[lbo-talk] Paradise Now and Munich

[Ed Marshall]

On 12/27/05, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> >Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >>
> >
> >>  > protagonists take responsibility for their own decisions and
> >>  > choices instead of relying on canned scripts embedded in popular
> >>  > culture.
> >
> >Wojtek's rock-hard allegiance to an individualist metaphysic shows up in
> >his choice of language here. Let me give a rough translation:
> >
> >. . .protagonists reject their birthright as Palestinians, reject all
> >solidarity with their own people, and egotistically separating
> >themselves from any shared humanity, make an arrogant individualist
> >choice to live in isolation. They become things rather than humans,
> >since to be human is be one's history, not a dot outside history. They
> >become perfect followers of Margaret Thatcher.
>
> Oh please. You may well be the most rigidly doctrinaire person I come
> into regular textual contact with. I haven't seen this movie, so I
> can't comment on it or Woj's interpretation, but I can see that your
> interpretation of Woj's interpretation is ludicrous. You make it
> sound like the only two choices in the world are suicide bombing and
> Thatcherism. Is someone who blows up a pizzeria expressing his
> solidarity with shared humanity? Leaving aside principle, is suicide
> bombing a positive contribution to the Palestinian struggle, or is it
> a sign of desperate marginalization whose effects are only to deepen
> that marginalization?
>
> Doug
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>

This may sound wrong but in sheer terms of nationalist goals it <i>does</i>
in fact seem effective.  Lebanon and Gaza, home of Hezbollah and Hamas
respectively, got free (sort of). There is another precident that is never
going to be forgotten by the Palestinians in the role that terrorism played
in creating the facts on the ground that allowed for Green Line Israel to
come into existense.  It certainly worked for the Israeli's. It required a
regularity of terror in the three months before they declared independence
that makes anything Palestinians have done since look like half-assry, but
it worked, Palestinians with the means got the hell out of town with their
families.  This made mopping up the rest with the military much simpler in
the months post indepence.
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