From: makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky)
Subject: Re: Lehi and nazies
Reply-To: makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky)
Organization: Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 04:23:55 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.021815.12333@cs.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au writes:

# In article 1719@ennews.eas.asu.edu, makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (David Makowsky) writes:

# >In article <1992Sep7.025215.27921@cs.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au writes:

# [lots deleted]
# ># I apologise to any readers who thought that my post implied that I had
# ># personally spoken to former Lehi members or read the original manuscripts
# ># of their writings.

# >	I think this paragraph of yours deos more to describe what kind of
# >person you are than anything else I could say.  You are participating
# >in a centuries old act of passing along myths which have been used as
# >a reason for much suffering.  If you did not here it from something
# >directly related to the subjects in question, you have no business
# >dealing in it at all.  It is a question of civility, not one of how
# >can you best be an amateur historian.  That others may have engaged in
# >this act does not in any way condone your actions.
 
# Ask the survivors of Deir Yassin about Lehi's "civility", David, and
# don't bother with the tired old Hagana-plot crap.

	Fine.  I will not "bother" with the truth behind the whole lie.
However, as you well know, there are documented sources of Arab
survivors claiming that there was no massacre.  This is all part of
your attempt to now throw a smokescreen on the issue of your
disgusting bigotry, since you very well know I presented you with the
evidence in the past.

# Fortunately for
# you, one can be a good Zionist without believing that the murderous
# thugs of Lehi were nice people.

	Fortunately for you, one can be a good bigot without having to
resort to outright lies when a simple distortion will do.  At any
rate, you might be surprised at my opinions of Lehi.  Ever wonder why
I do not defend Shamir as strongly as I do Begin (although Begin does
not need any defense)?

# You want me to give them more
# benefit of the doubt than you have given to other people here very
# often; why should I?

	Wrong.  When I discuss people, there is no doubt.  Very often I
use their own words, if not I am very careful about what I say.

# Since the behaviour of Lehi looked and smelled 
# racist,

	Much behavior of Lehi may have been racist (I am not conceding
anything here, only noting the possibility), however, you have no
proof of anything racist here, and you have even less then zero proof
for your "JUSTIFIED" conclusion of anti-semitism.

# I don't see why I shouldn't report the opinion of a qualified
# historian that they WERE racist.  

	If you want to report it along the lines of this is what this
historian said about them, and the subject of your article is the
historian and not the members of Lehi, that would be fine as long as
the context was made clear.  However, unless you want to now use that
excuse to weasel out, this is obviously not the case.

# [lots deleted]  

# >	Well here is another name to "refresh" your memory.  Try Simon
# >Lain".  Both Simon and David Palmer have been prominent in the
# >Australian news recently from what I understand, as if you did not
# >know.

# I don't recall having heard of either of them, but I don't read very
# newspaper.  I suspect your source is exaggerating about the "prominent".

	Well I do not believe you when you say you do not recall either of
them, however I may have jumped the gun here (although I doubt it) and
if I am wrong, I apologize.  My source did not indicate they were
prominent.  I assumed that since my source, a local Chicago
publication, had a story about an incident they were involved in.
--

David Makowsky
makowsky@enuxha.eas.asu.edu