From: revans@euclid.ucsd.edu (Ron Evans)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Anti-Semitism
Date: 13 Dec 92 12:37:30 GMT

<Bz6CGE.HrC@world.std.com> wmcguire@world.std.com (Wayne McGuire) writes:

Well, good for you. You would be remiss if you didn't battle real
anti-Semitism wherever it exists. 

	How can one determine when anti-Semitism is "real"? 
	Is Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson anti-Semitic?
	I have said yes.  On the other hand, Noam Chomsky
	wrote, "I see no hint of anti-Semitic implications
	in Faurisson's work..."

 RE> Now, as for the case at hand, a suggestion that Israel has a
 RE> policy to drive out citizens based on their non-Jewishness
 RE> alone strikes me as antisemitic innuendo. 

You know, I think it's really sad that so many Israeli apologists
like yourself are so unfamiliar with the range of excellent
information sources that are available to any intelligent person
who wants to acquaint him- or herself with what is going in
Israel.

	So the above suggestion is not anti-Semitic innuendo?
        I'd agree if the accusation against Israel
	were true (one could hardly call the charge that Jews control
	the media "anti-Semitic" if Jews indeed controlled the
	media).  So where is the evidence?

There is a deep strain of thought and feeling in
contemporary Israel, hardly confined to the fringes and spreading
deep into the highest levels of the establishment, that would
most assuredly like to drive Palestinians out of the occupied
territories, and even Arabs out of all of Israel. 


	There is a huge difference between a
	government policy of driving out all non-Jews 
	and the existence of racists who 
	"would most assuredly like" to drive out all non-Jews.  
	There are plenty of racists in the U.S. (even in 
	high levels of government).  What evidence is there that
	the racism in Israel lies any deeper than this?
	The unsupported opinions of a few leftist Israelis do not
	constitute evidence--one could counter them with
	equally jejune comments from the right.  (How compelling
	are the opinions of Noam Chomsky on anti-Semitism, or
	Ramsey Clark on the Gulf War?)
	

  RE> Damn, I was caught in the act of trying to divert world
  RE> attention from the double standards in judging Israel and
  RE> judging other nations in the area such as Iran, Iraq,
  RE> Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, ...

I have little respect for the political values of the states you
mention, but none of them, with the possible exception of Iran,
have claimed to be "a light unto the nations" lately, nor does
the American taxpayer generously provide aid to each and every
one of the citizens of any of these nations at the rate of nearly
$1000 per annum.


	One would think that the billions of dollars provided by the
	American taxpayer to Egypt would at least rate a diatribe or 
	two about government favoritism toward Islam over the Coptic
	Church. 


 RE> Is Israel increasingly becoming a Jewish theocratic state,
 RE> or is this more innuendo?

If in the U.S. the Roman Catholic Church received special
political perks, financing, and offices from the government, at
the expense of all other religions, Christian, Jewish, and
otherwise, would you consider the U.S. to be a theocratic state?


	I continue to see no support for the assertion
	that Israel is becoming a more and more theocratic state.
	I join Eric Perlman in decrying the disproportionate
	influence of the religious parties, but as he pointed
	out, their influence in the Knesset has remained relatively
	constant for the past two decades.  Again, the unsupported
	contrary opinions of a few Israeli leftists are
	unconvincing.

	Some caution should be exercised when comparing Israel
	with the United States.  The U.S. is not surrounded by
	violent groups like Hamas that want to turn it into an
	Islamic state.  (If Kurdistan ever becomes a state,
	it would be no suprise if its government policy favored
	Kurds over a bitter Iraqi populace bent on destroying 
	the state.)  Self-preservation is at stake.  This doesn't
	excuse all Israeli transgressions, but neither can one
	expect Israel to act like a country at peace with its
	neighbors.
-- 
Ron Evans (revans@math.ucsd.edu)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast