There is simply a failure to grasp that - as in Vietnam - the US is the MAIN culprit here. Not "Jews" or "Arabs" or mysteriously "warring tribes" (the current media favorite dust in the eye) - it's not a "Jewish" issue (which is how Zionists want it, so they can silence non-Jews), it's an _American_ issue.
That is what makes the present silence in the US so appalling - it is a considerable ideological failure of recognition by the US left. Its practical roots are not hard to identify: its nexus is the Democratic Party, the favored vehicle of _both_ the majority of US leftists _and_ organized "mainstream" Zionism (which, however, is quite bipartisan in its operations). These comprise the "extreme" left and right wings of that Party, respectively.
Obviously, raising the heat on the Israel question would be "divisive", threatening the lesser evil strategy of the majority of US leftists and bringing in the most evil Republicans. Just like in the Vietnam era - my what a coincidence! That was a "divisive" era, too.
As for whether ethnic cleansing that leads to the destruction of a nation - the process the Palestinians are being subjected to by the US - can be called genocide, depends on how you define "genocide" and "nation". If you define them ethno-biologically, then it isn't. If - as I do - you define them geo-culturally, then it is, since we are dealing with the interrupted reproduction of a nation. Profound theoretical implications, obviously.
To put the question another way: Was Pol Pot genocidal? He certainly was a mass murderer, but it is quite unlikely that the Khmer Rouge had the genocidal intent of destroying the Cambodian nation, which in any case is still there.
But there can be no doubt that the US is perpetrating a horrendous, atrocious crime upon the Palestinians. And, when you add in Iraq, the US, together with Britain, is concurrently perpetrating two horrendous crimes in the Middle East.
But of course the Iraq issue falls under the same political interdict as Israel.
-Brad Mayer
>Any ideas as to why there is so little discussion of the Palestinian
>issue on the list then?
>
>Ciao
>
>Zak
>
>
>- -I don?t think the word genocide is correct here. Off course, I?m not
>- -an Israeli apologist. But Israel?s scorched land policy towards the/
>- -Palestinians seems to be designed to force them to leave their lands,
>- -but not to exterminate them. But on your question, I don?t know why
>- -it is happening. There were a lot of discussion on this events in the
>- -beginning, but as it turned a low intensity counter insurrectional war,
>- -our interest (including mine) decreased a lot. Also must be considered
>- -that the Palestinian movement seems to be unable to offer a progressive
>- -alternative to the current situation (and the Israeli left has a par-
>- -ticularly repelent stance towards the current events)
>
> Alexandre