Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
May 5, 2024
Hello All – For a few brief moments it appeared that a ceasefire for Gaza was in reach. On Friday Hamas accepted the plan put forward by negotiators from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States. Quite complex, the plan had many moving parts, foreseeing a ceasefire over many weeks with the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners taking place in three stages. Details about Who? How? and When? were laid out in the plan, which required a ceasefire to be implemented. Over the weekend, however, Israel failed to send a delegation to the Cairo negotiations, and today the Hamas negotiating team left Cairo. Whether the talks can be continued/resuscitated remains to be seen; but Friday night's optimism and turned into Sunday's despair.
The breaking point in the ceasefire negotiations was the insistence by Prime Minister Netanyahu that the invasion of Rafah – the southernmost city in Gaza and the home now to 1.5 million refugees from northern and central Gaza – would continue, whether there was a "ceasefire" or not. Needless to say, this made the ceasefire and prisoner-swap plan dead in the water. We know that Netanyahu's rejection of anything that would prevent the military assault on Rafah is not simply a personal thing; without the invasion, the two far right-wing members of his cabinet would leave the government, which would then no longer have a parliamentary majority, and if new elections ensued Netanyahu himself would be out of a job and on his way (probably) to prison.
The invasion of Rafah is expected to result in many thousands of civilian casualties. It is for this reason that President Biden once made this a "red line," beyond which Israel must not go; but this red line seems now to have been demoted to stern finger-wagging. Another consequence of the Rafah invasion is the likely death of all the remaining Israel hostages, most of whom are thought by US intelligence agencies, according to the Wall Street Journal, to be already dead. And today the head of the World Food Program, the American Cindy McCain, announced that the people in northern Gaza were enduring a "full-blown famine." In doing so she became the highest profile international office to do so. The invasion of Rafah will make supplying food to the north of Gaza impossible.
The coming weeks will provide a challenge to US peace activists if the ceasefire negotiations in Cairo do not succeed, or if the Rafah invasion is not stopped. The Biden administration will almost certainly blame the failure of the peace talks on Hamas, thereby washing its hands of any responsibility for the ensuing slaughter in Rafah. "Hamas brought this on themselves," will be the theme of Biden and the mainstream media. And the effort to counter this media narrative will be very difficult, with "anti-semitism" weaponized to stifle dissent.
Of course we have been here before. During the Vietnam war, starting with the massive troop build up in 1965, each escalation was preceded by a phony 'search-for-peace," with the National Liberation Front or the North Vietnamese held responsible for the failure of "negotiations" – in reality, for not agreeing to surrender – and thus the extension and intensification of bomb, etc. was done in sorrow by the Johnson and Nixon people, who had hoped only for peace. Congress and the media understood: we had no choice. Will this sad story repeat itself?
Perspectives on the Gaza Crisis
(Video) "This Militaristic Approach Has Been a Failure": Meet Hala Rharrit, First U.S. Diplomat to Quit over Gaza
From Democracy Now! [May 3, 2024]
---- Democracy Now! speaks with Hala Rharrit, the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration's policies backing Israel's assault and siege of the Gaza Strip. Rharrit is an 18-year career diplomat who served as the Arabic-language spokesperson for the State Department in the region. "I could no longer be a part of the State Department and promote this policy. It's an inhumane policy. It's a failed policy that is helping neither Palestinians, neither Israelis," Rharrit says. "We are not authorized to send military equipment, weapons to countries that commit human rights abuses. ICJ has determined plausible genocide, yet we are still sending billions upon billions of not just defensive weaponry, but offensive weaponry. It is tantamount to a violation of domestic law. Many diplomats know it. Many diplomats are scared to say it." [See the Program]
The Distortion of Campus Protests over Gaza
By Columbia Professor Helen Benedict, Tom Dispatch [April 28, 2024]
---- Helicopters have been throbbing overhead for days now. Nights, too. Police are swarming the streets of Broadway, many in riot gear. Police vans, some as big as a city bus, are lined up along side streets and Broadway. … Those protesters who have been so demonized, for whom the riot police are waiting outside — the same kinds of students Columbia University's president, Minouche Shafik, invited the police to arrest, zip-tie, and cart away on April 18th — are mostly undergraduate women, along with a smaller number of undergraduate men, 18 to 20 years old, standing up for what they have a right to stand up for: their beliefs. … As a tenured professor at Columbia's Journalism School, I've been watching the student protests ever since the brutal Hamas attack of October 7th, and I've been struck by the decorum of the protesting students, as angry and upset as they are on both sides. This has particularly impressed me knowing that several students are directly affected by the ongoing war. I have a Jewish student who has lost family and friends to the attack by Hamas, and a Palestinian student who learned of the deaths of her family and friends in Gaza while she was sitting in my class. [Read More]
Inside the Biden administration sham to convince the world Netanyahu wants a ceasefire
By Mitchell Plitnick, Mondoweiss [May 5, 2024]
---- The shameless cover the United States has extended for Israel has taken on new dimensions of theatrics as pressure grows for Joe Biden to put a stop to the genocidal slaughter that has been going on in Gaza for seven months now. Biden has shifted his public image, going from unbridled support for every Israeli atrocity to a transparently phony appearance of trying to "restrain" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, Biden has not let up one iota in his absolute support for everything Israel has done up to this point. The change in rhetoric was wholly insincere, a response not to Israel's crimes but to Biden's people finally getting it through his head that he was jeopardizing his re-election chances by unconditionally supporting Netanyahu's genocidal onslaught. Thus, he put on more of a sympathetic face, but did not make a single change in policy. [Read More]
The Bowman Campaign
FB – The Bowman campaign is now focusing on voter education, and on door-knocking and phone-banking to remind voters about the June 25th primary election. Yesterday CFOW stalwarts passed out leaflets about Bowman & the primary at Hastings farmers market, with good results. If you would like to get involved in the Bowman for Congress campaign, please send a return email or contact the Bowman campaign. Representative Bowman's challenger is County Executive George Latimer. At the outset, Latimer's campaign was initiated and has been heavily supported by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, the most powerful lobby in the US. This week we learned that candidate Latimer has received more money since January 1, 2023 from AIPAC than any other political candidate in the US - $1,317,454 [Link]. Here is a useful overview of AIPAC's strategy and tactics to subvert democracy in this election:
AIPAC's Next Top Target? Rep. Jamaal Bowman
By Akela Lacy, The Intercept [May 3, 2024]
---- The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is expected to launch its first ads in the coming weeks against its next top target this cycle: Rep. Jamaal Bowman in New York's 16th Congressional District. AIPAC's super PAC, United Democracy Project, is expected to run new ads against Bowman, a member of the progressive "Squad," as the Democratic primary election for the solidly blue House seat approaches next month, according to Bowman's campaign and another source with knowledge of the race."We've heard from inside sources that AIPAC is planning to spend up to $25 million dollars against Congressman Bowman, making this the most expensive House primary in U.S. history," Bowman campaign manager Gabe Tobias said in a statement to The Intercept. [Read More]
News Notes
Last week the US House of Representatives passed an absurd Resolution "defining" antisemitism. You can read the Resolution here. (The Resolution, which passed by a sizeable majority in the House, was opposed by 70 Democrats, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, "the Squad," and centrist Democrat Jerrold Nadler of NYC.) The Resolution enshrines into law the "IHRA Statement," beloved by some because it uses the term "criticism of Israel" in one of its examples of potential antisemitism. This use of the IHRA definition has been rejected by the actual author of the definition, Kenneth Stern, now a professor at Bard College. People serious about trying to define antisemitism prefer the Jerusalem Declaration, supported by hundreds of scholars and issued in March 2021. Today the news program/network Aljazeera was been banned from operating in Israel by the Netanyahu government. One of the most widely watched news outlets in the world, with broadcasting in both Arabic and English, the network is the only news programming in English with journalists in Gaza itself. (On the day celebrating World Press Freedom this week, Israel had killed more than 140 journalists since October 7th.) For viewers of Aljazeera English, this means that we will no longer having any viewing & reporting from inside Israel itself. (The banning of Aljazeera in the West Bank and East Jerusalem will be the work of the Israeli military – a different "legal" system operates in the Occupied Territories.) At a time when the Israeli government is on the verge of collapse, and tens of thousands are rallying against the government, this is a significant loss; but so far I don't believe the reporting from Gaza itself will be affected. An Aljazeera journalist made a pre-recorded statement in anticipation of the shut down, explaining some of the consequences of Israel's action; and some interpretation of Israel's motives in blocking Aljazeera reporting can be seen in this short clip
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 Mondays 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
The CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
Letter to Columbia President Minouche Shafik
By Robin D. G. Kelley, Boston Review [April 29, 2024]
[FB – Robin Kelley is one of our most insightful and interesting historians. He is now at UCLA and was formerly a teacher at Columbia.]
Dear President Nemat Minouche Shafik,
---- As a former Columbia University faculty member and father of a Columbia graduate (PhD '21), I am quite frankly appalled by your draconian, unethical, illegal, and dishonest actions toward your own students and faculty. … You've been condemned by your faculty, by the majority of students, and by scholars and human rights activists around the world. You are keeping no one safe, except for your donors, trustees, and Columbia's endowment. Among these same trustees and donors are persons who have vowed to punish these students by blocking them from future employment. … As the courageous students you had arrested and suspended have been saying, it is a much darker day for the people of Palestine. [Read More]
The Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez You Don't Know
By Gaby Del Valle, New York Times [May 4, 2024]
---- Since 2016, there have been two competing visions for the Democratic Party. One is the promise that began with Barack Obama of a multiracial coalition that would grow stronger as America's demographics shifted; the other is the political revolution championed by Bernie Sanders as a way to unite nonvoters with the working class. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez bridges the gap between the two. The dream for Democrats is that one day, she or someone like her could emerge from the backbench to bring new voters into the party, forging a coalition that can win election after election. It's too early to tell whether she has what it takes to pull that off. But what's clear is that at a time when Democrats are struggling, she is quietly laying the groundwork to build a coalition broader than the one she came to power with, unafraid to take risks along the way. [Read More]
The Student Uprising
What's Really Happening on College Campuses, According to Student Journalists
By Catherine Kim, Politico [May 3, 2024]
---- Over 50 schools. Nearly 2,000 arrests. One canceled graduation ceremony — so far. We're in the midst of the most widespread campus unrest since the 1960s, sparked by the war between Israel and Hamas. Over the last two weeks, campus protests have escalated, with pro-Palestinian tent encampments set up in public spaces, triggering counterprotests and, on more than 30 campuses, clashes with police. With so many incidents taking place in so many places, it's hard for anyone to grasp what's really happening at America's universities right now. So POLITICO Magazine reached out this week to top student journalists, who have been reporting on the turmoil at the ground level for weeks and months. As neutral observers able to interact with all sides, they can provide unique insights, even as they watch friends get arrested or worry if their graduation ceremonies will even take place. [Read More] Also of interest – From Jewish Voice for Peace, "Will they crush the biggest student movement since Vietnam?" [May 1, 2024] [Link].
(Video) Israeli Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov on Campus Protests, Weaponizing Antisemitism & Silencing Dissent
From Democracy Now! [April 30, 2024]
---- As Biden administration and U.S. college and university administrators increasingly accuse peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters on school campuses of antisemitism, we speak with Brown University professor of Holocaust and genocide studies Omer Bartov, who visited the student Gaza solidarity encampment at UPenn alongside fellow Israeli historian Raz Segal. "There was absolutely no sign of any violence, of any antisemitism at all," says Bartov, who warns antisemitism is being used to silence speech about Israel. "There's politics, and there's prejudice. And if we don't make a distinction between the two, then what we are actually doing is enforcing a kind of silence over the policies that have been conducted by the Israeli government for a long time that ultimately culminated now in the utter destruction of Gaza." [See the Program] Also of interest - (Video) "Juan González, Veteran of '68 Columbia Strike, Condemns University Leaders' Silence on Gaza Slaughter," from Democracy Now! [May 1, 2024] [Link]; "This Is How Power Protects Itself," by Jack Mirkinson, The Nation [May 1, 2024] [Link]; and "I've Covered Violent Crackdowns on Protests for 15 Years. This Police Overreaction Was Unhinged," by Natasha Lennard, The Intercept [May 1, 2024] [Link].
The War in Gaza
Let Israel's Leaders Get Arrested for War Crimes
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [May 5, 2024]
---- Every Israeli patriot and everyone who cares about the good of the state should wish for this. This is the only way that Israel's moral standard, according to which it is permitted everything, will change. It is not easy to hope for the arrest of the heads of your state and your army, and even more difficult to admit it publicly, but is there any other way to stop them? The killing and destruction in Gaza has gotten Israel in way over its head. It is the worst catastrophe the state has ever faced. Someone led it there – no, not antisemitism, but rather its leaders and military officers. If not for them, it wouldn't have turned so quickly after October 7 from a cherished country that inspired compassion into a pariah state. [Read More]
Palestinian Voices
We've shown Gaza's suffering for over 200 days. Don't look away now
By Mohammed R. Mhawish, +972 Magazine [Israel/Palestine] [May 3, 2024]
---- As Israel's cruel war on Gaza surpasses 200 days, the toll it inflicts on the Palestinian people grows ever deeper. Both the land and population of the besieged Strip have been obliterated to a degree not seen since the Nakba of 1948. Famine and malnutrition have tightened their grip, leaving hundreds of thousands of families in the north and south desperate for food and medical aid as they attempt desperately to flee the bombing campaign that hasn't ceased since October. … And yet, despite this dire situation, the world's attention is turning away. The international community seems to be growing increasingly indifferent to our torment. It is painful to see how our identity has condemned us to disproportionate suffering and being treated as less than human by those beyond our borders. [Read More]
The Mainstream Media on the War
[FB] - The website of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) covers closely the way the mainstream media report and distort the news. This is certainly the case in reporting on campus protests against the war on Gaza. While "news bias" exists everywhere, the goal of readers and analysts is to discover and explain the nature and the sources of bias, thus allowing us to read between the lines or to find useful information amidst the drivel. FAIR published two useful articles this week: "As Peace Protests Are Violently Suppressed, CNN Paints Them as Hate Rallies," by Julie Hollar [May 3, 2024] [Link]; and "Divestment Can't Work, Media Tell Protesters—Even Though It Has," by Jim Naureckas [May 2, 2024] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
Eco-Collapse Hasn't Happened Yet, But You Can See It Coming
By Stan Cox, Tom Dispatch [May 1, 2024]
---- Something must be up. Otherwise, why would scientists keep sending us those scary warnings? There has been a steady stream of them in the past few years, including "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency" (signed by 15,000 of them), "Scientists' Warning Against the Society of Waste," "Scientists' Warning of an Imperiled Ocean," "Scientists' Warning on Technology," "Scientists' Warning on Affluence," "Climate Change and the Threat to Civilization," and even "The Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future." Clearly, there's big trouble ahead and we won't be able to say that no one saw it coming. In fact, a warning of ecological calamity that made headlines more than 50 years ago is looking all too frighteningly prescient right now. [Read More]
Civil Liberties
(Video) World Press Freedom Day [Julian Assange]
A discussion with Jeremy Corbyn and Stella Assange [May 4, 2024] – 23 minutes
---- A discussion of the political persecution of the publisher Julian Assange, his trial, its wider implications for journalism around the world. [See the Program]
The State of the Union
How Police Became Paramilitaries
By Michael Shank, New York Review of Books [June 3, 2020]
[FB – This article was written during/in response to the police attacks on the Black Lives Matter movements, following the murder of George Floyd. Many of the features of police action at that time are being replayed by police attacks on student protests today.]
---- Military might has always paraded in America's streets. But it wasn't until this century that it became an often daily presence. In the 2000s, local law enforcement agencies began to adopt the type of military equipment more frequently used in a war zone: everything from armored personnel carriers and tanks, with 360-degree rotating machine gun turrets, to grenade launchers, drones, assault weapons, and more. Today, billions of dollars' worth of military equipment—most used, some new—has been transferred to civilian police departments. As the ACLU has documented, this has led to the militarization of American policing. … The Black Lives Matter movement is calling for the divestment and defunding of national police forces, a petition that is quickly picking up steam. But the work of disarming, demobilizing, and reintegrating the law enforcement combatants will have to take place at a local level—between citizens and the police who are charged with protecting public safety—while recognizing how vastly different various communities' experiences of the police are. [Read More]
Our History
Why Black Marxism, Why Now?
By Robin D. G. Kelley, Boston Review [February 1, 2021]
[FB – Today (May 5, 1818) is the birthday of Karl Marx. In celebration, posted here is an essay by one of our best historians, Robin Kelley, about an important strain in modern Marxist thinking called "Racial Capitalism." – That is, how might a capitalist society built on the foundations of slavery differ (or not differ) from the capitalist world built in "free labor" England, the main framework of Marx's Capital.]
---- The inspiration to bring out a new edition of Cedric Robinson's classic, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, came from the estimated 26 million people who took to the streets during the spring and summer of 2020 to protest the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many others who lost their lives to the police. During this time, the world bore witness to the Black radical tradition in motion, driving what was arguably the most dynamic mass rebellion against state-sanctioned violence and racial capitalism we have seen in North America since the 1960s—maybe the 1860s. … What we are witnessing now, across the country and around the world, is a struggle to interrupt historical processes leading to catastrophe. These struggles are not doomed, nor are they guaranteed. Thanks in no small measure to this book, we fight with greater clarity, with a more expansive conception of the task before us, and with ever more questions. Cedric reminded us repeatedly that the forces we face are not as strong as we think. They are held together by guns, tanks, and fictions. They can be disassembled, though that is easier said than done. In the meantime, we need to be prepared to fight for our collective lives. [Read More]
