"I reject the villainization of Israel as the sole or main source of the mess in the Middle East. And I contend that Israel needs to maintain its "right of return" for Jews around the world."
I agree with the first sentence, but not the second.
After years of denying it, I think there is good reason to accept now that there is a streak of anti-Semitism in anti-Zionism. But it does not follow that Israel is anything but a terrible trap for Jews.
The contemporary form of the Jewish question is surely wrapped up with a romantic, backward-looking anti-capitalism that sees the Jews of Israel as the shock troops of US domination and oil imperialism. No doubt the Israeli state does a lot that confirms that view - but isolating Israel from the broader barbarities of the West's civilising mission in the developing world is the slippage that turns anti-imperialism into anti-Spemitism. All the same, Trotsky's point against Zionism stands - it is not an alternative to anti-Semitism, but an adaptation to the prejudice that Jews and Gentiles cannot live together. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20061111/f743426f/attachment.htm>