Article
Article From www.medialens.org. Posted by Linda on April 12, 2003, 6:24 pm, in reply to "A possible
solution to a pathetic left?"
I find it preposterous that anyone thinks the US is going to 'turn on
Israel'? I kept thinking - 'this guy has never lived in a major city
in the US, has he?' (That may not be the case but he is Canadian.) I
think to get a full understanding of the role of Jews in American
society you need to have spent considerable time in one of three
cities - Los Angeles, Chicago or New York - preferably having lived
and worked with Jewish Americans in large numbers.
American Jews are not 'merely' influential they are an important part
of American culture. My feeling is Israel will never be abandoned but
that pressure will be brought to bear on Israel from US Jews
themselves. I believe that.
Even my moderate Jewish American friends do not want to see the
destruction of Israel. But most of them do not support the
settlements either. Believe it or not most American Jews are moderate
liberals - they care about their families, education and business in
that order. They are, for the most part, Jewish by culture not
religion. They are secular as secular comes.
60% of American Jews have never been to Israel yet 74% follow the
news closely.
Some very interesting stats :
http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/US-Israel/ajcsurvey.html
I also think it naive to believe that the only bone of contention in
the Middle East is the Isaeli-Palestinian problem. Certainly it is
fundamental to peace in the ME but there are now Iranian, Afghani and
at least half a dozern other Middle Eastern countries' militants who
have their own beef with the US. Now that the US military have
blasted Iraq to smithereens for a second time they will have
encouraged a new generation of hate militia.
When I was in university in LA there was a huge Persian student
population on campus. I also had loads of Lebanese and Israel friends
(LA is full of MEs). One thing they all shared was a degree of
politicization I rarely found among other cultures. What shocked me
was that many expressed a willingness to die for their various
national causes. These weren't oppressed young adults either. Most of
the people I'm talking about were from educated, professional
backgrounds.
As for the Left conceding defeat - I view the Iraq war as a situation
the Left didn't lose. To accept loss means you had a chance at
winning in the first place and I do not believe we did. It was always
a foregone conclusion that the US would wage war on Iraq. Many of us
suspected that in the beginning but it has moved beyond specualtion -
it is fact - we never had a choice.
After the war started I was marching in solidarity with the Iraqi
people not out of some vague hope that the troops would suddenly be
pulled out - that really would have been a miracle. Nor did I want to
see the US and UK embroiled in some long drawn-out affair that would
lead to more casualties (mostly Iraqi) under the hopes that the
Coalition would be 'taught a lesson.' As far as I'm concerned, the
sooner the ground war is over the better for all. The Iraqi people
desperately need to have a semblance of order returned to their lives
whatever that is.
Let's look instead at how an American President and a British Prime
Minister can use power without consent - the MILITARY. If Mummies and
Daddies stopped preparing their sons (and daughters) to defend the
indefensible and die for economic gain Bush and Blair wouldn't have
armies, navies, marine corps and air force platoons to deploy. They
are, in fact, given the power by the people in the first place. The
idea that a majority of Americans don't support the war effort or at
least aren't too complacent to put a stop to it is pure fantasy.
At the meetings I have attended (and I don't do meetings usually so
it takes a crisis of huge proportions to get me to one) the Anti-War
Coalition seem at a loss.
Here are the possibilities:
-civil disobedience - A group of friends, a chain and a couple bike
locks. Works for a while but ultimately they get you free, you may
get nicked and the convoy of bombs rolls on. Direct action has been
dismissed by most protesters.
- protest - To be seen as being against the war is still good
although numbers are dwindling and abuse on marches is increasing.
Action will have to be born in other areas to prevent further
conflicts happening in the near future and more and more activists
are seeking an alternative.
- boycotting US and Israeli goods - As long as this is maintained it
works.
- voting the warmongers out and rational beings in - I'm not
absolutely certain there are enough rational beings drawn to politics
but it certainly warrants looking into. What we don't need is to
replace like with like and the best plan of action is to start at
grassroots level in local elections.
- pressuring the media - This makes the most sense at the moment as
without access to the Truth we can not win Hearts and Minds in this
country. What we need are journalists who are willing to see the
whole picture and pass on the message.
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