The Christian Science Monitor has published a bold piece by John Whitbeck, who has advised the Palestinians, calling for a binational state in historic Palestine, and an end to Zionism.
Traumatized by the Holocaust and perceived insecurity as a Jewish
island in an Arab sea, Israelis have immense psychological problems in
coming to grips with the practical impossibility of sustaining forever
what most of mankind views as a racial-supremacist, settler-colonial
regime founded upon the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population.
Wow. Whitbeck calls on Americans to help Israelis "imagine" a more humane future. Hear, hear. This is, I think, the greatest fear among progressive Zionists: that if progressive Americans actually get engaged on Israel/Palestine, they will be horrified by Zionist principles such as the Law of Return and say What the heck is going on here? Then progressive Zionists will be hanging on to Walt and Mearsheimer (pro-Zionists) for all they’re worth…
Sorry I put this one under the wrong article.
Whitbeck has some historical misconceptions. The State of Israel corresponds to the extremist organic nationalist political ideology that Eastern European Ashkenazim envisioned four decades before the Holocaust.
Determining whether the WW2 mass murders made Israel somewhat worse than it would have been without the Holocaust is difficult.
Soviet ethnic Ashkenazim were more than willing to plan and take part in mass murder, ethnic cleansing, and genocide well before Hitler took power.
Israeli Jews and Ashkenazi Americans have to face the legacy of ethnic Ashkenazi bigotry, fanaticism, racism and genocidalism.
It is called atonement. It is something that is supposed to take place on Yom Kippur even if it has been a long time since I attended a Yom Kippur service where any actual atoning really took place.
Those comprise an ODD assessment of "facts", Joachim.
Atonement is something that one does voluntarily. Its not something that one, YOU in this case, can suggest of another.
Jews atone regularly for their actions, in thought and deed. You should read the prayer book.
Certainly, many say things and then ignore them later. But, the liturgy that is said compels some attention and correction, and it occurs in fact.
The left, or right, condemnation is not a request for atonement, as there is no acceptance of the other, no sense of the humanity or validity of Jewish life, individual and community.
Its then a hypocrisy, a mote in the other's eye.
Better that you take the time to reflect on YOUR year's actions, and weigh them against the standards of truth, justice, kindness, egolessness.
Geography
vs/and
Association
if the savedarfur crowd gets involved in this issue forget about it. israel will be lucky to hold on to a square foot. don't think it will happen though
The "good" thing about the endless American occupation of Iraq is that it keeps the US bogged down and prevents the "leadership" from getting involved in new "crusades".
It is also useful for the voters to see how useless it is to vote for the Democrats, if seen as an antidote to the Republicans. There is widening gap between what the voters in the US want and what their "leaders" want them to want. This gap is eventually going to be exploited by someone… someone "nice"… I hope.
Richard wrote:
"The left, or right, condemnation is not a request for atonement, as there is no acceptance of the other, no sense of the humanity or validity of Jewish life, individual and community.
Its then a hypocrisy, a mote in the other's eye."
Richard, I enjoy and value your comments. Could you clarify this a little more? What do you mean by "the left, or right, condemnation?"
I agree with you that atonement is a personal matter. How can a nation atone, other than through its individual constituents? Atonement is not subject to synechdoche. A king may atone for his deeds, but they are for HIS deeds, and any "guilt" on his part should not be transferred to the people.
The "good German," who followed the king's orders in doing wrong, would have to develop the insight into his own wrongdoing to truly atone.
Imagine the sci-fi plot: a bizarre future society where there is a government-enforced "Atonement Day," citizens required to recite public prayers and such, under penalty of death for non-compliance. The story could be called 'Forgive Me My Sins.'
Or something.
———————
David Seaton wrote:
"…This gap is eventually going to be exploited by someone… someone "nice"… I hope."
Indeed. The gap (which Chomsky neatly summed as the disconnect between elite policy formulation and the "people's" political desires) has now becoming a famously, fabulously gaping rictus. After having sworn off years ago all political allegiances, and having uttered a thousand times the statement "politics and power attracts the worst in society," I now find myself indulging in the quixotic hope that Ron Paul is that 'nice' man.
Of course, I am not so deluded as to envision either an earthly utopia or an obstetrician-messiah (even if he can abolish the IRS). But once in a while, I suppose, a good fellow comes along who can be entrusted with power.
I'm sure Phil will touch on this, but just in case:
Is a Jewish Glasnost Coming to America?
http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=11612
.
David Seaton: I totally agree with your comment above, except I think it is really good and not ""good"" that US is bogged down in Iraq. What you say is common sense and I don't know the reason for your liberal use of quotation marks.
Oarwell: I've heard some good things about Edwards and no really bad ones as yet. Just looked at his message on Iraq at
link to johnedwards.com
and it is not bad. Why not support someone who could conceivably win?
I use quotation marks liberally around the word "good", because a situation where people are getting killed, mutilated, humiliated and forced to flee the places they have always lived isn't really that good, is it?
What would be really good, without any quotation marks would be for Bush, Cheney and a few self-loving neocons to be shipped off to the Hague to be tried like Slobodan Milosevic, who looks like Saint Francis now, compared to Bush.