On February 26, I was in New York City to participate in a Soho Forum debate with journalist Eli Lake, who took up the affirmative position to the debate resolution “The root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the Palestinians’ rejection of Israel’s right to exist.” I argued the negative.
Before the debate started, audience members voted. As I learned afterward, a plurality of 41.18% were already persuaded of the debate resolution at the start, whereas 31.09% opposed it and 27.73% were undecided.
My opposing argument was that the true root cause of the conflict is the rejection of Palestinians’ fundamental human rights, including their right to self-determination.
After the debate finished, audience members voted again, and the result was 47.90% “Yes”, 40.34% “No” and 11.76% remaining “Undecided”. So, 15.97% of those who started undecided made up their minds to either join Lake in taking up the affirmative or joining me in taking up the negative position. Lake increased support for his position by 6.72%, and I increased support for the negative position by 9.24%, so, under the Oxford-style debate rules, I was declared the winner.
I suspect that most of those who had already taken up one or the other position before the debate were pretty much set in their ways and that most of my increased support came from those who started out undecided, but I was pleased that one gentleman who came up to speak with me at the afterparty told me I had managed to change his mind. I was also happy that several of the people who came up to me to express their appreciation for my argument and support for my position informed me that they were Jewish, including an Israeli woman who spoke with a thick Hebrew accent.
The great Tom Woods, whose show I have been a guest on several times, also attended the debate, and it was awesome to have the opportunity to finally meet him in person. The Soho Forum in April will also host Tom debating the negative to the resolution “Government-imposed restrictions during the Covid pandemic were prudent and essential.” As my regular readers know, I’m with Tom on that one, having opposed the lockdown madness from the beginning!
This was my first-ever live-audience public speaking event and third-ever debate, my first two being on The Tom Woods Show, also on the topic of Israel-Palestine. You can find both of those prior debates here.
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I enjoyed conversing with people at the afterparty and answering their questions. Feel free to leave your own comments or ask me questions in the comments section below! Just please be respectful and otherwise adhere to the terms of use.
