Interview by Between The Lines' Scott Harris
Reacting to the carnage of recent suicide bombings, tens of thousands of mostly Jewish supporters of Israel gathered in Washington D.C. on April 15th to urge the Bush administration to back the Sharon government in its fight against Palestinians and to reject negotiations with Yasir Arafat. The White House sent Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to address the demonstration rally. But when the hard-line Republican reminded the crowd that innocent Palestinians as well as Israelis were suffering in the Middle East conflict, he was roundly booed.
Not all American Jews, however, support Israel's refusal to relinquish their 35-year control over the occupied Palestinian territories nor Prime Minister Sharon's brutal assault of West Bank cities and refugee camps. Rabbi Michael Learner, editor of Tikkun magazine, has for many years been working for peace and justice in the Middle East. He recently co-founded a new organization called the Tikkun Community, with co-chair Harvard professor Cornel West, which will serve as a progressive alternative to conservative Jewish lobby groups that generally back Israel's aggressive policies. To press their demand that the Bush administration lead a U.N.-sponsored multinational force to stop the killing, Rabbi Lerner, West and 18 supporters chose to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience at the State Department April 11th.
Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Rabbi Lerner about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the disagreements over Middle East policy within the American Jewish community(A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found at
http://www.btlonline.org). Contact Tikkun at (415) 575-1200 or visit their Web site at www.tikkun.org
Related links:
Jerusalem Independent Media Center
To receive Between The Lines Weekly Summary and/or Q&A, email
btlsummary-subscribe@topica.com and/or btlqa-subscribe@topica.com *
http://www.wpkn.org/wpkn/news/btl042602.html *
Stop the War March in Washington, D.C.
On Saturday, April 20, WPKN Radio will provide special coverage of the Stop the War March in Washington, D.C. WPKN's News Director Denise Manzari and program host Richard Hill will anchor a special program from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. with live reports from Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris and the Pacifica Radio Network. Listeners in the Bridgeport, CT and Long Island, N.Y. area, be sure to tune in on WPKN
89.5 FM. All others can tune in over our Webcast at
http://www.wpkn.org/ontheair.html. (Space limited to 25 listeners at one time.) *
betweenthelines@snet.net *
© 2002 Between the Lines C/O WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, Connecticut USA.
Email:: 
URL::