[Peace-discuss] Denigrating Carter's book on Israel/Palestine

[John W.]

Thank you, Mort.  The outrage makes more sense now.  And Jesse Jensen's 
response make LESS sense.

John W.


At 12:27 PM 1/15/2007, Morton K. Brussel wrote:

>In fact, Qumsiyeh reports (see below)  that reader-reviewers do give 
>alternative, favorable, reviews of Carter's book, but the case remains 
>that the "official" introductory review is grossly negative, which is, to 
>say the least, highly unusual for this outfit.  I append Qumsiyehs 
>postscript on this issue:
>
>2) Follow-up to earlier action alert about Amazon's poor treatment of 
>Carter's book: Thanks to the hundreds of you who wrote and those who 
>copied to me your letters to Amazon.  Other recipients of my email said 
>they could not find the negative Washington Post/Goldberg review displayed 
>prominently in the front. But you can go to Amazon.com and search Jimmy 
>Carter and it will take you to its page. There you would actually have to 
>scroll through it to get to customer reviews which I agree were good. 
>Other readers said that Amazon has allowed good customer reviews and so it 
>is OK if they included Goldberg's malicious review.  But this is simply 
>not how Amazon treats other books.  In fact to my knowledge there is 
>simply no book in Amazon's top 100 sellers that is treated like Carter's 
>(with a negative long review before customer reviews).  Take for example 
>Thomas Friedman's stupid book in defense of corporate globalization "The 
>World is Flat" and see how it is displayed with no negative editorial 
>reviews.  In fact, Amazon sells Hitler's Mein Kempf, the Protocols of the 
>Elders of Zion, and other books like that without treating them in as 
>shabby a way they treated Carter's book (ie. no lengthy 1600 word negative 
>reviews in the section for editorial reviews)! BTW, the reviewer 
>(Goldberg) was a guard at the infamous Ketziot prison (in this video about 
>political prisoners in Israeli jails their is quite a chilling anecdote 
>about Ketziot: "Captured Prisoners," 
><http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/cap-pris.html>http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/cap-pris.html). 
>Anyway I know I will buy my future books at local booksellers and when I 
>have to do it over the internet, I will use the  unionized bookstore 
>Powells. If you enter through the union portal, a percent supports the 
>union there:
><http://www.unionplus.org/benefits/education/frame_powells.cfm>http://www.unionplus.org/benefits/education/frame_powells.cfm 
>
>
>
>
>On Jan 15, 2007, at 5:06 AM, John W. wrote:
>
>>Huh????  Whose opinion is it that Amazon.com should censor a book 
>>review?  Isn't that contrary to everything that AWARE stands for?  Why 
>>not just have a few people write POSITIVE reviews of the book?  Duh.
>>
>>John Wason
>>
>>
>>
>>At 08:57 PM 1/14/2007, Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>>
>>>Notes from Mazin Qumsiyeh regarding a highly unfavorable review on
>>>Amazon.com of Carter's book.
>>>
>>>
>>>1) Wolf Blitzer worked for the Israel lobby before he worked for CNN.
>>>2) Action: boycott Amazon
>>>3) Question/commentary: How much will big oil companies pillage from
>>>Iraq?? (I could use some help in the math!)
>>>---------------------
>>>1) Wolf Blitzer worked for the Israel lobby before he worked for
>>>CNN.  Here is a video of him advocating Israeli perspecives on a
>>>Panel with Norman Finkelstein before he became CNN employee http:// 
>>><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-8aTGnjHnI>www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-8aTGnjHnI
>>>
>>>2) Action: (I wrote to Jeff Bezos and a Jesse Jensen, executive
>>>customer relations <mailto:ecr at amazon.com>ecr at amazon.com responded that 
>>>they are keeping the
>>>review.  I wrote back saying Amazon lost a good customer and that I
>>>am informing my listserve.  I also bought four copies of Carter's
>>>book at Costco- MQ). FWD from Henry Norr: For several weeks now
>>>Amazon.com has been running the full, 1636-word text of a totally
>>>negative review of Jimmy Carter's "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" on
>>>the page where it sells the book
>>><http://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter/dp/0743285026/sr=8-1/qid=1168467614/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2193402-4648137?ie=UTF8&s=books>http://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter/dp/0743285026/sr=8-1/qid=1168467614/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-2193402-4648137?ie=UTF8&s=books
>>>
>>>Because this is totally out of line with their normal format and in
>>>contradiction to their self-interest in selling copies, and because
>>>their CEO, Jeff Bezos, has flatly turned down requests from me and
>>>other customers for more balanced treatment of the book, it seems
>>>clear that this is either a deliberate political statement on the
>>>part of Amazon's leaders or an abject concession to pressure from
>>>Zionist zealots. Whatever you think of the Carter book, its
>>>publication is an important event, and it's unacceptable for Amazon
>>>to be trying to discourage sales of it.
>>>
>>>Since the letters didn't work, I've created an online petition
>>>protesting what Amazon is doing and threatening to cancel my account
>>>there. It's at 
>>><http://www.petitiononline.com/Amazon07/petition.html>http://www.petitiononline.com/Amazon07/petition.html 
>>>.
>>>I hope you'll not only check it out and sign it, but also pass along
>>>copies of this message or one of your own to friends and family and
>>>to all possible e-mail lists.
>>>
>>>If you agree that Amazon is out of line on this, but you're
>>>uncomfortable with anything in the petition, or you're not willing to
>>>pledge to close your account, or you don't have an account to begin
>>>with, you can send your own message  directly to Bezos at
>>><mailto:jeff at amazon.com>jeff at amazon.com.
>>>In fact, even if you do sign the petition, it wouldn't hurt to send
>>>him e-mail in addition.
>>>Most important, though, is to spread the word to as many people as
>>>possible.
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