The Palestinian people don't care if we mourn or don't mourn the death of Arafat, nor do their conditions improve if we do. What matters is what we do here, and in this respect, many activists' absorption into electing John Kerry, which rendered a local Palestinian solidarity organization, as well as many others nationwide, dormant until recently does make a difference. There was no way activists could raise the matter of solidarity with Palestinians under the Israeli occupation prominently in the course of campaigning for John Kerry. I've posted Naseer Aruri's view about the matter here: <http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20041025/024555.html>.
The same goes for politics in Israel/Palestine, in which the Labor Party, a partner with the Democratic Party, plays the role akin to the Democratic Party's in the United States. Cf. Yitzhak Laor, "The Tears of Zion," _New Left Review_ 10, July-August 2001. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>