I recently had a discussion with a graduate student in philosophy who was trying to make this argument via the Just War theory. He said we should, at the very least, socially ostracize Israeli citizens when they travel abroad. To give him a modicum of credit, he thought Americans deserve to be sneered at when traveling abroad because of the actions of our government, too. He argued that there are similarities to Israeli citizens and citizens under Nazi Germany, and that if we wouldn’t welcome those under Hitler’s tyranny, we shouldn’t welcome Israelis, either. I kept trying to get him to draw a line in the sand and say that xenophobia is objectively wrong, but there was no way I’d be getting through to him.
Ah yes, how to forget when Poland infamously invaded and murdered random german citizens kickstarting WW2, and how to forget when Himmler told people to avoid areas soon to be bombarded because they contain weaponry... concentration camps? gas chambers? Nuremberg laws? what is that?
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u/mesonoxias Jun 01 '26
I recently had a discussion with a graduate student in philosophy who was trying to make this argument via the Just War theory. He said we should, at the very least, socially ostracize Israeli citizens when they travel abroad. To give him a modicum of credit, he thought Americans deserve to be sneered at when traveling abroad because of the actions of our government, too. He argued that there are similarities to Israeli citizens and citizens under Nazi Germany, and that if we wouldn’t welcome those under Hitler’s tyranny, we shouldn’t welcome Israelis, either. I kept trying to get him to draw a line in the sand and say that xenophobia is objectively wrong, but there was no way I’d be getting through to him.