From: martillo@stars.clearpoint.com (Joachim Martillo)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: Radio Host Fired After Jewish Protest
Date: 26 Jul 92 05:37:08 GMT
Organization: Clearpoint Inc., Hopkinton, MA

In article <bdm.712115586@cs.anu.edu.au> bdm@cs.anu.edu.au (Brendan McKay) writes:
>singer@uwovax.uwo.ca writes:

>>Arens Junior quotes a newspaper piece by somebody named Michaels which purports
>>to quote a Jewish document presented to the Nazis in 1941 in which the
>>expression "Israeli liberation movement" (sic) is used. Does anybody know
>>whether the term "Israeli" was in use before 1948, and in fact as early as
>>1941? Could this be another Protocols of the Elders of Zion?-- 

Lehi was formed in 1940.  Lehi stands for lohamei herut yisra'el or
warriors for the liberation of Israel.  From mishnaic Hebrew onward
yisra'el can refer to the collectivity of Jews and that is probably
the sense here.

By the way, if I were to translate mujahid from Arabic to Hebrew, I
would use lohem.

>The correspondence was conducted in German.  The phrase you give could
>easily be a translation or paraphrase of the name which Lehi then
>called itself.  The authenticity of the correspondence has never
>been seriously questioned.  By the way, Lehi also sought links with
>the Italian fascists. 

>Brendan.

I am unsure what McKay is trying to prove here.  If he is trying to
prove Lehi was a bunch of thugs, there is a lot more unequivocal
evidence of their thuggishness including a string of bank robberies
which Lehi committed.

If he is trying to prove that Zionism is guilty of original sin by
some fundamental connection between Zionism and Nazism, this is just
Soviet anti-Israel/anti-Jewish propaganda and the repetition says more
about the repeater than about Zionism.

If an attempt to get some Jews out of Nazi hands by making an offer in
language tailored to Nazi tastes establishes a fundamental link
between Zionism and Nazism, I would assume the Soviet-Nazi alliance
discredits all leftist politics everywhere while the assistance which
Amin el-Husseini gave in the establishment of Muslim Bosnyak SS units
discredits all Arabist and Islamist politics.

All these arguments are stupid and have no relevance to solving
problems today.  [Note: I am not denying the existence of political
movements in the Middle East which can be rightfully connected with
Nazism, but from Morocco to Iran the only movement among Jews, Arabs,
Turks or Persians which has truly earned acknowledgement of such
connection is Baathism.]

I also should add that the political spectrum and political attitudes
were quite different during the 20s and 30s than today and that to
gloss over the differences as McKay does is pure intellectual
dishonesty.  At this time period, totalitarianism was often along with
fascism considered progressive.  In fact for a time Mussolini was the
darling of US leftist intellectuals and received a lot of good press
from the NYT.  And the bete noire of every politically correct
progressive intellectual during this time period was the bourgeoisie.

It is no wonder that sick movements like Nazism and Communism saw
there heydey during this time period and its aftermath.

Joachim Carlo Santos Martillo Ajami
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast