1. More Palestinians for peace; read about the people to whom George Bush wishes to grant the Old City of Jerusalem, and their enormous cheering on of bin Laden: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/10/12/News/News.36105.html

2. This week we read in the Torah portion the story of Cain and Abel. The Bible is actually a bit vague about what Cain and Abel were quarreling over, although the Midrash in Bereshit Rabba says it was cause Cain claimed Abel was occupying Cain’s lands illegitimately.

   Anyway, we thought we would bring to you the BBC version of the report on the murder of Abel by Cain:

   (Chimes of Big Ben.)

   The time is 22 hundred Greenwich mean time. Here is the news.

   The BBC has just learned that yet another act of violence has occurred in the volatile Middle East. In this case, a settler named Abel was killed by an activist and militant engaged in a struggle for liberation of his homeland, named Cain. Cain had suffered terribly under occupation and was simply seeking justice. He engaged in symbolic protests and threw rocks at Abel and eventually his devotion to the struggle against occupation was so powerful that he killed Abel in an act that some unenlightened and backwards people would call murder. But it is important that we all understand the root causes of Cain’s rage. What was he REALLY angry about? Clearly his rage and violence could ONLY be explained by the long history of suffering that he was forced to endure. Just another proof that injustice breeds violence and what Israelis call terror. Now some people might confuse Cain’s act with truly illegitimate forms of terrorism such as when the IRA placed a bomb next to BBC headquarters in London, but in fact Cain’s actions just serve to prove all the more clearly why "terrorism" and violence are due to the unequal distribution of the world’s wealth. Poverty and suffering cause acts such as Cain’s. We need dialogue with Cain, not reprisals. Anyone claiming that the blood of Cain’s brother calls out from the ground needs to be denounced for engaging in racist incitement. We must all seek to redress Cain’s grievances so that we can live in a more tranquil and just world.

   This has been BBC News, broadcasting live from Bush House.

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Plaut.
All Rights Reserved.

-Published with permission