The following is an update from Suzanne Taylor and TheConversation.org Making Sense of These Times [http://www.theconversation.org] Website. Thank you for your interest. If you wish to be removed from this list at any time, just let us know.____________________________________________________April 19, 2002Quotes that appear on the site in the Quotes section, are in bold in this Five Star Piece.Five Star Piece: To the Courageous Soldiers Who Say "NO!" -- Benjamin von Mendelssohn, April 2, 2002Suzanne's comments: This made me cry -- beyond who is right and who is wrong and which side anyone is on is the pure horror of war. (I wrote a little piece about it in November, 2001, "Making War Unthinkable" [http://www.theconversation.org/c-making.html]). May the call swell in volume till it is heard round the world. "This is the disease of a male society. We get trained what it means to be a man right from the beginning. We hardly get trained what it means to be a human. But we young men should grow up instead of just growing old."“We will not go on fighting beyond the ‘green line’
for the purposes of domination, expulsion,
starvation and humiliation of an entire people.”
From the declaration of combat officers and soldiers of the IDF,
published in the Ha’aretz on the 27th of January, 2002
My name is Benjamin von Mendelssohn and I work at the “Institute for Global Peace Work” in Tamera, Portugal. We in Tamera read the declaration quoted above and hope began to rise.
I am not a young Israeli soldier who is asked to fulfill the inhuman orders of the occupation. I do not know what I would do if I were in this situation. I live in the relative safety of a peace project in Portugal.
From here I want to express my deep respect, my gratitude and my solidarity to the growing number of young men who refuse to serve in the occupied territories.
It is a service of peace to the world to take on the consequences that this decision brings along in a militaristic society.
I know the story of a friend of mine who served in the IDF. He realized the insanity of it when his best friend was blown to pieces right next to him. He quit the army and quit the country.
But he also told me about the fascination to hold a gun, the surge of power that one feels when you “can take somebody down from a 100 meters distance as a sniper”.
This is the disease of a male society. We get trained what it means to be a man right from the beginning. We hardly get trained what it means to be a human.
But we young men should grow up instead of just growing old. We need to quit using violence to compensate the fear that we have inside. Fear that we project to the outside and then run fighting against it. Fear that threatens to strangle the whole globe.
I hope more and more young men start to become fighters against that fear, freedom fighters. What about using all our male strength in body and mind for the protection of our planet?
If this movement of courageous soldiers who say “NO!” to war – inside or outside – as the first Israeli soldiers do right now, would grow bigger, big enough that the discriminating punishments can not be kept up, then I could believe in a beginning peace process.
They need our support now. The support of their mothers, who do not want to loose their sons, of their fathers, who might serve in the army themselves but nevertheless recognize the new, of their friends who know that it is easier to be courageous together.
They need the support of international peace workers and peace initiatives who can provide rest, healing and a new orientation - simply through the advantage of not being involved directly.
And then we all need a perspective, a peace plan in which we can believe.
We need models for this peace. Places where peace can be researched, seen and felt. Places where peace and trust can grow between humans, between humans and animals, plants and all of creation.
May these courageous soldiers be the beginning of a stronger global peace movement.
May they grow into part of a movement for a free earth.
Shalom and Salaam!
[Source: IGF - Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit (Institute for Global Peace Work), Monte do Cerro, P-7630 Colos, www.tamera.org, igf@tamera.org, Tel: +351-283 635 3-06, Fax: -74 ]____________________________________________________Column from Arianna Huffington: Tulia And Beyond: Taking Drug Task Forces To Task -- April 15, 2002Suzanne's comment: The war metaphor being so prevalent in our world, hatred and opposition at every turn makes the conflagration that can wipe out humanity chillingly logical. In my own personal life, world Jewry and crop circle researchers, two communities I belong to that you'd expect to be united, are divided and at each other's throats. We all know that progress is made from hardship and breakdown -- the struggles keep teaching us or shocking us into awareness. But, now that we have the penchant and the capacity to detonate humanity, shall we go along with being party to this at every turn? Here, Arianna lights up the dark corners on the drug war front. This piece is a graphic documentation of how ordinary the embattlement is in this zone of us against ourselves. Understanding precedes action. It's time for us to "take a much harder look at the abuses being perpetrated in the name of the war on drugs."Other Quotes Drawn From the Column:...it's about drug task forces allowed to run wild...autonomous special units, which came into widespread use in the 1980s as a way of combating America's growing drug problem, have morphed into the rampaging mad dogs of the drug war, operating with very little oversight or accountability...Reports of their questionable tactics -- particularly the use of unreliable informants and a disturbing focus on poor, black drug users rather than big-time dealers -- are widespread.
And it's taxpayer money that is paying for this wave of abuse, through a federal grant program that has distributed billions of dollars to drug task forces since its inception. Making matters even worse is that this grant money is tied to the number of busts a task force makes...the money-for-arrest model has turned avaricious cops into drug war entrepreneurs, all-too-willing to bend the rules in exchange for more money and power.____________________________________________________Column from Geov Parrish: Zionists for Peace: 375 Israeli COs Demonstrate the Greatest Courage in the Conflict -- April 11, 2002Suzanne's comment: This is another contribution to the ongoing attempt to shine some light on the imploded situation in the Middle East. It fleshes out the background of the Five Star Piece we posted from a Jewish "refusenik" [http://www.theconversation.org/openletter.html], continuing, for me, the educating of us liberals to a more nuanced understanding than we've had in our prior tendency to give one-sided support to Israel: "These are not pacifists, and they are Zionists; they believe in Israel, and are willing to fight to defend it, but not to steal Palestinian land, massacre civilians, or endanger their comrades (and, ultimately, Israeli civilians) unnecessarily."Other Quotes Drawn From the Column:...while COs [conscientious objectors] were unpopular in many parts of the United States in the '60s, the risks they took are nothing next to what Israeli reservists face. There, military service is woven into the very fabric of Israeli life. All men serve; therefore, most adult men not in the army are veterans, and many identify with the military fiercely. Secondly, the military itself is seen as a very immediate guarantor of Israel's survival, and so words like "traitor" are not mindless epithets; they're taken seriously, and to refuse a callup order is also, oftentimes, to defy your boss, your co-workers, your relatives -- it is not an easy thing. Nor, if you stick by your decision, is the resulting jail time -- sure, Israel tends only to torture Palestinians, but their "sympathizers" are only one rung above. Into that maelstrom, so far, have walked an unprecedented 375 IDF reserve officers and soldiers...____________________________________________________
What's going on as a result of our "Making Sense of These Times" work?
Our last Update was forwarded by Ed Elkin to his "Jewish cyberfriends," with this message: "This valuable message from very dear friend and colleague, Suzanne Taylor, may be of some interest to you. It is thoughtful, profound and in some ways radical in the best sense. I encourage you to join her Conversation.Org group, subtitled 'Making Sense of These Times.' She helps me and many others to do just that in these most troubling times."
Carol Soucek King, who attended Joe Simonetta's talk in my home, wrote to say, "How truly moved I was to hear someone as fine Joe speak about the need for an infusion of new commandments today. My husband, Richard, and I, look forward very much to having Joseph speak at 'The Salon on the Spiritually Creative Life' at our home in Pasadena on November 10, 2002. As far as I am concerned, the exact same style of presentation is ideal -- Joe, your writing on the sheets as you spoke made things so clear -- and was enlivening. Wishes for every best kind of success, fulfillment and productivity!!!"
Joanna Morgan, who attended Joe's talk in Santa Barbara, wrote that she "found his presentation brilliant."Kim McDonald shared that, "After seeing Joe's talk, and his plotting of humanity's range of beliefs and behaviors on the bell curve, I find it much easier to understand how such extremes can exist in humanity, on the same planet, within the same species. I don't have to be scared that, because some fringe of fanaticism exists, there is no hope for humanity. The hope for the world is those of us in the majority...the middle of the curve. We will never change the extremists on either end. But we can strengthen and encourage each other."
____________________________________________________Conversation with our listmembers re past Updates:Tali Adina writes: Excuse my incredulity at this example of the extreme rhetorical paradigm that mirrors much of what is purportedly news and considered opinion [Update 4/7/02, Geov Parrish: News From the Front: Welcome to Hell, Where the Children Smile Amid the Gunfire, http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=13094]. This is not a rational dialogue and I hope this conversation that I've entered into has higher goals. Please offer your suggestions and solutions to a very catch 22 situation in this region. Otherwise the message below is a sad refusal to move beyond attacking and finger pointing as an outlet for what is, for all of us, overwhelming and scary news. This is my suggestion: let's first correct our own personal contributions to the violence whether in words and deeds and then think about what we are prepared to offer for peace. I hope the person who wrote the following can accept my response as an invitation for alternative expression: "backing one of the most barbaric military attacks in memory, an invasion that is coldly, intentionally and repeatedly flouting just about every known standard for conduct in war. No provocation can possibly justify Israel's treatment of the civilian population."
Suzanne replies to Tali: Now that I'm late responding to you, as events have unfolded in the region and more has been reported, do you still feel the same way? I am Jewish, and am appalled at the brutality being inflicted on Arab civilization. It's the same kind of thinking as bombing Afghans as a people. Blowing up civilians is no way to run the world I want to live in. Because you can't put your fingers on criminals is no justification for destroying their countries. And the stories of the inordinate cruelty Israelis are inflicting makes me ashamed.
Edwin Lainhart writes: Love your site [http://www.theconversation.org/joeandfriends.html#politics] and am looking forward to reading Joe Simonetta's book. I want to suggest another ally for the cause, Congresswoman McKinney from Georgia.
Suzanne replies to Edwin: I read her piece, on Truthout.org [http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29G.McKinney.War.htm], and also her statement, "Congresswoman McKinney Presses for Investigation of Bush Administration Links to 9/11" [http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.13A.Extend.Probe.htm]. Astonishing laundry list. She must be in the Progressive Caucus, with Barbara Lee. Why aren't these people creating a vehicle for us so we can organize? Let's all get ourselves in one place. Do you work with Cynthia?& Can't we get something organized?____________________________________________________If you are receiving this newsletter from a third party, you can sign up
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