RE: <nettime> Palestine and Le Pen

["nettime's_pen_pal" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

RE: <nettime> Palestine and Le Pen
     "nizami" <nizami@preject.com>
     Brad DeLong <delong@econ.Berkeley.EDU>

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From: "nizami" <nizami@preject.com>
Subject: RE: <nettime> Palestine and Le Pen
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 16:00:04 +0100

> Naomi Klein's article to the Globe and Mail is a perfect example of a
> distraction to drown out legitimate criticism of Israel by fanning the
> flames of anti-Semitism.

No. I don't think it is. Read it again, and you will see
that you actually agree with her. She points out that
Sharon is trying to exert a stranglehold on anti-semitism,
milking the fear of it throughout the jewish diaspora.
At the same time, people like le Pen find it easy to
leverage support against racist agendas where there are
concerns in 'brown' areas of the world, like the Middle East.

Klein:
> The hatred of Jews is a potent political tool in the hands of the right
> in Europe and in Israel. For Mr. Le Pen, anti-Semitism is a windfall,
> helping spike his support from 10 per cent to 17 per cent in a week.
> For Ariel Sharon, it is the fear of anti-Semitism, both real and imagined,
> that is the weapon.

Horvath:
> Her assertion that "the only people Mr. Le Pen's supporters
> seem to dislike more than Jews are Arabs" is quite incorrect.
> Len Pen's fascism is more against Arabs than Jews

Obviously, disliking the arabs more than the jews is similar to
fascism more against arabs than jews.

> the likes of Klein end up twisting events out of context in order
> to serve their ignominious purpose.

There are those who quite obviously and explicitly have an
unconditionally pro-Israel, pro-IDF stance. The Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks in the UK, for example. However, I don't think
Klein is one of 'them'. You sound eerily - and i hesitate
before using this word - racist in your statement 'the likes
of klein'.

Ignoring her central claim - to not simply echo the ludicrous
position of the bushites - us and them - you would do well to
heed your own advice:

> It's clear from all this that the danger to freedom and democracy is not
> from those that seek to destroy it, but from those who are lazy and take
> it for granted.

N

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Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 10:59:00 -0700
From: Brad DeLong <delong@econ.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Palestine and Le Pen

>John Horvath <jhorv@helka.iif.hu> :
>
>Naomi Klein's article to the Globe and Mail is a perfect example of a
>distraction to drown out legitimate criticism of Israel by fanning the
>flames of anti-Semitism. After all, the shoah must go on. Her assertion
>that "the only people Mr. Le Pen's supporters seem to dislike more than
>Jews are Arabs" is quite incorrect. Len Pen's fascism is more against
>Arabs than Jews; more precisely, the NF in France is against North
>Africans.
>
>It's a common mistake to assume that fascists are against first and
>foremost Jews and then everyone else (actually, why do Jews hold the
>monopoly over the word "Semite" when Palestinians are also considered
>Semitic?). Nationalists are against "the foreigner" foremost represented
>by the minorities they feel most threatened by. In France, they are not
>too happy with Jews, that's for sure; but what they are more afraid of is
>who they see on the streets and can quickly identify. Moreover, with the
>number of North Africans and refugees from "the east" on the increase,
>it's this wave of immigration which is seen as the biggest threat to
>French nationalists.
>
>Aside from all this, you may have noticed that stories of rising
>anti-Semitism almost always coincides with criticism of Israel...

The unspoken conclusions that seems to follow from that last sentence 
of yours is that (a) the reports that synagogues are being torched in 
France are lies, or (b) Jose Bove is right when he claims that the 
synagogues that are being torched in France are being burned by 
Mossad.

Do you mean to suggest those conclusions? Are is it just that your 
writing is sloppy?


Brad DeLong

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