The Trade Union Movement and U.S. Middle East Policy

The Zionist state of Israel has no right to exist. I would have voted no on this resolution. Israel is simply a US military base, created with the same kind of terrorism it is using today in the occupied territories, to protect US oil profits. The resolution should have stated that only a (not two, but one) secular state of Palestine, where Arabs, Jews and anyone else can live together without the oppression of a theocratic, racist, militaristic state, can be supported. Zionism is racism and the Zionist government of Israel reeks with racism, In fact, there was no reason to bring Saudi Arabia into this resolution at all. Not only are the Arab regimes also puppets of US imperialism, but so is the rest of the world to varying degrees, except Cuba, and poor little Cuba is barely hanging on. The resolution should simply concentrate on putting an end to the Zionist state of Israel. The 1967 borders are just as illegitimate as the occupation. Please do not water down resolutions. The only hope for peace in the Middle East is a secular, socialist state of Palestine.

I wonder what your dead relatives would have to say about whether or not a jewish homeland would be a good idea.

I used to agree with the Zionism is evil and cannot be redeemed theory. But someone pointed out something interesting to me. The actual statement of the Zionist movement when establishing Israel contained statements like
"The State of Israel ... will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.... the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."

Now obviously this has been perverted by people like Sharon. But I really don't see anything racist about that Declaration; the real problem is the Israeli right wing, not Israel as a concept.

Check it out for yourself:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00hb0

I just finished an excellent book on the origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict. It's called Original Sins by Benjamin Beit Hallahmi. Lenni Brenners The Iron Wall is also good.

The dead relatives of my family would not have anything to do with Zionism, being the very assimilated German Jews that they were. They were members of the local synagogue (Breslau was the nearest large city) and proud founders and major contributors to the local B'nai B'rith library. Most of the family were medical doctors, scientists, engineers or wholesale merchants. Most left in 1939; one died at Auschwitz. One of the survivors spent the last year of the war as a prisoner of war in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia as a member of the Dutch army's medical corps, waiting for the US military to stop conquering real estate and start liberating people, which they finally did, including her prisoner of war camp in 1945. None ever supported Zionism and the survivors never supported Israel. The Zionist hustlers had a larger base among the poorer Jews of Poland and the rest of eastern Europe.

Lenni Brenner and Ralph Schoenman have lots of good writing on the true history of Zionism. Brenner's Iron Wall is one good book. His benchmark book is Zionism in the Age of Dictators (1983, Lawrence Hill Publishers), which among other things, describes the infamous Transfer Agreement of the Zionists, whereby the Zionists violated the boycott of Nazi goods that existed in the 1930s, and by 1938, was very successful, so as to save the lives of the Zionists who could then go to Palestine. It is also online at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/brenner/index.htm

Another good publication is Ralph Schoenman's pamphlet, Hidden History of Zionism, which is online at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/

Israel is a racist, theocratic, militaristic state. Its founders were terrorists, including suicide bombers, who murdered Arabs and stole Arab land, forcing 800,000 Arabs to flee their homes. The most infamous example of a massacre of Arabs is Deir Yassin. It is a state where there is no division of church and state and where religious courts are the venue for marriage and divorce, a viciously anti-women arrangement. The anti-Semitic US government, and especially George War Bush and his Nazi friends (that is not an exaggeration; it is precise) do not care about Jews and the US government has never, ever cared about Jews. The refusal to allow open immigration from Europe during the 1930s, when the Nazis were enacting their anti-Jewish laws and the world was conducting its anti-Nazi boycott, is a good example of the contempt of the US government for Jews. Another outstanding example is the Rosenberg-Sobel case of 1950-1953, where, as Julius Rosenberg stated, the US government tried to make Jew, Communist and traitor synonymous. It was that case that caused my parents to turn to socialism. All any capitalist government cares about is maximization of profits for the capitalist class it represents. The US government gives $4 billion a year above the table and $4 billion a year below the table to Israel to protect US oil profits in the MIddle East.

For a refresher course on the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, I strongly urge everyone read "IBM and the Holocaust" by Edwin Black (2001, 2002: Three Rivers Press, Crown-Random House). It is a case study on how and why big business promoted Nazi Germany and in particular, the Holocaust. The Holocaust clearly could not have happened without IBM. For those of you, like I, who try to avoid reading about the Holocaust anymore as we have been hearing about it since the day we were born, you must read this book. While Black is not a socialist, this book certainly makes clear that capitalism must end and the workingclass must fight for socialism if humanity is to survive.

The battle cry of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance was:
Nicht vergeben! Nicht vergessen!
Never forgive! Never forget!

To which we all must add: Fight for socialism!

Aaah, the truth comes out... You're the last remaining Bundist!

aaah indeed. He's a perfect example of sectarianism at its worst. "I" think therefore it is. Never mind whether the working class understands the need to change society. Never mind "how" the fight for socialism is carried out in everday life at the workplace where the class struggle is acute, where the rubber meets the road. Next motion I'm going to make at my local meeting is as follows: "I move that capitalism needs changing and we need socialism." If my co-workers don't pass it the sectarians will explain it away as a product of their "bachwardness"