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Press Release from John Papworth
to introduce the article by
Kirkpatrick Sale
entitled
An End To The Israel Experiment? Unmaking A Grievous Error27th March 2003
Outrage and consternation is already erupting from the publication of Fourth World Review's proposals to end the State of Israel. In an article by US author Kirkpatrick Sale, the humanitarian case for an independent Israel is not disputed, but it points out that it was seen as a means for achieving peace and security for a savagely persecuted minority, but that far from achieving either it has resulted in the opposite of both.Israel today is a nuclear-armed fortress enveloped in a sea of Arab hatred, hatred so intense and militant that the Israeli government feels impelled for defensive and security reasons to adopt the role of policeman, aggressor and invader to the people of Palestine.
Such a situation spells danger. Danger to the prospects of peace and not least danger to the people of Israel itself. It is this danger which has prompted Fourth World Review to join in questioning Israeli sovereignty and, if only by implication, suggesting the need for a polity on an altogether different basis.
Such a basis, for the cantonisation of the entire Arab/Israeli world, has proved eminently successful in resolving the rivalries and tension of different language and religious identities in Switzerland, where peace in the midst of a repeatedly war-torn Europe, has been maintained for seven hundred years.
A world in danger is badly in need of new approaches and new thinking. It is said that a new idea has three stages, ridicule, discussion and adoption. At present we are still at the first; let us not dally there too long.
see Introductory Remarks to the article by John Papworth copies of notices on The Radical Notice Board may be obtained from 26 The High Street, Purton, Wiltshire SN5 4AE, UK
Tel: 01793 77 22 14 Fax: 01793 77 25 21
e-mail: john.papworth@btinternet.com
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