[lit-ideas] Re: Hamas and Israel's "Right to Exist"
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 23:07:40 -0500
Stan: [addressed to Omar]
I like your apparent "even-handedness" in saying this. Reminds me of the
old saying: "Neither rich nor poor are prohibited from sleeping under a
bridge on rainy nights."
I've never heard that. I will keep it close at hand. Thanks.
As a virulent anti-semite, you're quite good at cloaking your prejudice in
the appearance of reasonableness.
This is a hard judgment, Stan. I've personally never thought Omar was
anti-Semitic. It's pretty obvious that he's a staunch (virulent?)
anti-Zionist. David Myers used to argue that anti-Zionism was equivalent to
anti-Semitism, but I know you don't subscribe that view. When does
sensitivity to anti-Semitism become hyper-sensitivity? I don't know. I'm
probably the last person to ask. When I was growing up in Memphis (age 5 to
8 or so), I remember chanting at those we wanted to taunt: "Jew baby, Jew
baby sitting on a fence, trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents". It
wasn't chanted at Jews, we didn't know any Jews, we weren't even sure what
Jews were. But we knew it must be bad.
I remember my chagrin years later hearing my mother, who was active in civil
rights in Memphis talking to a Jewish woman say: "That was very Christian of
you." Ha! Those expressions rolled off our lips without thought, and
really without any intended reference to Jews. There isn't a large Jewish
population in Memphis so the anti-Semitism here is more of a stance than a
practice. But we make up for what we lack in anti-Semitism in
anti-everybody-not-white-European-protestant. The Memphis metro population
is pretty much 50 -- 50, black -- white discounting a handful of Hispanics
and Asians. And yet, despite the fact that I've lived here for 50 of my 62
years, I don't have any black friends. Many acquaintances, but no one that
I call on socially or who calls on me. And yet I find that I like and
admire those black people I know more than the white people. So what gives?
I think it's a complex of social mores and situations and customs and just
the way the cookie crumbles. Or maybe I'm a deep down racist. Or maybe all
the black people are. I don't worry about it -- much. I just go through my
life as it unfolds. Shit, I thought I knew where I was going with all
this, but I don't. Just a last thought then. Omar obviously sympathizes
more with the Palestinians than with the Israelis. That shouldn't come as a
surprise to you. But that doesn't mean that he therefore hates Jews or
supports suicide bombings. I can't remember him ever saying anything
Jew-hating. But, yes, I think it's fair to say tht he does not share you
sympathies. I share your sympathies for the most part, but I also think the
Israeli government has made some very unwise decisions when it comes to the
Palestinians. Sharon didn't seem to care what I thought, nor does Olmert.
Oh, well, you can lead a horse to water....
Mike Geary
Memphis
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