I have – just now. And once I heard about them, I had to do something.
The Shministim – all about ages 16, 17, 18 and in the 12th grade – are a new breed of conscientious objectors in Israel and right now they are taking a stand. They believe in a better, more peaceful future for themselves and for Israelis and Palestinians, and they are refusing to join the Israeli army. They're in jail, holding strong against immense pressure from family, friends and the Israeli government. They need our support and they need it today.
The Shministim have asked Jewish Voice for Peace to reach out to people like us to let the Israeli government know we are watching, and that we support their courage. They're hoping to receive hundreds of thousands of postcards to be delivered to the Israeli Minister of Defense. Especially now-while bombs rain down on Gaza and we are reminded that when the soldiers say no, there will be no more deaths.
The Shministim are hoping to stand strong representing not only the thousands of refuseniks who came before them, not only the many young people to whom they are an example of a better world, but also to represent us. They have asked you, me, and every person who strives for peace to support them. I will.
Will you join me? It’s simple. Sign a letter. Click here: http://www.december18th.org/
American / Israeli Dual Citizens in the American Government
Attorney General - Michael Mukasey
Head of Homeland Security - Michael Chertoff
Chairman Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Richard Perle
Deputy Defense Secretary (Former) - Paul Wolfowitz
Under Secretary of Defense - Douglas Feith
National Security Council Advisor - Elliott Abrams
Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff (Former) - “Scooter” Libby
White House Deputy Chief of Staff - Joshua Bolten
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs - Marc Grossman
Director of Policy Planning at the State Department - Richard Haass
U.S.
Trade Representative (Cabinet-level Position) - Robert Zoellick
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - James Schlesinger
UN Representative (Former) - John Bolton
Under Secretary for Arms Control - David Wurmser
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Eliot Cohen
Senior Advisor to the President - Steve Goldsmith
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary - Christopher Gersten
Assistant Secretary of State - Lincoln Bloomfield
Deputy Assistant to the President - Jay Lefkowitz
White House Political Director - Ken Melman
National Security Study Group - Edward Luttwak
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Kenneth Adelman
Defense Intelligence Agency Analyst (Former) - Lawrence (Larry) Franklin
National Security Council Advisor - Robert Satloff
President Export-Import Bank U.S.
- Mel Sembler
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families - Christopher Gersten
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs
- Mark Weinberger
White House Speechwriter - David Frum
White House Spokesman (Former) - Ari Fleischer
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board - Henry Kissinger
Deputy Secretary of Commerce - Samuel Bodman
Under Secretary of State for Management - Bonnie Cohen
Director of Foreign Service Institute - Ruth Davis
I remember exactly where I was when it was announced on Monday Night Football by Howard Cosell that John Lennon had been shot. I was in a bar on the Eastside with friends. The whole bar went silent, the TV was turned up and we all cried.
Why would someone kill him? Why is it always people who believe in peace that are killed? So many unanswered questions.
Three weeks before his murder, John Lennon fired his bodyguards. His rationale was that assassins shoot the bodyguards first anyway, but in fact, John and Yoko felt very comfortable -- perhaps too comfortable -- in New York City. The apartment building they had been living in for the past five years, the Dakota, was well-guarded, home to stars like Gilda Radner and Lauren Bacall. New York was not a city where the inhabitants mobbed celebrities everywhere they went. Rock stars had never been shot, only political figures and John had been in a period of seclusion for the last five years anyway, baking bread and taking care of he and Yoko's son, Sean, who was five at the time of the killing.
When John and Yoko began recording their "comeback" album "Double Fantasy," however, they were coming and going with regularity almost every day, and at the same time. It was easy for any fan to know when they would return. In fact, some often asked John to sign copies of albums for them. One such person, on the night of December 8, 1980, was John's killer.
During an interview conducted while he was still a Beatle, John was asked how he expected to die. Lennon jokingly replied: "I'll probably be popped off by some loony." This has been a source of fascination for John fans, as is the fact that the lyrics of the Beatles' "Come Together" contain the words "shoot me" repeated over and over. (The "me" is obscured by music, but close listening reveals it's there.)
I learned a lot from John and his music. I still believe in peace.
John Lennon sings, "Give Peace A Chance"
