Friday, July 22, 2005

On Sloganeering

Martin Peretz:
The settler camp lapses into the crude Nazi analogy almost by reflex. a jew does not expel a jew: the slogan is plastered almost everywhere. But that is exactly not the point. If expulsion means what it meant throughout Jewish history in the exile, the Gaza disengagement is emphatically not that. It is a project of Jewish sovereignty for Jewish political and military ends. It may be mistaken (I don't believe it is), but it is not made to fulfill the purposes of an enemy power. And, since this Jewish sovereignty is democratic, the minority must honor the process that gives it its practical rights in the first place.

Carl M. Perkins
To call the evacuation an expulsion is Orwellian. It devalues what Jews throughout history who were truly expelled have had to face. Were those who were expelled from Spain in 1492 awarded generous compensation and rights to beautiful property along the Mediterranean Sea within the borders of a sovereign Jewish state? Could those expelled from their homes by the Nazis look forward to life and liberty? This shameful and manipulative rhetorical move should be condemned.

Ben Chorin
It is our opinion -- but we respect your right to disagree -- that no person of any race, creed or sexual orientation shall evict from their homes any person (or other species), especially women and persons of color, and hand these homes to militants and/or freedom fighters who have exercised their natural right to murder and mayhem.