As someone who has appreciated the power of protest and activism on achieving progress in the U.S. and the world, it’s hard for me to watch the current high emotions over the Middle East devolve into arguments about the meanings of slogans.
Not only are those at loggerheads over Israel and Hamas taking the temperature to extreme levels, they won’t even agree on how to argue. Is, for example, “from the river to the sea” fair comment?
For those advocating for the Palestinian point of view, using phrases that the other side views as hateful is self-defeating and, frankly, hateful.
That’s why I appreciate the bold new effort by Cenk Uygur ( “pronounced Jenk, like short for Jenkins” and You-ger) — host of the popular left-wing YouTube political commentary show, “The Young Turks” — to eliminate that oft-voiced and problematic slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“Can everyone please stop the dumb ‘from the river to the sea’ chant?” Uygur posted on X, formerly Twitter.........