The Oxford Union was planning a debate this Hilary term on the motion:
This House Believes That a State of Palestine has a Right to Exist
It was to have been proposed by Daniel Pipes and Ariel Sharon (on life support machine), and opposed by the ghosts of Baruch Goldstein and Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Unfortunately, the Union President received a telephone call in which a certain degree of unhappiness was expressed at the, ahem, unbalanced and extreme choice of debaters. When the anonymous caller suggested that one solution might be to detatch the Union President’s head from her shoulders, a slight alteration to the term card was made.
Therefore, on the 24th of January, Union Members will be participating in an entirely different debate, on a subject rarely discussed in the Oxford Union:
This House Believes That The State of Israel has a Right to Exist
In Proposition –
Norman Finkelstein
Prof Ted HonderichIn Opposition –
Ghada Karmi
Ilan Pappe
If anybody suggests that the proposers of the motion are not, perhaps, the best defenders of the existence of the State of Israel, the Union President will be able to crow about her incredible courage in standing up to the all-powerful Israel Lobby.
But at least he won’t be dead.
