On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 20:41:39 -0000 "James Heartfield"
<Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk> writes:
> The late Ellen Willis, as cited by Michael, wrote
>
> "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.
Me too.
>
> 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.
I would agree with that as well. But I would also note that the relationship between anti-Semitism and Zionism is rather complex. At various times and places, Zionism has drawn support, sometimes enthusiastic, from anti-Semites. That was true a century ago, when Theodor Herzl's proposal for a Jewish state drew support from the notorious French anti-Semitic agitator, Edouard Drumont . In fact, Herzl went out of his way to deliberately attempt to drum up support for his scheme from anti-Semitic politicians and intellectuals. Basically, he offered them the prospect of a Europe that would be free of Jews.
Some of the top Nazis, as writers like Hannah Arendt noted, were, at least for a while, (prior to the regimes opting for the "Final Solution) partial to proposals for solving the "Jewish problem" through the creation of a Jewish state to which European Jews would be forcibly deported to. Arendt in her *Eichmann in Jerusalem* made note of Eichmann's claims to be an admirer of Herzl.
In more recent times, certain contemporary anti-Semites have become very pro-Israel. The extreme right French politician, Jean-Marie Le Pen is both an anti-Semite, who is openly skeptical of the Holocaust, and a strong supporter of Israel. In the US, there are elements of the Christian right who manage to hang on to their traditional anti-Semitism, while being strongly supportive of Israel, which they see as playing an essential role in the Last Times. One thinks of Pat Robertson, who on the one hand, seems to think that there is a cabal of Jewish financiers who are scheming to take over the world, but who, nevertheless, has long been a strong supporter of Israel.
>
> 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.