August 11, 2006

Good news!!


That's my favorite kind of news, too.

What is happening below is truly rEVOLUTIONary, imho.

Finally -- some focus in a distrurbingly "all over the place" spiritual activism.

I think he is one awesome man.


Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:00:00 -0400 (EDT)

From: Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner@tikkun.org

To: eeching2004@yahoo.com

Subject: You did it! The ads appeared, cease fire imminent, but core issues
unsolved--so we must continue.


Dear Virginia, I just want to let you know how very much I appreciate the support you gave to our ad calling for an end to the violence in the Middle East.

Because of the generosity of some 3,500 people we were able to publish the full page ad in the New York Times on July 31 and in the Los Angeles Times on August 6th. Moreover, your willingness to support the ad made it possible for that message to be communicated to millions of other people as we got access to a few very good spots (Larry King Live, other CNN and Fox shows, articles in many newspapers, etc.).

We always took a balanced view, never forgetting the terrible human costs of Hezbollah’s shelling of Israeli civilians nor the even higher costs in lives lost by Israel’s assault on Lebanon (and the continued attacks on Palestinians which was obscured by the media in the past few weeks but actually escalated to the point that Israel’s IDF killed over 100 Palestinians out of site of media coverage).

The hopeful sounds about a cease fire, however, has not stopped the fighting which is actually intensifying at this very moment. I hope that will end soon.

Yet the central message of our ad remains as pressing today as when we published it this past week: the need to move beyond “cease fire” to use this bloody moment to focus the world’s attention on getting a final settlement agreement between Israel and Palestine, an agreement that must be based on security for both and justice for both.

The call for an international conference which might, if necessary, impose on all sides a final settlement agreement that was fair to all sides is still needed. So we’d like your help in making it possible for us to reprint most of the message in the full page ad. And we’d like your help in sending this request to everyone on your email lists—so that they too might sign on and also might consider donating. As I’m sure you saw, you can sign the ad without donating to it, or donate without signing it. Our plan is to wait till the beginning of September to publish an updated version of the ad, assuming we can raise money to do so.

So that gives you plenty of time to convince your friends to go to our website www.tikkun.org/PeaceAd and look over our new version (which should be ready in about a week’s time).

One of the typical media distortions was to argue that the position taken by this ad was “marginal” and that most Americans and most Jews were lining up behind the Olmert government’s decision to bomb Lebanon (which preceded the Hezbollah shelling of Israeli towns), and the continuation of the war (hence, against our call for a cease fire). But polls taken in Israel this week reveal a very different story, with many Israelis saying the very same things we are saying in this ad (cease fire now, negotiate, and deal with the whole panoply of issues, not just getting quiet for Israel on the Lebanese border). Our perspective has now been joined by Peace Now, the Meretz Party, and many others.

Yet our voice is still very important in pushing for an international conference and for using this moment to nail down a final settlement agreement. So I hope that you yourself will consider donating a second time to help get this message out, beyond whatever you do to to send this appeal to people to whom you have access.

Again, on behalf of the entire Tikkun Community, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, the Shalom Center, the Alliance for a New Humanity, Jewish Voices for Peace, and many other groups who endorsed this effort, and on behalf of the 3,500 other people who signed this in the hopes that you and your friends would also sign and donate, I want to thank you for helping this effort.

Warm Blessings,
Michael

Rabbi Michael Lerner
Editor, Tikkun
National Chair, The Network of Spiritual Progressives
www.spiritualprogressives.org
RabbiLerner@tikkun.org

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