=sajp0311 Steve Amdur; Letters-to-the-Editor of the Jerusalem Post, Jerusalem Report, et. al; Collected Nov. 27 '03; from June '03-- Nov. 26 '03 ------------------------------------------------------------------ To: David Bedein, Israel Resource; media@actcom.co.il From: Steve Amdur, Mevo Modi'in, 73122 (D.N. HaMerkaz) Tel: 08--971-6255 E-mail: sa73122a@yahoo.com Re: Old JP Letters, for possible boilerplate. I enclose the texts of many of the letters-to-the-Editor that I've dashed off in the past few months. Most, but not all, are relevant to the campaign to reduce Israeli sovereignty and territorial control. Some, I assume, raise points with which you would disagree, and which I'm sure you can skim past. Some, I think, are well-written. (Though I include a few draft letters that would need re-writing.) Most do not get printed; so if you can make any of use of any of them, in whole or part as "boilderplate" for use by persons opposing anti-Israel media-bias, feel free to do so. with best wishes, Steve Amdur Mevo Modi'in sa73122a@yahoo.com ================================================================== ================================================================= To the JP, August __ '03 (Sent, Published) At last -- a newspaper that I can read in the subway, as soon as they build a subway. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================== Where do you sell the ends that you trim off your daily newspaper -- with all those missing articles. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Take 2: Those ends that you trim off the newspaper each morning -- do you sell them somewhere -- with all those missing features? ----------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================== JP 1 June '03 Israel has the right to live behind secure borders. The Jordan river is a practical, if not ideal, border. The 1967 Armistice line is neither a border nor secureable. ================================================================= (Not yet sent) TELL ME PRETTY LIES The state of Israel wants to give away Judea-Samaria, but nobody will sign for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Netanyahu is the only politician who could lose to Peres. And Shimon Peres is the only man who could not be elected rat-catcher in Hamlin. ------------------------------------------------------------------ AND MAYBE A RELIEF PITCHER How about we trade Yossi Beillin for peace. SENT 22 OCT ------------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================ TURF WARS 2003 (Sent; not printed.) or: IT'S WAR, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT* Lately, inside the Jaffa Gate to the Old City, I have been subject to apparent low-grade political harassment disguised as aggressive begging. I do not really look like a typical businessman from Iowa. The rather intimidating men who demand my attention claim to be residents of the Armenian Quarter; that seems unlikely. *[Cf. a now-classic line from vintage Star Trek: "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it." ] ---------------------------------- [Note (sa): (Not sent; and not OK to send: FYI only:) I would also raise the question -- not as a charge nor an insinuation, merely as a question -- of whether, outside Jaffa Gate or immediately within the courtyard of Jaffa Gate, there may occasionally be some harassment of marginal members of the Jewish community -- eg poorly-dressed and possibly homeless hippie/baal tchuva adolescents-or-older -- by young men from the East Jerusalem community, who perhaps work in an at least informal relationship with the Israel Jerusalem police forces.] One incident which I observed led me, upon reflection, to raise this question. I did not, however, observe any instance of improper behavior. ] ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================== ================================================================== (Draft Letter to the IHT='International Herald Tribune'; Not completed, not sent:) X [a French Jewish letter-writer whose name I did not note -- TRY TO FIND AND CHECK ] that a 'right of return' should be limited to those persons (or their descendents, though presumably for a limited number of generations) who have been more or less forced to leave their land of birth. This is a reasonable argument, but I think not justified. First of all: Setting criteria for admission and citizenship is considered a national perogative of a sovereign nation. Of course the Israel Law of Return is intentionally though too late the converse of the Nazi anti-Jewish laws which set the pseudo-legal framework for Nazi regional genocide. The state of Israel was established in the bitter knowlege that, had it existed prior to the Nazi takeover of Germany, the European Jewish people and their/our living culture might have been saved. But the Israel Law of Return is more than a futile gesture of redress toward an historic crime against humanity. The religious culture of Judaism, like that of aboriginal cultures -- eg the culture of the American Indianns of the Southwest -- is interwoven with a particular land/ecology. Jewish religion outside the land of Israel is 2-dimensional. It is this which gives the Jewish people a pre-eminent right to live in the land of Israel. It applies not only to 'modern religous Zionists'; but as well to to ostensibly secular Zionists (for whom Israeli culture takes the place of religion), and to ostensibly non-Zionist ultra-orthodox (who, regardless of their religious ideology, evidene a strong and deep love for the people, culture, and land of Israel). Many 'Arab' citizens and residents of the land of Israel -- some of whom may be long-coverted descendents of those Israelis and Jews who were not driven into exile -- may, more than urban and suburban recent immigrants, claim to be wedded to this land and ecology, and to and its traditional culture (however much they romanticize their tradition, at least as propoganda.) But the religion of Islam is not, as far as I know, interwoven with this land and its ecology. The religion of Judaism is interwoven with the land of Israel. ================================================================= To the Editor, Jerusalem Post: Really, it's too absurd even for Dry Bones: In their campaign for a subsidized mini-state, the 'Palestinians' choose a terrorist strategy of killing and maiming randomly selected groups of Jews. Israel responds with a tactic of individually assassinating identified mid-level terrorist organizers. And who does the world blame for civilian casualities -- Israel. ================================================================= (Reference: Media Conference, CJS 2 November '03; referring to Connie Mus (Holland) and Simon Wilson (BBC):) To JP (Sent): Two prominent and presumably objective foreign journalists recently claimed that Israel has engaged in an unprecedented escalation of the campaign against Palestinians. By this they apparently mean that a gentleman can no longer organize homicidal bombings without himself risking assassination. ================================================================= BRECHT WITH A PENTIUM Cyberspace is a "jungle of cities". As us intelligentsia (including most of Israel and half Manhattan) move into it, we need honest guides. For every honest Website and helpful program there are a hundred hustlers and a dozen predators. The Post should run more Internet features. ================================================================= If 'the rabbis' said (e.g. ad absurdum) 'we put pencils in our ears', many men would do so, and some women demand to do likewise. [Cf. a recorded remark by RSC, which I recount from memory: They were very [willing to learn]; if I had said, we put pencils in our ears, they would have put pencils in their ears.] ================================================================== Sent JP 3 Nov. '03 Suggested headline: AMATEUR ECONOMIST IN BRYLCREAM Netanyahu may be the only person in the world who could lose an election to Shimon Peres. And Peres couldn't be elected rat- catcher in Hamlin. ================================================================= The USA supports establishing a ("demilitarized") 'Palestinian' state 9 miles from Israel's coastline; but risked World War III to contain Cuba, 90 miles from the Florida shore. ================================================================= NO MORE SWISS JOURNALIST JOKES A Swiss journalist asks: how does it feel to live on Arab land. Try it in Manhattan, or Massachusetts. ================================================================== Maybe a third-world 'autonomy' will co-exist amicably within the first-world nation that reluctantly hosts it; but it seems more likely to survive in chronic hostitlity, as an extortionist pirate mini-state nurturing low-grade terrorist warfare. . Israel may be the first nation to try such an experiment. [Alternate wording: [Or maybe it will continue as a warlord anarchy, supporting an elite by crime against its own people, by foreign extortion backed by the demonstrated threat of terrorism, and by domestic chronic low-grade warfare of exceptional brutality. ============================================================== If terrorism succeeds in Israel -- and it seems well on the road to doing so, with a most expensive Lemmings' Roadmap -- it will probably be tried for real in the USA (which, the cultivated hysteria of the Bush administration notwithstanding, has suffered only one international-terrorist attack, albeit a spectacular one). It is less likely to be tried in Continental Europe, which, in its civilized way, fell nicely into a politically correct line after just a few Parisian cafe-bombings. And the English scarcely notice such things. Due, no doubt, to their miserable weather. ================================================================== As ?Shalom Freedman? points out, Zionism and humanism both presuppose the meaningfulness of life; and both tend (in the perspective of adherents) to take a teleologic standpoint. Post-Zionism and 'post-humanism' tend to presuppose an anarchic viewpoint. But the persuasiveness of post-Zionism is rooted in an unacklowleged Marxist teleologic standpoint: the notion that, as a consequence of some sort of cultural inevitability, there has been an evolution through and past Zionism. So in that sense -- by presupposing the deterministic inevitabilty of meaninglessnesss - they are diabolic. Except for those who can 'take refuge' (as the Buddhists say) or anyhow find comfort, in the romantic fantasy of the internatinal solidarity of the working class. ================================================================== =jr031123.txt; Re-re-vision of =jr031119.txt (rev. =jr031120.txt) To the Editor, Jerusalem Report: jrep@report.co.il 23 Nov '03 (2nd revision of Letter sent 19 Nov '03, rev. sent 20 Nov '03) In arguing that Israel should relinquish sovereignty over Temple Mount in exchange for a guaranteed peace, Gershon Gorenberg (JR 17 Nov '03) makes several interesting but questionable assumptions. Gorenberg gives ethics ontologic, and hence valuational, priority, if not exclusivity. To do so disregards other dimensions of civilization; in particular the 'transcendental spirituality' (in traditional Judaism and in American Indian ways) that embeds religiosity in a particular geography/ecology. (Incidentally, "to treat land as inherently holy" may characterize some 'pagan' religions; but it can not comfortably -- that is, within the bounds of ordinary language -- be termed 'idolatry'; nor is it necessarily incompatible with monotheism.) Gorenberg also presupposes the 'billiard-table' model of causality. That is: he assumes that that the events of history occur in a closed 'linear-causal' system. But this is a simplistic model of merely mechanistic ("efficient") causality. In the general case, even without considering purposive free human agency, causal factors are multiple, partial, alternative, and interactive. Hence Gorenberg argues that if Israel had concluded a 'peace treaty' with the PLO "880 Israelis and 2000 Palestinians killed in the conflict would be alive." And of course such would have been the case -- all other things being equal. But in real-world contexts (unlike laboratory experiments) all other factors do not in general remain equal. Had Israel accepted the PLO demands, it is also possible that the outcome might have been disasterous, not utopian; and the loss of life much greater. As Robert Frost observed ironically: "Two roads diverged in a wood and I -- / I took the road less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference." ================================================================= Let's trade Kfar Shermayahu for peace. I never go there. Or let's all get together, and stick it to Bat Yam. ================================================================= (not sent) Possible headlines: FROM THE DEAD HAND OF SLIPPERY JIM or FROM THE MAN WHO BOUGHT DADE COUNTY To keep the USA happy [or: to keep our Uncle Sam happy ], we should trade Ariel for peace; but only in exchange for San Francisco. Or at least Akron. ================================================================== Israel should relinquish the Territories; but only in exchange for the Louisiana Purchase. ================================================================== (not sent, on the slight chance that, if published, it might prove, amongst American readers, counterproductive:) Israel should tell Uncle Sam what to do with his Loan Guarantees. ================================================================= To the Editor, Jerusalem Post (Sent) Suggested headline: OR EVEN A WELL-DONE BOILED SEAGULL* Dear Sir: I didn't get my Geneva Initiative. ------------------------------- [Headline based on a traditional Maine recipe for boiled seagull: (Kosher l'mehadrin): Put on a large pot of water with a small, well-rounded rock. Add one well-plucked seagull of medium weight. Let boil for several hours. After several hours, remove the seagull and eat the rock. ] -------------------------------- ================================================================== (sent JP): THAT'S JOISY, MOISHE Yossi Beillin was very wise not have convened his Conference in Hackensack, New Jersey. ================================================================== JP, 3 July 03 There is nothing out-of-order in a rabbi giving the opinion that it would be contrary to Jewish religious law for the government of the state of Israel, or anyone acting on its behalf, to relinquish to non-Jewish control a portion of the biblical land of Israel. ================================================================== JP 5 July '03 There is no risk from genetically modified foods; the George Bush family of Houston (ex-Connecticut) have been eating them for 3 generations. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 July '03 -- to In Jerusalem, JP The Mayor of Jerusalem has the right to appoint as many Deputy Mayors as he needs, at $10,000 a month apiece. However (in accord with Roman tradition) they should be personally responsible for the expenses of the city. ---------------- (variation sent, 25 Nov '03 to ij@jpost.com, under suggested headline: $100,000 apiece for What? ) The Mayor has the right to appoint as many Deputy Mayors as he sees fit, provided, of course, that they meet the City's operating expenses out of their salaries. ================================================================ JP 8 July '03 [The following was not sent; it's an important point which I'd like to see developed: that this 'intifada' is a multi-dimensional war, and that whoever writes 'Palestinian' overall strategy (some very expensive Saudi-paid PR firm, maybe ) is much subtler than Israel's planners. Arab culture is know for its subtlety; and I think so prizes deviousness [Cf. the Greek epithet for Odyseus, 'polymekanos', the man of many devices, 'wile-y' ] that they'd make the Greeks look like Kansas farmers. ]: --------------- As Carolyn Glick points out (JP 4 Jul 03), our Arab opponents don't play plastic soliders: the present war is not like wars of the past. Wars are won by a 'pardigm shift'. This war is waged on a complexly interacting multi-dimensional front: para- military, diplomatic, economic (both capitalist and philanthropic), political (both international and national), mass- media (internet, TV news, newsmagazines, broadsheet newspapers, tabloid newspapers ), psychologic, psychic, religious. As Glick notes, terrorist incidents are not the essence of this war; merely its plot. So a policy of assassinating mid-level hitmen, although unlawful, is not immoral, but may not be sufficient. ================================================================== [In the following, I make some of the preceeding points more clearly. So this is worth reading, whether or not one supports the 'Jerusalem Summit'. Sent to JP, but as a (*.txt) Attatchment, so maybe not opened nor read. The JP Letters Editor sent me a note saying (tersely), Don't send Attatchments. Maybe that means they refuse to Open Attatchments, at least as Letter-to-the-Editor 's (from fear of computer virus); or maybe it just means, they don't like 'em. =jp031021 Letter to the Editor, Jerusalem Post From: Steve Amdur, Mevo Modi'in, 73122 ISrael Date: 03/10/21 Ref: JP 17 Oct 03, Advt, "Joint Declaration of Jerusalem Summit" ----------------- JP 21 October '03 SAM HUNTINGTON WOULD BLUSH: The Declaration of the self-styled 'Jerusalem Summit' (posted JP 17 Oct 03) seems a bit overblown. Here are a few points in reaction (based only on the Jerusalem Summit Declaration, not its Website): Israel may be the testing-ground for a new paradigm of warfare; a sort of low-grade but multi-dimensional terrorist subversion of democracies. But if so, the optimal response is not necessarily the sort of unlimited international military opportunism practiced by the Bush administration. ("Fighting fleas with a sledgehammer.") Nor is Islamic fundamentalism necessarily the Arche-enemy. Maybe "civilization itself is in jeopardy" (if only from SPAM & McDonald's); but it has been at risk since the USA incinerated Nagasaki, and is exponentially more at risk with nuclear proliferation. 'Civilization' is not exclusive to the USA-dominated bloc. 'Western civilization', such as it is, lacks the subtlety of Islamic culture, the depth of African culture, the tradition of Asian cultures. The role played by 'radical Islam' even in Arab terrorism, let alone international terrorism, is not clear (USA demonology notwithstanding). But it is not an imperial threat comparable to Nazi-ism, or even to Stalin-ism. Islamic fundamentalism, like Christian and Jewish fundamentalism, is not inherently malign; it is a particular cultural rejection of the excess of modernity. To advocate a 'war on radical Islam' [whatever that means] as a 'righteous cause' is conceptually incoherent, politically simplistic, and ethically irreponsible. Sam Huntington would blush, or should. Steve Amdur Mevo Modi'in SENT ================================================================== (Draft notes for a revision of the draft article on 'multi- dimensional warfare':) My neighbor says: Never try to outthink a mouse; you might be disappointed. Israel is in a very low-grade territorial war with a coaltion of ostensibly 'Palestinian' mini-groups of terrorist extortionists. Those groups thrive on a state of chronic low-grade warfare; manipulating a pose of victim-hood, backed by the demonstrated threat of terrorism, to extort funds from western governments. Israel has all but lost that war; it is looking only for a face- saving surrender. The 'right of return' has always been a red herring. It is aximoatic that nations, losing nations anyhow, fight each war in the terms of the last. The present war is multi-dimensional: terrorist acts are merely the stage-setting. Dimensions include: pseudo-military acts; economic attrition; diplomatic maneuvering; battles for public opinion (media bias); psychologic; psychic. These interact. A nation which, under pressure of hostile action, cedes a large quantity of its territory and natural resources, may be said to have lost a war, even if it pretends that it wishes to relinquish that land. ================================================================= Sent JP 28 October '03; but sent as an Attatchment, and so maybe not even Open'd. Really, it's too absurd even for Dry Bones: In their campaign for a subsidized mini-state, the 'Palestinians' choose a terrorist strategy of killing and maiming randomly selected groups of Jews. Israel responds with a tactic of individually assassinating identified mid-level terrorist organizers. And who does the world blame for civilian casualities -- Israel. [N.B.: As I mention, I'd be glad to see anyone else use the letters, wording, or ideas that I've sketched. In particular, I'd be glad to see 'Dry Bones' pick up this idea. I assert no claims, financial nor otherwise, to any of this material./sa] ================================================================== Ref: JP Editorial, 28 October '03 Replacing tyrany with anarchy may nurture terrorism, not abort it. ================================================================== It is most appropriate to the present low-level but crucial kulturkampf -- in which, as the ship of state slogs northward into eternal winter, the "secular" humanist left side of the boat seeks to sink the "religious" right side, the better to cozy up to the world's richest Imperialism -- that Gershon Gorenberg cites the Deir Yasein massacre. Because, from what I read, the Deir Yassein massacre never occured; it was a fabrication by the 1948 Israel Left to discredit the Irgun. Shmuel Katz notes that Yair Tzaban, one of Israel's most distinguished left-wing leaders, arrived at Deir Yassin shortly after the Irgun had left, and found no signs of a massacre. [ I suppose someone has written and posted to Internet a short concise rebuttal of the 'Deir Yassin' canard; I'd appreciate that/those LINKs. ] 'Myths and Facts' maybe? Shmuel Katz [unless I misremember, and it was Ben Hecht ] was very clear and convincing on it; but I don't now have his book at hand. ================================================================== (new, not yet sent) "DECLARE A VICTORY AND BUG OUT" Ref: JP 19 Nov '03; Daniel Pipes, 'The case for 'Iraqification'' Daniel Pipes, forswearing imposed democracy, civil liberties, and maybe human rights, follows traditional USA banana-republic policy in calling for a pro-US dictator in Iraq. ------------------------------------------------------------------ BRITNEY SPEARS FOR PRESIDENT It seems obvious, from what I read on the covers of TIME and Newsweek, that George Bush Jr. has had his little war. Unfortunately for the future, especially hereabouts, it was the wrong one. ------------------------------------------------------------------ DEMOGRAPHY RECONSIDERED It is not unthinkable that Israel might restrict the right to vote for Knesset and Prime Minister (for what little that's worth; and what little they are worth). Two-tiered citizenship is not apartheid; the USA and UK muddled along with it until enfranchising women. ------------------------------------------------------------------ JP 26 Nov In abetting the nascent European boycott of goods from post-1967 Israel, Ehud Olmert let himself be bullied and outbluffed by the EU, which, prudently, goes to considerable lengths to appease international 'Palestinian' terrorism. ------------------------------------------------------------------ jp 25 November '03 In the real world, as I recall, people and groups that make a practice of murdering autobus passengers, cafe coffee drinkers, and the like, cannot necessarily count on continuing to enjoy unrestricted freedom of residence. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent ca. 23 Nov. ith minor variations to jp, jr, haaretz, newsweek Imagine how different the world might now be had Al Gore been recognized as the duly elected President. The USA would not now be held in the international disdain provoked by Bush Jr.'s pose of now-nothing provincialism. The 'rogue states' of Afghanistan and Iraq might without war have been contained as superficially genteel tyranies. And some steps would have been taken to acknowlege and confront the impending global ecologic crisis. Of course Israel might now be managed by Holiday Inn on behalf of a Saudi-led Consortium; but the U.S. economy would be in much better shape. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent ca. 23 Nov. '03 to jp, jr, haaretz A BETTER BOONDOGGLE Israel should immediately discontinue work on that atrocious and ruiniously expensive misnamed 'security fence', and instead open negotiations for a small portion of the Great Wall of China. Given the going rate for Chinese labor hearabouts, they could probably deliver. ------------------------------------------------------------------- "I say, the future is a serious matter -- and so, for g_d's sake, hock and soda water!" Byron, Introduction to Don Juan ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sent to metro@jpost.co.il Ref: Focus 21 Nov '03, 'Unruly patient imprisoned' (Ranana) [My source: Recollected conversation in the mid-1970's with Carole Robbins Meyers, of 22 Evergeen St., Hartford, Connecticut, a former computer programmer (systems' manager, if I recall) active in dialysis patients' rights.] Patients in need of dialysis suffer from mental impairment until their blood is cleaned. So a chronic dialysis patitent who acted irrationally adn violently while awaiting and undergoing tratment should not have been convicted of criminal behavior, much less jailed. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Sent JP 5 Nov '03 Ref: JP Letters 3 Nov, re: Derrfner, JP 3 Nov. '03 Suggested Headline: "RAW", RARE, WELL-DONE, & OVERDONE* I've often read the Israelis are exceptionally inconsiderate, but I've never noticed that. In my experience, Israelis are exceptionally considerate. * [Headline taken from my media-bias article respone to a line in Let's Go to Israel, ca. 1994, in which the writer found Israel noteworthy for "raw sex". Article cc'd to DB, probably titled 'letsgo94' [Search for letsgo* ]; article presently unavailable to me.] ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sent JP 31 Oct '03 GALUTZ PARTNERSHIP How about we move the security 'fence' to the seashore, and please everybody. ----------------------------------------------------------------- (not yet sent) One should not make too much of Palestinians killing civlians. It is no less a crime, and scarcely more sporting, that they murder uniformed young men and even young women who guard Israeli civilians. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sent JP 29 Oct '03 Re: JP Op/Ed 28 Oct (J. Shwartz) MARX MAYBE; BRECHT NYET So Swiss journalists side with the Palestinians because Palestinians suffer more than Israelis. On that basis, Switzerland should support the rest of the world. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sent JP Oct 29 '03 Re: JP Editorial, 28 Oct '03 Replacing tyranny with anarchy may nurture terrorism, not abort it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sent, JP, ca. 6 Nov '03 David bar-Ilan, z'l, was among the first to identify, analyze, and oppose anti-Israel media bias. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 'Social parasites' -- a class which Netanyahu, as a professionally elected public servant, more precisely exemplifies than identifies-- are not those 'haredim' who preserve the intellectual tradition of religious Judaism. ------------------------------------------------------------------- (Sent, JP 7/03?) Netanyahu seems to have fallen for Ronald Regan's "voodoo economics". "A rising tide lifts all boats" -- except those stuck in the mud. [Notes: "voodoo economics" was the term coined by David Stockman, Regan's Director of the Budget, until he was deemed over-qualified for the job. "A rising tide lifts all boats" -- JFK invoked that notion. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The 'Palestinian' terrorist campaign against Jerusalem is only ostensibly territorial. It is an attempt to debase and desecrate the cultural/spiritual focus and 'center' of the Jewish people. ------------------------------------------------------------------ (not sent) In calling for the resignation of Mayor Lupolanski, the Post editorial says nothing, except that he is not a media star. ------------------------------------------------------------------- I LIKE THE PYRANEES Israel should immediately demarcate geographically clear and conventionally 'defensible' borders between -- well, between its self-styled 'Palestinian' residents, and everyone else. Any above-treeline mountain range or broad unfordable river should do adequately. If such features do not exist within the present borders of the state of Israel, they should be selected from any member state of the European Union. ------------------------------------------------------------------- (Sent, ca. 25 Nov '03) EAT MORE MALEKITE GREEN I hear on the English news, such as it is, that the Ministry of Health has authorized the sale of fish-pond fish, pending determination of whether or not they contain 'significant' levels of a presumably carcinogenic chemical. [Addition, not sent:] The indidividual causation of carcinogenesis is random (like the risk of of becoming a terror victim on a city bus); so one cannot speak of safe levels of exposure, neither in terms of quantity nor duration. ------------------------------------------------------------------- (not yet sent) I notice that in your new 'yuppie' format the masthead no longer includes the Islamic date. But besides being a courtesy, that is sometimes important news. News media should include more features on Arab and Islamic culture and religion. ------------------------------------------------------------------- POP PLAUDITS Re: JP Letter 28 Nov re: JP 21 Nov '03 (Rosenblum) Greater rigour, eg pietistic misogyny, is not necessarily greater spirituality; and comic-book dogmatism is not the quintessence of Jewish religious tradition. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Palestinian autonomy has been tried and failed. The Palestinian Authority has proved itself unwilling and/or unable to prevent terrorism; and barely capable of even municipal self-government. ------------------------------------------------------------------ If Shinui were not Israeli, it would be deemed anti-Semitic ------------------------------------------------------------------ Demography is barely relevant to Israel's struggle against Arab subversion. They raise their children for media-oriented cannon- fodder. ================================================================== The area and resources of Israel are scarcely sufficient for one state, let alone two. Proposals to give away most of the remaining rural area are most foolish. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ================================================================ 29 Nov '03 21:00 34K ==================================================================