{news} Fw: USGP-INT Prominent Jews Attack Attempts to Silence Criticism of Israel

[Justine McCabe]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Walton" <richard at soup.org>
To: <usgp-int at gp-us.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 5:58 PM
Subject: USGP-INT Prominent Jews Attack Attempts to Silence Criticism of 
Israel


> Hi:  The Financial Times is a reputable publication but I do wish it had
> cited a few names.  The entire list is probably available somewhere.
> Maybe the full article would have more.  The URL is at the bottom.
> Peace.  Richard Walton.
>
>
> PROMINENT JEWS SIGN LETTER ATTACKING ISRAEL LOBBY
>
> GUY DINMORE, FINANCIAL TIMES - An open letter signed by more than 150
> people - including prominent academics, former diplomats and officials -
> decries what they allege is a campaign of political vigilantism waged by
> American Jewish groups to set the public agenda. "Indeed, students [in a
> practice reminiscent of the most sordid aspects of the McCarthy years]
> have been enlisted to act as informers on their teachers. Institutions
> deemed to be insufficiently supportive of Israel have been subjected to
> pressure by state legislatures or private donors," says the letter, signed
> by many prominent Jews.
>
> "They've constructed a Warsaw Ghetto of the mind," Norman Birnbaum,
> professor emeritus at Georgetown University and one of the organizers of
> the letter, told the Financial Times.
>
> The letter accuses Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, of
> inducing the Polish consulate to deny its premises to Prof Judt, an
> allegation the league rejected as "baseless". Mr Foxman said the ADL was
> proud of its 93-year record of defending free speech in its fight against
> anti-Semitism, hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
>
> Few serving Democrats are willing to wade into this debate, but Zbigniew
> Brezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, was
> outspoken during the Lebanon conflict, calling Israel's response to
> Hizbollah's attacks "dogged, heavy-handed, politically counter-productive
> and morally unjustifiable".
>
> "When we supply Israel with cluster bombs, that's an act of
> international friendship and peace. When Iran supplies Palestinians with
> weapons, that means terror," he told a dinner hosted by the New America
> Foundation. "Bush should say either I make policy on the Middle East or
> AIPAC does
>
> http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8677351c-62cb-11db-8faa- 0000779e2340.html
>
> "The only way out of our crisis (terrorism) is to reduce the anger of the
> most rational, thus also reducing the constituency of the least rational."
> Sam Smith.
>
> "When they come for the innocent without crossing over
> your body, cursed be your religion and your life."  Anon.  But often
> quoted by Dorothy Day.
> -- 
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> "Richard Walton" <richard at soup.org>
> -----------------------------------------------------------