Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
August 13, 2017
Hello All – Our focus this weekend is on the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a convergence of fascists and white supremacists resulted in the murder of Heather Heyer. Further down this newsletter I've linked several articles that provided some much-needed context for these events; but here I would like to acknowledge and thank the stalwarts for peace and justice who confronted and greatly outnumbered the fascist mob. As this first-person account clearly shows, choosing to "show up" was not something to undertake lightly. We will learn much more about the events of Charlottesville in the coming days, and have the opportunity to attend against not only the white supremacists, but also against President Trump and much of the mainstream media for assigning blame for violence and injuries to opponents of the mob. Please check out the CFOW Facebook page, where we'll post news of protests and other events related to Charlottesville.
This week also saw the anniversaries of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). We discussed these events – among the most savage war crimes in human history – at our last CFOW meeting. We also watched a short documentary film put together from the only surviving footage shot in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.. You can see the 15-minute film here; it was suppressed by the Pentagon for several decades, initially because the US military was denying that there was any such thing as radiation sickness. In 2005 Democracy Now! aired a segment on the history of the film, which you can see here..
Also in this newsletter I've linked an article and a stunning report that present a strong challenge to the claim that it was the Russians who hacked the Democratic National Committee's email server in the summer of 2016 and gave evidence damaging the Hillary Clinton campaign to Wikileaks. In a nutshell, this new investigation reports that data related to this event could only have been downloaded (e.g., to a thumb drive, a la Chelsea Manning), not hacked through the Internet. It remains to be seen if this claim will be picked up by the mainstream media – so far, not yet – but if it gains any media or political traction it will undermine the basis for the Clinton/Democrats' claim that the Russians made Trump the President. While there are many remaining – and very interesting – threads of investigation on-going that link Trump and his world to the Russian business/mafia, the Democrats' Cold War rhetoric directed at Russia will lose much of its foundation. While it is hard to imagine the Democratic Establishment changing course, the broader networks of "The Resistance" might begin to debate whether "Trump is Putin's puppet" remains a viable rhetorical strategy, and adopt a more critical attitude toward the anti-Russian militarism coming from leading Democrats.
News Notes
While there are still campaigners against global warming who believe nuclear power is the way to go, construction has begun on only four new nuclear plants during the past decade. Two of the plants – in South Carolina -- were just canceled, and the other two – in Georgia – are unlikely to be built. In this article, Harvey Wasserman writes that this "would mark the definitive death of the dream of "too cheap to meter" radioactive energy, and end an era marked by massive cost overruns, soaring operating and maintenance expenses, a string of bankruptcies, two major meltdowns, an unsolved radioactive waste burden."
Will China and India go to war over a tiny strip of land high in the Himalayas? An article in the (UK) Independent is headlined: "China may conduct 'small-scale military operation' to remove Indian troops from Bhutan border region" [Link]. Also of use/interest is "What's Driving the India-China Standoff at Doklam?" [Link]. In this conflict between two nuclear weapons states, could anything go wrong?
Near-universal conscription of both young men and women in Israel produces each year a batch of conscientious objectors. Most of these are young women, and most of the objectors articulate their opposition to policing the Occupation. This in-depth interview with Hadas Tal, who just went to prison for refusing military service, is interesting, moving, and inspiring.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a vigil/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our vigils are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or the Hudson River barges are targeted from time to time, depending on current events. We meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. And of course we welcome contributions to support our work; please make your check out "CFOW" and mail it to PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
This newsletter is pretty long, so here is an extra special reward to give stalwart readers an energy boost. This newsletter was produced to the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli, which I think you will enjoy also. And for a more contemporary sound, check out "Las Cafeteras," the LA ensemble who were on Democracy Now! recently. Two of their tunes that I think you will like are "This Land is Your Land" and "La Bamba Rebelde." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
INTERPRETING CHARLOTTESVILLE
The Largest Fascist Rally in Recent Memory -- Can the Left Unite Against It?
---- The August 12 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, looks like it will be the largest organized racist demonstration in recent memory. But that's not the only reason it is important. First, while there have been dozens of far-right rallies since Trump's election, this will be the first major, national rally run by the alt-right's openly white nationalist wing. Second, after months of arguments, this is also an opportunity for a large swath of progressives to come together in opposition to the far right. … The left is organizing in response to the rally, although not nearly on the same national scale. This will be a mistake, however, if a thousand Nazis take the streets and proceed to make Charlottesville a new base. If there is one thing that I learned from witnessing the Nazi and Klan boom in the 1980s and '90s, it was that Nazis hate opposition. If you give a Nazi organizer an inch, they will be thrilled by the lack of resistance and proceed to take a mile. [Read More]
Welcoming the Fascists to Charlottesville
---- We live in a country that has made its biggest social project war, a country that has concentrated its wealth beyond medieval levels, a country that consequently experiences incredible levels of unnecessary suffering exacerbated by awareness of its unnecessity and unfairness. Yet what we have of social supports for education, training, healthcare, childcare, transportation, and income is distributed in non-universal, divisive manners that encourage us to fight among ourselves. The KKK members who came to Charlottesville last month, and most of the racists who will show up this week, are not wealthy. They're not living off the exploitation of workers or prisoners or pollution or war. They've just chosen a particularly harmful object for their blame, as compared with those who blame the Republicans or the Democrats or the media. [Read More]
White supremacist rally explained
By Daniel Ross, Vox [August 13, 2017]
---- The alt-right rally was a coming-out party for resurgent white nationalism in America. The arc of the Unite the Right rally — from an ostensible attempt to bring a broad coalition of conservative groups together to protest the controversial removal of a statue, to a "Nazified" rally for "the pro-white movement in America" — mirrors what's been happening to the alt-right as a whole. The movement's leaders have become increasingly willing to dabble in white-nationalist rhetoric and tropes, while attempting to avoid direct accusations of being themselves white nationalists. [Read More]
---- The alt-right rally was a coming-out party for resurgent white nationalism in America. The arc of the Unite the Right rally — from an ostensible attempt to bring a broad coalition of conservative groups together to protest the controversial removal of a statue, to a "Nazified" rally for "the pro-white movement in America" — mirrors what's been happening to the alt-right as a whole. The movement's leaders have become increasingly willing to dabble in white-nationalist rhetoric and tropes, while attempting to avoid direct accusations of being themselves white nationalists. [Read More]
FEATURED ESSAYS
Playing Nuclear 'Chicken' With Our Lives
August 12, 2017]
---- What kind of civilization have we developed when two mentally unstable national leaders, in an escalating confrontation with each other, threaten one another – and the world – with nuclear war? … In the current situation, there's plenty of room for compromise between the US and North Korean governments. The Pyongyang regime has offered to negotiate and has shown particular interest in a peace treaty ending the Korean War of the 1950s and US military exercises near its borders. Above all, it seems anxious to avoid regime change by the United States. The US government, in turn, has long been anxious to halt the North Korean nuclear program and to defend South Korea against attack from the north. Reasonable governments should be able to settle this dispute short of nuclear war. But are the two governments headed by reasonable men? Both Kim and Trump appear psychologically disturbed, erratic, and startlingly immature – much like the juvenile delinquents once associated with the game of "Chicken." Let us hope, though, that with enough public resistance and some residual sanity, they will back away from the brink and begin to resolve their differences peacefully. [Read More]
A New Report Raises Big Questions About Last Year's DNC Hack
By Patrick Lawrence, The Nation [August 9, 2017]
[FB – This article in The Nation is based on the report from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which can be read here.]
---- It is now a year since the Democratic National Committee's mail system was compromised—a year since events in the spring and early summer of 2016 were identified as remote hacks and, in short order, attributed to Russians acting in behalf of Donald Trump. A great edifice has been erected during this time. President Trump, members of his family, and numerous people around him stand accused of various corruptions and extensive collusion with Russians. … All this was set in motion when the DNC's mail server was first violated in the spring of 2016 and by subsequent assertions that Russians were behind that "hack" and another such operation, also described as a Russian hack, on July 5. These are the foundation stones of the edifice just outlined. … Lost in a year that often appeared to veer into our peculiarly American kind of hysteria is the absence of any credible evidence of what happened last year and who was responsible for it. … Forensic investigators, intelligence analysts, system designers, program architects, and computer scientists of long experience and strongly credentialed are now producing evidence disproving the official version of key events last year. [Read More]
Close All US Military Bases on Foreign Soil
August 2, 2017]
---- The Coalition Against Foreign Military Bases is a new campaign focused on closing all US military bases abroad. This campaign strikes at the foundation of US empire, confronting its militarism, corporatism and imperialism. We urge you to endorse this campaign. On the occasion of its announcement, the coalition issued a unity statement, which describes its intent as "raising public awareness and organizing non-violent mass resistance against U.S. foreign military bases." It further explains that US foreign military bases are "the principal instruments of imperial global domination and environmental damage through wars of aggression and occupation, and that the closure of US foreign military bases is one of the first necessary steps toward a just, peaceful and sustainable world." [Read More]
Venezuela: Target of Economic Warfare
---- Most people are horrified to watch Venezuela seemingly on the verge of outright civil war, or worse, an invasion by U.S. military forces. The death toll continues to rise in the violent street protests led by the right-wing opposition, following the July 30 vote on a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the constitution. U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened to take further, unspecified "economic actions" if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro went ahead with the vote, and Trump added that the U.S. would not stand idly by "as Venezuela crumbles." The Canadian Peace Congress issued a statement (July 29) that said, "If the attempt at internal counter-revolution fails, plans are being put in place for direct military intervention by the United States, possibly under the cover of the Organization of American States (OAS)." [Read More] Also useful/interesting is this article by Jeremy Scahill, "The Battle for Venezuela and Its Oil," The Intercept [August 12, 2017] [Link].
War with North Korea?
No Fire, No Fury: Common Security Diplomacy to Resolve US-North Korean Crisis
By Joseph Gerson, Common Dreams [August 11, 2017]
---- President Trump's off the cuff and extremely dangerous and outrageous threat to devastate North Korea with "fire and fury… unlike the world has ever seen" is bringing us to the brink of the unthinkable. There is no military solution to the dangers posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons program. We need to do all that we can to bring reason to bear with Common Security diplomacy that can bring these two nuclear powers back from the brink and to establish the basis for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia. With China indicating that it would intervene on North Korea's behalf in Trump launches a regime change war, we face a situation with dangerous parallels to the period leading to the Guns of August in 1914. Except this time, the guns could be either side's nuclear armed missiles. [Read More]
(Video) As Trump Threatens North Korea, US Preps War Games Next Door
From The Real News [August 2017]
[FB – This is an interview with Christine Ahn. She is the founder and international coordinator of Women Cross DMZ a global movement of women immobilizing for peace in Korea. She led 30 women peacemakers across the DMZ in 2015. She also co-founded the Korea Policy Institute and Korea Peace Network.]
---- Things are in a really, really dangerous place and you know, these statements coming from across the Trump administration are reckless. They're dangerous, and then as you noted on the North Korean side, their rhetoric has been bombastic equally, and so you're having a situation where the rhetoric is so high, it's so loaded that everybody is playing a game of chicken. What is approaching in about a week is the U.S.-South Korean war games that are simulating an invasion, an attack, a decapitation of the North Korean leadership. When you have this state of non-communication and the only communication is bombastic rhetoric that is upping the brinkmanship on all sides, there is a high chance of miscalculation, miscommunication, misunderstanding that could lead us into a potential conflict. That would definitely engulf all the regional players potentially into nuclear war, so I don't mean to say that to raise the alarm, but I do think that we have to caution, we have to urge our government leaders to use more caution. [See the Program]
(Video) Why Is U.S. Threatening War with North Korea Instead of Pushing for Negotiations?
From Democracy Now! [August 10, 2017]
---- The war of words between the U.S. and North Korea continues to intensify, with North Korea threatening to strike the U.S. territory of Guam, while Defense Secretary General Mattis warned North Korea's actions could result in the "destruction of its people." This came after Trump vowed to strike at North Korea with "fire and fury." Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council recently imposed a new round of sanctions against North Korea over its test launches of two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month. We speak with journalist Tim Shorrock, who recently returned from South Korea. [See the Program]
WAR & PEACE
Time to End the Lost Afghan War
By Eric Margolis, UNZ.com [August 5, 2017]
---- Media reports claim President Donald Trump let loose on his generals behind closed doors, blasting them royally for their startling failures in Afghanistan, America's longest war. The president has many faults and is a lousy judge of character. But he was absolutely right to read the riot act to the military brass for daring to ask for a very large troop and budget increase for the stalemated Afghan War that has cost $1 trillion to date. … Trump had better come up with a better idea. My solution to the 17-year war: emulate the example of the courageous Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. He pronounced his Afghan War unwinnable, told his angry generals to shut up, and ordered the Red Army out of the war in Afghanistan. [Read More] Also very interesting is "Trump Finds Reason for the U.S. to Remain in Afghanistan: Minerals," b[Link]
How US Policy Helps Al Qaeda in Yemen
By Jonathan Marshall, Consortium News [August 1, 2017]
---- In a world of bad actors, one of the "baddest" of all is the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the CIA once branded "the most dangerous regional node in the global jihad." It masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000; nearly blew up a U.S. passenger jet flying into Detroit on Christmas Day, 2009; brought down a UPS cargo plane in 2010; and sponsored the 2015 attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, killing 11 and wounding another 11. All of which raises an embarrassing question: Why is the United States supporting AQAP's main ally in Yemen, Saudi Arabia? … Targeting Islamist tribal leaders with more bombs, drones, and military raids — as the Trump administration seems inclined to do — will simply aggravate civilian suffering and strengthen AQAP's political base. There's only one way to dry up its support: the international community must demand a cease-fire, send foreign armies packing, promote a political settlement among all Yemeni stakeholders, and send food and medical aid to alleviate the population's extraordinary suffering. [Read More]
Is Trump About to Push Us into War with Iran?
By Vijay Prashad, AlterNet [August 7, 2017]
---- No regime change operation is ever peaceful. The Trump administration, meanwhile, is conducting an inter-agency review of the sanctions on Iran and of the various options available to the U.S. for action against Iran. These options include military force. There is belligerence in the air. … The U.S. already has military bases on the doorstep of Iran, in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. There are at least 125,000 U.S. troops on the edge of Iran and thousands of warships and aircraft at the ready. Iran has long seen its ballistic missile program as being a deterrent, however feeble, against this massive military encirclement. That the U.S. has decided to place new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile tests has sent a clear message to Iran: the U.S. will put as much pressure on Iran as possible to prevent it from developing anything like a deterrent capability. … There is an appetite for war in the Trump White House and among its Israeli and Saudi partners. The war this time will be against Iran. If West Asia is in chaos now, there is no adequate word to describe its fate if that full-scale war actually begins. [Read More] Also useful on the US & Iran are Trita Parsi, "The Mask Is Off: Trump Is Seeking War with Iran," LobeLog [July 28, 2017] [Link]; Erin Cunningham, "Iran calls new U.S. sanctions a violation of nuclear deal," [Link]; and from Telesur, "Iran's Rouhani lashes out at Trump Over Nuclear Deal," [August 6, 2017] [Link].
ISIS's Days in Syria Are Numbered, but Does Trump Have More Wars to Fight There?
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [August 3, 2017]
---- Although ISIS is clearly living through its last days as a territorial entity, its defeat may not bring peace to eastern Syria. Damascus and Ankara are both afraid that the United States may establish a long-term military base in the Syrian Kurdish northeast and may adopt the Syrian Kurds as long-term clients. The Baath regime of Syria insists that it will recover its own control over Raqqa province and even over the Syrian Kurds (who say that they would only accept that outcome if Syria becomes a loose federation). Syrian Kurdish autonomy is also anathema to Ankara. After the war winds down and Turkey gives up its support for Sunni rebels, Erdogan and Assad could make a common pact on the Kurds. Syrian Kurdish leaders desperately hope that Washington will in fact stick around to support them in the long term. [Read More]. Also useful on the war against ISIS is Jason Ditz, "America's ISIS War Enters Fourth Year," Antiwar.com [August 7, 2017] [Link].
CLIMATE CHANGE/GLOBAL WARMING
Scientists Leak Study on Global Heating Impact before Trump Can Suppress It
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [August 8, 2017]
---- A draft report on the current impact of global heating on the United States, produced by 13 Federal agencies, has been leaked to the New York Times. The scientists who leaked it are afraid that the anti-science Trump administration will suppress the findings to help its friends in Big Oil. One of its central findings is that man-made climate change (driving your car, air-conditioning your house on fossil fuels so that you release toxic CO2) is already having an impact on the United States. For instance, the West is hotter, which exacerbates droughts. One of the findings that alarmed me is that just in the next few decades average temperatures in the US will go up 2.5 degrees F. But by 2100, only 80 years from now, the average temperature will be 5 to 8.5 degrees F. higher! [Read More] Also useful/depressing is Lisa Friedman, "Government Report Finds Drastic Impact of Climate Change on U.S.," [Link]. The leaked government draft report can be read here.
America's Carbon-Pusher in Chief: Trump's Fossil-Fueled Foreign Policy
By Michael T. Klare, ZNet [July 2017]
By Michael T. Klare, ZNet [July 2017]
---- Who says President Trump doesn't have a coherent foreign policy? Pundits and critics across the political spectrum have chided him for failing to articulate and implement a clear international agenda. Look closely at his overseas endeavors, though, and one all-too-consistent pattern emerges: Donald Trump will do whatever it takes to prolong the reign of fossil fuels by sabotaging efforts to curb carbon emissions and promoting the global consumption of U.S. oil, coal, and natural gas. Whenever he meets with foreign leaders, it seems, his first impulse is to ply them with American fossil fuels. … He's working in every way imaginable to increase the production of fossil fuels domestically, even as he engages in a diplomatic blitzkreig to open doors to American fossil-fuel exports abroad. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/THE ATTACK ON THE BDS MOVEMENT
'The Palestine Exception': War on BDS is now a War on American Democracy
---- There is something immoral in Washington D.C., and its consequences can be dire for many people, particularly for the health of US democracy. The US government is declaring war on the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The fight to defeat BDS has been ongoing for several years, but most notably since 2014. Since then, 11 US states have passed and enacted legislation to criminalize the movement, backed by civil society, which aims to put pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Palestine. Washington is now leading the fight, thus legitimizing the anti-democratic behavior of individual states. If the efforts of the US government are successful, an already struggling US democracy will take yet another step back, and many good people could potentially be punished for behaving in accordance with their political and moral values. [Read More] Also useful is Aniqa Raihan, "Nearly 50 Senators Want to Make It a Felony to Boycott Israel," The Nation [August 4, 2017] {[Link]. Despite the nearly unanimous opposition to the BDS movement from politicians and the mainstream media, public opinion polls show that a large majority of the US population oppose AIPAC's "Israel Anti-Boycott Act." This is reflected in part by victories for the BDS movement at the local level; the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights lists more than 200 such wins in the USA here.
THE DEMOCRATS
DNC Fraud Suit Exposes Anti-Democratic Views in Democratic Party
By Norman Solomon, Truth Dig [August 10, 2017]
---- Nine months after losing the presidency, the Democratic Party is in dire need of a course correction. Grass-roots enthusiasm for the party is far from robust. Despite incessant funding appeals and widespread revulsion for the Trump administration, the Democratic National Committee's fundraising is notably weak. And the latest DNC chair, Tom Perez, sounds no more inspiring than his recent predecessors. When Perez speaks next to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, it's a stark contrast between establishment cliches and progressive populism. … While a united front against the Trump regime would be ideal, mere unity behind timeworn Democratic leadership would hardly be auspicious. Breaking the Republican stranglehold at election time will require mobilizing the Democratic Party's base on behalf of authentic populism. But the power structure of the DNC has other priorities. … All this is context for a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee that has been slowly wending its way through a federal district court in Florida. The suit contends that the DNC engaged in fraud by reneging on a key commitment in its charter. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Jewish Resistance to Occupation is Also Fighting for the Future of Judaism Itself
By Charlie Zimmerman, Mondoweiss [July 31, 2017]
---- In May of 2017, I traveled to the West Bank as a member of a delegation organized by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence (CJNV). We were 130 Diaspora Jews, mostly Americans, working in partnership with Palestinian and Israeli resistance organizations to peacefully oppose the occupation of the East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza—an ambitious mission to be sure, yet the group strived for even more: a challenge and wake-up call for the Jewish religion and tradition itself. In the words of its organizers, the group's work is at the "center of Jewish Transformation and Palestinian Solidarity." It rejects many conventional notions in the West about the relationship between Jews and Israel, such as the idea that Israel represents the Jewish people as a whole, and that any criticism of the Israeli policy constitutes anti-Semitism. … Maybe this struggle for the soul of Judaism is one reason why I have observed an increase in visibility of and support for Jewish anti-occupation organizations in the Diaspora. More and more of us, in addition to pursuing justice, are fighting for Jewish identities we can embrace proudly and to keep our tradition alive, compassionate, and meaningful. Diaspora Jews, for the sake of Palestinians, ourselves, and our tradition, must continue to raise our voices and insist that injustice being perpetrated in our name and on our dime must end. [Read More] Also of interest is this essay by Israeli historian Shlomo Sand, "Why I Cannot be a Zionist: an Open Letter to Emmanuel Macron," Counterpunch [August 11, 2017] [Link].
Does It Really Matter If Netanyahu Ends Up Behind Bars?
---- Netanyahu's eleven-year rule appears to be fast approaching an inglorious end. The more interesting question now, however, is what the significance of these developments will be. Two points are worth making. First, Netanyahu is not really an outlier. Many leaders and politicians across the globe, particularly those who, like Netanyahu, have managed to stay in power for many years, have also become corrupt by abusing the privileges and responsibilities bestowed upon them by their office. Yet, what is relatively unique about the Israeli case is that some of the corrupt protagonists actually end up in jail. The second point has to do with the impact of Netanyahu's potential collapse on Israel's colonial project. In this regard, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. [Read More] For more on the Netanyahu legal cases, read Judy Maltz, "All the Scandals Involving Netanyahu, and Where They Stand," Haaretz [Israel] [August 7, 2017] [Link].
Also useful/interesting about Israel/Palestine – Mark LeVine, "What is Behind Israel's Attempt to Ban Al Jazeera?" Aljazeera [August 2017] [Link]; from Telesur, "Illegal Israeli Squatters' Activities in Palestinian W Bank Tripled in 2017," Informed Comment [August 7, 2017] [Link]; and Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi, "The End of This Road: The Decline of the Palestinian National Movement," The New Yorker [August 6, 2017] [Link].
The Significance of the Recent Palestinian Protests in Jerusalem
Power to the People: Why Palestinian Victory in Jerusalem Is a Pivotal Moment
August 3, 2017]
---- Neither Fatah nor Hamas have been of much relevance to the mass protests staged around Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem. Neither have American pressure, halfhearted European "concern about the situation" or cliché Arab declarations made one iota of difference. United Nations officials warned of the grim scenarios of escalation, but their statements were mere words. The spontaneous mass movement in Jerusalem, which eventually defeated Israeli plans to change the status of Al-Aqsa was purely a people's movement. Despite the hefty price of several dead and hundreds wounded, it challenged both the Israeli government and the quisling Palestinian leadership. [Read More]
With Al Aqsa Protests, a Popular Mass Movement Is Again Taking the Lead in Palestinian Resistance
By Jesse Rosenfeld, The Intercept [August 3, 2017]
---- Since Israel defeated the Second Intifada in 2005 – a Palestinian uprising sparked by a visit to the Al Aqsa compound by former prime minister and then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon — Israel has sought to send a message to Palestinians that opposing the occupation in any way will worsen their condition. It is the message punctuated by every home demolition, land confiscation, arrest, beating, killing, siege, and military assault. Yet in the mass action that forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline government to blink last week, Palestinians halted their occupier's plans with a determined collective voice, one that the recent spate of violent Palestinian attacks had failed to find. [Read More]
