Word: attempting
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Ramy Tadros's piece ("Israel's `Independence' Day," guest commentary, May 3, 1995) states the obvious in emphasizing that the rights of freedom, independence and self-determination belong to every people. His stories also show that any attempt at achieving these goals is bound to be as fractured as the world in which we live...
Tadros begins his argument by claiming that he does not intend to "raise questions about Israel's raison d'etre, legitimacy or right to exist." He then proceeds to attempt to cast doubt about Israel's legitimacy by referring to the War of Independence as "so-called," and continuing throughout the article to put quotation marks around the word "independence" when referring to the establishment of Israel. Tadros then attempts a calculating revision of history by arguing that Zionism and the birth of Israel depended above all on the forcible expulsion and terrorizing of Palestinians...
...subtle attempt to undermine Israel's legitimacy by selective historical omissions and use of quotations is an attempt to have his argument both ways. Tadros clearly realizes that he will get nowhere with his argument if he explicitly calls Israel's right to exist into question. To do so would undermine his stance as a proponent of the "basic right of self-determination." However, by reducing everything on the Israeli side of the debate to "so-called" status, he can essentially induce the reader to question Israel's right to exist. Rather than strengthening his own argument, Tadros tries...
Decades of preparation paid off as Israel proceeded to carry out one of the most stable transitions into democratic statehood in modern history. With no attempt to prolong the provisional government, Israel held its first in a long series of elections in January of 1949, extending votes and citizenship rights equally to all, including its substantial Arab minority...
...McNamara now admits, he had realized as early as 1965 that the war in Vietnam was not winnable. He continued to send more Americans into Vietnam in an attempt to force the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table. At the same time his fear of "escalation" led him to hamstring the military's efforts to push northwards toward North Vietnam or to disrupt the enemy's supply lines, the so-called "Ho Chi Minh Trail" that went through a nominally neutral Laos...