As for Amnesty International, it happens to every single activist organization that grows big enough to be taken seriously by the establishment. It outright never fails. The perks for falling back to sleep are just too hard to pass up when you have a taste of mainstream respectability. This ought to be the realization that moves the masses to act… but realizing it and keeping it lit in the mind seem beyond the ken of most people.

All too easily altruism turns into nothing more than the politics of lifestyle, or identity politics… which is to say, it ceases being anything approximating altruism, becomes only ego and its multifarious excuses and rationalizations… becomes thin air… poisoned thin air….

Very depressing, all this, very, very depressing.

By co-incidence, I just published an article re Amnesty International’s Zionist bias – mainly quoting Francis Boyle’s remarkable testimony.

See http://sydwalker.info/blog/2009/07/30/the-zionist-bias-of-amnesty-international/

BUT LEONARD! He has been part of the fabric of my soul since the 1960′s! One of the enduring legends who never failed to move me to tears and ecstasy at th same time.

When I heard about his playing in Israel I realized there was a good chance that I would lose him as a friend in my life. He is Jewish and no matter how you put it, despite his lifestyle, once a Jew always a Jew. Look at Bob Dylan, a member of Chabad Lubovitch now, complete with that little box on his forehead!

Leonard is Canadian. I am sorry to say but my country was just praised by Avignor Lieberman as one of Israel’s best and most stalwart friends. Disgusting, mortifying. However, Leonard may be as Canadian as many others in my once great country.

He needs money due to thefts etc. He is getting very old and is not so brave as once he was.

I prayed, but even then I had a feeling I should be listening to his tunes with great appreciation because they would soon be anathema to me. During my growth over the years I have had to take stands on many of my favourites, due to total disillusionment over one thing or another. When it came to the Beatles, I was despondent for days.

The only ones I never lost it for were assassinated. So Leonard will be put into the same mental compartment that houses Bono, MeCartney, the Stones, and almost everyone else. Getting inured to it ….

Great news! Combatants for Peace is to be a recipient of proceeds from Leonard Cohen’s Tel Aviv benefit concert on September 24th. Titled “A Concert for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace“, all proceeds will go towards a newly-established foundation to benefit Israeli and Palestinian organizations working for reconciliation, including Combatants for Peace.