FreeLists / va-richmond-general / [va-richmond-general] to Jason

["Michael Shapiro" <sc.tanager@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

    Mind telling me why I haven't gotten any kind of response on my last two 
attempts at a post? I understand the first one may have been a bit "feisty," 
which is why I sent the second one. What was wrong with the second one? Do you 
have a problem with negotiated peace treaties? Do you deny that organizations 
such as Hamas are terrorists just like al Qaeda? Or is the deliberate killing 
of Israeli children justified in your eyes/those of the RPEC board? Do you/you 
all not believe that Israel has a right to exist as a nation and that the P.A. 
should recognize that fact? Have you seen the photograph recently of 
Palestinians protesting the accord showing a Palestinian youth carrying a 
modified Kalishnikov rifle? Perhaps you all think he's a collector and was on 
his way to a gun show. 
    The second e-mail I sent I thought was very fair and balanced. I did not 
accuse the P.A. of anything that's not true. I simply pointed out that the 
proposed peace accord doesn't ask Palestine to do anything. Are you all of the 
belief that all Palestinians are simply freedom fighters trying to 
protect/obtain a homeland, and that the killing of non-military people - teens 
at night clubs, families out to dinner, people on the way to work, children on 
their way to school - is justified? How is what Hamas is doing any different 
from what Al Qaeda did on 9/11? I'm trying to understand you and RPEC. I'm 
really beginning to think that RPEC stands for the Richmond PALESTINE Education 
Center and you all are either anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli (which is basically 
the same thing). Why is every  ethnic organization entitled to a homeland free 
from war and terrorist attacks, except for Jews? Why is every ethnic group 
allowed to protect themselves, except Jews? Why is it not acceptable for Al 
Qaeda, the IRA or Basque separatists to kill innocent non-combatants, but it's 
ok for Hamas, Fatah, et al? Why is it ok for Pakistan to build a wall along its 
border with Afghanistan (I haven't heard a word about that) and for the US to 
have walls along the border with Mexico, but it's not ok for Israel to have one 
along the border with the West Bank? Maybe they shouldn't be building it so far 
INSIDE the West Bank, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't build a wall at all.
    Israel is not perfect. I admit it. I am no fan of Ariel Sharon. I am 
against the building of settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. I believe the 
Palestinian people should have their own nation (even though there are many 
people who say that JORDAN is their country, as Trans-Jordan was created 
specifically for them in 1948). I am, ultimately, FOR PEACE. However, as I said 
in the e-mail  I TRIED to post, is that Israel shouldn't be the only one forced 
to make concessions! What good is a peace accord if the people it's supposed to 
help don't accept it? Haven't we learned anything from World War I? You all 
seem to have this belief that the Palestinians can do no wrong. Try telling 
that to parents who have lost their children! Put yourselves in THEIR place - 
how would YOU feel? How would you feel if there were a group of people who 
hated you so much that they were willing to kill themselves as long as they 
could take as many members of your family as possible with them? How would you 
feel if there were a group of people that hated you so much that they said you 
made your bread with the blood of their children? That BURNED your holy books? 
That taught their children how EVIL you and your people were? How ALL your 
people are untrustworthy? That the country that you, your parents, and their 
parents were born in doesn't exist and is really part of THEIR country? Ehud 
Barak offered Arafat everything he asked for, but he turned him down! Not only 
that, but he planned a new intifadah against Israel and did this BEFORE Ariel 
Sharon went to the Temple Mount!
    I thought my post was very reasonable. this one is not because I am furious 
at what I and most Jews see as anti-Semitism. Did you read ANYTHING at 
tikkun.org OTHER than what you, personally agree with? Did you read the link at 
their website about the new anti-Semitism? Did you know that Rabbi Lander 
opposes the kind of thinking that you and RPEC espouses and works to oppose it? 
Did you know that Rabbi Lander and Tikkun.org - like HonestReporting.org - 
works to oppose biased reporting in the media? Or do you only pay attention to 
who/what you agree with/that fits in your narrow-minded beliefs about right and 
wrong? Has it never occurred to you that there are ISRAELIS suffering, too? 
That Palestinians don't have a monopoly on pain,. suffering, and unfairness? 
Unlike Hamas and others, though, Israelis don't strap bombs on their chests and 
walk into downtown Ramallah and blow up Palestinian children going to school or 
adults going to work. If you are TRULY interested in peace education and not 
Palestinian education, you should allow opposing views to be presented, as long 
as they are presented in a rational way, using logical arguments, without lying 
or distorting the truth - especially when the opposing view is also that of 
someone interested in peace!!!  Try talking to Israelis. Try talking to people 
who have been to Israel and seen what's going on. Try talking to people who are 
knowledgeable about what's going on. I have repeatedly given you the names of 
people who are educated on the history of the region, past and present. You 
haven't spoken to any of them. I know because I talk to them on a regular basis 
and they say they've never spoken to you. You want to set up some sort of 
conference discussing Rabbi Lander's ideas. I doubt you will have any Jewish 
leaders form the Richmond community, tough , will you, since none of them agree 
with you?
    I've said all I have to say on the issue. I hope you actually think about 
what I said and that it's made a difference (other than just yelling back). If 
you want to kick me off the listserv, go right ahead. I've had about enough of 
your/RPEC's ignorant anti-Semitic/anti-Israeli beliefs, anyway. 
Michael Shapiro
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