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Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 17:49:12 -0400 (EDT)
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Subject: CAIR-NET: News Briefs - Who's Most to Blame for Mideast Crisis?/Media Round-Up
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In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

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AMERICAN MUSLIM NEWS BRIEFS - 10/14/2000

HEADLINES:

* TIME MAGAZINE POLL: WHO'S MOST TO BLAME FOR MIDEAST CRISIS?
* DESPAIR PERVADES U.S. ARAB AND JEWISH COMMUNITIES (AP)
* BIASED COMMENTARY: THE PRICE OF AMERICA'S NAIVETE (NY TIMES)
* PRO-PALESTINIANS MARCH TO UN IN NY (AP)
* TWO SIDES, WORLDS APART, BUT JUST ACROSS THE STREET (WASH. POST)
* HOW IT CAME TO THIS: A PALESTINIAN'S VIEW (WASH. POST)
* SOME FEAR COLE ATTACK COULD SPUR ANTI-ARAB FEELINGS IN HAMPTON ROADS
* GORE TRIES TO JUGGLE CAMPAIGNING, OFFICIAL DUTIES IN MIDEAST CRISIS (AP)

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TIME MAGAZINE POLL: WHO'S MOST TO BLAME FOR MIDEAST CRISIS?
Who do you think is most responsible for the escalation of violence in the Mideast?
http://www.time.com/time/daily/poll/0,2637,mideast,00.html

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DESPAIR PERVADES U.S. ARAB AND JEWISH COMMUNITIES
By JULIA LIEBLICH, Associated Press, 10/14/2000

NEW YORK (AP) - Six thousand miles from the bloodletting, worlds away from the
battles over ancient holy places, the violence between Jews and Arabs in the Middle
East is mirrored in the hardening hearts of Jews and Arabs in the United States.

Many Jews who had come to believe that Yasser Arafat might be a partner in peace
now offer unqualified support for Israel while blaming the Palestinians for the
murder of soldiers. American Muslims and Palestinian Christians who hoped for a
peaceful transition to a Palestinian state accuse the Israeli and American
governments of slaughtering civilians...

...(Ibrahim) Hooper, of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said American
Muslims and Palestinians describe their frustration as extreme.

"People are fed up with house demolitions, land confiscations, the seemingly
endless denial of Palestinian and Muslim human rights. Palestinian Christian and
Muslims are like sheep to the slaughter," he said. "Every day we see American
attack weapons and American tanks against unarmed Palestinian civilians paid for
largely by American tax dollars."

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THE PRICE OF AMERICA'S NAIVETE
By Reuel Marc Gerecht, The New York Times, 10/14/2000, Page 19, Column 1
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/14/opinion/14GERE.html

WASHINGTON -- History is long and merciless in the Middle East. The suicide boat-
bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, and the turmoil in Israel,
Gaza and the West Bank are, above all else, violent expressions of the age-old
confrontation between Islam and the West. America, no less than Israel, is
inextricably tied to the Muslim-Christian tug-of-war that began in the seventh
century when Arab armies first conquered Palestine...

... There is no doubt that the Middle East is no longer a hotbed of competing
virulently anti-Israeli Arab nationalisms. Pan-Arabism, Ba'athism and Nasserism
have all given way to new national identities, in which the Muslim component has
regained considerable ground. And for a Muslim, who views Islam as God's final
revelation and can recall with vividness and understandable pride nearly a thousand
years of Muslim triumph and superiority over Christendom (that is, the West), the
presence and strength of Israel is a painful reminder of Islam's long fall from
power. Though esteemed for their knowledge, Jews are usually characterized in
Islamic tradition as cowardly and weak. Losing to Christians over the last 300
years has been bad enough; losing to Jews since 1947 has been especially galling...

POLITE COMMENTS TO: [log in to unmask]

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PRO-PALESTINIANS MARCH TO UN IN NY
By KATHERINE ROTH, The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - About 15,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched to the United
Nations for a prayer service on Friday after a rally denouncing Israel for the
bloodshed in the Mideast...

...It was the largest of a number of pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the
country Friday and drew demonstrators from around the Northeast.

In Philadelphia, several hundred people demonstrated in support of
Palestinians...Meanwhile, hundreds turned out for a similar rally held near the
Israeli consulate in Chicago...In Orange County, Calif., about 100 people gathered
to protest in front of a federal building...Other demonstrations were held in
Atlanta; Columbus, Ohio; Seattle; Charleston, W. Va., and Washington.

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TWO SIDES, WORLDS APART, BUT JUST ACROSS THE STREET
Israeli, Palestinian Supporters Gather in Competing Protests
By Caryle Murphy, The Washington Post Staff Writer, 10/14//2000
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6517-2000Oct13.html

They recalled their victims: a cowering Palestinian child, a brutalized Israeli
soldier. They invoked their holy scriptures: the Torah and Koran. And they demanded
that the U.S. government support their side...

...The Muslims, who prayed on the sidewalk, listened to Johari Abdul Malik, prayer
leader of the Howard University Muslim community.

"It's our responsibility and duty to wake up America," Malik said to the Muslims
sitting on prayer rugs. "Your money, billions of dollars every year, goes to
support Israel. We need to force our government to stop supporting the government
of Israel."

SEE ALSO: "HOW IT CAME TO THIS: A PALESTINIAN'S VIEW"
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7302-2000Oct14.html

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SOME FEAR COLE ATTACK COULD SPUR ANTI-ARAB FEELINGS IN HAMPTON ROADS
By CLAIRE BUSHEY, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA, 10/13/2000
http://www.pilotonline.com/military/ml1013rel.html

When Juliette Dallal heard about the attack on the American destroyer Cole, her
heart went out to the mothers and loved ones of the victims.

Her son spent time on the aircraft carrier George Washington in the Persian Gulf,
she said, so she knows how families of the Cole's sailors feel as they wait for
news. But she was also concerned about the effect the attack would have on her own
family.

Dallal, a Palestinian Christian originally from Jerusalem, said she was concerned
that the attack, which President Clinton called an apparent act of terrorism, could
generate anti-Arab sentiment in South Hampton Roads...

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GORE TRIES TO JUGGLE CAMPAIGNING, OFFICIAL DUTIES IN MIDEAST CRISIS
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Write, 10/14/2000

DETROIT (AP) - Al Gore reached out Saturday to the sizable Arab-American community
in Michigan's electoral battleground, as he tried to keep one foot on the campaign
trail, the other in the middle of top-secret White House efforts to calm the
Mideast...

...At a downtown rally livened with Motown dance tunes, Gore implicitly addressed
some concerns that his recent comments on the Middle East were too unconditionally
supportive of Israel.

He said it would take "a lot of prayers" to help along the peace summit convening
Monday with President Clinton in the region.

"As we grieve for those who were affected by the violence there we think not only
of the Americans, we think also of the Palestinians and Israelis and the suffering
the families on both sides have felt," Gore said. "The scenes have been heart-
rending and it is time for us to lift them up in prayers as well."

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