Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 7 (since 2009-09-17 21:21:53)

tampsa

anti-Zionist since 1936 at age 15

Showing comments 7 - 1
Page:

  • The end of the 'two-state solution' is the beginning of a more just future
    • tampsa March 21, 2012 at 2:19 pm

      From 1936 to 1948 I was a "self-hating Jew" (in today's terminology). I was opposed to the Zionist/Jewish Agency program to establish the "Jewish National Homeland." From 1948 to somewhere in the current century I tilted at other windmills. Then I was awakened from a long ideological slumber by a headline "Is the 2ss dead?"

      I entered active polemic life in defense of the 2ss until near the end of 2011, when I finally realized that in fact there was no rational possibility of a viable Palestine. Indeed, the official Likud platform states that Israel will never allow an independent Palestinian state west of the Jordan, which is explicitly claimed as the Eastern border of Israel. [So much for your negotiations, Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton]

      I am now for the unitary 1ss with full and real equal rights for all. This will take work, both within and without Cis-Jordan along the model of what it took to end apartheid in South Africa [BDS!].

      Incidentally, your hair splitters who see the term anti-Semite as directed at more than Jews, because Arabs are also Semites, the term was coined by European and American defenders of the Jews per se, who didn't know anything about other Semites. Anti-Semite is today a goy who criticizes Israel, just as self-hater is the Jewish equivalent. Did I see one of your commenters [in a different thread] who extended the concept of Semite even to Iranians because they are also Mideastern Muslims?

  • Would Julius and Ethel be Zionists had they lived?
    • tampsa November 12, 2010 at 7:53 pm

      I beg to differ. Most Jewish communists on the eve of WWII were anti-Zionist. I know, because I was one. In 1936, age 15, I was at Camp Achvah, for young Zionists. I was helped to see that to create the Jewish National Homeland we Jews would have to do to the native Palestinians what the European settlers did to the native Americans. There were also other considerations, that I don't have to go into here.

      I made inquiries. "What movement on the left is anti-Zionist?" My young socialist friends at Achvah told me "Only the Communists." That did it for me. That fall I joined the YCL. This led me on a lifelong journey, via Prague, Calcutta, Paris and eventually home. I am no longer a communist, but still anti-Zionist.

      BTW, in Prague I met two members of the Rosenbergs' cell on the lam to the Soviet Union, who tried to recruit me for the enterprise they were going to set up there, but it was too late. I already intended to redefect.

  • 'Tablet' runs groundbreaking Luban piece attacking liberal Zionism's Jewish narcissism
    • tampsa June 5, 2010 at 1:34 pm

      "Self-hater" makes sense. This is a Jew who objects to Israel's policies, but keeps that to himself for fear of being called "self-hater." He hates himself for keeping silent.

      For other comments of Israeli Newspeak, see my blog: link to open.salon.com

  • Barghouthi: Until Congress listens to Palestinian-Americans, forget about two state solution
    • tampsa May 16, 2010 at 2:17 pm

      By taking US aid off the table, by passing up an opportunity tended to him by Helen Thomas at his very first presidential press conference to denounce Israel's nuclear arms, Obama has tied himself into a strait jacket. But Congress can get him off the hook.

      Article 1, Section 8, “The Congress shall have Power…(10) “To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;” in other words, violations of international law. Some courageous member of congress can set up a committee to investigate Israel and propose appropriate punishment, such as withdrawing US arms and $$$.

  • Excerpt from: 'The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa'
    • tampsa May 15, 2010 at 3:24 pm

      I was in Prague from 1948-1959. Not only did I witness the Slansky show trials, I translated the trial transcript from Czech and Slovak to English. I was unable to take either the book or my translation manuscript with me when I left. One of the phrases of choice in the trial was "Cosmopolitan Zionist conspiracy." There was definitely a witch hunt against Jews. One of Gottwald's physicians, Dr. Haas, a Jewish psychoanalyst and a personal friend of mine was imprisoned until the Khruschev revelations. A Jewish friend of mine in Prague told me the following bit of Jewish black humor at the time:

      Q. What's an anti-Semite?
      Ans. Somebody who hates us a bit more than absolutely necessary.

      I have been anti-Zionist since 1936 (age 15). Anti-Zionism cannot be confused with anti-Semitism but equating the two is a weapon of choice to discredit defenders of the Palestinian people--as we well know.

  • Get me rewrite-- Washington man is trapped in Gaza. Sorry, no story
    • tampsa September 27, 2009 at 3:32 pm

      I sent the following message to State on the queries page:
      "Hani Almadhoun is an American citizen who is trying to leave the Occupied Territory (West Bank). I understand he has difficulty getting US consular assistance. Can you look into this?"
      I don't expect anything to come of this, but if a few dozen of us took such action, that would probably have an effect. More than just griping amongst ourselves. No?

  • More on Henry Wallace, Alvah Bessie, Dick Cheney too
    • tampsa September 18, 2009 at 9:27 am

      I was one of the '30s Stalinists. I don't know if Henry Wallace was even a fellow traveller but we did support him for president in '48. More interesting is the CP position on Zionism. We were dead set against the policy of reclaiming Palestine as a "Jewish national Homeland." Among the reasons were precisely that this would lead to treating native Arab population the same way taht European settlers treated native Americans. Also, such a project would only be viable with massive subsidies from the diaspora.

      As a 15 year old know-it-all at Camp Achvah, a summer camp in the Catskills for Jewish youth, it was this realization that led me to become a communist. Now, 73 years lter, I have long since ceased to be a communist but I am still against the Zionist program of absorbing all that remains of Arab Palestine. Those predictions have been only too amply been confirmed by history.

Showing comments 7 - 1
Page:

Comments are closed.