http://www.nysun.com/article/45298
Confronting Conflict With Barenboim
by KATE TAYLOR | The New York Sun | December 18, 2006 Monday
The conductor conceived the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with his friend, the late scholar and advocate of a Palestinian state, Edward Said, and established it in 1999. (The name is taken from a cycle of poems by Goethe, inspired by his reading of Persian poetry.) This summer, during the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the orchestra voted to add a political statement to its program, stating that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the destinies of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples are inextricably linked.
"It is not an orchestra for peace," Mr. Barenboim said. "Peace requires much more than this. But it is a message of the orchestra that there is no military solution, and therefore we have to learn to know each other and find a solution that is just for everybody."
Mr. Barenboim went on to say that the parties must "achieve on the ground the conditions that we have in the orchestra, which are conditions of equality. When a Palestinian and an Israeli are playing the Brahms symphony on Tuesday night in Carnegie hall, in front of the Brahms Symphony, they are equals. But on the ground, in the West Bank, they are not equals."
I watched this last night. This is how some on the left think. Very scary.
Hitler and Stalin: Roots of Evil
An examination of the minds of two of the 20th century's most brutal dictators and mass murderers--Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Based on recent psychological and medical studies, the program explores the personalities of these ruthless leaders, who were directly responsible for millions of deaths--their paranoia, suspiciousness, cold-bloodedness, sadism, and lack of human feeling. Includes interviews with Martin Bormann's son and Hitler's butler. cc