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On 08 Feb 2015, at 9:54 PM, A.R. G <amithrgu...@gmail.com> wrote: > "AW: I am a big supporter of BDS. I frankly think that it is the best, > absolutely the best way, because the Israeli government and people really > love commerce and making money and so anything that interferes with that will > get their attention at least." > > It is problematic that "leftists" find this problematic. Any time Israel's > greed and usurpation of resources is rightfully condemned it is immediately > reduced to some kind of anti-Semitic canard. > > "The Israel Lobby is too powerful" -- this is the canard about Jews > controlling the world! > "The US media is biased toward Israel and employs Zionist lobbyists" -- this > is the canard about Jews controlling the media! > "American financial establishments send billions to Israel in investment" -- > this is the canard about Jews controlling the banks! > "Jews in the United States are extroardinarily privileged and > over-represented in all elite institutions" -- this is the canard about Jews > controlling America! > "Israel murdered over 500 children last summer" -- this is a blood libel > against the Jews! > > Virtually every condemnation of Israel, the American Jewish community, > Zionism, its lobby, etc can easily be reduced to some sort of chauvinistic > anti-Jewish remark. Stop the witch-hunt. Alice said nothing wrong. Disagree. There is an obvious and important difference between saying, "the Israeli government and people really love commerce and making money” and saying, “as with any other country or people, the financial costs associated with BDS are more likely to have an impact than mere moral condemnation”. Each of your other examples is, in principle, subject to empirical verification; the fact that Zionist trolls would try to spin them is irrelevant. Walker’s remarks invoke an ethnic stereotype by suggesting that an essentially universal but distasteful human characteristic somehow applies uniquely to “the Israeli government and people”. If she’d spoken about resource grabs, that would be something else entirely; it invites specifics, and Israel clearly deserves aggressive condemnation in that regard. But it doesn’t fit the argument she was trying to make, so she fell back on an anti-Jewish trope that lurks in the nether regions of the minds of most of us, because we were socialised into it before we knew enough to resist. It was a lob-ball to the Zionist trolls, and we can’t afford to give them easy hits. I’m not suggesting Walker is a willful anti-Semite; I’m saying she hasn’t always been sufficiently disciplined in her utterances. It isn’t fair that we need to be, but it is the reality. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
