[lbo-talk] MPug Rats Out Yoshie To Cooper

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 5/3/06, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser <jgkaiser at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I wouldn't overthink the relationship to Darfur and Jews of all stripes. As
> the Judaism editor over at Tikkun (OK--don't rip me for that) I've been
> talking to lots of Jews on the left about Darfur. They are plain and simple
> outraged at the massacre there. They feel it's a second Rwanda. And Jews
> still feel the prick of conscience about stopping genocides....
>
> If you don't think the US should have intervened in Rwanda, you are an
> isolationist and I can respectfully disagree. But I, for one, am for
> preventing genocide.
>
> Would I rather see a country's neighbors/close allies help them work out the
> issues? Yes, but in the case of Sudan, Chad and Ethiopia are not, well, that
> stable themselves, and Sudan's best buddies in the Muslim world have got
> other fish to fry.
>
> Would I rather see an international body led by some progressive country
> with no interests in Sudanese oil lead the intervention? Sure, but I don't
> see Denmark stepping up to the plate. I'm a U.S. citizen, so I'm going to
> pressure the U.S., which is the biggest contributor to the UN, to do
> something: preferably, to pressure the UN to send peacekeepers there.

I have to wonder if Jewish leaders aren't re-living a failed fantasy
of Iraqi liberation with a Jewish psychological twist: here's a group
of Muslims who are grateful to Jews -- what a sweetly refreshing
change!  There is enough reality to this fantasy now -- for instance,
many exiles from Sudan must be no doubt grateful and thanking Jewish
leaders profusely (just as Iraqi exiles expressed gratitude to and
thanked the Bush administration).  But once Washington does send
troops to Sudan, I don't think that Muslims in Sudan (or other
Muslims) will be grateful to US troops or Jewish leaders or anyone
else who has taken part in this campaign (especially considering
Sudan's political makeup).  And if I suspect that Muslim anger and
resentment is likely to be especially targeted on Jews, I don't think
I'm too prejudiced against Muslims.  The reality is that there are
lots of reactionary Islamists in Sudan, they tend be prejudiced
against Jews, and Sudan has porous borders, an ideal candidate for a
new jihad central.
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>