Letter Distributed by the Preamble Center, Washington D.C.

Hello,

The following letter could make a difference in helping to stop the bombing of Yugoslavia. We have just 6 days to gather signatures and deliver it to the Green Party of Germany, which is meeting on Thursday, May 13. Many Green Party members are very angry about their party's support of bombing, and if the conference votes to oppose the bombing, the ruling Social Democratic-Green Party alliance will be under tremendous pressure to change its policies or risk the collapse of its coalition government.

We are circulating this letter from American Jews because in Germany (as in the US), many liberal and progressive people are being told that those who oppose the bombing of Yugoslavia are committing the same mistake as those who failed to intervene in the events leading up to the Holocaust. We disagree strongly, as explained below.

Please circulate this letter as widely and rapidly as you can, especially through e-mail and web sites.

To sign on, simply return your name, and any title or organizational affiliation (it will be made clear that this is for identification only) to:

naimanr@preamble.org

 

An Appeal from American Jews to the Green Party of Germany

We are Jewish Americans who are deeply concerned that the memory and tragedy of the Holocaust is being invoked in order to justify an unjust bombing campaign against the civilian population of Yugoslavia. Many of us have friends who lost family members in the Holocaust, or have lost relatives ourselves. We are deeply aware of our own history and the need for the world community to intervene in situations where there is a threat of genocide, in order to prevent it. However, this is clearly not what is happening in Yugoslavia today.

We do not believe that our government's war against Yugoslavia is motivated by humanitarian concerns. This is evidenced by their refusal to airlift food and water to desperate refugees within Kosovo, as well as the paltry sums allocated for refugee relief as compared to the billions of dollars spent on the bombing. The Clinton Administration's great reluctance to pursue a negotiated solution to the conflict also indicates that this intervention is mainly about power: showing the world that the United States (and NATO, which it largely controls) is the self- appointed international policeman, and stands above international law and the United Nations. They are waging their war against civilians, destroying the Yugoslav economy and killing hundreds of innocent people, in order to demonstrate and consolidate their power.

Many supporters of the bombing have drawn analogies to the Holocaust, arguing that the world cannot simply stand by in the face of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. But the bombing has greatly worsened the situation of the Kosovar Albanians, as is now universally recognized. It has also destroyed the pro-democracy movement within Yugoslavia, and is destabilizing neighboring countries.

We urge you to reject these false and exaggerated analogies to the Holocaust and World War II, which are being used to garner support for a bombing campaign that is intensifying the suffering of all nationalities in Yugoslavia. We appeal to the Green Party of Germany to oppose this war, and to support a negotiated solution of the conflict.

(Organizations listed for identification only).

Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor of Linguistics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Edward S. Herman
Professor Emeritus,
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Robert Weissman
Editor, Multinational Monitor

Michael Albert
Z Magazine/ZNet

Michael Brün
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mark Weisbrot
Research Director, Preamble Center

Dean Baker Senior
Research Fellow, Preamble Center

Robert Naiman
Research Associate, Preamble Center|

Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens, Green Party of NY, Greens / Green Party USA

Michael Ratner
Center for Constituonal Rights

Vivian Stromberg
Executive Director, MADRE

Marcus Raskin Co-founder,
Institute for Policy Studies

Saul Landau
Fellow Institute for Policy Studies
Hugh O. LaBounty Chair of Interdisciplinary Applied Knowledge
California State Polytechnic University

Howard Zinn
Historian, Author, "People's History of the United States"

Jeff Cohen
Author, founder of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)

Rebecca Golden
Director, Ben & Jerry's Foundation

David J Cohen International Representative
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)

James Weinstein
Editor, In These Times

Seth Ackerman
Media Analyst Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Scott Nova
Director, Citizens Trade Campaign

Jared Bernstein
Economist, Economic Policy Institute, Washington

Ken Silverstein
Journalist

Norman Finkelstein
Hunter College

Joel Beinin
Professor of Middle East History Stanford University

Stephen Myer Kretzmann
Campaigns Coordinator, Project Underground

Michael Brün
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Joshua Karliner
Transnational Resource & Action Center, San Francisco

Mark Solomon
Prof. Emeritus of History Simmons College, Boston

Peter Dorman Faculty of Political Economy
The Evergreen State College Olympia, WA

Don Barry
past Harlan J. Smith Fellow of Astrophysics The University of Texas at Austin

Michael Eisenscher
Lead Organizer, Project for Labor Renewal, Berkeley, CA

Jacqueline Cabasso
Executive Director, Western States Legal Foundation

Andrew Lichterman
Attorney, Western States Legal Foundation

Jay Levin
Founder L.A Weekly newspaper

Glenn Rubenstein
Park Slope Greens, Green Party of New York

Diane Swords
Jewish Peace Fellowship of Central New York

Alan Stoleroff
Department of Sociology
Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e Empresa, Lisbon

Luca Zampieri
Department of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Eli C. Messinger,
M.D. New York State Green Party
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
New York Medical College

Alan Schrift
Professor of Philosophy
Grinnell College

Rochelle Pudlowski Eissenstat
M.D Sinai-Samaritan Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Robert Pollin
Professor of Economics University of Massachusetts-Amherst

Brian Tokar
Institute for Social Ecology, Plainfield, Vermont

Rich Plevin
Economic Justice Now, Oakland, California

Raven B. Earlygrow
Former Mayor, City of Point Arena, California

Andy Mager
Jewish Peace Fellowship, Syracuse chapter

Saul Bitran
First violinist, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Boca Raton, Florida

Erick Brownstein
Rainforest Action Network, San Francisco, California

Irene Harris
Former Publisher, Nassau Star (Long Beach, New York), Tarzana, California

Tom Mayer
Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Colorado

Paul Worthman
Director of Organizing & Research American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)

Nicole Barchilon Frank Past Board Member & Administrator at Temple Beth El Eureka, California

Steve Rhodes
Paper Tiger TV, Berkeley, California

Ben Newman
Rabbinical Student Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, PA

Ann Fox
MSS, LSW Wyncote, PA

Craig Gordon
Social Studies and Media Studies Teacher Oakland Education Association Site Representative Fremont High School, Oakland, California

David Utzschneider, MD, PhD
Specialist in Internal Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

Nancy Rost
Journalist Madison, Wisconsin

Ken Cornet
Green Party of Connecticut

Philip Y. Blue
Senior Law Librarian New York State Supreme Court New York, New York

Alexander Blum
M.D. Physician, Glen Ellen, California

Dr. Alfred Bloch
Professor of Political Science and East European History (Retired) New Paltz, New York

Mahir Saul
Associate Professor of Anthropology University of Illinois

Zoltan Grossman
Co-founder, Midwest Treaty Network (a Native American support group)

Allan Solomonow
Regional Director, Peace Education Program American Friends Service Committee, San Francisco, California

Randy Baker
Co-Producer, "Fear and Favor in the Newsroom"

Naomi Steinberg
Student Rabbi, B'nai Ha-Aretz (Children of the Earth), Redway, CA

Julie Light
Editor, Corporate Watch, San Francisco, CA

Richard Schmitt
Department of Philosophy, Brown University

Paula Friedman
Editor/Publicist, Richmond, CA

Derek Wright
United Faculty and Academic Staff, AFT Local 223, UW-Madison, Wisconsin

Frances Goldin, Mayer Vishner, Elizabeth Frankenberger
The Frances Goldin Literary Agency, New York

Dr. Phillip Moskoff
D.D.S Grass Valley, California

Bob Auerbach
National Committee, Greens / Green Party USA Jewish Peace Fellowship Greenback, Maryland

Boris Kogan
Professor of Computer Science, University of California,Los Angeles

Roman Mordechai
System Analyst, Parallax Microsystems, Cleveland, Ohio

Bert Garskof
Professor of Psychology, Quinnipiac College Hamden, Connecticut

Jane Angus Writer
Henderson, Nevada

Ashley Marcus
Student, University of Virginia

Brian Harvey
Lecturer, Computer Science Division, University of California at Berkeley

Dennis Fischman
Former President, Temple B'nai Brith, Somerville, Massachusetts

Ruslan Karapatnitski
President, RIK Enterprises, Inc., Phoenix, AZ

Ross Bauer
Department of Music, University of California, Davis

Cory Campbell
Undergraduate, Reed College

Aletha Stahl
Department of Languages and Literatures, Earlham College, Richmond, IN

David Applefield
Association Frank, Paris

Professor Douglas Allen
Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Maine Education Coordinator, Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine

Bruce Shapiro
Columnist, The Nation

Rebecca Welty
Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering, University of California at San Diego

Paul Phillips
Professor of Economics, University of Manitoba and University of Ljubljana, Canada and Slovenia

Ryan Titchenell
City Councilman, Trinidad, California

Samuel Farber
Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College.

Kristin Weeks
Student, University of Virginia

Scott Rubel
Facilities department, Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, California

Harvey Karp,
MD Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA School of Medicine

Phyllis Olin
President of the Board, Western States Legal Foundation

Dr. Justin K. Schwartz
Attorney, Chicago, Illinois

Devva Kasnitz, PhD
Research Director, Research and Training Center on Independent Living and Disability Policy World Institute on Disability, Oakland, CA

Paula Gutlove and Gordon Thompson
Institute for Resource and Security Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts

John Burdick
Associate Professor of Anthropology, Syracuse University

Zeljko Boskovic
Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Connecticut

Jorge Liderman
Professor of Music, UC Berkeley

Sergei Babko
Senior Process Engineer, MSE TA,Inc., Butte, Montana

Olga Babko
Graduate Student, Rutgers University

Mira Cantrell
MD UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California

Jennifer Malvin
Piano Teacher, Los Angeles, CA

Alan Shapiro
Frankfurt, Germany

Fred Shapiro
Associate Director, Yale University Law School Library

Bernie Tuchman
Dept. of Environmental Protection, New York, N.Y.

Judith Ward
Professor of History, New York, N.Y.

Marc Silver
Professor of Linguistics University of Modena, Italy

Don Obers
Social Worker, Patchogue, New York

David Comeaux
Green Party of New York, Rochester, NY

William Muraskin
Professor of Urban Studies, Queens College, City University of New York

Dr. Ilan Kogus
Senior Associate, The Adizes Institute for Organizational Transformation, Santa Barbara, California

Albina Leibman-Klix Ph.D.
student in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, Binghamton University, New York

Jodie Evans
Director, We The People, Oakland California

Albert Febbo
Artist, Las Vegas, Nevada

David Atias
Genesee Valley/Rochester Greens, Green Party of New York State, Green Party USA

Diana F. Cramer
Librarian, Onondaga County Public Library, Syracuse, NY

Laura A. Zimmerman
Student, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, PA

Morten Krogh
Student, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ

Douglas Mattern
President, Association of World Citizens, San Francisco, CA

Seth Kulick
Graduate Student, University of Pennsylvania

Naomi Smith, Ellen Meltzer, Miriam Chesman
New York City, New York

Shirley Cohen and Bernie Levin
San Jose, California

Richard and Carol Weinstock
Ventura, CA

Ben Markeson
Orlando Coalition to Stop the War; Socialist Party U.S.A., Orlando, Florida

Andrew Schneider
Wanaque, NJ

Herbert Brun
Emeritus Professor of Music, University of Illinois

Mark Epstein
Professor, Dept. of Modern Languages, College of New Jersey

Josh Raufman President
Middlebury College Chapter of Hillel; Member, Democratic Socialists of America

Simona Sharoni
Professor of Peace and Conflict Resolution, American University

Dr. Benjamin Robinson
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Area One Program,German Studies, Stanford University

Rabbi David Osachy
Philadelphia, PA

E.M. Daniel
Research Assistant/Graduate Student: San Francisco State University

Michael Mandel
Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University

Karen Golden Mandel Lawyer
Toronto, Canada

Jack Kurzweil Electrical Engineering Department San Jose State University

Mark Jacobs
Director of WESPAC (Westchester People's Action Coalition), New York

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Robert Naiman
naimanr@preamble.org
Preamble Center
1737 21st NW Washington, DC 20009
phone: 202-265-3263
fax: 202-265-3647
http://www.preamble.org/
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