[lbo-talk] On Islamic radicalism and the left by Don Hamerquist

Bryan Atinsky bryan at alt-info.org
Thu Aug 17 12:38:59 PDT 2006


Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> In principle, we have to accept other peoples' choices even when those
> aren't choices we make for ourselves, unless they make war on us or
> exterminate an ethnic group or do both, a la fascists: e.g., the
> Palestinian people voted for Hamas this January, so others --
> including all Israelis -- should have accepted that choice, rather
> than organizing economic boycotts of it, kidnapping elected Hamas
> leaders, destroying Gaza again, and so on.
>

You know, I agree with you here in practice, but not in principal. What does it mean to respect an other’s choices in a democratic election? First, I think that there must be a differentiation between those internal to a polity and those external to it. Also, I think that there can be a false idealization of the results of an election (or even more so a revolution) as “the choice of the people.” Also, I think that while on some level there needs to be a recognition, that, whatever the social, economic and political constraints on the outcome of any decision making process, some form of collective selection took place, but how far should we incorporate it into our understanding of and behavior towards that entity?

I doubt you would argue that one shouldn’t sanction or boycott Israel, because you have to accept the decision of the Israeli electorate in its selection of the Olmert/Peres/Peretz Trinity.



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