Why Ukraine Matters | Steven Pinker & Former Green Beret Speak Out | Defending Humanity 

Do you know what happens when you propose this idea to a Hitler? A Mussolini? A Saddam Hussein? A Putin? They chuckle, pat you on the head, say something like, "What a cute progressive." And then they go about invading Poland or Ethiopia or Ukraine or wherever else they want. And if any of your idea came to fruition, they pretty easily take over Poland or France or Kuwait or Ukraine--perhaps without firing a shot--because we don't have a defense industry. Brilliant.

Katsap bullshit. Nobody mostly asked to be annexed by russia.

" not happening totally against the will of a clear majority of the people of the annexed territory" Disingenuous claptrap. The people of these territories have already voted against a union with Russia, in 1991. Nor did a majority in these regions ever vote in favour of Russian aligned parties after that. However they vote NOW is irrelevant, under the guns of the FSB, criminals and extremists.

A whole country was almost removed from the Earth multiple times, you're right--Israel. There never has been a country called "Palestine." Do just a little historical research. Read a book written by someone other than Chomsky. Ancient Israel and Judah were subdued by the Romans. The indigenous inhabitants---the Jews--weren't thrilled and rebelled multiple times. The Romans being the Romans, they said enough! kicked out almost all the Jews and renamed the place--wait for it--"Filistinia" after the Philistines in an effort to de-judaize the place. They renamed Jerusalem Aelia Capitolina. "Filistinia" transliterated into English over the years comes out as "Palestine." It later became a province of various Muslim empires, some of whom, like the Ottoman Empire, used the term "Palestine" because, well . . . why not? But it was never a country and there never was a Palestinian *people* the way there is a Jewish people, a Polish people, an Egyptian people, or a Syrian people. After WWI the Brits take control of Ottoman Palestine, theoretically to prepare a "Jewish National Home" for independence or self-rule. Multiple Arab states are created after WWI. If they weren't enough, the Brits reluctantly put forward multiple plans to split ex-Otttoman Palestine into a Jewish state, as they're legally committed to because of their Balfour Declaration, and yet another Arab state. Guess who always accepts the partition plans? It begins with a "J." Guess who always rejects them--the Arabs of Palestine and later the new Arab League. Before 1947 Arabs and Jews of British Palestine called themselves "Palestinian" they way I call myself a Michigander. It's where I live (Michigan). Neither Jew nor Arab thought he belonged to a Palestinian *nation.* That was the invention of charlatan Yaser Arafat (perhaps a hero of yours) in 1964. Israel, one of the first members of the UN after the initial founding members in 1945, is the legitimate and legal successor to the Palestinian Mandate. The West Bank and Gaza Strip exist on maps only because thats where the fighting stopped in 1948. Both places were "occupied territory" long before any Israeli soldier stepped foot in them. Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan controlled territories west of the Jordan, in former Mandate Palestine. Neither state had any legal right to those territories. Israel, of course, is a modern day restoration of the independent Jewish state. After WWI, an independent Poland was also (re)created. The Finnish people--very distinct from Russians--won their independence, as did the Baltic states. And so on. If Israel was named "Jew Land" it might be a little easier, I guess, for you to understand it is the homeland--and independent state--of the Jewish people. Just like, you guessed it, Poland is the homeland/state of the Polish people, Finland the homeland/state of the Finns, Japan the homeland/state of the Japanese, and so on. It's actually quite simple. What is tragic is that in 1948, three years after the end of the Holocaust, the near extermination of the Jewish people, the Arabs of British Palestine and their brethren in Arab states launched an attack on the nascent Jewish state, attempting to finish what Hitler started. And in 2023, the Arabs of Gaza tried again.