Posted July 15, 2002

Deliso for President

Who is this person, Chris Deliso, with such keen insights on Macedonian issues? I just discovered ... Antiwar.com in February and have been reading his columns with great interest ever since (I am ethnic Macedonian -- from Aegean Macedonia -- born and raised in Toronto, Canada). ...

Chris Deliso for President!

~ Florence R.

Macedonia / Yugoslavia

Another great article by Christopher Deliso on the plight of Macedonia. He accurately illustrated some of the failings in the Macedonian way of thinking, as it relates to getting out of the current crisis(es) and becoming a stable and viable state. The reality is Macedonia should have never broken away from Yugoslavia, the country was nowhere near ready for independence. On its own, it is too weak to deal with UCK terrorists or internal problems like establishing new institutions or laws. ...

I'm ethnic Macedonian, though I've lived nearly my entire life in the US. I suppose this allows me to see both Macedonia and the US from different perspectives than most people, and that's why I enjoy reading someone like Deliso who is writing about MK as a person who has not grown up there, but still shows a sympathy for the people and culture. ...

~ Alex G.

Goldstein's Theory

When Justin Raimondo first proposed Goldstein's theory, its validity was questioned in a few Backtalk letters, and I wrote one of them. The theory is no more convincing this time around.

That the Israeli government has policies similar to those put in place by Nazi Germany in the 1930's is not vindication of Goldstein's theory. Goldstein's theory, far from being "trenchant", fails when applied to any other culture but Israel's. Contrary to the theory, Judeo-Christian republican societies have a history of violence and sometimes practice genocide, without being corrupted by immigrants from Asia. Contrary to the theory, Asian societies, without direct influence from the West, often practice tolerance and eschew violence. Contrary to the theory, many Jewish people raised and living in America adamantly support the directions the Israeli government is taking today.

Good for you that you promote your friend, but by fixating on his inadequate explanation, you miss more useful explanations. For example, it might be that Israel is drifting towards Nazism for much the same reason America is drifting towards military Imperialism. America is not following the intent of the original Constitution, and has recently begun wholesale abandonment of significant parts of it. This is probably not the will of the people, but, like boiled frogs, the people (with a few notable exceptions) go along with it. Antiwar.com essays often have this theme. What we practice and call democracy is not really democracy. It is irresponsible authoritarianism sanctified by election ritual. Might not a governing system that is widely revered but easily corrupted lead its people towards Nazism as a way to consolidate control, irrespective of how many Asians lived in that society?

(For Red Heifer fans, here's a different take on an ungulate who may save our hides.)

Thanks for the work you do maintaining a great site. ...

~ Doug Barrett, Edmonton, Canada

Bravo!

Not since Lev Navrozov columns from New York in the late '80s have I read anyone as provocative and frequently insightful as Justin Raimondo. Bravo!

~ Jenny I.

War Crime

[Regarding JS's letter of July 11:]

I am always fascinated when reading suggestions on how to solve the "Palestinian problem" is to "resettle" those Palestinians evicted by Israel into neighboring Arab states. If such a "solution" was suggested for any other nation other than Israel it would be called an "ethnically cleansing war crime." (Though I know U.S. and Israel's leaders will never stand in the dock.) Rep. Richard Armey had suggested this when interviewed by Chris Matthews. George Will has taken this position for decades often citing the successful assimilation of those driven out of Eastern Europe by the Soviets following World War II into West Germany. Of course this is a poor analogy simply because no Arab nation has the economic dynamics that a devastated Europe in need of rebuilding had after that tragedy. My own analogy to both Armey and Will is to ask them if someone forcibly evicted them and their families from their homes would the evictors be justified in advocating that neighbors or family members should be compelled to accommodate them and thus "solve" the crime which originally created the problem? And your news item disclosing the Bush administration may attack Iraq as a method to ensure their reelection. This could possibly happen now because the military draft is not now in effect and our forces are composed of the nation's poor who our leaders consider to be "expendable chumps" to be deployed at will even to win an election.

~ WW2 Vet

Apology

...I really feel like extending an apology to the rest of the world for our present rogue president and government. And I'm certain that there are many others who feel the same way. Should Antiwar.com ever present the opportunity, I would gladly sign such a letter. ...

~ Alex N.

'Orientalization'

While I sympathize with the basic sentiments of Justin Raimondo's July 12 piece "Ein Volk, Ein Fuehrer, Ein Israel" (July 12), I must challenge his analysis of the state of Israel and its increasing "Orientalization." Yes, I'm on the political Left but my disagreement does not stem from any knee-jerk multiculti PC reaction. ...

From the mid-80s to the early 90s, I studied and traveled all over the Arab world and Israel. It was after intensive study of the history of Zionism and its consequences that I developed my anti-Zionist position, mostly with the help of Jewish professors and writers (some of whom were Israeli expatriates). ...

Raimondo ... ascribes the concept of racial/ethnic/religious exclusivism to an "orientalist" culture. ... In fact Zionism is an ideology that developed in that most xenophobic, nationalist and racist of regions, Eastern Europe (where Jews were most savagely treated). From its very inception, Zionist leaders described the Arabs as animals, backward savages who were to be forcibly removed from Palestine. ...

The barbaric violence visited upon by Jewish terrorist groups against Arab civilians, British and UN representatives, the massive confiscation of property by Jewish forces and indiscriminate shootings of Arabs who tried to return to their homes, the atrocities of Deir Yassin and Tantura, the destruction of an entire society were all committed by white European Jews (mostly Eastern European) dedicated to the vision of an ethnically cleansed pure state of Jews only. ...

Raimondo also forgets the critical fact that the most racist, violent and fundamentalist settlers in the territories are white, educated western citizens (mostly from the US). ...

What Israel represents is the imposition into the Arab world of the Eastern European disease of xenophobic and violent, romantic nationalism (which ultimately led to the Nazis and their co-religionists in Eastern Europe). ...

Raimondo's inclusion of Sephardic Jews in his analysis ignores the fact that they are the most powerless of Jews in Israel. They are second-class citizens. Israel is in fact still run largely by Jews of European descent.

When we look at the Israel/Palestine conflict, what we are looking at is a conflict that belongs in the first half of the 20th century, when the West was still struggling with its demons of racist exclusivism and superiority, its colonial violence and subjugation in Africa and Asia. With much struggle and pain, the West has indeed progressed – yet Israel has not because it cannot. It is a European colonial racist state stuck in the past. To progress from that condition, it must abandon the religious/ethnic supremacy upon which it is based.

To do that would require Israel to finally become a state of the Middle East and not just in the Middle East. To do that it would require Israel to end the ludicrous fantasy that it is attached to Europe. To do that would require a fundamental confrontation with its backward ideology – an ideology born, nurtured, and flourished in Europe but that was finally vanquished with great bloodshed in two world wars and later colonial wars. ...

~ Sandra Necchi, Brooklyn, New York