Re: [Marxism] How to answer these questions?

[Andrew Pollack <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

It's always been important -- and the only  principled stand -- to refute the 
Israeli government's propaganda that  Zionism is for all Jews. And the only 
principled demand is not "drive  all the Jews into the sea" (however 
emotionally satisfying that is for  Joaquin) but the deZionisation of 
Palestine. Getting to that  deZionisation means building a mass movement now -- 
including in the US  -- for full legal, civil, social and human rights for 
Arabs in their  historic homeland.
  
  
  And that movement would take up the right to return, and demanding the  end 
of all US support for Americans (most of them middle or  upper-middle class) 
who go to Israel -- like those who died yesterday  (see below's Haaretz and 
Daily News).
  -----------------
  www.haaretz.com
  
  Living the Zionist dream, dying in defense of Israel
      By Amiram Barkat and Daphna Berman
          Three soldiers with no family in Israel (termed 'lone  soldier') have 
been killed since the fighting started in the North and two  others have been 
wounded. Last Tuesday Staff Sergeant Yonatan Vlasyuk from the  Ukraine, who 
served in an elite unit and lived with an adopted family in  Kibbutz Lahav, was 
killed. A day later, Sergeant Assaf Namer of Australia, of Golani  was killed, 
followed Tuesday by the death of an American, Staff Sergeant  Michael Levin, a 
paratrooper. In the same incident another lone soldier in  Levin's unit, 
Yonatan Marcus, was wounded. Another lone soldier, Ilan Grapel,  of Queens, New 
York, was among 20 soldiers wounded Tuesday night in the battle  of Taibe.
       
  Aharon Horwitz, a former lone soldier from Cleveland, said  that as a 
teenager, he felt that "Israel is a Jewish state and so I  thought that I also 
had a responsibility to serve."      
      An estimated 2,300 lone soldiers are currently serving in  the IDF, most 
of them coming from the Former Soviet Union. But soldiers from  Western 
countries are serving as well, including an estimated 120 who are North  
American-born. Some are the sons of Israelis living abroad but most have no  
prior connection to Israel.
          "On one hand, I feel total pride, since I spent my  whole life 
raising our kids to be Zionists," Marla Comet-Stark, who lives  in Ohio and 
whose son is now in basic training in Givati, told Haaretz.  "But, on the other 
hand, I feel like saying 'just kidding, I didn't really  mean the whole Zionism 
thing - there are other ways to help Israel.'" Tziki  Aud, who serves as an 
adopted father for many lone soldiers and is also head of  the Jewish Agency's 
information center for new immigrants, knew Michael and his  friends well. 
"These are people who came only out of ideology and  Zionism," he said. "They 
had no economic interests and could have  made more money if they stayed in 
America. Their friends went off to college,  but they decided to make aliyah 
[emigrate to Israel] instead."
       
      Yaakov Seligman, 20, joined the army in March of this year,  leaving his 
family and friends behind in South Florida. Raised in an observant  family, he 
attended Jewish and Zionist schools and says he always dreamed about  moving to 
Israel. Most of his former classmates are in the U.S., enjoying the  relaxed 
life of an American college student. But Seligman says that he is doing  
something "more meaningful." His parents, he says, are "proud,  but worried."
  http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/440263p-370907c.html
          New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com Fighting claims 
lives of 2 from  United States 
  BY LEO STANDORA
  DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER 
  Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 
  
  Two Americans died in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah yesterday.
      David Lelchook took his  family from the suburbs of Boston to Israel 20 
years ago to live.
      Michael Levin left his  family in the suburbs of Philadelphia last week 
to go to Israel to fight.
      Levin, a tall, handsome  22-year-old with a dazzling smile, was cut down 
Tuesday in a battle at Ayta  A-Shab in southern Lebanon.
      The night before Levin  died, more than 1,200 people gave his parents a 
standing ovation at a Bucks  County synagogue in recognition of their son's 
service to Israel, friends said.
  Levin immigrated to Israel  four years ago to study and live on a kibbutz, 
then joined the military's  paratrooper unit.
  Lelchook, 52, a Cornell  University graduate, had been living in Kibbutz 
Sa'ar, near the town of  Nahariya, a border town that has been hit hard by 
Hezbollah rockets. His wife  and two children moved to southern Israel when the 
attacks began, but Lelchook  stayed behind. 
      A rocket fell and killed  him yesterday as he biked home after a warning 
siren went off. 
       
    
                
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