<HTML><< 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. >></BLOCKQUOTE> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> </BLOCKQUOTE> 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 --</HTML>