, she confirms her commitment to a two-state-solution and then she says:

A two-state solution is the only path that ensures Israel remains a secure, Jewish, and democratic state, and one that ensures Palestinians can finally realize the freedoms, security, and prosperity that they rightly deserve.

What struck me as strange is the word, “deserve.” What does it mean that the Palestinians deserve a state?

Two things before going to Google for my game:

Firstly, I want to emphasize that neither the Palestinian Arabs under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea-Samaria nor under Hamas in Gaza experience freedoms, security, or prosperity and the fault lies, not with Israel, but with their own leaders who wield administrative autonomy after the Oslo Accords were signed. It is hard to comprehend how anyone thinks that their terrorist-promoting/aggrandizing leadership that steals all humanitarian funds and goods for their own nefarious purposes (PA and Hamas alike) would suddenly become altruistic toward their own people if only the land they occupy was enshrined in a sovereign state called Palestine (from the Hebrew word for “invader,” by the way.)

Secondly, defining the word, “to deserve.” Collins, Merriam-Webster, and Cambridge Dictionaries all agree that the word means that individuals or collectives have earned to be given or to keep something because of their behaviour or qualities. This something that they deserve can either be a reward or a punishment. More on this after the game.

The game

I Googled: What do Israelis deserve? and What do Palestinians deserve? Here are the first ten items listed for each question as they appeared in my search. The websites on which they were uploaded are in brackets following the title.

Results would likely differ for others because of our respective search histories and they would also differ for different points in time, reflecting different contemporary contexts. Here is a snapshot for me, now:

What do Palestinians deserve?

• Do Palestinians deserve what is happening to them? (Quora)
• The Palestinians in Gaza deserve everything they’re about to get in this war. (Reddit)
• DiCarlo: “Palestinians deserve a life of justice and dignity and the realization of their right to self-determination and independence.” (Dept of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs)
• What happened to “All human beings are born free?” Reflections on a ChatGPT. (International Health Policies)
• What do Palestinians want? (The Washington Institute)
• Palestinians deserve a state despite Hamas, not because of it. (The Hill)
• The Palestinians deserve better friends (Times of Israel blogs)
• Student op-ed: Jews and Palestinians deserve a left that values their full humanity (J Street)
• Palestinians deserve better than their ‘defenders’ (Jewish News Syndicate)
• Why do Palestinians not deserve support for their self-defence? (Middle East Monitor)

What do Israelis deserve?

• Can someone explain why Israel deserves to exist (Reddit)
• Israel deserves every bit of the global public criticism it is receiving (Al Jazeera)
• Do you think Israel is getting what they deserve, or that Hamas and the Palestinians are abut to get what they deserve? (Quora)
• Gantz slams coalition lawmakers’ conduct amid war – first line of article: Israelis ‘deserve more from us’ (Times of Israel)
• Are all Israelis ‘colonialists’ who deserve to die? (Haaretz)
• Legitimacy of the State of Israel (Wikipedia)
• Harris: Israelis deserve security, don’t ‘conflate’ them with the Israeli government (Times of Israel)
• Israel deserves solidarity, Netanyahu not so much (DandC – website concerned with international development)
• Even Israelis deserve to live (@Israel “X” account post in response to UN post declaring that Even War has Rules)
• Student op-ed: Jews and Palestinians deserve a left that values their full humanity (J Street)

The JStreet student op-ed appears in both lists but other than that, they are all different. I am not sure I can really differentiate between these two lists — they both talk about rewards and punishments for behaviours and about the rights of their respective political entities to exist as sovereign states.

But then something interesting happens when we Google other nationalities.

What do Canadians deserve?

• Justin Trudeau: Every Canadian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. (Facebook)
• Canadians deserve a better Internet (Canadian Internet Registration Authority)
• Younger Canadians deserve compensation for enduring higher home prices (Globe and Mail)
• YOU SAID IT: Canadians deserve to know [about MPs spying on each other] (Ottawa Sun)
• Canadians deserve the truth about foreign replacement (Conservative Party of Canada)

What do Germans deserve?

• Do you think Germany and Japan got what they deserved? (Quora)
• Causes and motivations (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
• My family’s past, and Germany’s, weighs heavily upon me (The Guardian)
• The young generation in Germany sheds its anxiety (Welcome to the UN)
• Do you think the allies were too soft on Germany after WWII? (Redditt)

What do Brazilians deserve?

• What do foreigners think about Brazil? (Reddit)
• Why do high-income Brazilians distrust human rights? (Open Global Rights)
• Richarlison praised as ‘idol Brazilians deserve’ after Bolsonaro era (The Guardian)
• Brazil: From Climate Change Ally to Enemy? (Institut Montaigne)
• Bolsonaro tries to hide the disaster that his administration has brought to Brazil at UNGA (World Wildlife Foundation)

What do Kenyans deserve?

• The people of Kenya deserve a new Kenya (Raila Odinga on “X”)
• Mr President, Kenyans deserve better and fresh beginning now (Standard Media – Kenya)
• Lived experience leadership should be given the priority it deserves (Basic Needs Kenya website)
• Mr President, Kenya deserves better and can be great again (Business Daily)

In none of the instances is anyone raising the question about whether these countries deserve to exist or deserve to defend themselves. Quite logically, the question of what each of these countries deserves concern issues with which they are currently grappling. And Israelis and Palestinians are grappling with issues of their integrity as viable national units so perhaps questioning their right to exist is inevitable. But what about other countries that were created at around the same time as Israel was re-established as a modern state? What about other countries currently at war? What do they deserve?

For space considerations, I will neither list all the relevant countries nor all the results for each, but just make a summary statement for a few based on my search results.

Countries either created around 1948 or who received independent status around that time:

Jordan: items related to civil rights and equality within Jordan
Bangladesh: items concerning employment and inflation
Pakistan: better leadership to improve their economic and security worries
India: access to education, housing, health care, etc.
Jamaica: better government

Countries currently at war:

Ukraine: deserve help defending themselves
Russia: whether or not Russians deserve the government they have
Armenia: recognition of the genocide committed by Turkey and the Nagorno-Karabakh region conflict
Azerbaijan: the Nagorno-Karabakh region conflict and border issues with Iran

Aside from Israel, the right to (continue to) exist is questioned for no other extant nation.

The Palestinian Authority seeks the right to statehood and the manifestos of representatives of the Palestinian Arabs (mainly the PLO and Hamas) are open about their intention that that Palestinian state would eventually replace Israel and the Jewish state would cease to exist.

Perhaps one could compare the Palestinian Arab fight for a state with the yearnings of other groups seeking sovereignty, such as the Amazigh in northern Africa, the Catalonians in Spain, Scotland in the UK, the Kurds in Asia, and those who have gained independence by the break-up of larger political units, such as Yugoslavia and the USSR. In none of these cases was there ever the threat that a particular national unit would replace another — the Amazigh are not seeking to destroy Morocco, nor the Catalonians Spain. Were the Kurds to gain the state a Google search declares that they deserve, it would not cause the downfall of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, or Syria nor do they seek that.

The only state whose very existence is threatened by the potential statehood of another is Israel.

Therefore, Vice President Harris, your statement that the Palestinian Arabs deserve a state has to be considered along with the question of whether Israel deserves to cease to exist. We cannot affirm the former and answer the latter in the negative until the Palestinian Arabs reject their manifest destiny with respect to Israel. That is not likely to change soon.

In other words, can we support the statement that the Palestinian Arabs deserve a state when that implies that the Jews perhaps do not?

If you try to tell me that recognizing a Palestinian state does not mean the demise of Israel, I will ask you how you can guarantee that, why Israel needs others to guarantee that, and why you agree that it is legitimate to question the existence of a member of the UN.

Do you not recognize that repeating that Israel has the right to exist — when you do that for no other nation — means it is not sure that you or others actually agree that she does have the right to exist.