Re: <nettime> Palestine and Le Pen

[martha rosler <navva@earthlink.net>]

 John Horvath wrote:

>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.

John Horvath's haste to vilify Naomi Klein and her article leads to a
number of non sequiturs. So, what is wrong with the previous sentence? I
dunno. Seems to me she is saying the fascists hate arabs more than jews,
mr horvath says the same thing. Did i miss something?

Horvath:
>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?).

was mussolini, the original fascist, assumed to be first and foremost
against jews? is the common usage of anti-Semite another jewish plot?

Horvath:
>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.

AND?

Horvath:
>Aside from all this, you may have noticed that stories of rising
>anti-Semitism almost always coincides with criticism of Israel. Hence,
>this time the French elections provided the perfect setting, as if it was
>manna sent from heaven. Subsequently, the likes of Klein end up twisting
>events out of context in order to serve their ignominious purpose.

So--how is this any different from any other antijewish ranting? there are
jewish religious and cultural sites in Western Europe and beyond being
attacked; I suppose the jews are behind that welcome distraction as well?
or should people pretend it isn't so? Klein's article is entitled
"Sharon's best weapon" and begins:

>    Anti-semitism sustains Israel's brutal leader - the fight against it must
> be reclaimed.
> She continues:
>  Something new happened in Washington DC last weekend. A
> demonstration against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund was
> joined by an anti-war march, as well as a demonstration against the Israeli
> occupation of Palestinian territory. In the end, all the marches merged into
> what organisers described as the largest Palestinian solidarity
>demonstration > in US history (75,000 people by police estimates).
 <snip>
> As a critic both of the Israeli occupation and of corporate-dictated
> globalisation, it seems to me that the,convergence that took place in
> Washington last weekend was long overdue.


I think the writer of the post needs to look to his own attitudes about
jews; it would be a good start to differentiate them from israelis. One
may be a subset of the other but they are not coterminous.

sincerely,
martha rosler
new york city


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