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Finkelstein's article has raised some hackles over here. I wrote the following comment on a Facebook thread. Paul F **************** Finkelstein is crossing an unwelcome line with this piece. There are a couple of tell-tale phrases: 'Jews are incomparably organized as they have created a plethora of interlocking, overlapping, and mutually reinforcing communal and defense organizations that operate in both the domestic and international arenas', and, 'The wonder would be if these raw data [on the proportion of Jews in prominent positions] didn’t translate into outsized Jewish political power.' What he writes about US politicians, with the implication that some sort of Jewish force is influencing if not governing US high politics, is quite at odds with what he wrote (quite accurately) a short while ago where he stated that pro-Israel policies are voted through because they are in the interests of US foreign policy, and that were this to be no longer to be the case, the pro-Israel lobby would wither on the vine. Now the tail -- and, moreover, a Jewish one rather than a pro-Zionist one -- seems to be wagging the dog. Here's another very worrying bit, on matters close to home: 'Were it not for the outsized power of British Jews, it’s hard to conceive that British society would be interminably chasing after a hobgoblin. True, although fighting anti-Semitism is the rallying cry, a broad array of powerful entrenched social forces, acting on not-so-hidden agendas of their own, have coalesced around this putative cause. It cannot be gainsaid, however, that Jewish organizations form the poisoned tip of this spear.' I feel that the matter of allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party has pretty much accidentally become the axis around which the anti-Corbyn campaign revolves. I don't believe that anyone or any organisation decided: 'Let's whack Corbyn on anti-Semitism, that'll do the job nicely.' It's just emerged that way, it's the form which the campaign has taken. There is a very broad range of opposition to Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party and potential Prime Minister, and this opposition covers a very wide range of topics, far beyond anti-Jewish prejudice and Israel/Palestine. That's the content of the campaign, let's not confuse form with content. It's true that the broad campaign against Corbyn has 'coalesced around this putative cause', and of course that will bring in various Jewish groups that don't like Corbyn, but to view these groups as the main force behind the campaign, rather than to view their formal prominence as the result of the form that the campaign has taken, and -- worse -- to see that as the result of 'the outsized power of British Jews' is getting things seriously back to front and putting the author amongst some very dubious company. Up till now, what I've read of Finkelstein's writings have carefully eschewed this sort of thing, even when he has been typically provocative in his writing style. What he has written here is quite unacceptable, and shows a decided shift in his analysis into the murky world of anti-Jewish conspiracies. _________________________________________________________ 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
