Re: NYTimes.com Article: Europe's Chance in the Mideast

it is difficult to evaluate the role of guilt about the holocaust. by
itself, it would not be a determining factor. this is why we need to see
ideology in relation to material relations of power and domination. why
doesn't the "west" feel guilt about other genocides? why is there not a
holocaust museum for Blacks or Native Americans in Washington DC? guilt is
not a driving force in human history. the "moral problem" is who we choose
as objects of sympathy. who are the victims of "history"?
----- Original Message -----
From: <kjkhoo@pop.jaring.my>
To: <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 12:52 PM
Subject: Re: NYTimes.com Article: Europe's Chance in the Mideast


> At 4:41 PM -0400 16/7/01, Boris Stremlin wrote:
> >This article does, however, put in question Wallerstein's claim (made in
> >an FBC commentary just a few days ago) that the reason the Palestinians
> >don't get the same kind of worldwide support as the blacks in South
Africa
> >received has to do with the lingering Western guilt about the Holocaust.
> >If that were the only reason, the Europeans would tread more softly
around
> >Israel than does the US.  The present reality suggests that the case is
> >quite different - lack of sympathy for the Palestinians has more to do
> >with US power and Israel's role as a US client than with residual guilt
> >about the treatment of Jews.
>
> Surely one can't generalise in this fashion about "the Europeans"? I
> think official French position might take a tougher line; not so
> clear with the Brits, and surely the Germans tread softly.
>
> There's also the business of -- and I think it's justifiable to
> generalise? -- the EuroAmerican view of Arabs and Islam.
>
> Finally, there's that little matter of media coverage. Robert Fisk is
> that rare journalist given top billing in a EuroAmerican paper,
> although how anyone on the ground could take any other view I can't
> quite understand. I recall how in 1983, the BBC TV correspondent got
> more and more agitated by the day as he covered the invasion of
> Lebanon.
>
> kj khoo
>
>