    Joh Domingo responds to Shraga Elam’s letter on Hamas:

    Perhaps the biggest mistake the Palestinians ever made was to assume
    that whomever opposed Zionism was an ally, Reading Sharga Elam's
    essay of Feb 1st 2006, one gets an uneasy feeling in the pit of the
    stomach, that all is not well for Muslim - non-Muslim solidarity.
    There is simple too great a gulf for there ever to be a meeting of
    the minds.  I am just about utterly convinced that no dialogue is
    possible with this kind of thinking; it is completely programmed to
    reject any alternative value system besides its own. It can only
    exist beside Islam in an uneasy truce.

    A green sheet should be erected, to ensure that these people remain
    a stranger, and free us from their influence. Muslims are sick of
    liberals fighting for the rights of Muslims while
    Muslims fighters themselves are banned, imprisoned or executed.
    There appears to be a praxis operating; Zionist kill Muslims so that
    ethnic Jewish anti-Zionist activists can step into the vacuum as
    leaders, and to prescribe policy. Ethnic Jewish anti-Zionist
    activists telling Palestinians what to do is no different to Bush
    insisting that Hamas abandon its principles and recognize Israel's
    right to exsist on stolen property.

    Reading Shraga Elam's piece, one realizes it is completely devoid of
    any option outside the Western paradigm. Worse, western dogma is
    elevated and presented as if it contains all possible permutations.
    Hamas either does this or that happens .  if they do this then that
    happens. It is only towards the end that an inkling of an
    alternative is alluded to; that Hamas would simply dissolve the PA
    and throw the whole stinking mess into Israel's lap, where it
    belongs anyhow.

    This secular Palestinian solidarity democratic ethos is a myth, and
    needs to be cracked and killed because it makes people believe that
    something is being done, when in fact these artificially integrated
    circles are soporific to the Palestinians, while slaving the
    conscience of the grief stricken anti-Zionist Jews.  It works on the
    premise that because it is difficult to bring people from different
    backgrounds together, this is in itself an achievement. Nothing
    could be further from the truth.

    How many of these people fighting for the Palestinians are actually
    concerned for the Palestinians? I know it is cruel to question the
    sincerity of people, but the methods suggested by pro-Palestinian
    ethnic Jewish activists suggest a real lack of commitment. Most pro-
    Palestinian Jews are aware of the power wielded by Jews in the
    Diaspora. They are quick to quote the various elements of Jewish
    influence on Western policy towards the Palestinians, and are also
    acutely ware of the firepower deployed against the Palestinians in
    Palestine by the Israelis, They must be aware too that the problem
    is Jewish racism, feeding the ethnocentric racism of people in the
    West. Why then do they insist on addressing the attitudes of
    Palestinians, and pretend to be fighting the perception that
    Palestinians are anti-Semitic?

    While Shraga is not directly guilty of assessing the situation in
    such terms, it does frame the issues he raises. It essentially boils
    down to this: whatever the Palestinians (read Hamas) does, it has
    fallen into a trap wherein anything it does will be portrayed by
    Israel as confirming the worst stereotypes of Palestinians as haters
    of Jews, unable to be trusted, and lacking elementary standards of
    civilized behavior. Hamas' electoral victory is therefore a triumph
    for Israel, whatever Hams does.

    Shraga is completely convinced of the impotence of Palestinians. Why
    then does he persist in talking to them?  Why not address himself to
    his ethnic compatriots, since it is they that seem to be the
    problem, not the Palestinians?

    As painful as it is, we have to conclude that he is fact appeasing
    his own conscience, or at best, he is eager to identify with the
    Palestinians, only so far as it does not sever all his ties to his
    relatives on the other side of the fence. Being a member of the
    Jewish race, and an Israeli, he possesses the natural passport to
    Jewish privilege, from which he does not hesitate to extract
    whatever suits him. Yet, since he identifies with the Palestinians,
    he can move about within his privileged circles; Jewish suburbs,
    Jewish only roads, Jewish political groups - all the while feeling
    satisfied that he is not like THEM, the Jewish supremacists.
    Although he does not vote for Zionists, at least while they form the
    majority, he can feel comfortable about the protection offered by
    them, and subconsciously shuns the idea of change.

    I am not sneering at Shraga, neither am I suggesting that Jews like
    him are the most responsible for the plight of the Palestinians, I
    am illustrating a fundamental fact that identification with an
    oppressed group is impossible in a system that forces one group to
    enjoy privilege, that exists on the tears and blood of another. Jews
    collectively owe Palestinians a huge debt and no one member should
    expect to escape from the blanket condemnation that needs to come
    from the rest of the world. It is not as if Jews enjoy privilege
    only when they express their solidarity with the Jewish supremacy
    forces in Israel. They are born into it.

    Jews like Shraga must fight on his own, and for himself. He must
    realize that he is himself oppressed. And that he must fight for his
    own freedom, and not for the nebulous `they', with whom he can
    hardly claim identification. Not only are Jews kicking Palestinians,
    they are also telling them how to react to the kick. For a long time
    the Palestinians have been patiently listening to the advice they
    have been receiving. Now they are beginning to show signs that they
    realize that they should react as they see fit. But no, then a Jew
    must come along to tell them that their reaction is itself a trap.
    Whatever happens, their reaction cannot make the Palestinian
    condition any worse. Palestinians need not go searching for an
    ideology, they have a ready made one, and it is Islam. Too bad if
    that makes Jewish identification with them harder.

    JohD

    ------------------------------------------------

    Joh Domingo responds to Gilad Atzmon’s piece on antizionist Jews:

    While I can agree with the principle of a common movement, the ANC were
    only effective outside the country. It is important to have a group like
    Hamas in country, so the common group can work effectively outside the
    country. Open groups like the ANC have to walk a fine line between being
    quislings and being a resistance. The PNC became fragmented, with some
    factions openly collaborationist, and some, like Islamic Jihad,
    extremely resistant. The PLO should stay out of Palestine as a
    government in exile to curtail these collaborationist tendencies. A
    group like Hamas is extremely important to engender a cohesive
    resistance. The atmosphere will become hot, with civil disobedience
    coming to the fore. I have every faith that Hamas is more suited to the
    kind of organization required for a civil disobedience campaign becuase
    of their uncomprominsing, principled stance, and their experience
    organizing while under fire. I hate to say this, but Palestinian
    liberation is at least two decades away, and the country will end up
    being one democratic state. No need to cry crocodile tears for your
    beloved secularism just yet, save your tears for twenty years time.
    There is no profit in engaging the Israelis, they do not feel enough
    pain yet. Suicide bombing is a a puny effort compared to the firepower
    ranged against them. It is fighting on the Israelis terms. The issue
    will come to a head because of manpower hours, and shekels. Hamas is
    there to make sure Israel wastes money, the PNC is there to ensure that
    financial support for Israel dries up, or is painful to maintain. Hamas
    is important because they provide justification for shifting the funding
    source for the Palestinians from the West to Islamic Countries. This is
    important to insulate the Palestinians in-country from the moral
    authority of the West. They should be shielded from Western hypocritical
    influence altogether, so that they can implement civil resistance
    without western interference. Better hypocritical Islamic support.

    This is all that is important at present concerning Hamas. I am certain
    most Palestinians, inside and outside the country feel it in their guts.
    This is a long struggle, and no amount of crying is going to do anyone
    any good. The best thing has happened, Palestinians have changed from
    within.

    As it concerns Jews against Zionism - their opinion about what happens
    inside the territories matters as much as European opinion about what is
    happening inside the territories - absolutely nothing. The only way
    Europeans should be able to influence the situation inside the
    territories is if they implement boycots and marginalize Israel;
    otherwise it should be made clear that they are part of the problem. An
    ideological disection of the situation is meaningless and irrelevant.
    Liberation is too far away for such indulgences. South Africans were
    burning schools, burning people, and burning their identity documents,
    and it did not matter one bit to the outside world. Israeli Apartheid
    should be opposed and defeated regardless of any particular situation at
    any given moment. It is One Country and has been for 39 years - THAT is
    the reality on the ground.

    JohD