Other PRIMER Activities

Op-Eds

PRIMER-Connecticut encourages top writers of regional organizations to pro-actively develop OP-EDs. Identifying the writer as an officer or director enhances the probability of publication.

These op-eds include the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily represent positions of PRIMER.

Make Diplomacy Work with Iran By Alan Stein — Analysis of the key provisions of the Iran treaty. (August 14, 2015)
Israel and U.S. beacons of civilization By Alan Stein — Compares the situation in the currently disputed territories now and during the period from 1948-1967 when they were occupied by Jordan and Egypt. (February 21, 2015)
Consequences By Don Morris — A critical piece adding to the conversation about the deal between the "P5+1" and Iran. (November 26, 2013)
Points to Consider About the Resumption of Negotiations By Alan Stein — The information about the announced resumption of final status negotiations has been confusing and ambiguous. (July 21, 2013)
Irresponsible Narratives and the Lives they Impact By Don Morris — People determine narratives around issues, people, situations and circumstances (July 15, 2013)
Setting the Record Straight: Distortions of Commission and Omission By Alan Stein — The degree of misinformation and misunderstanding relating to the issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict is astounding. Patently false information is pervasive yet is often taken as common knowledge and falsely transmitted in conversations, over the Internet, in the traditional media and even by governments. (December 10, 2012)
Dismissive Behavior-Perspective is Critical to Understanding Another's Point of View By Don Morris — It does the nation no good to berate and negate one another's positions. This human situation requires leadership that operates with an ability to listen and hear what the two parties say. (November 23, 2012)
We are at War By Don Morris — The West can win this war, we have the truth on our side, and our societal values are as valued today as they were so many generations ago. The question becomes when will we find the resolve to take a stand and defend ourselves? Our enemy is counting on never! (June 10, 2012)
Going to the well time and again pays off-why not keep going? By Don Morris — Don Morris examines Mahmoud Abbas' latest offer to pretend to negotiate if Israel first releases more terrorists, further arms his thugs and strangles the Jewish communities in the disputed territories. (June 9, 2012)
Offensive Words and Policies Defined By Don Morris — Don Morris examines how groups which do not share the West's way of life or sense of toleration and humanity are using language to promote a destructive narrative. (November 8, 2011)
Intentional misrepresentation of facts MSM? By Don Morris — Don Morris examines the apparently intentional misrepresentation of facts by the mainstream media, particularly regarding the terrorist kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. (October 18, 2011)
Misplaced Assumptions By Don Morris — Don Morris examines misplaced assumptions on which President Barack Obama is apparently basing his Arab-Israeli Conflict policies. (May 21, 2011)
Call it what it is: Absurdity beyond the pale By Don Morris — Following the brutal terrorist murder of five members of the Fogel family, including slashing the throat of a three-month old baby girl, the focus of United Nations special coordinator Robert Serry was not the terror, but the possibility that homes might be built for more Jews in the disputed territory. (March 13, 2011)
Israel falsely accused of distractor's sins By Alan Stein — Response written to a vicious anti-Israel letter in The Hour. It was published as an op-ed. (August 22, 2010)
We are onto your lies and distractions! By Don Morris (June 22, 2010)
Since does gender matter when you break the law? By Don Morris — Don Morris considers the cowardice of the media in reporting on the Hizbullah-linked Lebanese boat trying to evade the Israeli blockade of arms to Hamas by carrying woman. The reports quote spokespersons for the mission blatantlylying without challenge. (June 21, 2010)
Why is the West Ignoring the Facts? By Don Morris (June 16, 2010)
Free Gaza-from what, from whom-do you mean from the autocratic control by Hamas? By Don Morris (June 15, 2010)
Borders Do Not Exist By Don Morris (June 11, 2010)
Understanding the Fourth Geneva Convention By Don Morris (June 5, 2010)
Free Gaza - From Its Arab Oppressors By Alan Stein — Published in the Manchester Journal-Inquirer on June 2, 2010 (June 1, 2010)
Peace with Truth as its Base By Don Morris — On campuses across the United States, Israel is being accused of human rights violations. The accusations are so many and so detailed that even relatively well informed pro-Israel students are often at a loss to refute them. (April 22, 2010)
Wanting to believe By Don Morris (March 28, 2010)
Islamophobia-Example of Irresponsible Behavior:re-visited By Don Morris — A year since Don Morris last wrote on this topic, we see the persistence of our enemy. (March 27, 2010)
Only word-smithing has changed from May 2005-November 2009 By Don Morris — The West Bank, i.e. Judea and Samaria, to this day remain disputed, not occupied, territories. (November 18, 2009)
Time for Truth–Time to Change the Lexicon By Don Morris — Forget the settlements. If the world truly wants to identify an obstacle to peace, it could do much worse than cast its eyes towards Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. (September 9, 2009)
Settlers-rights and/or wrongs-another look By GS Don Morris (September 6, 2009)
It's not only about Yaalon's Comments, it's much more that is in the balance By Don Morris (August 21, 2009)
The Hypocrisy of the Israel-Haters By Alan H. Stein — Hatred and bigotry have always been at the heart of the global anti-Israel conspiracy, of which lies, distortions and hypocrisy have always been staples. Those Israel-haters are now hypocritically attacking Doc's Talk, an excellent blog from PRIMER board member Don Morris. (June 12, 2009)
And now, the Unspoken Truth By GS Don Morris — Don Morris analyzes Barack Obama's Cairo speech, including exaggerations, misconceptions and misrepresentations. (June 6, 2009)
Borders Do Not Exist By GS Don Morris — Don Morris reminds readers of the reality Israel has never had the luxury of borders, so talking about going back to the "1967 borders" is nonsensical. (May 27, 2009)
What's in a name? By GS Don Morris — Don Morris on the inappropriate and counterproductive acquiescence in the use of the term "settler." (May 25, 2009)
So, You Want to Be a State? By GS Don Morris — Morris analyzes the standard criteria used to recognize whether an entity qualifies as a state, demonstrating the Palestinian Authority has a long way to go before it would be reasonable to give it that status. (May 23, 2009)
Solution: Implies common agreement on the problem and … By GS Don Morris (May 20, 2009)
Entitlement Thinking: We are paying for it now! By GS Don Morris (April 16, 2009)
Settlers By GS Don Morris (September 9, 2008)
Time for Some Plain Talk By GS Don Morris (July 17, 2008)
Some thoughts-do with as you like! By GS Don Morris — The Return of Israel's Abducted Soldiers (July 15, 2008)
It's not only the barbaric act, it is their aberrant social behavior! By GS Don Morris — Yes, the world should condemn the attack on Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva and there should be moral, social outrage with this evil act, but it's even worse than that. (March 6, 2008)
Showing Good Faith In The Arab-Israeli Conflict By Alan Stein — Events such as the annual Israel-bashing at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme are counterproductive to any efforts to bring about an Arab-Israeli peace and an end to the death and destruction resulting from the Arab effort to destroy Israel. Published by The Day of New London. (November 25, 2007)
Misdirection is a mystery unless you know the truth By Don Morris (November 12, 2007)
What Version of the Road Map? By Don Morris (November 5, 2007)
Incomprehensible Negligence By Don Morris (October 29, 2007)
Ignorance is NOT bliss By Don Morris (October 17, 2007)
Too weak to govern-use the weakness as a weapon-it works in the West! By Don Morris (October 14, 2007)
Let's not get ahead of ourselves By Don Morris — Analysis of the gross distortions in the reports claiming the Palestinian Arabs are ready to use the "Taba Draft" as a basis for talks (October 12, 2007)
"I'll take my ball and go home if you don't let me ..." By Don Morris — Israel wants a genuine, authentic peace. This requires negotiations, not a repeat of failed, concessions-based diplomacy (October 7, 2007)
The Paradox here in Israel By Don Morris — The range of emotions in Israel on Erev Rosh Hashanah (September 12, 2007)
At the end of the day whose values do you want to live by? By Don Morris (September 10, 2007)
Abdicate All Responsibility-It's Their Fault! By Don Morris — Israel's enemies continue to engage in public relations practices that serve only their own special interests. Their playbook is the same as it has been for the last decade: obfuscate the truth, redirect the reader's focus, abdicate all responsibility and resort to name calling and placing blame upon Israel for one's own intentional behavior. (September 1, 2007)
The Devil is in the Details By Don Morris — Generally ignored details of the new defense agreement between the United States and Israel. (August 17, 2007)
For the Record By Don Morris — The new ten year defense agreement between the United States and Israel comes at a steep price to Israel. (August 16, 2007)
Connect the Dots By Don Morris — If you believed the media, Israel is acting responsibly and independently in opening talks with Abbas. Think again. (August 7, 2007)
Too Long in Iraq-Get Out Now! By Don Morris (August 2, 2007)
Change the Paradigm of Bias, Part II By Alan Stein — It's time for our government to adopt a truly balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. (June 22, 2007)
'Islamophobia'-Example of Irresponsible Behavior By Don Morris (June 1, 2007)
Change the Paradigm of Bias, Part I By Alan Stein — It's time for our government to adopt a truly balanced approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict. (May 18, 2007)
Political Correctness is Killing Us-Part Three By Don Morris (May 12, 2007)
Political Correctness is Killing Us-Part Two By Don Morris (April 22, 2007)
Political Correctness is Killing Us-Part One By Don Morris (March 26, 2007)
What Hypocrisy? By Don Morris (February 24, 2007)
Time To Gather Our Courage By Don Morris (January 21, 2007)
Peace, Not Propaganda By Alan Stein — Comment & Analysis of biased essay by Marilyn Aligata in the Waterbury Observer (January 7, 2007)
Hillel Halkin's Good News By David Basch — A harsh critique of Hillel Halkin's perspective of the Arab-Israeli conflict (December 14, 2006)
Flawed Conclusions by the United Nations-Again! By Don Morris (November 25, 2006)
Abbas: The Distortion That Is Killing Us By Don Morris — Is it really in our best interest to pretend Abbas is a moderate? (November 17, 2006)
An Enviable Decency By Don Morris (October 28, 2006)
The Differences Among Us - Part Two By Don Morris (October 15, 2006)
The Differences Among Us By Don Morris (October 8, 2006)
Islamic Plans and How They Fund Their Expansion By Don Morris (September 25, 2006)
Media Gives Islam Extremists the World Stage-Again By Don Morris (September 17, 2006)
Solutions to Iran's Treachery By Don Morris (September 14, 2006)
Time To Change The Rules Of War-Part II By Don Morris (September 10, 2006)
Time To Change The Rules Of War By Don Morris (September 3, 2006)
Still not alarmed-what will it take? By Don Morris (August 28, 2006)
Basic Assumption-We All Have The Same Values, We All Play Fairly By Don Morris — The writer considers this crucial to Israel's future wars (August 20, 2006)
The Absurdity of All This Discussion By Don Morris — The aftermath of the flawed United Nations resolution (August 17, 2006)
The World Has Just Rewarded Civilian Shields By Don Morris — Perspective on the United Nations cease-fire resolution (August 11, 2006)
Courage Is More Than a Word By Don Morris — A followup to An Evening's Thoughts and the dissonance between the world's diplomatic efforts and the ignored rejection of them by Hezbollah and Lebanon (August 10, 2006)
An Evening's Thoughts By Don Morris — Thoughts about the war Hezbollah started preparing for as soon as Israel left Lebanon in 2000 (August 9, 2006)
Our Proxy War-A Test for the West By Don Morris (August 4, 2006)
Ethos Exposed By Don Morris — Hezbollah's ethos is exposed for the anti-democratic, pro-death group that it really is (August 3, 2006)
Tactic vs. Enemy? By Don Morris (July 30, 2006)
Let us at the very least get the correct information? By Don Morris — The PRIMER board member sets the record straight on what Hezbollah is and terror it is wreaking (July 25, 2006)
From the Other Side of the Border By Don Morris (July 21, 2006)
Help the Palestinian Arabs by Supporting Israel By Alan Stein — The Palestinian Arabs are the people most harmed by their jihad to destroy Israel, so the best way to help them is to help Israel put an end to their unrealistic aspirations (July 17, 2006)
Fact or Fiction? By Don Morris (July 15, 2006)
Rockets' Red Glare By Joel Abramson — Commentary on Hamas kidnapping of Gilad Shalit and launching Kassam rockets at Israeli towns (July 14, 2006)
Hypocrisy Abounds By Don Morris (July 14, 2006)
Hamas and Fatah-Equally Guilty By Don Morris (July 11, 2006)
Disproportionate Response — Really? By Don Morris (July 9, 2006)
Normality returning to Israel's Streets By Alan Stein — Published in the Waterbury Republican-American (June 19, 2006)
You Have to Read Twice By Alan Stein — Commentary on the misinformation often reported after an incident (June 14, 2006)
Understanding the Importance of Perspective By Don Morris (June 5, 2006)
Yesterday-It's Not Only a Song Title By Don Morris — Commentary on the terrorist bombing in Tel Aviv April 17 (April 18, 2006)
Mandate - Really? By Don Morris — Commentary on the Israeli election results (April 16, 2006)
Hamas, Fatah equally dangerous By Alan Stein — Commentary published in the Waterbury Sunday Republican after Hamas' victory in the Palestinian Authority elections correcting the common misconception that Fatah is no longer a terrorist organization (February 12, 2006)
Understanding the Cartoon Affair By Don Morris — Commentary about the uproar over the publication of a cartoon in a Danish newspaper (February 10, 2006)
Which of These Is Not Like the Others? By Alan Stein — Commentary motivated when a protest against racism and bigotry was partially hijacked by an anti-Semite. Published in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger. (January 27, 2006)
A Tilted Tree of Life By Alan Stein — Commentary about the fatally unbalanced Tree of Life Conference on Israel and "Palestine" held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme November 13, 2005. Published in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger December 2, 2005 (November 20, 2005)
Mainstream Muslims – Help Us Understand! By Don Morris (November 19, 2005)
The War On University Campuses By Don Morris (October 21, 2005)
Yale Speech Promotes Hatred of Israel By Alan Stein — Analysis of Norman Finkelstein speech at Yale (October 20, 2005)
Disengagement for Whom? By Don Morris — Op-ed about the disengagement (September 16, 2005)
Integrity USA: Leaders–Where Art Thou? By Don Morris — Op-ed about the double standard applied to Israel and its war against terrorism (August 17, 2005)
Letter to Fox News By Don Morris — Letter pointing out inaccurate and incorrect language by Fox News reporting on the disengagement (August 23, 2005)
Some Things Are Not What They Seem By Alan Stein — Commentary about Natan Sharansky's resignation from the Israeli cabinet and interesting omissions from news reports (June 5, 2005)
Confusing Times By Don Morris — An essay about the confusing message coming from the White House during the visit by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (May 29, 2005)
There You Go Again By Don Morris — A response to British academics regarding their proposed boycott of Israeli academics (April 9, 2005)
Understanding the Fourth Geneva Convention By Don Morris — Written for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and included here with the permission of the author. (March 7, 2005)
Understanding Israeli Occupation By Don Morris — Informational article explaining the history, misconceptions and reality of the so-called occupation (February 7, 2005)
Understanding Israeli Checkpoints By Don Morris — Informational article explaining the history, necessity and true nature of the much maligned checkpoints (January 23, 2005)
It's No Accident Sirhan Sirhan Was a Terrorist By Alan Stein — Commentary about the assassin of Robert Kennedy and his namesake cousin, the Palestinian Arab terrorist murderer of five innocent Israelis including four year old Noam Ohayon along with his five year old brother Matan (November 24, 2003)
Definition of a Terrorist By Anonymous — Commentary clarifying the distinction between a terrorist and a militant (September 1, 2003)
In Response By Alan Stein — Written In Response to another letter by William Carlotti published in The Voice March 21, 2003 that falsely accused supporters of Israel of screaming "anti-Semitism" whenever Israel was attacked (March 28, 2003)
In Response By Marvin Peyser — Written In Response to a letter by William Carlotti published January, 2003 in The Voice that was totally disconnected with the reality of the terrorist campaign launched by the Palestinian Arabs when they had been offered a sovereign state (February 7, 2003)
Palestinian Arabs' Goal Remains the Same By Sid Laibson — Published in the Hartford Courant (August 29, 1995)

Essays By Joe Unger

Members of PRIMER were saddened at the sudden passing of one of the stalwarts of our group. Not all of our members knew Dr. Joseph Ungar personally. But all Primer writers knew of his many contributions to our organization. In an association dedicated to the task of responding by letter to anti-Israel media bias, the responses were few that were not informed or even inspired by Dr. Ungar's sage input though his Comment and Analysis documents.

Radio Responses

Between the Lines-Hussein Ibish Interview — Scott Harris of WPKN interviewed Hussein Ibish, communications director for the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, on September 26, 2003. The interview contained numerous false statements, distortions and appeals to bigotry that were ignored, if not encouraged, by the interviewer. PRIMER-Connecticut offered a response to be aired by WPKN. PRIMER submitted a response which was aired November 17, 2003.

Lectures and Forums

As a media monitoring and response organization, PRIMER-Connecticut has opportunities to lecture, conduct workshops and develop forums for the community and on college campuses.

A Clash of Generations — Two-time Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the architect of the Oslo Process, delivered the 2003 Robert C. Vance Distinguished Lecture at Central Connecticut State University April 14, 2003. His eloquent speech and impressive responses to hostile questions are reviewed by PRIMER-Connecticut Board member Alan Stein.

Book Reviews

PRIMER generates reviews of books related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Jerusalem - One City, Three Faiths — PRIMER reviews this book which masquerades as an objective and historical view of Jerusalem's claim by three faiths.
From Time Immemorial — This important reference by Joan Peters debunks many of the myths surrounding the Arab refugee problem. It was a best seller when it first appeared in the 1980s, remains in demand and remains timely today. It is reviewed by PRIMER's president, Sidney Laibson.

Media Reviews

PRIMER in the past has published an annual Media Review, a critical review and analysis of print and other media reports.

Responding to University Bias

Bias at Central Connecticut State University — PRIMER responded vigorously to a highly biased "teach-in" held at CCSU in November, 2001, leading to an extensive exchange of correspondence among PRIMER members and administrators and faculty at CCSU.

Miscellaneous Activities

Don Morris' Blog — PRIMER Board member Don Morris, who lives part of each year in Israel, maintains a blog in which he posts his salient commentary.
Statement of Solidarity — PRIMER-Connecticut issued a statement of solidarity with the people of Israel who were subjected to bombardment by Katyusha rockets launched at them by Hezbollah and Kassem missiles launched by Hamas and other Arab terrorist groups in Gaza.
Statement on Anti-Israel Conference in Old Lyme — PRIMER-Connecticut issued a statement about the so-called "Tree of Life" conference, heavily biased against Israel, held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme December 3, 2006.