But it strikes me that, to the unacquainted, saying, “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” may seem like an innocent call for people to be free. How could that be objectionable?

Well, the issue is that “from the river to the sea” refers to the entire area in between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — an area that encompasses not just territories captured by Israel in 1967 during the Six-Day War, but the entirety of Israel. Referring to that entire area as “Palestine” is not a call to end the occupation, to create a two-state solution, or even to return Israel to the borders that existed before 1967. It is a call for the elimination of Israel in its entirety. Israel is home to nearly half of the world’s Jewish population. The only way you can eliminate Israel and turn that whole area into Palestine is by killing millions of Jews.

[No kidding. I don’t blame Philip for literally producing a map and pointing out the obvious. But I doubt that many of the people chanting that phrase the past two weeks care one way or the other about what this actually means. They have joined a tribe, and it’s the tribe that wants to wipe out The Tribe, so to speak. They are calling for extermination. — Ed]