Before 1948, before Israel was carved into the map of the Middle East with the confidence of men drawing borders after lunch, the Zionist dream wandered across the cartographies of empire. Palestine was not always the only destination. That is the part polite history often hides under the carpet, preferably one woven by someone colonized. Uganda. Madagascar. The Belgian Congo. Libya. These were not random fantasies scribbled by confused bureaucrats after too much brandy. They were serious proposals, discussed in official rooms, by serious men, in serious suits, with the usual serious European habit of treating other people’s land as…
