Zionism Is Racism

[LeoCasey at aol.com]

<< Should Zionism be "singled out" for critique by those who wish to build an 
anti-imperialist movement in the US? Absolutely, and for a simple reason: 
Israel is the single largest recipient of US military aid in the world, and 
has long played a central strategic role as the American state's "watchdog" 
in the Middle East. >>
> 
> 
These formulae simplify the world and how to intervene in international 
politics, and free the mind from having to go through the trouble of making 
concrete analyses of particular situations. For that reason, they make a good 
lazy person's -- or simple minded person's -- guide to the world, just as the 
famous Maoist 'three worlds' theory did. All you need to know is what the US 
government supports, and then take the opposite side. Does the US government 
support the removal of the Haitian military, and the restoration of Aristide? 
Can't be a good idea, since it is, by definition, in the "objective 
interests" of American imperialism. Does the US government support an end to 
ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia? No, can't be: let's find a way to 
make a case that Middle East oil or a blow against nonexistent socialism is 
behind it all.

The extent of American military support and fopreign aid for Israel runs 
counter to any sort of rational calculation of imperial interests in the 
Middle East. From the viewpoint of imperial interests, nothing would make 
more sense than to have Israel walk the plank, in order to come to 
accommodation with all of the Arab and Islamic regimes -- which, by the way, 
control the oil, for those who think that oil is the key to everything. 
Clearly, the extent of support for Israel is more a matter of domestic 
American politics -- the battle over the Jewish vote in key electoral college 
states such as New York, California and Florida, the need to support the most 
democratic of Middle Eastern states -- than of any international economic 
interests.

Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --
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