Uri Avnery
March 31, 2012
The New Mandela
MARWAN BARGHOUTI has spoken up. After a long silence, he has sent a message from prison.
Editorials & Actions
Tikkun’s NY Times full page ad against first strike on Iran appeared on March 7, 2012
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Today, our ad saying “No” to a first strike (preemptive attack) by either Israel or the U.S. on Iran, appeared in the New York Times (in the National Edition it is on page A19). The media has distorted what has been going on between Obama and Netanyahu, representing it as Obama standing up to Netanyahu and being a hero for peace. But actually what happened is that Obama legitimated a first strike and preemptive attack on Iran, arguing with Netanyahu about the timing of such an attack, seeking to allow coercive economic sanctions to work first, but stating explicitly that Israel should not be constrained in any way to follow what it decides to be in its best national interest in regard to a strike on Iran. That’s why AIPAC gave him a standing ovation when Obama addressed them a few days ago. Obama has now fully embraced the militarist position of George W. Bush who argued that it was legitimate for the U.S. to take a preemptive attack on Iraq based on the suspicion that they had nuclear weapons, just as Obama two months ago gave the green light to legislation that allows the US to imprison for life without a trial U.S. citizens the govenrnment suspects to be cooperating in some way with terrorists, and just as he has taken the lead in developing drone technology aimed at civilians (which Pentagon militarists say may soon be used inside the U.S.).
Editorials & Actions
Help Tikkun Place a NYT Ad Against Striking Iran
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Would you please help us put an ad in the New York Times, Washington Post (or maybe also Ha’aretz and Yediot in Israel, and other media, depending on how much money we can raise) to put public pressure on President Obama to NOT agree to overtly or covertly approve an Israeli preemptive strike on sites where Iran is developing its nuclear capacities? Click HERE to see the text of the ad with an opportunity to make a donation AND an opportunity to sign it. As of now, Iran does not have those capacities, and though Israeli leaders are arguing that they must strike now before it becomes impossible to block the development of nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence sources said on Friday, Feb. 24th, that Iran had not made any decision to go forward with developing nuclear weapons. You can view a sample version of the ad below (though when it is layed out beautifully on a full page in the NY Times and Washington Post, it will not look as wordy as it looks now, and there will be room for the names of some who have signed and donated to it).
Christianity
A different way to think about Jesus–evolutionary thoughts about incarnation
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Incarnation: Some evolutionary thoughts
Author: Diarmuid O’Murchu
Is Incarnation 2,000 years old? It seems God has been working since the beginning of time
According to Christian theology Incarnation refers to God’s entry into human life in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, about 2000 years ago. Accordingly, this has not happened in any other religion – for Christians, Jesus alone is the incarnation of God on this earth. I find this view disturbingly reductionistic and anthropocentric, and from a multi-faith perspective, it strikes me as being unpleasantly imperialistic. It seems to me that there are underlying assumptions urgently in need to re-evaluation.
Editorials & Actions
Each one Reach one; Each one Teach one
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Each One Reach One – Each One Teach One
“On the surface of the world right now there is War and violence and things seem dark. But calmly and quietly, at the same time, Something else is happening underground. An inner revolution is taking place And certain individuals are being called to a higher light. It is a silent revolution. From the inside out.
Editorials & Actions
Uri Avnery on Israeli National Suicide
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Uri Avnery
February 18, 2012
Thou Shalt Not Kill (Thyself)
AFTER THE founding of Israel, God appeared to David Ben-Gurion and told him: “You have created a state for my chosen people in my holy land. This merits a great reward. Tell me what you wish, and I will grant it.”
Ben-Gurion answered: “Almighty God, I wish that every person in Israel shall be wise, honest and a member of the Labor Party.”
“Dear me,” said God, “That is too much even for the Almighty. But I decree that every Israeli shall be two of the three.”
Since then, if a wise Israeli is a member of the Labor party, he is not honest. If an honest Israeli is a member of the Labor party, he is not wise.
Editorials & Actions
Honoring “the Other” or “the Stranger” by Rabbi Zalman Kastel
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Racism, Insult, “Other”-ing, Religion & the “rich Jews” comment
Late at night, a Jewish couple, Dr. Jeffrey and Mrs Cheryl Bogan, asked about getting a train home. A State Rail customer service manager, Roman Arnusch commented repeatedly and laughingly, “They’re all Jews living in the Eastern Suburbs. They’re all wealthy – they can afford to get a taxi”. A complaint was made and he was fired but then reinstated by an appeals board that declared his comment “racist, offensive, uncalled for and completely inappropriate” but deemed a six-month suspension without pay to be sufficient punishment[1]. This anecdote highlights one of the controversies about prejudice.
Editorials & Actions
End the Syrian Genocide of its Own People
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News Release February 10, 2012 from TIKKUN Magazine
More info: Contact Ashley Bates 510 644 1200
Progressive Jews Demand an End to Syrian Genocide and a Boycott of Russian and Chinese Products as Long as Those Countries Refuse to Join in Active Measures to Replace the Assad Government!!! Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine (the largest circulation progressive Jewish magazine in the world), called upon the world community to intervene and stop the genocide being waged by the Assad government against the people of Syria. In a statement sent to President Obama, the U.N. and world leaders of Western countries, Rabbi Lerner said, “The world must not sit idly by on the blood of the democracy- and human rights-seeking people of Syria against their brutal dictatorship. The Syrian regime has already killed more than 5,000 of its own citizens, and tens of thousands have been wounded, or arrested and tortured. This is a crime against humanity, and it deserves a powerful intervention from the West.”
Editorials & Actions
Bill McKibben on the Weather and Global Warming
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This week Jews celebrate our “Environmental Day–Tu B’Shvat. If you happen to be in Northern California, come to Beyt Tikkun’s environmental celebration on Saturday along with Torah study at 2115 Vine corner of Walnut St. from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Admission: a main course vegetarian dish to share with many others at a veggie pot-luck which will be part of the celebration. Meanwhile, please read Bill McKibben’s reflections below. The Great Carbon Bubble
Why the Fossil Fuel Industry Fights So Hard
By Bill McKibben
If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark.
Editorials & Actions
Dealing with Iran by James Zogby
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Dealing with Iran
Monday February 06, 2012
by James Zogby of the Arab American Institute
If we are to believe what we are hearing and reading from a variety of confirmed and unconfirmed sources, in Israel and the U.S., some day in the next few months we may wake up to the news that Israel has bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. Or maybe not. The Israelis appear to be deeply divided on the issue, sending mixed signals, almost daily, about their intentions, their capacity to execute such a mission, and even whether or not Iran’s reputed program poses an imminent danger. The U.S. is tied up in knots of its own making. Being in the throes of an election, no one wants to appear critical of Israel.
Editorials & Actions
Afghanistan, Military Budget, Iran and Israel: Update
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The NSP–Network of Spiritual Progressives–is part of a national coalition called Win Without War. Our members, together with members of dozens of other organizations, have been working against militarism in all its different dimensions. Below, I’m attaching two communications which have useful information for you as you plan your own activities for peace. Of course, a first step would be for you to help start (or revitalize if there once was one but now doesn’t exist or has “tired blood”) a chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives in your community. To join or renew membership, click here.
Editorials & Actions
Hurrah for Egypt
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Editor’s note: Uri Avnery is one of the most courageous leaders of the Israeli peace movement and Tikkun is honored to print and send out his articles. As with articles we select for the magazine and articles we print on our website, we don’t always agree, but we are always stimulated to think in new ways by these authors. In Uri Avnery’s case, we can’t recall anything recently with which we’ve disagreed, so this is more a statement of our principle than a comment on this piece, which we found very important and a true reflection of the spirit of Embracing Israel/Palestine (which you can order at www.tikkun.org/newsite/eip. Uri Avnery
January 28, 2012
Hurrah for Egypt! THE IMPOSSIBLE has happened.
Editorials & Actions
Help Us Create Passover Seders or Easter Gatherings for the 99 Percent
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Both Passover and Easter have a message of liberation and hope for the downtrodden of the earth. And today, it’s important to understand that the “downtrodden”– those who are hurt by the materialism and selfishness built into the very ethos of global capitalism– are NOT ONLY the homeless, the jobless, the underemployed, those working more than one job in order to help support their families, those whose mortgages have inflated to levels that they cannot pay, those who can’t afford college or university as states are forced to raise the fees of public universities, or those who are likely to lose their jobs in the next few years. The downtrodden are also those who find themselves surrounded by others who seem endlessly selfish and materialistic, or people who see you only in terms of what they can get from you, how you can be part of their plan for themselves, how you can advance their interests. No—it’s not just strangers. Increasingly, people today report that even their friends, even their spouse or children, seem to see them through the frame of “what have you done for me lately?” or “what can you give me to satisfy MY needs?” No wonder people feel unrecognized, disrespected, and very lonely even when they are in a family or a loving relationship.
Editorials & Actions
No Joy in Mudville–Iran & Romney; Obama abandons Habeas Corpus; Israel
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Mitt Romney Embraces The Neocons by MJ Rosenberg
The top three vote-getters in the Iowa caucuses — Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) — responded to success in very different ways. Santorum, best known for his antediluvian views on gay rights and choice, emphasized the economy and job creation. Paul, keeping with the themes he has focused on his entire career, talked about personal freedom, the need to restrict “big government,” and preventing a new war in the Middle East. And Romney, who is at this point the frontrunner for the nomination, started his speech by discussing the purported failure of Barack Obama to confront Iran. With the economy still in the doldrums, Romney sees Iran as the most serious problem facing Americans.
Editorials & Actions
My Response to Anti-Palestinian Vandals Who Defaced My Home
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After appeared on KQED Tuesday morning, two black-hooded men defaced my home with signs claiming, “Palestine is an Arab fantasy.” I will not be deterred.