From: lftmnsch-AT-istar.ca Date: Sat, 13 Sep 1997 22:51:48 -0700 Subject: M-I: zionism & the holocaust (in reply to gay) Gay Harley wrote: >I question: >Why are Jewish people of >the world being held more accountable for the crimes of a single >state than any other racial/ethnic group? The overwhelming majority of American Jewish organizations passionately support Israel - be it in regard to the apartheid-like structure of Israeli rule, or the state's drive to exert its hegemony over the Middle East. By and large, they operate on the following principles: Israel can do no wrong and any attempt to find fault with Israel's actions are motivated by antisemitism. As these principles mesh with US interests in the region, Jewish organizations have been able to take a leading role in sanitizing public discourse about the country by suppressing information which would in any way tarnish Israel's image. In terms of fanatic dedication to Israel, they exceed the chauvinism of most Israeli Jews. Remember that these organizations don't admit non-Jews in their ranks and draw social and political power from that fact. Note: we are talking about Jewish *organizations* - not Louis Godena's "The Jew". Jewish organizations have *chosen* to defend Israel. .This is a totally different situation than the one you sketched in regard to Quebec and French nuclear tests. In order to find a Canadian analogy to the Zionist colonization of Palestine, it would make much more sense to look to the war waged by European settlers against the First Nations. A process - not a single event. * >Now, I am clearly ignorant of something in American politics. My >simplistic view of Israel exists in a framework of American >foreign policy slash oil politics. How does this connect to >ordinary Jewish people who happen to live in the U.S.? There are some five or six million Jews in North America, and approximately half of them are not affiliated to Jewish organizations (though these organizations claim to speak on their behalf). Unaffiliated Jews are not any more or any less responsible for Israeli atrocities than non-Jews. To argue that they have some special responsibility is indeed antisemitic. That said, pro-Zionist Jewish organizations in North America have worked hard to promote Israeli apartheid as democratic rule and justify Israeli war crimes as self-defence. This fits in well with US State Department 's designs for the Middle East. Were US strategic interests in the M.E. to shift, North American Jewish organizations would not be able to sustain their hysterical level of support for Israel. In the meantime, however, they have taken the lead in maintaining a sanitized image of Israel by suppressing opposing views, particularly those of Palestinians. * >I am truly puzzled ... not trying to score debating points. Zionism and antisemetism have shared many assumptions, first and foremost, that the Jews had no place in Europe. In the wake of WWII, the Zionist movement cynically exploited the destruction of European Jewry as justification for Zionism, decontextualizing the Holocaust from the long-term historical processes in which it occurred. Prioritizing the Zionist interpretation of the Holocaust is a common practice of pro-Israeli ideologues. Due to the fact that the mass murder of European Jews and Gypsies leaves so many speechless, the Zionist interpretation of the Holocaust has not met with much opposition. For it is impossible to begin to understand the events that took place in Europe during World War II without coming to grips with the genocidal foundations of European civilization. --luftmensch --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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