I took back my in box. Here’s a sampling of recent correspondence:
1. A reader I’ll identify as @optonline raises this point:
How do you\we deal with the pronouncement by Iranian leader\clergy that the Qur’an says Muslims are not to negotiate with Satan? We have been labeled the “Great Satan”. We refuse to recognize that Iran, at the time of the revolution and often since then have declared they are at war with the non-Muslim world [and presumably the Sunni].
Can we get this into the general press?
This Islamic smack talk does raise rhetorical possibilities for Israel advocates. For example, the Sunni-Shiite strife is absolutely killing the one-state solution. After all, Muslims won’t treat Jews any better than their co-religionists.
Buddies, beer, and brainstorming should bring out other creative angles and talking points. How about we get some conversation going in the comments section?
As a dual citizen American-Israeli, I’m rather used to being the only Great Satan in the neighborhood. But I’m an open-minded Big Tent Satan willing to entertain conspiracy theories you scoff at.
2. This question is from a reader I believe is in Brazil:
Don’t you have anything to say about protests in Brazil?
Unlike the Arab Spring unrest in North Africa and Mideast over the past two years, the Brazilian situation doesn’t have the same impact on Israeli security and diplomacy. If that should change, HonestReporting will have what to say about it.
3. Believe it or not, I had a vague recollection of this town hall meeting a long, long time ago:
Are you aware of the nighttime TV news/panel discussion about 20 years ago, on a major US TV network,( NBC, ABC ?) broadcast live from Jerusalem, about 5 AM Jerusalem time, ( for10 PM in US) from the Jerusalem theatre, with a live audience. It had maybe 3 Israeli representatives & 3 Arab. There was a fence between them, as the moderator said the Arabs insisted on it. The Arabs never looked at the Israelis once during the broadcast.
Saeb Erekat was one of the Arab representatives. At one point Erekat went into an absolute rant, lasting a couple of minutes. He was completely irrational (even more than today). When he finished, one of the Israelis quietly said . . . “ You see what we have to put up with.”
Perhaps you can find this & distribute it somehow.
You’re thinking of a Jerusalem town hall meeting Ted Koppel hosted for Nightline in 1988.
This was years before HonestReporting was founded. The contentiousness hasn’t changed a bit.
UPDATE: After reading this post, @JebGalilee tweeted us this photo of that town hall meeting. Koppel’s sitting on the “separation barrier” demanded by Saeb Erekat and Hanan Ashrawi.
(Image of email symbol via Wikimedia Commons)
