Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
May 27, 2019
Hello All – Memorial Day has morphed from a day of grief and remembrance, a day spent in decorating soldiers' graves, to one that remembers fallen soldiers for "serving their country," celebrating patriotism. Until shortly after World War II, it was still called "Decoration Day"; but then, as with so much of our culture, it was caught up in the Cold War. And thus our Memorial Day parades, as in yesterday's parade in Hastings, are addressed by a General, rather than – for example – a Gold Star Mother.
One wonders what would happen to Memorial Day if we attempted to remember and grieve for ALL of those who died in war, and not just Americans. Can we imagine doing this? I think only a few Americans have been killed in the war in Yemen, for example, yet the body count in that war is now at 233,000. Would prayers about the "fallen dead" be extended to these Yemenis?
The Memorial Day decorations that festooned the village of Hastings remembered especially the World War II era. Neither the Korean nor the Vietnam Wars, nor the recent wars in the Middle East, received much attention. In part that is because, with the end of the draft, today's fallen soldiers tend to be young men and women from impoverished small towns, not middle-class suburbs. Andrew Bacevich, a West Point graduate and career military officer, wrote this week about his visit to the town of Marseilles, Illinois (pop. 5,000). Marseilles is the home of the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial, to Bacevich's knowledge the only memorial in the USA devoted to commemorating the fallen soldiers of our recent wars. There, on Panel 5B he found the name of his son, who was killed in Iraq.
We observe that Memorial Day and Veterans Day have become increasingly the Theater of Memory for older men; young men from the Middle East wars and even from the Vietnam War don't seem drawn to civic patriotism. This was vividly demonstrated recently when some well-meaning US Army official sent out a Twitter message asking veterans, "How has service impacted you?" The responses, of course, were not what the Army was looking for. "My wife will never see her brother again. Thanks Iraqi Freedom." "The agent orange my grandfather was exposed to in Vietnam caused his cancer & death. … The army and government knew the dangers of agent orange when they started using it." "The Combat Cocktail': PTSD, severe depression, anxiety. Isolation. Suicide attempts. Never ending rage. It cost me my relationship with my eldest son and my grandson. It cost some of my men so much more. How did serving impact me? Ask my family." And there are hundreds more responses that are similar.
Finally, we read this week that President Trump is considering using the occasion of Memorial Day to pardon soldiers who were convicted of war crimes. The war crimes in question were typically murdering civilians or soldiers who had surrendered. To my knowledge Trump's actions have not yet occurred (7 pm), but a search on Google News shows horrified reactions from all branches of the military at the possibility that pardons of convicted war criminals might take place. An essay by Camillo Mac Bica, a Marine Corps officer in Vietnam and now an antiwar writer and activist, helps to put the thin line between war criminals and disciplined soldiers in context. The horrors of war drive people crazy and put some soldiers over the edge, becoming bad killers instead of good killers. The Twitter responses from soldiers described in the paragraph above are presumably from those who are not convicted war criminals, but suffered greatly during and after their wars. Where is their "pardon," their renewal and resuscitation? Where is their Memorial Day? Work for peace.
News Notes
The Journal News reports that ICE arrests in New York are "surging," with two people arrested in Putnam and Westchester. Read the story [May 27th] here.
Here's another report on the racial disparities in wealth and poverty in the USA. This report finds that black college graduate families have 33 percent less wealth than white high school dropouts. "It's not individual behavior that drives the racial wealth divide," concludes the report, "it's a system that many folks pretend doesn't exist."
The Russophobia of the mainstream media is starting to get out of hand. Now NBC has discovered that the Russians "plan to give African Americans combat training." Read all about it here.
Finally, Democracy Now filled in its Memorial Day timeslot with a rebroadcast of Noam Chomsky's talk last month at Boston's Old South Church. Posted previously in the Newsletter, now is another chance to learn what Chomsky is saying these days. The first section, "We Must Confront the 'Ultranationalist, Reactionary" Movements Growing Across Globe," can be read here; the following parts are on nuclear weapons, climate change, Julian Assange, Israel's election, and much more.
Election Integrity
The CFOW Election Integrity team invites us to join them in Albany on Thursday, June 6th, for a rally organized by Smart Elections. The rally will demand that the NY State Board of Election Commissioners say YES to hand-marked paper ballots and secure, well-maintained ballot-marking devices for voters with disabilities; and NO to risky "hybrid" voting machines, NO to touch-screen voting machines, and NO to counting votes with barcodes. The rally will take place at the NY State Board of Elections meeting at 40 North Pearl St. in Albany at 11 AM. For more information and to RSVP, go here..
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Ongoing – Weather permitting, the CFOW stalwarts gather every Saturday from 12 to 1 PM at the VFW Plaza in Hastings (Warburton and Spring St.) to protest war and other evils. Please join us!
Tuesday, May 28th – A NYS Senate hearing on rent regulation and tenant protection legislation will be held at Greenburgh town hall (177 Hillside Ave. in Greenburgh) from 10 AM to 2 PM. For more information call Sen. Shelley Mayer's office at 914-934-5250.
Wednesday, May 29th – CFOW friend Susan Rubin will speak on "Heading for Extinction and What to Do About It" at the WESPAC office, 77 Tarrytown Rd., #2W, beginning at 7 PM. The focus will be on the organization Extinction Rebellion.
Sunday, June 2nd - CFOW's next monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 p.m. At these meetings we review our work/the happenings of the past month and make plans for the month to come. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Thursday, June 6th – Rally at the NY State Board of Elections in Albany. For info, go here..
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 immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We (usually) 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 if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, 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. As always, we have some excellent "Featured Essays," notably by Noam Chomsky and Michelle Alexander. I also recommend the essay by Robert Fisk, one of our era's great journalists, on the on-going mystery of chemical "attacks" in Syria; useful articles on Iran (law and sanctions); a useful update on the children's climate strike in Europe; further developments in the sadistic behavior of ICE; and in "Our History," a fine article by Tom Engelhardt on the US tradition of "meddling" in foreign elections, and a memorial essay on Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California (1977) who was murdered while in office.
Rewards!
I think the best way commemorate Memorial Day, to honor the fallen dead, is to work to ensure that no more people will die in war. To put these thoughts to music, here are some of my favorites: Freda Payne's "Bring the Boys Home"; Bob Dylan's "Masters of War"; and Phil Ochs' "I Ain't Marching Anymore." Sing Out!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Noam Chomsky: We Must Stop War with Iran Before It's Too Late
---- The threat of a U.S. attack on Iran is all too real. Led by John Bolton, the Trump administration is spinning tales of Iranian misdeeds. It easy to concoct pretexts for aggression. History provides many examples. The assault against Iran is one element of the international program of flaunting overwhelming U.S. power to put an end to "successful defiance" of the master of the globe: the primary reason for the U.S. torture of Cuba for 60 years. The reasoning would easily be understood by any Mafia Don. Successful defiance can inspire others to pursue the same course. The "virus" can "spread contagion," as Kissinger put it when laboring to overthrow Salvador Allende in Chile. The need to destroy such viruses and inoculate victims against contagion—commonly by imposing harsh dictatorships—is a leading principle of world affairs. Iran has been guilty of the crime of successful defiance since the 1979 uprising that deposed the tyrant the U.S. had installed in the 1953 coup that, with help from the British, destroyed the parliamentary system and restored obedience. The achievement was welcomed by liberal opinion. As the New York Times explained in 1954, thanks to the subsequent agreement between Iran and foreign oil companies, "Underdeveloped countries with rich resources now have an object lesson in the heavy cost that must be paid by one of their number which goes berserk with fanatical nationalism." [Read More] For a closer look at some of the so-called "intelligence" justifying US war threats, please read "Do Iranian 'Threats' Signal Organized U.S.-Israel Subterfuge?" by [Link]
My Rapist Apologized: I still needed an abortion.
By Michelle Alexander, New York Times [May 23, 2019]
---- My 12-year-old daughter recently asked me what I think about abortion. She walked into the kitchen, poked around the refrigerator, then spun around and blurted it out: "I can't decide what I think about abortion. I want to know what you think." My daughter is an avid consumer of the news. Unlike myself at her age, she's genuinely interested in political news — news about climate change, racial and gender justice, and the next election. As her question hung in the air between us, I knew immediately that she had read the news that our home state, Ohio, had just banned nearly all abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest. Kentucky had already done so, in a law that's since been blocked by a federal judge. Alabama would soon follow. Several other states were lining up in the queue, eager to strip women of the right to choose. I took a deep breath. Her question took me by surprise, and yet I had been waiting for it since the day she was born. I always knew the time would come when I would have to tell my daughters the truth: I was raped. And I had an abortion. One day, you may face these challenges too. [Read More]
The Indictment of Julian Assange Under the Espionage Act Is a Threat to the Press and the American People
By James Risen, The Intercept [
---- A true democracy does not allow its government to decide who is a journalist. A nation in which a leader gets to make that decision is on the road to dictatorship. That is why the new U.S. indictment of Julian Assange is so dangerous to liberty in America. The Trump administration has charged Assange under the Espionage Act for conspiring to leak classified documents. The indictment, released yesterday, focuses on his alleged efforts to encourage former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak classified documents to him and WikiLeaks about a decade ago. Many of those documents, including U.S. military reports and State Department cables, were later published by WikiLeaks, but they were also the basis of reporting by major news organizations like the New York Times and The Guardian, which published some of them. … The indictment says that Assange and WikiLeaks "repeatedly sought, obtained, and disseminated information that the United States classified due to the serious risk that unauthorized disclosure could harm the national security of the United States." That is almost a textbook definition of the job of a reporter covering national security at a major news organization. Take a look at the tips pages of most news outlets, and you'll see a remarkable similarity between what journalists ask for and what WikiLeaks sought. [Read More]
Also useful/interesting about the US indictment of Assange - (Video) "Julian Assange's Attorney Decries Espionage Charges as "Grave Threat to Press Freedom," from Democracy Now! [May 24, 2019] [See the Program - several parts]; Editorial, "Julian Assange's Indictment Aims at the Heart of the First Amendment," New York Times [May 23, 2019] [Link]; and "Now, the Swedish Arrest Warrant for Assange," bMay 23, 2019] [Link].
Prof. Noura Erakat on the "Kushner Peace Plan" for Palestine
---- FB - Noura Erakat is the author of a new book called Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. IMO it is terrific, profound, and clarifying about the role of law (and lawlessness) in the unfolding of the Zionist project in the former British "mandate" of Palestine since 1917. In a half-hour podcast interview last week, Prof. Erakat addressed the issues raised by Jared Kushner's proposed plan for Israel/Palestine, which will be rolled out in the next few weeks. The interview with Erakat begins at 39 minutes into the program. Highly recommended.
WAR & PEACE
The Evidence We Were Never Meant to See About the Douma Gas Attack [Syria]
By Robert Fisk, The Independent [UK] [May 27, 2019]
---- For in the last few days, there has emerged disturbing evidence that in its final report on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime in the city of Douma last year, the OPCW deliberately concealed from both the public and the press the existence of a dissenting 15-page assessment of two cylinders which had supposedly contained molecular chlorine – perhaps the most damning evidence against the Assad regime in the entire report. The OPCW officially maintains that these canisters were probably dropped by an aircraft – probably a helicopter, presumably Syrian – over Douma on 7 April 2018. But the dissenting assessment, which the OPCW made no reference to in its published conclusions, finds there is a "higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft". It is difficult to underestimate the seriousness of this manipulative act by the OPCW. In a response to the conservative author Peter Hitchens, who also writes for the Mail on Sunday – he is of course the brother of the late Christopher Hitchens – the OPCW admits that its so-called technical secretariat "is conducting an internal investigation about the unauthorised [sic] release of the document". [Read More] For another view of this important development, read "The western media is key to Syria deceptions," by Jonathan Cook, ZNet [May 27, 2019] [Link].
---- For in the last few days, there has emerged disturbing evidence that in its final report on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime in the city of Douma last year, the OPCW deliberately concealed from both the public and the press the existence of a dissenting 15-page assessment of two cylinders which had supposedly contained molecular chlorine – perhaps the most damning evidence against the Assad regime in the entire report. The OPCW officially maintains that these canisters were probably dropped by an aircraft – probably a helicopter, presumably Syrian – over Douma on 7 April 2018. But the dissenting assessment, which the OPCW made no reference to in its published conclusions, finds there is a "higher probability that both cylinders were manually placed at those two locations rather than being delivered from aircraft". It is difficult to underestimate the seriousness of this manipulative act by the OPCW. In a response to the conservative author Peter Hitchens, who also writes for the Mail on Sunday – he is of course the brother of the late Christopher Hitchens – the OPCW admits that its so-called technical secretariat "is conducting an internal investigation about the unauthorised [sic] release of the document". [Read More] For another view of this important development, read "The western media is key to Syria deceptions," by Jonathan Cook, ZNet [May 27, 2019] [Link].
War Against Iran?
An Attack on Iran Would Violate US and International Law
By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [May 23, 2019]
---- As President Donald Trump, National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rattle their sabers, there is no evidence that Iran poses a threat to the United States. It was Trump who threatened genocide, tweeting, "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran." The Pentagon is now considering sending 10,000 additional troops to the Gulf region for "defensive" purposes and not in response to a new threat by Iran. Threats to use military force — like the use of force itself — violate U.S. and international law. Last week, Pompeo said U.S. intelligence had determined that Iranian-sponsored attacks on U.S. forces "were imminent." The Trump administration asserted, "without evidence," according to The New York Times, that new intelligence revealed Iran was sponsoring proxy groups to attack U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria. The Pentagon announced its intention to deploy a Patriot antimissile battery to the Middle East. Three days later, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the United States would send up to 120,000 troops to the region if Iran attacks U.S. forces or speeds up work on nuclear weapons. But on May 14, Maj. Gen. Chris Ghika, a senior British military official and deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, told reporters at the Pentagon that "there has been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq or Syria." [Read More]
US is Already Attacking Iran--Severe Sanctions are Hurting the Wrong People
By David Cortright, The Conversation [May 2019]
---- Many are worried about the risk of war with Iran after the Trump administration leaked discussions of a troop deployment in response to claimed threats to U.S. warships in the region.
And in recent days, the rhetoric has only gotten more heated, with President Donald Trump saying a war would be "the official end of Iran." Iranian officials responded in kind. But the truth is, the U.S. has been fighting a war with Iran for decades – an economic war fought via sanctions that has intensified over the past year and has already been devastating to innocent civilians in the country. … Many nations have recognized that sanctions work best as tools of persuasion rather than punishment. Sanctions by themselves rarely succeed in changing the behavior of a targeted state. They are often combined with diplomacy in a carrots-and-sticks bargaining framework designed to achieve negotiated solutions. Indeed the offer to lift sanctions can be a persuasive inducement in convincing a targeted regime to alter its policies, as was the case when successful negotiations involving the U.S. and Europe led to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, which ended sanctions in exchange for Tehran shutting down much of its nuclear production capacity. [Read More]
For more on the Iran war buildup – "A War Without Allies," by Mark Parry, LobeLog [May 27, 2019] [Link]; and "Media Setting Up Iran as New 'Threat' That Must Be Confronted," by Janine Jackson, FAIR [May 19, 2019] [Link].
The Saudi-US War in Yemen
The Trump Administration Is Declaring a Fake Emergency to Sell Weapons to Saudi Arabia
By Alex Emmons, The Intercept [
---- The Trump administration chose the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day weekend to invoke an obscure state-of-emergency provision that would allow it to sell billions of dollars in weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates without giving Congress a chance to block the sale. A Democratic congressional source told The Intercept on Friday that the administration was using the measure to clear a backlog of more than 20 proposed arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, many of which would be blocked if they came to a vote in the Senate. Under the 1976 Arms Export Control Act, the State Department must notify Congress 30 days before concluding an arms sale, which gives Congress the chance to vote on halting the weapons transfer. Under the rarely used provision, however, the president can certify that "an emergency exists" and that an immediate transfer is necessary for "the national security interests of the United States." [Read More] This article is one in a series published in The Intercept called "Making a Killing." For more on the profits being made by the Yemen War, read "Here's Exactly Who's Profiting from the War on Yemen," by Alex Kane, In These Times [May 20 issue] [Link]; and "Saudi Warplanes, Most Made in America, Still Bomb Civilians in Yemen," by Declan Walsh, New York Times [May 22, 2019] [Link].
Mainstream Media Tutorial – Hezbollah in Venezuela!!
New York Times Parrots US Propaganda on Hezbollah in Venezuela
By Luca Koerner and Ricardo Vaz, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) [May 24, 2019]
---- In a recent piece headlined "Secret Venezuela Files Warn About Maduro Confidant, the Times' Andes bureau chief claimed, on the basis of a leaked Venezuelan intelligence "dossier" that only his paper has seen, that Venezuela's Industry minister and former Vice President Tareck El Aissami has active links to Hezbollah and drug trafficking. Casey wrote: "The dossier, provided to the New York Times by a former top Venezuelan intelligence official and confirmed independently by a second one, recounts testimony from informants accusing Mr. El Aissami and his father of recruiting Hezbollah members to help expand spying and drug trafficking networks in the region." Unsurprisingly, the article has been endorsed by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, widely considered the point man for Trump's Latin America policy, … The claims of an alleged relationship between Caracas and Hezbollah are, however, entirely unoriginal, having been repeated by corporate journalists and national security pundits without evidence for years. [Read More]
HUMAN-CAUSED CLIMATE CHAOS
Schoolchildren go on strike across world over climate crisis
By Matthew Taylor, The Guardian [UK] [May 24, 2019]
---- Hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren across the world have gone on strike in protest at the escalating climate crisis. Students from 1,800 towns and cities in more than 110 countries stretching from India to Australia and the UK to South Africa, walked out of lessons on Friday, the organisers of the action said. This is the latest school climate strike, inspired by teenager Greta Thunberg, who has become a global figurehead since protesting outside Sweden's parliament in 2018. The young people are demanding politicians take urgent action to avoid catastrophic ecological breakdown. In London, thousands gathered in the sunshine in Parliament Square chanting, "Where the fuck is the government", and "This is what democracy looks like", before staging a sit-down protest outside the department of education. … Writing in the Guardian they said: "We're asking adults to step up alongside us … today, so many of our parents are busy discussing whether our grades are good, or a new diet or the Game of Thrones finale – whilst the planet burns," they write. "But to change everything, we need everyone. It is time for all of us to unleash mass resistance … if we [demand change] in numbers we have a chance." Before Friday's strikes, organisers said the number of young people taking part would top the 1.4 million people who participated in the last global day of strikes in March. [Read More]
Pipeline Opponents Strike Back Against Anti-Protest Laws
By Alleen Brown, The Intercept [
---- Opponents of oil and gas pipelines in three states are fighting back against new anti-protest laws aimed at suppressing fossil fuel industry dissent. Two lawsuits in Louisiana and South Dakota, and a promised suit in Texas, are the first signs of a concerted pushback against a nationwide, industry-led effort to halt the most confrontational arm of the climate movement. Since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, at least 17 states have introduced laws that create new penalties for pipeline protesters. … "After the world saw the collective power of Indigenous communities coming together at Standing Rock, big oil felt that they had to do something to stop future protests like Standing Rock from happening," said Falcon, who works with the Indigenous Environmental Network, in addition to organizing in Texas. "We see states stepping in and passing bills like this because they see our power as well, and they see that America is on the brink of climate chaos." [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
(Video) How ICE Is Using Solitary Confinement to Punish Asylum Seekers, Including LGBT & Disabled Immigrants
From Democracy Now! [May 22, 2019]
---- Since 2012, ICE has used solitary confinement as a routine punishment for thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers locked up in immigration jails across the country. We look at a new, damning investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that has revealed this widespread abusive use of solitary confinement in immigration jails overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The United Nations special rapporteur on torture says solitary confinement should only be used in exceptional circumstances, and defines extended use of solitary as "inhuman and degrading treatment." Despite this, a review of more than 8,400 reports of solitary confinement in ICE detention found that immigration officers repeatedly used isolation cells to punish gay, transgender and disabled immigrants for their identities and to target other jailed immigrants for actions like kissing consensually or hunger striking. Almost a third of the people held in solitary confinement suffered from mental illness. In at least 373 cases, immigrants were put in isolation for being potentially suicidal. In nearly 200 instances, immigrants were held in solitary confinement for more than six months. The investigation is called "Solitary Voices." We speak to one of its lead authors, Spencer Woodman. [See the Program]
Across the Country, Progressives Are Pushing for Universal Rent Control — and New York Is Next
By Natasha Lennard, The Intercept [
---- On June 15, New York's current rent regulation laws — in place since the early 1990s — will expire. With a Democratic-controlled state Senate and a cadre of left-wing figures elected in last November's midterm elections, the expiration date offers an opportunity for the greatest expansion of tenant protections in decades. What was once a left-wing pipe dream of "universal rent control" is on the table in a package of nine bills. The proposals are being sponsored by progressive freshman Democrats like state Sens. Julia Salazar and Zellnor Myrie, and born of tenants' rights organizing around the state by the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance. … The nine bills include measures to eliminate renovation bonuses for landlords, disallow rent decontrol for vacant apartments, and prevent rent hikes for existing tenants paying preferential rents (rents that are less than the legal maximum, but vulnerable to major hikes when leases are renewed). These reforms would close a number of loopholes landlords have used to work around already weakened rent regulation, while protecting tenants already in rent-stabilized housing. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
Trump Doesn't Want Peace. He Wants Palestinian Surrender.
By Saeb Erekat, New York Times [May 22, 2019]
[FB - Mr. Erekat is the chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization]
---- The Trump administration says it has a peace plan for the Middle East. Those behind it claim that they are offering a new approach to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one focused on an "economic vision," and that it deserves a chance. Yet none of what has been revealed so far has addressed the real issues: the end of the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and the preservation of the internationally recognized inalienable rights of the people of Palestine…. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law and one of the architects of the plan, has said the administration does not want to mention the "two-state solution." It certainly doesn't want to mention the alternative: one democratic state with equal rights for all its citizens. If the Trump administration doesn't want to talk about a two-state solution on the 1967 border or about one democratic state for everyone, what it is actually talking about is the consolidation of a "one-state reality": one state, Israel, controlling everything while imposing two different systems, one for Israeli Jews and another for Palestinians. This is known as apartheid. [Read More]
Is Israel Planning Total Annexation of Jerusalem and Jordan Valley of Palestine?
By Hamada Fara'na,
---- The Israeli government and its agencies are launching a concerted programme, with great urgency, to achieve the complete annexation of Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley. They want to be able to impose a fait accompli through superior firepower and America's diplomatic, economic and military cover. Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, which supports the Palestinian people and the restoration of their rights and freedom and rejects the occupation, is working to expose what Israel is doing. … Israel uses a number of measures to force the people off the land. According to B'Tselem, 45 per cent of the Jordan Valley is designated as military firing zones and 20 per cent is called "nature reserves". Moreover, there are 64 minefields in the area and 12 per cent of the land is occupied by Israeli settlements, which are not only illegal but also regarded as deliberate obstructions to any Palestinian presence, development or normal life in the area considered to be the "food basket" and a source of agricultural livelihood for Palestinians across the West Bank. … This Israeli war is targeting the entire West Bank as well as Jerusalem, alongside the destructive war against the Gaza Strip. This is the painful reality of the people of Palestine. [Read More]
OUR HISTORY
Don't Let Russiagate Fool You—America Is Still the Ultimate Election-Meddler
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [May 21, 2019]
---- In this country, reactions to the Mueller report have been all-American beyond belief. … But let me mention just a few of the things that we didn't learn from the Mueller report. We didn't learn that Russian agents appeared at Republican Party headquarters in 2016 with millions of dollars in donations to influence the coming election. (Oops, my mistake! That was CIA agents in the Italian election of 1948!) We didn't learn that a Russian intelligence agency in combination with Chinese intelligence, aided by a major Chinese oil company, overthrew an elected US president and installed Donald Trump in the White House as their autocrat of choice. (Oops, my mistake again! That was the CIA, dispatched by an American president, and British intelligence, with the help of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later BP.) … No, none of that happened here. Still, even though most Americans might find it hard to believe, we weren't exactly the first country to have an election meddled with by an intrusive foreign power with an agenda all its own! And really, my examples above just begin an endless list of events the Mueller report didn't mention, ones that most Americans no longer know anything about or we wouldn't have acted as if the Russian election intervention of 2016 stood essentially alone in history. [Read More]
Hope Will Never Be Silent [Remembering Harvey Milk]
By
---- A belated heartfelt happy birthday to Harvey Milk, killed in 1978 for daring to come out of the closet, be who he was and insist on his rights, who would have turned 89 on Wednesday. To commemorate this year's Harvey Milk Day, established in 2010 by his nephew Stuart Milk and the Harvey Milk Foundation, the California Senate unanimously passed a resolution honoring "his critical role in creating the modern LGBT movement" and a legacy that "left an indelible mark on the history of our nation." Born May 22, 1930, Milk was a middle-class Jewish kid from New York who played football, joined the Navy, worked on Wall Street and for Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign before finding himself a new American Dream - reinvention. In 1977, he became the first openly gay elected official in California - and one of the first in the country - when he won a spot on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. At the still-onerous time, Anita Bryant was vowing to "Save Our Children" and John Briggs was pushing a ballot to ban gay and lesbian teachers, a measure Milk helped defeat by tirelessly debating Briggs around the state. "If I turned around every time I was called a faggot," he once said, "I'd be walking backwards, and I don't want to go backwards." In these similarly dark times, his life-giving message resonates more than ever: "You stand up and fight." [Read More]
