J-Street: Fight back against CAMERA: Support Bob Simon's report on West Bank Settlements

Two groups--J Street and Gaza Justice--call on you to help:



Earlier this week we asked you to Thank CBS and Bob Simon for their excellent TV report exposing Israeli Apartheid tactics. Thousands like you responded by signing a letter of support. But we just learned from the folks at J-Street, a pro-peace Jewish group, that CBS IS UNDER ATTACK by the anti-Peace pro-Israel network for showing America the truth. If you haven't seen the report you can watch it here.
FIGHT BACK, GET AT LEAST FIVE OF YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND A LETTER OF SUPPORT TO CBS. ACT NOW, USING THE BELOW LINK. WE HAVE DESIGNED AN EASY TOOL TO HELP YOU INVITE everyone you know. Simply click on the below link, upload your email address book OR copy-paste the addresses you want to contact and click send. Our software will do the rest.
CLICK HERE TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND THEIR SUPPORT LETTERS
Here is what J-Street said about the groups behind the attack o CBS:
[CAMERA (the Orwellian-named Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) alerted their activist network - flooding the 60 Minutes' offices and their advertisers with angry phone calls charging media bias. [1] Jewish community leader Abe Foxman fired off a letter calling the piece "a hatchet job on Israel." [2]
Journalists - as well as rabbis, professors and elected officials - know that if they raise questions about what Israel does - they'll often get attacked as anti-Israel. It's one way the forces of the status quo constrain debate and discussion on what's really best for Israel and the United States. We can't let fringe groups like CAMERA define what it means to be pro-Israel through intimidation and fear tactics.]
CLICK HERE TO SEND A THANK YOU NOTE TO BOB SIMON AND CBS. IF YOU ALREADY SENT A NOTE, GET 5 OF YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND A NOTE TOO.
Thank you for continuing to advocate for peace and justice.
GazaJustice. org

Contact Us: mailto:info@gazajustice.org
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Bob Simon from 60 Minutes under attack.

Fight back with a letter of support.

All week, 60 Minutes' Bob Simon has been under attack for supposed "anti-Israel bias" for this past Sunday's accurate and thoughtful report on the danger that Israeli settlements pose to the chances for Israeli-Palestinian peace. If you haven't yet seen the segment, view it here.
CAMERA (the Orwellian-named Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) alerted their activist network - flooding the 60 Minutes' offices and their advertisers with angry phone calls charging media bias. [1] Jewish community leader Abe Foxman fired off a letter calling the piece "a hatchet job on Israel." [2]
Journalists - as well as rabbis, professors and elected officials - know that if they raise questions about what Israel does - they'll often get attacked as anti-Israel. It's one way the forces of the status quo constrain debate and discussion on what's really best for Israel and the United States.

It's time for a reporter like Bob Simon to know that those of us with balanced views value balanced reporting - and we know how to write letters too! If he's getting an earful from CAMERA and others, then the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement should be showing him support.
Click here to view the segment and send Bob Simon a note of support for his accurate and thoughtful report on Israeli settlements and the occupation.
We hear plenty from American media about the threats that Israel faces from terrorism, rockets, and a nuclear Iran.
While those threats are real and should be covered, Americans also need to hear about another threat that is just as real: that time is running out for a two-state solution with the Palestinians in part due to Israeli settlements and the occupation of the West Bank. Without a two-state solution soon through assertive American diplomacy, Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic homeland is at risk.
During Sunday's 60 Minutes segment, anchor Bob Simon interviewed pro-settlement activist Daniella Weiss who readily admitted that she thinks "settlements prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the land of Israel. This is the goal. And this is the reality."
Simon also restated what Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been saying for years [3] about what would happen if the two-state solution peace process falls apart.
"Demographers predict that within ten years Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote. That would be the democratic option but it would mean the end of the Jewish state. Or they could try apartheid - have the minority Israelis rule the majority Palestinians, but apartheid regimes don't have a very long life."
Simon also interviewed Israeli Foreign Minister and Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians Tzipi Livni who said that evacuating the settlers in the West Bank is "not going to be easy. But this is the only solution."
But groups like CAMERA are opposed to mainstream media reporting that Israeli extremists, in addition to Palestinian extremists, undermine efforts to achieve a two-state solution. CAMERA resorts to claims of anti-Israel bias - when the reality is that Israeli extremists on the West Bank make real peace and security for Israel and the Palestinians more difficult to achieve.
We can't let fringe groups like CAMERA define what it means to be pro-Israel through intimidation and fear tactics.
Bob Simon should receive support from the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement for his accurate and thoughtful assessment of the threat that Israeli settlements pose to the two-state solution peace process.
Click here to write a note of support to 60 Minutes' Bob Simon.
Isaac Luria
Online Director
J Street
January 29, 2009

[1] "CBS's 60 Minutes Scapegoats Israel," Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. January 26, 2009.
[2] "ADL Letter to CBS News' 60 Minutes," Anti-Defamation League. January 26, 2009.
[3] "Olmert to Haaretz: Two-state solution, of Israel is done for," by Aluf Benn, David Landau, Barak Ravid, Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondents and AP. Haaretz. November 29, 2007.

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