Charles Brown wrote: CB: I thought it was disturbing a few years ago when the Labor Party Prime Minister ( President ? ) of Israel was assassinated for his peace efforts by a rightwing student, and then in the election the majority of the voters put the Likud Party leader in. That seemed to be a fascist like act besmirching the Israeli masses by their indirect , almost endorsement of it. MK: Yes, and it may happen once again. Already "Bibi" is being groomed to step into the void Barak is expected to create. Not unlike the parallel reemergence of Berlusconi in Italy and even the Conrad Black-mouthpiece Conservatives in Britain. All of which is to say that without a valid Left alternative, itself founded within the grassroots, all that remains is the recourse to Haider and his ilk. It's not so surprising that the consequences of that recourse are of less import to a great many than simply getting rid of a status quo with which people are fed up. It's easier from a distance to see the bigger picture, after all. In the heat of the moment such perspective does not often result in formulating a popular (as in populist) position. Remember the electoral cost borne by Oskar Lafontaine when he refused to get caught up in the euphoria of German reunification. I was no fan of Milosevic, but I think it is important to remember how he and his coterie were deprived of options more conducive to democratic self-determination by those elsewhere purporting to be their intellectual and moral superiors. Our leaders are complicit in the crimes committed by that regime. Think of the succession of Trilateral Commission great-and-good who helped preside over the nationalistic fragmentation of the former Yugoslavia: Cyrus Vance, David Owen (Lord Owen of Split), Richard Holbrooke, Thorvald Stoltenberg, Carl Bildt. And Louis P. and others perform a valuable service by highlighting the likely trajectory of developments following his departure. Michael K.
