Friday, July 29, 2005
peacepalestine documents - new articles!
On the peacepalestine documents blog there are some new entries, in addition to yesterday's important piece by Jeff Blankfort on the Israel Lobby in the US.
About Noam Chomsky, Reflections by Benjamin Merhav is an interesting commentary asking why Noam Chomsky, for all of his indubitable qualities, fails in several very important watershed issues for any "Left" group that supports Palestinian solidarity. He has become the "Left Guru", as Merhav states, even though there are some serious issues to consider which would disqualify him for being a model to emulate. Some quotes:
"So you would think that a person like Noam Chomsky, who claims to be anti-fascist and anti-imperialist, would condemn zionism, and the zionist apartheid regime of Israel, but he has not, and he never wrote a single sentence which condemns zionism or the zionist apartheid regime of Israel."
"However, the most obvious zionist orientation of Chomsky can be seen in his attitude to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Thus, for example, his treacherous support for the "Geneva Accord" has been exposed last year by Noah Cohen, in his article, Noam Chomsky and "Left" Apologetics for Injustice in Palestine, (www.ifamericansknew.org) as follows:
"Chomsky's concept of "realism" has a striking resemblance to the colonial discourse of "manifest destiny": Good or bad, right or wrong - so the argument goes - these are the facts on the ground; this is the way of history. In the name of this "realism," activists and intellectuals in the international community have simultaneously asserted themselves as pro-Palestinian, and yet taken it upon themselves to concede every fundamental right to which the Palestinian people lay claim.
In pointing to the Geneva Accords as a legitimate compromise, Chomsky concedes all of the following rights on their behalf:
the right to reclaim sovereignty over the land stolen from them in 1948;
the right of refugees even to return to this land;
the right to reclaim the most densely settled land in the West Bank;
the right to freedom of movement within the new Palestinian "state" (since the West Bank settlements - to be declared permanently a part of "Israel" - cut that territory into isolated cantons, and these cantons are in turn separated from Gaza);
the right to full sovereignty over borders and airspace; the right to maintain an independent military capable of self-defense;
the right to full control of resources.
In general, this means that the "best possible compromise," that promises to "lead to something better," requires first that Palestinians officially concede all of the material conditions on which the right to self-determination depends. It's hard to see how these concessions could possibly lead to "something better." "
Lastly, Ran HaCohen's The Seeds of Fascism, as published in the Palestine Chronicle, is placed here in its entirety. A brief excerpt:
"I believe it was Kierkegaard who once said you can learn a lot about a person from the one thing that makes him serious. By the same token, you can learn so much about a society from the one thing that makes it take to the street. The fact that no atrocity ever made Israeli society, taken as a whole, protest the way the settlers do now, is disgraceful evidence for the complete moral bankruptcy of the Jewish state."
About Noam Chomsky, Reflections by Benjamin Merhav is an interesting commentary asking why Noam Chomsky, for all of his indubitable qualities, fails in several very important watershed issues for any "Left" group that supports Palestinian solidarity. He has become the "Left Guru", as Merhav states, even though there are some serious issues to consider which would disqualify him for being a model to emulate. Some quotes:
"So you would think that a person like Noam Chomsky, who claims to be anti-fascist and anti-imperialist, would condemn zionism, and the zionist apartheid regime of Israel, but he has not, and he never wrote a single sentence which condemns zionism or the zionist apartheid regime of Israel."
"However, the most obvious zionist orientation of Chomsky can be seen in his attitude to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Thus, for example, his treacherous support for the "Geneva Accord" has been exposed last year by Noah Cohen, in his article, Noam Chomsky and "Left" Apologetics for Injustice in Palestine, (www.ifamericansknew.org) as follows:
"Chomsky's concept of "realism" has a striking resemblance to the colonial discourse of "manifest destiny": Good or bad, right or wrong - so the argument goes - these are the facts on the ground; this is the way of history. In the name of this "realism," activists and intellectuals in the international community have simultaneously asserted themselves as pro-Palestinian, and yet taken it upon themselves to concede every fundamental right to which the Palestinian people lay claim.
In pointing to the Geneva Accords as a legitimate compromise, Chomsky concedes all of the following rights on their behalf:
the right to reclaim sovereignty over the land stolen from them in 1948;
the right of refugees even to return to this land;
the right to reclaim the most densely settled land in the West Bank;
the right to freedom of movement within the new Palestinian "state" (since the West Bank settlements - to be declared permanently a part of "Israel" - cut that territory into isolated cantons, and these cantons are in turn separated from Gaza);
the right to full sovereignty over borders and airspace; the right to maintain an independent military capable of self-defense;
the right to full control of resources.
In general, this means that the "best possible compromise," that promises to "lead to something better," requires first that Palestinians officially concede all of the material conditions on which the right to self-determination depends. It's hard to see how these concessions could possibly lead to "something better." "
Lastly, Ran HaCohen's The Seeds of Fascism, as published in the Palestine Chronicle, is placed here in its entirety. A brief excerpt:
"I believe it was Kierkegaard who once said you can learn a lot about a person from the one thing that makes him serious. By the same token, you can learn so much about a society from the one thing that makes it take to the street. The fact that no atrocity ever made Israeli society, taken as a whole, protest the way the settlers do now, is disgraceful evidence for the complete moral bankruptcy of the Jewish state."
