Re: [Marxism] Revolution and Religious Fundamentalism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ruthless Critic of All that Exists wrote:
> 
> Is it false, or unfounded, that Hamas is antisemitic? Well, no.

Antisemitism is not simply hatred of Jews. It is a form of 
institutionalized racial oppression that exists almost nowhere in the 
world today as Jews have moved into positions of dominant economic and 
political power, particularly in the U.S. Jews no longer are forced to 
live in ghettos, face job discrimination, have synagogues burned, etc.

When a Palestinian says that he hates Jews, this is just a way of 
stating that he or she is opposed to Zionism. It would be more precise 
to say that he hates Israelis, but who really cares? The Palestinians 
are not about to haul Jews off to concentration camps. In fact, the 
situation in Gaza is more sadly reminiscent of the Warsaw Ghetto.

In the movie "9 Star Hotel", the Palestinian construction workers keep 
referring to "the Jews" when everybody understands that they are 
referring to Israelis. Since Israel represents itself as an exclusively 
Jewish state, it is a certainty that Arabs will elide the distinction 
between an ethnic group and the state they rule.

The main proof that Hamas is antisemitic is the inclusion of a reference 
to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in their founding statement. This 
is just one of the boneheaded errors that keeps cropping up in Islamist 
movements, from Hamas to Hezbollah to the government of Iran. This 
reflects the low political level of these movements, which have isolated 
themselves pretty well from more secular, class-oriented socialist 
movements. But this in itself does not indicate that they are a threat 
to Jews. In fact, the opposite is true. All of them are the targets of 
current and past aggressions. The unfortunate thing is that the gaffes 
of a Hamas or an Ahmadinejad weakens them in the court of public relations.

Here's something I wrote in February 2007 that is relevant to this 
discussion: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/02/06/is-nasrallah-an-anti-semite/




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