Concerned Families of Westchester News Letter
April 2, 2023
Hello All – Last week Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Sen. Bernie Sanders circulated a sign-on letter addressed to President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging a fundamental change in US policy towards Israel and Palestine. (The letter was also signed by eight other Democrats. The letter and a story from Jewish Currents can be read here.) The lawmakers urge the Biden administration to:
· Ensure U.S. taxpayer funds do not support projects in illegal settlements;
· Determine whether U.S.-origin defense articles have been used in violation of existing U.S. laws, including for a purpose not authorized by Section 4 of the Arms Export Control Act... or to commit or support gross violations of human rights by the Israeli government; and
· Ensure that all future foreign assistance to Israel, including weapons and equipment, is not used in support of gross violations of human rights.
Though these demands are somewhat narrow in scope – relating to Israel's use of the $3.8 billion in military assistance provided each year – they open the door to inquiry and debate about US support for Israel. And notably, the letter comes at a time when the attitudes of Jews and non-Jews throughout the world are shaken by the massive demonstrations against the outrageous proposals of the Netanyahu government to abrogate many of the powers of Israel's Supreme Court, essentially setting the stage for unaccountable rule by Netanyahu's rightwing government. The letter also arrives at a time when – for the first time in US history – nearly half of Democrats expressed greater sympathy for Palestinians (49%) than with Israel (38%). Support for Palestinians has increased 11% over the past year. [Link].
As Jewish Currents notes: "The letter is the most forceful response yet by Democratic members of Congress aimed at Israel's new far-right government, and reflects a desire to push the Biden administration to enforce their oft-stated policy that Israelis and Palestinians deserve "equal measures of freedom" and that Israel should refrain from actions that undermine peace, such as the building of settlements on Palestinian land."
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This week PBS broadcast an important documentary film called "The Movement and the Madman." It's about the Vietnam protest called "The Moratorium" (October and November 1969) and how – unknown at the time – the giant protest persuaded Nixon and Kissinger that their "plan" for a huge escalation in the Vietnam war, including the use of nuclear weapons, would have to be canceled because of too-strong public opposition. The film will be streaming on PBS at this link until April 27th. ALSO, one of the contributors to the film, historian Chris Appy, is interviewed on Jon Wiener's podcast (The Nation) about the events depicted in the documentary
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!
This week's Rewards for stalwart readers are a collection of songs from Sweet Honey in the Rock, in recognition of the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4th, 1968. Sweet Honey grew out of the song movement begun in the Albany, Georgia jail during a series of demonstrations for voting rights that saw the arrest and jailing of King and many others. The music of the southern civil rights movement was powerful force for change. Listen now to Sweet Honey in the Rock and "Ballad of the Sit-Ins," "Give Your Hands to Struggle," and "Ella's Song." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
The Clock is Ticking
By Noam Chomsky, The Progressive [March 27, 2023]
---- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Doomsday Clock has recently been set to ninety seconds to midnight, the closest it has come to termination. The analysts who set the clock cited the two most salient reasons: the growing threat of nuclear war and the failure to take the required measures to prevent global heating from reaching a point where it will be too late, not a remote contingency. We can add a third reason: the lack of public understanding of the urgency of these crises. This is illustrated graphically in a recent Pew Research Center poll that offered respondents a set of issues to rank in order of urgency. Nuclear war didn't even make the list. Climate change was ranked close to last; among Republicans, only 13 percent said mitigating climate change should be a top priority. The poll's results, while disastrous, are not surprising, given the prevailing discourse. Nuclear war is mentioned now and then, but treated rather casually: If it occurs, so what? There is little recognition that nuclear war between major powers is pretty much the end of everything. A major corporate propaganda offensive has sought for decades to downplay concern about an impending environmental catastrophe, if not to deny the threat altogether. The logic of unrestrained capitalism entails that species' survival is far outranked by concern for profit and market share. With the profitability of our suicide soaring, the oil majors are abandoning their limited efforts to add sustainable energy to the mix. [Read More]
(Video) Yanis Varoufakis on why we should 'let the banks burn'
From Aljazeera [March 31, 2023]
[FB – Yanis Varoufakis is the Greek Finance Minister who (unsuccessfully) tried to pry his country's economy from the jaws of the European Union bankers and the International Monetary Fund. For some of his (very interesting) work, go here.]
---- Are we in the midst of a new banking crisis? The collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank in early March threatened to destabilise major banks in Switzerland and Germany, triggering fears of a wider downturn like the one that led to the Great Recession of 2007-2009. While at this point the crisis seems to have been somewhat contained, is this a sign of a broader structural problem? And what lessons, if any, have been learned since the Great Recession? In an UpFront Special, host Marc Lamont Hill speaks to world-renowned economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis about what can be done differently this time and why workers always seem to bear the brunt during times of economic downturn. [See the Program] Also of interest is "Making the Rich Richer: the Silicon Valley Bank Bailout," by Dean Baker, Counterpunch [March 31, 2023 [Link].
The Revolution Against Shady Landlords Has Begun
By Molly Crabapple, The Nation [March 31, 2023]
---- Throwing an elderly couple out on the street might be monstrous, but it's perfectly legal in New York State. If, like the Smiths, you are a tenant in one of the state's 1.6 million market-rate apartments, your landlord can get rid of you at the end of your lease—no reason necessary—by means of what's called a holdover eviction. And landlords do it all the time. The more than 32,000 holdover eviction cases brought before New York State housing courts in 2022 represent a small sliver of the problem; unable to afford the stress and financial costs of a legal battle, many tenants just pack up and leave. A bill that had been making its way through the state Legislature for several years could have been a life raft for the Smiths. Backed by a coalition of housing organizations, the legislation—dubbed the Good Cause Eviction bill—required most landlords to offer lease renewals to tenants like the Smiths, who had paid their rent on time and stuck by the terms of their leases. It also limited rent increases to prevent landlords from forcing people out by raising their rent hundreds of dollars a month. This bill could have saved the Smiths, and countless other New Yorkers, from eviction. But despite loud, passionate, and relentless campaigning by housing activists and tenants—including Vivian Thomas Smith—lawmakers refused for years to even put Good Cause legislation up for a vote. The Smiths, and all the other tenants like them, were on their own. [Read More]
War & Peace
By Chris Wright, ZNet [April 2, 2023]
---- Twenty years ago, Noam Chomsky published a bestselling book called Hegemony or Survival. Since then, the stark choice he posed has only become more urgent. Depending on how humanity responds to the challenges of ecological destruction and imperialistic war, in the coming decade that terrifying question "Hegemony or survival?" may well be answered. Modern history shows that the most dangerous periods are when two or more great powers are struggling for hegemony. … The Soviets had vast power in their limited sphere encompassing Eastern Europe and Central Asia, but they were not a capitalistically expansive, dynamically growing imperial power in the mode of the United States—or, more recently, of a resurgent China. In short, for the first time since World War II, we are entering an era of real competition between two mammoth economies, a declining hegemon and an aspiring hegemon. When people talk about "the China threat," this is all they mean. [Read More]
After Tide of Memoirs From Americans, an Iraqi Journalist Offers Inside Account of War's Destruction
By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept [March 26, 2023]
---- American journalists and soldiers have published countless memoirs about their experiences in the Iraq War. But a new book by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad provides a radically different perspective: that of an ordinary Iraqi who witnessed firsthand the decimation of his country. "The occupation was bound to collapse and fail," Abdul-Ahad writes of the U.S. invasion in his remarkable memoir, "A Stranger in My Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War." As Abdul-Ahad goes on to explain, "A nation can't be bombed, humiliated and sanctioned, then bombed again, and then told to become a democracy." [Read More]
Also of importance – "US War Planners Court China's Neighbors," b [Link]; and "Global Nuclear Freeze Could Avert New Arms Race," by Daryl G. Kimball, Arms Control Today [April 2023] [Link].
The War in Ukraine
Why Ukraine Is Increasingly A Nuclear Headache For World Powers
---- On March 20, 2023, the British government confirmed it would supply Ukrainian forces with tank shells made with depleted uranium, which can "penetrate tanks and armor more easily due to its density and other physical properties." The affair quickly reignited Western and Russian efforts to shape the global narrative regarding nuclear weaponry in the Ukraine war. Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the UK's decision was part of the collective West's "nuclear component" against Russia. British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly responded by saying, "The only country in the world that is talking about nuclear issues is Russia." On March 25, Putin announced that Russia and Belarus had reached an agreement to deploy Russian nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory. The possibility of a nuclear standoff over Ukraine was not always as likely. [Read More]
Also of interest re: the war in Ukraine – "The War of Surprises in Ukraine," by Rajan Menon, Tom Dispatch [March 29, 2023] [Link]; and "Iraq, Ukraine, and a World Without Accountability," by Farrah Hassen, Foreign Policy in Focus [March 29, 2023] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
'The Last of Us' Is Right. Our Warming Planet Is a Petri Dish.
[FB - Dr. Vora is the pandemic prevention fellow at Conservation International and led New York City's Covid-19 contact tracing program from 2020 to 2021.]
---- It's more likely that the next pandemic will come from a virus. But the idea that climate change is making the emergence of new health threats more likely is solid. Could it cause a fungus ubiquitous in the environment to morph into a lethal pathogen in humans? It's possible. … A warming planet is creating more vulnerability in humans, too. Reduced crop yields, for example, lead to malnutrition, while heat stress causes kidney disease. At the same time, deforestation, inadequate safety measures on farms and commercial wildlife trade increase the risk of so-called spillovers, where viruses like Ebola jump from animals to people. Fungi, nature's savviest opportunists, will use these disturbances to their advantage. [Read More]
Renewables outstrip Coal in US for first Time, with 50% of new Power being Solar
---- The Energy Information Agency of the US Department of Energy announced this week that for the first time in US history, renewable sources generated more electricity in 2022 than did coal. Renewables also outstripped nuclear power generation, for the second year in a row. In fact, renewables are even more productive of power than this report shows, since it only looks at utility-scale solar and leaves aside the electricity generated by rooftop solar panels. [Read More]
Civil Liberties/"The War on Terror"
(Video) Targeted by Surveillance: Julian Assange, WikiLeaks & Networked Repression
From Shadow Proof [March 25, 2023]
[FB – This informative panel features Stella Assange (Julian Assange's wife, Lawyer, UK) and Kevin Gosztola (Journalist, Dissenter Newsletter Editor, US).]
---- As an introduction to the film Ithaka, this panel describes the pervasive surveillance, monitoring and personal control that has oppressed Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for more than ten years, and discusses the conditions around Assange's incarceration at the Belmarsh high-security prison in the United Kingdom, where he has been imprisoned for four years, and faces indefinite detention, while the United States seeks his extradition to face a 175-year prison sentence. He is accused of receiving and publishing documents from Chelsea Manning which documented war crimes, extrajudicial killings and civilian casualties during the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. [See the Program] Also of interest: "From Media Outlet to 'Non-State Hostile Intelligence Service', by Kevin Gosztola, editor of The Dissenter [March 28, 2023]. [Link].
The U.S. Laws Preventing Boycotts of Israel
From WNYC Studios [March 31, 2023]
---- The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which calls for a boycott of the Israeli government and associated companies in protest of the country's military occupation and treatment of Palestinians, was started in 2005 by Palestinian civil society and quickly spread abroad. Israel created domestic policy that would prevent its citizens from boycotting companies operating within occupied Palestine. Just a few years later, versions of the anti-BDS law were popping up across state governments in the U.S. with a little help from the Israeli government. There are now 34 U.S. states with a version of the law. This week, guest host Ilya Marritz speaks with filmmaker Julia Bacha about her film, 'Boycott,' and how the anti-boycott laws spread and their implications for other boycott movements. [Listen to the Podcast]
The State of the Union
(Video) The Media Amplifies Bigotry But Ignores Working Class Organizing. That's By Design.
With Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-Director of the Poor People's Campaign [April 1, 2023]
---- In the midst of the largest strike wave in the US in a century, corporate media is more focused on amplifying the bigotry and fearmongering of right-wing politicians and their base than on covering working class movements. What is the role of media in upholding the status quo, and how can it be used to service people's movements instead of profits? This question lies at the heart of a long-ranging discussion between TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. [See the Program]
Israel/Palestine
Israeli Protesters Say They're Defending Freedom. Palestinians Know Better.
By Mohammed El-Kurd, Palestinian poet, now in the USA [March 30, 2023]
---- Following immense pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed his government's plan to weaken the Israeli Supreme Court. The self-proclaimed pro-"democracy" camp, which was protesting the plan so that the court could be saved from the grips of the pro-government camp for whom the judiciary is laughably "too leftist," has, for the moment, declared victory. But the pro-government camp also has reason to cheer; in exchange for his acquiescence to the delay, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was granted a long-sought "national guard," which would function as his own private militia. … As an insider observing this food fight, it is surreal to watch reporters and commentators promote the narrative that the government's Likud-Jewish Power-Religious Zionism coalition and the Supreme Court exist on extreme opposing ends of the political spectrum. Their differences, when it comes to how they rule over the lives of Palestinians, are purely cosmetic. In essence, one camp wants to eat with their hands while the other wants to mandate forks and knives, but in both scenarios, Palestinian rights will be devoured. [Read More]
Also of interest re: Israel/Palestine – (Podcast) "Unpacking Israel's Political Crisis," from Jewish Currents [March 30, 2023]; "Labs of Oppression: As Israelis Protest Mounting Authoritarianism, Apartheid Regime Over Palestinians Goes Unchallenged," by Alice Speri, The Intercept [[Link]; and "Israelis need to see through the biggest lie of all," by Marwan Bishara, Aljazeera [March 28, 2023] [Link].
Our History
FB - Tuesday, April 4th, is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. A brief account of the assassination conspiracy can be read here, an excerpt from the King Encyclopedia, a publication of the King Institute of Stanford University. Also of interest re: the background of King's assassination is story of the FBI's crusade to kill King. This trailer to the film "MLK/FBI" highlights some of the main stages to the FBI plot.
Also of interest on this MLK Anniversary
(Video) Martin Luther King Jr's Final Speech. "I've been to the Mountain top"
---- "I've Been to the Mountaintop" is the popular name of the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. On the following day, King was assassinated. The speech primarily concerns the Memphis Sanitation Strike. As he himself said, King was always more than "I Have a Dream." His other stances -- from economic justice to Vietnam -- are just more controversial. That doesn't mean that, 50 years after his historic march, they deserve to be forgotten. The total spectrum of his beliefs may not be as easy as "let freedom ring," but the full MLK was much larger than the safe-for-everyone caricature that is often presented today. [See the Video]
The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict has produced an excellent series of short documentary films showing "how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule." The film is called "A Force More Powerful," and the cases include India, the USA, South Africa, Denmark, Poland, and Chile. The USA case is about Nashville, TN in 1960 and the birth of the civil rights movement. This "case" begins at 26:16 in the presentation.
