<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <P align=left>The late Ellen Willis, as cited by Michael, wrote</P> <P align=left>"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."</P> <P align=left>I agree with the first sentence, but not the second. </P> <P align=left>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.</P> <P align=left>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.</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>