This is what I have submitted in response to Beresford's and Martin's letters to Andover Eagle-Tribune:

Beware of propaganda

To the editor:

It takes little effort and space to lie, but much more to rebut. Andy Beresford and Alan Martin have created a misleading parallel virtual reality.

Arab-Israeli conflict centers on existence of tiny Jewish state in the midst of Arab-occupied lands, most of which had indigenous populations before they were either wiped out or converted by invading Muslim Arab armies in 7th century CE.

The miracle of Jews recreating their own state after almost two millennia of exile didn’t sit well with the apartheid Arab regimes of the Middle East, who relegated Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians to second-class status, having wiped out all other “infidels.”

Honor-shame zero-sum-gain Arab culture could not tolerate Jewish victory, which they called “naqbah” (catastrophe) in Arabic. Thus they initiated a series of unsuccessful wars meant to wipe Israel off the map, the call to which is still heard in the Middle East, most lately from Iran.

Western enablers and apologists of Arab terror and pan-Arab imperialism have picked up that idea and translated the slogan as “From the River [Jordan] to the Sea [Mediterranean] Palestine Shall Be Free” – free of Jews, naturally, which are to be driven into that sea.

Arab attacks against Jews began long before the State of Israel was created, so blaming such attacks on anything that occurred post-factum is disingenuous, mendacious, and sinister.

Most Israeli settlements were created by groups of enthusiasts requesting parcels of unoccupied state-owned land and settling them. I’ve seen such settlements – they were created on barren hills in the middle of unpopulated desert. So Beresford’s description couldn’t be further from the truth.

I have also seen the security fence, mostly made of wire and sensors with a strip of sand for footprints. A small fraction of the fence is concrete barrier, which makes up in height for what it lacks in width, where unavoidable.

Anti-Israel UN resolutions were forced through by the powerful lobby of 22-member Arab League and 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference.

Gaza beach incident was caused by explosion of Palestinian mine buried in the sand, as investigations have shown. IDF never intentionally targets civilians – this is the Palestinians’ tactic. When IDF makes mistakes (such as that unfortunate 19-victim accident), it issues an apology and compensates victims’ families. Arab terrorists, on the other hand, deliberately and purposefully target unarmed Jewish civilians.

I challenge Beresford to point out a single “religious extremist” in the audience at AHS, which was composed of Christians and secular Jews. Beresford, Martin, Wheels of [In]Justice, and other such “peace activists” suffer from selective vision, wrapping themselves in fake “human rights” language, swapping causes and effects, and not allowing facts to stand in the way of foregone conclusions.

Buyer beware.

Seva Brodsky
Somerville

Awesome article Seva! I hope it appears in the Eagle -Tribune. Hey, why not submit it to The Boston Globe as well; I'm sure they'd love it!

"the Jews in the audience screamed out 'Liar!' If these religious extremists are this arrogant and hateful sitting in a school library, it's not hard to imagine how they would act driving a tank or bulldozer in what they consider their promised land."

How exactly did he know who was or wasn't Jewish in the crowd? Based on facial characteristics? Behavioral characteristics? Does he wrongly assume that only Jews support Israel? Something smells very bad here.

And claiming that the outrage of the parents in Andover, MA somehow proves that Israelis intentionally target civilians is beyond silly. I guess all us Jews are by nature violent extremists. Maybe next time we should be asked to wear yellow-armbands inside the auditorium...

Beresford appears to belong to a White supremacist group, the Nationalist Movement.

Anti-Semite, Bigot, and Ignoramous. There's a trifecta for you.

Nice find, Oceanguy.

Here are two more Friedemann pieces of interest that an emailer sends in (Google for the sources, both are from her blog):

Disengaging America from the Israel Lobby

Disengaging America from the Israel Lobby
By Karin Friedemannumm

With the deep enmeshment of Israeli agents in the United Statespolitical spectrum, and the dependency of our economy on American armssales to Zionist organized crime in the Holy Land, the Sudan, andaround the world, the Israel Lobby is nothing less than a scam forbillions of dollars of capital investments. Most Americans are awarethat the behavior of the US-supplied Israeli military puts allAmericans at risk of retaliation. But the real crime begins rightunder our noses here in America by bankers and real estate agents.American Jews wishing to flee from their credit card debts are buyingup stolen property in Palestine at super-low mortgage rates availableto Jews Only. They are using American tax money to pay the IDF toforce the non-Jewish Palestinian rightful owners to vacate theproperty, after which they bulldoze the olive trees and buildsuburban-style condos for American and European Jews with lumbersupplied by Home Depot. This is done using full-scale militaryequipment supplied and paid for by the United States.Israel Advocates are holding public meetings in towns around Americaencouraging Jews to "make Awliyah" and to send their teenagers to IDFsummer camp to learn how to become terrorists. Are American lawenforcement officials investigating this organized crime networkoperating in full daylight? To nip Zionist enmeshment and recruitmentin the bud, American law enforcement officials should attend all thePro-Israel training workshops that take place on US soil to promotethe subversion of all our basic democratic institutions. The UnitedStates has no choice but to investigate and prosecute those Americancitizens who are involved in promoting the existence of the State ofIsrael. Our free press, our justice system, and our democracy aredependent upon the separation of American from Israeli interests.It is vital for Americans to disentangle itself from Zionist argumentsand loopholes. The argument that Jews should get to keep what theystole because they've been sitting on the stolen property for so manyyears is not a legal argument. America stands for equal rights, andthat means property rights, residency rights and other legal norms. Ifwe care about our rights, we must always and without compromise stressthe property rights of all Palestinians. Not just the property stolenin `67 but also `48 has to be returned to its rightful owners, asGermany returned homes stolen from the Jews to their descendents. AllIsraelis, not just some, are legally obligated to voluntarily vacatethe stolen property their families inhabit - now! International lawdoes not suggest that they are entitled to any compensation nor arethey guaranteed citizenship.If the United States cannot divest itself from Israel, we have nochoice but to dismantle the State of Israel and take away everyone'spassports (just like has been done to a lot of other countries). Newpassports can then be issued for the Islamic Republic of Israel, orwhatever they democratically decide to call it. Stateless Palestinianrefugees must be given first priority to obtain passports. Applicantswould be subject to a background check to disqualify any IDF soldiersthat engaged in anti-Palestinian activity, pro-AIPAC lobbyists, andwhoever else the Palestinian leadership wants to disqualify. Thedecision belongs in the hands of the Palestinian people which Israelisthey can live with and which Israelis need to go back to Brooklyn.

Time to Change Tactics

by Karin Friedemann

Getting Americans and the politicians to understand that invading Iraqis bad for US is probably the only way to get this movement into themainstream and away from the leftist progressive fringes of society.I advocate a turn-around in rhetoric. The group of people responsiblefor the Iraq war are the Israel-Firsters. Instead of trying to makeAmericans care about Arabs - too hard - we need to increase theirawareness that the Jewish Lobby is the enemy of all traditionalAmericans. Especially since activists can destroy the movement if theydwell upon who the good guys are (there are various opinions), weshould concentrate on what we can all agree on:The Jewish Lobby is undermining American democracy.The Jewish Lobby needs to be stopped.That's the only way to stop the wars.I would suggest a public rhetoric campaign against all Jewishlobbyists suggesting prison.On campus, target the Israel advocacy groups. Smear them. Make itsocial suicide to participate with Hillel or other pro-Israel studentorganizations training future lobbyists.The pro-Israel lobby operates on every level of American society.

This year they are introducing Holocaust Mythology in the public schoolcurriculum starting in Pre-K. There are plenty of ways to address thisproblem in PTA meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and other mundaneways. Causing a huge stir at a "MLK" school assembly will create a lotmore word-of-mouth grassroots pressure than a protest in DC whichdoesn't even get discussed.In each small town, pro-peace people need to identify the Zionistindividuals who are pushing Holocaust curriculum in the local schools.As soon as you start circulating a petition, all their Zionistsupporters will come out of the woodwork. Every town has a web ofJewish groups that work together to undermine American democracy topromote their personal interests. Once you know who the participatingindividuals are, then you will be able to protest directly to theselocal people who are personally responsible for pushing Americans todie for Israeli interests. You probably know where they live.If Americans started talking to their neighbors we could stop this war.

And here's a good letter from our friend Ken Brociner to the Somerville Journal:
http://www.townonline.com/somerville/opinion/view.bg?articleid=597449&format=text

Letter: Vote no to SDP, no to hatred Thursday, October 19, 2006

To the editor,

Ron Francis, the president of the Somerville Divestment Project, has frequently been accused of being a rabid anti-Semite. Francis, for his part, always denies such allegations, calling them, among other things, "ridiculous." Whenever he has been asked to comment on the blatant and vitriolic anti-Jewish writings that are regularly posted on the SDP Web site, Francis attempts to distance himself and the SDP from the content of such material. His well rehearsed line has been either that the SDP is merely posting "academic pieces" meant to provoke thought and discussion or "views not represented in the mainstream media," and that the SDP doesn't "necessarily" endorse all of the articles that they put up on their Web site.

It is long past time for this charade to be fully exposed for what it is, especially with Election Day fast approaching. That is because on Nov. 7, Francis and the SDP are asking Somervillians to vote for two anti-Israel resolutions which will appear on the ballot in about half of the precincts in the city.

Predictably, one ballot question just so happens to single out Israel, out of all the countries in the world, for severe economic sanctions. And the other question, while sounding oh-so-innocent (after all, who could possibly be against refugees returning home?), is a transparent effort to undermine Israel's very existence by so radically altering its demographic composition that Israeli Jews would soon become an endangered minority in the only homeland that the Jewish people (after centuries of oppression) have ever had.

Given all of the above, let's take a close look at just one of the posts that is prominently featured on the SDP Web site. This "academic piece" was written by Karin Friedemann, one of the SDP's most visible supporters.

"Jews are afraid that if they start dealing with others honestly as normal human beings, they will no longer be Jews ... How do we solve this problem and save the world? That is the main question today ... In a sense, the shortcomings of Jews may be a problem of us not knowing how to deal with them like children. Sometimes we are too nice for their own good, other times we get mad and abuse them, but the one thing we don't do is just tell them they need to shape up now ... I think this whole conflict has arisen because of Gentiles failure to tell Jews what we expect them to do, and our failure to make sure that they do it."

Somerville is an extremely diverse, multiethnic and multiracial city of close to 80,000 people. Whatever our views on politics or the Middle East may be, there can be no room in our community for this kind of demented rhetoric.

In the next few weeks, the best ways for Somervillians to express their opposition to such poison are to:

- Vote no on questions 5 and 6 on Election Day. No to the SDP, no to anti-Semitism, no to hatred.

- Speak out for a peaceful two-state solution which would include security for Israel and the formation of a viable and independent Palestinian state that would serve as the homeland for any and all Palestinians who choose to live there.

Ken Brociner

If you type the name Karin Friedemann into Google you'll find that her married name is Hussain.

The convert is somewhat more fervent in their observance than one born into the "faith".

What has to be done is to shine the light on the wonders of "peaceful islam". It ain't just the Jews who are suffering at the hand of "peaceful islam". Hindus suffer at the hands of "peaceful islam".

Check out...
http://www.hinduunity.org

I am a woman who was born of Jewish parents. As an Internet essay, I have made friends all over the world. Among the ones that I count as good friends are Karin and Joachim. They have been to my home on several occasions and we have met in the city. They are extremely intelligent, caring people and it makes me a bit sick to read your diabtribe.

Add Judy Andreas to the list. Good addition to the thread.