[Peace-discuss] Unpublished letters in DI

[David Green]

Following are eight letters sent to the DI since last
October. The first seven were not published. The last
one was sent before the publication of the cartoons,
and was at first not published. It was published after
being re-sent subsequent to the publication of the
cartoons.

All of these letters addressed items in the DI, events
on campus, or both. During that period, the editors
chose to publish numerous editorials from other campus
newspapers. 

I support the right of the editors to publish the
cartoons, however specious their motives. But it is
clear that in exercising their editorial judgment,
they have not during this period been willing to allow
much-needed criticism on important issues to be heard.
This is what needs to be addressed.

__________________________________________

October 28, 2005

Editor, Daily Illini:

The Program for Jewish Culture and Society is
sponsoring Israeli Yossi Klein Halevi’s two-week visit
as “journalist in residence.” 

American-born Halevi began his career in the 1960s
with the Jewish Defense League. In a 1986 study of
domestic terrorism, the Department of Energy
concluded: “For more than a decade, the Jewish Defense
League has been one of the most active terrorist
groups in the United States. Since 1968, JDL
operations have killed 7 persons and wounded at least
22.”

Halevi has documented his efforts to “reconcile” with
Christians and Muslims. Unfortunately, this effort
ended with the 2nd intifada, when Halevi realized that
Palestinians of either persuasion fully deserve his
abiding hatred for them.

Halevi writes novels, but his political commentary is
also fictional. No effort is made to examine the
realities of the Israel-Palestine conflict,
specifically the nature of the occupation. Israel is
innocent, Palestinians are terrorists, and
well-documented contradictory realities are ignored.
He believes that Israeli Jews are morally superior to
Palestinians, who cannot be trusted.

In Israel, Halevi is sponsored by the Shalem Center, a
think tank founded by American-Israeli Yoram Hazony,
the Pat Robertson of Israel. It promotes religious
settlements in the territories and religion in school
textbooks. It also supports neoliberal economic
policies that make Israel the most economically
unequal country in the developed world. Not only does
Halevi hate Palestinians, he doesn’t much care about
Jews living in poverty.

It would be appropriate for the PJCS to consider the
peculiarly Jewish psychopathology that has sent the
likes of Halevi and other zealots to find the meaning
of their lives in Israel at the expense of the Arab
natives. But if the PJCS is determined not to look
critically at Jewish culture, it should at least have
the decency not to embarrass it.

David Green

__________________________________________

November 3, 2005

Editor, Daily Illini:

As reported in the DI (11/3), Israeli journalist Yossi
Klein Halevi spoke Wednesday regarding media coverage
of Israel-Palestine. Halevi is correctly quoted as
saying: "The problem is that what has happened to many
journalists ... is a shift that has been made from a
journalistic quest for truth as the ethical basis of
the profession to a shift toward a quest for justice."

As a matter of Jewish ethics, I was taught that the
quest for truth is consistent with the quest for
justice. This is exemplified in the work of Noam
Chomsky and Howard Zinn. It is no truer than in the
case of Israel-Palestine. Those of us, Jewish or
otherwise, who have explored the reality of the
situation have been motivated to seek justice as a
response to the gross injustices done to the
Palestinian people—not only by Israel, but by our own
government’s support.

Halevi accused mainstream journalists in this country
of being blinded by justice in their favoritism toward
the Palestinians. He offered no evidence to support
this, because there is none. Indeed, it is well
documented that mainstream reporting is systematically
biased in favor of Israel, a U.S. surrogate. Moreover,
Halevi openly admitted that he does not hold himself,
as a “supporter of Israel,” to the same standards of
objectivity that he holds others. During his visit
here, he repeatedly made baseless, easily disproved
assertions regarding the nature of the Oslo period,
the origins of the intifada, and Israel’s “generous
offers” to the Palestinians.

Yesterday’s talk was sponsored by the School of
Journalism and the Program for Jewish Culture and
Society. Presumably, it is only in collegial service
to the latter that the former consented to hosting a
journalist who openly mocks ethics, truth, and
justice. So much for “Jewish culture and society.”

David Green

__________________________________________


November 10, 2005

Editor, Daily Illini

The Daily Illini (11/10) reports on the observance of
Kristallnacht, quoting a student who “cited Sudan and
Rwanda as modern examples of how today's world is not
free of oppression.” He continued: "There are many
events that remind us of the Holocaust. We live in a
world where this stuff can happen, and we have to be
aware of it." 

Unfortunately, these examples are selected in order to
avoid parallels that implicate the United States and
Israel, such as East Timor and Guatemala, where arms
and advisement were provided for ongoing
government-sponsored genocides. Also studiously
avoided is the ethnic cleansing of 700,000
Palestinians by Israel in 1948, or its 1982 invasion
of Lebanon which killed 20,000 Palestinian refugees,
ending with Ariel Sharon’s complicity in massacres at
Sabra and Shatila. A guiding moral principle is that
we hold ourselves to the same standards that we hold
others.

The DI’s naive coverage is consistent with that of
recent events promoted by our campus’s neoconservative
“Program for Jewish Culture and Society.” Yossi Klein
Halevi (11/3), an Israeli journalist, appeared in the
guise of “reconciliation” in order to advocate
collective punishment of Palestinians, while claiming
that journalists who promote social justice are
blinded to the truth.

Judea Pearl (11/9), promoting “tolerance”, declared
that “no topic is taboo” while ignoring Israel’s
occupation of Palestine, the American occupation of
Iraq, and the CIA’s 1980s support for the Islamic
radicals who eventually murdered his son. Pearl labels
opposition to Zionism as racist, indeed: “I submit
that anti-Zionism is a form of racism more dangerous
than classical anti-Semitism. Framing anti-Zionism as
racism is precisely the weapon that our (Jewish)
students need for survival on campus.” So much for
dialogue, and for the pretense that local Jewish
bureaucrats value the truth more than their
neoconservative political agenda.

David Green

__________________________________________


November 28, 2005

Editor, Daily Illini

Elie Dvorin (11/28) finds the “blame Israel first”
crowd—including “self-hating Jewish
intellectuals”--guilty of anti-semitism for promoting
Palestinian citizenship in Israel, and opposing the
barrier built in occupied territory. Predictably, no
evidence or logic is apparent. For over three decades
a two-state solution has been supported by
Palestinians, Arab leaders, the international
community, and many on the left, including Jewish
activists such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein.
These proposals have been summarily rejected by Israel
and the United States, while Israel has continued to
annex occupied territory, creating “facts on the
ground” that prevent a viable, contiguous Palestinian
state.

Given Israeli rejectionism, some activists now propose
that the only just solution is a democratic state for
all residents of historic Palestine. This is the “one
state solution.” The technical term that has been
given to this democratic, egalitarian solution by
Zionists is “the destruction of Israel,” with the
manipulative charge of anti-semitism that goes with
it. Yossi Klein Halevi, the Israeli propagandist who
was recently hosted by the Program for Jewish Culture
and Society, baldly equated those who advocate
democracy with those who murder Jews. Meanwhile, a
Jewish state that denies its Palestinian citizens
equal rights in all sectors of society on the basis of
religion is described as “democratic.”

Dvorin also vilifies opponents of the illegal barrier
in occupied Palestine as anti-semites. So you’re a
Jew-hater if you support democracy in Israel and
Palestine, and you’re Jew-hater if you oppose an
illegal apartheid wall that prevents a viable
Palestinian state. But if you think that Israel’s
“right to exist” means systematically denying
Palestinian human rights on all fronts, then you’re a
Jew-lover. This would be merely stupid and absurd if
it weren’t hateful and violent—as well as consistent
with the views of the local Jewish establishment.

David Green

__________________________________________


December 7, 2005

Editor, Daily Illini

The DI reports (12/7, AP) on the acquittal of Sami
Al-Arian, formerly a professor at the University of
South Florida, on all major charges against him of
aiding terrorists. 

It is encouraging that a citizen jury in Florida
considered the evidence carefully and, in spite of the
overwhelming advantage of the prosecution and a racist
cultural climate, chose to acquit a man who has done
nothing but exercise his 1st Amendment rights in
supporting his people. It is also positive that John
Ashcroft’s first major case based on the PATRIOT Act
has been found baseless.

But Al-Arian has been fired from his job, jailed since
February of 2002, and remains jailed while the
prosecution decides whether to retry him on deadlocked
charges. His experience evokes Kafka and Joseph
McCarthy, not only due to government persecution, but
malicious persecution from “anti-terror” advocates
like Steven Emerson and Zionist organizations like the
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League.

After Al-Arian’s arrest on February 20, 2003, an ADL
press release found Al-Arian guilty without trial:

“‘We are gratified that the federal authorities have
taken this decisive step in countering alleged
fundraising and material support activities for
terrorist organizations including Hamas and Islamic
Jihad,’ said Arthur Teitelbaum, ADL Southern Area
Director. ‘Al-Arian's arrest is particularly
significant, as this is an individual who has long
been suspected of having close ties with leaders of
terrorist groups. Al-Arian claims his arrest is 'all
about politics,' Mr. Teitelbaum said. ‘Well, it is
about politics. It's his support for the politics of
violence and terror.’”

Thus a Zionist organization has fostered a gross
violation of human rights—as it does consistently in
its support for Israeli policies. Campus Jewish
leaders affiliated with the ADL (Hillel, Jewish
Federation) should make clear public statements
rejecting their parent organization’s reckless and
destructive tactics.

David Green

__________________________________________


January 23, 2006

Editor, Daily Illini

A cartoon promoting an attack on Iran (1/23), and Tom
Amenta’s support for such an attack, merits response.

As in many cases, enemies of Israel are depicted in
the classic manner that Jews were depicted by
anti-Semites—big-nosed and beady-eyed. While the
threat of anti-semitism has been transferred to the
Middle East, the tactics of anti-Semites are employed
by America and Israel: “pre-emptive” violence is being
done by and will be done in the name of
“Judeo-Christian civilization” against evil Arabs and
Persians. This is consistent with our murderous
sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, killing one
million, leading to the invasion and devastating
occupation. It is also consistent with Israel’s
treatment of the Palestinians.
	
While it remains to be seen whether Iran will develop
a nuclear weapon, it is clear why it wants one: to
deter invasion from the U.S., which chose to invade
Iraq (but not North Korea) for this reason. This
attack will be for hegemony and oil, part of the
disastrous but ongoing plan of American and Israeli
neoconservatives to “redraw the map of the Middle
East” by imposing “democracy” at the end of a gun.
Israel knows it is not threatened, because it
illegally maintains a nuclear arsenal of its own. This
double standard is not lost on the rest of the world,
and promotes hatred of America.

It was not reported in the DI that last Friday former
Pentagon official Larry Franklin was sentenced to 12
years for passing classified documents through AIPAC
(the Israel Lobby) to Israel to foment an attack on
Iran. This is the same AIPAC that sponsors “Israel
Advocacy” through Hillel on college campuses. The DI
should report on such nefarious connections in
relation to local Jewish institutions, and whether
their agenda represents a majority of the local Jewish
community.

David Green

__________________________________________


January 30, 2006

Editor, Daily Illini

One would think that Edward Brener of Illinipac, would
have something better to do than vilify Palestinians
who democratically act to replace a corrupt regime,
installing one that does not passively accept
continued Israeli confiscation of occupied lands and
wanton Jewish settler attacks on Palestinian people.
But his purpose is to change the subject from AIPAC’s
treasonous activities in passing secrets to Israel to
foment an attack on Iran, Jack Abramoff’s use of money
meant for inner city children for a Jewish settler
“sniper school” on the West Bank, Abramoff’s ties with
apartheid/fascist South Africa, and increasingly
dramatic economic inequality within Israeli society,
whose leaders need distractions from their own
corruption.

So Bremer excoriates the Palestinians, always an
acceptable form of racism on college campuses,
regularly spewed by guests of Hillel and the Program
for Jewish Culture and Society. It would behoove the
DI to report on connections between AIPAC’s
contemptible program of “Israel Advocacy” and Hillel,
as boldly proclaimed on the AIPAC website.

A serious consideration of Hamas’ success would
include: Israel’s support for Hamas in the 70’s and
80’s as a counter to the PLO, which for three decades
promoted a two-state solution in the face of Israeli
rejectionism; and that no state has a “right to exist”
apart from respecting the rights of its citizens,
which Israel violates in regard to its Palestinian
citizen minority--even apart from its brutal
occupation. Israel’s long-term goal has always been
the unilateral destruction of any hope for a viable
Palestinian state. Hamas’ success is a predictable
vote for resistance to Israel’s brutality, not a
reflection of “Islamic extremism.” It is precious that
Bremer expresses concern for the rights of Palestinian
women, while promoting policies that violate the human
rights of all Palestinians. Racism has always
incorporated paternalism.

David Green

__________________________________________


February 6, 2006

Editor, Daily Illini

The European cartoons defaming Muslims have interest
in the local context. It was barely over a year ago
that a DI cartoonist was grounded for sarcastically
referring to an anti-Semitic stereotype: Jews as
bankers with big noses. Hysterical local Jewish
leaders called in an official from Chicago, who spoke
to Chancellor Herman, who spoke against the
cartoonist, who was banished for a month. The response
was swift and self-righteous, and oblivious to issues
of expression, satire, and irony. Freedom of speech
succumbed to the double standard.

In many countries in Europe, anti-Semitic speech is
outlawed, but not the kind that defames Muslim
Semites. Such speech is claimed to test Muslims’
willingness to adapt to secular society. But these
cartoons are no less a blatant provocation than the
worst Nazi stereotypes of Jews. If they are to be
supported as free expression, then a double standard
has been clearly established. But I would propose no
limits on any kind of speech, which would allow us to
call hate speech for what it is, and distinguish it
from civil discourse.

That leaves us with the problem of contextualizing
hate speech while conducting civil discourse. In
Europe, not Jews but Muslims are oppressed and
dispossessed; verbal attacks on them reflect their
status as scapegoats—similar to Jews in an earlier
era. This hate has real consequences. In the Muslim
world, anti-Semitic speech is used as a form of
propaganda to distract the masses from their
powerlessness and their leaders’ failures. But such
hate speech also feeds off the very real nature of
American and Israeli power, including our affinity to
threaten, bomb, invade, and occupy. Instead of
denigrating alleged Muslim intolerance, we have the
constructive option of taking responsibility for the
root causes of both of these forms of hate speech.

David Green



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