Ariga: July 2000

AOL users, please note -- due to anti-spam measures by AOL, you sometimes do not receive your update. Please inform abuse@aol.com that Ariga mail is not spam.

July 27 2000 Peace or War in Jerusalem -- a post Camp David view from The Other Israel, a veteran peace group.

July 21 2000 Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc) movement renews its "Jerusalem, Capital of the Two States" campaign. Click here for more information

July 20 2000 Dear friends, This is a chain letter for peace - and it is most urgent. You can win the most precious gift of all by sending this letter to your friends, and sending a letter like the one below to President Clinton, Chairman Arafat and PM Barak: you can help bring peace and try to make a future for the people of the Middle East, especially the children. We must make it clear to our leaders that we support their efforts for peace. We must underline that strict adherence to the "red lines" of the extremists may mean that the red lines will be drawn in blood. Please send the following letter to the summit negotiators and other public officials, and to at least twenty friends right now - there may never be another opportunity.
Sent to Ariga by Ami Isseroff of
Mideast Web

Letter begins:

Dear Mr President, Chairman Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak,

I write to lend my wholehearted support and encouragement to your efforts to achieve a negotiated peace. The real "red line" of all decent people in the Middle East must be to stop the conflict, avert further pointless bloodshed, give each side the right to self-determination and dignity, and allow a new generation to be raised with hope and love.

Failure of the negotiations will mean the failure of hope in the Middle East. If there is no peace, neither side will get security, and the Palestinian refugees will be condemned to many more years of misery. With peace, Jerusalem can become a sacred symbol of the best aspirations of humanity: peace, alturism and brotherhood. Without peace, Jerusalem will come to symbolize the worst weaknesses of humanity: possessivenes, violence and intolerance.

The people of the Middle East are watching you. Not just the extremists, but the silent majority whose sons and daughters may grow up to a bright future, or may be sacrificed to "red lines" in the next round of violence, or be condemned to a life of misery and insecurity. If you understand that these are the real choices, then you understand that you must not come away from the summit empty handed.

Signed -- Your name, city, state, country

Now, open your email application.
Copy paste the following into your cc:
President@Whitehouse.gov,First.Lady@Whitehouse.gov,secretary@state.gov, barak@pmo.gov.il,ask@israelemb.org,info@nmopic.pna.net

That will send the message to all three leaders, plus the secretary of state, the Israeli embassy and the Palestinian information office.
Now, copy paste the text into the email body area.
Use the to: field to send the whole thing on to a friend.

An Open Letter
to Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak by Yael Haran, of Sleeping Giant In February of 1998 we were alerted to the painful reality that the citizens of Israel were not being told the truth about the non-conventional threats emerging on Israel’s home-front. To the letter

Peace One Day is a terrific campaign to try to get people all over the world to declare a ceasefire, even if it's only for one day. By coincidence they are holding an afternoon at Neve Shalom on July 30. Given the current events, their one-day event at the Jewish-Arab village is, as far as we're concerned, yet another expression of support for peacemaking at Camp David -- and its aftermath. Here's a link to Peace One Day And here's the link to Neve Shalom

Gush Shalom's weekly message Jerusalem must be the capital of the two states - West Jerusalem the capital of the State of Israel and East Jerusalem the capital of the State of Palestine. Jerusalem must be the Capital of Peace. (From the Manifesto "Our Jerusalem" drafted by Gush Shalom and signed in June 1995 by 875 Israeli intellectuals, writers, artists, professors and peace activists and the Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem. see www.gush-shalom.org Note: This same exact message ran on July 21, 1999.

The Iraqi Opposition Falls on Hard Times -- A Stratfor Global Intelligence report Iraqi opposition groups are claiming that they are increasingly the targets of operations by Baghdad's intelligence service. Reports in Arabic-language newspapers and by individual opposition figures claim that colleagues are being assassinated in Iran, in particular, with the approval of the Tehran government. The reports themselves seem to reflect only a fragment of the truth: Sponsors in both Washington and Tehran have cast the opposition adrift, feuding has probably turned to infighting and Baghdad's security services are taking advantage of increasing targets of opportunity. To the full piece

July 19 2000 Camp David News from the Peace Camp Email messages, etc. that come to Ariga about activities of support for the peace efforts at the Camp David summit.

July 18 2000 The Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement between the European Union and Israel For anyone wondering why peace is good for Israel -- and there are plenty of people out there who say peace isn't that important, here's a report on a new agreement between Israel and the European-Mediterranean Association. To the full report.

July 15 2000 Knesset Suicide by Uri Avnery Experts on wildlife report the odd behavior of the lemmings, who commit collective suicide. When on the march, they do not stop at the edge of the sea but march straight on into the water and drown. Lately, many members of the Knesset behave similarly. To the full article

July 11 2000 "Get Jerusalem Back on Track" -- An urgent appeal for a rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: For just $70 million, the existing rail link between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv can be repaired and upgraded within 18 months. Passengers will be able to travel from downtown Jerusalem and Malcha to Tel Aviv in 58 minutes of comfort and style during rush hour. The Beit Shemesh/Jerusalem/Tel Aviv commute will take only 20/35 minutes. To the full text -- including a faxable form to send to the three people who have the power to decide.

July 10 2000 Why I support Ehud Barak at Camp David by Robert Rosenberg The conventional wisdom this week, on the left and the right, in the peace camp and in the settler camp, among American Jews and Palestinian Arabs, is that while Ehud Barak has a lot of balls (pardon the expression) he doesn't know what he's doing. I beg to differ. To the full piece

July 10 2000 Belatedly, Ariga recommends the Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, an online monthly publication dealing with strategic and political developments in the Middle East.

July 9 2000 As Barak goes to Camp David, the entire peace camp wants to wish him well -- Supporters will line the road from the Prime Minister's Residence to the airport with posters and people demonstrating support. Tomorrow July 10, Monday morning, Time 7-9 AM. On Tuesday, July 11, at 7 PM, a demonstration of support outside the Prime Minister's Residence is planned under the slogan "The majority is in favor of peace." Please note: peace process opponents are going to be out in force in the coming days will be out in force. We need to be there too. For details, from Peace Now, call Noam 054-218518, from Oz VeShalom, call Leah 053-920206 or Miriam 6730196 and from Meimad call Ranit 058-812537 Important: Every night, until the peace delegation returns from Camp David, between 9 to midnight, pro-peace supporters are gathering at Rabin Square. Bring good will, good cheer and good food. It's fun. And on July 22, a mass rally is planned for the plaza.

July 3 2000 From the TIKKUN Magazine list: The Iranian system which yesterday sentenced ten Iranian Jews to prison for allegedly belonging to organizations which supported Iran's enemy Israel reminds us of the need to use every possible non-violent means to isolate and weaken the horrendous regime in Iran. For all the talk about Iranian "moderates," we are faced with a society which has democratically chosen an extremely repressive and human rights-denying society. Those of us who are often critical of Israel's denial of rights to Palestinians, and the continued attempts by some members of the Knesset to perpetuate the use of torture against prisoners who are held without charges (and to overturn the recent Israeli Supreme Court decision against torture), have never forgotten the far worse denial of human rights in some of the surrounding states of the Middle East--and we raise our voices in anger at this latest outrage by Iran. We understand the ways that a vacuous secular society under the Shaw accelerated class differences and gave many Iranians a motive to find a religious or spiritual route to find meaning that would be an alternative to the vacuity and hurtfulness of the US-supported regime, but as I've argued in my new book Spirit Matters, there is a huge distinction between reactionary spirituality as a response to the worst aspects of the globalization of capital, and the kind of Emancipatory Spirituality that we need to support. Indeed, one of the reasons why it is so important for us to develop an Emancipatory Spirituality that can provide a counter to the globalization of capital is precisely that unless we do so we are likely to see further advances in the kind of reacitonary spirituality that rules in Iran and remains a live option in many other countries. The anti-Semitic and repressive decision of the Iranian court underscores how dangerous it is when we let reactionary forces define the spiritual option, and the importance for us of accelerating the task of building the kind of globalization of spirit that I describe in Spirit Matters. Meanwhile, please join me and the TIKKUN community in registering our protests by contacting the Iranian Embassy in Wasshington and by expressing our strong feelings to our elected representatives and asking all those seeking public office to explain what actions they intend to take against Iran. --Rabbi Michael Lerner Editor, TIKKUN Magazine http://www.tikkun.org

July 1 2000 An invitation to participate in the International Peace Poem Project. The Peace Poem was started in 1996 on Maui Island by a six-year-old girl and now contains over 30,000 lines in 60 languages from over 70 nations. We will be presenting the poem to the United Nations in October of 2000. More information

Today's Situation || Yesterday's Situation

Back to the top

Using Amazon or Google links from this page to do your online shopping and searching is another way to help Ariga.

Visit one of the subject areas for the books interest Ariga visitors: Yiddish || Middle East Affairs || Military Affairs || Religion || Hippotherapy (Horses and Feldenkrais) || Women's Issues || Pop Culture || Cooking || American Issues || Amazon's Top 100 Best Sellers

Sponsored links: North Cyprus Properties || Software Development