Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
May 7, 2018
Hello All – Storm clouds are gathering in the Middle East, and the next week or two may chose the roads of War or Peace. Mainstream expectations are the President Trump will "tear up" the Iran nuclear agreement on May 12th. What happens after that – Will the United States impose new sanctions on Iran? Will Iran restart parts of its nuclear energy program? – could take us down the path to war. What to do?
I've linked several good/useful articles below that provide semi-user-friendly overviews of what's at stake if the Iran if the United States withdraws from the Agreement, as well as cogent explanations about why the Agreement is in everyone's interest. Please give this your attention, as the US mainstream media is unlikely to be very helpful, starting with its assumption that Iran had a nuclear weapons program – for which there is zero evidence. So we need to prepare some counter-arguments to nonsense.
In addition to whatever sanctions the president, by his own authority, can establish against Iran, it is probable that Republicans and many Democrats will move to pass legislation re-instating sanctions against Iran that were lifted with the signing of the nuclear agreement. When the agreement was voted on by Congress in 2015, New York's Senator Schumer and Representatives Engel and Lowey opposed the agreement, even though it was negotiated by a Democratic administration. Now it appears that they may be taking the line that "now is not the time to end the agreement." But strong pressure will be put on them by the US "Israel Lobby" to support new sanctions. To help them do the right thing, please give them a call to ask that they oppose imposing new sanctions on Iran: Schumer: 212-486-4430; Senator Gillibrand: 212-688-6262; and Reps. Lowey: 914-428-1707; and Engel: 718-796-9700
Israel/Gaza – Next Friday will see the 6th weekly demonstration in Gaza that is leading up to "The Great March of Return" on May 15th. So far Israel soldiers have killed 49 demonstrators and wounded more than 6,000, with about 2,000 people hit by live ammunition. This sadistic display of force has prompted outrage around the world – except in the USA, where there has been little protest and hardly a peep from Congress. – On Saturday CFOW held its second vigil/rally protesting the events in Gaza, with our slogans demanding "End the Blockade" and "Stop the Killing." We passed out more than 300 leaflets at the vigil and at the Hastings farmers market, and got a very positive response. We plan to focus our vigil/rally next Saturday once again on the events in Gaza. Please join us!
News Notes
Get out the vote! The Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at President Bush some years ago is out of prison and is now running for Iraq's parliament.
Last week was the 200th birthday of Karl Marx. The New York Times ran this interesting appraisal.
Joel Kovel, a stalwart for peace and justice and a founder of "ecosocialism," died last week. His widow, Deedee Halleck, filmed his beautiful ecoburial; check it out.
The National Security Agency collected information on more than 530 million US phone calls in 2017, setting a new record.
Journalist Dahr Jamail gives us a timely heads-up with his , "Explosions and Crashes: Military Aircraft Are a Threat to US Civilians." You've been warned.
Last week, attempting to enter Israel at the Ben Gurion airport, four US civil rights leaders were turned back. One (a Columbia professor) was profiled and rejected by the border guards because she had been given a negative rating by a right-wing US trolling operation. Suspicion of having criticized the Israeli government's policies can ruin your visit.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – CFOW holds a vigil/rally each Saturday at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring) from 12 to 1 p.m. Everyone invited; please join us!
Sunday, May 20th – Hudson Valley Sally, with special guest Jenny Murphy, will provide the music for a CFOW fundraising house concert and pot luck. Doors open at 3:30 p.m., the music starts at 4, and the put luck dinner (please bring a dish to share) will be at 5. Suggested donation is $15, and reservations are required (email jennyboydmurphy@gmail.com). The critic (Sonny Ochs) says, "Hudson Valley Sally is a delightful group of activist musicians who will have you smiling and clapping. Most of all, they'll have you thinking about the content of their songs. They have something relevant to say." Check out their website at www.hudsonvalleysally.com.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/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 rallies are usually about war or climate change, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's tax cut legislation are often targeted, 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. If you would like to make a financial contribution to our work, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
This Newsletter
Articles linked in the CFOW newsletter are intended to illuminate some of the main action-issues about which we are concerned. Coming mostly from the "dissenting media," they provide an alternative to the perspectives of the mainstream media. In addition to the excellent "Featured Essays"; the several important articles on the Iran nuclear agreement; Steve Kinzer's article on "false flags" in Syria; Aaron Maté's useful overview of the shortcomings of the Mueller investigation; a thought-provoking interview with some leaders of the Arizona teachers' strike; a set of articles on the problems of democracy inside the Democratic Party; and an interview with imprisoned Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. And don't miss the "Our History" articles, with an overview of 1968 by UK wisewoman Hillary Wainwright and an interesting interview with the author of a history of Islamophobic practice and legislation in the USA.
Rewards!
This newsletter is on the longish side, so Stalwart Readers may want to pause of a few Rewards. Friday, May 4th, was the anniversary of the killings at Kent State in 1970. As always, here are Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young with "Ohio." Also last week, the Israeli military arrested West Bank village leader Ayed Morrar. This gives me an excuse to post (and for you to see) the fabulous 2009 documentary film "Budrus," which features Morrar and his village's struggles against Israel's apartheid wall, It's a beautiful film, with lots of food for thought about village democracy and nonviolent struggle. Check it out!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
(Video) Arundhati Roy's Latest Novel Takes on Fascism, Rising Hindu Nationalism in India & Abuses in Kashmir
From Democracy Now! [May 3, 2018]
[FB - Award-winning author Arundhati Roy won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel "The God of Small Things." In 2017, 20 years after the publication of her first novel, she published another work of fiction, just out in paperback, titled "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." She has also written many books on social and political problems in India. She once described herself as "a ruffian." Get to know her.]
---- "It was almost as though you had a feudal country, which—a feudal and colonized country, which, in 1947—from 1947 to 1990, tried, even if symbolically, to—I mean, the radical movements in the '60s, for example, were talking about the redistribution of wealth, the redistribution of land, of justice, of revolution. But suddenly this new economy has pushed even the radical discourse into a space where people are just asking to let, let's say, indigenous people continue to live on what little land they have, instead of it being taken over by the corporation. … So, caste, feudalism, capitalism—all of it merges in a very unique way in that place. And you had—for example, you had 50 years of some gesture towards what we call reservation, what you call affirmative action. Now you have privatization in which Dalits are being pushed out all over again, pushed out of educational institutions, pushed out of jobs, pushed out of—so you have the consolidation of upper-caste, upper-class capitalism. You have a situation where, like everywhere else, you know, a hundred families own 25 percent, or something, of the GDP. And you have a consolidation of inequality, which is incredible." [See the Program]
The Latest Act in Israel's Iran Nuclear Disinformation Campaign
---- In fact, there is no massive treasure trove of secret files about an Iran "Manhattan Project." The shelves of black binders and CDs that Netanyahu revealed with such a dramatic flourish date back to 2003 (after which a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) said Iran had abandoned any nuclear weapons program) and became nothing more than stage props like the cartoon bomb that Netanyahu used at the United Nations in 2012. … Netanyahu's slide show revealed more than just his over-the-top style of persuasion on the subject of Iran. It provided further evidence that the claims that had successfully swayed the US and Israeli allies to join in punishing Iran for having had a nuclear weapons program were based on fabricated documents that originated in the state that had the strongest motive to make that case – Israel. [Read More]
A Time of Chaos
By Boaventura de Sousa Santos, ZNet [May 2, 2018]
[FB – Boaventura de Sousa Santos is a Portuguese intellectual who has written useful and interesting interpretations of our times, including, e.g., the World Social Forum and modern social movements.]
[FB – Boaventura de Sousa Santos is a Portuguese intellectual who has written useful and interesting interpretations of our times, including, e.g., the World Social Forum and modern social movements.]
---- Because citizens who possess at least a modicum of information have a better memory than commentators, and because, although they lack expertise on the causes of such acts of war, they have an expert knowledge of their consequences, which is something that said commentators always fail to notice. … These are the more visible consequences. But there are other victims, of which the ordinary citizen is hardly aware, her suspicions sometimes not more than a vague discomfort. I will focus on three of those victims. The first is international law, which has once again been violated, given that actions of war are legitimate only in case of self-defense or under a UN Security Council mandate. … The second victim is human rights. … The third victim is the "war on terror". No person of good will can accept the death of innocent victims in the name of some political or ideological goal, much less when perpetrated by the countries – the United States and its allies – that over the last twenty years have given full priority to the war on terrorism. So how can one comprehend the current financing and arming, by the Western powers, of groups of Syrian rebels that are known to be terrorist organizations? [Read More]
Saving the Sacred Cow: Yanis Varoufakis's vision for a more democratic Europe.
By Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, The Nation [May 3, 2018]
[FB – Yanis Varoufakis was, briefly, the Greek Finance Minister in the Syriza government who tried (unsuccessfully) to prevent the European bankers from strangling Greece. Now he is trying to save European democracy. His battle with the German bankers is told in his very readable book, Adults in the Room: My Battle with the European and American Deep Establishment.]
---- One could debate the specifics of Varoufakis's policies. But the overarching motivation is simple: more democracy, more Europe, and more of the right kind of globalization to give substance to the idea of a European unity. … Toward the end of And the Weak Suffer What They Must?, Varoufakis poses what has emerged as the central question of his political project today: "Can we combine deep criticism of the European Union with an appreciation of the tremendous costs that its fragmentation would occasion?" That's the question Varoufakis's new European political movement, DiEM25, is supposed to answer. It's also the motivation behind his 2019 candidacy in Greece with a new party called MeRA25, the party of "responsible disobedience." DiEM25 is premised on the idea of a different kind of Europe—a more democratic one focused on sharing in the good times and the bad, and united "against the dominant oligarchy-without-borders but also against nationalist parochialism." [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
Olive Branch for North Korea, Bombs for Iran?
By
---- The Iran nuclear deal is on the verge of sinking on May 12, when Donald Trump will decide whether or not to waive the nuclear-related sanctions, as the deal calls for. While the world is cheering the upcoming meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un (including Trump's fans calling for a Nobel Peace Prize), Trump is needlessly and recklessly driving our nation down a path toward war with Iran—and neither Congress nor the American people seem to care. … The great tragedy of the horrifying specter of another Middle East war is that it is wholly fabricated by the US administration. The Iran deal is a good one (it would be amazing if Trump could negotiate as good a deal with North Korea) and Iran is fully complying with its end of the bargain. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said so in 10 consecutive reports. America's European allies have said so. So has a recent State Department report and Trump's own Defense Secretary James Mattis, who, by the way, told a congressional committee that keeping the nuclear agreement intact was in the US national interest. The party that has not been in compliance is actually the United States. The deal requires that the signatories allow Iran's reintegration into the global economy. At a NATO summit last May, Trump tried to persuade European partners to stop making business deals with Iran. The Trump administration has also been blocking permits for companies to engage in commercial transactions with Iran. [Read More]
Peace in Korea?
The Historic Korean Peace Declaration Was Made Possible By Social Movements, Not Trump
By Sarah Lazare, In These Times [April 30, 2018]
[FB – Interviewed here is peace activist Christine Ahn].
---- President Donald Trump—who has previously threatened the entire Korean peninsula with nuclear annihilation—now appears to be claiming credit for a historic step towards military de-escalation taken April 27 by North and South Korean heads of state. … According to peace activist Christine Ahn, the pushing leaders to move towards formally ending the Korean War was accomplished by dogged Korean anti-war activists who helped oust former South Korean President Park Geun-hye in 2017 and gave Moon Jae-in a mandate for peace. Ahn says that it was these movements, supported by international activists, that forced the North and South Korean leaders to release a statement that declares the "new era of peace" will include steps towards family reunification, denuclearization and cessation of all hostile acts. Ahn is in a position to know. The South Korea-born, Hawaii-based peace activist has been organizing to end the Korean War under the administrations of Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush. She founded and coordinates Women Cross DMZ, which describes itself as "a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War, reunite families, and ensure women's leadership in peace building." [Read More]
War With Iran?
US Is Playing With Fire if It Walks Away From the Iran Nuclear Deal on May 12
---- A foreign policy crisis is coming May 12. President Donald Trump's likely decision on that day to not continue waiving sanctions on Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will significantly increase the chances of war. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by China, Russia, and most of western Europe requires the American president to certify every three months Iran's nuclear program is in compliance with the deal. In return, the next quarter's economic sanctions are waived against the Islamic Republic. Earlier this year, Trump warned he was waiving sanctions for the final time, setting a May 12 deadline for significant changes in the agreement to be made. Failing those changes, Trump's non-signature would trigger sanctions to snap into place. The changes Trump is insisting on – reduce Iran's ballistic missile capability, renegotiate the deal's end date, and allow unrestricted inspections – are designed to force failure. Iran's ballistic missile program was purposefully never part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. … The likely effects of walking away from the agreement are global. Iran may immediately kick start its nuclear program. Tehran's hegemonic efforts in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria would remain untouched if not intensify in retaliation. Iran's current missiles will still be able to reach Jerusalem and Riyadh. The odds of the North Koreans agreeing to a nuclear deal decrease; imagine being the new State Department envoy sitting across from an experienced North Korean diplomat trying to answer his question "What is to say you won't do this to us in three years?" [Read More]
It's not clear if Trump and Netanyahu want a war with Iran – but they may fall into one all the same
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent [UK] [May 4, 2018]
---- It is not yet clear if Trump and the Israeli prime minister do want a war with Iran, but they may blunder into one all the same. Alternatively, they may imagine they will get their way by means of a short successful war and find, as so many leaders have done down the centuries, that they are mired in a long and unsuccessful conflict. Israel had plenty of experience of this in Lebanon, which it invaded in 1982 in a war from which it spent years trying to extricate itself. But political leaders are never quite as foolish as they might appear when exaggerating foreign threats. Governments everywhere want to present themselves as the sole defenders of their citizens against some hideous menace from abroad. Iran fulfils this role for the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni rulers of the Gulf and acts as a useful glue for national solidarity and a diversion from domestic grievances. Belief in an all-embracing Iranian conspiracy fuels paranoia: in Bahrain in 2011, the authorities tortured Shia hospital doctors who were accused of using a piece of medical equipment to receive orders from their masters in Tehran. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has always played up the Iranian threat. Since the early 1990s, he has warned that Iran is about to acquire a nuclear arsenal unless it is stopped forthwith. As prime minister, he has long been speaking of launching an Israeli strike against Iran, but he has been very cautious about actually doing do. Diplomats wonder if this is still the case. More is at work here than the normal threat inflation to be expected from politicians wishing to stand tall in defence of the homeland or portray their opponents as unpatriotic weaklings. [Read More]
For more on the twilight of the Iran nuclear agreement – Amos Harel [military and defense analyst for the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz], "Israel Hopes Trump Scrapping Nuclear Deal Could Ultimately Lead to Iran Regime Change" [May 5, 2018] [Link]; and Ralph Nader, "Wake Up to Trump, Distraction and War with Iran," [Link]. Insights into Israel's nuclear weapons arsenal can be found in Julian Borger, "The truth about Israel's secret nuclear arsenal," The Guardian [UK] [January 15, 2014] [Link]; and John Buell, "Lost in the debate on Iran: Israel's Nukes and the Vanunu Case," [Link].
The War in Syria
Hoisting the False Flag
By Stephen Kinzer, The Boston Globe [April 27, 2018]
---- False flag operations are a well-established tactic. Many intelligence agencies have staged them. Often they are successful. They lead the world to blame a crime or atrocity on an innocent party while the true culprit remains obscure. Computer technology has brought a host of new "false flag" possibilities, as hackers and counter-hackers compete to leave misleading electronic trails. Some critics of American involvement in Syria's civil war doubt that the recent poison gas attacks near Damascus were launched on orders from President Bashar al-Assad, as the United States and its allies have asserted. The last such attack came just days after President Trump vowed to pull American troops out of Syria. It led Trump to reverse course, denounce "animal Assad," and order bombing instead. That brought cheers from those who wish for an open-ended American presence in Syria, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and leading Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Syria's government again appeared demonic. … In the cyber age, intelligence services have become adept at staging attacks on computer systems that can be attributed to others. This is a modern permutation of an age-old technique. False flag operations succeed because many people reflexively jump to accept official narratives. Conveniently timed attacks that give pretexts for war, however, are not always what they seem. History suggests that we should await clear evidence before falling into well-laid traps. [Read More]
Also of interest about the war in Syria – Jason Ditz, "Pentagon Seeks Arms for 65,000 US-Backed Troops in Syria," Antiwar.com [May 4, 2018] [Link]; and Juan Cole, "Syria: Did E. Ghouta Gas Reports cause Rebels to surrender en masse in Homs, Hama?" [Link].
The War in Yemen
Army Special Forces Secretly Help Saudis Combat Threat From Yemen Rebels
By Helene Cooper, et al., New York Times [May 3, 2018]
---- For years, the American military has sought to distance itself from a brutal civil war in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces are battling rebels who pose no direct threat to the United States. But late last year, a team of about a dozen Green Berets arrived on Saudi Arabia's border with Yemen, in a continuing escalation of America's secret wars. With virtually no public discussion or debate, the Army commandos are helping locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities. Details of the Green Beret operation, which has not been previously disclosed, were provided to The New York Times by United States officials and European diplomats. They appear to contradict Pentagon statements that American military assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and general intelligence sharing. There is no indication that the American commandos have crossed into Yemen as part of the secretive mission. But sending American ground forces to the border is a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen. [Read More] Also useful is this New York Times editorial, "Why Are American Troops in the Yemen War? [May 3, 2018] [Link]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Don't Count on Russiagate to Bring Trump Down
By Aaron Maté, The Nation [May 3, 2018]
---- In filing a lawsuit accusing Russia, the Trump campaign, and Wikileaks of a conspiracy to win the 2016 election, Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez says the party is standing up to Russian meddling in not just that contest, but in the next one as well. "[When] you've seen attempted interference in the past, they're going to do it again," Perez told NBC News. "I'm punching back for democracy." The lawsuit is an outgrowth of the Democratic Party's more than yearlong focus on Russiagate "above all else," as a top Hillary Clinton aide once described it. This approach has definitively shaped both the resistance to Donald Trump and the media coverage of his presidency. Trump's critics have clung to the hope that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will undo his presidency, leaving Democrats and pundits to focus less on White House policies than on its endless controversies and rotating cast of characters.
The newly leaked questions that Mueller intends to pose to Trump offer the most detailed look at his investigation to date. If Mueller has uncovered any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, he withholds it here. [Read More]
The Outcome in Arizona [The Teachers' Strike]
From Jacobin Magazine [May 2018]
[FB – This article is based on an interview with 3 strike leaders. I think the teachers' strikes deserve close attention, because they combine a grass-roots movement of teachers in uneasy alliance with the official teachers' unions. Important tactical questions include, "Who gets to speak for the teachers? Who gets to accept or reject management's offers? Who gets to end the strike?"]
What were your highlights from the experience of the strike?
---- [RG] "Definitely the sense of solidarity. People here never really had that feeling before, that sense of being part of a union and fighting together for one purpose. But this struggle has given people an awareness that they're not alone in this fight. The movement and the walkout really increased people's political awareness and our level of grassroots organization. Fifty percent of the win here has been that we now have a strong, organized mass movement. And we're not going away. People now have the courage to fight." [NK] "It's been pretty incredible to see all this energy, all this action and mobilization. But my personal favorite has been the emergence of local leaders at school sites. The local workplace infrastructure we've built has worked amazingly well. Individuals stepped up to become site liaisons; there are two thousand educators who've now become organizers. … The types of attacks we've seen in Arizona are common to the working class across the whole country. We're being exploited, we're being taken advantage of. We're overworked, we're underpaid, we've been surviving on too little for too long. But what we've done in Arizona is stand up and say enough is enough. There always comes a breaking point for the working class. If educators in Arizona could stand up and fight back, anybody can stand up and do the same." [Read More]
(Video) As Caravan of Migrants Begins Entry at U.S.-Mexico Border, Trump Admin Attacks Legal Asylum Process
From Democracy Now! [May 3, 2018]
---- A standoff continues on the U.S.-Mexico border, where scores of asylum seekers are attempting to cross into the United States after taking part in a month-long caravan that began more than 2,000 miles away in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Many of the caravan participants are migrants fleeing violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Around 100 have been accepted for processing, but scores remain camped out by the border near San Diego, California, as officials claim the border entry point has limited capacity. President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have attacked the migrants in statements and tweets. "It's very clear that President Trump and Attorney General Sessions do not understand this section of federal law," says attorney Nicole Ramos, director of the Border Rights Project of Al Otro Lado, who represents members of the caravan. "The caravan members that are camped out at the border are trying to access a legal process which has existed for decades." We speak with Ramos, who is in Tijuana, Mexico, and with Tristan Call, a volunteer with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, just back from spending time with the caravan. [See the Program]
For more on the migrants' caravan and US immigration law – Marjorie Cohn, "Trump Disregards Caravan Migrants' Legal Right to Apply for Asylum[May 4, 2018] [Link]; and Levi Vonk, "I marched with a migrant caravan, Donald Trump has it all wrong," The Guardian [UK] [May 1, 2018] [Link].
The Democrats and Their Democracy Problem
The Ghosts of 'New Democrats' Are Haunting Us
By Norman Solomon, Truthdig [May 2, 2018]
---- Twenty-five years ago, the so-called New Democrats were triumphant. Today, their political heirs are eager to prevent the Democratic Party from living up to its name. At stake is whether democracy will have a chance to function. A fundamental battle for democracy is in progress—a conflict over whether to reduce the number of superdelegates to the party's national convention in 2020, or maybe even eliminate them entirely. That struggle is set to reach a threshold at a party committee meeting next week and then be decided by the full Democratic National Committee before the end of this summer. To understand the Democratic Party's current internal battle lines and what's at stake, it's important to know how we got here. [Read More]
---- Twenty-five years ago, the so-called New Democrats were triumphant. Today, their political heirs are eager to prevent the Democratic Party from living up to its name. At stake is whether democracy will have a chance to function. A fundamental battle for democracy is in progress—a conflict over whether to reduce the number of superdelegates to the party's national convention in 2020, or maybe even eliminate them entirely. That struggle is set to reach a threshold at a party committee meeting next week and then be decided by the full Democratic National Committee before the end of this summer. To understand the Democratic Party's current internal battle lines and what's at stake, it's important to know how we got here. [Read More]
Nurses Have a Prescription for the Democratic Party: Back Single Payer
By John Nichols, The Nation [May 3, 2018]
---- When the Democratic Party's platform committee rejected a proposal for finally establishing a single-payer health-care system in the United States, Michael Lighty of National Nurses United reminded them that 81 percent of Democrats tell pollsters they support a "Medicare for All" reform. "If [single payer] is controversial in this room, it is the only room of Democrats in which it is controversial," the veteran union activist explained. Lighty was right, and, though his position did not prevail that day, he promised that "the 185,000 registered nurses of National Nurses United will not give up on their patients. They will not give up until we assure health care for all. They will not give up until we have Medicare for All." Unfortunately, the persistent determination of the Democratic Party's hypercautious "strategists" and "leaders" to reject the will of Democratic voters—and the historical traditions of a party that declared in its 1948 platform: "We favor the enactment of a national health program"—continues. [Read More]
For more on the Democrats and democracy – Richard Eskow, "The Democratic Establishment's War on Progressives," ZNet [May 6, 2018] [Link]; and Paul Rosenberg, "Wrong-way Democrats: Will a "blue dog" blue wave pave the way for future disaster?" Salon.com [May 6, 2018] [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
As Israel turns 70, many young American Jews turn away
By Dov Waxman, The Conversation [May 3, 2018]
Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, & Israel Studies, Northeastern University
---- Natalie Portman, the Oscar-winning actress, recently kicked off a massive storm of controversy when she pulled out of a prestigious award ceremony in Israel because, she said, she "did not want to appear as endorsing Benjamin Netanyahu." The response to Portman's refusal to appear alongside Israel's prime minister was intense. She was denounced by right-wing Israeli politicians. … The reaction within the American Jewish community was more divided. Some assailed her for being disloyal, deluded, or, at best, misguided. Others hailed her as a hero for publicly voicing her opposition to Netanyahu and his government's hard-line policies. Portman's protest touched a raw nerve not just because of who she is – a world-famous Jewish celebrity and a well-known supporter of Israel – but also because of whom she is seen to represent. Her outspoken opposition to Netanyahu has been portrayed as typical of her generation of young American Jews whose attitudes toward Israel tend to be more critical than that of their parents and grandparents. [Read More]
Documenting the Nakba: an interview with poet Dareen Tatour
By Yoav Haifawi, Mondoweiss [May 1, 2018]
---- I visited poet Dareen Tatour, under house arrest at her home in the Arab town of Reineh on April 17, known here as "Palestinian Prisoners Day." Two and a half years ago Dareen was arrested for publishing a poem, and since then she underwent a trial and is now awaiting the verdict expected on May 3 — all, of course, while still under house arrest. Meanwhile, over the past few days Palestinians have protested 70 years of the ongoing Nakba. Palestinians inside the Green Line, those that remained on or near their land inside of historic Palestine after the 1948 ethnic cleansing, now hold every year a "March of Return." It is their main annual gathering to express their national identity and their aspirations for freedom and equality, and is held on the same day that Israel declared its independence. This year was also witness to a new initiative for mass non-violent resistance in the besieged Gaza Strip under the title of "The Great March of Return." … To see how Dareen's story fits within the context of these events, I decided to interview her about her personal experiences with the Nakba and the struggle for al-'Awda – Arabic for "the return." [Read More]
For more on "dangerous poet" Dareen Tatour – "Israel Convicts Palestinian Poet Dareen Tatour of Incitement to Violence, Supporting Terror," by Noa Shpigel, Haaretz [May 3, 2018] [Link]; and "Palestinian poet convicted of inciting terror in Facebook poem," from +972 Blog [May 3, 2018] [Link]. To read a translation of Dareen Tatour's poem, "Resist, my people, resist them!" go here.
OUR HISTORY
Beneath the Pavements, the Beach?
By Hilary Wainwright, Red Pepper [May 1, 2018]
---- 1968 was a historic year, but not in the sense of a unique moment in a linear march of history. The experiences of that year – and significantly, the years that preceded and followed – shaped a generation but produced ways of thinking that, in retrospect, have turned out to be both ambivalent and complex. The international rebellions of these years laid the conditions for the women's liberation movement of the 1970s, politicized grassroots workers' organizations and converged 'single issue' campaigns to address systemic issues – such as military power, capitalism, imperialism and the nature of the state. But it also prepared the way for a renewal for capitalism – creating a new spirit of capitalism as flexible, innovative, decentralized and unregulated. [Read More]
---- 1968 was a historic year, but not in the sense of a unique moment in a linear march of history. The experiences of that year – and significantly, the years that preceded and followed – shaped a generation but produced ways of thinking that, in retrospect, have turned out to be both ambivalent and complex. The international rebellions of these years laid the conditions for the women's liberation movement of the 1970s, politicized grassroots workers' organizations and converged 'single issue' campaigns to address systemic issues – such as military power, capitalism, imperialism and the nature of the state. But it also prepared the way for a renewal for capitalism – creating a new spirit of capitalism as flexible, innovative, decentralized and unregulated. [Read More]
How Islamophobia Was Ingrained in America's Legal System Long Before the War on Terror
By Mariam Elba, The Intercept [May 6, 2018]
---- At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, hundreds of thousands of African Muslims were forcibly brought to the United States to be enslaved. One of them, Omar Ibn Said, from Futa Toro, in modern-day Senegal, chronicled his journey and life under enslavement in a brief 15-page manuscript. "Wicked men took me by violence and sold me," he wrote. "We sailed a month and a half on the great sea to the place called Charleston in the Christian land. I fell into the hands of a small, weak and wicked man, who feared not God at all." Omar Ibn Said converted to Christianity after he was forced from West Africa to the newly declared United States. His own autobiographical writings, however, provide evidence that he continued practicing Islam, as he had done in his homeland, until his death. "His outward conversion was a shield from punishment, one that enabled him to continue to observe Islam, his native faith," writes critical theorist and legal scholar Khaled Beydoun in his new book, "American Islamophobia." … The Intercept interviewed Khaled Beydoun about the experience of Muslim and Christian immigrants from the Middle East in the early 20th century, the roots of a media discourse that otherizes Muslims, and Trump's continuation of a long heritage of systemic discrimination. [Read More]
