Via David McReynolds.
Jeesh, Lerner has gotten many a death threat from right-wing Zionists, and at times the New Agey feel of Tikkun can make me guffaw, but really now.
The most recent issue of Tikkun, btw, did have a good Joel Schalit piece, "Why I Am Not An Activist." Michael Pugliese P.S. Ian Williams of The Nation and Middle East International, a publication I had not seen before a few days ago, signed the below. Edward Herman in his latest in Z and MR, a review of the new Diana Johnstone book from Monthly Review Press and Pluto Press, on the wars of succession in the former Yugoslavia (skimmed a bit this morning, better researched than the Herman polemics) slams Ian as a lap-top, lap-dog bomadier. Groan.
> From: DavidMcR at aol.com
> Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 14:47:13 EST
> Subject: Re: FW: Protest ANSWER Banning Of Michael
> Lerner
> To: Stuart323 at aol.com,
> Peace_and_Justice_Kansas at yahoogroups.com,
> ViceVerso at smartgroups.com
>
> I'm for Michael Lerner speaking - but not prepared
> to meddle in events on the
> West Coast at so late a date - you seem to have the
> date wrong. The event in
> Frisco is SUNDAY the 16th.
>
> Best,
> David
>
> << Subj: FW: Protest ANSWER Banning Of Michael
> Lerner
> Date: 2/10/03 1:41:09 PM Eastern Standard Time
> From: Stuart323
> To: Peace_and_Justice_Kansas at yahoogroups.com
> To: ViceVerso at smartgroups.com
> BCC: DavidMcR
>
> Hot new petition--if you would like to add your
> name, send an email to
>
> <A HREF="mailto:mfb12 at psu.edu">mfb12 at psu.edu</A>
>
>
>
> << Rabbi Michael Lerner has been banned from
> speaking at the antiwar rally
> in San Francisco this Sunday, February 15. One of
> the rally organizers, Act
> Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), has stated
> that it will not allow a
> "pro-Israel" speaker to take the stage -- despite
> the fact that Rabbi Lerner
> has been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy in
> the occupied territories,
> has endorsed ANSWER's antiwar rallies in the past,
> has signed the Not in Our
> Name petition against the war, and is widely known
> to be among the most
> progressive of American rabbis. Other coalitions
> organizing the rally,
> including Not in Our Name and United for Peace and
> Justice, have acceded to
> ANSWER's opposition to Lerner, on the grounds that
> they had previously
> accepted as a condition for participation in the
> demonstration the agreement
> that if one of the groups vetoed a speaker that all
> would have to agree.
>
> We, the undersigned, protest ANSWER's refusal to
> let Rabbi Lerner speak at
> this Sunday's rally. At a time when the antiwar
> movement needs as broad a
> platform and as broad an appeal as possible, ANSWER
> has chosen instead to put
> the interests of sectarianism ahead of the interests
> of all those who oppose
> this foolish and unnecessary war. We believe this is
> a serious mistake, and
> that it exemplifies ANSWER's unfitness to lead mass
> mobilizations against war
> in Iraq.
>
> Michael Bérubé
> Marc Cooper >>
>
> Ian Williams
> David Bensman
> >>
>