[Peace] Talks about Israel/Palestine
Brussel Morton K.
mkbrussel at comcast.net
Mon Feb 2 22:51:43 CST 2009
I attended the talk by the Israeli Consul General to the Midwest,Orli
Gil, this evening with roughly 200 others, and two policemen. Also
photographers of unknown origin. As might be expected, this woman
told us how wonderful Israel is; its culture, its achievements in
science and the arts. She also told the audience of the terrible
hardships the Israelis have been living under due to all the rockets
and terrorists attacks on them. She also said that Israel wanted a two
state solution wherein everybody would live in peace and security,
that it was too bad that Israel had to defend itself, killing
innocents who were shielding terrorists in their midst. Lots of
crocodile tears. She said that Hamas was out to destroy Israel, and
that therefore Israel would have nothing to do with them (She didn't
quite say that they would all have to be annihilated, but that was the
inference).
And so on, about the terrible dangers of a nuclear terrorist Iran, etc..
Of course, the audience was overwhelmingly receptive to this person
and her message, but at least there were a few (young students?) from
the Muslim community who attended and voiced their objections to her
narrative. Comments after the formal talk were welcome, but after a
comment there was invariably a long answering harangue and no possible
followup. After expressing myself a bit, I left early.
But I am disappointed that no one else from AWARE and the progressive
community showed up. At least I didn't notice them. Here was an
opportunity to protest and show this character that we don't accept
the lies, distortions and omissions of the Israeli propaganda mill. It
could have happened…It could have been an opportunity to show that
there are many who are outraged about Israeli behavior against the
Palestinians—that we do not agree with our own administrations'
support of Israeli actions and that we'll try to turn the tide of
American support that has condoned if not encouraged that rogue state.
I went afterwards to see what was going on In Gregory Hall about the
Crisis in Gaza, a talk by Eric Ruder. About 25 -30 were in the
audience, and there was extended discussion after his talk. Ruder was
very well informed and an excellent speaker. It was just too bad that
his talk was in conflict with the Israeli talk; it had been planned
well in advance.
--mkb
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