Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
July 31, 2019
Hello All – Recently the House of Representatives passed overwhelmingly a Resolution condemning the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement (BDS). Opponents of the BDS movement make accusations of anti-Semitism (criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic), while supporters of the BDS movement claim Resolutions such as those passed by two dozen state legislatures are attempts to suppress free speech and the constitutionally supported "right to boycott." The BDS Movement, organized by 170 Palestinian organizations in 2005, has the goal of gaining important Palestinian objectives through nonviolent action. In the USA, the main carriers of the movement are Palestinian groups and Jewish organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. (CFOW also supports the BDS movement.) While no state "sanctions" have, to my knowledge, been implemented, "boycott" and "divestment" campaigns are alive and well. While the BDS campaign appears to have made few inroads into the political elites of the world, and while the campaign has not visibly damaged the Israeli economy, a future historian might note with interest that the campaign continues to elicit shrieks of horror from all respectable sources of opinion. Why is that, if the campaign is so marginal and ineffective?
For many, especially "supporters of Israel," the success of Trumpism and the rising tide of fascist and rightwing, authoritarian governments and movement in Europe reasonably taps into fears that what we have now is a harbinger of what we got in the 1930s. Thus criticism of Israel is seen primarily as anti-Semitism. For the Democratic Party, for which American Jews are a strong voting bloc and a major source of campaign funds, demands that BDS/anti-Semitism be strongly condemned place enormous pressure on the party leadership to denounce those raising criticism of Israel. And for Israel, now in the grips of the strongest rightwing currents in that nation's history, any international movement focused on its drive for an ethnically cleansed Jewish state is seen by its political leaders as dangerous. As a writer in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz noted this week, "the nonbinding vote Wednesday may have been impressive, but it was just a short chapter in the saga of BDS legislation that has been underway for two years and will continue into the future."
What has changed, however, and what I think makes the BDS movement so important, is that it is now clear that no Jewish political force in Israel supports the creation of a Palestinian state. In the most recent Israeli election, for example, this was a non-issue among the contending parties. Additionally, Prime Minister Netanyahu and many political leaders are now talking seriously about annexing to Israel the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as they annexed the Golan Heights some years ago. While a Palestinian state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has been (probably fatally) thwarted by the many Jewish-only colonies or "settlements" planted among the territories conquered in 1967, annexation would turn a de facto single state into a de jure single state. Thus Israel is in the process of absorbing almost three million Palestinians. Will they remain non-citizens, and thus stateless and without political and civil rights? And if so, will they accept this status passively? This seems hardly likely.
And thus Palestinian resistance will continue, now in the form of a civil rights movement demanding full citizenship and equal rights. The interim – if it is that – will be a savage apartheid state, where even the pretense of local self-government may be abolished and military rule resumed. If that is the case, the BDS movement will form the basis of international solidarity, perhaps along the lines recently suggested by Phyllis Bennis. Below, in the "Featured Essays" section, I've included a commentary by Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian founder of the BDS movement. Please check it out and see what you think. As long as Palestinian resistance continues, the BDS movement is not going away.
News Notes
It seems like ages, but it was only last week that Robert Mueller testified – or didn't testify – to Congress about his investigation of President Trump and "Russiagate." Following his somewhat inconclusive testify, the Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives seems to be moving incrementally toward impeachment via some focused investigations of Trump & Co. If you missed the Mueller testimony – or would like a refresher – here is a useful round-up from Democracy Now! featuring the Intercept's Washington, DC reporter Ryan Grim. [Link]
Last Friday marked the 68th weekly protest in Gaza's "Great March of Return." For more than a year, Gazans have held nonviolent protests against Israel's incarceration of 1.5 million people in what many call "the world's largest open-air prison." For several years, UN agencies have pointed out that, by 2020, Gaza's collapsing water and sanitation systems will make it unsafe for human habitation – and 2020 is now close at hand, During last Friday's march – devoted to "Palestinian refugees of Lebanon" – 71 civilians were injured by Israeli military snipers, including 30 children, 3 women, and a paramedic. If this were happening in any other country in the world, there would be a great outcry; but in the USA, there is largely silence or outright support for the massacre. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights published a useful report this week with an overview of the marches and casualties (now at 207 killed.) Read it here.
On Saturday, police in Moscow violently arrested some 1,400 people who were protesting the exclusion of opposition candidates in upcoming elections for Moscow City Council. A leader of the protest was arrested and appears to have been poisoned, and remains hospitalized. Democracy Now! program segment on this incident [Link] is informative and is also a useful introduction to the organization of dissent underway in Russia today.
In 2012 the longest revolutionary war – that in Colombia – began to come to an end, with negotiations between the FACR guerrillas and a "moderate" government. In the last two decades or so, the counter-guerrilla operation had been fought with massive assistance from the United States, and the guerrillas were largely defeated. The agreement signed in 2016 supposedly provided a peaceful way for the former guerrillas to re-enter Colombia society; but little was done to curb the mercenary units that had brought terror to agricultural and mining districts in the interest of agribusiness and extraction. Under the direction of a new, rightwing president in Colombia, some 500 environmentalists and community activists have been murdered. Last Friday, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Colombia and 50 cities and towns around the world. Democracy Now! has a good report and analysis here.
Finally, Hastings' Larry Wolf was interviewed recently by the excellent (and Westchester) website "Mondoweiss." Larry is the head of a chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, and the focus of the interview is how and why he became an activist and anti-Zionist in his 60s. Check it out here.
Climate-Fight Update [From Iris Hiskey Arno]
Presidential Candidates Climate Debate
When Tom Perez and the DNC were initially asked to hold a climate debate for the Democratic presidential contenders, they refused, claiming it is a one issue debate that would favor one candidate (Jay Inslee, who is running on a climate platform). In fact, a climate debate would focus on topics from immigration to national security, foreign policy, economics, transportation, healthcare and more. Now, bowing to intense pressure, the DNC has decided to vote at their SF meeting on August 23 on a resolution to hold a climate debate.
Meanwhile, CNN announced it would hold a climate crisis town hall in NYC on September 4 for all candidates who qualify for the next round of debates, and MSNBC announced it would hold a two-day climate forum in DC on September 19-20 to which all the presidential candidates including Donald Trump are invited. While this is definitely progress, a forum or town hall would not have the tremendous viewership of an official debate. (It's estimated that about 2.5 million people tuned into the most viewed town hall versus something like 18 million who watched the last debate.) Here's an interview with a Sunrise Movement fellow about all this.
Climate Emergency Resolution
H. Con. Res. 52 is a concurrent resolution introduced into the Senate by Bernie Sanders and the House of Representatives by Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It states that "there is a climate emergency which demands a national, social, industrial, and economic mobilization of the resources and labor of the United States at a massive-scale to halt, reverse, mitigate, and prepare for the consequences of the climate emergency and to restore the climate for future generations." Nita Lowey has co-sponsored it but so far Elliot Engel has not. Calls to his office have not yielded any explanation or comment thus far. Try him at his Bronx office: 718-796-9700.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Sunday, August 4th – Please join us for our next CFOW monthly meeting. We meet at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 PM. At these meetings we review our work over the past month and make plans for next month. As August 4th is the anniversary (1964) of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, and thus a milestone in the Vietnam War, we hope to have a presentation about this, and perhaps also about the Hiroshima bombing (August 6th), another stark anniversary. Everyone is welcome at these meetings; please join us!
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. The next CFOW monthly meeting will be on Sunday, August 4th, at 7 PM, at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs. 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," I also highly recommend Nick Turse's update on the US military in Africa; a review of the Democratic presidential candidates on many issues of war and peace, not least on Trump and North Korea; some illumination on the US-Iran skirmishing about oil tankers; a look at what's behind the horrible return of the federal death penalty; and a 50-year retrospective on the radical Puerto Rican political movement, the Young Lords. Enjoy!
Rewards!
Finally, for rewards! This late newsletter meant that we missed the "26th of July" - the anniversary (1953) of the origins of the Cuban Revolution (1959). It was Fidel Castro's raid on the military barracks at Moncada, in Oriente Province on July 26, 1953 that set the wheels in motion. The raid was a disaster, and everyone was killed or captured (Castro) At his trial, Castro made a characteristically lengthy speech ("History Will Absolve Me"). Six years later, after pardon, exile, and guerrilla war, the rebels were in Havana. They weren't "communists" yet, but the new government made the mistake of nationalizing a few things, and one thing led to another. Here is a short clip about the Moncada raid, and some archaic newsreel footage of the "liberation of Havana." And for the bigger picture, here is some great music from Old Havana, the Buena Vista Social Club. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Putting the American in Somali-American: Why does Ilhan Omar put a Scare into the US Power Elite?
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [July 19, 2019]
---- European "civilization" doesn't look like something to be celebrated so effusively from the vantage point of Mogadishu, an ancient site of East African civilization likely founded by Iranian merchants, and a key node in medieval world maritime trade. Racist hierarchies and segregation, crushing wars of conquest, the disruption and displacement of entire regions, and then the debilitating intrigues of the Cold War and the "War on Terror," along with the naked exploitation of Somali fisheries and the creeping deserts of global heating– these are the legacies of "civilization." When the victims of this European Fascism and its less explicit successors speak from Congress, they do not forget. They do not forget the refugees and the displaced, whether Somali or Palestinian. They do not forget the powerless and subjected and unnoticed, whether Somali or Palestinian or Puerto Rican. They do not forget the civilian victims of the "war on terror," or the US coddling of the Saudis, who have sometimes inspired hard line movements to attack tolerant Muslim traditionalism. The people of the South, the people of the bottom of the world, the refugees and the children crawling hungry through the rubble, the fishermen whose catch was stolen by multinational corporations, the cattle herdsmen who watched global heating desiccate their cows– do not remember modernity as the old white men who still dominate Capitol Hill do. Hence the palpitations among America's burghers when the subaltern speaks. Get used to it. [Read More] Rep. Omar recently wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, "It Is Not Enough to Condemn Trump's Racism" [July 25, 2019] [Link].
Noam Chomsky: Life Expectancy in the US Is Declining for a Reason
Interviewed by David Barsamian, Truthout [July 28, 2019]
---- Life in the United States — the richest country in world history — doesn't need to be like this. This country's endless wars, deaths of despair, rising mortality rates and out-of-control gun violence did not come out of nowhere. In this second installment from an exclusive transcript of a conversation aired on Alternative Radio, public intellectual Noam Chomsky discusses the roots of gun culture, militarism, economic stagnation and growing inequality in the U.S. (Read the first installment of this interview here.)
Why Americans Should Support BDS
By Omar Barghouti, The Nation [July 29, 2019]
---- Last Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, H.Res, 246, targeting the grassroots, global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights that I helped found in 2005. Sadly, H.Res. 246, which fundamentally mischaracterizes our goals and misrepresents my own personal views, is only the latest attempt by Israel's supporters in Congress to demonize and suppress our peaceful struggle. H.Res. 246 is a sweeping condemnation of Americans who advocate for Palestinian rights using BDS tactics. It reinforces other unconstitutional anti-boycott measures, including those passed by some 27 state legislatures, that are reminiscent of "McCarthy era tactics," according to the American Civil Liberties Union. It also exacerbates the oppressive atmosphere that Palestinians and their supporters already face, further chilling speech critical of Israel at a time when President Donald Trump is publicly smearing members of Congress who speak out in support of Palestinian freedom. In response to H.Res. 246 and similarly repressive legislative measures, House member Ilhan Omar, joined by Rashida Tlaib, civil rights icon John Lewis, and 12 other co-sponsors, introduced H.Res. 496, which defends "the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution." [Read More]
Brexit Britain is on the brink of a breakdown
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent [UK] [July 30, 2019]
---- Brexit can be compared to an earthquake in which pent up forces are suddenly released, tearing open new fault lines and energising old ones such as inequality, de-industrialisation, globalisation, imperial retreat, immigration and austerity. All these have always had the capacity to provoke crises, but they had not previously done so on anything like the scale that many had forecast. Now they seem to be combining to provide the explosive ingredients in what is shaping up to be the greatest British general crisis since the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. … I have spent the past six months travelling around the UK outside London trying to identify the different aspects of this national "nervous breakdown'', if that is the right description. I chose cities and places in the interests of diversity and because they seemed to be particularly representative of different political, social and economic trends that were part of the Brexit story. [Read More] For an interesting look at the UK's new prime minister, Boris Johnson, read "The Ham of Fate," by Fintan O'Toole, London Review of Books [July 2019] [Link].
---- Brexit can be compared to an earthquake in which pent up forces are suddenly released, tearing open new fault lines and energising old ones such as inequality, de-industrialisation, globalisation, imperial retreat, immigration and austerity. All these have always had the capacity to provoke crises, but they had not previously done so on anything like the scale that many had forecast. Now they seem to be combining to provide the explosive ingredients in what is shaping up to be the greatest British general crisis since the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. … I have spent the past six months travelling around the UK outside London trying to identify the different aspects of this national "nervous breakdown'', if that is the right description. I chose cities and places in the interests of diversity and because they seemed to be particularly representative of different political, social and economic trends that were part of the Brexit story. [Read More] For an interesting look at the UK's new prime minister, Boris Johnson, read "The Ham of Fate," by Fintan O'Toole, London Review of Books [July 2019] [Link].
The Bolsonaro Government's Aggressive Response Shows Why Our Reporting on the Secret Brazil Archive Is So Vital
By Glenn Greenwald, et al., The Intercept [July 28, 2019]
---- When news emerged this week that the Federal Police had arrested four people accused of hacking the Telegram accounts of various Brazilian officials and providing some of that content to The Intercept, many of our readers asked: What effect will this have on the reporting that we have done and are continuing to do on this secret archive? The answer, in one word: none. The public interest in reporting this material has been obvious from the start: These documents revealed serious, systematic, and sustained improprieties and possible illegality by Brazil's current Minister of Justice and Public Security Sergio Moro while he was a judge, as well as by the chief prosecutor of the Car Wash investigation Deltan Dallagnol and other members of that investigative task force. It was the Car Wash task force, which Moro presided over as a judge, whose prosecution of ex-President Lula da Silva resulted in his removal from the 2018 election, paving the way for the far-right Jair Bolsonaro to become president. The corruption exposed by our reporting was so serious, and so consequential, that even many of Moro's most loyal supporters abandoned him and called for his resignation within a week of the publication of our initial stories. [Read More] The Intercept's archive of articles on Brazil's "Operation Car Wash" can be read here.
WAR & PEACE
In Budget Deal, White House And Congress Overpay For The Pentagon
By William Hartung, Forbes [July 23, 2019]
---- The newly proposed two-year budget deal between the White House and Congress has one major flaw. It vastly overpays for the Pentagon. At $738 billion for Fiscal Year 2020 and $740 billion for Fiscal Year 2021, the agreement sets the table for two of the highest budgets for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy since World War II. The proposed figures are higher than spending at the height of the Vietnam and Korean Wars, and substantially more than the high point of the Reagan buildup of the 1980s. And the Fiscal Year 2020 and Fiscal Year 2021 numbers are only slightly less than spending in 2010, when the United States had 180,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, roughly nine times the number currently deployed. [Read More]
Violence Has Spiked in Africa Since the Military Founded AFRICOM, Pentagon Study Finds
By Nick Turse, The Intercept [July 29, 2019]
----Since U.S. Africa Command began operations in 2008, the number of U.S. military personnel on the African continent has jumped 170 percent, from 2,600 to 7,000. The number of military missions, activities, programs, and exercises there has risen 1,900 percent, from 172 to 3,500. Drone strikes have soared and the number of commandos deployed has increased exponentially along with the size and scope of AFRICOM's constellation of base. … There are now roughly 24 "active militant Islamist groups" operating on the continent, up from just five in 2010, the analysis found. Today, 13 African countries face attacks from these groups — a 160 percent increase over that same time span. In fact, the number of "violent events" across the continent has jumped 960 percent, from 288 in 2009 to 3,050 in 2018, according to the Africa Center's analysis. While a variety of factors have likely contributed to the rise in violence, some experts say that the overlap between the command's existence and growing unrest is not a coincidence. [Read More]
----Since U.S. Africa Command began operations in 2008, the number of U.S. military personnel on the African continent has jumped 170 percent, from 2,600 to 7,000. The number of military missions, activities, programs, and exercises there has risen 1,900 percent, from 172 to 3,500. Drone strikes have soared and the number of commandos deployed has increased exponentially along with the size and scope of AFRICOM's constellation of base. … There are now roughly 24 "active militant Islamist groups" operating on the continent, up from just five in 2010, the analysis found. Today, 13 African countries face attacks from these groups — a 160 percent increase over that same time span. In fact, the number of "violent events" across the continent has jumped 960 percent, from 288 in 2009 to 3,050 in 2018, according to the Africa Center's analysis. While a variety of factors have likely contributed to the rise in violence, some experts say that the overlap between the command's existence and growing unrest is not a coincidence. [Read More]
The US War Against Iran
Did John Bolton Light the Fuse of the UK-Iranian Tanker Crisis?
By Gareth Porter, The American Conservative [July 23, 2019]
---- The evidence indicates that the UK's actions were part of a broader scheme coordinated with the Trump administration to tighten pressure on Iran's economy by reducing Iran's ability to export goods. The statement by Gibraltar's chief minister said the decision to seize the ship was taken after the receipt of "information" that provided "reasonable grounds" for suspicion that it was carrying oil destined for Syria's Banyas refinery. That suggested the intelligence had come from a government that neither he nor the British wished to reveal. BBC defense correspondent Jonathan Beale reported: "[I]t appears the intelligence came from the United States." [Read More] For more on the tanker wars, read "Iran: How Bolton tricked Clueless UK Conservatives into Confrontation with Tehran," by Juan Cole, Informed Comment [July 23, 2019] [Link]; and "Tanker Seizures and the Threat to the Global Economy from Resurgent Imperialism," by Craig Murray, {July 27, 2019] [Link]. For an overview, read "Iran Is Gambling That Trump Is Afraid of War," by Tony Karon, The Nation [July 25, 2019] [Link]
Economic Sanctions Will Kill Tens of Thousands of Innocent Iranians
By Muhammad Sahimi, LobeLog [July 30, 2019]
---- The illegal economic sanctions that the Trump administration has imposed on Iran are ruining its economy by increasing the inflation rate—from nine percent before the sanctions to 35-40 percent today—as well as unemployment, and forcing countless numbers of small businesses to close. Whereas Iran's economy grew by 12.5 percent in 2016, it has shrunk by six percent in the first six months of 2019. These are the results that President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and National Security Advisor John Bolton constantly brag about. But they have created unspeakable suffering for ordinary Iranian people, who don't even have a say in what their political system does. [Read More]
War With North Korea?
Most Dem Presidential Candidates Are Attacking Trump's Korea Policy—From the Right
By Tim Shorrock, The Nation [July 26, 2019]
---- Led by former vice president Joe Biden, the leading Democratic candidates for president in 2020 have focused on President Trump's friendly (though presently shaky) relationship with North Korea's Kim Jong-un as a prime example of a foreign policy that's gone off the establishment tracks and left traditional US allies in the dust.. … Any discussion of the peace process, in fact, must begin in South Korea. The talks between Trump and Kim only came about because of the encouragement of President Moon, who began the current wave of diplomacy in January 2018 when he invited Kim to send emissaries to the Winter Olympics in the South. Even Shinzo Abe, Japan's right-wing prime minister and Trump's closest ally in Asia, has jumped on the bandwagon, offering his own direct talks with Kim. [Read More]
War Against Venezuela?
Western Media Losing Enthusiasm for Failing Coup in Venezuela
By Lucas Koerner and Ricardo Vaz, FAIR [July 23, 2019]
---- When previously unknown Venezuelan opposition politician Juan Guaidó stood up in an East Caracas plaza and declared himself "interim president" of the South American country, Western corporate media were ebullient. In those heady early days, corporate journalists could scarcely conceal their love affair with the 35-year-old politician, whom they likened to Barack Obama and described as a "freedom fighter" and Venezuela's "only democratically elected figure", who had "captured the heart of the nation". Nearly six months later, with Guaidó no closer to ousting Venezuela's elected president, Nicolás Maduro, from Miraflores Presidential Palace, the enthusiasm has dampened. [Read More]
HUMAN-CAUSED CLIMATE CHAOS
Eco-Apartheid Is Real [Climate and Housing]
By Daniel Aldana Cohen, The Nation [July 26, 2019]
---- The heat is on. A heat wave is breaking records across much of Western Europe. And this weekend sweltering heat baked half the United States. For some media outlets and climate advocates, the heat waves were a chance to remind people: This isn't normal. This is what the climate emergency feels like, and this is how it kills. We also saw some media outlets publish recent maps that show which parts of cities are heat islands. Of course, those converge with low-income and racialized neighborhoods, while greenery that cools the air is found disproportionately in white and affluent areas. … In the era of the Green New Deal, journalists and activists still struggle to convey just how profoundly the climate emergency, our political economy, and social inequalities are connected. As a result, they're still missing how much egalitarian green investment—like a Green New Deal for Housing—could address social, economic, and environmental crises at the same time. And while this policy idea is specific to the US context, an intersectional analysis here could enrich global debates about what effective and equitable green investment could look like around the world. [Read More]
Under Brazil's Far Right Leader, Amazon Protections Slashed and Forests Fall
By Letícia Casado and July 28, 2019]
---- The destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation's new far-right president took over and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching and mining. Protecting the Amazon was at the heart of Brazil's environmental policy for much of the past two decades. At one point, Brazil's success in slowing the deforestation rate made it an international example of conservation and the effort to fight climate change. But with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, a populist who has been fined personally for violating environmental regulations, Brazil has changed course substantially, retreating from the efforts it once made to slow global warming by preserving the world's largest rain forest. [Read More] Also illuminating is "Miners Kill Indigenous Leader in Brazil During Invasion of Protected Land," by [Link]
THE DEMOCRATS AND 2020
In Debates, Let's Raise the Issue of How To Avert Nuclear War
By Lawrence Wittner, Antiwar.com [July 29, 2019]
---- You mass media folks lead busy lives, I'm sure. But you must have heard something about nuclear weapons – those supremely destructive devices that, along with climate change, threaten the continued existence of the human race. Yes, thanks to popular protest and carefully-crafted arms control and disarmament agreements, there has been some progress in limiting the number of these weapons and averting a nuclear holocaust. Even so, that progress has been rapidly unraveling in recent months, leading to a new nuclear arms race and revived talk of nuclear war. Do I exaggerate? Consider the following. [Read More]
Bernie Sanders says he'd "absolutely" use foreign aid as leverage against Israel's government
By Michael Arriam, Mondoweiss [July 29, 2019]
---- As a guest on the popular podcast Pod Save America, Sanders was questioned about his views on Israel by co-host and former Barack Obama staffer Jon Favreau:
Favreau: You're very critical of Bibi Netanyahu and the Israeli government. We spend a few billion dollars on aid to Israel. Would you ever consider using that aid as leverage to get the Israeli government to act differently?
Sanders: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we are giving large sums of money… I think what has happened is, in recent years under Netanyahu you have an extreme right-wing government with many racist tendencies. The role of the United States–and this is not easy, believe me: Clinton tried it, Obama tried it, Jimmy Carter tried it, this is not easy stuff–is to try to bring peace to the Middle East and to treat the Palestinian people with the kind of respect and dignity they deserve. Our policy cannot just be pro-Israel, pro-Israel, pro-Israel. It has got to be pro-region, working with all of the people, all of the countries in that area, [Read More]
Where does Elizabeth Warren Stand on War and Peace?
---- In the last few months Senator Elizabeth Warren has gained ground in public opinion polls tracking the race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. In some states, she's ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders and pulling close to former Vice President Joe Biden. … Warren's main competitor among left-leaning voters is Senator Bernie Sanders, who has developed a generally progressive, anti-interventionist foreign policy. She also competes against former Vice President Joe Biden, a corporate Democrat, who voted for the 2003 Iraq War and supported all of Obama's new wars (Syria, Libya, Yemen and Iraq). Warren's foreign policy lies somewhere in between Sanders and Biden. She has a troubling history of uncritical support of Israel, supporting sanctions on Venezuela, and vilifying Russia and China as national security threats. But her views are also evolving. [Read More]
Joe Biden's New Foreign Policy Adviser Supported Iraq War and Dubbed Edward Snowden a "Traitor"
By Ryan Grim, The Intercept [July 24 2019]
---- Biden's choice of Burns, and his links to the George W. Bush administration and support for the Iraq War, puts the direction of his campaign in stark contrast to the foreign policy platform President Donald Trump is likely to run on. Though Trump has ramped up the drone war, which has corresponded with a spike in civilian deaths, and hired the bellicose John Bolton as national security adviser, who is in the process of maneuvering Trump into open conflict with Iran, he no doubt plans to run for reelection as an isolationist who ended American wars overseas. Indeed, Trump's informal foreign policy adviser, Tucker Carlson, has warned him that he risks muddling that message by letting Bolton trick him into a war with Iran [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
(Video) Despite Faulty Drugs & Racist Implementation, Trump Is Bringing Back the Federal Death Penalty
From Democracy Now! [July 26, 2019]
---- Attorney General William Barr announced Thursday that the federal government is resuming the death penalty after nearly two decades. The execution of five death row prisoners were immediately ordered beginning in December. There are currently 62 prisoners on federal death row, including white supremacist Dylann Roof, who murdered nine black worshipers at the historic Emanuel AME Church in June 2015, and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Federal prosecutors are expected to push for the death penalty in both cases. The federal government hasn't put a prisoner to death since 2003.
This news comes despite a growing movement opposing the death penalty in the United States. [See the Program] Also useful & illuminating on this topic are "With Federal Executions Looming, the Democrats' Death Penalty Legacy Is Coming Back to Haunt Us," by Liliana Segura, The Intercept [July 29, 2019] [Link] and "The Trump Administration's Death Penalty Cult,," by Winnie Wong, The Nation [July 26, 2019] [Link].
(Video) "A Victory for the People of Puerto Rico": Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Resigns Following Mass Protests
From Democracy Now! [July 25, 2019]
---- Celebrations were held throughout the night in Puerto Rico after Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced he would resign, following 12 days of mass protests. This came two days after more than 500,000 Puerto Ricans took to the streets in one of the largest protests in Puerto Rico's history. The protests began after Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Journalism published close to 900 pages of shocking text messages between Rosselló, staffers and advisers. The group chat messages were riddled with misogyny, homophobia, profanity and violence. Some of the messages mocked victims of Hurricane Maria and joked about shooting San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz. For more on Rosselló's resignation and what lies ahead for the island, we speak with journalist Ed Morales, author of the forthcoming book, "Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico." [See the Program] For more on the Puerto Rico uprising, read "Puerto Ricans Are Fighting for the Democracy That They've Been Denied," by John Nichols, The Nation [July 25, 2019] [Link]; and "The Protests in Puerto Rico Are About Life and Death," by Marisol LeBrón, NACLA [July 18, 2019] [Link].
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
With Criticism Crushed in the West, Israel Can Enjoy Its Impunity
July 30, 2019]
---- Recent events have shone a spotlight not only on how Israel is intensifying its abuse of Palestinians under its rule, but the utterly depraved complicity of western governments in its actions. The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House two-and-a-half years ago has emboldened Israel as never before, leaving it free to unleash new waves of brutality in the occupied territories. Western states have not only turned a blind eye to these outrages, but are actively assisting in silencing anyone who dares to speak out. It is rapidly creating a vicious spiral: the more Israel violates international law, the more the West represses criticism, the more Israel luxuriates in its impunity. This shameless descent was starkly illustrated last week when hundreds of heavily armed Israeli soldiers, many of them masked, raided a neighborhood of Sur Baher, on the edges of Jerusalem. Explosives and bulldozers destroyed dozens of homes, leaving many hundreds of Palestinians without a roof over their heads. [Read More]
Israel Demolishes 70 Homes in Palestinian-controlled East Jerusalem Neighborhood
By Amira Hass and Jack Khoury, Haaretz [Israel] [July 22, 2019]
---- Israeli forces began Monday demolishing buildings in an East Jerusalem neighborhood under the control of the Palestinian Authority, following a legal challenge to the Defense Ministry-issued order to evacuate apartments deemed too close to the West Bank separation barrier, which runs through the city…. In June, Israel's High Court of Justice has ruled in favor of the demolition of 13 large buildings in the Wadi Hummus neighborhood, located on the outskirts of Jerusalem. It is on the edge of the Palestinian village of Sur Baher, in southeast Jerusalem. Unlike the rest of the village, this neighborhood lies beyond the city's municipal boundaries, in the West Bank. Most of the area it occupies is designated as part of Area A – i.e., under the control of the Palestinian Authority. Sur Baher residents say Wadi Hummus is the only area tht remains for future expansion of the village, which is surrounded by the fence and Jewish neighborhoods. [Read More] For some useful analysis of media bias, read "Another 'NY Times' biased report — this one about Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem," by James North, Mondoweiss [July 23, 2019] [Link].
OUR HISTORY
Celebrating the Young Lords—Amid Revolution in Puerto Rico
By Juan González, The Nation [July 29, 2019]
---- Last Friday evening, less than 48 hours after Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned in the wake of a series of unprecedented mass protests in the streets of San Juan, several hundred people jammed Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture to celebrate Puerto Rican activism from another era. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the New York Young Lords, and the timing could not have been more apt. After all, young people made up the bulk of the protesters in Puerto Rico the past two weeks—including the July 22 march of more than half a million—and the audience at the Schomburg instantly understood the connection. Back in 1969, a few dozen young Puerto Ricans, all children of post–World War II working-class migrants from the island, gathered in Tompkins Square Park on the Lower East Side, sporting purple berets and green field jackets, and we announced to the world that the Young Lords were here to start a revolution. … Fifty years after we launched the Young Lords, I have more questions than answers about the way forward, yet I am confident that those tens of thousands of young Puerto Ricans who poured into the streets of San Juan the past two weeks with such courage and fervor will persevere, for I know exactly how they feel. [Read More]
