<nettime> Fwd: Anti-war help sought from Jewish Americans by Preamble Center and signers: Chomsky, Herman, Albert, Weisman, Weisbrot, etc. etc. (fwd)

[Adele Eisenstein <adele@caesar.elte.hu>]

---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ----------------
Date:        11.5.1999 03:18
Received:    11.5.1999 15:52
From:        Michael Albert, sysop@zmag.org
To:          znetupdates@tao.ca

Letter Distributed by the Preamble Center, Washington D.C.

Hello,

The following letter could make a difference in helping to stop the
bombing of Yugoslavia. We have just 6 days to gather signatures and
deliver it to the Green Party of Germany, which is meeting on Thursday,
May 13. Many Green Party members are very angry about their party's
support of bombing, and if the conference votes to oppose the bombing, the
ruling Social Democratic-Green Party alliance will be under tremendous
pressure to change its policies or risk the collapse of its coalition
government. 

We are circulating this letter from American Jews because in Germany (as
in the US), many liberal and progressive people are being told that those
who oppose the bombing of Yugoslavia are committing the same mistake as
those who failed to intervene in the events leading up to the Holocaust.
We disagree strongly, as explained below. 

Please circulate this letter as widely and rapidly as you can, especially
through e-mail and web sites. 

To sign on, simply return your name, and any title or organizational
affiliation (it will be made clear that this is for identification only)
to: 

naimanr@preamble.org

An Appeal from American Jews to the Green Party of Germany

We are Jewish Americans who are deeply concerned that the memory and
tragedy of the Holocaust is being invoked in order to justify an unjust
bombing campaign against the civilian population of Yugoslavia. Many of us
have friends who lost family members in the Holocaust, or have lost
relatives ourselves. We are deeply aware of our own history and the need
for the world community to intervene in situations where there is a threat
of genocide, in order to prevent it. However, this is clearly not what is
happening in Yugoslavia today. 

We do not believe that our government's war against Yugoslavia is
motivated by humanitarian concerns. This is evidenced by their refusal to
airlift food and water to desperate refugees within Kosovo, as well as the
paltry sums allocated for refugee relief as compared to the billions of
dollars spent on the bombing. The Clinton Administration's great
reluctance to pursue a negotiated solution to the conflict also indicates
that this intervention is mainly about power: showing the world that the
United States (and NATO, which it largely controls) is the self- appointed
international policeman, and stands above international law and the United
Nations. They are waging their war against civilians, destroying the
Yugoslav economy and killing hundreds of innocent people, in order to
demonstrate and consolidate their power. Many supporters of the bombing
have drawn analogies to the Holocaust, arguing that the world cannot
simply stand by in the face of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. But the bombing
has greatly worsened the situation of the Kosovar Albanians, as is now
universally recognized. It has also destroyed the pro-democracy movement
within Yugoslavia, and is destabilizing neighboring countries. 

We urge you to reject these false and exaggerated analogies to the
Holocaust and World War II, which are being used to garner support for a
bombing campaign that is intensifying the suffering of all nationalities
in Yugoslavia. We appeal to the Green Party of Germany to oppose this war,
and to support a negotiated solution of the conflict. (Organizations
listed for identification only). 

Noam Chomsky Institute Professor of Linguistics Massachusetts Institute of
Technology

Edward S. Herman Professor Emeritus, Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania

Robert Weissman Editor, Multinational Monitor

Michael Albert Z Magazine/Znet

Michael Brün Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mark Weisbrot Research Director, Preamble Center

Dean Baker Senior Research Fellow, Preamble Center

Robert Naiman Research Associate, Preamble Center

-------------------------------
Robert Naiman naimanr@preamble.org Preamble Center 1737 21st NW
Washington, DC 20009 phone: 202-265-3263 fax: 202-265-3647
http://www.preamble.org/
-------------------------------

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