Buried in the claim is another notion—that the worth of a people is defined by their possession of a homeland incorporated as a state. The Palestinians, lacking such a state, had no right to the land and perhaps no rights at all. The charge of being without a homeland or “stateless” was often lodged at Jews themselves. Zionists sought to answer that charge, but they did not dispute its premise. Their model was America’s pilgrims or Minutemen, and the role they saw for Palestinians was thus predictable.
