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[personal profile] richardf8
I discovered this in the conservatism community (from which, to my shame, I have not yet been banned).

French
EU Parliamentarian calls for sanctions against Israel and proposes providing nuclear weapons to Arab states.


Most chilling is the final paragraph:

There is, however, another serious imbalance for which we are in part responsible, namely the imbalance of forces. I have no hesitation in saying that we must consider giving the Arab side a large enough force, including a large enough nuclear force, to persuade Israel that it cannot simply do whatever it wants. That is the policy my country pursued in the 1970s when it gave Iraq a nuclear force. We have now destroyed it. So we will carry on with our policy of imbalance and what is happening today is merely the annoying but inevitable result of our collective blindness and cowardice.

The folks in conservatism basically used this to say "neener neener the French gave Saddam nukes!" But there is a larger and more chilling theme here.

In the 1970s Israel was fresh from the Yom Kippur war of 1973 in which all of its neighbors decided, as they had in 67, to attack it at once. It is in this period of the history of the conflict that France decided to pursue a policy of providing Arab states with nuclear materials. Israel caught on by '83 and destroyed the reactor in question. But it raises certain questions.

It is not difficult for me to imagine the frustration France must have felt when the Israeli's took out the reactor they had given Hussein. So much for their plan to Nuke the Jewish State. Having missed that opportunity, the French are now proposing that Europe provide nuclear technology to who? Iran? Syria? Saudi Arabia? The same nations that have not let the Israelis know the quiet enjoyment of their state since its foundation?

I can understand, given Ariel Sharon's abuses of power, how an EU parliament might be sympathetic to such a plea. It is the reason I consider Sharon a greater danger to Israel even than Arafat. But the French proposal, and the French history strikes me as blatantly anti-semitic. They propose to provide nuclear arms to countries that have openly stated that they desire Israel's utter destruction.

So again, I must raise the question:
Did the UN in 1948 establish the State of Israel in the midst of enemies with the intention that no Jew living there would ever know peace, and the belief that it would eventually be destroyed by its neighbors. Was the establishment of the state of Israel their way of outsourcing "The Final Solution To The Jewish Problem?" Since France, at least, seems bent on equipping Israel's enemies to destroy it, it would appear so.

Date: 2004-05-26 02:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] morgan1.livejournal.com
It's scary when truth is worse than my paranoia

alt.fan.furry

Date: 2004-05-26 07:14 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Richard, do you read alt.fan.furry? There's been a thread about the house demolitions in Rafah (http://tinyurl.com/277b8) going on there, and I've been really curious as to how you'd reply in that thread.

- Inkan


Date: 2004-05-26 02:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] makovette.livejournal.com
Take some comfort in knowing that Sharon and Arafat are both very, very, old men.


Mako

Date: 2004-05-26 02:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] deckardcanine.livejournal.com
I hadn't realized the Yom Kippur War took place in the year that marked the 25th anniversary of Israel's statehood.

I knew that Europe especially is experiencing a resurgence in open anti-Semitism, as I learned circa 1999 from an exchange student. As if Middle Eastern problems weren't unsolvable enough already.

Date: 2004-05-26 03:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lordrunningclam.livejournal.com
This is a statement by one out of 86 French delegates to the EU who, for all I know, could be considered a reactionary nitwit by his peers. All it proves is that in the EU parliament, like in the US congress, any jackass can stand up and say what's on his so-called mind. This isn't necessarily representative of France any more than Jesse Helms is representative of America.

Does France have a long history of anti-semitism? Yes. Is this guy necessarily representative of French government policy? No. I'd have to see a lot more evidence.

Date: 2004-05-26 05:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lordrunningclam.livejournal.com
Well, obviously Helms kept getting re-elected. I've often wondered at the fact that the people in North Carolina always seem so nice when I go there and yet Helms (I'm guessing) never lost an election there since he ran for President in the '40's. To be fair to North Carolinians, Helms really brought home the bacon for them, which is what a congressman is supposed to do.

Honestly, I have no interest in hanging out in conservatism. Once, long ago, I kept hearing about this brilliant and visionary mind named Rush Limbaugh. I kept hearing about him and hearing about him until I decided to give him a thorough listening. So, I resolved to listen to each and every Rush Limbaugh radio show in it's entirety for week. Not claiming to have a monopoly on the truth, my hand was actually shaking when I tuned the radio the first day. I really expected to have my most deeply held convictions challenged and ripped asunder.

I learned two things:

1) Even if I agreed with every word RL uttered, I still wouldn't listen to him. I hate talk radio.

2) His debating skills were vastly over-rated. In an entire week I never heard a single caller that disagreed with him. Having 50 or 60 people in a row call up and start the conversation by saying "dittos" does not constitute debate. If he really was a brilliant debater, he would spend his valuable air time picking apart people who disagree with him in person. I strongly suspect he couldn't win an argument with a mediocre high-school debating team member.

One thing I didn't need RL to teach me:

Having lived in the South for 34 years, I know there is absolutely no point arguing with a conservative know-nothing who has made up his mind. Facts only piss them off. If a complex question doesn't have a simple answer they dismiss the answer as wishy-washy, and if context is necessary to understand the problem they will eventually resort to literally saying "blah blah blah" or some similar rhetorical device (except for born-again christians, who will smile at you like one of the townfolk in the Landru Star Trek episode and then just thank you and walk away). This is the exact behavior demonstrated by the Bush Admin when they cherry picked their facts about WMD. So, the only thing reading the conservatism thread would get me is a headache, which I definitely don't need.

To be fair, peoples' most deeply held convictions are the ones most difficult to defend or explain logically, that goes for me as well.

Date: 2004-05-26 07:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lordrunningclam.livejournal.com
They usually promise to pray for me as they back away slowly. ;)

references please?

Date: 2004-05-26 07:21 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Do you know of any references that show evidence of this resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, and of how serious a problem it really is? I know people who insist that this resurgence doesn't exist and I'd like to point to something to help me argue against them.

Thank you.

- Inkan

Date: 2004-05-27 03:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lordrunningclam.livejournal.com
...and although nobody seemed to catch it, I had Jesse Helms partially confused with Strom Thurmond. I'm sure somebody caught it but was just too nice to say.

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