Re: Antisemism and the Us Left/(Was Zionists & American Blacks)

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

At 7:31 PM -0500 12/7/03, Max B. Sawicky wrote:
> Yoshie is right in the narrow context of the current Israeli land
> holdings, where jews are clearly oppressors and Palestinians the
> oppressed, but wrong in the broader context of world Jewish
> existence since 1800.

The narrow context of Israeli practice, however, is precisely what
Letty Cottin Pogrebin defends in her article "In Defense of the Law
of Return," _The Nation_, December 22, 2003 (available to _The
Nation_ subscribers only at
<http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20031222&s=pogrebin>).  In
the article, she is not defending demands for reparations from German
corporations, Swiss banks, Eastern European states, predominantly
Arab states, etc. to compensate for the history of oppression of
Jews, expropriation of Jewish properties, etc. in her article;
instead, she is justifying the Israeli discrimination for Jews and
against Palestinians.

Pogrebin does offer a position slightly better than the 2003 Geneva
Accords (but "better" only because the Geneva Accords are pretty
sorry) in the same article: "While it is not feasible to absorb
millions of Palestinian refugees inside the Green Line, it is
possible, as proposed in the 2003 Geneva Accords, to take in
thousands without imperiling the Jewishness of Israel or, in lieu of
physical return, for Israel to pay reparations and help the
Palestinian state absorb some of its own diaspora within its own
borders" ("In Defense of the Law of Return," _The Nation_, December
22, 2003,
<http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20031222&s=pogrebin>).

If Pogrebin were to apply the logic of affirmative action -- positive
discrimination in favor of the oppressed to bring about equality --
to Israel, she ought to reverse her argument, defending the
Palestinian refugees' right of return while advocating taking in only
Jews who are actually persecuted or fear an imminent danger of
persecution in the rest of the world, perhaps "in thousands."
--
Yoshie

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