placing the palestinian struggle

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Apr 1 12:40:43 PST 2002



>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>
>>Those of us who are not happy with "It's the power of AIPAC"
>>explanation -- including yours truly -- are obligated to provide a
>>credible alternative explanation, rather than a simple assertion that
>>Israel serves US military interests; absent a good explanation, it's
>>no wonder many gravitate toward a default explanation (= AIPAC).
>
>I think US support for Israel is multi-dimensional. First there are the two
>positive reasons for support: There is the historical idealistic support for
>a Jewish homeland as recompense for global indifference to the Holocaust;
>there is a similar support for it as a democratic country amidst monarchies
>and dictatorships.
>
>One wing of US military interests does like have a client state completely
>dependent on the US as an ally in the region; the Christian fundamentalists
>like Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy in Revelations; and there is the
>general pluralistic role of the Jews as a voting bloc.
>
>No one element probably decides the issue but the convergence of all of them
>keeps support of Israel moderately steady.
>
>-- Nathan newman

A better atonement for the Holocaust would have been creating a Jewish state in Germany while the Allied powers occupied it, but let's set that aside....

Historical records show that the Empire doesn't prefer democracies to monarchies and dictatorships, but for the sake of an argument, let's assume that the Empire somehow wants a democratic state with a Jewish majority in the Middle East. That will be all the more reason to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Minus the occupation, Israeli treatment of Arab-Israeli citizens behind the Green Line today compares favorably, say, with Japanese treatment of Koreans. Besides, there won't be a Jewish majority for long if Israel continues the occupation, regarding all of historic Palestine to be its territory, without resorting to a rapid expulsion of most of the Palestinians from the occupied territories.

It is not clear why the Empire still needs Israel as its most notoriously dependent client state, in that most states in the Middle East have become already quite subservient to the Empire and would be _more_ so but for US support for the Israeli occupation. Israel is no longer as useful as it once was in the middle of the Cold War. In fact, it causes the Empire _more_ problems than it helps it solve them now. Why support the Israeli Right, rather than the democracy-minded & peace-starved Israelis who subscribe to, say, the Gush Shalom line? Surely the latter would serve the Empire better than the former. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list