----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 9:46 AM Subject: Re: Strong Words for Jeroen > > > Jeroen, you wrote: > > "IOW, Israel should be Lebensraum for their people, and their people only. > Sounds vaguely familiar..." > > > > Why did you use the German word lebensraum which has connotations of the > holocaust in a discussion about Israel? This is an English speaking forum, the > discussion was about the middle east where no one speaks German, and you are > Dutch. Why use a German word (and add "sounds vaguely familiar) if you were not > striking a comparison between the Nazis and the Israelis? >
Good question, Doug. As I've mentioned before, I think that this word choice was not accidental. Lets look at it from a scientific viewpoint. Jeroen has posted about 2000 times. If each post averaged only 500 words, that would be 1 million words. I've read most of his posts, and I remember few German words. I would think that the probability of the coincidental use of such a word is no more than the fraction of words that has been written in German in all of Jeroen's posts. Second, it should be clear that the topic under discussion was the right of return: the ability of Palestinians to become citizens of Israel at will. I can provide a plethora of documentation on this, if need be. I find it extremely ironic that Jeroen considers this equivalent to the Lebensraum, when Israel has a much higher percentage of Arabs as citizens than the Netherlands has non-Dutch people. Third, this is probably a good point to note that racism is bias towards a race, it does not have to be full fledged hate. All that is needed to indicate anti-Semitism is a consistent bias against Jewish people. Finally, the ability of the Arab citizens of Israel to live as a respected minority does indeed prove that Arabs and Jews can live together in a system where the Jews have the political power. Indeed, those Arabs are the best treated citizens, with the most rights in any country in the Middle East. That should prove that the there is no systematic mistreatment of Arabs by Jews when they have political power. However, one notes that none of the Arab states are democracies. One also notes the ruthlessness of many Arab leaders. One notes that most of the people in Arab countries have been fed lies about Jewish people their whole lives. One can see that in the overwhelming favor the attacks on civilians in Israel has among the Palestinians. So, why is it unreasonable for the Jewish people to fear that, if the Arabs gained control of Israel, that it would be 20th century Europe all over again. And, how in the world can one equate this reasonable fear with the programs of the very people who led the European holocaust against the Jews? And why isn't doing so an anti-Semitic writing? Dan M.
