Rabbi Lerner and the suppression of criticism in the anti-warmovement

Brad Mayer bradley.mayer at sun.com
Wed Feb 12 18:11:27 PST 2003


Thanks for this clarification. I suspected already that clumsy phrases like "pro-Israel", "anti-Israel", and the like are being mindlessly bandied about in our high-quality "public arena", controlled and shaped as it is by the corporate media, even in the case of honest journalism.

BTW, since you are a member, is this person familiar? I have no idea.. Feel free to deal with this within your own organization, that is always to be respected.

-Brad

FYI/Joanna ___________________________________________________________ From: "Liat Weingart" <liat at jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Rabbi Lerner was not banned at all from speaking. A Jewish Voice for Peace is having a speaker at the same demonstration, and two other rabbis from San Francisco are also speaking. Marisa Handler, a representative from Tikkun, was present at the meeting of United for Peace where it was decided that Michael would not speak. She was asked three times if she was comfortable having someone else speak, and she said that she was, again and again. A week passed after this meeting, without incident, and then Michael decided to send a press release, stating that he was banned because of his views. This is patently false and has been tremendously destructive. We have been overloaded with trying to right this wrong, and it has distracted us from our work of organizing for this Sunday's demonstration. I urge you to please set the record straight.

Liat Weingart ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dana Bergen wrote:


> Just FYI, at the end of the Chronicle article Mitchell Plitnick of
> Jewish Voice for Peace (a group to which I belong) is totally misquoted.
> The direct quote from him is accurate but he never said (and would not
> have said) that there should be more "pro-Israel" speakers. JVP is
> actively anti-occupation and gets labeled anti-Israel, but generally
> tries to avoid using language like "pro-Israel" and "anti-Israel". It's
> pretty annoying when you try to avoid simplistic language and the press
> puts it in your mouth anyway.
>
> Dana
>
> Brad Mayer wrote:
> > For starters, here is today's Chronicle piece for reference:
> >
> > A Mideast rift in peace coalition
> >
> <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/02/12/MN196344.DTL>

-- /**********************************************************************/ Brad Mayer Technical Support Engineer, Forte DCE Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Forte Tools Direct: (510) 869-3466 Fax: (510) 869-3400 Email: bradley.mayer at sun.com /***********************************************************************/



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