Amen!
(Source: tslemire)
"There is no peace process and no prospect of one"
—
A chilling phrase from Bitterlemons-International Israel/#Palestinian roundtable:
Why we are closing - Yossi Alpher
The explanation is not disconnected from what is transpiring around us in the Middle East and globally.
We are ceasing publication for reasons involving fatigue—on a number of fronts. First, there is donor fatigue. Why, donors ask, should we continue to support a Middle East dialogue project that not only has not made peace, but cannot “prove” to our satisfaction—especially at a time of revolution and violence throughout the region—that it has indeed raised the level of civilized discussion? Why fight the Israeli right-wing campaign against European and American state funding and the Palestinian campaign against “normalization”?
These last two negative developments also reflect local fatigue. There is no peace process and no prospect of one….
Full Statements from the publishers: http://www.bitterlemons-international.org/inside.php?id=1552
Martin Luther King Jr Speaks To Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam
4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City
4 April 1967, Riverside Church, New York City
Gleaned from American Rhetoric, Online Speech Bank.
“Peace and Civil Rights don’t mix they say, so this morning I speak to you on this issue because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously…”
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar… …it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
[…] Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path.
At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: “Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?” “Why are you joining the voices of dissent?” “Peace and civil rights don’t mix,” they say. “Aren’t you hurting the cause of your people,” they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.
In the light of such tragic misunderstanding, I deem it of signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church — the church in Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate — leads clearly to this sanctuary tonight.
I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they must play in the successful resolution of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reasons to be suspicious of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful give and take on both sides.
Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans…[…]
Full text of speech onsite
