placing the Palestinian struggle

[Chris Kromm]

Well, there are two levels to this argument, and neither hold a lot of
water. The first is the assumption that there are significant differences in
the motives of Demo and Repub support for Israeli aggression. I personally
believe the differences are not that great. Both rely on a relentless
discourse of racist sentiment that labels anything Arabs do as "terrorist."
And both refuse to see Arabs as worthy to their claim for land. Those are
the bottom-line issues, and the differences ain't big.

But the more important question is the second level: does a Palestinian
refugee whose family is murdered by U.S.-made and Israeli-fired Hellfire
missiles really care the fuck WHY the Democrat and Republican both voted for
military aid to Israel to buy U.S. weapons?

Which, by the way, raises a more impersonal motive for U.S. support of
atrocities: 66% of U.S. arms sold to Israel are made by Southern defense
contractors, who in turn are the biggest campaign supporters of politicians
in those states -- especially Georgia and Texas. Most of these arms sales
were made shortly AFTER the signing of Clinton-era "peace talks," which of
course shows how serious the Democrats were about pursuing peace. See the
upcoming edition of Southern Exposure magazine for more details ...

- ----- Original Message -----
From: <ckromm at mindspring.com>
>The Palestinian struggle is perhaps the BEST example against your "Dems and
Repubs are
>different" line. Please, the weight of evidence and history are against you
on this one.

Since I posted a whole string of info about party differences on Palestine,
dating from early support for the Palestinians from folks like David Bonior
onward, I refer you to the archives.   But my point here was not that Dems
and Repugs don't both suport Israel generally, but that their reasons for
doing so vary, which relates to the fact that the US support for Israel is
based on multiple reasons with differences mixes at particular times.

- -- nathan Newman