If you go to the Hampshire College students for justice in Palestine website, you will find a frankly anti-Zionist statement by Omar Barghouti in which Barghouti denounces the Zionist lobby in the U.S., saying that it intimidates intellectuals, and the media and Hollywood parrot its line. The other day on Third Avenue, I heard frankly anti-Zionist statements by Hannah Mermelstein. She was discussing the issue with a man who had stopped and said he was somewhat sympathetic, and Mermelstein said, "Does Israel have a right to exist? I say No, not as a Jewish state." And she went on to explain how religious and ethnic discrimination destroys the bonds between Jews and Palestinians in historical Palestine.
These statements are important for a few reasons. Such statements used to be regarded even on the left as wildeyed. No longer. The pro-Palestine movement in this country is comfortable with such expressions. People understand that these statements are not murderous, and inasmuch as they are conspiratorial, they are honest efforts to describe unspoken power. Never forget, that the heart of Lincoln's attack on the Democratic Party in 1858 was a strong theory that the party was conspiring with the slave power to propagate slavery in the territories. Many of these statements make Walt and Mearsheimer's critique look mild; and make the opposition to Walt and Mearsheimer seem dishonest and tactical.
Further, these statement are evidence that the idealism of Zionism has curdled and is being replaced among the young by an idealistic anti-Zionism of equal rights for all (as I have long asserted on this site).
Finally, the statements are a sign that the Palestinian discourse is at last entering the American leftwing discourse. Palestinians have always spoken in these terms. It's about time these voices were heard here.
(Phil Weiss)
"Never forget, that the heart of Lincoln's attack on the Democratic Party in 1858 was a strong theory that the party was conspiring with the slave power to propagate slavery in the territories."
The Dems are up to their old tricks, only this time they aren't conspiring with slavers, but rather with the Zionist spearhead/pretext for imperialism–and they have been for decades. Maybe a third party can make inroads against the two-party-regime's complicity on this and many other issues in which the interests of the American people are being sold out to a craven, internationalist "elite." Remember, the Republican Party was founded by an anti-slavery activist and quickly aced out the Whigs; perhaps a third party can quickly succeed on an anti-Zionist/anti-imperialist platform. After all, just like the Zionists, none of these internationalist supporters of Zionism in the two main parties really give a damn about America or average Americans. They’re more concerned with their bank accounts, their fiefdoms, and the trappings of Empire.
Hannah Mermelstein is a fat cow and really needs to get laid. It would improve her disposition .
"Does Israel have a right to exist? I say No, not as a Jewish state." — Hannah Mermelstein
Let's recast this statement, and see how it plays:
"Does the U.S. have a right to exist? I say No, not as a Christian state."
In fact, this has been national policy since the ratification of the First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment of a religion. And it's an utterly mainstream view, including among most Christians other than bible-thumping fundamentalist psychos.
But make the analogous statement about Israel — that it shouldn't be a Jewish state when it has a significant Arab population — and zionists gasp in horror, as if the speaker were advocating a pogrom.
Yet plenty of evidence shows that state religions are a bad idea, tending inherently to corruption. Nowhere have I encountered such biting anti-Catholicism as in Spain and Latin America, where many people despise the church for using its official position to meddle in domestic politics, opposing contraception, abortion, and so forth.
Tens of thousands of Israelis obviously object to their country's lack of civil marriage, choosing to go offshore to get hitched.
Religious-based states are a medieval anachronism. Opposition to them is a perfectly respectable, progressive stance to take. Being called an anti-semite for opposing Israel's 'right to exist as a Jewish state' is unacceptable.
Time to put zionist bigots on the defensive for a change, by turning a bright spotlight on their shameless ethnic chauvinism. Their views essentially parallel David Duke's, except that they advocate an ethnic Jewish state in place of his desired White European state. Does 'KKK' mean triple-Kosher? LOL!
I have enormous sympathy with the idea of safe haven for Jewish people. The history shows repeated instances of the relations between Jewish people, and their host countries souring and the majority population branding the Jewish community disloyal, 5th column, traitors, foreigners, "others", ethnocentric, self-absorbed, conspiring to acquire wealth and influence at the expense of majority between which they live. This followed with hostility, often violent hostility, and in case of Germany, with genocidal hostility. So having somewhere to run is appealing.
@ EvaSK: "the majority population branding the Jewish community"
I'm not sure if the gentile majority branded the Jewish community or if the ruthless and incompetent leaders and certain factions of organized Jewry branded the Jewish community themselves through their own foolish and selfish actions. But I guess either way, with a cut-throat and ultimately self-incriminating leadership like they've historically had, certain factions of the Jewish people will indeed always need a place to run.
@ EvaSK: "So having somewhere to run is appealing."
I couldn't disagree more. If it ever comes to pass that America has become a dangerous place for Jews, because ______ have taken over and are exterminating the Jews, under no circumstances would I wan to go to Israel.
If _______ were in control of America, they would not be killing just Jews, they would be killing non-Jewish homosexuals, racial minorities, "leftists", people with diabilities — in other words, a lot of my closest friends and family members. And what about those Jews who are simply unable to "run", i.e. Jews living in poverty, elderly Jews, and disabled Jews? Would I just try to save myself, even if everyone around me was dying?
No, freakin' way!!! I've never myself faced a direct threat against my life, so it's not for me to judge what another person does when their own life is at risk. And if America has taken taken over by Jew-haters, would Israel be any safer?
I do not mourn Jewish deaths more than I do Gentile ones.
hypothesising a genocidal nazi regime in the USA, and identifying all critics of Israel as 'Jew haters' and hence necessarily part of this genocidal nazi bloc, is not made more convincing by the use of enigmatic dashes in place of key words.
Great comment, Jim Haygood!