[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [lib-plic] Debate over Mid-east Policy Broadens

[Al Kagan]

Here are a couple of articles that show we are making progress on 
changing public opinion on Israel/Palestine.  However they also show 
just how far to the right we started from and how much more there is 
to do.

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>From: Mark Rosenzweig <iskra at earthlink.net>
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>Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 03:21:48 -0400
>Subject: [lib-plic] Debate over Mid-east Policy Broadens
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>Status:  
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>2 articles relevant to our kind of concerns as librarians: one on the
>unprecedented broadening of debate in the US media over policy in the
>Israli/Palestinian conflict and the other over the importance of the
>Internet in magnifying as-yet dispersed and local  grassroots
>opposition and bringing together a coalition of Muslim, Jewish and
>other peace activists for the Washington DC rally next weekend.
>
>I hope you find these items useful and hopeful.
>
>Mark Rosenzweig
>>>
>>>----
>>>IS THE PRO-ISRAEL MEDIA LOBBY LOSING ITS GRIP?
>>>By Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, 4/17/2002
>>>http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/04/17/media/index_np.html
>>>
>>>The current chaos in the Middle East has left partisans on both
>>>sides angry and bitter. Among the most frustrated, though, may be
>>>the pro-Israel pundits who have dominated the debate in the U.S.
>>>for decades.
>>>
>>>Israel's aggressive incursion into the West Bank, in which 5,000
>>>Palestinians have been arrested and hundreds killed, may mark a
>>>turning point in how the conflict is seen in the United States.
>>>Suddenly the pro-Israel media mantra -- that Israel's fight is
>>>America's fight, and that the two countries aren't simply allies,
>>>but brothers in arms with inseparable goals -- is being viewed with
>>>some new skepticism.
>>>
>>>Polls show Americans remain strongly committed to Israel's
>>>security. Yet there's evidence that the nation's cadre of
>>>relentlessly pro-Israeli commentators, most of them
>>>neoconservatives, have quietly lost their corner on American public
>>>opinion. Instead of shaping it, they're caught chasing it. Their
>>>media crusade to topple Iraq's Saddam Hussein, for instance, seems
>>>to be foundering, thanks to weeks of Israeli/Palestinian chaos.
>>>
>>>A majority of Americans told NBC/Wall Street Journal pollsters that
>>>an Iraqi invasion should be delayed until Middle East violence
>>>subsides. And other major national polls show that Americans
>>>increasingly question the premises of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
>>>Sharon's incursion into the West Bank, Israel's most aggressive
>>>military operation in two decades, and how it will achieve peace...
>>>
>>>But it was odd on Monday to hear the mostly Jewish crowd boo
>>>longtime pro-Israel hawk Paul Wolfowitz, now a deputy defense
>>>secretary, merely for suggesting at a Washington rally that
>>>innocent Palestinians hurt in the current conflict deserve some
>>>sympathy too. The crowd clearly opposed Secretary of State Colin
>>>Powell's peace mission, as well as President Bush's attempts to get
>>>Sharon to rein in his military operation.
>>>
>>>The boos for Wolfowitz were a measure of how embattled many
>>>pro-Israel American Jewish hawks feel, especially given Bush's call
>>>last week for Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories
>>>"without delay" (a call, it must be noted, that Sharon has ignored
>>>with impunity). Clearly Israel's media lobby is not having the
>>>success it once did calling the shots in Washington and maintaining
>  >>public support.
>>>
>>>The dynamics could soon change, particularly if another wave of
>>>suicide bombers is unleashed. But for now, a Palestinian
>>>perspective that was once almost completely absent from America's
>>>mainstream press is being heard by Americans...
>>>
>>>It's already clear that an increasingly open debate is underway
>  >>here about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's a debate the
>>>conservative press has long tried to stifle. As Eric Alterman
>>>recently wrote at MSNBC.com, "For reasons of religion, politics,
>>>history and genuine conviction, the punditocracy debate of the
>>>Middle East in America is dominated by people who cannot imagine
>>>criticizing Israel."
>>>
>>>SEE: Intractable Foes, Warring Narratives
>>>http://www.msnbc.com/news/730905.asp?cp1=1#BODY
>>>
>>>You know who they are: William Safire of the New York Times; George
>>>Will, Charles Krauthammer and Michael Kelly at the Washington Post;
>>>Lally Weymouth of Newsweek; Martin Peretz of the New Republic;
>>>Daniel Pipes and Andrea Peyser at the New York Post; Peggy Noonan
>>>and Robert Bartley at the Wall Street Journal; William Kristol of
>>>the Weekly Standard; Mortimer Zuckerman at U.S. News and World
>>>Report; Morton Kondracke, Fred Barnes, Brit Hume and Tony Snow at
>>>Fox News; and William Bennett, a paid CNN contributor, just to name
>>>a few.
>>>
>>>They still cannot imagine criticizing Israel. But others can.
>>>Conservatives could not have enjoyed watching pro-Israel advocate
>>>Daniel Pipes getting grilled recently by Fox News' self-styled
>>>blue-collar moderate Bill O'Reilly. In what until recently would
>>>have been considered an unthinkably aggressive stance regarding
>>>Israel, O'Reilly, who's made no secret of his suspicion of American
>>>Muslims post-Sept. 11, belittled Pipes' claim that the Israeli
>>>incursion into the West Bank was analogous to America's bombing of
>>>Afghanistan, took issue with his suggestion that 90 percent of
>>>Palestinians "want Israel destroyed," and pressed Pipes about what
>>>people were supposed to think when they saw Page 1 photographs of
>>>Israeli policemen clubbing peace activists in Tel Aviv...
>>>
>>>SEE: Who is Daniel Pipes?
>>>http://www.cair-net.org/misc/people/daniel_pipes.html
>>>
>>>Meanwhile, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, usually a fan of the
>>>mainstream's conventional wisdom, recently derided the claim that
>>>Arab leaders would privately welcome a U.S. action in Iraq, as
>>>"neo-con claptrap." Matthews has gotten increasingly fed up with
>>>uncritical defenders of Israel as well as proponents of an
>>>immediate Iraq invasion. Both O'Reilly and Matthews pride
>>>themselves on their scrappy, common-sense approach to politics, so
>>>their change of heart spells trouble for staunch defenders of Ariel
>>>Sharon.
>>>
>>>Perhaps more worrisome for the Israeli media lobby is that, at
>>>least for the moment, it has lost some of its pull inside the White
>>>House. And worse, lost it to its least favorite Cabinet member,
>>>Secretary of State Colin Powell.
>>>
>>>Just as the current crisis was unfolding, the Weekly Standard's
>>>Kristol, along with more than two dozen other conservatives, sent
>>>Bush an open letter advising him how to proceed. The letter
>>>suggested that the U.S. treat Arafat as a terrorist, that Bush give
>>>Israel unconditional support, and that he move ahead swiftly on his
>>>plans to topple Saddam Hussein.
>>>
>>>To date, none of those recommendations have been embraced, which is
>>>why the Israeli punditocracy in America has been lashing out at the
>>>White House, washing its hands of Powell's trip and publicly
>>>ridiculing the administration. While there's some suspicion that
>>>Powell does not have full White House backing for his peace
>>>mission, the fact that he's there at all, meeting with Arafat,
>>>riles pro-Israel hawks in the press...
>>>
>>>Perhaps most surprising is the fact that nearly 40 percent of
>>>Americans consider the violence committed by Israel against
>>>Palestinians to be terrorism, according to an ABC News poll. The
>>>Israeli lobby's pundits have for weeks argued relentlessly that
>>>Israel is merely fighting terrorism alongside Uncle Sam. Yet 4 out
>  >>of 10 Americans think Israel is conducting terrorism in the West
>>>Bank...
>>>
>>>-----
>>>
>>>INTERNET USED BY ORGANIZERS OF PALESTINIAN, ISRAELI RALLIES
>>>By Mary Beth Sheridan, The Washington Post, 4/17/02
>>>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63371-2002Apr17.html
>  >>
>>>The pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrations organized in
>>>Washington this week represent the emotional culmination of weeks
>>>of smaller rallies across the country, indications of how the
>>>violence in the Middle East has alarmed many Americans.
>>>
>>>The proliferation of demonstrations reflects the strength of Jewish
>>>organizations and efforts by much smaller Muslim and Arab American
>>>groups to play a bigger role in U.S. politics. Adding to the mix is
>>>the power of the Internet, both to pull together rallies and to
>>>connect Americans with those suffering in the Middle East...
>>>
>>>Some pro-Palestinian activists said the rallies are a sign of the
>>>political maturing of Arab Americans and Muslims, who represent a
>>>small but rapidly growing percentage of the U.S. population.
>>>
>>>"I've noticed, compared to previous protests [over Middle East
>>>crises], that these are a lot more. You find them all over the
>>>country -- Michigan, California, Texas, the Northwest," said Hodan
>>>Hassan, communications coordinator for the Council on
>>>American-Islamic Relations...
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu