On Sun, Mar 31, 2002 at 12:29:15PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > Here's the quote John was referring to: > > "IOW, Israel should be Lebensraum for their people, and their people only. > Sounds vaguely familiar..." > .... > Why isn't this arguement anti-Semetic?
Because it doesn't contain anything about hating Jews? I was looking for the quote where John claims Jeroen said the Jews were "just like" the Nazis. Since the Nazis were surely evil, being "just like" them is a terrible insult and I would certainly agree that a person hates a group if they consider them "just like" Nazis. Taken literally, Jeroen's statement is true -- many (most?) Israelis do want their lebensraum (habitat or living space) to be only for "their people." I don't see anything wrong with that. I do see a problem with Israel's occupation of West Bank and Gaza, with Sharon's refusal to allow Arafat to go to the Arab summit and return, and most definitely with the Israeli settlers on the occupied territories and Sharon's support of them. I understand why they are doing it, and some days I might even say they are justified, but that doesn't mean that anything good will be accomplished that way. But I am diverging from the subject. Jeroen apparently thinks the Israelis are not justified in occupying the territories. His insinuation probably means that in their occupation, they are doing something "vaguely" similar to one thing that the Nazis did. I don't think he meant to insinuate that the Israelis are "just like" the Nazis, only that their actions have one thing in common. Whether or not you agree with that, I think you should allow for the fact that Jeroen doesn't understand the emotional impact that mention of Nazis has on some people, and how people might jump to conclusions. I suggest asking Jeroen for a clarification before continuing the accusations. Unfortunately, he seems to be unavailable recently. But when he returns, I propose a question for him: "Do you think that the Israelis are acting as badly, or almost as badly, as the Nazis? If so, why? If not, what specifically was meant by 'sounds vaguely familiar'?" > This was in reference to Israels refusal to accept the right of all > Palestinians to return to Israel as full citizens, which, IMHO, would > guarantee the destruction of Israel, and would probably result in the > death of many or most of the Jews there. He is equating the deisre > of Israel to remain a majority Jewish state, with only a 20% Arab > population with the Holocoust. IMHO = in my humble opinion, right? Apparently, Jeroen has a different opinion. I think you are more likely to be right than him, but I don't think anyone knows for certain. That seems like pretty flimsy evidence to base such an accusation. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.com/
