:: Stage Left ::

:: Friday, August 23, 2002 ::

Liberal Oasis suggests an alternative to watching Palestinian supporters and Israeli supporters shout at each other on television:
"[H]ere’s a crazy idea for TV producers.
Only book people who are willing to discuss what their own side could do differently.
How mind-blowing would it be to see an Israeli supporter suggest the abandonment of just one settlement, or a program to reduce Palestinian unemployment?
Or to see a Palestinian supporter acknowledge that the tactics of Gandhi would be far more effective than the tactics of Bin Laden?
If there is no one like that available, then don’t bother."
While he misses that his example of a Palestinian supporter, Adam Shapiro, really is a self-critical Jew, it seems like a great idea to me. I'd love to be one of the first guests on this new style of peacemaking television.
:: Judah 3:06 AM [+] ::

:: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 ::

Comments are on the fritz and they're screwing up my site on Netscape. Not making me very happy...
:: Judah 10:40 PM [+] ::

Some members of the American Jewish community are playing into every anti-Jewish stereotype when it comes to political power. It worries me that there must be people having these very rights at this very moment: "Those Jews did it again. First knocking of Earl Hilliard, and now Cynthia McKinney. They care more about Israel than they do about people in America. They use their money to keep us African-Americans from choosing our own political leaders. If you want to get into Congress now, you need the Jews' approval - they control the whole damn thing."
:: Judah 1:21 PM [+] ::

Just as the Palestinians agree to use their security forces to prevent attacks on Israelis and small scale cooperation begins, Israel goes and kills the brother of Ahmed Sa'adat, leader of the PFLP. After the killingof Raed Karmi in December, Salah Shehadah a few weeks ago, and this, one might get the idea that the Sharon government is sabotaging its own peace moves.

UPDATE: Ha'aretz has the same worries.
:: Judah 1:16 PM [+] ::

Jim Capozzola of the enjoyable and enlightening Rittenhouse Review thinks that Eric Alterman has been getting an "awful lot of truly vicious e-mail". Jim has, obviously, never had the experience of being an American Jew Who Disagrees With The Israeli Government. While people such as Eric and myself would be well within mainstream political discourse in Israel (I support Meretz, Israel's fourth-largest party with 10 seats in the 120 member Knesset), here in America we regularly are referred to as "anti-semites" and "Nazis". After sending a letter to the Boston Jewish Advocate about personal attacks on dissenters, I was even referred to as an "international jihad savage". All this, and I'm still a Zionist...
:: Judah 1:05 PM [+] ::