> When we created a Students for a Free Palestine here at
> ISU in 1982 following the Lebanon invasion, one of the
> topics at our first preliminary planning sessions was on
> sources. Everyone in the group was convinced that
> Findley's Anti-Zionism was mere opportunism, probably
> grounded in anti-semitism. Anti-semitism (like anti-
> catholicism) is pretty deep in central Illinois.
This seems a reasonable suspicion to me, but I don't think it's true. I met Findley once, when he had a speaking engagement at the University of Pittsburgh. When critics of Israel on the right are engaging in old-fashioned Jew-hatred, you can usually tell (the example of Pat Buchanan comes to mind). Findley does not seem like that to me (and furthermore, he doesn't seem very smart, so you don't get the smarmy use of anti-Semitic code-words that you would get from Buchanan, who is a master of that degenerate art). Basically, he seems like a conventional conservative with a decent streak, so that he really was shocked, shocked that the US was supporting oppression in another part of the world. Sort of like the way Ryan came to the realization that the death penalty was a bad idea -- another Illinois Republican who had a sort of moral epiphany.
That said, his viewpoint does seem to be that "it's in our national interest to be even-handed." It's my understanding that he's also close to the conservative Arab regimes, particularly the Saudis. I found it kind of surprising that he had some positive things to say about Hafez Assad, too.
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories