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 11th 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 7th.]
---- 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] 
