placing the palestinian struggle

Nathan Newman nathan at newman.org
Thu May 2 07:12:34 PDT 2002


----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Monday, April 01, 2002 10:43 AM Subject: Re: placing the palestinian struggle

Naji Dahi wrote:


>Support to Israel has not been driven by the geopolitical interests of the
>US. It is driven by the strength of AIPAC.

If Israel served US military interests, then if Jews hated Israel, it would still get our support- as do a number of Arab countries like Saudi Arabia which Jews in the US have little fondness for. The US has wanted as many military controls in the region as possible, from Iran to Israel to Egypt to Saudi Arabia. Some have backfired (Iran) or been less effective than desired, but the oppression of the Palestinians by the Kuwaitis (mass expulsion after the Gulf War) serves the US interests as much as the oppression in the West Bank.

Now, where leftist blindness verging on anti-semitism comes in is the fact that they treat the expulsions of Palestinians by Israel as uniquely evil policy in the region, while downplaying the mass murders by Syria (Hama 1982, probably far worse than Israel's murders in Lebanon the same years) or many other similarly wretched policies by Arab regimes.

I am all for mass mobilization against the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, but when leftists don't condemn it on its own terms, but instead try to make it more horrific or in a unique class of history (see comparisons to Khmer Rouge or Nazism), it loses credibility. And when claims are made that there is a Jewish conspiracy running American foreign policy against the interest of the deluded goys, we are back in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion land.

-- Nathan Newman



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