tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9040235449298574572.post8409643445991058991..comments2023-03-28T22:32:24.211+00:00Comments on theory and politics: The new anti-anti-semitismMartin Shawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09444521158420474580noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9040235449298574572.post-57262201755510133192008-09-24T17:51:00.000+00:002008-09-24T17:51:00.000+00:00Mr. Shaw,When some of us speak of things such as t...Mr. Shaw,<BR/><BR/><BR/>When some of us speak of things such as the boycott being antisemitic, some of us see the matter the way one would see the Dreyfus Affair or most of the other historical events which, on the surface, seemed not to involve Antisemitism but which, when later examined, were deeply Antisemitic.<BR/><BR/>For example, in your country, those who opposed granting refuge to Jews from Nazi Germany also said they were not engaged in anything Antisemitic - except that the diaries and private letters of such people reveal otherwise.<BR/><BR/>In the Dreyfus Affair, those who charged that Antisemitism was involved were pooh-poohed, just like you pooh-pooh the notion with respect to the boycott and Antisemitism. Not everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair hated Jews. But, it was the way that Antisemites could express themselves in a seemingly respectable manner.<BR/><BR/>You may not like being lumped in with Antisemites but, frankly, you have adopted the political language by which those who do express their hatred of Jews express themselves. That is why the boycott and other anti-Zionist activity is such an obsession for some. But, as the Durban conference shows, the saying "one bullet, one Jew" and "death to Jews" was not about Israelis, it was hatred of Jews.<BR/><BR/>My history of the Arab Israeli dispute includes the effort by Arabs to cleanse the region - and not just historic Palestine - of Jews. My history includes the relationship between the leaders of the Palestine Arabs and the Nazis - no small matter if we are speaking of moral responsibility for what occurred and all the more pressing because that leader was rather popular and is, to this day, still celebrated by Palestine Arabs. <BR/><BR/>My history includes the findings of Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Martin Cüppers in their book <I>Halbmond und Hakenkreuz. Das "Dritte Reich", die Araber und Palästina</I> [translated "Crescent Moon and Swastika: The Third Reich, the Arabs, and Palestine"] that the Arabs were deeply involved in a planned genocide and that had the British not stopped Hitler's army in the region, there would have been a real one in historic Palestine, one led by Arabs - willing conspirators.<BR/><BR/>My history includes some acknowledgment that Jews were fighting a war in which their survival was reasonably believed by them to be at stake. My history acknowledges that the displacement of Palestine Arabs was no worse than the displacement of Sudeten Germans except, of course, that Palestine Arabs were, at the time of their displacement (and still) at war with the Jewish population, a war which, by any reasonable historical account, was started by the Arab side which refused the dictates of International law, lest they have to share rule of the land with Jews.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9040235449298574572.post-27591872622087826732008-09-22T14:21:00.000+00:002008-09-22T14:21:00.000+00:00This is quite interesting, Prof. Shaw. I have take...This is quite interesting, Prof. Shaw. I have taken a stab at the question of singling out Israel for moral criticism on my own blog, here:<BR/><BR/>http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2007/09/singling-out-israel-for-moral.html<BR/><BR/>I would add to your last response to David Shaw that one does not need to accept Pappe's claim that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was an essential pillar of Zionist policy, or that it was deliberately undertaken as part of a master-strategy, to view the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians as central to the development of political Zionism in the 1940's and 1950's. (Let us not forget that there were a few cultural Zionists, like Magnes and Buber, who opposed it) <BR/><BR/>Even Benny Morris's weaker claims are sufficient to demonstrate that such ethnic cleansing was approved by many main Zionist players before, and by all others after, the fact. <BR/><BR/>Indeed, the decision of the Zionist leadership and the State to bar Palestinians from returning to their homes, on the basis of their ethnicity, a ban that included Palestinians who took no part in the hostilities, should be viewed as the primary act of ethnic cleansing -- even if, contrary to facts, all the Palestinians left during the hostilities because they were exhorted to do so. <BR/><BR/>Indeed, even if one accepts the rightwing Zionist narrative of 1948 put forth by scholars such as Yoav Gelber and Efraim Karsh, Israel engaged in ethnic cleansing in its refusal to let Palestinians return.<BR/><BR/>And a small point: as you point out, the foundational document of the State of Israel, as interpreted by subsequent legislation, speaks of a state of the Jews, which is defined as a religio-ethnic category. The non-Jewish citizens of the state are excluded from the nation-state, whereas a pork-eating Russian atheist whose paternal grandfather was Jewish yet whose father was a Russian Orthodox priest, is privileged to "return" to his homeland.Jerry Haberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15173892714754718716noreply@blogger.com