There are plenty of bad things to say about Israel as a state without jumping to link it to Jews in American society. Even the issue of the "Jewish lobby" is pretty irrelevant-- most of the support for Israel comes from military hawks and Christian fundamentalists. Jews just don't have either the votes or the money to outbid oil interests who could easily go the other way if other concerns didn't exist.
Raving anti-semetic diatribes are posted by Bobby Fischer and it's mostly treated as a cutebizarro Harpers item, maybe analyzed as propaganda, but not treated on its own terms as a henious piece of racist hate mail.
And what "silence" of the left on Israel? Almost every major left organization condems Israel's policies. The National Lawyers Guild, the major left legal organization of which a number of folks on this list are members (who disagree on a hell of a lot), has been consistenty and rather harshly anti-Israel for many years, at some membership cost due to its principled position.
Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
----- Original Message ----- From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Cc: "Greg King" <gkin-pra at cwy-jcm.org>; "Bryan Hollands" <bryanjules10 at hotmail.com>; "Dale Fecto" <defacto at powersurfr.com>; "iand" <iand at ualberta.ca> Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 12:03 AM Subject: Re: Spineless Max S. and Reactionary Slander (was RE: Russian Israelis)
Pradeep seems to me generally correct here, without the ad hominems. The recent discussion of Cockburn on lbo-talk evinces a sort of antisemite-baiting that polices the bounds of acceptable debate, to avoid the "preoccupation" that a Chomsky shows (or is it a Different Thing with Chomsky?). When one comes to speak of Israel and American policy, one must never be -- as apparently Cockburn and Finkelstein, to their everlasting shame, occasionally are -- "bereft of relevant context." That would be to regard Israel as one would the state of some other racial group. --CGE
On Sat, 23 Mar 2002, pradeep wrote:
> Fucking weak, man. You just reiterated the insinuation, but are too
> fucking spineless to come right out and say it. Like all reactionary
> liberals you can't come out and make an arguement --you instead police
> the left through slandorous insinuations, whispers and sly
> suggestions. This is fucking repulsive. At least I can take comfort in
> being in the same company(in however small a manner) as other
> principled victims. But oh, the way you, de Long and former LBOer Leo
> Casey still manage to pass off your cold war liberalism and
> ideological defense and policing on behalf of empire as being somehow
> of the 'left' speaks volumes about how utterly fucked-up and skewed
> the political spectrum of the US is--spanning the whole vast gambit
> from far right to loony right. That an idiot like you Max, would read
> "an obsession with the Yids"(!) everytime a serious criticism of
> Israel was proffered --and on this list they've all been from an
> unambigously principled left perspective-- shows not only how in good
> working order your left-liberal politically-correct relfexes are, but
> also how utterly serviceable they are in defending the ruling
> ideological consensus. You may be an invertebrate Max, but you're also
> a fucking cop.
>
> Now the question remains why the actual leftist in this thread --John
> Mage, C.G.Estabrook, Justin S, joanna bujes-- who should have known
> better, didnt even notice(!?) or see fit to comment on Max' use of
> what is perhaps one of the most slimy underhanded means of silencing
> desperately needed discussion of Israel's (and by extension America's)
> racist terror and ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestenians.
> Hell, John Mage actually thought that Max was joking! Bizarre! Well
> now that he knows, will he stand by his earlier assertion that Max
> would be an idiot if his repulsive insinuations were meant sincerely?
> This is not a mere academic point. The use of these underhanded means
> of slandering those who would criticize Israel is perhaps THE reason
> for the utterly scandalous silence of the left --the American left in
> particular-- over the last thirty years.It has meant not only an
> almost complete absence of solidarity from the US left, but even at
> times actual contempt for the victims. And obviously this well worn
> method works -- witness the weak-minded and ever-clueless Chip Berlet
> propagating what was at first mere insinuation and suggestion as given
> fact! Nebbich!
>
> -pradeep
>
>