[Peace-discuss] "To Help Palestine, Be Pro-Israel Too", from Ira Chernus

[unionyes]

Here is a " spin " Stuart that would resonate with most Americans ;

Cut off ALL U.S. taxpayer money to Israel that currently amounts to over $ 
40 billion per year.
Why should we the taxpayers be sending OUR money to an out of control 
government that will cause only more hatred against the U.S..
That $ 40 billion can be used HERE in the U.S. to help our economy ( 
healthcare, jobs, home utility costs, stopping forclosures, etc. ).

David Johnson

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stuart Levy" <slevy at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
To: <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:44 AM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] "To Help Palestine, Be Pro-Israel Too",from Ira 
Chernus


> Wanted to point out four notable articles that appeared this week.
> Here's the first:
>
>   To Help Palestine, Be Pro-Israel Too
>    by Ira Chernus [Prof. of Religious Studies, UC Boulder]
>   http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/06-13
>
>   Three viewpoints on the Gaza war fill the U.S. mass media: pro-Israel,
>   anti-Israel, and neutral or even-handed.  All three are harmful to
>   the suffering people of Gaza. The one view that can help them is
>   the one that barely gets a hearing. It's pro-Palestine, pro-peace,
>   AND pro-Israel.
>
>   [...]
>    Yet a neutral, even-handed approach in the U.S. news media is dangerous
>    for the people of Gaza too.  It treats Israel's massive high-tech
>    firepower, which has killed over 500, as somehow equivalent to Hamas'
>    aimless, largely ineffectual rockets that have killed five. That gives
>    Americans the impression there's a fair fight going on between two
>    equally violent and equally suffering sides. Most people conclude that
>    if neither side is the good guy, it's none of our business and we 
> should
>    just ignore it. At least they themselves ignore the conflict. That 
> gives
>    the "pro-Israel" lobby and the U.S. government a freer hand to follow
>    a one-sided course.
>
>   [...]
>    That might seem to leave only one fruitful approach: Stand up for
>    the Palestinians, condemn Israel as the aggressor, and demand that
>    it stop its attack immediately. It's understandable that Americans
>    of good moral conscience might take such an approach. But from a
>    practical point of view, it will not do the Palestinians of Gaza
>    any good. It might even harm them more.
>
>    Political action that is merely "pro-Palestinian" allows the
>    mass media to portray the engaged public divided into two neat
>    camps-pro-Israel and anti-Israel-as if those were the only two
>    options. Of course the mass media like simplistic pictures of
>    two protest groups, diametrically opposed, on opposite sides of
>    the street.  It boosts their ratings. But it also lets supporters
>    of Israeli policy feel even more justified, saying that "everyone
>    who's not for us is against us."
>
>    It also encourages the average American to assume that there is no
>    way out of this mess except to choose sides. In that case, since
>    most know only what the political leaders and mass media tell them,
>    they will choose the Israeli side.
>   [...]
>
> and more.  Well worth a full reading.  I recommended this article to
> some at the Mosque who were wondering how to talk about the Gaza crisis
> and Palestinian issues with their non-Muslim coworkers, neighbors, etc.
> We need ways to break out of rhetorical cages.
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>
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