I've been catching up on the recent Jews/AntiSamitism thread and this sequel, realizing afresh how differently I perceive Sam's posting from many others. It's not just because I like Sam.
As some know, I grew up in Lebanon and the Mideast, I've known many Palestinian refugees, witnessed associated wars, poverty, and despair, chaos, etc in a more direct way than many people. So antipathy for Israel's crimes, and for ideologies of Jewish exceptionalism is as familiar to me, as are lamentations about any common curse. Criticism of Israeli crimes seems no more biased or opinionated to me than complaints about any other catastrophes, natural or man-made.
I'm not unbiased, because I have seen the human wreckage in the wake of Israel as a selective catastrophe, and seen awareness of it to be as selective in turn. Especially in the USA, awareness of Israeli crimes against Palestinians is conspicuously minute. Apologists for Israeli Apartheid are highly reactive to its criticism, and successful in suppressing doubts about the morality of Jewish apartheid in Israel. Neither the generalized cultures of my present home town, nor of Sciforums today are in alignment with my personal opinions on this general subject.
I've been reading Sam's posts fairly closely for several years now. Only lately, I've attempted objective reviews of the same as a new moderator. I still lack any impression that Sam entertains ethnic bigotry towards Jews. Rather, I've seen her pitted against the standard smear that I too often face in many settings- the insecure, defensive insistence that criticism of Jewish separatism and criticism of Israeli repression is tantamount to antisemitism. I've seen her stubbornly weather the accusation time and time again.
No matter whom it is directed to, this false and disingenuous conflation has become so widely reinforced that it challenges our objectivity on all sides. But where there is sincere respect for a scientific approach to human relations, I have deep faith that the emotional feed-back loops that too often derail clearer examination may be overcome.
Israeli policy is conspicuously and consistently incompatible with the basic precepts of human rights that Israel's leading allies and enablers claim to respect. The present system of apartheid in Israel cannot survive an objective moral and ethical re-assessment by its international backers and bankrollers. Scientific appraisal of prominent modern political controversies must confront this paradox. We cannot enter into good-faith debate on this general topic without confronting the reality that Israel is a "modern" state founded on archaic and morally indefensible standards of human rights.
But because of the fundamental moral insecurity of Israel, a familiar array of defense-mechanisms bristle up whenever the insecurity is assailed. For Sam, myself, or for anyone sympathetic to the plight of Israel's millions of victims, it requires exhaustive repetition to respond to all the standard defenses of the indefensible: Other oppressors have done/are doing it; Never Again (for Jews as victims); Jews require an exclusive Homeland; anti-zionism=anti-semitism etc. etc. round and round.
Assessment of spoken and written opinion that is remotely objective or scientific on the subject can not fail to observe the lop-sided political "correctness" that is in vogue regarding Israeli policy. The heavily-conditioned zionist defense-mechanisms most often prevail here at Sciforums, just as they most frequently do in most public Western venues. Even though Israeli apartheid is no more defensible in political science than Creationism in geology, we remain at an impasse here in mutually recognizing (as a majority of members or moderators) the way faulty assumptions and willful ignorance uphold junk ideology.
I tire of going around and around the subject, while the same patterns of pointing out and diverting from injustice play out again and again. But at the same time, I am confident that reason can prevail, and that reason will never rest on the side of those who will support overt and systematic state ethnic oppression.
As a still-inexperienced moderator, I regularly train my sights on Sam's posts to challenge my own objectivity, and to challenge my own awareness of the standards we are endeavoring to raise around here. I know that there are members and mods who tire of the Israel debate, and I agree with them that too much fixation and repetition on a single controversy detracts from an atmosphere of scientific discussion. So I do occasionally slip off my safety-catch and vacillate, while a more tenured moderator pulls the trigger on another of Sam's "rant" threads relating to Israel.
As I review locked threads sliding down into oblivion, I'm often disappointed that some of the closest approaches to the heart of the matter are buried within all the familiar emotional appeals, logical fallacies, and sour grapes.
So I propose a variation on "evaluation by priors", and a variation on "S.A.M.'s Israel/Palestine Thread" where those of us particularly concerned with this specific area of debate collaborate on (yes another) Mother Of All Levantines thread or (dare I say) string, to include 1) the best of what's been thrown out with the blusterous bilgewater and 2) new content that does not run in circles, and does not degenerate into personal or ethnic fixations or attacks.
I hope that such an effort would please those who tire of seeing a disproportionate number of threads on the general subject, while also holding the interest of anyone here who (like me) would like to see this particular arena of discussion and debate progress much further than it ever has thus far.
So: I would like to hear from all members who have frequently posted in threads concerning Israel, Palestine, Jews, Non-Jewish Arabs, Names of Levantine places and foods, etc. (if you would find such a collaboration worthwhile).
If it interests a few participants, I would welcome ideas and some agreement on a title for the most definitive and insightful Israel/Palestine thread ever seen here- or seen anywhere for that matter. In establishing such a fine but durable thread, I would welcome concerned member participation in recalling the very best of threads gone by. Provided a supportive consensus among members and my fellow moderators, I want to make such a thread a focal point of my (thus far feeble yet ambitious) efforts as a moderator.
My notion of a fresh start at a recombinant Israel/Palestine thread is as vaporous as this post. I hope that some obscurity will provide filtering that will assist me in gauging whether the idea has merit among the members most concerned. But before I run on, and filter any interest to zero... That is all.
) i see the ball is in your court