[VTJP] Fw: Staying in touch..

[James M Leas]

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Reuven Kaminer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: 'Reuven Kaminer' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2004 10:51:57 +0200 Subject: Staying in touch.. Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>                                                                                       July 30, 2004   Dear family and friends,               We got back last Thursday AM from a month long working vacation that included a three day academic conference, a four city lecture tour in Germany and Zurich and an intensive week soaking up culture in London.               The conference took place in Brussels and was organized by a group of academic for peace in the Middle East. I was invited to represent the Refusniks Parents Forum (despite my being only a grandparent). The conference was a rather dull affair, and I fear that the organizers have a real problem in organizing a political event, which this was supposed to be, as against any kind of academic affair where there is little form or structure except for sessions and interventions. There were many things of value and substance, especially around the complex interplay between the peace forces and the European Community. I cannot be too angry with them as they insisted on billing me as Professor Reuven Kaminer, and only corrected the mistake orally before my brief speech on behalf of the five. I did find it necessary to confess that though I myself am not a professor, some of my best friends….               Since we had no other plans, we contacted the European Jews for a Just Peace which has tens of connections in various cities and with the assistance of the local people we put this tour together.  There are indeed literally tens of local groups and forums working in one way or another towards peace and an end to the occupation.  They tend to be different in composition from city to city and to have a different mix of Jews, Israelis, Arabs, Palestinians and Germans.  My impression is that the lectures were satisfactory, though we did miss a section of the interested public who will not come to a lecture in English.               Germany remains for the both of us, no simple matter.  And given our druthers we prefer a visit to memorial sites and concentration camp sites than to learn more about Goethe, Bach etc…Without rationalizations, we do think it important to work and do politics in this very dense and complicated situation. Especially since the main aspect of the overall picture is the tendency to exploit and manipulate the German past in order to promote weird official pro-Israeli positions.  This phenomenon demands, of course, deeper treatment – but we will save that for another time.               It was the afternoon of the 14th of July that we learned via phone from Tali that the Military Parole Commission had decided in sharp contradiction to indications during an open session just a few days earlier to shorten the prison term for all the five and to release them on September 15th, the eve of Rosh Hashana.  I do suspect that the date is an attempt to play down the release, since there will be no press for the next two days.  The decision is a vindication for all of us who argued that the struggle was causing the establishment and its military wing no small amount of trouble and concern.  It is quite certain that these less hysterical wings of the establishment  fell prey to a group of internal hard-liners who convinced them that the public wants to come down hard on the draft resisters - with an iron fist.               There is of course still the possibility that the IDF might try to remobilize the five and start the whole process all over again. Though this is a distinct possibility, my guess is that even they, the hard liners, will desist from an action that will meet with almost universal disdain.  Even so, we do have to marshal all our vigilance until we get past this last formal barrier to a complete and unconditional release. I have not yet had a chance to talk to the kids, but if they were doing fine, in the worst of times, my educated guess based on info is that they are just fine at this point.               We wound up with 3 days in Berlin visiting with a young couple – she is Smadar's niece and working in photography and video and he edits the culture and art section of one of the largest on-line newspapers in Germany.               Our goal in England was to give ourselves some sort of reward by soaking up all that kind of culture available to the museum visitor and the theatre-goer in an intensive week. There is a lot to see, though the theatre is far from its most impressive stage and the maneuvering for tickets is still complex.   The kids are fine, working like mad.  Shalom who had lost his big job in the crisis is working at three jobs, doing fine and looking for some major project. Carmel is in Europe with a group of potential refusniks (She did get an exemption from the army on the basis of conscientious objection.  I was certain that even the Israeli army would not give her any trouble- she is into non-violence, animal care, special diet etc in a big way).   Noga calls quite often – so we hear from her personally…all the rest of the kids are keeping their parents busy over the vacation months..   We, have not, at this point reviewed our travel options…But if we do decide to come to the US it will be after Matan's release…meanwhile we will wait and see..                                                                                              Love Reuven and Dafna Yahoo! 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