From: jeff davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Apr 23 2002 - 10:15:01 MDT
--- Damien Broderick
<d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au> wrote:
> At 04:08 PM 4/22/02 -0700, Jeff Davis sent us to:
>
>http://www.balkanunity.org/mideast/english/zionism/ch04.htm
>
> Well, it might be of interest that this piece
> (copiously footnoted though
> it is) derives from a site where we also learn such
> amazing truths as:
>
> http://www.balkanunity.org/usa/english/sept11.htm
<snippage of stuff that departs the credible universe>
Damien et al,
When I sought to refer whoever might be interested to
chapter 8 of The Hidden History of Zionism, I didn't
send you to the site where I originally found
it--which was:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/ch08.htm
because I didn't have that original URL copied
anywhere. So I googled again, and picked out the
first place I found it.
I'm perfectly willing to take the heat for the
Schoenman piece, but not anything at the Balkan Unity
site.
And regarding the Schoenman piece, it's not the
scholarly structure--the copious footnotes that you
noted--that is at issue here, but rather the content
and quality of the citations. The Hidden History of
Zionism is a brutal polemic, and the polemicist must
bear the burden of his unabashed hostility and his
unrepentent bias. Fine. These work harshly against
him--for anyone not in "the choir".
In his favor is the quality of the evidence he
presents. But be savagely skeptical. It's the duty
of every truth-seeker. Rip and shred at every
weakness: the taking of statements out of context, the
artful evil fusing of unrelated comments to construct
a fictional "reality", second and third hand accounts,
mishearings, misreading, accounts given by clumsy,
corrupt, stupid, or confused witnesses or journalists
or information or disinformation organs. Be massively
conservative. Take no prisoners. And when the dust
has settled, whatever remains, no matter how
unpalatable, is going to be your best shot at the
truth. And if it's worth covering up, count on it
that when uncovered it will be ugly and unpalatable.
Ethnic cleansing is just as bad whether it's done by
North American colonists two hundred years ago,
Australian colonists one hundred years ago, Nazis
sixty years ago, Serbians ten years ago, or Zionists
starting fifty-three years ago and continuing through
last week.
Schoenman is a Marxist of the first water, a zealot,
an egoist, an extremist with a remarkable history.
Throw him out with the bathwater if it pleases you.
"He has been active in political life for many years.
He was privileged to be a close friend and colleague
of Bertrand Russell between 1960 and 1968.
Between 1961 and 1968 he held the honorary title
of Secretary to Bertrand Russell. He was Executive
Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in
which capacity he helped to secure the release of
political prisoners in many countries and initiated
the International Tribunal on US War-Crimes in
Indo-China, of which he was Secretary General.
[He] initiated the Committee of One Hundred
which organised civil disobedience against nuclear
weapons and US bases in Great Britain. He was founder
and director of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and
Director of the Who Killed Kennedy Committee.
He has been a leader of the Committee for
Artistic and Intellectual Freedom in Iran, Co-Director
of the Committee in Defense of the Palestinian and
Lebanese Peoples, and Executive Director of the
Palestine Campaign, as well as American Workers and
Artists for Solidarity. He is a member of the steering
committee of The Permanent Committee Against War and
Exploitation, and has written a number of works and
contributes to a variety of magazines and lectures at
universities."
Pleasant, but check this out:
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/Russell/Private_memorandum_of_Russell.html
Bertrand Russell disassociated himself from Schoenman
in 1969, writing (in the above memorandum):
"...His conviction of his unshakable belief in the
penetration and breadth of his understanding were
obvious. I did not for some time, however, grasp the
closely related characteristic of his utter
incapability of imparting reliable information. His
reports of people’s reactions and his observations
were and unfortunately, I fear, still are very often
excessively and misleadingly incorrect and his
quotations must always be verified."
ending with
"...Ralph must be well established in megalomania. The
truth is, I suppose, that I have never taken Ralph as
seriously as he liked to think I did. I was fond of
him in the early years. But I never looked upon him as
a man of parts and weight and much individual
importance."
But it's not about Schoenman. It's about whatever
opportunity presents itself to see a truth that
perhaps someone out there is motivated to keep you
from seeing. I've heard that there are such hidden
truths, maybe I'm wrong. I leave it to you to decide
where the truth lies.
Best, Jeff Davis
"White people are clever, but they are not wise."
Ishi, the last of the Yahi nation
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