CFOW Newsletter - Hostages released; Can the ceasefire be extended? No war!

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

November 26, 2023

Hello All – For a third day the world rejoices as a ceasefire in Israel/Palestine leads to another release of hostages held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.  As night fell on Sunday, television showed images of crowds in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv awaiting the arrival of hostages, and crowds in Nablus waiting for the arrival of young Palestinian men released from prison.  We watched a Jewish father being reunited with his daughter, and a Palestinian mother and her just-released son interviewed on Aljazeera.

But especially in the case of interviews with Palestinian families, joy was mingled with sadness, with grief at those killed in Gaza, and about the many thousands still held hostage in Israeli jails.  While people in Gaza emerge from their shelters and homes, joy was tinged with foreboding as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu made clear that – once the four-day "pause" ended on Monday – the massacre of Palestinians would be resumed on Tuesday.

From both the Biden people and international agencies, and from Hamas, there is talk that the ceasefire may be continued after Monday.  Perhaps – or perhaps not – this is being debated within the Israeli war cabinet. And perhaps the daylight that is obviously widening between Biden and Netanyahu over the aims and timetable of the war will slow the Israeli offensive.  But as of Sunday evening I fear that Israel will resume the slaughter in Gaza on Tuesday, that the killing will escalate in the West Bank, and that the chances of the war spilling over into Lebanon and beyond will increase.

The hope of the vast majority of the world is that the ceasefire will be extended beyond four days, and that it may somehow lead to a permanent end of the fighting.  The hostage/prisoner exchanges show that negotiations can work.  The decision of the United States – of President Biden – is the key to whether we will have a ceasefire or (endless) war. We must press President Biden harder to put pressure on Israel to end this war. Work for peace.

Some Suggested Reading

As They Mourn Their Loved Ones, These Families Are Pleading for Peace

By Oren Ziv and Yotam Ronen, The Nation [November 22, 2023]

[FB – In early 2002, a few months after CFOW began, we met and became friends with relatives and loved ones of some of the people who had been killed in the 9/11 attacks.  They called themselves September 11^th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, borrowing a phrase from Martin Luther King, Jr.  One of their members, Rita Lasar, had written a letter to The New York Times after President Bush referred to Rita's brother's death in one of the Twin Towers; he had stay behind (and was killed) to remain with his paraplegic friend & co-worker.  "No war, no revenge, not in my name," wrote Rita; and she repeated this message a few weeks later in a talk at South Presbyterian Church in Dobbs.  "Peaceful Tomorrows" as a group became a leading force in the antiwar movement, turning their own grief into a call that no one else – no parent or family member or loved one – should have to experience the loss that they had experienced in 9/11. – The article below describes a similar development in Israel among families who lost loved ones – killed or taken hostage – on October 7^th.]

---- Since the atrocities committed by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, calls for revenge have echoed across the country as the Israeli army continues its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip. Talk of "flattening" or "erasing" Gaza is commonplace in the media and on the street. … Amid this cacophony of retribution, however, many family members of the victims of Hamas's massacres and of the more than 240 people abducted to Gaza have been offering a different voice. Despite their individual and collective pain, they have pleaded with the Israeli government not to seek revenge in their names and instead called for a cessation of Israel's assault on Gaza and the prioritization of a deal to release the hostages. [Read More]

A 'temporary ceasefire' means realizing how much we've lost

By Tareq S. Hajjaj, Mondoweiss [November 25, 2023]

---- For the people of Gaza, the four-day truce has only afforded them the chance to fully comprehend what they went through: "Only today have we realized that they're gone. Only today do we feel death's presence here." … The streets were suddenly flooded. People could now inspect the destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, in Nuseirat, in Deir al-Balah, and other cities in the south, able to venture farther away from their shelters to bring supplies for their families. Above all, they could now check in on the members of their family who were still alive, with whom contact had been severed throughout the war. They are now able to seek each other out, to cry together over what they have lost and what they may yet lose. The "temporary ceasefire," if that is what they are calling it, doesn't mean an end to the war. It simply means we are afforded more time to weep and to grieve. … Once the ceasefire took effect, regardless of what people thought of it, it had the effect of giving some people a sliver of hope. Some families that stayed in the north throughout the fighting have also chosen to remain there, even after the ceasefire is over. But those families have received little reprieve from the truce because it only afforded them the chance to fully comprehend the extent of what they lost. [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!

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

 CFOW Weekly Reader

The War Marches On

This Israel has no future in the Middle East

By Marwan Bishara, Aljazeera [November 24, 2023]

---- Israel's sadistic war on Gaza, the culmination of a long series of criminal policies, may well prove suicidal in the long term and lead to the demise of the mighty "Jewish State". … Israel has no good options after its bad war ends. This may be its last chance to pull away from the brink, stop the war, embrace US President Joe Biden's vision of a two-state solution, impractical as it is today, and accept America's red lines for Gaza: no to reoccupation, no to ethnic cleansing and no to shrinking its territories. But Netanyahu, along with his fanatic coalition, who've long taken America for granted, have once again ignored – read rejected – America's advice to the detriment of both sides. [Read More]

(Video) Dr. Norman Finkelstein on Israel-Hamas war [November 23, 2023]

---- Political scientist Dr. Norman Finkelstein explains Zionism in his own words and shares his observations on the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. [See the Program]

Bernie Sanders: Justice for the Palestinians and Security for Israel

From The New York Times [November 22, 2023]

---- This is a humanitarian catastrophe that risks igniting a wider regional conflagration. We all want it to end as soon as possible. To make progress, however, we must grapple with the complexity of this situation that too many people on both sides want to wave away. … For many years, the United States has provided Israel substantial sums of money — with close to no strings attached. Currently, we provide $3.8 billion a year. President Biden has asked for $14.3 billion more on top of that sum and asked Congress to waive normal, already-limited oversight rules. The blank check approach must end. [Read More]

Israel-Palestine war: Israel wants to seize Gaza's multibillion dollar gas field

By Seyed Hossein Mousavian, Middle East Eye [November 15, 2023]

---- As the horrific onslaught enters its sixth week, the issue of energy resources could add another layer of complexity to the ongoing war. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), significant reservoirs of oil and natural gas have been found off the Gaza Strip and elsewhere under the occupied West Bank.  … The new resources of oil and natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean are valued at an astounding $524bn. However, according to the UN report, a significant portion of the those assets will have to be sourced from within the occupied territory of Palestine. [Read More]

The Harvard Law Review Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza

By Rabea Eghbariah, The Nation [November 21, 2023]

[FB – This article was commissioned, edited, fact-checked, and prepared for publication by the prestigious Harvard Law Review. The it was blocked by the Review's editor and board.  Why?  According to this article in The Intercept, it "was then blocked amid a climate a fear."]

---- Genocide is a crime. It is a legal framework. It is unfolding in Gaza. And yet, the inertia of legal academia, especially in the United States, has been chilling. Clearly, it is much easier to dissect the case law rather than navigate the reality of death. It is much easier to consider genocide in the past tense rather than contend with it in the present. Legal scholars tend to sharpen their pens after the smell of death has dissipated and moral clarity is no longer urgent. Some may claim that the invocation of genocide, especially in Gaza, is fraught. But does one have to wait for a genocide to be successfully completed to name it? This logic contributes to the politics of denial. [Read More]

The War in the West Bank

42 Palestinians Killed in Seven Weeks: A Visit to a West Bank City That Has Become a Firing Zone

By Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Haaretz [Israel] [November 25, 2023]

---- On the night Taha was killed and his father wounded, a total of 14 residents of the refugee camp were killed, 10 by an Israeli missile. On Wednesday this week, another six people were killed at the Tul Karm camp, also by a missile fired from the air. Dozens of fatalities in a month and a half. This is the new normal. [Read More]

Israeli settlers steal Palestinian farmers' land in occupied West Bank

By Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand, Aljazeera [November 26, 2023]

---- Farmers in the occupied West Bank face near-daily incursions and violence from Israeli settlers, to the point that they live in fear of having their homes and land stolen, they say. Added to that is the violence they witness in nearby urban areas, like Jenin city and refugee camp that the Israeli army stepped up raids on, killing 10 people and wounding 20 in just one week. According to the Ministry of Health, at least 237 Palestinians have been killed and about 2,850 others injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 7. [Read More]

Propaganda and the Mainstream Media

Al-Shifa Hospital, Hamas's Tunnels, and Israeli Propaganda

By Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept [November 21 2023]

---- The Israel Defense Forces propaganda machine has sought to use Al-Shifa Hospital as its main exhibit in justifying the unjustifiable. It is clear that the Israeli strategy centers on a belief that if the IDF can convince the world that Hamas used the hospital as a base of military operations, all of the carpet bombing — the attacks on refugee camps, schools, and hospitals — will retroactively be viewed as just acts of war against a terrorist enemy. Both Israel and the White House, including President Joe Biden personally, have staked their credibility on the claim that there is a massive smoking gun lying below Al-Shifa Hospital.  … To date, this propaganda campaign has not gone well. [Read More]  For an update on the Hamas "command center" tale, read "IDF Knew Real Hamas HQ While Lying About al-Shifa," by Gareth Porter, Consortium News [November 23, 2023] [Link].

The masterful propaganda of 'deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust'

By Tom Suarez, Mondoweiss [November 26, 2023]

---- October 7, 2023, was a deadly day for people on the Israeli side of the Armistice line with Gaza. Most of the casualties were Israeli (some were foreign workers), and all the Israelis were presumably Jewish. Whether, as the much-quoted phrase at issue has it, October 7 was "the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust" is debatable; but let's assume that it was. … The problem with the phrase is not statistics. The problem, rather, is that this lament's exterior message is merely a Trojan horse for powerful propaganda hidden within. [Read More]

Also of interest re: the mainstream media – "Sunday's Gaza Guests Linked to Military Industry, Pro-Israel Funding Array," by Julie Hollar, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [November 21, 2023] [Link]; and "When Palestinians "Die" and Israelis get "Killed" in the same War," by Safa and by Mariam A, Informed Comment  [Link].

The US Enables the Killing

Joe Biden Moves to Lift Nearly Every Restriction on Israel's Access to U.S. Weapons Stockpile

By Ken Klippenstein, The Intercept [November 25, 2023]

---- The White House has requested the removal of restrictions on all categories of weapons and ammunition Israel is allowed to access from U.S. weapons stockpiles stored in Israel itself. The move to lift restrictions was included in the White House's supplemental budget request, sent to the Senate on October 20. "This request would," the proposed budget says, "allow for the transfer of all categories of defense articles." The request pertains to little-known weapons stockpiles in Israel that the Pentagon established for use in regional conflicts, but which Israel has been permitted to access in limited circumstances — the very limits President Joe Biden is seeking to remove. [Read More]

US Weapons Shipments to Israel Are Enabling War Crimes

By Stephen Semler, Jacobin Magazine [November 2023]

---- Joe Biden is fast-tracking weapons shipments to Israel to support its assault on Gaza. The types of weapons being sent have been used repeatedly by the Israeli military to attack and kill civilians during the last 15 years alone. A recently leaked internal document from the Pentagon reveals the weapons the Biden administration is fast-tracking to Israel in support of its military offensive in Gaza. Based on my review of forensic investigations published by human rights and news organizations, these same types of weapons have been used repeatedly by the Israeli military to attack and kill civilians during the last fifteen years alone. [Read More]

CFOW Newsletter - Thousands Killed in Gaza; Ceasefire Now!

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

November 19, 2023

Hello All –  Israel's slaughter of people in Gaza continues.  More than 12,000 people have been killed since the war started, including more than 5,000 children. Only the US, only President Biden, can stop this.  The world begs him to do so; no other path seems open. Yesterday a UN-run school in Gaza was bombed, and thousands of patients and refugees were forced to flee from Gaza's largest hospital in the north.  Where will they go?  To the south, where dozens of people are killed in bombing attacks daily? There is no place that is safe for civilians in Gaza.

The immediate need is for a CEASEFIRE.  This cry has been raised by millions of people marching for peace throughout the world, including hundreds of thousands of people in the US.  Israel's refusal to allow food, water, medical supplies and fuel to enter Gaza dooms thousand more civilians. We are watching genocide live-streamed.

US law (the "Leahy Law") requires our government to end military assistance to armies or units that are committing human rights violations with US-supplied weapons. As Israel kills civilians with US-made bombs, planes, and ammunition, the law clearly applies. And as noted in an essay linked below, Palestinian-Americans have asked a US federal court to take action against the Biden administration for failing to prevent genocide and enabling Israel's commitment of genocide. In response to the on-going horror in Gaza, we have a responsibility to act, a "responsibility to protect."

Finally, if there is one thing linking the "supporters of Israel" to the opponents of this war, it is the demand that the civilians held hostage by Hamas and other fighting units in Gaza be freed.  A common denominator for peace people is that civilians should be exempt from war, and that warring parties have an obligation to protect them, not kill them. The slaughter of Israeli civilians on October 7^th, and the murder of thousands of Palestinians in the weeks since then, are simply war crimes and crimes against humanity. Opponents of war must make this clear to all.

This week's featured essays on the war

(Video) "Never again is NOW!"

---- In Geneva last week, at a meeting of the UN's "high contracting parties" about dangerous non-nuclear weapons, the Palestinian representative Nada Abu Tarbush replied to the statement of the Israeli delegation, focusing on the current war in Gaza.  Pease listen to the eloquent statement of Ms. Tarbush. [See the speech]. – 11 minutes.

Israeli War Crimes and Propaganda Follow US Blueprint

By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Code Pink [November 14, 2023]

---- Despite Israel's efforts to impose a media blackout, the massacre is taking place in a small, enclosed, densely-populated urban area, often called an open-air prison, where the world can see a great deal more than usual of how it impacts real people. Israel has killed a record number of journalists in Gaza. But we are still seeing horrifying video and photos of daily new atrocities: dead and wounded children; hospitals struggling to treat the injured; and desperate people fleeing from one place to another through the rubble of their destroyed homes. [Read More]

A paradigm shift in the hundred years' war on Palestine?

By Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University historian [November 18, 2023]

---- This is not an age-old conflict between Arabs and Jews, and it has not been going on since time immemorial. It is an entirely recent product of the irruption of imperialism into the Middle East and of the rise of modern nation-state nationalisms, both Arab and Jewish. It always involved the massive intervention of the great powers on the side of the Zionist movement and Israel: Britain until World War II, and the U.S. and other powers since then. However, we may be seeing a paradigm shift because of new elements that have appeared since October 7. [Read More]

Israel's Ludicrous Propaganda Wins Over the Only Audience That Counts

By Jeet Heer, The Nation [November 17, 2023]

---- Lying and propaganda are endemic to warfare. Public opinion is always as much a battlefield as actual territory. But in the case of Israel's ongoing war in Gaza—nominally against Hamas but actually devastating to the civilian population of the besieged territory—propaganda has taken a bizarre turn. This is propaganda that barely makes any effort to convince, instead offering ludicrous arguments in implausible forms. To pay attention to Israeli propaganda in recent weeks is like watching a magic trick done by an inept conjurer who constantly lets the audience see the mirrors and wires that are supposed to create optical illusions. [Read More] Also of interest – "Rape, ISIS, Mein Kampf and other Lies: How Israel Lost All Credibility," by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo, ZNet [November 16, 2023] [Link].

This War Did Not Start a Month Ago

By Dalia Hatuqa, New York Times [November 14, 2023]

---- To many inside and outside this war, the brutality of Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks was unthinkable, as has been the scale and ferocity of Israel's reprisal. But Palestinians have been subject to a steady stream of unfathomable violence — as well as the creeping annexation of their land by Israel and Israeli settlers — for generations. If people are going to understand this latest conflict and see a path forward for everyone, we need to be more honest, nuanced and comprehensive about the recent decades of history in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, particularly the impact of occupation and violence on the Palestinians. This story is measured in decades, not weeks; it is not one war, but a continuum of destruction, revenge and trauma. [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!

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

CFOW Weekly Reader

The War within the War

Frank Brodhead

---- Over the last two or three weeks, the pro-war consensus within the US political and media elite has begun to fracture.  Driven in part by growing dissent within the US, and in large part by the tsunami of opposition to Israel's war throughout much of the world, some daylight between the US and the Israeli government is beginning to show.  Much of the dissent is due to the live-streaming of horrible civilian casualties suffered by Palestinians in Gaza, and by media coverage of the Israeli destruction of Gaza's hospitals.  (Though only a fraction of this horror is shown by the US media, consumers of media in Europe and throughout the Middle East an inundated with pictures of dying babies and civilian casualties.)  This section of the Newsletter groups some useful/interesting articles and videos addressing debates raging in the background of the war.

Is it Genocide Yet?

(Video) "Failure to Prevent Genocide": Biden Sued as U.S. Provides Arms & Support for Israel's Gaza Assault

From Democracy Now! [November 16, 2023]

---- As Israel rejects growing international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States is suing President Biden for failing to prevent genocide. The center is seeking an emergency order to block Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from providing further military funding, arms and diplomatic support to Israel. Katherine Gallagher, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights on the case, argues the U.S. is complicit with Israel in the "crime of crimes" by "aiding and abetting genocide" with military aid, advisers and political support despite clear signs of intent to collectively punish the Palestinian population. [See the Program]. A press release from the CCR on the genocide case can be read here.

Also of interest on the question of genocide - (Video) "Is Israel engaged in genocide in Gaza?" From Aljazeera [November 6, 2023] [Link] – 28 minutes; and "More than Genocide," by A. Dirk Moses, Boston Review [November 14 2023] [Link];

Anti-Semitism

(Video) Israel-Gaza war: The dangers of weaponising anti-Semitism

From Aljazeera ("Upfront," with Marc Lamont Hill) [November 17, 2023] -25 minutes

---- As the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, some experts warn of a potential genocide. Israeli leaders have at times justified their attacks on the besieged strip by invoking the history of persecution of Jewish people. How is Jewish history influencing Israel's response in the war on Gaza? In an UpFront special, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace Stefanie Fox, political analyst and commentator Omar Baddar, and professor of Holocaust and genocide studies Omer Bartov join Marc Lamont Hill to discuss both the rise of anti-Semitism and also how anti-Semitism charges are sometimes used for political ends. [See the Program]

Also of interest – "On Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations," from Jewish Voice for Peace [November 9, 2023] [Link]; "When Anti, Anti-Zionism Becomes Anti-Semitism," by Stephen F. Eisenman, Counterpunch [November 17, 2023] [Link]; and "'From the river to the sea' – a Palestinian historian explores the meaning and intent of scrutinized slogan," by Maha Nassar, The Conversation [November 16, 2023] [Link].

The Hostages

Editorial, "Out of Time: The Lack of Urgency for a Hostage Deal Is Reaching a Tipping Point," from Haaretz [Israel] [November 19, 2023] [Link].

The "Endgame" of This War

No Endgame in Gaza

By Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books [November 16, 2023]

---- The idea of controlled carnage ended in the unrestrained slaughter of October 7. Netanyahu was forced to abandon overnight the scheme that had been the touchstone of his whole approach to the Palestinian question: keeping Hamas strong enough to deny authority to the Palestinian Authority, but weak enough to pose no more than a sporadic and limited threat to Israeli citizens. … Bombs and tanks do not answer questions. Who is to govern Gaza if not Hamas or Israel itself? Does Israel really think that, without the creation of a Palestinian state, somebody else—either an international consortium or a Palestinian puppet regime—will sail into a blood-soaked hellscape of rubble and dust, inhabited by traumatized survivors, and take responsibility for rebuilding, policing, and governing it? How is Israel going to make the kind of peace with its immediate neighbors without which the security of its citizens cannot be rebuilt? [Read More]

Was the hospital a Hamas "command center"?

The IDF is Coming Up Almost Empty in Search for Underground Hamas 'Pentagon'

By Dave Lindorff, Counterpunch [November 17, 2023]

---- The US is backpedaling its support for Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza; destruction of the entire northern half (or third) of the walled-off and blockaded territory that is home and prison for 2.3 million trapped Palestinians is occurring now that the IDF has achieved its objective of gaining control of the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The reason is that Israel has not been able to convincingly display the "underground command center" that it has been for weeks claiming justified its siege and eventual attack on that hospital. The pointed declarations that Israeli and US "intelligence" had made both governments, in Jerusalem and Washington, "confident" that there was a Hamas "command and control center" operating in a Hamas-constructed bunker under the hospital connected to a network of reinforced tunnels leading into and out of the hospital, have not been borne out. [Read More]

The Role of the Weapons-Makers

(Video) Israel Is Testing New Weapons on Gaza as Arms Dealers Profit from Gaza War

From Democracy Now! [November 14, 2023]

---- There is "a growing public awareness and anger" about the global connection between Western powers and the Israeli military industry, says Antony Loewenstein, who has investigated how Israeli weaponry and surveillance technology are used on Palestinians and exported around the world. "Israel is already, as we speak … live-testing new weapons in Gaza," says Loewenstein. He also discusses what he characterizes as the "intelligence" and "political" failures of the October 7 Hamas incursion. [See the Program]  Also of interest – "When it comes to the Israeli-led 'war on terror', follow the money," by Antony Loewenstein, Aljazeera [November 19, 2023] [Link]; and (Video) "Could Israel's war on Gaza boost arms sales?: from "Counting the Costs" Aljazeera [November 11, 2023] [Link].

The War in the West Bank

(Video) The Occupied West Bank: The Other Front

From Aljazeera [November 16, 2023]

---- Since Israel began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank to unprecedented levels. More than 2,000 Palestinians have been arrested and almost 200 have been killed in the last month alone. Scores more have been arrested, beaten and tortured, fueling concerns that this could erupt into a second front as Israel pushes on in their stated objective to access and control Palestinian territory. [See the Program]

A Population Transfer Under the Cover of War: A Visit to the Forsaken Land of Settler Militias

By Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Haaretz [Israel] [November 18, 2023]

---- Since the start of the war, residents of 16 Palestinian shepherding communities have been forced out of their villages by settlers. The South Hebron Hills are now being ruled effectively by local defense squads, made up in many cases by violent settlers in uniform who are committing a population transfer. … The settler bullies exploit the weakness of the residents and the chaos of war to expand the population transfer. Their goal is to cleanse the entire South Hebron Hills and other areas of their Palestinian residents. Their success can already be observed. In the territories south of the town of Samu and the city of Dahiriya, and in Masafer Yatta, abandoned tent villages were visible this week, with the flag of the occupier and expeller flying above them. [Read More]

The Mainstream Media

New York Times Runs Interference for IDF as It Bombs Jabalia Refugee Camp

By Robin Andersen, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [November 15, 2023]

---- The Times' pro-genocide tropes have become recognizable over the three weeks that the paper has "reported" on the systematic killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip. There is the familiar discrediting of Gaza's health ministry, with the Times saying it is "controlled by Hamas" before referencing its information, that "the damage was the result of an attack by Israel that killed and wounded 'hundreds' of people." Human Rights Watch has stated that the figures released by the Gaza health ministry are reliable. [Read More]

Also of interest – "For Cable News, a Palestinian Life Is Not the Same as an Israeli Life," by Conor Smyth, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [November 18, 2023] [Link];  "Years of mainstream media neglect of Palestinian reality means that truths come as shocks to most Americans," by James North, Mondoweiss [November 18, 2023] [Link]; and "This Photograph Demands an Answer," by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times [November 13, 2023] [Link].

Campus Dissent and Repression

Student Protests for Gaza Targeted by Pro-Israel Groups for Alleged Civil Rights Violations

By Schuyler Mitchell and Prem Thakker, The Intercept [November 16, 2023]

---- Alongside Israel advocacy groups like the Brandeis Center, the International Legal Forum, and the David Horowitz Freedom Center, StandWithUs has spent years trying to shut down criticism of Israel on college campuses, often by weaponizing civil rights law. The groups allege that, while the political speech may be protected by the First Amendment, it fosters a campus climate of antisemitism in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. As students have ramped up pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past month, Israel advocacy groups have escalated a pressure campaign of their own. [Read More]  Also of interest are "Israel's War on American Student Activists," by James Bamford, The Nation [November 17, 2023] [Link]; and "Inside Brown University's Sit-In for Palestine," by Nicholas Miller, The Nation [November 17, 2023] [Link],

Gaza War News Notes

Progressive Democrats launch first effort to block U.S. arms sales to Israel since start of Gaza war

By Ben Samuels, Haaretz [Israel] [November 16, 2023]

---- A group of progressive Democrats, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar, will on Wednesday introduce the first legislation aimed at blocking U.S. arms sales to Israel since the war in Gaza began on October 7. Alongside Reps. Summer Lee, Delia Ramirez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Omar is introducing a joint resolution of disapproval against the $320-million transfer of precision-guided bomb equipment to Israel. [Read More]

Vivian Silver, Missing Israeli-Canadian Peace Activist, Confirmed Killed in Oct 7 Hamas Attack

By Judy Maltz, Haaretz [Israel] [November 14, 2023]

---- Vivian Silver, the veteran peace activist who was believed to be among the approximately 240 Israeli civilians and soldiers kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, is now confirmed to have been killed on the morning of the attack. A longtime member of Be'eri – one of the kibbutzim on the Gaza border invaded by dozens of Hamas terrorists on October 7 – Silver had volunteered for years to help Palestinian residents of Gaza in need of medical aid in Israel…. The 74-year-old, born in Winnipeg, immigrated to Israel 50 years ago with Habonim Dror, a Socialist Zionist youth movement. She was among a group of young North Americans who helped found Kibbutz Gezer in central Israel. [Read More]

Israeli death toll under scrutiny

FB – Israel initially put its October 7^th death toll at 1,400.  Last week it reduced the number to 1,200 – 900 civilians and 300 military – after determining that 200 of the (burned) bodies were actually Hamas fighters. This raises the question of whether some/any of the Israeli civilians killed on October 7^th were also killed by errant Israeli fire power. [Link]. Today (11/19) the Israeli liberal newspaper Haaretz reported the Israeli investigators have concluded that some/many of the "Supernova rave" dance-party victims (364) were killed by Israeli helicopter fire, and not by Hamas. [Link].

CFOW Newsletter - Reclaiming "Armistice Day" and demanding a cease fire for Gaza

Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter

November 12, 2023

Hello All – Saturday, November 11^th, was the anniversary of the day in 1918 when the First World War ended.  This horrible war killed some 20 million people, more than half of them civilians. The war ended with a ceasefire, an "armistice," and for decades Armistice Day was celebrated through the world as a day of peace, the end of the "war to end all wars."

After World War 2, the United States renamed Armistice Day "Veterans Day," turning a celebration of the end of a war into a celebration of soldiers who had fought in wars.  Unlike Memorial Day, it does not mourn the dead, but celebrates "those who served."  "Stripped of its original intention," writes the US organization Veterans for Peace, "November 11 became a day identified with war instead of peace – a day for remembering yet more war dead, honoring all veterans, and glorifying militarism." They continue:

As military veterans serving the cause of world peace, Veterans For Peace is a leader in lifting up the original intention of November 11 as a day for celebrating peace. Some Veterans For Peace chapters held annual Armistice Day commemorations for years before an official Veterans For Peace resolution made it a VFP national effort in 2008. By coordinating events held across the country, we insert our call for peace into the national conversation each Veterans Day. [Link].

For several years now, CFOW has joined the VFP campaign to restore Armistice Day to its rightful place in the calendar of humanity, and last Saturday we held up our signs and banners at the Hastings VFW Plaza in support of Armistice Day – and for an armistice or cease fire to stop the tsunami of killing in Gaza.

For armistice is back on the front-burner, as most of the world demands that a ceasefire be imposed on the War on Gaza.  Outside the US, the support for a ceasefire is overwhelming – 140 countries supported a cease fire Resolution at the United Nations. In the United States, though Israel's war-making still has substantial support, polls show that most Americans support a cease fire. The spectre of the murder of more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 4,000 children, horrifies the world and is unraveling support for the Biden administration within the US itself.  Today's reports of the deaths of babies in Gaza's hospitals, and the unrelenting bombardment of civilians in their homes or UN places of refuge, simply horrifies the world.  This weekend more than 500,000 people protested in London, while tens of thousands marched in Brussels and Toronto.  The "revolution may not be televised," but the genocide is live-streamed.  As of Friday, 11,078 people have been killed in Gaza, including 4,506 children.  President Biden and the United States have the power and the leverage to force Israel to agree to a ceasefire.  Our job is to make President Biden do this.

This Week's Featured Essays on the War on Gaza

Armistice Day and the Empire: A Name Change and the Catastrophe that Followed

By Matthew Hoh, Veterans for Peace [November 10, 2023]

---- In 1954, the US Congress renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day. The stated reason was to remember all generations of US veterans, not just veterans from the First World War. Congress advanced this rationale on the disingenuous notion that Armistice Day's purpose was a celebration of veterans. It was not. Armistice Day's purpose was to serve as a reminder of the horrors of the First World War and carry forward the declaration of those veterans of Never Again. [Read More]

(Video) Gaza hospitals on the brink of collapse

From Al Jazeera English [November 9, 2023]

---- As Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip shows no signs of abating, humanitarian organizations warn of an imminent and total collapse of Gaza's healthcare system.  In this episode:  Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, Pediatric Intensive Care and Humanitarian Doctor, Médecins Sans Frontières  [See the Program] Also very useful is "Israel's War on Gaza's Hospitals and Patients: al-Shifa Bombed again, as 20 of 36 Hospitals Go Dark," by Juan Cole, Informed Comment [November 11, 2023] [Link].

Israel's Military Is Part of the U.S. War Machine

By Norman Solomon, ZNet [November 7, 2023]

---- The governments of Israel and the United States are now in disagreement over how many Palestinian civilians it's okay to kill. Last week — as the death toll from massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza neared 10,000 people, including several thousand children — top U.S. officials began to worry about the rising horrified outcry at home and abroad. So, they went public with muted misgivings and calls for a "humanitarian pause." But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he would have none of it. Such minor tactical discord does little to chip away at the solid bedrock alliance between the two countries,. [Read More] For (much) more about how the US is supporting Israel's war: "Israel's War in Gaza, Subsidized by the USA," by William D. Hartung, The Nation [November 10, 2023] [Link].

An Establishment Crack-Up, Aided by Mass Protests, Might Actually End This War

By Jeet Heer, The Nation [November 10, 2023]

---- Joe Biden's decision to give near-unequivocal support to Israel's ferocious war in Gaza is splintering not just the Democratic Party but also the insiders who staff his administration and ran his election campaign. … These public protests are being joined by a highly unusual mutiny from inside the establishment, with dissent being voiced by staffers in the White House, Congress, the State Department, and in the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—as well as among those who worked for Biden's election in 2020. [Read More]

For useful reports on the several parts of the Democratic "establishment" that are in revolt against Biden's Gaza war policy, read "Diplomats Warn White House Support for Israel Is Destroying US Image in Middle East" [Link]; "U.S. diplomats slam Israel policy in leaked memo" [Link]' and "They Helped to Get Biden Elected. Now They're Demanding That He Back a Cease-Fire" [Link]. The "moral panic" within the ideological Establishment about support for Palestinian rights, especially among young people, is reflected in the attacks by university presidents on student groups – e.g. "Two pro-Palestinian Groups Spearheading anti-Israel Protests at Columbia Suspended" [Link]; and "The 'NYTimes' continues to slander and silence Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace" [Link]

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!

Best wishes,

Frank Brodhead

For CFOW

CFOW Weekly Reader

From 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) Voices from Largest Pro-Palestinian Protest in U.S. History: Stop the Siege on Gaza Now! - [November 6, 2023]

---- Tens of thousands marched from Washington, D.C.'s Freedom Plaza to the White House Saturday in the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration in U.S. history. Democracy Now!'s Messiah Rhodes, María Taracena and Hany Massoud spoke to protesters who condemned the U.S. government's support for Israel and called for a ceasefire in Gaza. We also play excerpts from speakers at the protest rally, including lawyer Noura Erakat, musician Macklemore and writer Mohammed El-Kurd. [See the Program]

(Video) "Clear Intention of Ethnic Cleansing": Israeli Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov Warns of Genocide in Gaza - [November 10, 2023]

---- Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov, one of the world's leading experts on the Holocaust, says Israel's brutal assault on the Gaza Strip is at risk of becoming a genocide. The monthlong air and ground war has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave, a majority of them women and children. Israel has also severely limited the movement of food, water, fuel, medicine and other essentials into Gaza. Bartov says the disproportionate killing of civilians by Israel, as well as dehumanizing statements by Israeli leaders and suggestions of mass expulsion, are of grave concern. He recently joined hundreds of lawyers and academics in signing an open letter warning about Israel's violations of international law in Gaza. "There is an indication that there are war crimes happening in Gaza, potentially also crimes against humanity," says Bartov. "If this so-called operation continues, that may become ethnic cleansing … and that may become genocide." [See the Program] On Friday, the New York Times printed an op-ed by Bartov, "We Still Have Time to Stop the Worst" [Link].

(Video) Palestinian Groups Ask ICC to Arrest Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for War Crimes & Genocide in Gaza - [November 10, 2023]

---- We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat about a new effort to hold Israel accountable at the International Criminal Court over the war in Gaza, where Israel's monthlong air and ground assault has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians. On Wednesday, three Palestinian rights groups filed a lawsuit with the international body, urging it to investigate Israel for the crimes of genocide and apartheid. The petition also calls for arrest warrants to be issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. International inaction against Israeli aggression is part of "a systematic failure to hold Israel to account for decades," as well as the "absolute double standard" applied to war crimes committed against people of the Global South, says Erakat, who was part of a team of academics and activists who came together to support the ICC lawsuit. "This is not just a crisis of international legal institutions, but also a crisis of democratic — or so-called democratic — institutions in the countries in which we live." [See the Program].

More Analysis about the Gaza War

Children Are Children, Whether in Israel or Gaza. They Never Deserve to Die

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [November 12, 2023]

---- Children are children, one must reiterate, and one cannot but be equally horrified by what has happened to them, both here and there. In the fascist reality now sweeping Israel, even this statement is considered treasonous, subversive and an expression of Israel hatred. How dare you compare? … One cannot escape being horrified by what is now happening in Gaza, even in the knowledge of what lies underneath those hospitals. No less horrific is the recognition that one must now take sides: You are either shocked by the atrocities committed by Hamas, or by the atrocities committed by the IDF. Decide. Choose sides. Which dead children shock you more? Which bereaved parents trouble you more? Can you not see the difference between Hamas, which came here to massacre, and an army that came to save hostages and wipe out Hamas? I can indeed, but the butchered children, and their no-less butchered parents, have little interest in the intentions of their killers.  [Read More]

Designing the Future in Palestine

By Noura Erakat, Boston Review December 19, 2022

---- Palestinian women and feminist organizations are reimagining what liberation can look like beyond national independence. … The Palestinian freedom struggle reveals that Palestinians came closest to freedom when they turned away from the settler sovereign and toward one another. During the Great Revolt and the First Intifada, for example, Palestinians built mutual exchange networks for food distribution, care for one another's families, underground schools, and alternative economies. That potential remains palpable among Palestinians today: among conservationists resurrecting the social history of seeds, among women who continue to anchor generational survival, and among designers literally building the future. Shifting the Palestinian gaze away from the oppressor and toward action centers new questions about Palestinians' relationships to the land and one another. Such Indigenous resurgence retrieves the process of renewal, relegated to some point after national independence, and foregrounds its present significance.  [Read More]

We need a ceasefire. The existence of the Palestinian people is at stake.

By Jeremy Corbyn, Member of UK Parliament for Islington North. 6 Nov 2023

---- My last visit to Al-Shati refugee camp was early 2013. Located on the Mediterranean coast in the north of Gaza, Al-Shati was otherwise known as "Beach Camp". Beach Camp was established in 1948 after 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in the Nakba. Initially, the camp accommodated around 23,000 refugees. In the following seven decades, that number grew to 90,000, cramped inside 0.2 square miles of land – 70 times more populated than London's city centre. People in Gaza have been living under a blockade for the past 16 years and the Israeli occupation controls most of what goes in and out of Gaza. Beach Camp was no different – and people there largely relied on aid and services from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to survive, including a health centre, a food distribution centre and several school buildings. [Read More]

The genocide in Gaza is one of the worst in modern history

By Saleh Abdel Jawad, Mondoweiss [November 10, 2023]

---- Regardless of the final political, military, and demographic outcomes of the genocidal war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip, Gaza will go down in history as the place that witnessed the largest number of massacres in history carried out almost entirely against civilians and through aerial bombardment. The killing is being inflicted overwhelmingly on civilians. In fact, Gaza is the only city in history where the percentage of children and women killed is 68%. If we add to that percentage the elderly men, the results are horrific. … These massacres are also the first massacres in history to receive the full support of the major "Western democracies" (the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy) without any sympathy for the victims, even though they are broadcast live and there is no doubt about the identity of the perpetrators. This support is not only political, diplomatic, and in the media, but also military. [Read More]

Some Gaza War News Notes

Activists disrupt weapons cargo ship bound for Israel

By Nora Barrows-Friedman, Electronic Intifada [November 7, 2023]

---- Indigenous activists using a canoe at the Tacoma, Washington port blocked a container ship headed to Israel on Monday. The Cape Orlando is a US military supply vessel which was slated to be loaded with weapons at the port and delivered to Israel.  [Read More]

AIPAC vs. The Squad: How the Israel-Gaza War Is Supercharging an Ugly Clash

From Haartz [Israel] [November 7, 2023]

---- More than a year before the 2024 elections, pro-Israel groups are already spending on attack ads against progressive Democrats, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib – who is also facing growing criticism after describing the Palestinian slogan 'From the river to the sea...' as a call for peaceful coexistence [Read More]

Anti-Defamation League Maps Jewish Peace Rallies With Antisemitic Attack

By Micah Lee, The Intercept [November 11 2023]---- American Jews have mobilized several thousand Jews across the U.S. to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. ADL calls these Jewish organizations "hate groups." … The Anti-Defamation League has classified the event — and dozens of other protests led by Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow — as "anti-Israel," according to an analysis by The Intercept, and added them to their database documenting rising antisemitism across the U.S. [Read More]