From: Jeff Davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 08:14:35 MDT
Friends,
--- Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> I am replying off-list because of the bandwidth
> noise currently on the list.
> I suspect, based only on his writings, the later.
> His posts seem antagonsitic
> at best. But that is my perception and it may not be
> correct.
>
> <<This is obscure. You think Jeff is a filthy Yid,
> or you think he's the sort
> of scum who thinks Jews are filthy Yids?
>
> Damien Broderick>>
>
Oy!
For he record, I've no quarrel with Spud (which is, I
assure you, a friendly nick). He seems to me a
decent, smart, open-minded fellow. And nobody's fool.
We have differences, but what's that? Just a
resource for a lively exchange of views, and the
chance to maybe learn something.
I'm a non-religious jew, or as I sometimes like to
say, jew-boy, (mischievously exercising the license
granted to those who are members of a group to say
things not allowed 'outsiders'). I was born in
Jersey, and love Jews and Italians (and girls with
not-too-large-breasts, among others)--passionate
people who wave their hands when they breathe, and
whose mothers make soup and bread to raise the dead,
...or, as the old joke goes, at least it voodn't hoit.
I think the American dream and the jewish dream are
identical, and I'm a 100% true believer in it/them.
But...
I have the deepest possible enmity for zionism. It is
**THE** root of the problem in the mideast. It is a
betrayal of the most sacred values of Judaism,
poisoning its ethical center, and threatening its very
destruction as none of its external adversaries ever
could. Zionism totally delegitimizes the state of
Israel and transforms the thousand-year-old dream of a
land of milk and honey, a dream of hope and compassion
and justice, into a nightmare of blood and bile. I
don't think I am the only jew who feels this way, at
once outraged and heartsick.
This is what the spudster has noticed in my postings
on the subject, and which he fairly characterizes when
he writes that my "posts seem antagonsitic at best".
Back when I was posting on this, spud was the only one
who got past the arguments over the context-defining
historical events to ask after my version of a
solution. By that time I'd had it up to here (holds
hand level with eyeballs)with the subject, and I never
did respond, but I appreciated it, and I remember.
It's so frustrating--and a central feature of the
Israel/Palestine problem--that discussion stalls over
historical culpability and never gets on to the
positivity of solution seeking.
So let me take this opportunity to offer my "short and
cranky" version of a solution to the I/P problem.
It's one of the less creative solutions, but it'll
have to do for now.
Take the territory comprising "Israel" and the west
bank and Gaza, combine them into one country, and
change the spelling (while leaving the pronunciation
up to the individual) to P-A-L-E-S-T-I-N-E. Then,
xerox a copy of the US Constitution, scratch out the
USofA wherever it is found and write in
P-A-L-E-S-T-I-N-E. Bring everyone who ever lived
there back in. Get your bean counters workin' on the
restoration of private property according to who owned
what before the nastiness began. (If there's a
shortfall here, where guiltless/good faith folks have
conflicting claims, then have the Brits,
American-supporters-of-Israel, Zionists, and Saudi's
foot the bill.) Disarm everyone, hold elections, and
start out fresh. Rinse and repeat.
(Same for Iraq, by the way.)
Finally, just for fun, allow me to add, relating to
this topic, an excerpt, entertaining, perhaps mildly
humorous, by an obscure scribbler. See if you can
figure out who the author is:
"...if I thought myself prejudiced against the Jew, I
should hold it fairest to leave this subject to a
person not crippled in that way. But I think I have no
such prejudice. A few years ago a Jew observed to me
that there was no uncourteous reference to his people
in my books, and asked how it happened. It happened
because the disposition was lacking. I am quite sure
that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think
I have no color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor
creed prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any
society. All that I care to know is that a man is a
human being -- that is enough for me; he can't be any
worse. I have no special regard for Satan; but, I can
at least claim that I have no prejudice against him.
It may even be that I lean a little his way, on
account of his not having a fair show. All religions
issue bibles against him, and say the most injurious
things about him, but we never hear his side. We have
none but the evidence for the prosecution, and yet we
have rendered the verdict. To my mind, this is
irregular. It is un-English; it is un-American; it is
French. Without this precedent Dreyfus could not have
been condemned. Of course Satan has some kind of a
case, it goes without saying. It may be a poor one,
but that is nothing; that can be said about any of us.
As soon as I can get at the facts I will undertake his
rehabilitation myself, if I can find an unpolitic
publisher. It is a thing which we ought to be willing
to do for any one who is under a cloud. We may not pay
him reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we
can at least respect his talents. A person who has for
untold centuries maintained the imposing position of
spiritual head of four-fifths of the human race, and
political head of the whole of it, must be granted the
possession of executive abilities of the loftiest
order. In his large presence the other popes and
politicians shrink to midges for the microscope. I
would like to see him. I would rather see him and
shake him by the tail than any other member of the
European Concert."
Best, Jeff Davis
"You are what you think."
Jeff Davis
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