"Of course, that's just my opinion, and I may be full of shit"
- Dennis Miller -

Since this opinion was considered in great detail, it will be difficult to change my mind. However, it's not impossible. I am always open to reason. I welcome thoughtful, logical, response.

That site attempts to accomplish serious goals in a very serious arena.

At the time I sent the email my opinion was that they are not as serious as the subject they address. However, they provided a quick response, which gave me slight hope. Their response follows mine below.

As of April 28, despite their claims of good intentions, no enhancement have been made to their web site, and thus my opinion returns to great suspicion that what we have here is not a serious effort. Such efforts do more harm to causes than good, as they make indiviuals like me skeptical about causes.

From:  Cris Mooney 
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2002 1:02 PM
To: 'info@revoketheprize.org'
Subject: I am an potential audience not reached.

A friend pointed me at your site http://www.revoketheprize.org. I was sadly disappointed.

For a site with such lofty objectives, you offer precious little information to convince one to support your cause. Lots about what you are trying to accomplish, and how (or if) it could be done. Very little about why. Moreover, you do not offer any positive contribution as to what you feel would be nobel-worthy (and why) and/or what actions you feel would resolve the conflicts in that area of the world.

The bold statements "Israel made a fair, good faith offer to Mr. Arafat for a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; rather than accepting or making a counteroffer, Mr. Arafat answered with violence. His constant pledge to achieve a Peace of the Brave has proven to be mere words, belied by his failure and unwillingness to take a public stance against organizations committed to acts of terror. ", require deep support. To make such claims without backing them up, leaves me cold and unsupportive.

If these claims were self evident, then there would be no conflict in the middle east. The issue is extremely complex, and addressing it in such an simplified manor is at the very least snobbery, and at worst a possible propaganda-coverup built on lies.

In general, those who make claims without backing them up are usually full of shit. Propaganda pushing people, with their own questionable agendas. As a result, not only do I not accept and join your cause at this point, your lack of support for your claims makes me lean towards suspecting they are baseless (if not blatantly wrong or reversed). Instead of gaining an adversary, you have actually pushed me slightly away.

Certainly, I am ignorant on the subject - though I would prefer not to be. Perhaps I am not your target audience. If that is the case, then you have achieved your goal with respect to me: I am a potential audience not reached.

If you are serious about your cause, and honestly believe you are right, you should provide support for your cause rather than just a description of your goal -- including reference to good objective resources where others might learn more about the conflict. Short of that, I don't accept your position.

Moreover, it is my opinion that the signatures of individuals who would rally behind your cause with no support (being that the majority of visitors are probably as ignorant about the subject as I am), are not worth the toilet paper they should be printed on. I hope whomever you present them to pays as much attention to this point as I have here.

For those who may search the internet with respect to your project, I have placed my comments online at "http://www.forus.com/forus/csm/Misc/revoketheprize.html" so they might consider these thoughts before they commit to your mission.

Respectfully,
Cris Mooney

From: Revoke the Prize
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 12:05 AM
To: csm@forus.com
Subject: Re: I am an potential audience not reached.
 

Cris,

Thank you for the the legitimate criticism. We are currently in the process 
of putting together a multi-media presentation on the Arab-Israeli conflict 
in order to give people like yourself a solid background on the history of 
the issue. I will try and send you a draft of the presentation in the coming 
days. However, one presentation would obviously not do justice to the 
complexities of issues at hand so if you are interested I would be glad to 
try and put together a little syllabus for you.

thank you again,
Jonathan Bendheim

I am impressed by your prompt reply, which does a lot to gain my attention.

However, I would not want you to go out of the way to do anything special for me in particular. I am strong believer that if I have a question, so do very many other have that same question. Your cause is a noble one, and worth sharing any information you can gather with the broadest base possible. Of course, I will be happy to see such materials and provide any feedback I can. However, I would certainly hope that all your efforts are leveraged by presenting your ideas to everyone rather than just me.

I should be clear, I am no serious activist nor anyone of significance. I am just one person. Though there is value in each individual that gains an understanding, success in your mission will only come by reaching a broad base not just convincing me.

That is to say, I would rather not have a syllabus "for me", but see one added to your web site under expanded Q&A.

I have added your reponse to my web page.

Thank you for your time,
Cris Mooney