--- Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
>
> The last of settler colonialism is Zionism.
> Palestinians, unlike
> American Indians, could not be decimated by germs
> brought by
> settlers, for any germ that came with settlers was
> not new to them.
> The state of Israel was founded in 1948, in the
> twilight of
> colonialism in general and settler colonialism in
> particular, so it
> never acquired the same recognition of fait accompli
> that America,
> Canada, Australia, and New Zealand gained, to the
> chagrin of
> Zionists. In one respect, though, Israel fits into
> the pattern of
> empires' development economics: current and former
> settler colonies
> tend to receive more investment than non-settler
> colonies.
>
> What can be done to solve the Palestinian-Israeli
> conflict? One way
> to go is to blame the British Empire: whenever
> Palestinians are
> outraged by Zionist settlers, blame the British
> Empire; whenever
> Zionists are appalled by Palestinian suicide
> bombers, blame the
> British Empire; whenever Americans feel the burden
> of Israeli demands
> and Palestinian grievances, blame the British
> Empire. That way, they
> can avoid blaming one another. Conveniently, the
> British Empire is
> no more, and the architects of its Middle East
> policy are safely
> dead, so they are perfect villains for people
> condemn to their
> hearts' content. Besides, the theme of It Is All
> British
> Imperialists' Fault has enough truth in it to make
> it satisfying as a
> receptacle for collective anger, which should help
> them live together.
>
> Another way to go is to create a new Zionism. The
> Soviet Union tried
> it: the Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan,
> <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/>. But it
> didn't work.
> Why? It hit upon a bright idea of making Yiddish
> the Jewish national
> language, an attractive and progressive alternative
> to Hebrew, but it
> insultingly located it in the far east of Siberia.
Birobidzhan's not in Siberia, it's in the Russian Far East near China. Looks like a decent place to me: http://www.eao.ru/eng/?p=420&PHPSESSID=801d91649e51d6c390589b960eced7bb
At a maximum low of -40 degrees Celsius in the winter, it's practically the most inhabitable place in the region. Almost balmy.
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/