> I was not trying to equate the Israelis with the Nazis in my post, although in their respective dehumanization of their enemies, there have been many similarities, as a number of Israelis have pointed in the country's Hebrew press. If you had seen the children who had been victims of Israel's cluster bombs, phosphorous bombs. and the napalm, as I did, you might not be so quick to defend our one-time comrade or complain about the comparison. And while a 100,000, in one instance, did protest against the invasion, they by no means represented anywhere near the majority of the Israeli people.
I went to Israel and to Lebanon in 1983, a year after the invasion, and
interviewed a number of Israeli reservists who had either refused to
participate in the invasion, or who, after having gone in the first
wave, became so disgusted with what the Israeli army did there, that
they, like their colleagues who refused in the beginning, elected to go
to jail rather than back to Lebanon. Several of them broke down as they
described the barbarities they witnessed. The existence of the group
they formed, Yesh G'vul was known to Hayden and he refused to meet with
them or with any other members of the Israeli anti-war movement. It was
not a mistake on his part, but a calculated, contemptible political move
to bolster his standing with the large Jewish voting bloc in Santa
Monica. Had he stayed in Santa Monica and given his support to Israel
from there it still would have been disgusting, but to go to Israel,
then be escorted by the Israeli military through the land they had
devastated to Beirut, where Israel was besieging the city from the land,
sea and air, and to sit with those Israeli gunners doing that, yes,
Stew, that's as bad as having been with the Nazis in my book and if you
think that's sectarian so be it.
If I having done so on this list before, I will do it now and quote
Alexander Cockburn and James Ridgeway who wrote in the Village Voice,
after Hayden returned from his Israeli sojourn, that "There are 48
portraits of Benedict Arnold in the National Gallery in Washington.
None of them look alike, yet they all resemble Tom Hayden."
And what is Hayden, now? A Gore delegate! Supporting one of the main
architects of the bombing of Iraq and the maintenance of the sanctions
which are literally genocidal, a stockholder in U'wa land and and
supporter of the US military moves into Columbia, who obviously approved
the selection of Ed Rendell, Mumia's prosecutor as the Demo Party
Campaign chief, and who picks an insurance company shill who wants to
rewrite the lst Amendment as his vice-president. and you think my
criticism of Hayden makes me a sectarian. I think it's time you got of
the 60s Stew.
Stew Albert wrote:
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 20:07:03 EDT
> From: StewA@AOL.COM
>
> I don't have an ex-CPers fixation - living hear in Portland I have known some
> splendid characters who still inspire and who once were in the Communist
> Party. I was only responding to Jeff's going after former New Leftists who
> have moved to more conservative positions and Jeff's saying that the former
> Communist Party members had a much better record. I don't think so. Jeff
> takes Hayden for example and because he wrongly supported the Israeli
> invasion of Lebanon (even the Israelis turned against it) he writes him off
> and along the way seems to imply that the invasion was a crime on the level
> of the Nazi assault on the Jewish people. Hayden then becomes the equivalent
> of a Nazi sympathizer. So I have to say some about this - its just too
> sectarian to leave unanswered- but rest assured - I know that plenty of your
> old crowd kept the faith and so did mine.
> Stew
> http://hometown.aol.com/stewa/stew.html
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Aug 31 2000 - 06:39:20 CUT