Syndicate: 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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