Palestine, aka, The right list

Chris Kromm ckromm at mindspring.com
Tue Apr 9 10:44:51 PDT 2002


Micheal Ellis wrote:
>wow...am i on the right list?

Would the "wrong" list be one where you disagree with other posters? Doug

* * * No, but a "right" list -- or at least more enjoyable and interesting -- would be one where there's a basic level of progressive discourse on the issue.

I would submit that a basic progressive position on Palestine/Israel includes:

-- Demand to cut all U.S. aid to Israel, especially since most is just used to fatten the wallets of U.S. defense contractors -- Support and demand enforcement of all U.N. resolutions calling for Israel to completely end the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and recognizing the capital in East Jerusalem, -- All laws discriminating against non-Jews living in Israel -- laws that clearly make Israel *not* a democracy -- should be repealed -- Support the right of return of Palestinians to ancestral land, and reparations for lost homes and land -- Never equating the acts of scattered suicide bombers with the overwhelming U.S.-sponsored military apparatus of the Israeli state, and denouncing commentators who do this, whether or not they are Pulitzer Prize winners. Commentators whose entire subtext is that Arabs are irrational natives who like "wild injuns" are up against clear-headed, if occasionally ruthless, Israeli cavalry deserve similar scorn.

Note that these are all positions endorsed by Jews for Justice in the Middle East, Not In My Name, as well as being considered the *minimum program* for Arab progressives and most of the left world-wide.

Of course, the true progressive position is the demand for a single, secular state. But in today's intellectual and political climate, that's as crazy as arguing for, say, socialism.



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