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jewish-music
Re: Help Israel's PR battle
- From: glenn tamir <klezska...>
- Subject: Re: Help Israel's PR battle
- Date: Wed 23 May 2001 01.04 (GMT)
No problem about the attachment - sorry, didn't know -
I really think you should reconsider your stand on an
issue as important as this. One can argue aspects of
both the Palestinian and Israeli side. However, as a
Jewish Music site, isn't it our obligation to speak
out about a situation that threatens the very
existence of the State of Israel. I think it's pretty
obvious to all that since September, there has been a
concerted effort on the part of many to wage a public
relations battle through half truths and lies.
Thomas Friedman seemed to sum it up pretty well:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/22/opinion/22FRIE.html
Perhaps only musical issues should be discussed on the
list but the situation seems very desperate.
I'll honor your request and the wishes of the list.
Glenn
--- Trudi Goodman <goobietheg (at) hotmail(dot)com> wrote:
<HR>
<html><DIV>
<P> Dear Glen:</P>
<P> Please don't send
attachments. It's hard for my server to handle
them. Although, I am a Zionist, I prefer to make
up my mind for myself and I will seek out what I
feel I need to. I feel particularly oppressed by your
assumption that this belongs on the
Listbot---which it does not. In the future could
you just refer people to whatever site you want
them to get info. from , instead of sending
attachments? This is what other people do.</P>
<P>
Trudi<BR><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>From: glenn tamir <KLEZSKA (at) YAHOO(dot)COM>
<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
<DIV></DIV>>To: World music from a Jewish slant
<JEWISH-MUSIC (at) SHAMASH(dot)ORG>
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Help Israel's PR battle
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 06:07:33 -0700
(PDT)
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Attached is an editorial by Thomas
Friedman. It very
<DIV></DIV>>clearly points out that the root of the
problem in the
<DIV></DIV>>Middle-East lies at the feet of Yasir
Arafat. Please
<DIV></DIV>>forward this to as many people as
possible.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Israel is currently losing the PR
battle. Perhaps we
<DIV></DIV>>can help in our own small ways.
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>Glenn Tamir
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>=====
<DIV></DIV>>KLEZSKA - part of the next wave in
Jewish music www.mmp3.com/klezska
<DIV></DIV>>
<DIV></DIV>>__________________________________________________
<DIV></DIV>>Do You Yahoo!?
<DIV></DIV>>Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you
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<DIV></DIV><br clear=all><hr>Get your FREE download of
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<H5>May 22, 2001</H5><NYT_HEADLINE type=" "
version="1.0">
<H2>It Only Gets
Worse</H2></NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE type=" "
version="1.0">
<H5>By THOMAS L.
FRIEDMAN</H5></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<P><IMG align=left alt=T
src="It Only Gets Worse Friedman
5-22-01_files/t.gif">he long-awaited
Mitchell commission report about
Israeli-Palestinian violence was released
yesterday, and now there is a debate over what
to do with its
recommendations. I have a suggestion. It's kind
of a two-for-one deal.
Take all the Mitchell reports, make a big pile
out of them, and set them
ablaze into a gigantic bonfire. It would surely
generate enough heat, and
light, to make a small contribution to the Bush
energy plan.</P>
<P>Am I being unfair? Yes, just a bit. George
Mitchell is a good man, and
the central argument of his report is right, in
the narrowest sense: If
you want to stop the latest Israeli-Palestinian
slide into the abyss,
first there must be a cessation of all violence,
and then
confidence-building steps, including a
settlements freeze and Palestinian
security measures.</P>
<P>My problem with the Mitchell report is that
it fundamentally ignores
how we got into this abyss and the only real way
out. It is not because of
Israeli settlements. The settlements are
foolish, and their continued
expansion is a shameful act of colonial coercion
that will meet the fate
of all other colonial enterprises in history.
The inability of American
Jewish leaders or U.S. governments to speak out
against settlement
expansion ? which should be stopped under any
conditions for Israel's sake
? is a blot on all of them.</P>
<P>But the settlements are not the core problem.
The core problem right
now is Yasir Arafat ? the Palestinian leader who
cannot say "yes" and will
not say "uncle."</P>
<P>President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister
Ehud Barak put on the table
before Mr. Arafat a historic compromise proposal
that would have given
Palestinians control of 94 to 96 percent of the
West Bank and Gaza ? with
all the settlements removed, virtually all of
Arab East Jerusalem, a
return to Israel of a symbolic number of
Palestinian refugees and either
the right of return to the West Bank and Gaza or
compensation for all the
others.</P>
<P>Not only would Mr. Arafat not take it, he
would not even say: "Well,
this was insufficient, but this is the most
far-reaching and serious
proposal Palestinians have ever seen. Now, I
want to enter into a dialogue
with the Israeli people and government to see if
I can get them to 100
percent."</P>
<P>No, instead, Mr. Arafat launched this idiotic
uprising. He did so
because he is essentially a political coward and
maneuverer, who
apparently has not given up his long-term aim of
eliminating Israel and
who was afraid in the short run that if he took
99 percent, he would be
killed for the 1 percent he left on the table.
Mr. Arafat has never been
willing to tell his people he got them most of
what they wanted and now is
the time to end the suffering of as many
Palestinians as possible and move
on. </P>
<P>This truth is what the Mitchell
"investigation" should be telling the
world and the Palestinians. There was an Israeli
leader, and a slim
Israeli majority, for a fair historic
compromise. But there was no
Palestinian equivalent, and unless there is a
Palestinian partner, and a
Palestinian leader, for a historic compromise
roughly along the Clinton
lines, no cease-fire is going to hold.</P>
<P>The best Hebrew biography of Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon is
entitled "He Doesn't Stop at Red Lights." Mr.
Arafat's biography should be
entitled "He Doesn't Go at Green Lights."</P>
<P>Now Mr. Sharon ? who was elected in the
Israeli backlash against the
failure of Camp David ? is trying to pummel Mr.
Arafat into submission.
That won't work either. Because Mr. Arafat is as
afraid to say "uncle" to
Sharon as much as he was afraid to say "yes" to
Clinton. He fears he would
be killed for saying uncle as much as he would
be killed for saying yes to
99 percent. The Palestinians will never be
bombed into submission. One
hundred years of Palestinian history tells you
that.</P>
<P>The real problem is that the Palestinians are
leaderless today, and
that is what the U.S., the U.N. and the Arab
world have to face up to.
Deep down, they all know it and they admit it to
each other in private.
There is no Palestinian leader right now willing
or able to say yes to a
fair historic compromise, and we simply fool
ourselves with commissions
that don't acknowledge that. Unless the Arabs
can stiffen Mr. Arafat by
supporting him in any grand compromise, or by
creating a context in which
an alternative leadership can emerge, this
bonfire will rage on and it
will consume many, many
others. </P></NYT_TEXT><BR>
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=====
KLEZSKA - part of the next wave in Jewish music www.mmp3.com/klezska
__________________________________________________
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