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Weinberg and Israel

Aftim Saba Berkeley
Friday November 01, 2002

 

To the Editor: 

 

When I first saw Micky Weinberg’s name as a candidate for City Council, I thought this was either a joke or some pathological hubris. I have debated Mr. Weinberg on Larry Benski’s Sunday Salon on KPFA, observed him speak at some events and therefore I know where he stands on important contemporary moral and human issues. He is a student who dreams to be an Israeli soldier who fully supports the settlers and the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Micky Weinberg does not consider the West Bank and Gaza as occupied territories. As a soldier, he will do many things Israeli soldiers routinely do during their occupation, including: he will enforce perpetual curfews on millions of Palestinians, shoot at children whether they are throwing stones or watching the streets from a window during a curfew, bulldoze homes of families and protect the settlers during their bloody rampages against Palestinian farmers harvesting their olive crops. This will mean we have a settler soldier ideological candidate for Berkeley City Council – a real first in Berkeley. Mr. Weinberg is opposed to a two state solution, one Palestine, in the West Bank and Gaza and the other, Israel living in peace side by side.  

Mr. Weinberg’s political views are so far to the right of the political spectrum. His views do not even come close to the majority of the Israeli public. A poll by the Israeli newspaper, Yedihot Ahronot, in Oct. 2002 revealed that 78 percent of the Israeli public say that Israel should accept the dismantling of settlements in the West Bank and Gaza against 20 percent who opposed. 

Moreover, as a student, I would have thought that Mr. Weinberg should support free speech, even if he disagrees. However, he has consistently attacked the pro-Palestinian students on campus and called for their punishment and their expulsion from the university, which puts him squarely in the rabidly anti-free speech camp. 

Berkeley is known all over the nation and the world for its humanitarian, ecofriendly, politically-correct and free speech environment. Weinberg certainly does not respect Berkeley’s values, principles or its history. Who is behind this extreme right winger? Why is Mayor Dean pushing for the candidacy of an immature individual (She also appointed him to the Peace and Justice commission)? Who is she pandering to? Why is Mayor Dean intending further to damage Berkeley’s reputation as a beacon for free speech and tolerance? 

 

Aftim Saba  

Berkeley