from Aljazeera
Speaking to Aljazeera.net on Thursday, the director of Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem, Sami Awad, said the demand from Palestinians to learn how to practise passive resistance was greater than his six trainers could provide.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
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9 comments:
"Holy Land Trust. " :-( I hate religion.
Just for the record, peaceful approaches don't always work. I'd say ask several tribes of American indians, except they are no longer around to ask. Same thing for extinct wildlife. :-(
or you could ask Ghandi, or Martin Luther King... no wait, you can't.
The thing is that they are looking for ways to protest peacefully, which says that they are tired of dying in vain, or at least of dying and trying to take out as many of the other side as they can while doing it. The people are ready for their leaders to talk.
In a war where one side has american weapons, and the other side has sticks and stones, or home made bombs, this could be saying something.
My point is that there are people you can negotiate with, and there are people where it would be a mistake to negotiate.
Israel has had some rational leaders. Yitzhak Rabin was obviously a great leader. Ehud Barak was someone you could at least talk to. If I were a Palestinian I would not trust Ariel Sharon to keep any promises. With all the creative talent in Israel, they can do better than Sharon.
I think Americans could play a big role in undermining the Israeli hardliners by denying them the military support they depend on. This would push moderates and people open to compromise back into the discussion. The US is the main obstacle to peace in this regard, and American citizens have a unique opportunity to affect the outcome.
I was just looking up jewish lobbies, because you always hear that the jewish lobbies have bought out Congress. Just so we know who we are talking about:
American-Israel Public Affairs Committee $1,280,000 in 2003
United Jewish Communities $340,000 in 2003
American Jewish Committee $220,000 in 2003
Hadassah $160,000 in 2003
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago $141,089 in 2003
Zionist Organization of America $140,000 in 2003
Anti-Defamation League $140,000 in 2003
Republican Jewish Coalition $80,000 in 2003
Jewish War Veterans of the USA Less than $10,000 per half year.
Looks to me like the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee is the biggy. I've always thought that "the jewish lobby" sounded a bit vague.
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