"objectively, it is not Zionism that moves the US-led multinational empire but the empire that makes use of Zionism -- just as it exploits any other kind of identity politics, whether it is based on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity,occupation, or whatever -- and will discard it if it ceases to be useful to it."
Zionism may be an identity politics in the US but it is a national ideology and geo-political agenda in Israel. How exactly is Israel's policy of geographical expansion, apartheid in Palestine, aggression against Lebanon and frenzy to attack Iran useful to the US?
BW
--- Yoshie Furuhashi <critical.montages at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/15/07, Russell Grinker <grinker at mweb.co.za>
> wrote:
> > >From The Times Online
> >
> > October 15, 2007
> > Dawkins and the Jews: a reply
> >
> > A little over a week ago I linked to an
> extraordinary statement made by
> > Richard Dawkins about the power of the Jews.
> >
> > In case you missed it here it is again:
> > When you think about how fantastically successful
> the Jewish
> > lobby has been, though, in fact, they are less
> numerous I am
> > told - religious Jews anyway - than atheists and
> [yet they]
> > more or less monopolise American foreign policy as
> far as
> > many people can see. So if atheists could achieve
> a small
> > fraction of that influence, the world would be a
> better place.
>
>
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-atheists-ideological-inversion.html>
> New Atheists' Ideological Inversion
>
> Richard Dawkins, one of the so-caled New Atheists,
> is quoted as saying
> in the Guardian:
>
> "When you think about how fantastically
> successful
> the Jewish lobby has been, though, in fact,
> they are
> less numerous I am told -- religious Jews
> anyway --
> than atheists and [yet they] more or less
> monopolise
> American foreign policy as far as many people
> can
> see. So if atheists could achieve a small
> fraction of
> that influence, the world would be a better
> place."
> (Ewen MacAskill, "Atheists Arise: Dawkins
> Spreads
> the A-word among America's Unbelievers," 1
> October
> 2007)
>
> Dawkins' remark on Jews and atheists illustrates the
> problem of the
> New Atheists.
>
> One, aside from not being theists, atheists have
> little else in common
> with one another. Atheists can be left-wing,
> right-wing, or
> chicken-wing. Moreover, in many societies, including
> the USA, atheists
> tend to be more often found among the ranks of the
> better off than
> among the poorer half of society. That means that
> atheism, despite
> Dawkins' wishful thinking, is a particularly poor
> foundation for
> left-wing class politics.
>
> Two, once you begin to see things mainly through the
> perspective that
> divides the world between the religious and the
> irreligious and pits
> the former politically against the latter, you begin
> to imagine, for
> instance, that the Israel lobby = the Jewish lobby =
> a religious
> lobby. The subjective pillar of Zionism, however, is
> not religion
> except for Christian Zionists, and, objectively, it
> is not Zionism
> that moves the US-led multinational empire but the
> empire that makes
> use of Zionism -- just as it exploits any other kind
> of identity
> politics, whether it is based on race, gender,
> sexuality, ethnicity,
> occupation, or whatever -- and will discard it if it
> ceases to be
> useful to it. In other words, the New Atheists'
> ideology, just like
> religion that they criticize, inverts the real
> world. A profane
> illusion is no substitute for a sacred one.
> --
> Yoshie
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