J. Pharoah Doss: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ poor American parallels

The Message, a new book by award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates, includes a contentious essay about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Coates concluded that the dispute isn’t complicated. It’s a simple matter of right and wrong—and Israel is wrong. Coates never mentioned in his book that Israel is surrounded by nations seeking to eradicate it and is constantly coping with terror attacks, thereby perplexing a CBS interviewer. The interviewer sought to know whether Coates omitted these facts since he thought Israel had no right to exist. Coates replied, “No country in this world establishes its ability to exist through rights. Countries establish their ability to exist through force, as America did.” Clearly, Coates suggests that the extermination of the Native population and the seizure of their land led to the creation of America, and that Jews followed suit in Palestine to establish the state of Israel. Spanish, French, and British colonies were responsible for the conquest of land and the annihilation of native populations throughout North and South America, but the United States of America established itself through rights. The United States declared independence from England. The King of England believed the 13 colonies had no right to autonomy. Europe’s governing principle at...