"I was a military man for 27 years.

The Demonstration for Peace in Tel Aviv on 8th Nov. 97 on The Second Anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's Murder An article by Yehoshua Zamir (Photo by Andre Brutmann)

And if you're in Jerusalem, light a candle opposite the prime minister's house

Ariga E-Bombed Anti-boycott protest turns mean
as Jew-loving turns into Jew-hating

Many people were upset by Ariga's publication of the Gush Shalom boycott list. Most wrote saying they'd use the list to buy goods from the settlements. I wrote to back to most saying "that's okay by me." Not okay were flames comparing "leftist" to nazis, and especially terrifying -- yes, terror-fying -- was an anonymous spam using ariga.com mail addresses to hundreds of listservers on the 'net, which began spewing back thousands of messages thus clogging the ariga mail accounts so badly that much mail was lost -- and is still being lost. To find out what happened and about the sabotage known as e-bombing, click here.

The Administrativer Detainees Page: It's one of the unspoken issues in Isrel -- More than 500 Palestinians (and a few right wing Jews) are being held without charges, let alone trial, on the basis of a law the British once used against Jewish and Arab patriots under the League of Nations Mandate that gave the crown control of the Holy Land. Israeli use of the law has always been a stain on our democracy, but if there is to be any meaning to the peace process, there must be an end to this outrageous wholesale violation of human rights. Here's just one recent item about the situation: The Administrativer Detainees Page:

Nov 26 1997 THE MARGINALIZATION OF ISRAELI POLITICS By Sam Shube: If Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister is not ended prematurely by his own incompetence or the fruits of his compulsive dissembling, he will go down in history as having brought about a sea change in Israel politics.

Nov 26 1997Okay, now that we've reached Thanksgiving it's time to start noticing Xmas is coming. Here's a classic Norwegian Xmas ballad called Juleaftenen -- Christmas Eve -- by Henrik Wergeland, a national Norwegian poet. It's at http://home.sol.no/~kmeyer/wergeland.htm which is an extraordinary personal site by Michael Holmboe Meyer whose Stavenger History Guide is a wondrous work of weaving hundreds of threads including the Nobel Prize Internet Archive. But before you go, bookmark this page so you can come right back.

Nov 21 1997 420 Jewish and Palestinian Americans Meet To Build A Common Future It happened, and no one can ever again say it can't be done. Near San Francisco International Airport, the hotel sign above Highway 101 said, "Welcome Jews and Palestinians Building A Common Future," making it a fact before people ever stepped inside. Five hours later, minds and hearts had changed. Strangers had become friends, and enemies were talking about becoming partners to invigorate the public peace process. Here are some accounts of this historic and encouraging moment, and events leading to it.

Nov 20 1997 Philip Hyams is a poet now living in Israel. His PLASTIC FLOWERS IN PARADISE is a short, intense poem about the situation. Very much worth the read, even if you ordinarily don't read poetry.

Nov 20 1997 The International Top 30 Pop Charts in Israel has turned into The Ariga Interactive International Pop Charts You rank your faves from a list of 25 songs posted by Shay the hitsmaker@writeme.com aka U.M.S. We post the results once a week (probably Saturday nights-Sunday mornings). With as many as 1,000 people a week entering the Ariga International Pop Charts Page since it opened in Sept 1995, we hope this new interative chart will be a success.

Nov 19 1997 Rabbi Arthur Waskow on Death - and Reconciliation: "Avraham died . . . and Yitzchak and Yishmael his sons buried him." "Isaac and Ishmael his sons"? This is the only time in the great saga of our founding families that the Torah speaks of them together, calling them both Abraham's sons (Gen. 25: 9). Until this moment the Torah has never allowed us to see them together, in a direct relationship. Always before they have been described separately: Click here for the full essay from the Religious Pluralism weave at Ariga.

Nov 14 1997 A litle bit of Blatant Sel-Promotion (BSP): Editor and Publisher Interactive's Tom Mangan, owner of Newsies on the Net picks Ariga as Journalist Personal Web Sites of the week -- Here's what he wrote

November 10 1997 While everyone's watching the Likud convention, we suggest a peek at "Just another week in Hebron" from the Christian Peacemakers Team

New starting November at Ariga: Rabbi Amy Levin of the Bet Hakerem Masorti (Conservative) Congregation in Jerusalem, now writes an English-language Parashat Hashavua (Torah Portion of the Week) at Ariga. Her perspective is liberal and scholastic, and at eye-level for believers and non-believers alike, and appears as part of our renewed effort to publish articles supporting Religious Pluralism in Israel.

Nov 8 1997 Settlement Report from the Foundation for Middle East Peace