פרסומים אחרונים במדור "פוליטיקה"

Wow, a whole article and not a word about other resources? About why there was a revolution in the first place in Russia? About the gains that did happen under Stalin? Here are some other resources about Stalin that any one who want some accurate information about Stalin should read.

Another View of Stalin by Ludo Martens
Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia's City of Steel by John Scott
The Soviets Expected It by Anna Louise Strong
Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti
Twenty Years in Underground Russia by Cecilia Bobrovskaya
The Resotration of Capitalism in the Soviet Union by W. B. Bland

Defiantly this one:

http://www.etext.org/Politics/Staljin/Staljin/articl...

Also, if 20 million people died under Stalin dictatorships (as you claim) and another 20 million died in WW2 that would mean that a crude death rate from normal causes of less than 5 per 1000 a year, based on a population of 180.2 million people in the Soviet Union.

Do you even know anithing about life expectancy in Russia before the Russian revolution and after Stalin death?

But since you raise the issue tale me, why did the Israeli population voted for and supported Prime Minister Sharon, a man who have raided Palestinian villages and authorized the Sabra and Shatile massacre. A man who climb to the Al Aqsa mosque knewing full well how that would make Palestinian feel and react. And a man who said that drooping a bomb on a house full of civilians is justify as long as there is a terrorist living their. Why is it that during the history of your country most of the Israeli population have always supported the most racist and brutal leaders? Is it because the Israeli public appreciates when “strong leaders” control them? Is it because they just learn to appreciate corruption and genocide?
Or is it because the Israeli people unlike the Russian masses and like the German middle class in the 30’s have an interest in leaders that maintains oppression and genocide?

Also, if you are against gulags what do you do against all thus political jails that your countries have? What do you do to stop the torture that your country uses against political prisoner?

Instead of obsessing about theories of “human nature”, here is some statistic that you should consider before talking about Stalin:
http://www.btselem.org/English/Statistics/Index.asp

Also, I have always wondered about this:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set...

happy new year!

This is Armenian Radio; our listeners asked us: “Why Lenin wore regular shoes, but Stalin wore boots?”
We’re answering: “At Lenin's time, Russia was still only ankle-high in shit.”

This is Armenian Radio; our listeners asked us: “Is it possible to build socialism in one stand-alone country?”
We’re answering: “It's possible, but better to live in another country."

This is Armenian Radio; our listeners asked us: “What if socialism were built in Greenland?”
We’re answering: “First snow would become available only through ration cards, and later snow would be distributed only to the KGB officers and their families.”

A judge walks out of the courtroom, laughing loudly. A colleague asks, "What is it you laugh about?"
"Ah, I just heard an excellent anecdote," the judge says, sweeping tears of laughter.
"An anecdote? Tell me!"
"Are you crazy? I just sentenced a man to ten years for that anecdote."

I would also like to know if you can show me any third world country that achieved what was achieved under Stalin. From a country who was depended on imperialism where thousands of people starve to death to a country with a better mortality rate than in the u.s.

http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/faq/lifeexpectussr...

I was not clear enough, my point was to try and put Stalin in his historical contence. That leaders do not just arrive from the no where to provide love and attention to the child-like masses. Mess starvations have existed in Russia long before Stalin. Starvation and oppression is what led millions of people to support and become communist, the collectivizing was one way to deal with that. Part of the starvation also happen because of rich kulaks burning their supplies of food and imperialist army invading Russia and assisting the white army(to bring another point about the anarchy that the Russian communist party had to deal with).

I would also disagree with amount of people that you say died during that time.

The communist regime was not stable in the 30s. There was still division in labor and division between the country and country side. All the things that I mention were the historical contacs that were part of and led to the 30s, plus the analysis by the communist party that the country needed to be industrialize because of the German threat. Were people dieing from starvation during that time? Yes, was it obvious that Germany is going to invade? Yes, was the industrialization justified? I think so. I don’t know how Russia would have fought WW2 and starvation without that. The Russian masses fighting the kulaks was a right respond to inequalities. What amaze me the most is to try to blame the communist for starting the faming.

What sources do you have about the millions who died during the 30’s? From what I have read the story about the death of millions from famine have started not in Russia but in Chicago, by the Chicago Press news paper owned by a white supremacist (I might be wrong).

How would you have dealt with being a leader of a country where still thousands are hungry and Germany is preparing to invade you? From my space and time I would do things differently, but have an understanding of reality from all the mistakes that communists before me have done. This knowledge the Russian party did not yet had.

Well, preparation for a war started with the demise of the communist party in Germany (who held the slogan “after Hitler, us”…….) and the rise of the Nazi party in Germany. It was obvious from Hitler speeches that the German ruling class was planning to invade the east. Hitler always talked about enslaving the Slavic nation and the communist threat. The whole industrialization process was implemented partly to build a strong army. The Moltove-Rebbetrop agreement was another way to buy some time for the Russia to move some basses from the front and to keep industrialize the country. Stalin at the time made a falls and a very problematic statement “he who has the stronger army will win” (or something like that).

You might be right about that. Still, Russia was not a stable place it was still a third world country trying to overcome feudalism.

Look, don’t take this personally but I’m feeling uncorftabull talking about gulags, starvation, and commonism as if they are things in distant history. All those things are happening as I write and I feel aqward not connecting them to day to day struggle (or to be more frank to Palestine). My unity with people (even people who oppose communism) is based on an all around fight against oppression, not just oppression that might have happened 70 years ago. If I would be convince one day that Stalin was a dictator who tortured and killed his people for joy, I would stop upholding him as an important political figure. My political orientation is that Stalin can help us in understanding and building a batter future. I came here to make point and I think I managed to make it.

Take care, ill be around.

I think that you lack the understanding of the difference between communism and capitalism. Communism just like democracy is a very wide term. Would you say that Egypt is a democracy? Why not?

I’m surrey; I did not understand your question. All those countries that you mention (like your country too) are ether colonies or military basses of imperialism.

Your respond is such a sad statement about critical thinking and the education system in Israel. I cannot help but to be bothered by the fact that you actually a teacher. Is this your respond to history in general? Do you teach your student too, that the masses are just passive vehicles that need to be directed by charismatic leaders? What about Palestine, do you also teach your student that the land was empty and that only the civilize European have manage to make a green heaven out of it? This lei can also be found in books as well. How do you think this ethnocentric philosophy’s affect the way your students view people from different nationalities?
Somebody wrote something, you copied it, and that’s it.

Your numbers are cocked. There are no way that all thus people died during that time. That would mean, again, that in a country with poverty and lack of half care only 5 people died out of thousands from natural causes. If this was a story about the holocaust or about the 6 days war you would defiantly do a better job in checking your numbers. So why didn’t you? Because like the biographer that you quote, both of you know that when it comes to Stalin or communism there is no one who would actually check your sources. Stalin is bad, end of point. No history of imperialism, no struggle in the communist party, and no WW2.

There is no such thing as ideas or behavior in the abstract. all ideas and behavior represents a class outlook. And all theory has a relationship to practice. The European who came to America and the native who lived there had a very different idea of human nature. To say that the masses need a father like figure is to say that the masses are basically dumb and can’t really have the capacity to want a change in their lives or a batter world. You whole article can be some like this “I don’t know why the Russian masses loved Stalin so much, it’s probably the masses own stupidity”.

Sharon was a mass murderer, the fact that he did not kill millions and was only responsible for less of that number does not make him an innocent. Commando 101 under his supervision literally bomb houses with people inside. Under his supervision and with his authority two villages were massacred in Lebanon. As a historian you should know all this things. The Israeli people know all those things and still voted for him. Not because they wanted a father like figure but because Sharon represented their interest. Furthermore, for most of the Israeli people Palestinian are barbaric animals or as Barak once said “we are a villa in jungle” (we are here, their over their). Even with the latest invasion to Lebanon the Israeli public is not outrage by the fact that hundred of civilians who had nothing to do with the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers have died. The Israeli public is outrage because Israeli soldiers, who went into Lebanon to construct among other things collective punishment, have died.

Ye, ill read the new “new and improve” book about Stalin, just like I read the latest Mao “biography” “ Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday” a book that claims (among other things) that the long march never happened and that relies as evidence on a conversation that they had in 1997 with someone (that’s all the proof you need).

Wow, you just made my whole point.

You’re statement should stand as the attitude that most Israelis feel about Palestinian and people from third world countries. I couldn’t have proven it better my self.

I have wrote a 2 page paper yesterday dismissing your whole theory about millions who died under Stalin or your degrading notion of human nature and all you can do is turn around and accuse me of being a holocaust denier? Is this how you gut your degree, you wrote a thesis about how who ever disagree with you is probably a holocaust denier? Again, what a sad statement you are about intellectual and the education system in Israel.

If you were actually an historian you would knew that there is always new discoveries in history and that history is written by the dominant groups in society (the cult around Moshe Dayan is a good expel to that). are you really suggesting that it was not obvious at the end of WW2 that the Japanese are going to surrender and the Atom bomb was the used to start the cold war? Or that it’s very mysterious that Iraq has one of the largest rescores of oil? But for you all those people are just Arab and just like with your father-like leader, its o.k. to kill them. Who is the holocaust denier now?

Also, if you actually study history and not just copied theories that you cannot defend you would find out that the Baa’s was party was aided by the CIA in constructing the coup in Iraq, and that Saddan was a very good friend of the American as long as he provided his oil. You would also find that Osama bin Laden was armed by the Americans and that the Hamas was also started with the help of Israel as a hope that they would crush Palestinian secular movement.

Your dogmatic approach to history is such a disgrace, how can you even call your self an historian?

Ye, you are so predictable. Instead of defending a theory that you brought up, in an article that you copied, you go again and hide behind “big historical names” and accuse me of being a holocaust denier. If you are so impress by big names why don’t you accept the analysis of ALL human rights origination that the state of Israel torture, kill, arrest, and hold in modern gulags suspends of Palestinian? Why are you defending Sharon a man that by most historical seculars is responsible for the Sabra and Shatila massacre? Is it because you are much more cormfatull to talk about oppression from seventy years ago?

Let’s play your game, I’m wrong, Stalin did kill millions. Everything was perfect before Stalin came along, new can we talk about torture and gulags in your country? Exactly. For you atrocities that are happening in your country are justified. You are using the same method of thinking that you criticizes. As long as murder torture and imprisonment is committed to defend the “mother land” you are o.k. with that. As long as your country kill, torture and imprison Palestinian in the name of the “people” you are fine.

If I discover and learn that Stalin (and Mao) did commit all those things that you say, I would stop upholding them as important political figures. Because unlike you I’m against ALL oppression, not just when if it happen 70 years ago. While repeating your mantra about how I’m a holocaust denier, you defend holocausts and atrocities that are happening as we speak.

Instead of just turning around and accusing me of being a holocaust denier why don’t you actually try to defend your article? Why don’t you try and defend your degrading notation of “human nature”? Teachers like you are responsible for the racist and ignorant education in Israel. While screaming at the top of your voice about holocaust and oppression that happened 70 years ago, you defend and protect mass killing that are happening as we speak.

Saying that your article was copy was wrong, and you deserve an apology for that. If it helps this is not what I meant.

You came up with an article that held the idea that the masses need a father figure to follow and as example you brought up Stalin. I disagreed and provided you with books and the latest article about the subject, which you ignored. Now, taking your theory about the masses need for a father like figure would mean that while most Israeli people knew about the killing and torture against Palestinian they still vote for and supported a murderer figure like Sharon just because they needed a father. Again I disagreed, and wrote that like in Germany people did not just follow leaders, a leader is a representative of a section of the population. And the fact that people in Israel vote for and support a murderer leader like Sharon reflects their views about the Palestinian.
I would argue that looking at the history of your country and the Zionist movement, your country does conduct a mass genocide against the Palestinian people. It’s not on the same scale as Germany did, but it is still genocide. With that you would disagree because when it comes to Palestinian all evident by human rights organizations is irrelevant.

But let’s pick some examples that would be easy for you, during the Vietnam War the U.S. bomb hundred and hundred of villages killing 4 million people. All this was only fought to protect the interest of empire and to support a corrupt government. Or during the 1970 when the C.I.A has assisted Pinochet in constructing a coup in Chile which resolve in thousands of people dieing at the hand of the Pinochet troops. Or during the 80s when Reagan and later Israel provided weapons to the contras who massacre whole villages. Why are all these examples are not jenocide? Is it because the systematic killing of Vietnamese was not conducted by sending them to concentration camps but by bombing them from the sky? Is it because the killing of the Chilean people was conducted by guns and not by gas? You are paying to much attention to official policy and less to practice and reality.
Now, if you go into a class and teach that the genocide against the Vietnamese people which resulted in 4 million people dieing was not the same as the Nazis killing 6 million Jews because there was no Treblinka or Oshwitch in Vietnam, what you are teaching and saying basically is that the blood of Vietnamese people is not equals to the blood of Jews. And that some how, the holocaust was more tragic and barbaric than the genocide and torture of the Vietnamese people.

I think that we should stop here, I made my point.

Eyal!

Your question is kind of complex and involve a long answer, it might take me a while.

Did Stalin kill million? Stalin himself defiantly never killed millions, there is no such thing as one man controlling a whole country. Stalin represented an ideology or as a Maoist would say a class outlook. I think that there are books that would argue that Stalin through his action did not kill millions (I gave a whole list of books in the start of this thread). Again this article I think is very important, http://www.etext.org/Politics/Staljin/Staljin/articl...
These books however are not promoted because they represent an ideology and give hope to the oppressed.
The life rate after Stalin death has improved dramatically. http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/faq/lifeexpectussr... Again, the problem with biographies about Stalin is that they ignore the condition before the October revolution or what led to these revolutions in the first place. They also ignore the necessity and difficulties that the Russian communist party faced.
To follow Lysenko was a mistake by the communist party. The communist party facing mass starvation and bad economy (inherited to them from the Tsar) was too hopeful that Lysenko as being a communist would provide a better understanding of agriculture. This also came from some kind of understanding that if someone is a communist he would have a better understanding of reality. This was proven to be falls. Science is objective.

The idea of the dictatorship of the proletarian started with Marx. Lenin develop the idea of the communist party, an organize body that can survive the police state of the tsar. Lenin in “What is to be done” have argued unlike Marx that the understanding of how to achieve liberation would not just arrive spontaneously out of the masses themselves. This ideology need to be brought to them by intellectuals. Not because the masses are stupid but because being a proletarian constitute being a slave worker, working from the start of the day to the end of it without the ability to be educated. Does this mean that the masses cant know what’s good for them? No. the masses can grapple with what’s good and needed but like in any science, there are differences between students and professors.

The dictatorship is a tool to brake down divisions in society and fight old ideas that are part of capitalism and are part of the new society as well.

The revolution in 1917 happen with the support of millions of people who lost their hope in the new government who failed to provide them with some basic needs. “Ten Days that shock the world” is a good book about this subject.

Ill answer the rest of question tomorrow, but, yeh, I would like to hear about your personal experience with people in Israel (not to much details we don’t knew who else is reading this……). Just a last point when we Maoists analyze society we analyses it by classes, the people who are most oppress are the proletarian, and from what I read the proletarian in Palestine is fighting for their rights. We also make the distinction between the masses (proletarian), the people (classes that unite with the proletarian), and the enemy.

The article that we are talking about is not just the latest revelation from the K.G.B archives, is also a document that is trying to find some evident to numbers and stories of historians about Stalin:
“Mainstream published estimates of the total numbers of “victims of repression” in the late 1930s have ranged from Dmitrii Volkogonov's 3.5 million to Ol'ga Shatunovskaia's nearly 20 million. (See Table 1.) The bases for these assessments are unclear in most cases and seem to have come from guesses, rumors, or extrapolations from isolated local observations. As the table shows, the documentable numbers of victims are much smaller.” (my emphasis)
It is also gives a different picture of who the terror was directed at:
“The frequent assertion that most of the camp prisoners were “political” also seems not to be true. On the other hand, the new evidence can support the View, reached previously by statistical study and evidence of other types, that the terror was aimed at the Soviet elite.”
The numbers that you mention are out of population of 100 millions. Of these some were really counter revolutionary. The British intelligent in the 20s reported to mange to infiltrated the Russian secret service. Some were rich Kulaks who exploited and rusley ruled the masses, and some for committing atrocities under the brutal tsar regime. Other than that, yes out of population of 100 millions people some people were unjustly killed. I think that something that we all communist need to learn from to do better next time. One of the error of Stalin were that he thought that once the proletarian take power, contradiction end between the people and that the only contradiction are between the people and the enemy. Mao have fought this by unleashing the Cultural Revolution in which millions of people debated issues and exposed the old elite instead of just killing them. We need to remember that the Russian revolution was the first socialist experience and that we should compare the mistake with the enormous gains. Russia from a third world country has become a stable state where the life expectancy has doubled. People who criticize Stalin should come with a batter examples of a third world country overcoming their misery and poverty, or any country today who is actually is trying to away with poverty and oppression.
I think that defiantly when it comes to communism historians can’t really get their numbers or stories right (they seem to be puzzled by the idea that leaders would acshully gives their lives to the masses). For example in writing about the famine of the 30s and the coltevisetion process historians “forget” to mention that the soviet peasants have been trying to cultevise or to organize since the 1600’S, when, Timofiyevich Razin, led a peasants' revolt and killed the kulaks, which were then known as barons, counts, and princes. The stories about count Dracula are based on real stories, the kulaks were brutal, and the peasants with the support of the Russian government have managed to take back and stop an oppressive and capitalist system in which a few live on the beck of hundreds. They also “forget” to mention that famine is pretty comen for that time in Russia. We need to remember that after a revolution not everyone becomes equal in society and old division between rich and poor are still their.
Croshchove represent for us Maoist the turning point in Russia from communism to capitalism and the failure of Stalin to understand that new elites even in a communist society start to evolve and take hold of the party itself. And by the way, that was not the only thing that he said. It took capitalism to arrive out of feudalism hundreds of years, for a movement that only been around 150 years I think we are doing pretty good.
Israel could have never become communist; from the starting point of Israel Zionist leaders were bagging imperialist powers to give permission to Jews to settle in Palestine. Haim visman for example felt that the yishuv should bolster the British Empire and guard its strategic interests in the region. Later, the leaders of Israel perceived the Jewish state as a strategic asset to the United States in the Middle East. Israel from its birth was a military base for empire. For example In 1955 Israel aided the British and French in stopping Nasser from nationalizing the Sues Cannel. And Israel until today depended on imperialism Israel economy would not survive one day without the billions of dollars from America.
The fact that other countries are doing something wrong doesn’t make it o.k. and from looking at the history of your country the conflict have started because of Israel oppressing the Palestinian not because of some kind of abstract conflict.
I do not hate Jews, I do however feel that there is culture of racism in Israel that give rise and enforces the oppression and killing of the Palestinian (and this is not a support for suicide bombing). I think that Zionists are degrading the notion of anti Semitism by calling everyone who disagree with them anti Semite while ignoring the real anti Semite, the religious Christian in America who believe that the Jews killed Christ and that the Jews should concur the whole middle east so they can have a war against the Christians, only because this Christian donate millions of dollars to Israel.
I knew that this only the tip of the ice and my remark has probably only intrigued more question in you. I’ll have some more time in a couple of months but in the meantime let me recommend a book to you: “on the border” and “toward an open tomb” by Michael Warschaski which would give a better picture of Israeli history. And Mao essay about the relations between theory and practice, and the epistemological way of arriving at the truth. http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/wim/oncorrect.html

Eyal Shalom!

I have to apology’s but I’m having some difficulties in my personalize life that would not give me the opportunity too give your question the attention that they need. Ill search for you on this web site when I have some more time, and we can keep the discussion where we stooped.

You are right we should not just accept the latest discovery about Stalin; can we at least agree that there is some controversy on the subject of Stalin?

Some of the people who were executed really deserved it. Some were people who exploited the masses. And some, like you said were innocent. A revolution is a bloody insurrection in which one class takes power from another class. I did not choose it to be this way, the state through its arm forces oppresses the masses weather fight or not. All the military that your country has is not to protect your country it’s to oppress and put down the masses. And the police and the military are here fundamentally to protect privet property. Or as Mao said: “political power comes from the barrel of a gun” on some level capitalist countries have no choice but to oppress the masses. Capitalism creates its own grave diggers, since the competition between the capitalist goes down to who saves the most on labor and to maintain a cheep labor the capitalist have to have an army. Because any oppression breeds resistance, there is no such thing as something without its contradiction. The oppression that your country puts the Palestinian through in order to make them the cheep labor does produce resistance, and here again is where the military steps in. after a revolution people are not automatic become communists, a lot of people who did not oppose you at first start opposing you when they start to lose the privilege that they were used too. In your country for example, do you think that the settlers who kill Palestinian take there land and believe that the whole state of Israel belongs to the Jewish “nation” would just accept a new society based on equality and justice? Do you think they would not be agree at being ask to actually accept the law and not to shot Palestinian farmers ?Or what about Muslim fundamentalist do you think they would just accept that their wife and daughters are now have the same rights as them? A communist revolution is not just a transformation of economic relations it’s a transformation of relations between people, and especially a transformation of the mind. While remembering that some people were killed unjustly, I also don’t forget the gains and achievements. From a third world country where thousands of people died from starvation and preventable dieses Russia became a stable country who mange to win the cold war. From a feudalist country Russia became country who technology competed with the U.S. Show me another third world country at the time or our time that actually is trying to face and better horondes condition of starvation and inequality?
Nothing would change the fact that capitalism is an economic system that is running exploitation. The question is what do you do? Do you accept the past with its mistake and try to do something better? Or do you give up all together? Capitalist societies not only did not ever try to better the condition of their masses not but killed and created more misery and killings.

Yes, china today is a capitalist society. And I think that you really investigate the gains that were made in the socialist revolutions you would not think that the communist revolutions have failed. Common you can say it; you think it’s an utopia. I really don’t understand your definition for “working”. Hundred of kids dieing every day from starvation as direct consequence of policies of the World Bank. Half of humanity living from two dollars a day. A war that is waged for oil, and a pollution crisis that might kill us all. Are all of these your definition for working? I think that you are talking from your place in society, to 80% of the population of the world the choice is ether to die on their feet or on their knees.

I don’t think that you understand the definition for “Marxism”, to say that nationality is composed by religion or oppression is not Marxist. Definitely not arguing that the Palestinian land is a common property and that they should become a second class citizen. There is a lot of people in Egypt that would describe their country as democratic, objectively its not. There is a lot of countries and people today that call themselves communist, so what? Socialism is not excluding one group of people and taking their lands while giving your own group privilege rights. Stalin did a mistake in recognizing Israel. And yes Russia and China today are imperialists. Israel was chosen to be supplied with weapon and guns however, not because of the American belief in democracy but because of the need to control an area rich with oil. Israel is the stick when the carrot is not enough to convince the corrupt government of the Arab world to give up their resources.

Some would argue that your last comment is a support to Social Darwinism, which is weird since your country has official holydays to commemorate the holocaust. Your understanding of the Palestinian Israeli conflict is wrong, which brings us again to the question of who writes history. The situation for the Palestinian was worsen during the 90s, and I would also suggest to you to actually read the “peace offering” that was offer by Barak and Clinton and was suppose to “end all conflict” between the Israelis and the Palestinian. You can find this information in the books that I recommended to you. your understanding of the motive of Palestinian is also problematic, are you some kind of a social physiologist that you knew that all the Palestinian want is to kill Jews? Also your economic and democratic freedoms come on the back of this Palestinians and only because of their economic and personalize oppression.

I knew that you probably have more question now than before and again my apologies for not being able to provide you them at this time.

Keep an open mind, and take care.

p.s. this is a web site about a communist revolution that is happening right now.

http://www.lionesto.net/gallery/Nepal1999/nepal1999....

I wish that I could have the privilege of telling you who I am. Your government (and other government as well) has a long history of spying on, arresting, and killing, political activist. I’m allowed to speak on this website only to promote the whole idea of democracy. If I was to become affective, I would be search for by your secret police, this web site would shut down, and you and people who debated me would be investigated. Just to quote one example the Nepalese Maoist party who has the support of millions of the Nepalese, and is much more democratic than the corrupt Nepalese king. Is on the American terrorist list.

Nonetheless, our debate is between ideas. The Maoist epistemological scientific understanding is that you uphold the truth no matter who discover it. As with the example of Linsko, being a communist does not automatically constitute knowing the truth, on the contrary, sometimes like in Russia the scientists who were right about botanic and how to raise wheat were anti communist. The relationship between science and Marxism is as Mao said “Marxism embrace but do not replace”. The truth need to be upheld no matter who says it.

Judaism is not a nationality, it’s a religion. It can be some of your cultural identity, but its does not constitute a nationality. You are an Israeli. And there is no relation between you and a religious Jew in French or America; in the same way that there are no relations between a Muslim in Egypt and Muslim in Indonesia even so both of them prey in the same direction. Or between a woman in Afghanistan and a woman in Iran even so both of them are oppress. Your government while upholding secular laws and allowing freedoms that would be considered by the Jewish religion to be a heresy (like eating ham, or having sex with a women on her period), is using religious definition to nationality and to who can become a citizen of your country. While bringing thousands and thousands of Russians that had only a distant Jewish relative it is denying the same right to Palestinian who have lived here for hundreds of years. In a lot of cases Palestinian who only leave Israel for studies or to get married are not allowed to come back.

Take care,

check your history again
the vast majority of arabs living today in the land of Israel (both in pre 1967 Israel, and the liberated territories) are offsprings to recent immigrants, brought here by the Ottoman empire starting at the latter part of the 19th century, or lured here by the new opportunities brought here by the booming economy (relative to Arab countries) resulting from Jewish activity. in a single decade (1993-2003), some 150,000 arabs immigrated and recieved full citizenship to Israel from neighbouring countries, seeking for a better life.
http://www.pademographics.com/Herzliya%20HEBREW%20Fl... 17
again, this number iuncludes only the legal immigrants, not the countless illegal immigrants.

I think that you are the one that is basing himself on unreal information. When I was talking about political activist I was not only talking only about communists, I was talking about any radical political activists. Your country does have a black list of radical activist that is used to harass them. In the case of the International Solidarity Movement for example, an organization that is dedicated to fight none violently the illegal demolition of Palestinian and to assist the Palestinian people to live somewhat of a normal life. Your country has killed two of their members (one while escorting kids on their way to school) and have broke into their offices to obtain the names of their members. You are also welcome to go and talk to anarchists who are opposing the illegal building of the separating wall on a Palestinian land (not on the green line as was promise) and ask for their experience with the police and the army. And even this harassment does not apply to Palestinians who can be shut, their house can be demolish, or with the destruction of their economy by your country without a job or a way to go to the hospital. As far as I can see there are no communists in your country, there are people who define themselves communists but that does not say a lot. I also might not be living in your country, nor have I ever done.

The political right in your country is needed to maintain the goals of your government. As long as are under control and do not threat the statuesque in Israel they are allowed to keep harass and kill Palestinian. They are sometime get out of hand and contradict the interest of Israel and need to be control. They are definitely not obligated to maintain the law.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/761280.html

All this relative freedom is provided to the Israelis to keep propagating the mantra that their country is the only democracy in the Middle East. When in essence not only that is not true, but America who provides Israel with weapons and money that without them the state of Israel would not survive one day, is the one who insures that democratic movements in Arab countries are crushed and that their corrupt dictators maintain power.

Why is Judaism so different from other religions? Islam and Christianity are very well a way of life too. You remind me of Muslim and Indos in India that are always trying to convince each other who has the best religion and who have a better social life. Or different sects of Christianity in the U.S. who are a trying to convert people saying that they have the best religion. There are people who would disagree with you about your description of Israelis (or would prefer French or India). And in your country too, there are jukes about the way Israelis behave when they fly aboard (which are based on true stories). Marx was raised a Christian, and I know people again, who study genetics who would disagree with your theory about Jewish characteristic. Furthermore, I also know people who are not Jewish who care about the world and justice in more ways than a lot of Israelis and Jewish people that I mate. I’m very happy for you (seriously, I am) that you can walk around meeting other Jews and immediately fill closeness, that however does not define a nationality.

I would also argue that the bible and the Gemara are very subjective books that can be interepted in different ways, and looking at the hurondes misery that your country is inflicting on the Palestinian and the enforcement of these acts by Judaism, that your religion actually stands for genocide and oppression. It’s not very coincidence that the settler movements is religious based.

Generally speaking there are two schools of thoughts in philosophy, the idealist that based herself on the mind and how our mind or how our interpretation of the world affects it, and there is the materialist, the philosophy that upholds that their objective reality beyond us. The Maoist epistemological process at arriving at the truth is as Mao said “from matter to conciseness and from conciseness to matter again”. First we look or experience with reality, then we formulate ideas based on what we see, and than in the most important process we try to see if they apply to reality. Marxism unlike religions and different political movements is based its theory in corresponding with reality. Nationalism as define scientifically (To quote Stalin) is: “A nation is historically evolved, stable community of language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture.” The question of a nation is very important when dealing with cultural imperialism, national oppression, and a country compose of a couple of nations.

I feel that you, my friend, is the one that is relying on old dogma and subjective and personalize experience to define a phenomena, and not on a scientific and reality biased experience.

This is going to be my last comment to you; I really don’t have anytime for this now. You can find answer to all your question in the books that I recommended to you, and in leftist Israeli websites.

Until next time, goodbye.

One last thing,
I just found this article. I think that its relates to our conversation. Again, my apologies for not being able to conduct an in depth debate.

http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/vv.html

Take care, and happy holyday to you too.

The current resistance to Russian rule began during the late 18th century (1785-1791) as a result of Russian expansion into territories formerly under the dominion of Turkey and Persia

The Chechens, though, again rose up against Soviet rule during the 1940s, resulting in the genocidal deportation