Words that dull

Words are the sharpest of all weapons but they also dull the mind. There are only "settlers" not residents or revenants. There are only "settlements," no communities, towns or villages. I have discovered a new word: "predominantly." See how it is used here by Isabel Kershner of the New York Times:

Senior Israeli government officials and dignitaries on Wednesday attended the dedication ceremony of a Jewish apartment complex in a hotly contested, predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of the city across the 1967 boundary. What does that term mean? If it refers exclusively to number, the demographics would be correct. But who are those "Palestinians" who are so predominant? Are they not Arabs? I can hear you responding "but they call themselves 'Palestinians'." And I would counter that the Arabs of the Galillee, if they call themselves "Palestinians" (which they do), are they "Palestinians" truly or Arab Israelis (and the ramifications of that is for another post)?

Of course, it would be fair to inquire, and the NY Times is an honorable newspaper, why is that neighborhood predominantly Arab - which I would not have suggested had Kershner added something like this -


...predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of the city across the 1967 boundary, an area in which Jewish residency was banned during the 19 years of illegal Jordanianian annexation.


Even better, if she had added that under Jordanian law, selling land to Jews was punishable by death, and still is, as reported here:


Palestinian Authority on Sunday reaffirmed the death penalty for any Palestinian found guilty of selling land to Israelis...The land law, which was originally put in force by Jordan between 1948 and 1967, carries the death sentence.

Or that during those 19 years of Jordanian occupation synagogues were destroyed, like the Hurva, graves desecrated, etc.,

But she didn't. She blind-sided her readers. She removed historical context. And using "boundary" when "cease-fire lines" or "armistice lines" is more precise is another issue.

True, she did note that:

Dr. Irving I. Moskowitz of Miami, who bought the land that was first purchased by Jews when the city was still controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

She could have given a date so her readers could be enlightened. But as summarized here, there are more ancient and Jewish remains that were discovered with an inscription in ancient Hebrew script that mentions the name “Menachem.”

So, if the neighborhood is "predominantly" Arab because of a fleeting development of mathematics, disregarding Jewish roots, is it still wrong for Jews to live there, to purchase property, to go to school there? Does that character of predominancy negate the Jewishness of the city?

Should Arabs be moved out of the north of the country to assure its Jewish predominancy?

Is that the meaning of her words?