From - Thu Apr 18 15:26:42 2002
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Return-Path: <[log in to unmask]>
Received: from igcb.igc.apc.org ([192.82.108.46])
by walker.mail.mindspring.net (Earthlink Mail Service) with ESMTP id 16YilIhjd3Nl3s70
for <[log in to unmask]>; Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:17:46 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from acsn05.bu.edu (acsn05.bu.edu [128.197.159.65])
by igcb.igc.apc.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id NAA14426
for <[log in to unmask]>; Thu, 18 Apr 2002 13:15:05 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from pc013 (pc013.genmed.bmc.org [155.41.57.38]) by acsn05.bu.edu ((8.9.3.buoit.v1.1.RewriteVBS.ACS)/) with SMTP id QAA90496; Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:15:49 -0400
Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Arlene Ash" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Ivan Handler" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Israeli boycott is curiously selective and seriously unhelpful
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:15:47 -0400
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3110.3
Importance: Normal
(Ivan - could you post this for me? -A)
Friends-
I have recently received several e-mail notices calling for boycotts of
Israel (one started by French mathematicians) through the Science for the
People listserve.
I ask my progressive friends to ask yourselves why Israel and Israelis are
uniquely deserving of censure at this dire time? Are the mathematicians of
France similarly upset by the racial venom of so much anti-Israel
propaganda? Do they feel any responsibility for the sharp rise in
anti-Jewish activity in their own country?
The state of Israel has used its army in the ugly way that states typically
do to put down severe threats to civil order; the Palestinians have adopted
the grisly guerilla warfare of angry, desperate people without state armies.
"Each side has been pointing to the atrocities committed by the other,
'forgetting' the atrocities committed by his own side." ("A War of Words:
The Israeli and Palestinian Media Coverage of the al-Aqsa Intifada,"
http://www.phrmg.org/monitor2001/nov2001-6.htm) Each side has powerful
"friends" that support and encourage it to hate/fear/harm the other. Friends
of peace must not be curiously selective in seeing evil. Our job is to
disabuse all parties (most especially our own "side," if we have one) of the
notion that more killing is the answer; we must drive, drag, and support the
combatants away from death and towards peace.
There are many, many countries that have killed - and continue to kill, and
otherwise abuse and debase the lives of - more Arabs, more Muslims, more
"rebels," more innocents, than Israel. How about boycotting Turkey for
murdering Kurds? India (or Pakistan) for war mongering against each other?
Saudi Arabia for internal human rights abuses or for worldwide funding of
schools that preach racial hatred? The US for ... there are so many
reasons, including a long and continuing history of world-wide
arms-mongering, murder and mayhem (not terrorism, of course, just "freedom
fighting")? And, ... there are so many other countries, religious fanatics,
and other groups that routinely commit horrors under patriotic and messianic
banners. Why, uniquely, Israel?
At least Israel (however wrong so many of its actions are) - IS, actually,
fighting for its citizens' lives. Israel's true friends have the formidable
task of convincing it that the practical route to a livable state requires
decent treatment of the Palestinians, diplomacy and de-militarization.
Condemnations of Israel alone make this harder.
People of good will must do whatever they can to condemn and stop BOTH
Israel's current military campaign AND the suicide bombings. Both not only
murder innocent people, they also harden hearts and undermine hope.
No one-sided view of this rapidly escalating tragedy - where each side truly
has terrible grievances and real fears for its existence - is helpful. How
can we make it easier for both Israelis and Palestinians to be able to
renounce the paths of anger and vengeance? How can we help them to grope
their way painstaking way back from the brink?
-Arlene