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

[andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Apparently I was not clear enough. Let me me a bit
brutal. Your position is politically stupid and self
destructive. Whether it is reasonable or not, a lot of
Jews, American and Israeli, feel the weight of
historical persecution. This also true of left Jews.

 You can tell them, You Have No Right! You are Not
Oppressed! You are Oppressors! You may be correct. You
will not persuade them. You will not win them as
allies. I am not talking about the Sharonistas or the
Foxmaniacs. I am talking about left and progressive
Jews of the sort who have played a large role in our
movement, as well as liberal Jews who have been our
allies.

So, you have to decide whether you want to be Right or
Effective. If you want to be effective, you have to
figure out how to address the concerns and
insecurities that drive a group whose status as
relatively privileged is recent and felt to be weak.
Or you can carry on, but in that case, I'd seriously
suggest that you shut up and let people like me talk
to the Zionists; I have a hard enough time of it, but
there is a remote chance that I might bea ble to do
some good. The sort of backchat that you indulge in
here is actually actively harmful.

It doesn't matter if it true. Sometimes true is not
that important. You have to figure out how to say it.
I don't have a great idea myself, but you are not
within a million miles.

 jks

--- Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> At 10:45 AM -0800 12/7/03, andie nachgeborenen
> wrote:
> >All that said, I don't see that it is crazy,
> stupid, silly, or even
> >obviously wrong for Jews to demand some sort of
> special privileges
> >for reasons that are not that dissimilar from the
> reasons that
> >African Americans can make the same demand. The
> problem with LCP's
> >theory is that the Jews may be entitled to some
> form of affirmative
> >action, but that the Law of Return is the
> appropriate form of that
> >affirmative action.
>
> In Israel, Jews are, legally, politically, and
> economically, the
> dominant group, and Palestinians are the subordinate
> group in a
> position comparable to American Blacks'.  Given the
> relation of power
> between Jews and Palestinians of Israel and the
> Occupied Territories,
> it's mind-boggling to demand affirmative action for
> Jews, rather than
> for Palestinians.
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Bring Them Home Now!
> <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
> * Calendars of Events in Columbus:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
> <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, &
> <http://www.cpanews.org/>
> * Student International Forum:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine:
> <http://www.osudivest.org/>
> * Al-Awda-Ohio:
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>


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