Questions for Mr. Shtulman
David Shtulman is Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor and was present at JWPF’s protest of the Federation’s Main Event on Sunday, October 30th. His was one of four voices quoted in “Jewish Federation offended by protests; security office unruffled” an article which appeared in the Nov. 7, 2011 edition of the Washtenaw Voice, Washtenaw Community College’s student newspaper, but none of them were ours.
The article is replete with falsehoods like claiming we ate “bacon-cheese-burgers” at our protest on October 8, wanting “our prayer for peace in Israel to be removed,” and of course the Whopper, “they have no connection to the Jewish community”. But his last quote — “Sometimes they tip over the line into hateful with their messages. But in the end, they’re really irrelevant.” — begs the question.
So, David, if we’re really irrelevant, why would you spend so much time with the student reporter who wrote the article? Why would the Washtenaw Voice dedicate a 545-word article, including graphics, not to the Federation’s fund raiser, but to our protest? Why the five quotes from you in the article? What part did our protests have in the change of venue from the Marriott at Eagle Crest? And why the apoplectic invectives from you, e.g. “absurd”, “anti-Semitic”, “disrespectful”, “hateful”?
OK, we know the answer to the last one. David has studied his “Hasbara Handbook – Promoting Israel on Campus” very well, including the section “Name Calling” in the chapter on “Seven Basic Propaganda Devices”. Question retracted and the jury is instructed to disregard it.
JWPF at City Council
Last month the Ann Arbor Chronicle reported on a short talk by this writer called “Challenging Israel’s Legitimacy”. In a serendipitous occurrence, an article by Alison Weir, “The Real Story of How Israel Was Created” crossed this desk merely four days later. Alison is Executive Director of If Americans Knew, an on-line information source.Taking advantage of this wealth of new information and compacting it into a three-minute presentation, we again challenged Israel’s legitimacy. See entire talk after signature.
Seven vigilers
“It’s a Great Day to Protest”
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends (JWPF)
Comments? https://blog.deiryassin.org/2011/11/13/report-on-beth-israel-vigil-11-05-11/
November 10, 2011
Good Evening,
Last month I showed Council a world map and explained how unfair UN resolution 181 was, because it violated the wishes of the entire neighborhood into which it was about to insert a Jewish state.
Tonight I’d like to continue this thread: and I’m helped by Alison Weir, executive director of IfAmericansKnew.org, perhaps the most informative and unbiased source on the struggle for Palestinian self-determination. She writes an article recently published in Counterpunch entitled “The Real Story of How Israel Was Created”.
She starts where I left off, claiming first that although the General Assembly recommended the creation of a Jewish state in part of Palestine, that recommendation was non-binding and never implemented by the Security Council.
Secondly, she notes that the General Assembly passed that recommendation only after Israel proponents threatened and bribed many of the 33 countries which voted in favor. We mentioned some of those countries, and their locations, last month.
As an example, she cites the tremendous pressure placed on the Philippines by Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, Clark Clifford and others. She notes that there were seven bills pending on the Philippines in Congress at the time.
Before the vote, the Philippine delegate had given a passionate speech against partition, warning that such a move would place the world “back on the road to the dangerous principles of racial exclusiveness …†But twenty-four hours after issuing these words and after intense Zionist pressure, the delegate voted in favor of partition.
Thirdly, Alison reports that the US State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon were staunch opponents of partition, but that President Harry Truman had other ideas and listened instead to his political advisers. They believed that the Jewish vote and Jewish contributions were essential to winning the upcoming presidential elections and that supporting the partition plan would garner that support.
Secretary of State George Marshall condemned Truman’s support, calling it “a transparent dodge to win a few votes”.
Today’s State Department still finds support of the Jewish state detrimental to US interests in the Middle East, despite the pronouncements of appointed Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Things are often NOT what they appear. The UN Vote on the partition of Palestine seems no exception.
Thank you
