From: Scott Chase (osteopilus@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu 28 Oct 2004 - 01:06:02 GMT
--- Dace <edace@earthlink.net> wrote:
> According to Israeli journalist Uri Avnery, Jewish
> fanaticism has reached
> such a fever pitch that the country is now obsessed
> with the possibility of
> civil war. The fanatical Jews, no different in
> principle from fanatical
> Christians or Muslims, want to abolish democratic
> institutions and turn
> Israel into a fundamentalist state. The fanaticism
> is most prevalent among
> Israelis who have illegally settled on Palestinian
> land.
>
> http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery10252004.html
>
> Avnery asserts that most settlers did not begin as
> fanatics but only
> developed an absolutist stance as a result of their
> situation. Only a
> minority of settlers, the "hard core," began as
> fanatics and remain to this
> day totally open about their beliefs. The
> implication, from a memetics
> point of view, is that absolutist memes are more
> powerful than rationalist
> memes. Even when the number of individuals
> harboring absolutist memes is
> tiny, at first, compared to the number who harbor
> rationalist memes, over
> time the group as a whole is liable to fall under
> the spell of the
> absolutist memes.
>
Taking the discussion away from the Levant for a
moment, I have recently gotten interested in the
history of US-Cuba relations. No doubt that Castro is
an intolerant absolutist ruler who has outlasted many
administrations and jailed his post-Revolution
competition, but the exile community that escaped his
rule has also developed its own brand of absolutism.
Exiles that are moderate and see dialogue and
normalization as alternatives to the status quo are
subject to being branded traitors to the anti-Castro
cause and could suffer being ostracized or worse
(given the historic nature of the exile underground).
The ideological differences between the Cuban island
and South Florida are stark and those who dissent from
the absolute stance of Castro or hardline exiles in
Miami do so at their own risk. In this polarity
between Havana and Miami is a great example of
absolutism at work.
I often wondered how much of a factor the Nader vote
in 2000 election was in Gore's loss, but several books
I've read recently have made me wonder if the Cuban
exile vote (post Elian Gonzalez) may have also played
a role too. Exiles may have been slowly warming to
Clinton over the course of his administration, but
Elian may have been a lightning rod that helped tipped
the vote in Bush's favor.
People running for elected office in Florida or for
the presidency probably take the views of exiles
seriously when formulating policy towards Cuba. CANF
has had similar clout to AIPAC as a political lobby at
least before Mas Canosa's death. Presidential
candidates must figure out how to negotiate the
dilemma of peace in the Middle East without offending
AIPAC too much, but the pro-Israel lobby and voters
might be a tad more relaxed than the Cuban exile lobby
and voters when it comes to a potential candidate's
views on the embargo and other Cuba issues.
With Castro's recent tumble and sustained injuries one
can only wonder what turmoil awaits the island of Cuba
when he eventually departs upon the celestial Granma
to the Sierra Maestra in the sky, where Che no doubt
is already fomenting revolution.
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