My Views on News

    Palestine: Peace Not  Apartheid.

    Under the "Editorial Reviews" heading --a space normally used either
    for the publisher's own description of a book, or for short,
    even-handed summaries from listing services such as Booklist and
    Publishers Weekly --you insist on running the complete,
    20-paragraph, 1,636-word text of a review unabashedly hostile to
    Carter's viewpoint. You have refused to add information shoppers
    should have in evaluating this review: the fact that the reviewer,
    Jeffrey Goldberg, is a citizen of Israel as well as the United
    States, and that he volunteered to serve in the Israeli Defense
    Forces, for which he work ed as a guard at a prison for Palestinian
    detainees. And you have refused to balance his negative review by
    giving comparable space to a favorable assessment of the book, even
    though positive reviews by qualified experts have appeared in many
    reputable publications.

    Because giving so much space in this location to such a negative
    review is so unusual -- if not unprecedented -- for Amazon, and
    because you have refused requests from many customers that you take
    a more balanced approach, we can only conclude that you are
    deliberately trying to discourage shoppers from ordering the former
    President's book.

    This is contrary to Amazon's own interests as a bookseller. More
  &nb sp; important, it's also contrary to the interests of understanding,
    peace, and justice for all parties to the Israel/Palestine conflict

    We are not interested in supporting a corporation that uses its
    power in the marketplace in such a biased and unconstructive way on
    such an important issue.

    Accordingly, if you do not, by Jan. 22, remove the Goldberg review,
    move it to the more appropriate "See all Editorial Reviews" page, or
    restore a semblance of balance by giving comparable space and
    prominence to a more positive evaluation of Palestine: Peace Not
    Apartheid, we the undersigned pledge to:

    1. Stop shopping at Amazon.com;

    2. Completely close our accounts on your servic e; and

    3. Encourage our friends, family, and associates to do likewise.

    Sincerely,

    The Undersigned
    <http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Amazon07 >