From: arens@ISI.EDU (Yigal Arens)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Peculiar coincidence (was Re: Collaborators)
Date: 18 Dec 92 03:52:53 GMT
	<1992Dec16.045957.15659@colorado.edu> <42621@sdcc12.ucsd.edu>
Organization: USC/Information Sciences Institute
In-reply-to: revans@euclid.ucsd.edu's message of 16 Dec 92 09:40:15 GMT

I don't know what to make of this peculiar conincidence, but I thought
perhaps some other Usenet readers might be able to shed some light on
it.

As part of the discussion thread about Palestinian collaborators, the
following was posted by Ron Evans <revans@euclid.ucsd.edu> in the
posting with Message-ID <42621@sdcc12.ucsd.edu>:

======================================================================
OK, Dr. Arens, here we go.  Go ahead and eat your words:

From the New Republic, November 23, 1992, p.28 (Article "The Palestinian
Meltdown" by Steven Emerson): "The first Palestinian to openly criticize
the internal killings was Adnan Damiri, a Fatah activist who had served
in an Israeli jail for training in a Palestinian terrorist camp in
Lebanon.  In a June 1991 article in Al-Fajr, the second-largest
Palestinian newspaper, Damiri wrote that 'the revolution has started to
swallow its children.'  He criticized the roving groups of teenage
executioners.  'One cannot tolerate such punishment by people who were
not elected ... many of those who were killed were innocent of
collaboration ... the dream of the intifada has turned out to be a
nightmare ... if this continues, we're going to leave the country like
Rechavam Ze'evi [the ultra-right-wing Israeli Knesset member who
advocates "transfer" of the Palestinians to Jordan].  Almost immediately
after he published his article, Damiri was threatened by the death
squads and forced to seek protection from Israeli security forces on the
West Bank."
======================================================================

So far so good.  Then Eric S. Perlman <perlman@qso.Colorado.EDU>, in a
posting with Message-ID <1992Dec16.045957.15659@colorado.edu>, said:

======================================================================
OK, Dr. Arens, here we go.  Go ahead and eat your words:

From the New Republic, November 23, 1992, p.28 (Article "The Palestinian
Meltdown" by Steven Emerson): "The first Palestinian to openly criticize
the internal killings was Adnan Damiri, a Fatah activist who had served
in an Israeli jail for training in a Palestinian terrorist camp in
Lebanon.  In a June 1991 article in Al-Fajr, the second-largest
Palestinian newspaper, Damiri wrote that 'the revolution has started to
swallow its children.'  He criticized the roving groups of teenage
executioners.  'One cannot tolerate such punishment by people who were
not elected ... many of those who were killed were innocent of
collaboration ... the dream of the intifada has turned out to be a
nightmare ... if this continues, we're going to leave the country like
Rechavam Ze'evi [the ultra-right-wing Israeli Knesset member who
advocates "transfer" of the Palestinians to Jordan].  Almost immediately
after he published his article, Damiri was threatened by the death
squads and forced to seek protection from Israeli security forces on the
West Bank."
======================================================================

Is this incredible or what?  I have not reformatted either of the texts.
Note that they are absolutely identical!  Now, I can imagine that Mr.
Evans, say, got a hold of the relevant article before Mr. Perlman, typed
it in and sent it to his friend, Mr. Perlman, who later used it in his
post.  That's not unreasonable.  But note that the first line in both of
these excerpts is not part of the article, it is a supposedly original
sentence, yet IT IS ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL IN BOTH!!

So, what's going on?  Are some people around not capable of generating
their own posts, and instead are getting them written by others?  Who
was the original poster here?

How come I can't find anyone to write my posts for me?
--
Yigal Arens
USC/ISI                                                TV made me do it!
arens@isi.edu