by Lara Friedman, Daniel Seidemann
At the crux of the ongoing controversy over Google's decision to
recognize "Palestine" on its google.ps landing page is an emphatic refusal by some
in Israel (and abroad) to accept empirical reality. That reality is pretty uncomplicated. Most of the world today
recognizes the Palestinians as a people. Most countries have voted at the U.N. to recognize Palestine as a
theoretical state that must one day come into being in areas currently controlled by Israel. No nation on earth
endorses Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem; Israeli actions to further entrench the
occupation continue to provoke global condemnation.