I never understood why this was tolerated in the United States. I am Amercian. Thank goodness that I am not enough of any particular ethinicity to be effected by this.
This article http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann10142009.html
Does a great job explaining what is wrong with it. Take a deep breath before you read it so you don't have an emotional repulsion to the content before you get to the meat of the article.
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People, by nature I believe, divide themselves into comfortable groups. Allowing one to identify with something that is bigger than ones self. Prior to President Wilson making a policy based on Ethnic Nationalism, we already had Little Italy's and Little China's. This leads me to believe that this article is about the dangers of instituting a National Ethnic Nationalism policy.
ReplyDeleteThe article is interesting, a little long, but interesting. I believe that he understands that he is incorrect in stating that there is an Arabic Ethnic Nationalism as he always puts Arab in quotes and makes references to how some 'arabs' view themselves. I feel that Arabic Ethnic Nationalism is just political tool used to advance a policy. Good, bad, Republican or Al-Qaeda. (see how I made Republican synonymous with good just to harass you AND by including the word Al-Qaeda in the response (twice) probably got this blog picked up by ESCHALON especially by including the word ESCHALON (twice) assuming as I do that you believe that there is an ESCHALON (thrice) program out there sifting through your important thoughts ;) But I digress.
The Arabic peoples are made of a number of ethnic groups (one of which is the Palestinians) and because of Ethnic Nationalism, the Palestinians have no home as they are unwanted by every other ethic group.
Neumann never says that the Israelis are incorrect for their treatment of the Palestinians, and neither will I. Who am I to decide the foreign policy of a sovereign nation? But before you go throwing stones, ask yourself are Americans better then Israelis? Because of the nationalization laws established in Israel, Palestinians can never be Israeli. That is only one step up from how the American Indians currently have it. The American Indians have an option to try to assimilate themselves into the US culture, to stand outside it or bridge the gap. At least they are now considered US citizens. A conquered people should be exterminated, exiled or assimilated. Not set aside as sub-human. (A quick look through a history book will show you how much worse Americans treated the American Indians then the Palestinians are being treated. Perhaps one day the Palestinians can reach human status in the eyes of the Israelis.)
BTW, you happen to wear your ethnicity. White American is a group. Sad truth is, you don't get to decide where you fit, other ethnic groups do. Reality shows, no matter how much I don't like it, there are ethnic groups in the US. So until we are all mixed up enough so that we are all Americans or ethnic cleansing takes place and only one group remains, there will be ethnic groups in the US.
This has gotten so long that I can no longer properly read it let alone edit it so I am posting it as is.