----- Original Message -----
From: "Dominic Fox" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 21 March 2003 00:34
Subject: Re: Barmy army
Thanks for this, Dominic. I see that there was much more to your previous
post than I had allowed myself to perceive.
But though you have expanded on the Palestinian "claim", I still have
trouble with "The Palestinian claim is at least weakened by its having
become historically
mixed up with an pan-Arabist agenda, present since before Israel's
existence,
which is no less based on religious fundamentalism, notions of ethnic
purity"
The Palestinian claim is much more simple. They were thrown off their land
by a bunch of in-migrants who claim to be ancestors of people who lived
there 2000 years ago. I object to fundamentalism whoever's it is. But the
*claim is bason on Israeli landgrab
That claim seems to me to be absolute, especially as the in-migrants were
allowed in on the basis of a "homeland in Palestine", which was used in bad
faith.
Not all welcomed them, but that does not alter the justice of the general
claim. There are racists in all communities.
I am unhappy too with "but Israel has always existed under threat of
extermination" because it conflates the desire to destroy the imposed state
and the desire to commit genocide. It seems to me that they are entirely
different, the former being on a par with the ANC struggle against white
supremacy etc
I think one can argue a moral case for Palestinian violence in the face of
invasion. If one allows forms of Zionism, why not forms of Pan-Arabism?
At this stage, of course, it has gone on so long that there is no simple
solution. Perhaps reparations might come into it, but would be no substitute
for regime change from the triumphalist racial supremacy of Israel
Anyway, thanks for the clarification. It's appreciated.
Lawrence
|