Reply to Those Offended by the Subject Heading -- The Nazi Rabbi

I have known Khalid Amayreh:

http://www.israelipalestinianprocon.org/Biosind/khalidamayreh.html

for a number of years now as an email friend. We met through mutual participation in several peace lists. I have watched his increasing exasperation with the cruel treatment of his fellow Palestinians, escalating in terrible ways in recent years. I know that any parallels between the Nazi occupation and the Israeli ones are offensive to defenders of Israel -- as I first learned when Ami Isseroff banned me from his list following an indirect reference on my part some years back.

Khalid has seen (and directly experienced in his own family) too much collateral damage from the IDF. Two uncles, shepherds, were killed by the IDF before his birth as well as other immediate family members. If his words are strong, his goal is peaceful resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Simultaneously in my mail I am following a CUNY colleague debate over the boycott of Israeli academics which I have opposed.

However, on this particular central rabbi, I became all too aware of the viciousness and dangers of the Kahane family when Meir was haunting my college, Brooklyn CUNY with his racist Jewish Defense League (JDL):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Defense_League

stuff (anti African American among other things as well as threatening violence) before he departed for Israel to do comparable damage there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahane

If Rabbi Mordechai Elyahu considers himself a confrere with this family:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Eliyahu

then the adjective looks to be appropriate. Unhappily there ARE neo-Nazis in Israel as their are neo-fascists at work in the U.S. Who would have believed that our nation could sink to torture, given the Nazi, Japanese, and Stalinist horrors of the mid 20th Century?

I started an Israel/Palestinian discussion group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine with this purpose:

"This group will work towards achieving peace in Israel/Palestine through candid sharing of information and concerns by Israelis, Palestinians, and others who hope to achieve truth and reconciliation there."

I post information from diverse sources to this group and also a wider list of groups and individuals by blind copy. It is time that those of us who give a damn about peace over there start facing and telling things as they really are.

Khalid is doing that from the perspective of a peace-seeking Palestinian. Ed Kent
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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