Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!nike!ucbcad!ucbvax!SUN.COM!cramer
From: cramer@SUN.COM
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: Re: Press Censorship - really anti-Zionism
Message-ID: <12233232111.16.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sat, 23-Aug-86 21:51:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: RED.12233232111.16.MCGREW
Posted: Sat Aug 23 21:51:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Aug-86 03:13:19 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: cramer@sun.com
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 81
Approved: poli-sci@red.rutgers.edu


My recent description of Gore Vidal's noxious essay in the 120th
anniversary edition of the "Nation" as "blatantly anti-semitic" seems
to have thrown Larry Campbell into an anti-zionist tizzy.  He writes

> Here we have yet another case of the inability of so many people to
> distinguish Jews from Zionists.  Yes, Gore Vidal (and Alexander
> Cockburn, and I, if you care) disdain Zionism.  But Zionism is not
> the same as Judaism.  Cramer, like so many Zionists, figuratively
> waves the red flag of the holocaust at anyone who dares question
> Zionism, or the policies of the Israeli government.  Fortunately,
> there are writers like Vidal and Cockburn who don't instantly fall
> apologetically to the ground every time this well-worn bit of
> innuendo is trotted out.

Let's look at this fun-filled paragraph bit by bit.

"The inability of so many people to distinguish Jews from Zionists...
Zionism is not the same as Judaisim":

Here Campbell presumes to tell Jews what they are, and what they
believe.  Fortunately, the American Jewish community, which is
virtually entirely pro-Zionist, understands the centrality of Israel
to the Jewish religion, not being as ignorant of Judaism as Mr.
Campbell.  Did you know, for example, that a religious Jew prays
*three times a day* for the restoration of the Jewish homeland?  Or
that he says, in grace prayers *after every meal*, "rebuild Jerusalem,
the holy city, speedily in our days"?  Do you recall the "I am a
Zionist" buttons that were distributed in the vast majority of
American synagogues after the UN passed the notorious "Zionism is
racism" resolution?

To quote Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism,

        I do not bring you a new idea but an ancient one... it is 
        as old as our people who never ceased, even in the periods 
        of bitterest suffering, to meditate upon it.  This idea is
        the establishment of the Jewish State.

"Cramer, like so many Zionists, figuratively waves the red flag of the
holocaust at anyone who dares question Zionism, or the policies of the
Israeli government":

I'm glad that Mr. Campbell is at least able to differentiate between
support for Zionism and support for all the policies of the Israeli
government.  Being a Zionist implies endorsement of the notion of a
homeland for the Jewish people, not unwavering support for every
policy made by every Israeli goverment.  The idea of knee-jerk support
by Zionists for every Israeli policy is a myth - I, for one, have
never met a Zionist who does not disagree with some policy of the
Israeli goverment.  Similarly, I have never met a supporter of the US
who does not quarrel with some policy of its' government.

Now, on to "waving the red flag of the holocaust": This is a revealing
remark.  In the posting which seems to have so unbalanced our friend,
I said *nothing* about the Holocaust.  Why does Mr. Campbell bring up
this *Jewish* tragedy?  After all, he has already told us that
"Zionism is not the same as Judaism."  Peculiar.

"Fortunately, there are writers like Vidal and Cockburn who don't
instantly fall apologetically to the ground every time this well-worn
bit of innuendo is trotted out":

How about the imagery here? - writers falling to the ground before the
decieving Je.. I mean Zionists.  Actually, I rather wish that Mr.
Vidal was a bit more circumspect in his anti-semitism.  I don't
particulary enjoy reading in mass circulation magazines that American
Jews are in America in order to "make propaganda and raise money for
Israel" while their "predatory" co-religionists in the Middle East are
"busy stealing another peoples' land in the name of an alien
theocracy."  Or that American Jews constitute an "Israeli Fifth
Column."  Or that "significantly, the one yiddish word that has gained
universal acceptance in this country is chutzpah [nerve]."

Anti-Zionism is an unusual movement.  Of all the peoples in the world,
it finds the Jews uniquely undeserving of a state.  Of all the
injustices in the world, it focuses solely on those present in the
Jewish state, the only democracy in the Middle East.  Martin Luther
King, Jr. may have been on to something when he said "when people
criticize Zionists, they mean Jews."
-------