CFOW Newsletter - The Invasion of Gaza Begins

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

October 29, 2023

Hello All – As the war on Gaza enters its fourth week, the densely populated strip of land has endured a murderous bombardment and now faces a ground invasion by the Israeli army.  Already 8,000 Gazans have been killed, including 3,000 children.  Thousands more are buried under rubble.  Israel has blockaded food, water, fuel, and medicine from Gaza, and Israel is targeting hospitals and schools for bombing.  At immediate risk tonight is a hospital in Gaza City now giving refugee to some 14,000 displaced people, as well as many hundreds of medical patients. If Israel's cruel war is not stopped, tens of thousands more will die.

An important issue in both Israeli and US politics at this moment is the fact that 229 Israelis are held prisoner by Hamas (and other organizations) in Gaza.  Support for the war, in order to free the hostages, is the watchword of the US leadership, most of Congress, and millions of Americans; and on this basis, the demand for an "immediate ceasefire" is rejected.  However, this framing of the hostage situation is irrational and based on poor information: in Israel, the hostage families themselves have called for a ceasefire or "pause" in order to facilitate negotiations.  They told Prime Minister Netanyahu today that they favored a "swap" of Israeli hostages for the thousands of Palestinians now in Israeli prisons.  A Hamas spokesperson has indicated that this is a possible deal.  Conversely, a continuation of the war will certainly kill most or all of the remaining Israeli hostages (50 are reported to have died under the bombing).  Rejection of an "immediate ceasefire" in the name of freeing the hostages is simply a bad idea.

Much of the world is protesting Israel's war.  Yesterday a million people in Turkey rallied in support of Gaza, and hundreds of thousands marched in London.  On Friday it was a million people in Jordan. Most consumers of the US media are shielded from pictures of the enormous support given to the Palestinian cause by millions in the Arab world (and beyond); these images are seen by millions of viewers of Aljazeera and similar news outlets. The overwhelming call from all quarters is "cease fire" and "end the siege"; few American supporters of Israel's war realize that their views are not shared by a majority of the world's people.

Right now, only the United States has the clout with Israel to impose a ceasefire.  And only President Biden is in a position to make the demand of Israel. The USA gives Israel $3.8 billion per year, and Biden is proposing an addition sum of $14 billion.  The US also uses its veto at the UN to protect Israel from UN action.  As the war escalates, the US has stationed 2 aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean, transferred tons of military equipment to Israel, and has thousands of US soldiers standing by.  Despite denials, it appears that the United States is involved in military planning. Thus the USA has a lot of this influence in this situation, and is seen by many analysts as the only force that could persuade Israel halt its war on Gaza.  With only a small contingent of congressional representatives sympathetic to the idea of an immediate ceasefire, it falls to the (extra)ordinary people of the United States to push for an end to this war, and to rescue the United States from the reputation as a collaborator in one of the great war crimes in recent history.

Featured Essays About the War on Gaza

(Video) Angela Davis: 'Palestine is a moral litmus test for the world'

From "UpFront," with Marc Lamont Hill, Aljazeera [October 27, 2023]

---- There has been a long history of solidarity between Palestinians and Black Americans, and these last few weeks have been no exception. While Israel continues its bombardment of Gaza, numerous Black activists in the United States have come together to demonstrate their solidarity with Palestinians. These two places are more than 6,000 miles away from each other, with very different histories. So what's behind this common recognition of a shared struggle? On UpFront, renowned political activist Angela Davis speaks with Marc Lamont Hill on the history and meaning of Black American solidarity with the Palestinian cause. [See the Program]  Also of interest is "Solidarity Between American Activists and Palestinians," by Charles M. Blow, New York Times [October 25, 2023] [Link].

Why Must Palestinians Audition for Your Empathy?

By Hala Alyan, New York Times [October 25, 2023]

---- I don't hesitate for a second to condemn the killing of any child, any massacre of civilians — this of course includes Jewish life. It is the easiest ask in the world. And it is not in spite of that but because of that I say: Condemn the brutalization of bodies. By all means, do. Condemn murder. Condemn violence, imprisonment, all forms of oppression. But if your shock and distress comes only at the sight of certain brutalized bodies? If you speak out but not when Palestinian bodies are besieged and murdered, abducted and imprisoned? Then it is worth asking yourself which brutalization is acceptable to you, even quietly, even subconsciously, and which is not. …There is nothing complicated about asking for freedom. Palestinians deserve equal rights, equal access to resources, equal access to fair elections and so forth. If this makes you uneasy, then you must ask yourself why. [Read More]

Many Killed in Gaza Were Buried Under the Rubble. They Died Slowly and Quietly

By Amira Hass, Haaretz [Israel] [October 23, 2023]

---- Hundreds of thousands, including infants, elderly, disabled, and the sick, flee for their lives due to the IDF attacks, yet nowhere in the Gaza Strip is truly safe. For the survivors, it's evident that if Israel's threats materialize in full, many will have no place to return to In the early morning hours of Saturday – a few hours after the release of Judith and Natalie Raanan, and a few hours before the Rafah crossing was opened for a drop in the needed sea of humanitarian aid – Israeli bombardments managed to kill some 60 Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip, according to reports by Palestinian news agency Sama. … Over a thousand people are missing: Most are those the rescue teams failed to extract from under the rubble, and remain beneath them. Some were killed instantly, while others died slowly. Some are dying as I write these words. [Read More]

CFOW Nuts & Bolts

Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester.  Weather permitting we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.)  A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil is held in Yonkers on Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.  Another Facebook page focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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!

Rewards!

Dear stalwart readers, I'm overwhelmed by sadness today, watching the news about the imminent/threatened bombing of the hospital in Gaza, now sheltering 14,000 people, and against the background of more than 8,000 deaths, including more than 3,000 children.  In 1961 British composer premiered his "War Requiem," a meditation on war that incorporated the poetry of WWI antiwar poet Wilfred Owen.  You can hear the Requiem here, and if you wish you can follow the words/translation here.  Some years later, after the death of Benjamin Britten, the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt wrote a brief Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, which for some reason seems appropriate amidst the frenzy of death in the world.

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 CFOW Weekly Reader – The War on Gaza

Democracy Now!

Once again, this week's programming from Democracy Now! has given us outstanding coverage and analysis of the Gaza War.  Each day 3-4 excellent segments are offered at www.democracynow.org, broadcast live from 8 to 9 am, and then available via live streaming at anytime.  Below I've pasted in a few segments broadcast this week.

(Video) Palestinian American Journalist Rami Khouri on Israel's Gaza Bombardment & Risk of a Regional War

From Democracy Now! [October 24, 2023]

---- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning if Hezbollah joins the fray in Israel's escalating war on the Palestinian territories, Israel will wage a second war in Lebanon. This comes as Israel exchanged fire with Hezbollah on the southern border of Lebanon and struck airports in Syria. We discuss the latest developments with Rami Khouri, Palestinian American journalist and columnist with 50 years' experience in the Middle East. [See the Program]

(Video) Palestinian Diplomat Hanan Ashrawi: The U.S. Is Israel's "Partner in Crime" in Deadly Assault on Gaza

From Democracy Now! [October 26, 2023]

---- Palestinian diplomat and scholar Hanan Ashrawi joins us from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and says the unfolding catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment has killed over 7,000 people so far, is equally the fault of the United States. "The U.S. is certainly a partner in crime with Israel," says Ashrawi. [See the Program]

(Video) Palestinian Lives Matter Too: Jewish Scholar Judith Butler Condemns Israel's "Genocide" in Gaza

From Democracy Now! [October 26, 2023]

---- We speak with philosopher Judith Butler, one of dozens of Jewish American writers and artists who signed an open letter to President Biden calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. "We should all be standing up and objecting and calling for an end to genocide," says Butler of the Israeli assault. "Until Palestine is free … we will continue to see violence. We will continue to see this structural violence producing this kind of resistance." [See the Program]

(Video) "Gaza Is Being Strangled": UNRWA Calls for Immediate Ceasefire as Humanitarian Crisis Deepens

From Democracy Now! [October 27, 2023]

----- UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestine refugees, says it is close to running out of supplies in Gaza, where it is sheltering over 600,000 displaced Palestinians. Israel has claimed that they cannot allow fuel to enter the besieged territory because of the supposed risk of it being appropriated by Hamas. We hear from UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai about the dire humanitarian crisis and the critical lack of food, water, medicine and especially fuel available for the millions "stranded" in Gaza. [See the Program]  Also useful/of interest is "What is UNRWA? Here's what to know about the largest aid organization in Gaza," by Monika Pronczuk, New York Times [October 26, 2023] [Link].

(Video) "The Day After Tomorrow": Israeli Hostage Negotiator on Freeing Captives & Building Lasting Peace

From Democracy Now! [October 27, 2023]

----- According to the latest update from the Israeli military, Hamas is still holding at least 229 hostages captured during its October 7 incursion into southern Israel. The group has stated that they will not release all hostages until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza. To discuss the release thus far of four hostages and prospects for future releases, we speak to Gershon Baskin, who helped negotiate a critical hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas in 2011. [See the Program]

The Media and the War

The framing of the war is critical for understanding what it going on, and the US media has played a significant role in amplifying the Biden administration's pro-Israel spin on what's happening in the war.  (Despite this, more than 50 percent of Americans – according to two polls – support an immediate ceasefire.) – The best, most-consistent reporting on the US media is by www.fair.org, Fairness and Accuracy in the Media.  Two of their recent reports are pasted in below. The report from Aljazeera is also useful.

 

Western coverage of Israel's war on Gaza – bias or unprofessionalism?

By Mat Nashed, Aljazeera [October 29, 2023]

---- Publishing unsubstantiated claims, telling only one side of the story, and painting  Palestinians as nothing more than objects in Hamas's hands are all unprofessional mistakes Western media makes while covering the conflict between Israel and Hamas, media experts and Arab journalists say. Experts and journalists who spoke to Al Jazeera said the systemic "bias in favour of Israel" is "irreparably damaging" the credibility of news agencies considered "mainstream" in the eyes of Arabs and others. [Read More]

In Hours of Israel/Gaza Crisis Coverage, a Word You'll Seldom Hear: 'Ceasefire'

By Julie Hollar, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [FAIR] [October 24, 2023]

---- Since the October 7 Hamas attacks, and the subsequent, ongoing Israeli airstrikes, US TV news has offered extensive coverage of Israel and Gaza. But as casualties mount, most outlets have paid scant attention to the growing calls for a ceasefire. … The Biden administration has actively tried to suppress discussion of de-escalation. US television news outlets appear largely to be following the administration's lead, minimizing any talk of ceasefire or de-escalation on the air. [Read More]

Unconfirmed 'Beheaded Babies' Report Helped Justify Israeli Slaughter

By Saurav Sarkar, FAIR [October 20, 2023]

---- There's perhaps no more serious a time for journalists to do their jobs responsibly than during a war. But corporate media have not been, as evidenced by their repetition of the shocking, unsubstantiated claim that Hamas had beheaded 40 babies in its violent attack on a kibbutz in southern Israel on October 7. It all started with television reporting by journalist Nicole Zedek, who works for the 24-hour Israeli cable news channel i24, now embedded with the Israeli Defense Forces…. [Read More]

The Invasion Begins – Analysis and Prospects

Fanatics vs generals: The strange Israeli rift over Gaza

By Marwan Bishara, Aljazeera [October 27, 2023]

---- Disagreements over the war's endgame have further complicated the already complicated calculations about the invasion and the ensuing urban warfare, which is bound to cause tens if not hundreds of thousands of casualties, and may also open up another front in the north against the Lebanese Hezbollah, pushing Israel towards an apocalyptical scenario. … The deepening rift between its formidable military establishment and its far-right and fanatical religious camp will have far-reaching implications for Israeli society and polity. But for the Palestinians, there is not real difference between Israel's warmongering generals who call the Palestinians "human animals" and its racist fanatics, who call for their expulsion, especially for those at the receiving end of Israel's sadistic bombing and siege. [Read More]  Also of interest is an article from a few days ago, "Analysis: Why hasn't Israel launched a ground invasion of Gaza yet?" Aljazeera [October 25, 2023] [Link].

'It will be slow, very hard': can Israel achieve its aims in Gaza invasion?

By Julian Borger, The Guardian [October 27, 2023]

---- Israel has had a full invasion force massed on Gaza's borders for over a week. Its military leaders insist they are ready, and Benjamin Netanyahu has his finger on the trigger, but so far he has not pulled it. … The plight of the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped in Gaza does not seem to have been a factor behind the pause. Only a thin dribble of aid has been allowed in so far, the small relief convoys have brought no fuel to power hospitals or the water system, and the bombardment of Gaza, north and south, has been maintained. [Read More]

Also of interest – "Israel's war cabinet has learned nothing from its failures," by Menachem Klein, +972 Magazine [Israel/Palestine] [October 26, 2023] [Link]; and "How Israel's ground invasion of Gaza would play out – and why it will fail," by Paul Rogers, The Guardian [October 25, 2023] [Link].

Additional Commentary on the War

Israel is clear about its intentions in Gaza – world leaders cannot plead ignorance of what is coming

By Owen Jones, The Guardian [UK] [October 24, 2023]

---- If I knew then what I know now. For many of the guilty men and women who plunged Iraq into blood and chaos, this became something of a stock phrase. … Prepare yourself for the revival of this phrase. As the calamity of Israel's onslaught against Gaza becomes apparent, those who cheered it on will panic about reputational damage and plead their earlier ignorance. Do not let them get away with it this time. [Read More]

The pending crisis for the Israel lobby

By Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss [October 26, 2023]

---- As Israel experiences its greatest crisis in 50 years, the American Israel lobby has risen to the occasion. Jewish organizations have consolidated their support for the Israeli military, with even liberals like J Street joining the cry that there must not be a ceasefire. Jews who heard their parents' stories about the crises for Israel in 1948 and 1967 and 1973 are demonstrating that they will show up for the Jewish state in its hour of need, politically in the West. But despite the lobby's best efforts, there is a new political map in the U.S., and the lobby is approaching a crisis. Today, it is up against foes it has never had before and that, in the long run, will defeat it. [Read More]

Some Gaza War Notes

The Antiwar Occupation of Grand Central Station

---- Protesters, mostly from Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, shut down Grand Central Station last week.  It even became a story for The New York Times.  Here is another useful report, and highly recommended is this terrific video by David Lippman.

Biden's War

By Michael Arria, Mondoweiss [October 26, 2023]

---- Yesterday, The House overwhelmingly passed (412-10) a pro-Israel resolution that condemned Hamas's attack, but didn't mention what's been done to Gaza or call for an end to the violence. Nearly every member backed the measure. The no votes included Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and 9 Democrats. The Democrats were Reps. Rashida Tlaib (MI) Cori Bush (MO), Jamaal Bowman (NY), André Carson (IN), Al Green (TX), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Summer Lee (PA), Delia Ramirez (IL) and Ilham Omar (MN). [Read More]

How the US has used its veto power at the UN in support of Israel

By Shakeeb Asrar and Mohammed Hussein, Aljazeera [October 26, 2023]

---- Since 1945, a total of 36 UNSC draft resolutions related to Israel-Palestine have been vetoed by one of the five permanent members – the US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France. Out of these, 34 were vetoed by the US and two by Russia and China. The majority of these resolutions were drafted to provide a framework for peace in the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict, including asking Israel to adhere to international laws, calling for self-determination for Palestinian statehood, or condemning Israel for the displacement of Palestinians or settlement building in occupied Palestinian territories. [Read More]

 

 

 

CFOW Newsletter - More about the Gaza war; Palestine on the edge of genocide

Concerned Families of Westchester

October 22, 2023

A tragedy unfolds in Gaza.  Only the United States can stop it.  In response to the killing of 1400 Israelis by Hamas, including more than 1,000 civilians, Israel is on course to kill tens of thousands of people in Gaza and the West Bank.  This will be genocide, and our government must try to stop it. We must have an immediate ceasefire.

As of Saturday, Israel had killed 4,385 people in Gaza, including 1,756 children. Israel has shut off all food, water, medicine, and fuel deliveries to Gaza, according to the UN creating a "humanitarian catastrophe" for more than two million people. (Today's symbolic entry of 20 trucks of supplies into Gaza is described by all concerned as a "drop in the ocean.")

Across the world huge demonstrations are calling for an immediate ceasefire. Tens of thousands marched Saturday in London, Jordan, and elsewhere, and today in Brussels.  In Washington, DC this week, Jewish organizations protested in support of a ceasefire, with 500 arrested.  A powerful protest was held in White Plains on Thursday. And yesterday Concerned Families of Westchester, Jewish Voice for Peace, and others rallied in Hastings, also demanding a ceasefire.

Worldwide protests about Israel's imminent attack on Gaza reflect not only humanitarian concerns for civilian casualties, but also the likelihood that the war will expand beyond the borders of Israel/Palestine and become a regional war.  As the New York Times wrote this morning, "As Israeli forces massed along the border with Gaza on Sunday ahead of an expected ground invasion of the enclave, escalating clashes on Israel's northern border with Lebanon along with strikes in Syria and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank intensified fears of a widening regional conflict." Similar concerns preoccupy Thomas Friedman, Israel's cheerleader at The New York Times, whose column in today's paper is titled "Israel is About to Make a Terrible Mistake."  We have been warned. Once started, a regional war will not be easy to end.

Finally, our government is not a bystander in this war.  It has sent massive amounts of military equipment to Israel, and has thousands of soldiers ready to intervene if called on,; and this week it vetoed a Resolution at the United Nations that would have installed a "humanitarian ceasefire."  As a major supporter of Israel – giving $3.8 billion in military aid each year and preventing actions against Israel in the UN and other places – the US is in a position to tell Israel to stop the slaughter. It must do this. No more killing!  Not in our name!

 Demanding an immediate ceasefire

"13 House Democrats Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza" [the number has now risen to 18], The Intercept [October 20, 2023].

"We Need an Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza," by Phyllis Bennis, Counterpunch [October 20, 2023].

"The Majority of Americans Agree: Ceasefire in Gaza" [the results of two national polls], by Michael Moore [October 21, 2023]

CFOW Nuts & Bolts

Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester.  Weather permitting, we meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.)  A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil is held in Yonkers on Monday from 5:30 to 6:00 pm at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page.  Another Facebook page focuses on the climate crisis. If you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, each Tuesday and Thursday at noon, please send a return email for the link. 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!

Rewards!

At this very grim moment in world history, stalwart readers deserve something happy, a change of pace.  So the Rewards this week are some recent offerings from Newsletter favorites, the New Orleans jazz band Tuba Skinny.  Here are Hot Town and Dusting the Frets. And here is their full 2014 album, Pyramid Strut.  Enjoy!

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

Some comments and analysis on the Gaza War

Democracy Now!

Once again, the daily news program Democracy Now! has offered us some outstanding interviews and news segments this week.  The program airs at www.democracynow.org Monday through Friday at 8 am, and is archived, so that it can be accessed anytime.  Here is a selection from last week's programs:

(Video) "Divide and Rule": How Israel Helped Start Hamas to Weaken Palestinian Hopes for Statehood [October 20, 2023]

---- U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is urging Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the death toll from Israel's two-week bombardment has topped 4,100. Israel says a ground invasion may be imminent. "This isn't an effort to try to quell, to destroy Hamas specifically," says Tareq Baconi, Palestinian analyst and author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. "This is an effort to pursue an ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza Strip and beyond the Gaza Strip, as we see the violence rising in the West Bank." [See the Program] Also of interest is "Before they vowed to annihilate Hamas, Israeli officials considered it an asset," by Alice Speri, The Intercept. [Link].

(Video) Annexation, Ethnic Cleansing & Genocide: Mustafa Barghouti Decries Israel's Deadly Campaign in Gaza [October 19, 2023]

---- As the death toll in Gaza nears 3,800 from two weeks of Israeli aerial bombardment, we go to the occupied West Bank to speak with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. "With the passage of each minute, more Palestinians are killed," says Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative. "The game is clear: They want to ethnically cleanse, completely, the Gaza Strip." [See the Program]

(Video) Israeli Journalist Amira Hass: How Can the World Stand By and Witness Israel's Slaughter in Gaza? [October 19, 2023]

---- We speak with Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who is usually based in Ramallah and attended Wednesday's anti-occupation protest in Washington, D.C., organized by American Jewish peace groups. Hass is the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank. She decries the marginalization and suppression of the Israeli left, as "extreme fascists" in the Netanyahu government have whipped the Israeli public into one that is "drunk with the will to take revenge." [See the Program] To see Part 2 of this interview, go here.

(Video) Rashid Khalidi on Biden's "Israel-First Approach" & Growing Outrage over Gaza Across the Middle East [October 18, 2023]

---- President Biden is in Israel to show more support for its relentless assault on the Gaza Strip, which has reduced much of the territory to rubble, killed at least 3,300 Palestinians and displaced more than a million people. Israel also continues to maintain a complete siege, refusing to let in food, water, fuel, medicines and other necessities. Meanwhile, international outrage is growing over a massive explosion at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital that killed hundreds of people on Tuesday. …Palestinian American historian Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University. [See the Program]

(Video) "A Textbook Case of Genocide": Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel's Assault on Gaza [October 16, 2023]

---- Raz Segal, an Israeli expert in modern genocide, calls Israel's assault on Gaza a textbook case of "intent to commit genocide" and its rationalization of its violence a "shameful use" of the lessons of the Holocaust. Israeli state exceptionalism and comparisons of its Palestinians victims to "Nazis" are used to "justify, rationalize, deny, distort, disavow mass violence against Palestinians," says Segal. [See the Program]

Also of interest about genocide - "On The Crime Of Genocide: 'I Do Not Exclude It At All,'" by Francesca Albanese and Kristina Božič" [Link]. (Francesca Abanese is the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967); Raz Segal's article in Jewish Currents, "A Textbook Case of Genocide," [Link]; and "Israeli and US Leaders Must Be Held Accountable for the Genocide of Palestinians," by Marjorie Cohn [former president of the National Lawyers Guild], Truthout [October 20, 2023]

Fairness and Accuracy in the Media (FAIR)

The way that the mainstream media presents facts and interpretations about the war is of great significance, especially in the United States.  Starting with Manufacturing Consent [1988] by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, dozens of books have analyzed the nature and sources of media bias in news reporting. We are fortunate to have the news-analysis site FAIR, which applies basic lessons of media analysis to current events, in this case the Gaza War.  Here are several examples from this week's offerings that re-frame the War from the versions offered in the mainstream media.

·    "Unconfirmed 'Beheaded Babies' Report Helped Justify Israeli Slaughter," by Saurav Sarkar [October 20, 2023] [Link].

·    "Israeli Attacks on Journalists Stifle Reporting on Gaza Horrors," by Ari Paul [October 19, 2023] [Link].

·    "In Gaza, 'We Have to Do the Hard Work of Looking at Context,'" CounterSpin interview with Phyllis Bennis on Gaza [October 17, 2023] [Link].

·    "NYT Ignores Dissent to Convey Image of Jewish Unanimity," by Ari Paul [October 17, 2023] [Link].

Also of interest regarding the media and "disinformation" is "We Must Not Let the Truth Become a Casualty of This War," by Musa al-Gharbi, The Nation [October 16, 2023] [Link].

Western Journalists Have Palestinian Blood on Their Hands

By Mohammed El-Kurd, The Nation [October 20, 2023]

---- The industry standard is to dehumanize Palestinians. Our grief is negligible; our rage is unwarranted. Our death is so quotidian that journalists report it as though they're reporting the weather. Cloudy skies, light showers, and 3,000 Palestinians dead in the past ten days. And much like the weather, only God is responsible: not armed settlers, not targeted drone strikes. … On October 13, the Center for Constitutional Rights asserted that the Israeli regime, by taking actions "to destroy a group in whole or in part, including by killing or by creating conditions of life to bring about the group's destruction," is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. [Read More]

Save the Israeli Hostages. Release Palestinian Prisoners, Quickly

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [October 22, 2023]

---- Anyone wishing to see the 210 hostages released – and who doesn't? – must fight now with all their might against a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, at the same time exerting every possible pressure on the government so that it reaches a deal for releasing thousands of Palestinian prisoners. There is no point in discussing the real or imaginary risks that may result from the release of such massive numbers – there will be no release of hostages without it. Anyone opposing the release of thousands of prisoners is in fact opposing the release of the hostages. Their blood will be on the hands of such people as well. Anyone in favor of hostage release must now say loudly and clearly: Stop the invasion; there is no deal with an invasion. [Read More]

(Video) Israel-Gaza: When will the world say 'Enough'?

By Marc Lamont Hill, "Up Front," Aljazeera [October 20, 2023]

---- As Israel's siege and bombing of Gaza continues, we look at how the war is presented and ask if a ceasefire is possible. In an UpFront special, Marc Lamont Hill speaks to the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Lara Friedman; human rights lawyer Noura Erakat; and executive director of +972 Magazine, Haggai Matar, to discuss the implications of the Israel-Gaza war. [See the Program]

The Only Way Forward

By Helena Cobban, Boston Review [October 17, 2023]

[FB - Helena Cobban writes on global affairs. Her books include The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power and Politics and The Making of Modern Lebanon.]

---- At this point, little is clear about the scale or direction of Israel's future military operations. What is clear is that relationship between Israel and Palestine—and between the nations arrayed on either side of the conflict—has entered a new, dangerous phase. The only way forward is to try to understand how a negotiated peace can be carved out of the wake of the past week's violence. And doing so demands a much fuller picture of Hamas than has been offered in U.S. corporate media—including as clear an understanding as possible of the goals of the October 7 operation and of the organization's longer-term political vision and capabilities. [Read More]

On the Occupation and the Palestinian Resistance: 2008 Interview With Hamas' Khaled Meshal

By Alexander Cockburn, Counterpunch [October 20, 2023] [Read the article].

Some News Notes on the War

State Department official resigns over Gaza policy

By Michael Arria, Mondoweiss [October 19, 2023]

---- State Dept. official Josh Paul resigned over the Biden administration's Gaza policy. In a statement announcing his departure he called U.S. policy, "shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse." … "It is my firm belief that in such conflicts, for those of us who are third parties, the side we must pick is not that of one of the combatants, but that of the people caught in the middle, and that of the generations yet to come," wrote Paul in a Linkedin post announcing his departure. [Link].

CUNY faculty and staff: We reject the Palestine Exception to free speech at CUNY

An "Open Letter," [October 19, 2023]

---- This statement, published on October 17 2023, was drafted by an ad hoc group of faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY). As of October 18, it has been signed by more than 100 CUNY staff and faculty. . [Read More]

 

An Open Letter on the Situation in Palestine

From The London Review of Boos – 750 artists and writers "are speaking out to demand an end to the violence and destruction in Palestine." [October 18, 2023] [Link].

Also of interest is this 17-minute video, "How Palestinians were expelled from their homes," about the 1948 Nakba [Link].

 

 

 

CFOW Newsletter - Focus on the War in Gaza. What to do?

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

October 15, 2023

Hello All – In a departure from the Newsletter's regular format, this edition will focus entirely on the Gaza War.  After a few introductory remarks, I will post a dozen or so commentaries on the war that I think are useful/valuable, not least because they differ from the mainstream media interpretations of the war.  The major difference between the "mainstream" and "dissenting" commentary is the inclusion of some context or historical perspective in the latter, usually/often omitted in the mainstream. I think this will make the commentaries useful irrespective of one's views about the war.i

It seems that Israel's invasion of Gaza – presumably preceded by bombing even more intense than that which has happened so far – will begin very soon. While the moral weight of the civilian casualties (1300) suffered last week by Israelis has not faded, the events of the last few days have highlighted the humanitarian disaster now suffered by the residents of Gaza.  According to a recent report, 2,670 Palestinians have been killed, and around 9,600 wounded. More than 700 of the dead are children. According to a UN agency, more than a million residents of Gaza (out of a 2.1 million population) have been displaced in the last week.  Israel's order to the residents of northern Gaza to flee to the south or run the danger of being killed has added to the chaos caused by the blockade of food, fuel, and medicine.

Over the last few days, the war has expanded and threatens to engulf other countries, or millions of Palestine's supporters, in the conflict. This useful report by the defense analyst of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz describes the spreading tensions in the region.  Massive solidarity with Palestine rallies have taken place around the globe..  On his visits to many Middle Eastern capitals, US Secretary of State Blinken has been told by several heads of state, nominal allies of the US, that Palestinian protests are justified, and (presumably) warning that massive popular pro-Palestinian mobilizations threaten the most stable of monarchies and dictatorships.

I think it's clear that the United States is the key to any hopes of altering Israel's apparent determination to inflict revenge on Palestinians, killing thousands and tens of thousands.  So far the Biden administration has been unwavering in its "solidarity with Israel," and has now dispatched two aircraft carriers to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to warn other nations, or entities such as Hezbollah, not to intervene on the side of the Palestinians. Dissent from the government's position is beaten down by Biden spokespeople or by the mainstream media.  Indeed, a State Department memo has emerged warning US diplomats to refrain from using the expressions "de-escalation/ceasefire," "end to violence/bloodshed" and "restoring calm."

Yet these banned phrases are exactly what is needed.  An international call for a cease fire and negotiations to free the hostages, end the blockade of Gaza, and start on the (long) path towards humanizing the relations between Jews and Palestinians in Israel/Palestine is our only hope.  In this crisis, "an eye for an eye," in Gandhi's words, "will make everyone blind." As the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem puts it, "Suffering does not justify suffering and, one injustice does not justify another and one crime does not warrant another. Revenge cannot be a plan of action for a state. We can – and must – demand other solutions: ones that are based not on more death, destruction and loss, but on a fundamental acknowledgement that all human beings are equal and deserve to live. Every single one."

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

Some Comments on the Israel/Gaza War

Democracy Now! – The programs on Democracy Now! this week have been outstanding.  Each day, 3 or 4 segments present knowledgeable and insightful people from Israel, Palestine, the US, and elsewhere.  Almost all that they have to say is excluded from the mainstream news.  All these programs are available at www.democracynow.org.  If I could single out just a few, presented in chronological order:

(Video) "Dark Days": Israeli Human Rights Leader Orly Noy on Israel's War on Palestinians After Hamas Attack [October 9, 2023]

---- We spend the hour discussing the unprecedented developments, starting in Jerusalem with Orly Noy, chair of the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and editor of the Hebrew-language news site Local Call. "There is a really strong sense of demanding revenge within the Israeli public," reports Noy, who says the attack catching Israel off guard is a massive military intelligence failure. "Once the immediate crisis is over, the Israeli public will be demanding answers from the government and Netanyahu." [See the Program]

(Video) Historian Rashid Khalidi: Palestinians "Living Under Incredible Oppression, … It Had to Explode" [October 9, 2023]

---- In New York, we speak with Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine, who lays out how this weekend's extreme violence between Hamas and Israel will force "a paradigm shift." Colonial powers will no longer believe they can force people to live under the conditions Israel has subjected Palestinians to and expect no retaliation of the oppressed, says Khalidi. "That idea has exploded as a result of the horrific events over the past two-and-a-half days," says Khalidi, who calls the blockade of Gaza "a pressure cooker. It had to explode." [See the Program]

(Video) Mohammed El-Kurd: How Much Palestinian Blood Will It Take to End Israel's Occupation & Apartheid? [October 10, 2023]

---- Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd says Western reaction to Israel's assault on Gaza has once again highlighted the double standard when it comes to how Israeli and Palestinian lives are valued. "One wonders how much bloodshed, how much Palestinian death is necessary for people to realize that violence begets violence and that the occupation and the colonization of Palestine, the blockade of the Gaza Strip needs to end for all of this violence to end." [See the Program]

(Video) Human Rights Lawyer Michael Sfard: "Israelis Must Maintain Their Humanity Even When Their Blood Boils" [October 12, 2023]

---- Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer and expert on international human rights, calls for Israel to act within international law in response to Hamas's attack on civilians Saturday. Sfard says Israel should end its bombing and lift the blockade on Gaza because civilians do not deserve punishment for militant attacks. "Modern international law prohibits, with no exception, collective punishment."[See the Program]

(Video) A Second Nakba? Israel Orders 1.1 Million Palestinians to Evacuate Northern Gaza Amid Bombing & Siege [October 13, 2023]

---- Israel's military on Friday ordered 1.1 million civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate "southwards" in just 24 hours, a demand that aid groups say will cause untold human suffering.  We speak with Gaza writer Muhammad Shehada, who condemns the international community and mainstream media for its complicity in Israel's destruction of Gaza. "These things are unimaginable horrors that are inflicted on Gaza right now with no one intervening to stop it," he says. "This is pure madness." [See the Program]

A ground invasion of Gaza is a disaster foretold

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [October 15, 2023]

---- Israel is about to launch a catastrophic ground invasion of the Gaza Strip – or will have already launched it by the time this column appears. The invasion is liable to end in a fiasco the likes of which Israel and Gaza have never experienced. We may be looking at mass slaughter. Large numbers of Israeli soldiers would be killed pointlessly. Residents of Gaza would face a second Nakba, the first signs of which are already apparent on the ground. No one would emerge from these horrors for the better. [Read More]

There Is a Jewish Hope for Palestinian Liberation. It Must Survive.

By Peter Beinart, New York Times [October 14, 2023]---- Before last Saturday, it was possible, with some imagination, to envision a joint Palestinian-Jewish struggle for the mutual liberation of both peoples. There were glimmers in the protest movement against Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul, through which more and more Israeli Jews grasped a connection between the denial of rights to Palestinians and the assault on their own. … That potential alliance has now been gravely damaged. There are many Jews willing to join Palestinians in a movement to end apartheid, even if doing so alienates us from our communities, and in some cases, our families. But we will not lock arms with people who cheer the kidnapping or murder of a Jewish child. [Read More]

Arriving Again at the Cycle of Vengeance

By Amira Hass, Haaretz [Israel] [October 10, 2023]

---- In a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing – military incursions, death, cruelty, slain children, bodies piled up in the road, siege, fear, anxiety over loved ones, captivity, being targets of vengeance, indiscriminate lethal fire at both those involved in the fighting (soldiers) and the uninvolved (civilians), a position of inferiority, destruction of buildings, ruined holidays or celebrations, weakness and helplessness in the face of all-powerful armed men, and searing humiliation. Therefore, this must be said once again – we told you so. Ongoing oppression and injustice explode at unexpected times and places. Bloodshed knows no borders. … The automatic Israeli conclusion, as on previous occasions when its normalcy was shattered a bit, is that if death and destruction haven't achieved their goal until now, more aerial killings of Palestinians and more destruction and vengeance are the answer. That's the conclusion of both the government and the army, but also of many Israelis. And it's also apparently the conclusion reached by Western governments, which raced to voice support for Israel while ignoring Israel's structural violence and cruelty, and the context of the Palestinian people's ongoing dispossession from their land. [Read More]

The Violence of Demanding Perfect Victims

By Noura Erakat, Jadaliyya [Arab Studies Institute] [October 10, 2023]

---- Hamas has launched an unprecedented attack against Israel, taking aim at the apartheid and colonial regime that has subjugated Palestinians for 75 years. Few Western observers have highlighted the context of Israel's structural violence that has condemned Palestinians to a slow death, thus missing a critical opportunity to advance a true, durable solution in the region. … This crisis and looming war must be understood as more than a hostage situation of significant magnitude. It is a crisis of political will to challenge the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel which have led us to this point. Ongoing failure to properly contend with this context is tantamount to telling Palestinians that they must die quietly. This is an immoral and impossible demand that threatens far more than Palestinian life. Any condemnation of Palestinian violence now must begin and end with demands to lift the siege, end the occupation, and dismantle Israel's apartheid system. [Read More] Also of interest is Democracy Now!'s interview with Erakat on October 13: "Western Leaders & Media Are Justifying Israel's 'Genocidal Campaign' Against Palestinians" [Link].

The U.S. Should Think Twice About Israel's Plans for Gaza

By Rashid Khalidi, New York Times [October 15, 2023]

[FB - Rashid Khalidi is a professor of modern Arab studies at Columbia University and author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine.]

---- The depopulation of Gaza would be manifestly inhumane and a violation of international law. President Biden and his advisers should ask themselves how it can be in the national interest of the United States to allow another mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. Such a cataclysm would be a second nakba, or catastrophe, as the displacement of 1948 is called. The United States would thereby be a partner with Israel in creating a future for the Palestinians that offers only periodic death, destruction and dispossession and permanent subjugation or expulsion.  [Read More]

In Gaza and Israel, side with the child over the gun

By Naomi Klein, The Guardian [UK] [October 11, 2023]

---- The Israeli state's current murderous leveling of Gaza is the latest, unspeakably horrific manifestation of this ideology, and there will be more in the coming days  So how do we confront this violent ideology? For one thing, we can recognize that when Israeli Jews are killed in their homes and it is celebrated by people who claim to be anti-racists and anti-fascists, that is experienced as antisemitism by a great many Jews. And antisemitism (besides being hateful) is the rocket fuel of militant Zionism. What could lessen its power, drain it of some of that fuel? True solidarity. Humanism that unites people across ethnic and religious lines. Fierce opposition to all forms of identity-based hatred, including antisemitism. An international left rooted in values that side with the child over the gun every single time, no matter whose gun and no matter whose child. A left that is unshakably morally consistent, and does not mistake that consistency with moral equivalency between occupier and occupied. Love. It's certainly worth a try. In these difficult times, I'd like to be part of a left like that. [Read More]

Israel's Colonial Revenge Genocide in Gaza is only the latest in a Long History of such Massacres

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment [October 14, 2023]

---- Half of Gaza consists of children, most born after 2006 when Hamas came to power in the Strip through elections insisted upon by George W. Bush. Large numbers of these children are set to be killed, and several hundred already have been, by Israeli aerial, tank and artillery bombardment. Although the stated military objective is to destroy the Hamas guerrillas, that objective is being pursued with obvious reckless disregard for the welfare of civilian noncombatants. Hamas viciously attacked Israel and committed unspeakable war crimes, and it is legitimate for the Israeli armed forces to go after it in a determined way. It is not legitimate to ethnically cleanse civilians in Gaza or to blow them to smithereens in pursuit of ethno-national revenge. Anyone who thinks the latter is not happening doesn't have eyes in their head, and the reason for which Israel has cut off the internet in Gaza (not a legitimate move since it endangers noncombatants) is to ensure that no real-time record can emerge of the coming massacre. [Read More]