mf@cornell.UUCP (mf) (05/28/85)
Charley Wingate writes, in re his comparison of Nazi Germany and Israel: > Israel, by the very nature of its concentration upon nazism, is quite > suceptible [sic] to some sort of persecution of another group. Just listen > to Meir Kahane; what he says can easily be perverted into race hatred. There is no excuse for racism, and Kahane is a racist. Yet is it *symptomatic* of Israel? ``Israel'' does not ``concentrate'' upon nazism. Israel is a country, which has many dimensions to its existence. It ``concentrates'' on integrating thousands of refugees from Ethiopia that no country wanted. And it is not because they are Jewish. How many non-Jewish Ethiopians (or starving Africans) have been accepted by other countries, and what is the ratio of that number to their population? Every country has its Kahane, Willis Carto, Wyndon LaRouche or Don Black (the one from Alabama, KKK grand wizard). Every majority has a tendency to reject minorities. Yet Israel's record at integrating such groups and its system of laws, created so as to prevent those tendencies, make it one of the places least likely for it to occur. It is even more remarkable that in spite of the long state of war she has been in with her neighbours, the human rights violations are minimised (but not to be excused): they are more an exception than the rule, they are not a government policy but the makings of individuals who are subsequently punished by law. The poor record of the USA before, during and after WWII (remember General Paton's statement that the Jews are lower than animals? the internment of the Japanese americans? The unfilled quotas for Jewish refugees?) is significant. And today, in the US, such speech as racism, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-black, anti-whatever is protected by Constitution. This is not so in such countries as France, Germany or Canada. Why is it that the above writer characterises Israel by Kahane? Is LaRouche characteristic of the US? Why is it that he sees the pursuit of Nazi criminals who killed most of the Jewish people as the cause-to-effect relation with fringe extremism in Israel? His argument sounds familiar: the revisionist theory propones that Israel's very existence is predicated on the so-called ``holocaust hoax.'' Racism is a process. Pointing at one racist is too simplistic a way to find whether or not a culture is predisposed to it. Consider how many followers he has, how many emulators. And the general trends in the population, its history (not merely twenty years, two thousand, for instance), its ethos and religion. > It is precisely when a nation thinks itself to be most civilized that the > risk is greatest. ``Civilisation'' or its perception has nothing to do with the issue. Both so-called civilised and non-civilised countries have had a long history of being either persecuted or the persecutor, qv. Hitler's Germany and Idi Amin's Uganda. > Contemplation of the evils of Nazi Germany should lead one to > self-examination, and examination of one's own nation. Admirable principle. Why don't you examine yourself and your own nation? How do you rationalise slavery, racism, KKK etc... in spite of your nation's Constitution? How do you justify the existence of such political parties as the ``Populist Party'' which is blatantly racist (see its platform), anti-black, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-Third World, linked to violent (murders) extreme right groups? Are the safeguards sufficient to prevent its achieving power? > When it directs one's gaze outward, the tendency towards intolerance > and persecution is increased. This is why I see a problem with the > world jewish community's current fixation with the Nazis; it must be > remembered that others have also persecuted, and unbridled pursuit of > evil can easily breed intolerance. I could say that this is why I see a problem with you, Mr Wingate, directing your gaze at me rather at yourself, but I won't say it. One way to eradicate evil--and that is one of my aims--is to attack it, wherever it raises its head. Many *are* persecuted, even now; many have persecuted; I choose to fight neo-nazism because I and my people are its target. (When this is done, I'll be able to think of the other evils, too.) Moreover, I think it should be the fight of all, for ``an injury to one is an injury to all'' (Ken Perlow, 29 Brumaire An CXCIII). ``Pursuit of evil'' means fighting intolerance. There are indeed individuals who are so absorbed in it that they have trouble seeing other problems. This is human, but certainly not a reason to stop fighting.