Zack Polanski has claimed that neither Israel nor any other country has a right to exist. The Telegraph has more.
The Green Party leader appeared to dismiss the belief that the Jewish state had a right to exist as “semantics”.
He also suggested that Britain did not have any inherent claim to exist, saying: “I don’t believe any country has a right to exist. People have a right to exist, the Israelis have a right to exist, the Palestinians have a right to exist.”
Polanski is facing growing scrutiny over the handling of antisemitism in his party after local election candidates were arrested last week on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.
Some activists also used the Greens’ spring conference to claim that Zionism, the belief in the right of Jews to self-determination, should be classified as a “racist ideology”.
Last week, Polanski was condemned across the political spectrum for sharing a social media post criticising the police after officers kicked the Golders Green suspect in the head during his arrest. Two Jewish men were stabbed during last Wednesday’s attack in north London.
On Wednesday night, Polanski was asked during an interview with ITV’s Robert Peston whether he believed Israel had a right to exist.
Told by Peston that the question had “enormous importance in the Jewish community”, Polanski responded: “I don’t believe any country has a right to exist.
“People have a right to exist, the Israelis have a right to exist, the Palestinians have a right to exist. And I think it’s our role as a third country to make sure that there’s fairness and transparency and accountability about a peace process.
“I always think these semantics about whether a country has a right to exist actually just ends up in gatekeeping, which is partly how we ended up in this mess in the first place with the Balfour Declaration.”
The Balfour Declaration was signed in 1917 and led to British rule of Palestine, laying the foundations for the modern state of Israel. The Israeli state was officially established in 1948 in the wake of the Second World War under a partition plan drawn up by the US.
Polanski did not challenge Peston when he replied that the “implication” of his argument was that Britain had no right to exist either.
The Green leader also repeated his claim that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, despite the host questioning whether it was responsible for him to pre-judge a legal issue.
Of course, this implies Palestine has no right to exist either. Which kind of undermines the whole case for a Palestinian state.
Worth reading in full.
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Everytime I see the headline of this article, I misread it as Polanski has no right to exist.
There must be a reason for this.
A thought experiment.
There are 10 countries.
All of the land available for countries to exist is occupied.
Create an 11th country.
Where does it exercise its right to exist?
The danger of Polanski is in his appeal, through brainless sentimentalism of this kind, to the gormless in society – of whom, OMG, there are so many. He’s the educationalist who insists on teaching to the level that can be followed by the slowest student. He’s several Blairs in one. He MUST be seen off.
One state, two state, no state solution. I’m not sure how it would work in the real world. Ask the people, I guess, whoever they are.
Hence it won’t be a problem for the Green Councils to take in all the Migrants into their wards, its what they want.
In the UK, there are no mental fitness tests for becoming Prime Minister.
Worse, following changes in 2013, mental health issues are no longer a statutory bar to becoming an MP, as it was deemed discriminatory.
The only way of stopping a clinically insane person from becoming a leader of a party and then PM is the party’s internal voting and selection committee, currently led by the über-mad mullahs.
I keep saying, we need MATT to draw a cartoon showing crazy Jack in a green straight jacket at the door of No.10 – our last hope to stir the lethargic electorate.
I honestly believe that if Peston, or any interviewer, were to ask Polanski whether or not, given his declaration that countries don’t have the right to exist, he supports the British government’s decision to recognize the state of Palestine, his head would explode.
I don’t believe any country has a “right” to exist.
If that makes me anti-semitic, then anti-semitism isn’t what I think it is.
I really don’t get the point of these silly semantic games other than as tactical attacks on people.
Surely, SURELY, there is actual substance with which to criticise Polanski. Like his extreme socialist ideas.
Of course, the problem is that most of the media class are themselves socialists, even the ones that think they aren’t, so they don’t quite know how to mount an attack on that basis.
Trivially, a country is something abstract and can have no rights. But what Polanski really means is that no people have a right, neither de facto nor de iure, to a country of their own and that’s one of his views and well worthy of being criticized. Especially as the notion of a world government or rather, world administration, is totally insane. Governing a fairly small and still fairly uniform country like the UK is already so immensely complex and difficult that things keep going wrong all the time and an agreement on what actually ought to be done and how can never be reached. A world government which is more than a shell delegating almost everything to governments of much smaller entities simply cannot function.
I don’t know much aboit the guy and so wouldn’t really know if he believes in world governemnt or not. Perhaps he does.
I just know that not being a big fan of nation states doesn’t automatically make you a fan of world government. I know because I consider myself the former and definitely not the latter.
The Greens are not a political party in the traditional sense but an international NGO with branches in all Western countries and their political ideas are accordingly.
Great summary from Will Jones:
“Of course, this implies Palestine has no right to exist either. Which kind of undermines the whole case for a Palestinian state.”
Well, does it though?
A perfectly valid case for a Jewish, Palestinian or any other state is surely the desire of the people to have one?
Most things people call rights these days are actually just things they’d.like to have.
Nothing wrong per se with wanting a state, I suppose.
The case for an independent Scottish state for example was not a “right”. It was the possibility that most Scots wanted one. As it happens, they don’t so…. are those who want it being denied a “right”? I certainly don’t think so.
I presume as part of his belief that the UN is a meaningless construct.
I’m sure if other planets had sentient life he’d certainly think planetary governments were arbitrary and want to be part of an intergalactic government
Big thinks from a tiny brain.
Interesting concept from one who bills himself as a non violent, anti war politician (apparently he stops short of calling himself a pacifist). If no country has a right to exist, then logically any group of citizens who want to come together to form a country must, by definition, have to fight for the recognition. As empires and blocks such as the Soviet Union fell apart, very few people were given the right to exist in their post empire state, so many ended up having to fight for that right, as indeed, we are told the Palestinians are doing. Some were granted a peaceful transition, such as in Eastern Europe, but many were not. So which is it, Zack, right to your country or fight for your country? And please don’t tell me that a global anarchism with no nation states and no government is your option, because you better start stocking up with guns and supplies for that apocalypse.
The idea behind this is obviously that the UN gradually morphs into a (technocratic) world government whose business includes herding people both for their own good and productive employment for worthy causes in much the same way milk cows, wool-producing sheep or egg-laying hens are herded today.
This guy is no anarchist. That would, after all, mean freedom of the people to do whatever they want and can accomplish. Madness! The climate would immediately tip and collapse out of sheer horror of such a situation! He’s a would-be dictator with totalitarian ambitions dwarving even the hyper-totalitarianism of the COVID years who works as lackey for people who want the same and are more likely to end up as that dictator than he is.
I imagine he believes in world government rather than anarchy, in so far as he believes in anything at all beyond The Big I Am.
The obvious implication is that Polanski rejects the right of members of nations to a nation state of their own governed and organized in whichever way they see fit and free from outside influence. People have a right to exist¹ but nothing more. Apart from that, they’re only allowed to be faithful subjects of the rationally organized (“Facemask must be worn past this point.”) one world state Polanski and his ilk are working to accomplish.
¹ A conditional right to exist, obviously. It might become necessary to cull them to hamper the spread of dangerous infectious agents or kill them for some other good reason.
Hmmm. I didn’t see the interview on ITV but, if the Telegraph report is correct, then it does rather suggest that this Polanski guy (I know, that’s not his real name) is extremely dim. More than just one sandwich short of the proverbial picnic. I suppose one should feel sympathy for him, given he suffers from mental instability (but I don’t).
The clown’s thick AF. He must be the most unserious politician/party leader currently around, so the fact deluded morons are willing to vote for him is beyond mental. I get the impression he’s just winging it due to the consistent stream of absurdities that come out of his gob, and as long as he’s making the right noises in order to keep his voter base onside that’s all that matters. At least Starmer ( and predecessors ) had the pretence of actually caring about Britain ( though very much belied by their subsequent actions ) but this joker’s not even hiding the fact he hates the country.
Meanwhile, I don’t know if this is an Antifa person, Green voter or what, because all I see is maximum retardation and serious derangement;
”One might suggest this is why Nigel Farage needs £5m for personal security for him and his family for the rest of his life. Not withstanding the fact MPs have already been killed in this country and Trump has had three assassination attempts on his life.
People are LUNATICS.”
https://x.com/Benleo/status/2052093805386404176
It’s incredible what some people are inadvertently voting for. Many many people are simply unaware of the claptrap that comes out of the mouth of Polanski and some of the Green candidates and engage in bloc-voting or a myopic focus on just one good thing they’ve heard about the Greens.
It was either a Talk TV or a GB News reporter (can’t remember which) who surveyed the opinions of some Muslims in Gorton and Denton after they had voted in the most-ridiculous Hannah Spencer. After it was revealed by this reporter to the interviewees that the current Green policy was to legalize all recreational drugs (obviously “haram” from their standpoint), they swiftly expressed regret for doing so!
Would they also change their mind if they became aware the leader of the Greens is Jewish (and gay)?
Yes, indeed. I vaguely remember something along those lines being shared on Twitter. People are so gullible, apathetic or just dumb. I mean, who votes Labour just because they’ve always voted for them? Who could honestly say, hand on heart, that they’re happy and satisfied with the way things are in the UK now? Just bizarre.
Meanwhile: interesting point;
”There are more Muslims living in Israel as full-citizens than there are Jews living (as citizens or not) in the 49 Muslim majority countries put together. This should be the only argument you need to debunk the false claim that Israel is an ethnostate.” https://x.com/aziz0nomics/status/2052373081889321105
”It’s pretty incredible that there are more Muslims in Israel than there are Jews in Europe (1.3m), South America (300k), Africa (55k), Asia (40k) combined!” Dibs
I just fact checked that second one and it’s true. Muslims in Israel = approx 2.1 million Vs Jews in Europe = approx 1.5 million.
This guy is either a bought agent of some hostile foreign power or someone who voluntarily acts as one or (most likely) both. At best, one could consider him mostly harmless for as long as he doesn’t have any real power. There’s certainly no reason to feel sympathy for him.
Why is he not using his real name? Only actors and fraudsters use names other than there own.