[lbo-talk] Iran and the Left in a Moral Snare

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Tue Feb 7 13:33:59 PST 2006


For the US, Turner's "Frontier Thesis" argued that the end of the frontier would lead to all sorts of internal conflicts -- specifically among classes. There was a conflict, of course, but it didn't last forever or lead to the US falling apart. Of course, the US did benefit from being the world capitalist hegemon after WW2.

I don't know much if anything about conflict amongst Israeli Jews, but is it possible that class antagonisms have been muted by the Palestinian Enemy's presence and by the expansion of Israel territory into the occupied areas?

On 2/7/06, Nathan Newman <nathanne at nathannewman.org> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
> >Now that's silly-- I visited Israel in 1999, the most "normal" election
> >possible when everyone thought a peace deal was in the bag. Yes, the
> >country was politically divided in five different dimensions, but if
> >anything many people feel that the global homogenization is flattening
> >society. Remove the polarization over foreign policy and many divisions
> >would disappear. In many ways, the success of Sharon's Kadima party was
> >tapping into that desire.
>
> -Hmm, Joel spent a lot of his early years in Israel, has family that
> -was once high up in the government, and studies the regime as an
> -academic and journalist. Does your visit 7 years ago trump his
> -experience?
>
> Not necessarily, but I still think it's silly hyperbole. Israel has lots
> and lots of internal divisions, but they don't translate into chronic
> violence between groups, usually a precursor to countries that are
> threatening to break apart internally.
>
> Where's the evidence that Israel (again) is such a special case that it
> can't handle the kinds of internal tensions that afflict many modern
> societies. Everything about Israel has be described so hyperbolically.
> It's current politics are probably less polarized than in the past, so why
> the assertion of fundamental polarization?
>
> Nathan Newman
>
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>

-- Jim Devine

Down with Big Brother Bush!



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