[lbo-talk] Re: Benny Morris

joanna bujes jbujes at covad.net
Mon Jan 26 08:20:13 PST 2004


Doug wrote

"Because, as my friend Joel Schalit put it, the contradictions of Morris' position are "very very Israeli." How can one really be a leftist and advocate an ethnically based state?"

Not even ethnic really. I'd say, by the 20th century, it was a mythic ethnicity, and the founders of Israel attest to the difficulty of bringing together very heterodox groups. Note that the "arab" jews have remained a distinct population, requiring special economic programs; that a language had to be invented and forced upon everybody; that the Russian "jews" coming in right now have to invent Jewish grandmothers...etc.

Yes, the contradictions are very, very "Israeli."

Joanna



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list