subject change

Dennis Perrin dperrin at comcast.net
Sat Jan 25 06:41:23 PST 2003


"Gas chambers are not the issue. Genocide is the systematic elimination of an entire people, by whatever means are employed. The technology employed by the Israeli state are tried and tested. I come from Tasmania, site of one of the most 'successful' campaigns of genocide in history and I can testify that the methods 'successfully' used here were exactly the methods now being employed in Israel.

"It is genocide and it is deliberately so. The objective of an ethnically pure 'Jewish state' inevitably leads to genocide, just as the objective of an ethnically pure 'Aryan' empire led the Nazis inexorably to genocide and the objective of creating a European nation in Australia led inevitably to a policy of genocide to native Australians.

"It is no use mincing words about this, it is genocide."


> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tas

Doug, if you'll allow me one more pass at our literal-minded friend (gas chambers were meant as a handy metaphor, not the actual, physical use of them in Gaza or Nablus), I'll close my end of this discussion by restating that the Israeli's are not systemically eliminating the Palestinians as a people. The birthrates among Palestinians bear this out. Plus, there are Israeli Arabs, including those who serve in the Knesset, who might scratch their heads and wonder why they still live and breath in this supposedly Aryan-type atmosphere.

Yes, there are those in Israeli society, both in mainstream and extreme parties, who doubtless salivate at the thought of a Palestinian-free Judea and Samaria. And Sharon's aggressive settlement policy is an attempt to push Palestinians further and further away from their homes. All of this noted. But resistance to these policies exists within Israel, a society that, for all the "Jewish state" rhetoric, is open and intermixed.

But no matter. Bill's crossed his arms, convinced that the Palestinians are being wiped out. I maintain that while Palestinian culture remains under attack, and Palestine's civil society suffers from Israeli aggression, PA corruption and Hamas-led violence, the Palestinians aren't going anywhere. They are a remarkably resilient people. The situation's not pretty, but it's not, in my view, genocide.

DP



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