Re: [Marxism] Hamas is hoping for an IDF ground operation

["farmelantj@xxxxxxxx" <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

-- Nestor Gorojovsky <nmgoro@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"It may be important to point out that Goldfarb had gone to Israel in
1978, that is most probably he had to leave Argentina due to his
political views against the ruling Junta. Barenboim is, actually, a
specimen of a larger piece of the Israeli population. This is a sore
nerve that should be taken into account, I think, by comrades there."

"Jabotinskiïs clear sighted assertions, as quoted below by Lïko, hold the 
seed of their eventual demise, as anything in this world. It is up to 
the Israeli Left, or what remains of revolutionary Left in Israel, to 
work the thing out."

A couple of years ago at the time of the Israeli incursion
into Lebanon, I wrote the following:
------------------------------------
That's been a problem with Zionism from the very beginning.
The Labor Zionists, in particular, were over the years
quite successful in sowing illusions among progressives,
by no means limited to progressive Jews, that the Zionist
project was compatible with progressive and even socialist
values and ideals. Thus support for Zionism was among other
things portrayed as being compatible with support for
anti-imperialism for instance, which is clearly nonsensical.

One of the few early Zionists, who had an even halfway realistic
understanding of how things would turn out was the intellectual
father of Revisionist Zionism, Z'ev Jabotinsky. In his essay,
"The Iron Wall," (http://www.saveisrael.com/jabo/jabowall.htm),
Jabotinsky, argued among other things that the success of
the Zionist project required that the Zionists ally themselves
with Western imperialists (in his day, the British, Italians, and
French) against the national aspirations of the Arabs and
other peoples of the Middle East. He wrote:

"We can offer only two things: either money or political 
assistance or both. But we can offer neither. Concerning money, 
it is ludicrous to think we could finance the development of 
Iraq or Saudi Arabia, when we do not have enough for the Land of 
Israel. Ten times more illusionary is political
assistance for Arab political aspirations. Arab nationalism sets itself
the same aims as those set by Italian nationalism before 1870 and 
Polish nationalism before 1918: unity and independence. These 
aspirations mean the eradication of every trace of British influence 
in Egypt and Iraq, the expulsion of the Italians from Libya, the 
removal of French domination from Syria, Tunis, Algiers and Morocco. 
For us to support such a movement would
be suicide and treachery. If we disregard the fact that the Balfour
Declaration was signed by Britain, we cannot forget that France and 
Italy also signed it. We cannot intrigue about removing Britain from 
the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf and the elimination of French and 
Italian colonial rule over Arab territory. Such a double game cannot be
considered on any account.

"Thus we conclude that we cannot promise anything to the Arabs of the
Land of Israel or the Arab countries. Their voluntary agreement is out 
of the question. Hence those who hold that an agreement with the 
natives is an essential condition for Zionism can now say "no" and 
depart from Zionism.  Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, 
must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of 
the native population. This colonization can, therefore, continue and 
develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local 
population -- an iron wall which the native population cannot break 
through. This is, in toto, our policy towards
the Arabs. To formulate it any other way would only be hypocrisy."

Jabotinsky did not mince words here. He also made it quite clear in his
essay, that Arab opposition to the Zionist project was not at all
irrational. From their perspective, they were quite right to oppose 
it, since it necessarily threatened their own national aspirations. 
As he put it:

"Any native people -- its all the same whether they are civilized or
savage -- views their country as their national home, of which they 
will always be the complete masters. They will not voluntarily allow, 
not only a new master, but even a new partner. And so it is for the 
Arabs.  Compromisers in our midst attempt to convince us that the 
Arabs are some kind of fools who can be tricked by a softened 
formulation of our goals, or a tribe of money grubbers who will 
abandon their birth right to Palestine for cultural and economic 
gains. I flatly reject this assessment of the Palestinian
Arabs. Culturally they are 500 years behind us, spiritually they do not
have our endurance or our strength of will, but this exhausts all of 
the internal differences. We can talk as much as we want about our 
good intentions; but they understand as well as we what is not good 
for them. They look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and 
true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux looked 
upon his prairie. To think that the Arabs will voluntarily consent to 
the realization of Zionism in return for the cultural and economic 
benefits we can bestow on them is infantile.  This childish fantasy of 
our "Arabo-philes" comes from some kind of contempt for the Arab 
people, of some kind of unfounded view of this race as a rabble
ready to be bribed in order to sell out their homeland for a railroad
network."

I think that Jabotinsky was quite right in his assessment and the 
events of the past eighty-three years have only shown his analysis to 
have been correct. Where he goes wrong is in his faith in the 
continued viability of colonialism, and  he clearly saw
Zionism as kind of colonialist project. The success of the Zionist 
project,in his view, required the backing of the imperialist powers
(in his day, Jabotinsky spent much time, trying to cultivate
support from the British, then the Italians, and later the British
again). 
Now a days, the US plays this sort of a role. Thus to support
Zionism, is to support imperialism and colonialism. That was
true in 1923 and it is true now, as we can see when we look
at the news about both Iraq and Lebanon.


____________________________________________________________
Want a great salary and great benefits?  Click here to start a criminal justice 
career.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw2jutQrI5z4Qpk28qhIaSOZlNpD5IcCRoatSjzmuQzpmA67d/

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu