comment on Zionism discussion

[Brad DeLong]

>At 3:03 AM -0400 7/14/01, teds wrote:
>>In my view, discussions of Israel by leftists are in many
>>cases tainted by what are clearly apologetics for Israel and Zionism.
>>Examples are legion, but two will suffice.
>
>In terms of the number of posts, yes, but in terms of the number of
>individuals, no.  It seems to me that it's only Max, Brad, & Nathan
>-- clearly a minority -- who are doing the filibustering, with the
>rest of posters evidently committed to opposing Israel's function as
>an outpost of the American Empire, in solidarity with Palestinians as
>victims of settler colonialism & US imperialism.

The principal national security and economic policy interest of the 
United States in the Middle East is to keep the oil states happy and 
the oil flowing cheaply. Israel is a substantial hindrance to that 
interest. American support for Israel has other roots--domestic 
political roots, guilt-over-not-entering-WWII-earlier roots, and a 
(miscalculation) that an Isreael confident of American support will 
be much more willing to deal.

But to say that Israel is an "outpost" of the American "empire" is 
totally dorky--reveals a systematic failure to think. Since George C. 
Marshall was Secretary of State, American diplomats have, way down in 
their deepest hearts, thought just how much easier the projection of 
American power and influence into the Middle East would have been if 
Israel had never been established. Israel is a source of weakness in 
America's "empire": it is not a functional part of it...

Brad DeLong