English

Letters on a reply to charges of anti-Semitism

The following is a selection of letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site in response to “WSWS replies to charge of anti-Semitism in coverage of US-Israeli war on Lebanon” .

Dear Sir,

Thank you for publishing a searing and insightful response to a hate-laden, angry, and blisteringly ignorant letter/email. Also, I would like to thank you for taking a principled and articulate stance against what I consider to be war crimes by both the US and Israeli governments against the peoples of both southern Lebanon and the Gaza strip.

MS

27 July 2006

* * *

Thank you for your response to this abominable letter. As a California Rabbi on NPR said about a decade and a half ago, unless the Israelis clean up their act the state of Israel will not last more than 100 years. Unfortunately, during that period the Israelis will be the problem of international politics. The victims have become the victimizers. Southern Lebanon and Gaza have become symbols similar to Oradour-Sur-Glane.

RL

Bradenton, Florida, US

26 July 2006

* * *

A very eloquent reply to the usual arguments used to smear anybody who looks with horror on the oppressive activities of the state of Israel, which has the tacit support of Bush and Blair. You make some very good historical arguments too. During the 1980’s Ken Loach and the late Trotskyist playwright Jim Allen attempted to put on a play, Perdition, at a London theatre. The historically documented play condemned Zionists for allowing the most radical Jewish socialist elements to go to the death camps so that they would not be around to disturb the future state of Israel. Due to protests of anti-Semitism the play was never staged, but transcripts are still available.

On Monday I watched very disturbing footage from BBC News, which would never be shown on American television, documenting the human cost of suffering by the Lebanese people. Significantly enough, there is a major contrast between the quick response to Saddam Hussein’s entry into Kuwait and the present bloody conflict in which the West does nothing—except support the aggressor, of course!

TW

26 July 2006

* * *

Thank you for your well-reasoned, articulate response to MO’s empty political mouthings. In addition to exposing the methodology of this type of response damning everyone who disagrees, the points you raise refuting his (or her) rant provide much appreciated historical context.

PG

26 July 2006

* * *

An excellent reply aimed primarily at those who are sitting on the fence regarding this conflict. I can see MO’s eyes glaze over upon reading this reply and while his/her mind may have been expanded a bit by this well-presented argument, it has probably snapped back into its former abhorrent belief system within five minutes of reading.

I have seen the same blank stare out of Ann Coulter’s eyes when confronted by her own ignorance, but she has changed not one molecule in her brain functioning. However, for those still capable of thinking, such debate is necessary and welcome and perhaps the most fundamental way in which humanity can prevent evil from prevailing.

SN

British Columbia, Canada

26 July 2006

* * *

Yours was an excellent reply to a typically hostile and ignorant individual who, accusing you of being an anti-Semite and sundry other unpleasant things, revealed his (or her, but most probably his) membership in the “Israel can do no wrong” club.

I personally encountered a person like this at the demonstration outside the Israeli consulate in San Francisco last week. When I ventured to declare that the unwarranted and vicious attack on Lebanon was a war crime (which I admit was inflammatory even if true). one man immediately proceeded to shout that I was (among other things) stupid; that I was an idiot; that I should go live in a Muslim country and learn how they treat women; and—oh, yes—that I should go work for al Jazeera!

I have just finished reading a book called Toward an Open Tomb, by Michel Warschawski, who is director of the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem and a well-known anti-Zionist activist. In it he describes how the Zionist project in Israel has decayed into a fascistic and paranoid society, whose leaders have convinced a majority of the citizens that enemies are everywhere; that anyone who questions the actions of the Israeli government is a target for elimination. Warschawski writes about how even the schools and universities have in the past few decades taken over the teaching of history in order to inculcate in the young the paranoia and prejudices of the old. Witness the result of this in the photos of the little Israeli girls writing their names on rockets that were destined to dismember another child somewhere in Lebanon.

Warschawski’s thesis is the first I have read that discusses what has become a state with a psychotic personality disorder of the first magnitude, and the fact that this state is heavily armed and dangerous thanks to its backing by another sociopathic entity: the United States. The Israeli government has succeeded in making the citizens accustomed to seeing troops in the streets and being searched before they enter shops or restaurants.

The book relates all this to the violent birth of the state of Israel; how it was from the beginning an expropriation of another peoples’ land and that only by continued violence and war could it be maintained. The United States was happy to assist in this occupation, since it had made plain during World War II that it was not prepared to admit Jewish refugees from Europe into the country and therefore saw the creation of a “Jewish state” as a solution in accordance with its own (very real) anti-Semitism.

Israel seems to be incapable of ceasing to sow the seeds of its own destruction. By its refusal to work towards peace with its neighbors and to create a society where people can live what the rest of us consider a “normal”—i.e., non-military life, Israel has made itself a pariah in the Middle East and around the world. People who once had nothing but sympathy for the Jews after the European holocaust of World War II look on with incomprehension at the acts of the government of Israel. Once the victims of the horrors of the Nazi genocide, the descendents of those victims cannot shake off their self-identification as fugitives in a hostile world, and this sense creeps, as Warschawski puts it, “like a gangrene” throughout Israeli society.

I believe you exercised great restraint in your reply to this person. Unfortunately, I have my doubts about whether or not he/she will learn anything from it.

CZ

San Francisco, California, US

26 July 2006

* * *

The WSWS has been my political and cultural oasis for several years, but I don’t think I’ve ever been prouder to be a socialist supporter than upon reading your firm, clear-headed and well-organised response to the confused and hostile rant spewed forth by the pro-Zionist MO. How you managed to hold your nerve in the face of such utterly insulting filth is beyond me. Forgive me for saying so in this moment of sentimentality, but I believe that nobody deserves the American presidency more than you do.

P.S. It seems that at least one of these sick clowns has begun to sit up and take notice of who their REAL political opponents are, and where the genuine threat to Zionist reaction, and imperialism in general, actually lies!

IN

Sydney, Australia

26 July 2006

Loading