[Reader-list] re: strange alliances

[Ravi Sundaram]

Dear Yazad,

no name calling here. This is the issue; the problem I have had with your 
forwards is this. they set the a tone for Israel's current actions which is 
apologetic and insensitive to what is going on in the West bank. Within 
Isreali society itself there  are real dissenters who do not agree with 
Sharon's policy, (Yeshuv Gul is a clear example), and quite often I find 
better reporting in Haretz from Israel than in the US press.Take the 
terrible bombing in Gaza. Haretz in Jerusalem called it a tragedy and 
attacked the Israeli government, while that horrible article you posted 
from the hysterical New York Post, simply blamed the Palestinians for it!

Among Palestinians internal debate remains strong on the bombings and there 
have been front page appeals in the Israeli press by Palestinian 
intellectuals criticizing the suicide bombings.

The Fisk article actually points to something I have personally been 
appalled by: attacks on dissenting Jewish opinion in the US (calling them 
Jew-haters) and opportunist alliances by Isreal's supporters with the 
far-right.

We cannot clinch the tragedy in Palestine on the reader list, but surely we 
cannot set up crude models of "Israel" and the Palestinians - to defend one 
and attack another.... There must be some ethical solidarity with the dead, 
and no apologies for the taking of human life, wherever it comes from.


Ravi