As I've posted before, Jeff, you ought to be working on your autobiography. Bill Jeffrey Blankfort wrote: > Just to set the record straight, the Lebanese woman who Bill refers to > has, I believe some distant Jewish relation, but everyone else in his > family is nominally a Lebanese Christian. Both of them are good friends > who returned to Beirut some years ago where he teaches at the University > of Beirut. While she probably did more to advance the Palestinian > struggle in the SF Bay Area than anyone else I know, she had nothing to > do with the advertisement to which Bill refers, the one that appeared in > the SF Chronicle and the SF Examiner signed by 300 (it was and not 400) > Bay Area Jews. It was in fact, drawn up by myself, and three other Jews, > one the South African who Bill refers to, who met, coincidentally in an > Israeli-owned delicatessen in San Francisco, and gave ourselves four > days to get as many signatures as we could. If we had waited a week we > would have more than doubled that number. I had only three refusals, a > well-known lawyer cousin who represented the ILWU whose son was living > in Israel, a musician who had just taken a job at a local TV station and > was legitimately afraid of being fired if his signature appeared in that > ad, and Todd Gitlin, who refused twice, stipulating that he would only > sign it if the ad also condemned the PLO. > > We received national publicity on CBS and in Time or Newsweek, and were, > predictably attacked as either being fictitious or self-hating Jews > within the Jewish media. The NY Times ad that Bill referred to was > circulated by a professor at UC Berkeley who had lost 33 members of her > family in the Holocaust, and was signed by scores of Jewish academics, > the exact number of which I don't recall. The response that she received > in the mail from pro-Israel Jews was so vicious and and Nazi-like, to > put it the proper perspective, that she could scarcely believe, > particularly when some of it came on the letterhead of Jewish doctors > and dentists. > > One interesting thing occurred around our ad. We received a call from an > ad agency in Los Angeles informing us that an anonymous donor wanted to > place our ad in leading newspapers around the country. When we requested > the name of that donor we were told it could not be disclosed. Our small > group smelled a rat. We thought how strange it would appear if this ad > appeared in papers across the country with the names of 300 Bay Area > Jews and we would have no idea who paid for it. Obviously, it would be > attributed to Arab oil money and we would be dismissed as their tools > which was how leaders of several Jewish organizations were already > describing us. So I phoned the ad agency in LA and told the man that we > didn't want the ad reproduced, and I was told that his client was going > to do it anyway! > > Having worked at the LA Examiner, I had a pretty good idea of the papers > that would be selected for the ad, and we got on the phones right away > to stop its publication. Fortunately, my hunches turned out to be > completely on target. Selected had been the NY Times, the Boston Globe, > the Atlanta Constitution, the Washington Post, the Christian Monitor, > the New Orleans Times Picayune, the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Chicago > Tribune, the LA Times and the Des Moines Register. Most of the papers > had already decided not to accept it but several were, in fact, ready to > run it, when they were contacted, and pulled it when they heard our > objections. Who was the client? Obviously, some one, or some > organization with a lot of money who was out to damage our credibility. > Some organization that was without question, in our minds, working for Israel. > > Jeff Blankfort > > William Mandel wrote: > > > Tom Nagy doesn't recall a previous Israeli massacre that provoked reaction > > in the U.S. as extensive as last week's. > > When Menachem Begin conducted his aerial bombing campaign against > > Beirut, on the excuse that it was sheltering Arafat's forces, two women at > > KPFA, one a Lebanese (then the only Arab associated with the station, who > > had hitherto confined herself to convincing the world that Arabs are human > > by playing their music; she is married to a Jew) and a South African Jew, > > both friends of mine, drew up a petition signed "Menachem Begin Does Not > > Speak For Us." It was signed by four hundred San Francisco Bay Area Jews, of > > whom not more than ten per cent were Left in any sense. Published as a large > > ad in the S.F. Chronicle and then in the New York Times, it was the first > > ever expression of Jewish opposition to Israeli military policy taken > > outside Jewish circles as such. That was the beginning of the constantly > > broadening public opposition to Israeli policy among American Jews, just now > > given particular publicity by the statement of Rabbi Michael Lerner, who > > long ago was a leader of the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley. > > William > > Mandel > >
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