vizitelly wrote:I'm not convinced by the idea of cultural relativism, it seems like a side path to a blind alley.
It is useful to explore cultural relativism in relation to anti-Semitism further as a way to help explain the Trump phenomenon. Right wing voters elected Trump partly in reaction to the emergence of the ‘snowflake generation’ who seem to be constructing a fantasy world. The unfortunate result of this return to the dream of American exceptionalism is that the right wingers have produced their own fantasy with the reactionary Frankenstein in the form of President 45.
The need is to find a return to a sensible centre, in which people can celebrate success (conservative) while also having compassion for failure (progressive).
Cultural relativism, the belief that all different cultures are morally equal, has contributed to progressive politics through its roots in anthropological rejection of western cultural dominance. Some elements of cultural relativism are essential, as a way of expressing respect for non-western traditions. However, looking at American politics it seems Obama’s leftward tilt opened the space for reaction, and the result was that Trump won first the nomination and then the election by an astute pitch to the US heartland with a rejection of Obama’s legacy.
Far from being a ‘blind alley’, analysis of cultural relativism opens the problem of the nature of American patriotism. The reactionary view is that relativism expresses a widespread left wing disloyalty to the national interest.
vizitelly wrote: The post-war position concerning Palestine, and the setting up of the Israeli state, has its roots in both the practical support Palestine gave to fleeing Nazis - support and succour in the first instance and, in the second instance, the arrangement of transport to Argentina - and in the international guilt following the Holocaust. That knowledge alone makes the situation intractable, which is why most countries are in favour of a two-state solution.
I have tried to find information on Palestinians helping Nazis escape but have not found any, which surprised me as it would be a useful piece of Zionist propaganda if true. Do you have a reference?
Discussion around solutions to the Palestinian problem is far more complex than any determinism from past situations. The intractable dilemma is that Israel has the strength and friends and stability to continue to grow, while its Islamic neighbours are a mess, but this creates a dangerous arrogance on the part of Israeli settlers.
vizitelly wrote:It seems that what Trump has done is pour petrol on the embers and is now busy fanning the flames of Islamophobia because he believes that Islam equates to anti-Semitism.
The anti-Semitism that pervades the Islamic world (the Ummah) is just a part of Trump’s reasons to dislike Islam. Fear of Islam derives from the fact that the biggest terrorist outrages over the last decade have all been perpetrated by Sunni Muslims, the view that Sharia is a dangerous, intolerant, ignorant and backward belief system, that the Islamic union of church and state seems to enable dictatorships, and generally that Islam appears to be a brake on economic and social progress.
Regarding the BDS movement and anti-Semitism, two informative Wikipedia pages are
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_ ... tisemitism and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_antisemitism