Thank You!

Tikkun By |

Thank you very much for signing the No First Strike – No War ad. We need as many supporters as we can get and to raise more money quickly, so I am imploring you to send out to everyone on your email list, to everyone on your facebook, twitter, and any other social media sites or lists to which you have access, the appeal letter I sent you and to which you responded. Feel free to amend the cover letter in any way you wish, but it’s too late to modify the actual text of the ad.

Many blessings to you for a world of peace, justice, environmental sanity and love.

Michael
Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner.Tikkun@gmail.com

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53 thoughts on “Thank You!”

  1. In addition to this essential effort, work
    is vitally needed toward arranging a convention in which the details of a federal or related constitution, for an Israel/Palestine entity, could be non-violently battled out.

  2. In addition to this essential effort, work
    is vitally needed toward arranging a convention in which the details of a federal or related constitution, for an Israel/Palestine entity, could be non-violently battled out.

  3. Thanks so much for doing this. I wish I could give a million dollars. As a Jewish Grandmother from Brooklyn whose grandson will be a Bar Mitzvah boy on March 10 I can ‘t tell you how important this is, and how fabulous you are. The fact that I can tell my grandson that there are Jews in this world who really act in ethical, moral, ways that are mandated by the Torah is so important. Thank you again.

  5. This tiny area can only be inhabited happily by a unified, democratic government.

  6. Thank you for the opportunity to say once again that war is not the answer! When will we learn? Seems like yesterday I was walking in downtown SF in protest of the war in Iraq. So many innocent lives lost…I send my intention for a peaceful negotiation that leads to a win-win solution.

  7. Mr. President,
    You don’t need to “look” tough to win this election.
    You do, however, have to BE tough to repair the world.
    This isn’t about being popular; it’s about be a hero.

  8. I am pleased to add my small donation to support a peaceful and just solution for Israel and Palestine.

  9. All of the nations that would be drawn into a conflict in the Middle East need to shore up their own infrastructures FIRST. Education, not war, is the answer to improve everyone’s lot in the 21st century. Otherwise we won’t get to the 22nd century.

  11. In addition to the immediate effects of our elective, imperial wars, I’m also worried about sowing seeds of wars for which my son, now a toddler, might be recruited. He’s already at risk from the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and, the CIA knows, how many other wars young people are killing and dying in at present.

  12. Rarely are “just words” this important. THANK YOU so much for doing this, for trying to save so many lives.

  13. I think ost of the saber-rattling over Iran developing a nuclear program for medical and research reasons has come from Israel, which possesses some 200 to 400 Nuclear warheads at its leaky creay Dimona plant in the Negev desert. As early as the 1960’s Israel had nuclear weapons, much to the suprise of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. In fact, the U.S. provides Israel with three billion dollars each year for weaponry plus credits for other hardware. So, this is a classic case of the cat calling the cattle black. I believe that there must be a diplomatic solution to this proglem, and certainly not a military one, which could cause any kind of weapons confligration, and conceivably a Third World War, which would be fatal for the planet.

  14. we all must learn to value each other and work to heal a fractured world one person at a time…one conflict is one to many.

  15. I would like to remind all of us of these words, engraved on a stone wall in Washington D.C : “More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginnings of all wars”

  16. As a Jew from the Havurah movement I am saddened by the level of lack of education, but even more, the lack of ethics and morality. We seem to be taking big steps backwards as people react to the need for change.No one seems capable of questioning their own beliefs. Thanks for being a haven for a progressive Jew.

  17. I am so grateful for this ad. Your work is immensely important and powerful. Thank you for you leadership in creating a world without war–a world of generosity, forgiveness and love. You make me, once again, proud to have my Jewish ancestry. Many blessings on your work and on your family.

  18. The current beating of more war drums for the middle east will neither keep Isreal or the US safe nor make us free. I find the tragic reactioary policies currently imposed by Isreal on its neighbors akin to how the Jewish people were treated by Hitler and the Nazis during the 2nd WW. How unfortunate our species cannot seem to communicate in any other way. The Jihad is in Netinyahus mind, not in Isreals neighbors. God help them to see the way toward peace. Dan Burgevin, artist

  20. War is not the answer. Are we no better than children that fists are the only answer to resolving conflict? We pride ourselves on our interconnectedness, on our skill at international relations, on our ability to solve problems with words rather than blows, on our being leaders of the free world. Mr. President, as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, you of all people should be driving a non-violent and effective resolution of this conflict.

  21. Thank you so much for your important work toward Universal Peace…may we all realize it – internally & externally!

  22. I pray for the human species to live up to it’s species’ potential. Peace not violence is the process. Wars are not the answer. The stakes get higher. Awareness is critical. Take some Landmark Education forums and courses!! One mind at a time needs to realize it’s power. People on earth are one family. We are all unique. We need to use our words not our weapons to work things out. We need to nurture human beings who realize this.Our circumstances are always changing. Life is complex and simple. Compassion and empathy are critical. We need to have integrity and trust each other once we commit to the workability of our Earth. We need to admit to our connection to each other. We are on this planet together now and we need to solve our global issues peacefully. Water and air must be protected. Progress has many definitions. Value is in the eye of the beholder. But we all agree what a dead human being is. Will we die in vain together? It is up to us really.

  23. As do many people signing this, I belong to several organizations advocating for peace in the Middle East. Unless compassion, a sense of justice, and common sense prevail, I fear for a disaster of monumental proportions.

  24. Thank you for the effort to rid our minds of a militaristic culture as the solition to human differences.

  28. Why do we do this? “To save the soul of America.” — MOL, on the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1957.
    “We have gone beyond the policy of brinkmanship; we may have started to descend into the abyss. America has been enticed by her own might. There is nothing so vile as the arrogance of the military mind.” — Abraham Joshua Heschel, at a founding meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned about the War in Vietnam, 1967
    An audience member shouted to President Obama: “Use your leadership – no war in Iran.” Mr Obama responded, to cheers: “Nobody has announced a war young lady. You’re jumping the gun a little bit there.” March 2, 2012

  29. We must stop the warmongering rogue states Israel & the U.S. from attacking another Muslim nation.

  30. The time has come to put down weapons, to raise up our voices, to join together, as one people in a global community, united by a common understanding that peace can only be achieved by doing the hard work face-to-face and by committing to peaceful resolutions no matter what.

  34. Love heals spiritually, physically, psychologically and politically. Politics is about relationships. Come to any relationship with a clear conscience, an open heart and rolled up sleeves and the best that resides within us manifests itself. We have got to go the diplomatic route and learn to live together in safety and trust.

  35. Thanks for your prophetic voice in the on-going struggle for peace and justice throughout the world.

  36. Backing any military strike on Iran will further diminish American credibility in the Middle East, endanger our people, diminish U.S. respect throughout the world, and make economic conditions at home far worse than they are already.

  38. So much of this is alarmist propaganda from our government. I said this in a related story, and I’ll say it again. Our foreign policy is an American disaster. Corruption and deceit is a worldwide phenomenon, and our ugliness as part of it all is showing too alarmingly. We shouldn’t need to tie nukes to oil, but our foreign policy bullying as a “superpower” to blame Iran for all our ills trying to come up with every damn excuse for war is getting tiring. We try to panic the American public, and over the possibility only, of Iran developing a single nuclear device. In other words, just ONE. Now, just how many nukes do WE have? More than 8,000 American nuclear weapons. Of course, in pointing our nasty fingers at Iran (like we did Iraq, which was a LIE), our CIA/military industrial complex fails, for obvious political strategy, to mention that! Or that Israel, with our kissing AIPAC’s rear-end, has maybe 100 or more nuclear weapons. On top of this disinformation, we then impose more and more economic “sanctions” on Iran, as we have done to Cuba for decades which, of course, doesn’t win friends with countries we are trying to pressure like the arrogant superpower bullies we are. I don’t like Aminidajad any more than the rest of us, but give Iran credit for standing up to the American bully who possesses THOUSANDS of nuclear warheads to just ONE that we’re not even sure Iran has yet developed! The sheer NUMBERS would keep Iran in check, or maybe Iran is a bit psychotic and suicidal since the days of the Shah’s puppet regime WE installed, and the Ayatollah later threw out on its ear. No matter, our war-planners in the CIA and Pentagon love war at any cost, including the trillions more that will destroy our economy at home, and the American people with their lack of jobs and foreclosures be damned! And, like Iraq, Libya and elsewhere, WE WANT THEIR OIL!! The doomsday crowd with all its fabrications since the Cuban missile crisis, the lies of operation “Northwoods,” the JFK assassination, Watergate, Iran Contra, and up to 9/11 into the phony bin Laden sideshow, must go on! And so will the designs for a militarized, authoritarian America with the continued crumpling of our civil and human rights. The “New World Order” under the Patriot Act, Homeland Security surveillance and the end of privacy and freedom with our government arranging to send drones over our skies, and even those mysterious 800-some barbed wire detention centers built that nobody wants to talk about — are waiting down the road for us, just ahead!

    Of course, you’ll find little to nothing of this spoken of in the Republican presidential race, and just as doubtful from Obama and the Democrats. More unexplained secrecy and claims of “natural security” will make sure of that! Even FOIA requests to see the blueprints of the World Trade Center towers as to how they really came down are being denied. So much for transparency in government these days…

  39. War is always a failure of the imagination to find creative responses to issues, and fear is the result of our failure to see one another (whether we like it or not) as interdependent members of one human family. I support all efforts to wage peace rather than war. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to such peace.
    Shalom/Salaam/Peace!

  40. Rabbi Lerner,I honor your outstanding courage
    and i continue to support your efforts.

    Diplomacy is the only way through this and i
    can only hope and pray that your work continues
    to reach all who are truly concerned about
    where we are headed as a country.

  41. Any attack from Israel against Iran threatens human kind. Its arbitrary muscle flexing, and bad bad national kharma. Pitty the people of both countries. May their voices be heard (by God).

  44. Thank you for making it abundantly clear for those of us who support the Occupy movement that neither party has our best interests at heart, and it is time to get the money out of politics at the very least.

  45. “Let’s bomb them back to the stone age” to quote an infamous US air force general. Finally, a voice of intelligence in the diatribes about Iran. Thank you for the ad and bless you in your efforts to inject some sanity into the discussion.

  46. I thank you with all my heart for this wonderful ad in the NYT that made my day turn from gloom to brighter hope. The idea of a pre-emptive strike against Iran and the likelihood of this turning to full scale war is so troubling. We needed this statement so badly and I personally am indebted to all of you who have brought it to our attention. I hope many more of us will make donations to spread the message.

  49. from the many of us below the poverty line thank you kindly TIKKUN and all who have been able to donate to this add. Peace be with you.

  50. there is an enemy, and one worth mentioning, lest we forget it at our own peril. the threat from this enemy looms larger than the worst case scenario of an iran with thousands of nuclear warheads; more than the warmongering propaganda of netanyahu, or than our own homegrown junta of reactionary zealots funded by our empire of corporate greed.

    the enemy is none other than jewish self-righteousness and complicity with those who would do evil in the name of self-defense.
    a very well-funded israeli lobby continues to successfully brainwash our minions, reinforcing the image of our people as indignant victims of history. we must never let our guard down, nor turn our other cheek.

    the more passive form of complicity is ‘complacency,’ and there is nothing in our world nearly as dangerous or threatening as american complacency. however, there is nothing more grotesque and moribund than jewish american complacency. our community’s sickening attachment to the trappings of wealth and material comforts is nothing but a macabre dance around the golden cow.

    we must reclaim the concept of jewish complacency from the right-wing propagandists from our own home-grown “jewish lobby.” according to their world view, complacency is evil, but only when it is defined on their terms as sitting back and doing nothing when the time for taking serious action can no longer be avoided. for them, taking action means agreeing to live in a perpetual state of adrenaline-fueled vigilance and fear of the other’s murderous intentions. it then stands to reason that living in said tension must be relieved by engaging in “pre-emptive strikes,” “psych-ops,” and whatever forms of oppression against our enemies are deemed necessary by those who know more than we do, our leaders who we must turn to for protection, who use force only in the interest of our own defense.

    but the real evil of jewish complacency occurs from a different kind of inaction: the inaction that comes from surrendering our agency and will, when we should know better. we should know better that it is our duty to respond fiercely with truth when our regular newsfeed is comprised of and driven by half-truths and unabashed lies, especially when they are disseminated in our name; we should know better to hold our leaders accountable when they intentionally abuse the authority we’ve invested in them, to manipulate and mislead us until we give them free reign to terrorize others with impunity; and we should know better how to be vigilant in upholding our highest value, that of respecting and upholding the sacredness of life, in all of its varied forms and expressions, for life is the highest of all gifts that G-d has ever given us.

    the vigilance i speak of is more like being awake, alive, and compassionately engaged in relationship with our fellow beings. perhaps no one describes this form of vigilance better than the poet william stafford, and so i will bring this to a close by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to you who are awake, and know you are awake…and by sharing william stafford’s beautiful poem to guide you back home with this beacon of truth.

    A Ritual to Read to Each Other

    If you don’t know the kind of person I am
    and I don’t know the kind of person you are
    a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
    and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

    For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
    a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
    sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
    storming out to play through the broken dyke.

    And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,
    but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,
    I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
    to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

    And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
    a remote important region in all who talk:
    though we could fool each other, we should consider—
    lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

    For it is important that awake people be awake,
    or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
    the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—
    should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

    -by William Stafford

  52. Hi Howard, Nice to see you are still active in the work! We at the Peoples Assembly in SF have gone a bit dormant, but Pathways To Peace continues on in our UN work – see cultureofpeace.org and pathwaystopeace.org
    Blessings of the New Year!

  53. Give direct talks with Iran and the US a chance without threats, xenophobic bravado or preconditions.