Letters to the Editor, October 29, 2003

Sir, I came from living isolated in the outback to town, and horrified at Israeli incursions, occupation, murders and continuous attacks on Palestinians the last 3-4 years of living in town Sir..

I am ashamed of world countries, UN Security Council, the International Crime Commission in the Hague for allowing the Israeli terrorists to continue killing/maiming Palestinians. I would be one of many people with this opinion, in Australia. Australians are all for a 'fair go' - justice for all to all peoples.

Delia, Australia

I want to thank Dr. Mohamed Khodr for his insightful and informative essay in your October 2003 Opinion section, and you for printing it.

As an American disgusted with current American trends, both at home and abroad, I am grateful for any information that is not politically filtered, propogandacized, or blatantly irresponsible.

There is no doubt in my mind that a conspiracy is (and has been for some time) underway to keep Americans ignorant of other cultures' values and issues, deliberately portraying these other cultures as threats to American security, while subsidizing those cultures who do not threaten America's right-wing insane quest for global domination and/or destruction.

Media in America, at least the so-called "main stream" ones, have consistently failed miserably in their duties as reporters and journalists for quite some time now, have been little more than government propaganda rags, and anymore are tantamount to pimps and prostitutes.

While I unfortunately doubt that most Americans would believe the content of Dr. Khodr's essay, let alone understand or comprehend it (brainwashing is deeply entrenched in America, courtesy of its media), there are some in America, and in other places in the world, that believe it is important to learn as much as possible about events and issues that affect the global community.

Thanks again.

William Sweetling

(FRIENDS, please refer to Ms. Weir' article:

http://counterpunch.org/weir10182003.html)

Alison, I'm so sorry you have to endure the death threat on your voice mail. Such is their cowardly tactic to silence the voices around the world for injustice as you're painfully aware.

I and so many around the world have loved and long admired your courage, your dedication, your selfless sacrifice in the face of overwhelming danger and odds. You are a beautifully unique creation of God doing His bidding on behalf of the voiceless, pictureless, powerless, and moneyless sufferers at the hands of Israel and it's proxy power, America. History has always swung between justice and injustice but in the end Justice always wins.

I wish I was in Berkeley to be personally with you rather than on the east coast but know YOU ARE NOT ALONE. While we endure death threats thousands are enduring deaths at the hands of the unjust powers in Israel and

Washington DC. You're right that the tide is shifting. Sooner or later

the unjust pay. Tragically, most of humanity insists on that ignorance for short term expediency, wealth, and power.

Please continue as you are determined to do. I'm positive the Berkeley community will support you. I just wrote a lengthy article on Malaysia's remark's regarding "jewish power by proxy" using Israel and America's own media to argue the case that indeed that does exist.

With my deep respect and admiration. God be with you and with those who care. You're Not Alone, Alison.

Mohamed Khodr, Virginia

Dear Sir,

In the piece "The New Mafia" by Mark Glenn (Oct 21), appears the line "... It didn't change the fact that America was discovered by an Italian and later named after one ..." amongst other inanities such as "... calling Israel "the only democracy" in the Middle East, despite the fact that the tactics she employs against even her own citizens fly in the face of everything we hold dear as Americans...". "Discovered", and by an Italian??? And "hold dear as Americans", things such as atomic weapons, agent orange, napalm, UDW ...??? Yes, indeed this piece proves it - that europeans/ northamericans, be they Jew or gentile, are the most violently racist people on this earth!

S.Shankar.

Comment on "Why Do They Hate Us?"

Dr. Batarfi well summarized the direction the world is headed, by writing: "the foreign policies of the US government, corporate greed, Christian evangelicalism and the aggressive push for globalization to remake the world in the US’ image." A nuance is here offered: The Bush regime is akin to vicious dogs deliberately selected to guard a fenced area full of junked cars. In other words, Bush et al have been selected because they are tempermentally suited for the task of furthering dominion and wealth of the world's most long-standing aristocratic families. The so-called neo-conservatives who are Bush's handlers published a neo-con agenda and thereby found backers. With the collusion of major media and evangelical church networks, the Bush regime took control of the US government.

What the NYTimes recently called the Pentecostalizing of the world and what Dr. Batarfi identifies as US-exported evangelicalism is an old formula. For instance, missionaries and their ideology were crucial in the conquest of continents that came to be called "the Americas". The ideology inherent in and emergent from Judeo-Xtian mythology serves well the goals of conquest and exploitation of locales and their peoples.

Teresa Binstock, CO, USA

I have read Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi's article with great interest. But without trying to be disrepectful to Dr. Batarfi I must disagree with his third paragraph. This paragraph indicates to me a missreading of American Foreign Policy. I would suggest that Dr. Batarfi read NSC # 1 which represents official US policy. This may very well entail a rewriting of his article. I'm sure NSC # 1 can easily be found in any reasonably sizeable political science library. Of course, too, there is the recent seminal publication of the mislabeled "Bush" doctrine, which is essentially an updated version of NSC # 1.

Yours Truly,

James van Luik

Editor: I'm sure that readers would appreciate it if you summarize the main points or argument of the NSC # 1, so they can know what you're talking about.

Perhaps we might first look to the blindness in our own eyes before calling on the rest of the world to condemn the blindness in others.

Regarding the Malaysian Prime Minister’s “scathing anti-Semitic speech” at the recent Islamic Conference.

In your New York Times newspaper announcement you have urged me, “as a person of good will”, to contact the Malaysian ambassador and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to let them know I “oppose hatred and stand for a world based on mutual respect”.

History has indeed taught us the danger of silence but I have to tell you that I finding myself pausing in the face of your call as I listen to the voice of another.

“Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centers of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture. They spill their own blood in our restaurants in order to ruin our appetites, because they have children and parents at home who are hungry and humiliated. We could kill a thousand ringleaders a day and nothing will be solved, because the leaders come up from below - from the wells of hatred and anger, from the "infrastructures" of injustice and moral corruption. If all this were inevitable, divinely ordained and immutable, I would be silent. But things could be different, and so crying out is a moral imperative.”

So speaks Avraham Burg, former speaker of Israel's Knesset.

The peoples of this world are faced with many dangers. Perhaps we might first look to the blindness in our own eyes before calling on the rest of the world to condemn the blindness in others.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Johnston, St. Helena, CA

Why is there no memorial for the sailors of USS Liberty?

There is no memorial for the same reason the story has been buried by every sector of American society from our elected politicians to veterans organizations to the so-called left. Although their reasons may vary, from "reasons of state" to not wishing to provoke "anti-semitism," there is no excuse from a single one of them that is not shameful. What is their legacy? The leaders of Israel got the message that its military could kill US servicemen and get away with it. While the Palestinians and Lebanese have paid a high price for such cowardice, Americans, too, have been victims. For the 241 Marines who were killed in a truck bombing in Beirut 20 years ago Thursday (plus more than a 150 sailors from the USS New Jersey and soldiers from an army unit that was training the Lebanese army, according to Marine on the site that morning) would not have even been there had the Israelis launched an unprovoked invasion of Lebanon a year earlier that was backed to the bloody hilt by both Democrats and Republicans and that cornerstone of the Israel lobby, the AFL-CIO.

One of the reasons that the Israel lobby made getting rid of Cynthia McKinney its main task in last year's primary elections was that she had the guts to call for an investigation into the Israeli attack on the Liberty. For the same people who sold out the dead and survivors of the Liberty 36 years ago and their successors it was business as usual and her cry fell on deaf ears. Thanks to those survivors and their supporters who won't let the crime go unpunished, and to Alison Weir of If Americans Knew, in particular, the Liberty will rise again. Maybe our own liberty depends on it.

Jeff Blankfort

Timothy Stinson wrote:

Why is there no memorial for these sailors?

http://ussliberty.org/

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).