On Apr 24, 2009, at 3:06 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
> Frankly I think the important thing here is quantity, not quality.
> We have to get to a point where there are just too many people
> throwing shoes at Israel for the ADL to keep up. The hell with
> nuance and caution and sensitivity and ritual denunciations
> of anti-Semitism as the prolegomena to any possible critique
> of Zionism. It's time for some bare-knuckle demagoguery.
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Perhaps your right. I just wanted the deeper political destruction to get on the record.
On the demagoguery line, I would argue this Robinson investigation isn't about professional misconduct, but a political cover up for known war crimes committed by the state of Israel, and implicitly sanctioned by the US necons. That there is no justification possible for deliberately bombing UN schools and facilities warehousing food and medical supplies---especially with white phosphorous, incendiaries---a specifically banned weapon of war. War on terrorism is no excuse for the military assault on Gaza, because that assault was collective punishment, which is also banned and named as a war crime. And of course the deeper cover up goes straight to the US government's own cover up of the Bush era war crimes ... debated this moment in the public and Congress.
Anyway, blunt trauma works as political action, I agree. But what I wanted to do is point to the academic version of blunt trauma. It's something that can be used in the classroom. And sure, if anybody tried the course outline I just suggested they would be immediately charged, just as Robinson has. Only now, if I were in that position, I could argue every nuance. The argument is on my ground now. When it gets down and dirty, we can pull up the collaboration of top Zionist leaders, and we can bring plenty of documented mud to sling. This is the way Arendt handled it. Besides her being a great scholar and political philosopher, she was also a great political activist---she knew how to mix and match, work the material and the resistance all in one.
Hey, besides I just blew off several years studying this stuff and enjoyed the excuse to write about it....
CG