Re: American Jews force Sharon's hand

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2003-05-29 19:29 -0400, you wrote:
> It's hard to prove or disprove, but I don't think
> American jews are at the bottom of Sharon's move.
> I think it's Israeli Jews, who understand infinitely
> better than Americans the internal contradictions of
> occupation -- the cost, the failure to provide
> safety, the lack of any sign of progress.
>
> max


I appreciate the comments. The original article seemed to me important on a
number of levels.

As I posted to LBO-talk on May 8   I was struck by an in-depth report on
BBC2 Newsnight about how the Jewish lobby is dominated by the right wing
despite most of the consitutency leaning towards the Democrats.

Yes I know the arguments that the Democrats are merely the alternative
imperialist party, which gets rehearsed many times on these lists, and the
position of different subscribers is fairly well known but I am interested
in any practical examples of how somewhat more progressive people within
the USA can find common cause with people in the rest of the world against
imperialism.

In one sense this is a policy conflict about whether the extreme American
right represents the interests of global capital better than the sort of
multi-lateral imperialists like Clinton and Blair would probably prefer to
be. But it may present progressive opportunities for the people of the
world, like when the split between landed and industrial capital in England
gave the opportunity for the 10 Hours Bill to get passed, 140 odd years ago.

May 8

> BBC2 Newsnight has just run an in depth analysis of the success of the
> Jewish lobby in the US and discussed why it is more right wing than the
> majority of Jewish voters. And also some points of vulnerability.
>
> Although the information is presumably known in the USA, this may be a
> useful compilation of sources in a neutral venue.
>
> AIPAC, Michael Hoenlein, and the hopelessness of the "right of return" for
> Palestinian refugees [the largest group of refugees in the world]
>
> Last third of video on this site-
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3008449.stm
>
> Chris Burford
> London