[NYTr] Regarding Stale Anti-Semitism Slanders Against Venezuela Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 19:45:23 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [This turned into a back-and-forth, so (with a little bit of paragraphing to make Ike's comments easier to read), we're distributing what he said -- still a bit bemused, because we agree with him entirely about alleging "neocons" are the equivalent of a "Jewish cabal" that controls the banks and the media, etc. We didn't say they were. But there are plenty of those on the net who've been saying exactly that for years, in an extremely simplistic and conspiracist manner. We didn't say that Israelis are "con artists" but we do think a lot of ordinary US citizens are unsophisticated and suckers for the poisonous propaganda alleging Latin American revolutionaries are anti-Semites. Anyway... Ike explains in his response to our reply what his larger point was. -NYTr] sent by Ike Nahem - Oct 2, 2007 Regarding: NY Transfer's Introductory comments to Ha'aretz story Ha'aretz - Oct 1, 2007 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/908197.html Israel mulls downgrading ties with Venezuela due to Iran alliance By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent Posted as: Israel Dredges Up Stale Anti-Semitism Slanders Against Venezuela http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071001/069394.html [It's the old re-run, this time Chavez deals with Iran, last time it was Ortega dealing with the USSR. And at's all a bone that Israel tosses to its patrons/puppets in the USA of course. Israel itself has extensive very sotto voce dealings with Iran, and has since the Islamic Revolution. But the Yanquis are too unsophisticated to even get this. It's more anti-Left bullshit to placate the suckers in Washington who pay them billions. --NY Transfer] Dear Sisters and Brothers, Your introductory comments to the Haaretz article on Israel's anti-Venezuela campaign makes what I consider an important error in calling US imperialism a "puppet" of the Israel Zionist state and even "unsophisticated" "suckers" vis a vis the seductive blandishments of Israeli con artists. This is an unwarranted concession to the reactionary and factually unwarranted assertion that the supposedly all-powerful Israeli or "Jewish" lobby "controls" US Middle East policy and even, as some have asserted, along with a "neoconservative (read Jewish) cabal" "caused" or "pushed" Washington to invade Iraq. This is no more accurate than the myth that the so-called "Miami Lobby" holds US policy toward revolutionary Cuba "hostage" or that, in the past, the so-called "China Lobby" kept Washington from having normal relations with "Red China." This is all glib and superficial ass-backwards nonsense that puts the "puppet" in front of the "puppeteer." Washington, which couldn't care less about Jews or anti-semitism and which prevented working-class Jews from coming to the US in the 1930s after Hitler came to power and who forced, with the European imperialists, Holocaust survivors to migrate to Palestine to act as a potential force against rising Arab and Palestinian struggles for independence, supports Israel because it is a fellow (albeit junior) imperialist power and historic ally against anti-imperialist struggles in the region. When their interests conflict Washington has and will not hesitate to impose its perceived interests, e.g the 1956 Suez War, the first Gulf War, when Israel recently tried to sell advanced military technology to China, etc. They certainly are totally aware of and "sophisticated" about their interests (which, of course, doesn't mean they don't fuck up) and certainly don't need "Zionist" "city slickers" to tell them, the "country bumpkins" that they have vital, giant economic, financial, and strategic interests in the Middle East any more than they need a bunch of aging right-wing Cuban exiles, the ex-Cuban bourgeoisie, that they themselves created, financed, trained, and armed to convince them to hate and continue to try and destroy the Cuban Revolution. in solidarity, Ike Nahem *** NY Transfer replies: Indeed, Ike - We Don't disagree, particularly. For example, see last weekend's Uri Avnery column for Gush Shalom called "So What about Iran? (and the earth?)" It's here, if you haven't rec'd it, or read it: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20070924/069205.html In which we said in an introductory few paragraphs (among numerous other things): "Yes, the US is in considerable part captive to Israeli manipulation. And, yes [sorry, LaRouchie conspiracists] Israel has stupidly fallen into sideshow wars for the US and the old European colonial powers." (Actually, in the introduction you objected to above, we characterized those in Washington who work hand-in-glove with Israel (not "US imperialism") as Israel's "patrons/puppets" i.e., they are both; it's a complex and often highly ambivalent relationship.) Ike, you certainly don't deny, I hope, that Israeli and US Zionist propaganda has been employed against Revolutionary Cuba, Sandinista Nicaragua, and now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, specifically claiming persecution of Jews and anti-Semitism? Venceremos, NY Transfer *** Ike Nahem responds: Dear Folks at NYTransfer, > "Ike, you certainly don't deny, I hope, that Israeli and US Zionist > propaganda has been employed against Revolutionary Cuba, Sandinista > Nicaragua, and now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, specifically > claiming persecution of Jews and anti-Semitism?" I certainly don't! All of those charges of anti-semitism are slanders. But my larger point is that many in the middle-class "left" and left-liberal types who use shorthand superficial "analysis" of the "neocons" and who elevate the "Israeli Lobby" to mystified levels (and thereby downplay the normal workings of imperialist decision making) at best adapt to traditional anti-semitic stereotypes of a "Jewish cabal" which controls the media, the banks, etc. This has traditionally been a staple of ultra-right, white supremacist and fascist/Nazi propaganda in Europe and the US and has also been utilized by reactionary Arab regimes who want to take the onus off Washington which they are allied with for the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians. Hasta la Victoria siempre! Ike * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================