Readers’ opinions

Dear Editor

I was very much impressed by Mr Engdahl’s article on what four more years of Bush will bring. It was excellent. Indeed I am impressed with nearly all of the articles I have found thus far on your site. Please keep up the valuable work you are doing.

I do have one possible disagreement with Mr Engdahl, and that is his characterization of John Ashcroft as a “religious fanatic of the far right”.

Nevertheless I, too, despise Mr Ashcroft because of his extreme hypocrisy in supposedly condemning these evils [such as abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia] and yet working for a government that is doing its best to promote these evils (and more) throughout the world. I am disgusted by his contempt for the normal freedoms we Americans once enjoyed, freedoms that are being taken from us daily by people like Bush, Ashcroft and their neocon superiors. There is nothing “right wing” about what these characters are doing to us. In my book, the right-wingers want to curtail government power and abuses and the left wing wants to increase them. Stupid right-wingers (and there are thousands of them) who support the foul aggression in Iraq, who support blindly the crimes of the Israelis against the Palestinians, who care nothing that their liberties are being lost in this phony “war on terrorism” are not right-wingers in my book. Therefore I believe Mr Engdahl should choose his words more carefully.

But perhaps “right” and “left” have totally lost their meanings these days. That is possible. And if that is the case, perhaps we should be reminded of the famous French phrase, “Beware the Right – but beware the Left.”

Again, keep up your fine work. I find it invaluable.

Dan Guenzel (USA)

Sir

Please accept a few comments on your latest issue, which I found very interesting.

1. “Seeds of Destruction”; this is quite true. In England the Association of Master Bakers has refused to use GM flour.
2. “The Significance of Sovereignty”: It is all very well to talk, but why do the French not start up a moderate political party, (as in tiny Estonia, Poland and Britain), dedicated to leaving the EU. It is no good just blaming America for everything.
3. Harry Potter books: Responsible people think that they are very bad and should not be given to children. There is a saying, “The devil has the best tunes,” which, when one looks at the world today, rather seems to be the case.
4. The very bad situation in Grozny: Why does the world not condemn Communist Russia in the same way as the Neo-Cons in America, although I have read in American books that both of these are hell-bent on the New World Order, as are the EU people in Europe.

C. S. (England)

Dear Editors

I would like to comment on Miriam Stern’s proposal. First let me relate that I have experience with the subject. I am a Jewish Israeli anti-occupation activist who lives in Israel. A principal purpose of my activism is to inform. This I do via emails, presentations to audiences, and by taking people to the Occupied Territories to see for themselves.

Miriam Stern’s solution is applicable to dialogue groups outside of Israel. But, sadly, won’t work here. There are also dialogue groups inside of Israel, but they relate mainly to Israeli Jews and Israeli Palestinians – Palestinians who are citizens of Israel, whose conditions are very different from the Palestinians living under occupation in the PA.

Of course Miriam is right. Knowing one another is a key to solving problems. I have many Palestinian friends, but not because they are Palestinian. For me, it is not a question of being Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu, etc or Secular that is at stake. People of like interests get along and care about one another. Still, to realize this, one has to appreciate the Palestinian situation.

I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that Israeli Jews and many Jews abroad do not want to know about Palestinians. I have not succeeded to convince even my neighbors whom I have known for over 40 years to come with me to the Occupied Territories to see with their own eyes, and to hear with their own ears – to see that Palestinians are human beings, to see that as a whole they are not a violent people (the contrary is true), to see the conditions under which they barely exist, to see what Israel is doing to them, how it is stealing their lands, destroying their properties, humiliating them, keeping them from receiving medical care, and the rest of the horrible truth, while no one in the outside world gives, appears to give a damn. Foreigners are glad to come with me for a day’s tour, but I have not succeeded, with all the powers of convincing that I know, to persuade Israelis to come with me. They do go on bus tours of the wall, but are afraid to come with me to the villages. Bus tours of the wall are important, but do not bring people into contact with one another.

Miriam Stern’s solution is theoretically correct, but is, unfortunately, inapplicable here.

Dorothy Naor (Israel)

Dear Editors

What a heartening message from Myriam Stern. I wish there were more people getting to know the other side and speaking up.

A.G. (Syria)