[lbo-talk] MPug Rats Out Yoshie To Cooper

Max B. Sawicky sawicky at verizon.net
Wed May 3 12:08:58 PDT 2006


This is not a policy disagreement!

There are good reasons to oppose U.S. military intervention anywhere, and the evangelical-Jewish alliance such as it is happens to drive me crazy for all kinds of reasons. There are probably reasons to criticize the way the rally was organized or conducted. The issue, as for Hugo Chavez, is your rhetoric.

If the demonstration is a bad idea because of effects on the negotiations, the religions of its backers is irrelevant. If there is some evidence that the leaders had malign intentions, perhaps from mind-reading, that would be relevant. The identities of the backers in and of themselves is irrelevant, unless you could establish they are agents of the Mossad.

If U.S. intervention in Darfur is against the interests of Jews, chances are it's against the interests of everyone else, so why dwell on Jews?

There is also a problem with the terminology of "establishment Jews." It's something like -- not the same, but like -- a Southern bigot talking about our nigras. Good Jews and bad Jews. People may be judged to be good or bad by their actions. Their religions are irrelevant, unless there is something in the religion that directly animates the objectionable conduct.

The major Jewish organizations are pro-Zionist. That is not quite the same thing as being a Zionist organization. Being a Jew doesn't imply bowing towards Jerusalem. Nor does being a Zionist imply supporting bad policies, though it does make it easier.

A good rule of thumb in political rhetoric is that when the dimension of somebody else's ethnic group or religion enters into the discussion, some extra care is warranted, especially for lefts wanting to precisely distinguish Judaism, Zionism, and imperialism.

In solidarity, Max

Red-baiters hated both Communists and civil rights for Blacks and other people of color. Since Communism was regarded as worse than racial equality in the mid-20th century United States, they thought that they could discredit the civil rights movement by pointing to the (real and imagined) presence of actual and former socialists and communists and other radicals in the movement.

In contrast, in my case, I am opposed to a US military intervention in Sudan, but, as you recognize, I do not hate Jewish communities. My criticism of establishment Jews is motivated by my strongly held belief that their allying with evangelical Christians (the most militaristic speech at the "Save Darfur" rally was given by a Southern Baptist guy whose name escapes me) and supporting a US military intervention in Sudan is against the interests of Jews. US or NATO troops blundering into a complex conflict like Darfur (which pits the Islamist government against the rebels one of whose factions is even more Islamist than the government, with Chad supporting rebels in Darfur and Sudan supporting rebels in Chad) is liable to turn an already disastrous situation into a catastrophe, increasing terrorism, which is not in the interest of anyone but can present a greater danger to Jews than to others.



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