Conference on Racism:Jewish Caucus Statement

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Fri Sep 7 13:47:04 PDT 2001



>Yoshie:
>>One of the ironies of history is that the Irish (the first victims of
>>modern settler colonialism) and the Palestinians (the last victims of the
>>same) were made to enter the "peace process" at the same time. The "peace
>>process" has worked badly for the Irish; it has been a disaster for the
>>Palestinians.
>
>The peace process worked "badly" for the Irish??? No doubt, we should load
>all of the Protestants onto boats and send them back to Scotland and
>England, because their ancestors only arrived in the north of Ireland three
>centuries ago. No doubt, we should go on with endless rounds of sectarian
>violence, along the lines of throwing bombs at children going to school, as
>we saw in the last week, until the settlers leave. No doubt, killing each
>other because we are Catholics or Protestants, Jews or Moslems, is far
>preferable to a solution where we recognize that neither of us is going to
>disappear, or be driven, into the sea, and that we must figure out how to
>live in peace.
>
>There is no future outside of a peace process, and this is one person of
>Irish descent who will take that imperfect peace process any day of the week.
>
>Leo Casey

The "peace process" may yet turn out to be at least expedient if not just for the Irish. The "peace process" was neither just nor even expedient for the Palestinians and for that matter Israelis. Oppressing another people imposes costs on those who are made to do the dirty work of repression, first of all military duties -- no piece of cake. More and more Israelis as well as Americans, I hope, will reject the high costs of maintaining occupation.

Whatever rhetorical defense of Israel Jews in diaspora, browbeaten by Zionists, may feel obligated to give in public, they will vote by feet, by not going to Israel because it is not safe to do so.

Yoshie



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