by Grover Furr
Originally published in The Montclarion, student newspaper at Montclair State College (now University), Thursday, May 5, 1988, p. 13.
To the editor:
Professor Edward Aronow's letter of April 21 on Israeli treatment of Palestinians is so filled with error and distortion that one short response can only begin to correct it.
Israeli rule over Palestinians is essentially fascist. The Israeli army assault on the West Bank town of Beita in the wake of the death of an Israeli teenager can only be described as a pogrom -- brutal, murderous assault such as the Tsarist police and the Nazis committed against Jews.
Killing persons armed only with stones or "trying to flee" - - including numerous Palestinian teenagers -- collective punishment, beatings, imprisonment without trial for indefinite periods, deportations -- this is fascist repression, akin to Nazi terrorism.
The lesson of World War II -- especially of the Nazi holocaust -- is that fascism cannot be fought with "moderation." Mass Palestinian protests, including violent protests, must be welcomed, and supported by all those who oppose injustice. Pacifist and "non-violent" protest would be morally irresponsible, since they can never succeed against fascist oppression, but only lead to the unnecessary deaths of many protesters.
Terrorist assassinations, whether by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), or the far more numerous acts of terrorist murder by the Israeli army and settlers, must be condemned. However, Israel is far more guilty in this regard, quantitatively, than the PLO.
About 10 times the number of Palestinians have been murdered by Israel than the number of Israelis murdered by PLO terrorists. Yet Israeli terrorist repression against Palestinians is termed `retaliation" or "assassination" in the US media!
Israeli fascist brutalities follow a long history of working with some of the worst fascists on earth, including South Africa, Iran, Turkey, and Argentina. Israel is a major supplier of arms and military advisors to South Africa. Israeli advisors helped train the Iranian Secret Police under the fascist Shah in torture techniques. Today Israel is the major arms supplier to Khomeini's Iran!
One need not look far to find the roots of Israeli terrorism and fascism. Take Israeli Prime Minister Yitzak Shamir. Before World War II he belonged to a Zionist grouplet that, in 1940, offered to enter the war on the side of Nazi Germany if the Nazis would permit a Zionist state, run along fascist lines, in Palestine. Shamir personally planned the 1948 terrorist murder of Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN Special Mediator for Palestine.
During the war, the major Zionist leaders collaborated with Adolf Eichmann to send half a million Hungarian Jews to their deaths in Nazi extermination camps, in return for the Nazis letting 1500 or so Zionists emigrate to Palestine -- a fact long since documented by Zionist writers. Such is the "love" of the Zionist leaders for "their own people"!
The root problem is racism and its twin, nationalism. Israeli law claims that any Jew, anywhere in the world, has a right to full Israeli citizenship, while Arabic-speaking Palestinians have no such right even if they were born and have lived all their lives on the territory now comprising Israel. This is an inherently racist policy. Fascist racism is built into the very existence of the Israeli state.
It is in the interest of Israeli rulers to foment as much hatred between Jews and Palestinians as they can. Israel's economy depends heavily upon the exploitation of very cheap Palestinian labor, just as South Africa's does on Black labor.
Israeli Jewish workers are very militant; relative to population;there are more work-days lost to strikes in Israel than in any country in the world. Racism and nationalism are the main things keeping Jewish and non- Jewish workers from allying with one another.
At all costs, Israeli bosses must prevent this, while keeping the super-exploited Palestinian workers nearby and without rights. The parallel with South Africa -- or with American treatment of "illegal aliens" and minorities -- is unmistakable.
Incidentally, there are not "dozens of Arab states," as Professor Aranow, following the Israeli government propaganda line, says. There is one major Arab state, Saudi Arabia, and several minor ones on that peninsula. There are many Arabic-speaking states, just as there are many countries besides England where English is spoken. There is no "Palestinian state" in Jordan. Here Professor Aranow simply parrots Israeli disinformation.
Like Israel, the Moslem, Arabic-speaking states are also undemocratic, elite-run dungeons. In light of Israeli terror, however, Professor Aranow's prattle about the need to "await greater Arab political maturity" is racist nonsense.
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