8/12/2019 Sisco-Hypocrisy Silences Vt. Peace Movement

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Hypocrisy silences Vt. peace movement

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' By Gary SiscoAs a leftist, I feel compelled todisassociate myself from the in

fantile behavior displayed by the' peace movement last week inthe streets of Burlington, and,more important, from what I seeas a level of moral and politicalhypocrisy that has reached newext remes in recent t imes.

It was bad enough that the Vermont peace movement waseerily silent when the SovietUnion invaded Afghanistan. Therewere no demonstrations when theSoviet army bombed and terrorized those Third World people foryears on end.

It was bad enough when, twosummers ago, the Vermont Solidarity Conference refused to vote ona resolution denouncing the massacre o f Ch inese s tudents in T iananmen Square. Under the heavy-' handed leadership of Vermont'sprogressive stars, including Bernard Sanders (who opposed anappeal for its unanimous adoption), the resolution was conveniently tabled.

D o u b l e s t a n d a r d s l i k e t h e s ehave been building on each otherfor years within the Vermontleft, but there are limits beyondwhich hypocrisy cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. One suchlimit is when simple double standards and political disagreementscross the line into outright racism,a line I believe has been crossedwi th in t h e V e rmo n t mo ve me n t .

Nothing but barely concealedanti-Semitism can explain to me

V e r m o n tP e r s p e c t i v ewhy the spokespeople of the Vermont peace movement and so-ca l led le f t have thus fa r fa i led tocall a single demonstration condemning the Iraqi regime for itsbarbaric missile bombardments ofT e l A v i v .

The U.S. bombing of Iraq hasmet w i th an immedia te , near lyhysterical demonstration by Burlington peace activists and self-styled radicals. But even after thethird attack on Tel Aviv, an appalling silence prevailed within thealleged peace movement. Therewere no vigils in the streets, noleaflets, no meetings at City Hall,and no demonstrations denouncingthese barbarous acts o f ind iscr iminate terror purposely directedagainst the civilian population ofI s r a e l .

Words cannot express my disgust with this silence. The peopleof Israel are still faced with thedanger of future missile attacksand quite possibly with some formof bombardment with poison gas.

I am not of Jewish ancestry.Ironically, I have taken pride inmy leftist background and activities for years. But I fear thatwhat I am seeing today in thestate of Vermont is the development of a left with which Ican claim neither affinity norsolidarity; of a movement veeringso sharply toward anti-Semitismthat it faces the very real dangerof abandoning every sense of moral probity.

But I fear that what 1 am seeingtoday in the state of Vermont isthe development of a left withwhich I can claim neither affinitynor solidarity.

community activistI should also make it clear thatI am no supporter of the Israeligovernment. I am an unabashedeco-anarchist. I do not support

any governments in the world. Ihave never supported any acts ofoppression, including those of Israeli troops against Palestinians.I do not support this war. I feela deep sense of horror and tragedy for the Iraqi, the Kuwaiti andespecially the Kurdish people whohave already been slaughtered bythe tens of thousands to satisify

the ambi t ions o f a Midd le Easternversion of Stalin named SaddamHussein only to be visited bymore death and dest ruct ion a t thehands of George Bush and his c o a l i t i o n .

My heart goes out to the people of all nationalities, on everyside of the present conflict, including the American troops orderedto the Persian Gulf by their gove r n m e n t . I w a s i n t h e s e r v i c emyself, and I have no desire to seeanother generation of young people thrown into an imperialista d v e n t u r e .

B u t n e i t h e r t h e G u l f w a r n o rthe Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians in any way

justifies the incredible callousnessand silence on the part of theV er m on t l e f t and peac em o v e m e n t w h e n c o n f r o n t e d w i t hutterly barbarous, purposeful attacks on civilian targets in a country that has gone out of its way toavoid becoming embroiled in thepresent conflict.

I f t h e re a re t h o se in V e rmo n twho would try to make a case thatthe Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians, however deplorable, justifies Saddam'sb o m b a r d m e n t o f T e l A v i v w i t hballistic missiles, then I find thatthere is no basis for rational andethical discourse on this subject.

Even worse, if there are anysupposed radicals who would argue that civilians deserve to bepunished for the actions of a stateor its military, then I believe thesealleged radicals should hang theirheads in shame.

Gary Sisco of Burlington is acommunity activist