posted 02-28-2002 09:54 AM            

Maybe the govt/corp-controlled media ignorned it, becuase it might be construed as showing too much sorrow for the U.S., as in firefighter head bowed with flag on the ground? Too much as though the U.S. has fallen, even the angel is sad at the depths the U.S. has fallen?.. either because of Sept bombing, and/or a statement about the condition of the U.S.?

posted 02-28-2002 09:59 AM            

quote:

---

http://www.ccmep.org/hotnews/israeli012802.html

Israeli Soldiers Refuse to Serve in West Bank, Gaza

By Lee Hockstader

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, January 28, 2002

JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 – More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israeli occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians.

"We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people," declared the petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel's best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Over the years there have been instances of eligible Israelis declining to serve in the army at all, or refusing to serve in certain places for reasons of conscience or politics. What makes the current case unusual is that so many combat reservists, both soldiers and officers, have come forward publicly at one time.

Moreover, the organizers of the petition – a pair of reserve lieutenants in their twenties who have served previous stints in the Israeli-occupied territories – say their goal is to collect 500 signatures in the coming weeks and launch a broad social campaign.

"We all have limits," reserve Lt. David Zonshein, 28, a software engineer and one of the two men who drafted the petition, told Yedioth. "You can be the best officer, always be first .‚.‚. and suddenly you are asked to do things that should not be asked of you – to shoot people, to stop ambulances, to destroy houses in which you don't know if there are people living."

Zonshein, who wrote the petition with reserve Lt. Yaniv Itzkovich, 26, a university teaching assistant, declined to speak with foreign correspondents. But along with several other signatories of the petition, they told Yedioth about incidents in which Israeli troops had opened fire on Palestinian children and other civilians who posed no apparent danger to their lives.

In a statement, the Israeli army said: "To serve in the Israeli Defense Forces is obligatory under the law and there is no place for reserve soldiers to choose what jobs they want and what jobs they don't want. The writers of the petition don't represent the soldiers and officers of the reserve who understand their mission and are working days and nights toward the security of the state of Israel and peace for its citizens."

Most Israeli men are required to serve as army reservists until they are 45 years old, typically spending a few weeks to a month or more each year away from their families and civilian jobs.

Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, acknowledged that allegations of abuse by the army do happen and should be investigated, but he dismissed the petition and refusals to serve in the army as a "marginal phenomenon."

The petition "undermines the basic tenet of Israeli democracy," he said. "You can't have a government in which people can decide they'll .‚.‚. bomb this target but not that target. You abide by the rule of the majority and the majority has decided this is the government and this is its policy."

Since the current Palestinian armed uprising erupted in September 2000, more than 500 Israelis have refused to serve in the Israeli occupied territories, including pacifists and veterans, recruits and reservists, according to There's a Limit, an Israeli group that encourages such objectors.

Of that number, about 40 have been sentenced to prison terms that are generally brief, including 12 reserve officers. Others have been ignored or given army jobs inside Israel.

Ram Rahat, 45, a former combat soldier who refused to serve during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, said the current refusals mirror patterns that emerged in previous conflicts.

"This says that people who have gone through [army reserve duty] a couple of times, going through the territories and seeing the reality of what's going on there, are starting to get fed up with it," said Rahat, who is an accountant. "It's exactly what happened in the first intifada as well. As more and more people did reserve duty and came back for their second and third tours, there were more and more cases of refusal."

---

posted 03-08-2002 11:03 AM            

Mountain Dreamer Speaks

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living,
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing,

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon,
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain!
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or your own;
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can hear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty everyday,
and if you can source your life on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

(Oriah, Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder