Camilla,

1) I don't know if it can really be said that pro-boycotters agree on any 
kind of a solution, but I think that if they were put to it, the furthest 
they would agree is that Palestinians and Israelis should be working out 
their own solutions, rather than having people like us tellling them how to 
do it. I would also add that you don't have to have a view on a particular 
solution to have a view on a boycott. A boycott at its' most extravagant is 
no more than a very weak (but symbolic) attempt to address the imbalances of 
power and say that Palestinians and Israelis need to be able to negotiate 
from positions of equality, which is simply not the case at present.

2) I'm not sure what the point is you're trying to make about the 
Zionist/Nazi collaboration mention of Mona Baker, but there is a substantial 
body of evidence that early Zionists attempted to negotiate with the Nazis 
from the early 1930s up until (if my memory serves me correctly) 1938 or so. 
I quote you some of the evidence for that below, mainly from Jewish sources:

Memorandum to the Nazi Party by the ZVfD (Zionistische Vereinigung fur 
Deutschland (Zionist Federation of Germany)) on 21 June 1933:

“To attain its practical objectives, Zionism hopes it will be able to 
collaborate with a government that is fundamentally hostile to the 
Jews....The realization of Zionism is impeded only by the resentment of Jews 
from without against the present German orientation The propaganda in favor 
of Zionism currently aimed against Germany is essentially non-Zionist... 
should the Germans accept the cooperation of the Zionists, these would try 
to dissuade Jews abroad from supporting the anti-German boycott."

Source : Lucy Dawidowicz, "A Holocaust reader", New York: Behrman House, 
1976 p. 155, Lucy Dawidowicz, "The war against Jews (1933-1945)" Penguin 
books.1977. p.231-232.

"Hitler will be forgotten in a few years, but we will have a beautiful 
monument in Palestine. You know, the coming of the Nazis was rather a 
welcome thing...Thousands who seemed to be completely lost to Judaism were 
brought back to the fold by Hitler, and for that I am personally very 
grateful to him."

(Emil Ludwig quoted in Lenni Brenner, Zionism in the age of the dictators 
(1983), available from American Education Trust (1998) p.59)


Reinhardt Heydrich, Das Schwarze Korps, the official organ of the S.S. 
(1935) "The invisible enemy":

"We must separate the Jews into two categories, the Zionists and the 
partisans of assimilation. The Zionists profess a strictly racial concept 
and, through emigration to Palestine, they help to build their own Jewish 
State...our good wishes and our official goodwill go with them."

Source : Hohne, H. (2000) "Order of the Death's Head", London: Penguin, 
p.333.


Document: "Basic principles of the military organization(NMO) in Palestine 
(Irgun Zevai Leumi) concerning the solution of the Jewish question in Europe 
and the active participation of the NMO in the war on the side of Germany."

The following are extracts :

"It emerges from the speeches of the leaders of the German National 
Socialist State that a radical solution to the Jewish question implies an 
evacuation of the Jewish masses from Europe. (Judenreines Europa).

This evacuation of the Jewish masses from Europe is the primary condition of 
the solution of the Jewish problem, but it is only made possible by the 
installation of these masses in Palestine, in a Jewish state with its 
historical frontiers.

To resolve the Jewish problem definitively and to liberate the Jewish people 
is the goal of the political activity and the long years of struggle of the 
"Movement for the Freedom of Israel" (Lehi) and its national military 
organization in Palestine (Irgun Zevai Leumi).

The NMO, knowing the benevolent position of the Reich government towards the 
Zionist activity within Germany, and the Zionist emigration projects, 
considers that:

1) There could exist common interests between the foundation of a new order 
in Europe, according to the German concept, and the genuine aspirations of 
the Jewish people as they are incarnated by the Lehi.

2) Cooperation would be possible between the new Germany and a renewed 
Hebrew nation (Volkish Nationalen Hebraertum).

3) The establishment of the historical Jewish State on a national and 
totalitarian base, linked by a treaty to a German Reich, could contribute to 
the reinforcement in the future of Germany's position in the Middle East.

On condition that the German government recognizes the national aspirations 
of the 'Movement for the Freedom of Israel' (Lehi), the National Military 
Organization (NMO) proposes to participate in the war on the side of 
Germany.

The cooperation of the Israel liberation movement would go in the direction 
of the recent speeches of the Reich chancellor, in which Mr. Hitler stressed 
that all negotiations and any alliance should serve to isolate England and 
to defeat it.

Because of its structure and concept of the world, the NMO is narrowly 
linked to the European totalitarian movements.

Source : The original text, in German, is in appendix number 11 of the book 
by David Yisraeli : "Le probleme palestinien dans la politique allemande, de 
1889 - 1945", Bar Ilan University Ramat Gan. Israel, 1974,p. 315-317.

3) Why on earth, in order to determine that there is oppression of the 
Palestinian people and that it needs to end, would we need to debate "what 
exactly is Zionism"? if a code of belief depends on the theft of land from 
its' original owners, their treatment as second-class citizens, their 
removal from all but symbolic access to the trappings of full emancipation 
and their physical removal or killing, it can call itself "Excessive love 
for Custard" if it wants but it's still the same thing.

4) Workers unity - how can you have unity where the privilege of one set of 
workers relies on the impoverishment and denial of access to land of another 
set? As an instance, the settlers who may or may not move from Gaza in 
August were paid massive amounts of money to go there in the first place; 
they'll then be paid even more money to leave, and if they're really canny 
and choose to be resettled in the West Bank, they'll be paid a third sum of 
money to leave those settlements as well, when the time comes - how do the 
interests of these well-off workers coincide with those of the workers whose 
land had first to be stolen in order for the first set to be paid all that 
money?

Jon Cloke (Durham)