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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