This [Becky Johnson's] comment is typical of those Jews who would have us believe that the history of Jews for the past 2000, 3000, 4000 years, depending on who is making the point, has been nothing but unmitigated suffering which was only relieved by the ascendancy of Zionism and the creation of Israel which, unfortunately required the expulsion of the Palestinians from their land in 1948 and the continued confiscation of their land up to the present moment.

As the late Israeli professor and Nazi Holocaust survivor Israel Shahak pointed out, "I don't think the Jews have suffered any more or any less than many other persecuted or minority nations. We have suffered like many other peoples have suffered...There were some periods when we suffered more..there were periods when we suffered much less......"

Any looking at the position of Jews in the US (as well as in other Western societies) would have a hard time denying the incredible political and economic power that it's organized factions wield over its governing institutions and the media, even without considering the tiny percentage of Jews in the national population. The fact that some people are anti-Jewish for one reason ot another [ANTI-SEMITISM] DOES NOT [AUTOMATICALLY] TRANSLATE INTO *OPPRESSION* OF JEWS unless those people are in a position to act on it and desire to do so. THERE IS NOT THE SLIGHTEST EVIDENCE OF THIS [OPPRESSION OF JEWS TODAY] IN US SOCIETY. [(caps, by JA.)]

Now, of course, that foregoing statement is considered a classic example of anti-Semitism (or, self-hatred in my case) when it comes from one of Israel's critics, such as myself, but not when it comes from one of Israel's supporters such as JJ Goldberg, editor of the Jewish national weekly, Forward (www.forward.com) whose book, "Jewish Power" should be required reading for the paranoids who will be gathering at the Oakland Marriot this weekend to complain about "anti-Semitism on the left."

I will add to their "evidence" of such by repeating a statement made to me in 1988 by a Native American leader (who, for his safety and reputation, will go unnamed) after the so-called left and peace organizations, Marxist and non-Marxist, of the Bay Area refused to issue a statement condemning Israeli occupation during the first year of the first Intifada. What he said rings true today: "The problem with the movement is that there are too many liberal Zionists." To which, I add, Amen!