Thread by @Aizenberg55

🧵Te-Nehisi Coates The Message is an anti-Israel, antisemitic screed filled with lies, misrepresentations & omissions (especially). He calls Israel the most evil nation on earth. His academic fraudulence is only exceeded by his vicious hate for Israel. Detailed analysis: 1/

Coates’ first sentence deliberately reflects his hope & dream: no Jewish state. He makes clear he believes there is only one legitimate people with rights in the Holy Land – Palestinians. He disgustingly says Holocaust center Yad Vashem is based in Palestine. Tone firmly set. 2/

Coates lies & misrepresents often, on every page. First of a small sample of examples: he falsely claims the Temple Mount run by the “occupying power” is unfair, as “Israelis regularly tour Al-Aqsa” while “Palestinians are barred from the Western Wall.” 3/

It's exactly the reverse. Non-Muslims are screened at Temple Mount & Jews cannot pray, Jordanian Waqf restricts non-Muslims entry to mosque. But Muslims & Christians, including 2mm Palestinian citizens of Israel, can visit Western Wall. Here is US State Dept discussion. 4/

Coates suggests Muslims cannot pass through Lion’s Gate into Old City of Jerusalem, because when he was there he did not see that happen. Wow, what solid proof! But it’s a lie. Muslims regularly pass through here to the Muslim Quarter filled with Muslims. 5/

Coates falsely presents restrictions due to security concerns on literally ONE street in Hebron, Shuhada St, out of 74 sq km of city of which 80% is off limits to Jews, as evidence of racism. The Shuhada St. lie will never die as this thread exposes. 6/

Coates next lies about citizenship laws, claiming they are different for “Jewish Israelis” and non-Jewish ones – but they are not, they apply equally to all Israeli citizens, Muslim, Arabs, Jews, Palestinians. The rules apply to NON-CITIZENS. Coates blatantly lies. 7/

Spousal law he refers to bars non-citizen Palestinians who married Israelis (Jew, Arab, Muslim) from automatically obtaining permanent residency & citizenship. Strict residency laws that applies to non-citizens is not racist; it is legal & common worldwide. See description: 8/

Another lie: claiming that Jewish Israelis in Jerusalem are citizens, but non-Jewish ones are not, merely “permanent residents.” False, as Jerusalem is not off limits to Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is a gross fabrication. Coates lies on every page. 9/

Another lie: there are yellow Jewish license plates and green for non-Jews. False, 2 million Arab-Israeli citizens also have yellow plates. Coates deliberately conflates Jews & Israeli citizens, because acknowledging Israeli-Arab citizens have full rights destroys his book. 10/

Coates lies about water allocation in the West Bank, claiming like Jim Crow, Israel segregates water. It’s an ugly falsehood. Under the Oslo Accords (Article 40 of Annex III) water has been allocated under agreed amounts between Israel & PA, which has been fully adhered to. 11/

Coates lies by claiming Israel is a “caste" society. The primary evidence: Pals in Israel are poorer and live shorter lives. But Jewish vs Arab income is the same as White vs Black in the US! Coates did not bother to research. Is the US then a caste system? 12/

Here is the data from Israel Central Bureau of Statistics and US Census for income levels. Jewish income is 1.5x Arab, and in the US, white income vs black income is remarkably the same at 1.5x. But to Coates, this is evidence of a Jewish run CASTE system. 13/

What about life expectancy? See data for Israel & US for 2021. Arabs in Israel live 4.5 years less than Jews, but Blacks live 5.5 years less than whites in the US. Pals in Israel live 7 years longer than US blacks! Coates did zero research, just fake criteria & conclusions. 14/

Coates’ omissions are worse then the lies. Palestinians are pure, innocent, indigenous victims from time immemorial while Jews are cruel powerful oppressors. So the 1948 & 1967 wars are ONLY Arabs driven from the land, not rejecting a 2 state solution and starting both wars. 15/

In Orwellian fashion, Coates completely erases Palestinian terrorism. Not even a hint of Pal terrorism exists in his fantasy narrative of Israeli evil because Pals can only be pure, innocent victims. So when discussing checkpoints the only reason is Jim Crow – not terrorism. 16/

Coates does in fact use the word terrorism to describe the conflict. But only as something Jews do (sorry, Zionists)! He also describes the Baruch Goldstein terror attack in detail. ZERO about Palestinian terrorism, suicide bombings, Hamas, rockets. 17/

Coates trots out the lazy and false claim the Herzl advocated for “expropriation and banishment” by ignoring his entire and extensive body of work that says nothing of the sort, cherry-picking one out of context quote referring to South America. This is academic dishonesty. 18/

Coates lies claiming “Palestinians owned 90%” of land and Israel stole it; in fact >80% was state land (60% of Israel is desert). No mention of why state land was acquired: Pals & Arabs started war of extermination against Jews in 1948 and lost. Arabs refused peace post war. 19/

Coates’ hostility to Jews is evidenced when he compares the mere presence of the archeological site The City of David in Jerusalem, a Jewish history site, as offensive to Palestinians just like a confederate flag is to blacks. Disgusting comparison. 20/

Subtle lies & misrepresentations permeate Coates' narrative. He claims Israel seized a Pal orchard to uncover Pool of Siloam. In truth, Greek Patriarchate owned the land and sold it legally. So not an Israeli seizure. The transaction was decried but upheld in court as legal. 21/

Coates relies on misrepresented quote snippets, common to all anti-Israel writing. Coates claims Benny Morris called all Palestinians “barbarians” but Morris specifically referred to Palestinian terrorists, the whole section in the interview speaks of Palestinian terrorism. 22/

Here is recap of 10 of Coates' lies, underpinning his entire thesis that Israel practices Jim Crow, apartheid, a caste society. There are many more lies & misrepresentations not listed in this thread, this is just a sample from 100 pages of falsehoods. Read CONCLUSION next. 23/

Conclusion:
Coates weaves a stunningly fabricated and one-sided narrative connecting the treatment of blacks under Jim Crow – a system of enforced racial segregation and discrimination – to Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank. Coates arrived at his conlusions with one short visit to “Palestine” (where he says Yad Vashem is located) and copy/pasting the usual misrepresented anti-Israel tropes and quote snippets from Herzl, Jabotinsky and others as “evidence.” Coates claims that since during his visit he did not see Muslims enter the Lions Gate in Jerusalem that this must always be the case – this is the level of academic dishonesty Coates stoops down to.
Coates describes Israel as worse than Jim Crow, a caste society and an apartheid regime. He singles out Israel as the most racist nation on earth. But it’s all fantasy, evidenced by Coates’ complete erasure of Palestinian or Arab-Israeli citizens of Israel who enjoy full freedom and democracy in Israel, participating at the highest levels of Israel society. Coates does not write the words “Arab-Israeli” in more than 100 pages. Coates clearly did not spend one minute with any of the 2 million Arab citizens of Israel, such as the Arab students who comprise their proportional share in Israel’s leading technical school, The Technion. He did not spend any time with the Arab doctors who now comprise more than their proportional share in Israeli medicine. Instead, he traveled on the invitation of the Palestine Festival of Literature who fed him a one-side anti-Zionist narrative. Since he can’t evidence of apartheid in Arab-Israeli society he falsely claims the merely because Arab-Israelis are poorer and live shorter lives than Jews it must be the most racist nation on earth – even though these disparities are better or similar to blacks versus whites in America.
In Coates’ world view, Jews have no rights or claim to any part of the Holy Land and any form of a Jewish state is illegal and racist. Of course, dozens of Muslim states that strictly enforce the state religion on all aspects of society are not a concern to Coates, only Israel as a Jewish state is singled out. Even an archeological site of Jewish history is suspect (in a long section on his visit to The City of David) and an expression of racism. Coates directly plays into the common Palestinian view that Jewish history in the Holy Land is fake. On the other side Palestinians are pure, indigenous, faultless and powerless. Jews are the monstrous racists and caste system enforcers, Palestinians are caged, expelled, killed, segregated, etc.
With this world view firmly established, Arabs and Palestinians have never committed violence against Jews. It’s not even hinted at. Apparently, no Palestinian or Arab state has ever attacked a Jew for any reason and in any context. Not in Hebron in 1929, 1947, 1948, 1967, 1973, no suicide bombings, bus massacres, Hamas rockets (even the word Hamas is never mentioned), nothing. There is no historical Arab-Israeli conflict or an Iran which regularly calls for the destruction of Israel. There is not even the possibility that Arab and Palestinian violence is relevant to what is happening in Israel/Palestine – only Jewish violence has ever existed and is useful to explain anything in this region.
There is also no mention of the many times Palestinians could have had statehood, turning all claims of occupation, apartheid, denial of rights on its head. Not in 1937, 1948, 2000 Clinton Parameters under Barak, 2008 Olmert offer. Coates even cites these two Israeli leaders – but only as racists, not negotiators willing to grant Palestinian statehood. No Israeli deed has ever been right, while no Palestinian deed has ever been wrong. There is only the neat narrative of the Jewish oppressor and the Palestinian oppressed, and once slotted, the oppressor is always evil and the oppressed always justified in their action.
Coates book is antisemitic since he presents Jews as uniquely evil, based on numerous lies and misrepresentations and amazing double standards. He states there is “one place on the planet” that resembles the evil racist world Coates’ parents were born into. There is of course no mention of the numerous Muslim states surrounding Israel who actually institutionally oppress their minorities. Even the Palestinian constitution enshrines Islam, Sharia law and states that Palestine is part of the Arab world. Somehow this is not supremacist, only 7 million Jews in a sea of more than 1 billion Muslims in many surrounding nations are evil for identifying their nation in a certain way. Coates has no shame, no academic honesty, no pretense of truth telling. Just raw, visceral hate.

So far the only rebuttal is yes, Coates considers the US a Caste society. Nothing on the numerous outright lies, misrepresentations of Israeli society, amateurish knowledge of the conflict (I didn't see a "visible" Muslim at the Lion's Gate, therefore Israel restricts them; zero understanding of access to Temple Mount, etc.), massive omissions such as literally not mentioning Palestinian terrorism once, comparing the mere presence of a Jewish archeological site to a "confederate flag," questioning Jewish ties to the region and a whole host of massive omissions (another one: zero mention of Arab-Israelis). But yet Coates feels comfortable painting Israel as the most evil nation on earth after his short visit, with a zero right to exist as a Jewish state (no problem with dozens of Muslims ones -- they are not ethno states) based on all these lies.

So far the only rebuttal is yes, Coates actually does considers the US a Caste society. But no response on the numerous outright lies, misrepresentations of Israeli society, amateurish knowledge of the conflict (I didn't see a "visible" Muslim at the Lion's Gate, therefore Israel restricts them; zero understanding of access to Temple Mount, etc.), massive omissions such as literally not mentioning Palestinian terrorism once, comparing the mere presence of a Jewish archeological site to a "confederate flag," questioning Jewish ties to the region and a whole host of massive omissions (another one: zero mention of Arab-Israelis). But yet Coates feels comfortable painting Israel as the most evil nation on earth after his short visit, far worse than the US, with a zero right to exist as a Jewish state (no problem with dozens of Muslims ones -- they are not ethno states, they are not a problem) based on all these lies.