I attended and recorded last night's Debate at Lolita Bar, on "Is Zionism Racism?," between Saif Ammous and my friend Abe Greenwald. The audio is here (at least temporarily; it will be there as long as someone downloads it at least once a month).
Ammous "won" the debate, by being louder, using rhetoric such as "Zionist criminal pigs," and having vocal supporters in the audience. He grossly distorted the situation of land ownership in Israel, stating that 97 percent is owned by the Jewish National Fund (it's actually about 13 percent) and falsely claiming that almost all land in the country cannot be leased to Arabs. He also presented a hazy view of a non-sectarian, free-market democracy as the alternative to a Jewish state, without discussing what a real, e.g. Hamas-led, alternative would be like. Altogether, the debate cast a great deal more heat than light. But if you're interested, here it is.
