Salaam alaykum. Wishing Barack Obama salaam IN ANY LANGUAGE is beneath
me. He is not taking these trips for OUR benefit. {{Maryam}}
--- In islamcity@yahoogroups.com, visionaries4 wrote:
Open ltr to Obama/ Middle East, Islam, Ends Means
Dear folks,
I have already once posted this Open Letter to Obama on the
Progressives for Obama list, but it has not appeared at least not
back to me, nor has there been any comment on it. So I am trying that
again also sending it to you-all. If you have any advice about how to
make sure it gets sent to the whole list, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Shalom, salaam, peace -- Arthur
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director, The Shalom Center
http://www.shalomctr.org http://www.shalomctr.org/ ; author of
Down-to-Earth Judaism and a dozen other books on Jewish thought and
practice, as well as books on US public policy; editor of Torah of the
Earth; co-author, The Tent of Abraham. The Shalom Center voices a new
prophetic agenda in Jewish, multireligious, and American life. To
receive the weekly on-line Shalom Report, click on --
http://www.shalomctr.org/subscribe http://www.shalomctr.org/subscribe
^^
ttp://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/arthur_waskow/2008/07/open_ltr\
_to_obama_middle_east.html
Open Letter to Senator Obama:
The Middle East, Islam, Ends, Means
Dear friends, I am writing this out of personal experience and my own
individual ethical concern, not on behalf of any organization or
campaign. It comes with Martin Buber's teaching ringing in my brain:
that he had no idea what it meant to say that the ends justify the
means, but that for sure the means we actually use will become the ends
that we actually achieve.
Or as ancient Torah teaches, Justice, justice shall you pursue. Why
justice twice? To teach that just ends can only be achieved through
just means.
A lesson for all who work to change society.
Shalom, salaam, peace -- Arthur
Dear Senator Obama, I met you at your talk with Philadelphia Jewish
leaders in April. It was I who as you entered the room handed you a copy
of the original Freedom Seder, which I wrote in 1969, and which bound
together the freedom struggles of Blacks and Jews. And during Q A, it
was I who asked you how as President you would deal with the
peace-obstructing settlement policy of this and many previous Israeli
governments.
I asked that question because one of the advance speakers for your
meeting, Congressman Roth of New Jersey, had just asserted that you
believe the failure of the peace process has been solely the result of
the absence of a Palestinian partner for peace.
Solely the fault of the Palestinians? I thought. Surely he doesn't
believe that! So I rose to say that hundreds of rabbis and hundreds of
thousands of American Jews see Israeli settlement policy as obstacles to
peace, and asked what as President you would do about it.
Your answer cited the vigorous debate on these questions in Israel --
more vigorous than here; the recognition by most Israelis that for peace
to unfold, there will have to be a shift in settlement policy; and your
sense that most Israeli know that internal debate would be so wrenching
that they want to know there is a partner for that decision before going
through the debate.
Though you avoided saying what you would do, I was satisfied with your
answer -- then.
I was especially ready to be satisfied because I knew that earlier, when
you met with Jewish leaders in Cleveland, you had gone even further,
saying:
I sat down with the head of Israeli security forces and his view of the
Palestinians was incredibly nuanced because he's dealing with these
people every day. He was willing to say sometimes we make mistakes and
if we are just pressing down on these folks constantly without giving
them some prospects for hope, that's not good for our security
situation.
It would be profoundly important to have a President who understands
that! Yet more recently, in your speech to AIPAC, there was no such
language. And you slid so far into simply repeating official shibboleths
like Jerusalem undivided that you had to correct yourself the next
day.
No one knows better than I that many of the official Jewish
organizations would go ballistic to hear a presidential candidate bring
such ideas to the fore in, say, a major speech about making peace across
the whole region that Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah walked.
And no one knows better than I that millions of American Jews ,
Christians, and Muslims want exactly that kind of honest talk and
vigorous diplomacy. They would support any President who insisted on
exactly the kind of broad pursuit of peace you have sometimes affirmed,
and the changes in not only Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian but also
Israeli and American behavior it requires.
I know some people who carry a strange mixture of cynicism and
wish-fulfillment in their heads --
