An Israel-hating historian named Zachary Foster (who is also Director of Product Management at Academia.edu) has come to my attention for this thread in which he claims to “debunk he popular Zionist myth that the Roman Emperor Hadrian vengefully erased the name ‘Judaea’ in 135 CE & replaced it with the name ‘Palestine'” He betrays his lack of objectivity (objectivity being something that is important for a historian, one would think) when he claims this “one riles up Zionists.”
But this Zionist is not at all riled up. I am delighted at this own goal.
While Foster goes to all that effort to somehow prove the idea that Hadrian vengefully erased the name ‘Judaea’ in 135 CE & replaced it with the name ‘Palestine’ is bunk, no-one cares. What is key is that he explicitly admits that this erasure occurred, and that ‘Judaea’ preceded ‘Palestine’ Given the name ‘Judaea’ derives from the Jewish kingdom of Judea, he has essentially admitted that a Jewish kingdom existed before the term ‘Palestine’ ever existed. Oops!
But this isn’t Foster’s only delightful “own goal.”
In describing why he became an anti-Zionist Jew, he admits Zionism and Judaism are intertwined (something his fellow Israel-haters deny), while inadvertently showing how the notion of “apartheid” in Israel – something he alleges – is ridiculous.
When it comes to own goals, Zachary Foster is a veritable Pelé.
