[Peace-discuss] action idea re: "What if Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?"

[Robert Naiman]

How much do you suppose it would cost to put the ADC ad in the DI or
the News-Gazette...? Could we swing it...?

--------

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/27-5

Published on Tuesday, January 27, 2009 by CommonDreams.org
What if Israel Were in Your Neighborhood?

by Russell Mokhiber

I left Washington last week when many friends and family members were
coming here to celebrate the inauguration of our first
African-American President.

My eleven year-old son asked me -- why turn your back on Obama?

I threw back at him Martin Luther King -- It's not the color of his
skin, it's the content of his character.

What does it say about Obama's character that he sides with the
Israeli slaughter machine against those that it slaughters?

What does it say about the character of his "progressive" supporters,
who cry for joy at his inauguration, but say not a peep about the
slaughter machine and its victims?

(See, for example, former AIPAC staffer and "progressive Democratic"
columnist David Sirota, who broke down and cried watching Obama's
inauguration, but has not written one word about the slaughter in
Gaza.)

Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) took out full
page ads in major newspapers around the country.

The ad was titled: What if Hamas Was in Your Neighborhood? (link to ad
at: http://www.adl.org/Israel/posters/HamasAd_Phoenix.pdf [1])

The ad showed missiles reigning down on Phoenix, or Boston, or Washington, D.C.

"Imagine if Hamas terrorists were targeting you and your family," the
ad read. "No country would allow such danger on its border, and
neither will Israel. That's why Israel is fighting back."

In response, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
last week put up an ad on its web site titled -- What If Israel Were
in Your Neighborhood? (Link to ad at:
http://www.adc.org/PDF/gazaposter.pdf [2])

Answer?

Death and Destruction with American built F-16 fighter jets and Apache
helicopters.

Yes, when Hamas launches rockets that kill innocent civilians, it
engages in war crimes.

But Hamas has no Army, no Navy, no Air Force.

The slaughter machine has a modern military with hundreds of nuclear
weapons and U.S. supplied F-16s and Apache helicopters.

So, there is a balance of terror.

And the Palestinian bodies tip the scales in the slaughter machine's favor.

Since the first rocket was launched into Israel in 2002 up until the
December 17, 2008 invasion of Gaza, the Israel body count was maybe
two dozen.

The Palestinian body count was 2,700.

That would be about 100 to one.

Since the invasion, the Israeli body count is 14.

The Palestinian body count was more than 1,400.

That would be about 100 to one.

As the ADC ad puts it: "Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be
justified by self-defense. An armed attack that is not justified by
self-defense is a war of aggression. Under the Nuremberg Principles
affirmed by U.N. Resolution 95, aggression is a crime against peace.
Prosecute Israel for War Crimes."

So, here's one concrete thing you can do to counter the slaughter
machine's propaganda.

If you are interested in placing the "What If Israel Were in Your
Neighborhood?" ad in your local newspaper, contact ADC's Nabil
Mohammad at organizing at adc.org [3].

Turn the tide of terror.
Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate
Crime Reporter [4].

-- 
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org