Ta-Nehisi Coates, a celebrated writer and public intellectual known for his works on race in America, has recently stirred controversy with his new book, The Message

The book of essays, which was based only on a 10-day trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, has received criticism that its one-sided approach oversimplifies the complex history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ignores terrorism and threats to destroy Israel, and promotes anti-Israel narratives by falsely framing the conflict through an American perspective on race.

However, what Coates has added in media interviews since the book’s release on October 1 has been equally troubling, if not more so. In one interview, he suggested that if he had been born in Gaza, he might have participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel, where Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, murdered over 1,200 people, and took more than 250 hostages. 

Here are five key things to know about Coates, his book, and the heated debates surrounding his views on Israel.

  1. Who is Ta-Nehisi Coates?

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American writer, journalist, and author known for his work on African American culture, history, and contemporary issues, particularly regarding race and racism in the United States. He gained widespread recognition for his 2015 book Between the World and Me, which is written as a letter to his teenage son about the realities of being Black in America. The book won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Coates has also written for The Atlantic, where his essays, such as "The Case for Reparations," have been influential in sparking discussions about racial injustice and reparations for slavery. Additionally, he has written for Marvel comic books on the Black Panther and Captain America series.

He is regarded as one of the leading voices on issues of systemic racism, inequality, and the African American experience.

  1. What did Coates say in his new book about Israel?

Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book, The Message, published on October 1, has drawn controversy over his projection of American racial inequalities on Israel and using it to weaponize and undermine Israel’s legitimacy and right to exist. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about a trip he took to Israel and the West Bank in May 2023. “I felt lied to,” he told New York Times columnist and podcast host Ezra Klein. “I felt lied to by my craft. I felt lied to by major media organizations.”

In one of the three essays in his new book, published on October 1, Ta-Nehisi Coates falsely labels Israel an "apartheid" state and compares the treatment of Palestinians to that of Black Americans under Jim Crow. 

He writes, “I don’t think I ever, in my life, felt the glare of racism burn stronger and more intense than in Israel,” he said. “There are aspects I found familiar—the light-skinned Palestinians who speak of ‘passing,’ the black and Arab Jews whose stories could have been staged in Atlanta instead of Tel Aviv.” 

  1. Why is Coates's book on Israel problematic? 

Coates’s essay, which stems from a 10-day trip to Israel in 2023 for the Palestine Festival of Literature and a tour with the far-left nonprofit Breaking the Silence, notably omits any mention of Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran. 

He also presents a false version of reality in which Palestinians are victims and Israel is the aggressor, failing to mention the history of terrorism carried out by anti-Israel terror groups, such as during the First or Second Intifadas, violent Palestinian uprisings that killed over a thousand Israelis through suicide and bus bombings. Additionally, there is no mention of past offers of peace by Israel and its rejection by the Palestinian leadership. 

Even more problematic is his attempt to oversimplify complex issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only seeing it through the lens of his own perspective as a Black American and likening Israel’s treatment of Palestinians today as analogous to the injustices suffered by African Americans in the U.S. such as under Jim Crow laws. 

Journalist Matti Friedman, who has written about how Americans project their own racial and cultural views onto Israel, criticized Ta-Nehisi Coates's approach as misguided. In a podcast interview with Dan Senor, Friedman argued, "A good reporter approaches a story with a willingness to understand it on its own terms, while a bad reporter sees only a mirror." He added that America's tendency to impose its own frameworks on other parts of the world has often led to serious errors in judgment, citing the invasion of Iraq as an example. 

  1. What did Coates say about Israel? 

Amid the release of his book, Coates drew intense criticism for, in interviews, suggesting that Israel has no right to exist and excusing Palestinian terrorism. 

CBS interview: In an interview with CBS Mornings news anchor Tony Dokoupil, Coates was challenged by Dokoupil on his claims against Israel’s legitimacy, who accused the author of engaging in extremist rhetoric.

“If I took your name out of it, took away the awards, and the acclaim, took the cover off the book, the publishing house goes away—the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” said Dokoupil.

The book, Coates said, was not intended to be “a treatise on the entirety of the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.” He isn’t offended by a “Jewish state,” Coates said, but “by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are.”

Israel is far from the only country, including many democracies, with a strong ethnic identity linked to their national identity. Others, such as Japan, Armenia, South Korea, Greece, and Ireland, all have a strong association between the nation-state and a specific ethnic or cultural group, with national policies sometimes reflecting this alignment.

When Dokoupil asked him why his essay ignored the terror groups that seek to wipe Israel off the map – which might explain Israel’s high level of scrutiny and lack of courtesy at security checkpoints – he replied that “Israel does exist. It’s a fact. The question of its ‘right’ is not a question that I would be faced with any other country.”

Of course, he’s right. No other country would be faced with that question. Israel is faced with that question every day as it faces near-daily rocket and missile attacks from Iran-backed Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthi terrorists.  

Trever Noah Interview: 

In a recent interview with former The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, Coates appeared to justify and excuse terrorism by suggesting that if he had been born in Gaza, he might have participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel. 

Reflecting on the situation, he stated, "I grow up under that oppression and that poverty and the wall comes down, am I also strong enough or even constructed in such a way where I say this is too far? I don’t know that I am." Coates acknowledged that he had thought "about it a lot" but had never said it out loud before.

Coates described the need to recognize the historical contexts that shape actions, likening the situation in Gaza to past struggles. He drew a parallel to Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion, saying, "The example I think about all the time is like Nat Turner. This man slaughters babies in their cribs." He questioned whether the "degradation and dehumanization of slavery" could ever justify such acts, pondering whether some enslaved people would have thought, "This is too far. I can’t do that." 

But Nat Turner’s quest to abolish slavery and Hamas’ goals of tightening its grip on Gaza and cozying up to Iran have nothing in common. One was a revolt against slave masters to free oppressed people. The other was an attempted genocide of Jews living in Israel. 

He also falsely compared Gaza to a "giant open-air jail," where Palestinians face the constant risk of being "shot" by Israeli forces.

Israel is at war against Hamas terrorists. Before that war, Israel, which borders only two of Gaza’s land borders (Egypt borders the third), did not occupy Gaza but did impose a naval blockade to stop the flow of terrorist weapons smuggling into the coastal enclave. 

After the Israeli withdrawal in 2005, the Gaza Strip has been under de jure control of the Palestinian Authority, the governing body of the Palestinians, but de facto control by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, which violently ousted the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority from the territory in 2007. Two-thirds of the population in Gaza lived in poverty under Hamas leadership. Contrary to Coates’ assertion, Gazans lived and walked freely, raised families, attended schools, and prayed in mosques with no interference from Israel. In fact, prior to Hamas’ massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7, Gazans not only transited the Egypt-Gaza border, but also the Israeli-Gaza border for work, health care, or other means. That is not an open-air jail. 

  1. Why do Coates’s statements matter?

Ever since Coates appeared on the pages of The Atlantic in 2014 with his essay on “The Case for Reparations,” using the post-Holocaust atonement of European nations as a model for America’s atonement for slavery, he has been regarded as a leading public intellectual. 

But comparing the African American experience in America to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nonsensical. Doing so based on a 10-day tour guided by clearly biased organizations with an ax to grind against the Jewish state, not to mention a tour taken months before the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust, either demonstrates’ naivete or reveals an unwillingness to grapple with the actual situation.  

It’s also dangerous. Coates’ sympathy with Hamas terrorists implies violence is the only solution. 

Oversimplifying a conflict with decades of history and placing all the blame on one side because it is finally equipped to defend itself is not an intellectually honest approach. Instead of fueling robust civil discourse, it fuels anti-Israel narratives.

Coates also presents the conflict through an American lens, which is never the correct way to view events in another country. What is happening in Israel can not be compared to the American quest to abolish slavery, the civil rights struggle, or the South African movement to end apartheid. 

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