Here is what Berkeley Stop the War Coalition wants you to do:
OPEN LETTER TO CAMPUS ACTIVISTS - PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
LET'S ORGANIZE A PROTEST AGAINST EHUD BARAK SPEAKING ON CAMPUS
(NOVEMBER 19 at Zellerbach)!
Don't be fooled. Although the campus is promoting former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's speech on campus as "Peacemaking in the Middle East", Barak is anything but a man of peace. Not only has he overseen military aggression against the Palestinians, but Ehud Barak is actually coming to campus as part of a nation-wide tour to promote the US war with Iraq. A recent article in the Stanford Review quotes him saying the following:
"To the best of my judgment, the course that has been set by the Bush administration is the right one'" he said. Several times, Barak returned to the merits of removing Hussein from power, stressing that no one can be sure when Iraq's leader will acquire "a crude nuclear device similar to those which destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki." "If we wait too long [to deal with Iraq] we may be making a very grave mistake'" he noted warily. "We must act while we still can." "Previous violations of many United Nations Security Council resolutions provide the legitimacy to remove [Hussein]'" he said, defending the "moral and strategic clarity" of Bush's motives for a strike against Iraq.
We believe that everyone who is opposed to the policies that Ehud Barak represents should come together to protest his speech. We would like to organize the largest possible rally and an open-air teach-in to coincide with his speech in Zellerbach.
Please send concerns, comments, and queries to ucbstopthewar@hotmail.com
Signed, The Events Committee of the Berkeley Stop the War Coalition
As Calstuff pointed out
A better question might ask why Barak has turned Hawkish recently. Perhaps it has something to do with Arafat destroying his political future and hopes of peace in his preference for Intifada.
The email I got notes how
the anti-war rhetoric segues into an anti-Israel one. Notice that there is absolutely no mention of Barak's offer at Camp David that would have given Arafat 97% of the West Bank on which a state might have been established along with peaceful relations between Israel and the Palestinians. Notice the historic revisionism: during Barak's administration there was some suicide bombings and minimal Israeli response; relatively speaking there was no military aggression towards the Palestinians. Notice the irony: Barak's policies represent an attempt to achieve peace--and this is what these activists want to protest?So, if you will be in the lovely Bay Area on November 19th, you know what to do instead.
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