[Peace-discuss] Re: News notes, for the AWARE meeting 2007-06-03

[C. G. Estabrook]

Scott Edwards wrote:
> 
> "the Save Darfur Coalition, an Israeli lobby front group active in the US."
> 
> Are you kidding? I'm sure you're just joking, but I wanted to be sure. 
> This is the type of baseless rhetoric I'd expect from the 
> administration, so I figure you're being tongue-in-cheek. If so, 
> hilarious! If not, you are chasing ghosts in the dark, my friend.

The source of the Coalition is hardly in doubt.  The following is from 
the Apr. 27, 2006, internet edition of The Jerusalem Post, the 
conservative Israeli paper:

"...the coalition, which has presented itself as 'an alliance of over 
130 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organization' 
was actually begun exclusively as an initiative of the American Jewish 
community. And even now, days before the rally, that coalition is 
heavily weighted with a politically and religiously diverse collection 
of local and national Jewish groups ... the Jewish Community Relations 
Council, a national organization with local branches that coordinate 
communal activity all over America, has put on a massive effort to bus 
people to Washington ... Besides the Jewish origins and character of the 
rally - a fact the organizers consistently played down in conversations 
with The Jerusalem Post - the other striking aspect of the coalition is 
the noted absence of major African-American groups like the NAACP or the 
larger Africa lobby groups like Africa Action ... The coalition's roots 
go back to the spring of 2004 following a genocide alert, the first ever 
of its kind, issued by the United States Holocaust Museum. An emergency 
meeting was coordinated by the American Jewish World Service, an 
organization that serves as a kind of Jewish Peace Corps as well as an 
advocacy group for a variety of humanitarian and human rights issues...

"The fact that the aggressors in Darfur are Arab Muslims - though it 
should be said that the victims are also mostly Muslim - and are 
supported by a regime in Khartoum that is backed by the Arab League has 
made some people question the true motives of some of the Jewish 
organizations involved in the rally."

	--CGE