Sunday, September 12, 2021

Barbara Lee

Some leaders of America's splintering left are now attempting to drum out Barbara Lee, on the grounds that she has been insufficiently pro-Palestinian.  

The Israel-Palestine issue is, as I see it, toxic. The supporters of both sides demand 100% black-and-white conformity to their party lines. They have nothing to negotiate. Everything this issue touches turns into death. 

This brings to mind something that happened about 65 years ago. Albert Camus, active in the French resistance in World War Two,  wrote that no cause, no matter how good, can justify the killing of civilians. He condemned Joseph Stalin, and much of the French Left banned him. The French Left didn't turn against Stalin until ten years later. Some to this day condemn Camus as a traitor to the cause of social justice.

Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, another icon of the left, takes Camus' position: no cause justifies targeting noncombatants. 

Consider this. The Israelis target civilians. The Palestinians target civilians. We deliberately targeted civilians in World War Two. 

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