The major flaw in your suggestion is the philosophy of Islam inherent in
it's teachings which determines conduct and the propaganda war today
against Israel which is fanaticism. Israel is guilty of excesses
predicated on security considerations, but that is a big difference from
fundamentalist hatred based on the teachings of a religion which can't
modernize if it remains true to the prophet Muhammad.
There is no comparison between what some Israelis do when driven to
reaction and Arabs driven by their belief in Allah's exhortations to
kill the infidels.
I've said here before that until they are sufficiently atheist or
progressive enough to reject Islamic dogmatism there can be no
reconciliation no matter how much you will it or want it.
Yes, this is a left position but what you seem not to understand is the
left is not monolithic nor one single "line of march." The socialist left
position sees a democratic state where everyone can become interconnected
but that will not be possible until the Arabs repudiate their objective to
annihilate Israel and the Jews who live there.
The left position is to oppose antisemitism and to support the liberation
of Jews from oppression. The left position is the liberation of all people
from their oppression but also to oppose Arab abuse of women and plunder
and persecution of everyone not like them.
That isn't hate Ed, that is reason and good sense which seems to have
escaped you for the moment.
Hank Roth
On Tue, 28 Dec
2004, Ozleft wrote:
> There are extremists and abuses in all religions.
>
> Some of the posts on this list demonise Islam and Muslims by taking
> excesses as an example of the practise of all Muslims.
>
> As far as I can tell after a short time on this list, anti-Muslim
> stereotyping is being used for a propaganda purpose: defence of brutal
> practices by the Israeli state and its military machine.
>
> The mirror of the method of argument in this thread would go something
> like: the Israeli army, which is overwhelmingly Jewish, bulldozes the
> houses of innocent people, shoots down schoolgirls on their way to
> school and protects fanatical thieves who steal the land of Palestinian
> farmers, therefore Jews bulldoze innocent people's houses, shoot
> schoolgirls and steal people's property. (For anyone who lacks a sense
> of irony, this is not my opinion, but a mirror of the method used
> against Muslims by some on this list.)
>
> There are enough historical examples of religious and ethnic
> stereotyping to understand where it leads.
>
> I joined this list thinking it was a forum for left discussion. So far
> it has been dominated by debate on the Middle East, which is fair
> enough, but much of the material in this debate is racist.
>
> There's no point debating hate propagandists. I'll be leaving this list
> very soon.
>
> Ed Lewis
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