Only a propaganda piece masquerading as analysis could refer to remorseless babykillers who hunt children quaking under their bed as fighters for independence. Ruebner and Awwad's limited polling questions are designed to marginalize their mainstream opponents by saying both Jewish and Arab Americans want Middle East peace but only the Jewish "establishment" backs oppression. They forgot to ask Jewish Americans if they believed that Palestinians' current goal is a Palestinian state beside Israel or in the place of Israel. Had they done so, the overwhelming majority would say the latter because they support peace but not for the price of extermination.

It was the Palestinians, not Israelis, who abandoned the peace process by launching the Intifada rather than continuing to hammer out the details of a comprehensive peace accord. The flow of violence stems from that fateful decision. So long as Palestinians engage in their Orwellian peace-through-terror approach rather than abandoning their immoral civilian targeting, especially of children, and their leadership makes excuses for its corruption, its passivity in the face of these murderers, Americans of all stripes will remain committed to the current balanced U.S. policies.

Coupled with the usual arms-industry tripe, this ham-handed effort to convince us that it is Jewish intransigence, not Palestinian terror and extremism, which is responsible for preventing peace, is an insult to our intelligence and our scruples.

It’s for Your Own Good

Ted Rall's article is full of weak left-wing claptrap. The man should consider going back to penning cartoons.

First, Rall correctly states that terrorists will "exploit the weakness we aren't aware of or have chosen to ignore." He goes on to add that "whatever you least expect: expect." If he is right, how does he propose to find out what the terrorists' next steps are? Offering only paranoid conjecture without solutions, his only intellectual option is to criticize Ashcroft's TIPS plan, which asked cable installers, postal workers, and meter readers to turn in their customers if they see anything suspicious. Post- or pre-9/11, all responsible Americans have a duty to report suspicious activity of the people around them.

Orwellian? Hardly. Rall uses our new reality as a chance to take a pot-shot at an administration that is doing its best and taking steps to make us all as safe as possible. Rall also implies that Bush may be using the TIA program to dig up useful political information against his political foes. That idea is so cynical and slanderous that I felt embarrassed for the City Paper for publishing it. Forward that idea to Oliver Stone and develop a screenplay.

Mr. Rall, the government is not interested what Internet sites you surf, how much money you have, what you purchase, or what you read ... unless you are a terrorist.

If you are not a terrorist, relax, and let your government keep you safe from the terrorists currently in this country waiting for the right opportunity to kill you, your family, and all good Americans who live here.

Welcome to the Bungle

Guns N' Roses not showing up for their scheduled show Friday night at the First Union Center is an outrage, but not as offensive as how Comcast-Spectacor handled the hours following Axl's cancellation. We waited over 90 minutes before finding out the band would not go on, and the Center didn't announce the performance had been canceled until after 11:15 p.m. Then we were forced to leave the building at our closest exit (despite where we were parked), only to be greeted by cold, cops with nightsticks, and an angry mob breaking bottles and destroying property.

A refund on our tickets is justified and has been promised (I don't want to see the spoiled Axl Rose now anyway), but it is disturbing to think that one of Philly's foremost venues, the First Union Center, would handle Friday's situation with absolutely no customer-service skills. Yesterday I spent $10 on parking, over $60 on food and drinks, and hours of time while the FU Center maintained that G&R would perform "momentarily." Though the arena believes their only repercussion was a few thrown chairs, I'm sure they'll find that hundreds of us at Friday's show will think twice before attending an FU concert in the future.

The Rest of the Story

I think I'll save my eight bucks and not contribute to the coffers of Armenian merchants of hate. I'll wait until Egoyan makes Ararat II, where he depicts scenes of the hoodlums known as the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaks) massacring scores of thousands of Turkish men, women and children -- among whom were seven members of my grandmother's family. The back-stabbing Armenians collaborated, en masse, with the invading Russian armies, while all of Turkey's young men were away at a half-dozen fronts, fighting for the very existence of the nation. The Russian commander on the scene was so repulsed at the sight of the atrocities committed by the rampaging Armenian savages he threatened to resign unless he was allowed to pull these hoodlums to the back of the lines. If you know the Russian soldiers as I do, you would know that they are not known for their quality of mercy and are not easily revolted by scenes of carnage. So you can imagine the savagery of the terrible crimes committed by the Armenians.

You say there's a fat chance that Egoyan will make such a film? I think so too. So I get to keep my eight bucks. I think I'll donate it to the families of the dozens of Turkish diplomats and dozens more civilians, including Americans, Canadians and French, murdered by the Armenian terrorist organization, ASALA, since 1973.

Correction

Last week's Book Quarterly feature about Nancy Heller's new book ("Easy as (Pizza) Pie," Lori Hill, Dec. 5, 2002) incorrectly listed her title. She is a professor of art history at the University of the Arts, not an assistant professor.