Said on American Zionism

[Brad DeLong]

>It's not the Palestinians themselves who created this image - it's 
>the branch of what you quaintly call the "necktie-wearing class" (no 
>women in the class? no casual Fridays?) that scribbles for a living 
>that created this image, loyally serving U.S. security interests, 
>which have deemed the repressive force of Israel our friend and the 
>rock-throwing youth our enemy.

It's *much* more complicated than that. The U.S. security interest in 
the Middle East is to keep the oil flowing, as Secretary Marshall 
said to President Truman.


>Who was it who displaced 800,000 Palestinians in 1948, and 
>instituted 50 years of repression leaving little outlet of 
>resistance.

Israel.

It makes me cry. *All* Arafat had to do after Oslo was to announce 
that he was going to follow the Gandhi road, stage a bunch of media 
events showing Palestinian brigades throwing their weapons into the 
Jordan. Then he could have started the sit-ins and invited in the TV 
cameras, and watched the Israeli hawks lose votes in the Knesset and 
votes in the House of Representatives.

Yet he wasn't up to the task...

Brad DeLong