Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!hocda!spanky!burl!duke!unc!tim From: tim@unc.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Don't equate anti-Zionism with racism Message-ID: <5379@unc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 14-Jun-83 15:51:35 EDT Article-I.D.: unc.5379 Posted: Tue Jun 14 15:51:35 1983 Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jun-83 23:14:25 EDT Lines: 54 "We people" suffer from discrimination too, and we're getting it from both sides, forward *and* reverse. Discrimination is wrong, even if it is sponsored with the best of intentions. Finally, where were "we" when "you" were being discriminated against? Jews were in the forefront of the civil rights movement from its beginning. Who still remembers Schwerner, Cheney and Goodman? And what is the predominant attitude "we" see from minorities? Hostility towards Zionism, our own national movement. Accusations that we are racist and insensitive. You say you are "still trying to understand you people." I hope this article contributes to that understanding. There's a lot of common ground between us. I can only hope for more understanding and cooperation in the future. Dave Ellis / Bell Labs, Piscataway NJ You could start by not assuming that the only possible basis for disliking Zionism is racism. I agree that it is a leading reason; it was no doubt the primary reason for that vote in the United Nations a few years back equating Zionism with racism. However, it is not my reason. Nor is the Israeli invasion of Lebanon any factor in my dislike for Zionism and Israel, although again this is certainly a popular reason today. Suppose that terrorists in Mexico were staging assaults on civilian border communities in the Western USA. We'd hit them so hard the Israelis would be appalled. Invading Lebanon was the only option Israel had. (I may be prejudiced here; a friend of mine who emigrated to Israel was killed fighting in Beirut.) I dislike Zionism because it is racism, both in the abstract and in the concrete. Israel is a segregated nation, in which racial laws provide, for example, economic sanctions against Jews who marry Gentiles. The Israelis claim to be "God's chosen race" and make racially-transmitted claims about their rightful ownership of certain tracts of land. This is racism, no more, no less. Its religious justification is of no more importance than that of Bob Jones University in my reckoning. Racism is racism, whatever the source. To forcefully point out the double standard, I'm going to have to use an often-misunderstood form of argument. I am trusting readers of this article to treat it in the good faith in which it is offered. Suppose that someone were to propose an Aryan homeland, where Aryans could be together with Aryans at last, their racial destiny finally fulfilled. It would be racist, and I'd be against it. Substituting the name of any other race in for "Aryan" doesn't change anything. Racism is racism, whatever the race. Tim Maroney