[PEN-L:6791] American Jews Call for Halt of NATO Bombing

[Robert Naiman <naimanr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sunday Journal, DC
May 16, 1999
Robert Naiman

"On the Left"

American Jews Call for Halt of NATO Bombing

President Clinton has repeatedly tried to fend off
criticism of NATO's war against Yugoslavia by comparing
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to Adolf Hitler and
comparing the Yugoslav Army's campaign against Albanian
separatists in Kosovo to the Nazi extermination of six
million Jews.

In an appeal to the Green Party of Germany to oppose the
war, more than 200 American Jews, including prominent
scholars, writers, and civic leaders, rejected this
comparison. The appeal, viewable at
www.preamble.org/greensign.html, was signed by many
prominent human rights activists, such as the famous
linguist and author Noam Chomsky, historian Howard Zinn,
and Saul Landau, who helped prepare legal cases against
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The occasion was the
Green Party conference on the war on May 13, where party
activists critical of the war presented resolutions
demanding an immediate halt to the NATO bombing. After a
raucous debate, the party conference approved a resolution
backed by the leadership which called for a suspension of
airstrikes but will be interpreted as allowing the Green
parliamentary deputies to continue supporting the German
government policy of toeing the NATO line.

In Germany even more than the United States, the memory of
the Holocaust has been repeatedly invoked to justify the
war, or at least to silence the opposition. The argument is
a powerful one in Germany.

We are often told we must understand the lessons of history
to avoid repeating its mistakes. But the lessons of history
are not given to us in a textbook, nor can we trust
editorialists to tell us what they are. If the Devil can
quote Scripture for his purpose, then virulent militarists
and racists can invoke the Holocaust to justify bombing a
defenseless civilian population. As one signer of the anti-
war appeal sardonically remarked, "What better way to honor
the victims of the Holocaust than to have the German
Luftwaffe bomb Belgrade?" We have to figure out the lessons
of history for ourselves.

If we can't trust editorialists, we certainly can't rely on
party allegiances to determine what we think. Many
Congressional Democrats seem quite prepared to say any damn
thing if the White House or the Democratic leadership tell
them it's politically expedient to do so. They'll say that
the Social Security system is in crisis, or that U.S.
taxpayers should give more money to the IMF to help poor
countries, or that NATO is bombing Yugoslavia out of
humanitarian concern, despite the fact that all of these
claims are absurd. Yet, people who should know better --
many of them far from the Beltway -- continue to act as if
the position of President Clinton or the Democratic
leadership should guide their political judgements.

The hoary phrase "strange bedfellows" should be viewed in
this light. Progressive critics of the Administration are
accused of being  "in bed with the Republicans" when they
oppose allocating more tax dollars to the IMF, or the
bombing of Yugoslav civilians. The accusation is absurd. A
moral person determines their position first and then tries
to figure out who their potential allies are, not the other
way around.

To determines one's stance based on the alleged authority
of party leaders is to invite oneself to be led around by
the nose. While much of the rank and file of the Democratic
party slept, the Clinton Administration sabotaged the
movement for universal health insurance, passed NAFTA,
established the WTO, abolished federally guaranteed support
for poor families, restricted civil liberties, increased
the use of the death penalty, opened more public land to
resource extraction, cut social spending, and expanded the
IMF. Starving children in Indonesia can thank outgoing
Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin for IMF austerity.

Still, liberals rally their supporters by trumpeting that
the "real threat" is the Republicans. Check the next
fundraising appeal you get from a liberal organization.
Note how they try to get your money by whipping up fear of
the Republican right and the Christian Coalition. See if
they mention how Clinton and the Democratic leadership
support the same policies or worse. Of course, conservative
Republicans advocate many awful policies, but these
policies often would not be adopted if they were not
supported by Democratic leaders.

Maybe, after all the bombing, militarism and cutbacks
supported by this Administration and their "liberal"
allies, the rank and file will say, enough is enough. A
little more rabble-rousing at the grassroots could go a
long way.

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Robert Naiman <naimanr@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Preamble Center
1737 21st NW
Washington, DC 20009
phone: 202-265-3263
fax:   202-265-3647
http://www.preamble.org/
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