Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
August 25, 2024
Hello All – This week's Democratic National Convention clarified the Kamala Harris presidential campaign's position on the Gaza war. In the weeks since Harris replaced Joe Biden as the Democrats' presidential candidate, people in the USA demanding an end to Israel's war on Gaza have debated whether Harris would continue the Biden policy of unconditional support for Israel, or whether she would be more sympathetic and even-handed towards Palestinians. Harris acceptance speech on Thursday night, and the Party's management of the Convention, made it clear that Harris will follow Biden and other Democratic presidents in supporting Israel and giving no more than lip service to Palestinian rights.
The demands of the antiwar movement have now focused on the slogan of "Not Another Bomb." That is, it is now longer sufficient for US political leaders to simply call for a ceasefire. This has become only lip-service. The demand now is for a commitment – and an implementation of that commitment – to stop providing bombs and weapons to Israel to continue its killing. Many experts believe that this would quickly force Israel to bring the war to an end. We don't know if this is true, but it would be an important first step to end the fighting.
The DNC this week made it clear that Biden/Harris is not likely to take such a step. Thus, for Americans opposed to US support for Israel's war on Gaza, our dilemma is clear: how can we agitate against the war while many Democrats sympathetic to our demands prioritize ignoring the war and defeating Trump? Our argument must be that opposing genocide is a prime directive for being human, AND that action (not just words) to stop the war will increase the likelihood of a Democratic win in November.
And a cease fire?
The negotiations now underway in Cairo may be the last chance for an early end to the fighting in Gaza. President Biden's team has been saying for several weeks that a ceasefire is "very close." Yet statements from both Hamas and Israel show that there are wide gaps of disagreement. How close are we really to a ceasefire?
At the end of May, President Biden proposed a 3-step plan to end the war that included a 6-week temporary ceasefire, then a 6-week period in which a permanent ceasefire would be established, and then a prolonged period of rebuilding Gaza. President Biden presented this as something that was co-authored by Israel. The proposal was approved by the UN Security Council, and Hamas accepted this framework at the beginning of July.
Talks became stalled in July, with disagreements emerging over important "details," especially Netanyahu's assertions that he would continue or resume the war whenever he wanted. Israel's assassination of Hamas' chief negotiator did not help. But the fear that Iran would retaliate against Israel for this killing prompted the USA and other negotiators to restart the talks in mid-August.
However, new sticking points have emerged: Hamas claims that Israel has inserted new demands into the peace proposal that would leave Israeli troops in occupation of three important sites in Gaza. (The importance of one of these sites – the "Philadelphi Corridor" – is described in a useful article linked below.) Thus it is possible that the gaps between Israel and Hamas will not be bridged. Today fighting seems to be escalating to the north of Israel, against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Unless and until the USA is willing to use its considerable leverage with Israel, the end of the Gaza war may be a long time coming.
The DNC and the War on Gaza
(Video) Thousands March on DNC in Chicago to Demand End to War on Gaza
From Democracy Now! [August 20, 2024]
---- On the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, Democracy Now! was on the streets of Chicago during the March on the DNC as thousands of protesters held a rally and march to call on Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party to end U.S. support for Israel amid its ongoing assault on Gaza. We bring you the voices of some of the protesters. [See the Program]
Biden's Gaza policy is a liability for Kamala Harris. She must break with Biden now
By Mehdi Hasan The Guardian [August 19, 2024]
---- What does she have to lose? As the Financial Times pointed out last month, the polling suggests there is "less downside" on Gaza than one might expect: "a Democrat who is soft on Israel (as Biden is seen as having been) loses support on the left, but a candidate who takes a more critical line wins those voters back without losing votes among moderates." A poll last week from YouGov and the IMEU Policy Project showed that over a third of voters in three swing states say they are more likely to vote for the Democratic nominee if they pledge to withhold weapons to Israel, while only 5 to 7% said they would be less likely to do so. [Read More]
The DNC Stays Committed to Silence on Gaza
By Emilio Leanza, The Progressive [August 22, 2024] ---- Abbas Alawieh waited for a phone call for three days. In press conference after press conference, each held near a heavily barricaded United Center Arena in Chicago, he explained to a crowd of reporters that, so far, top Democratic Party officials and members of the Harris campaign have refused to allow a Palestinian American to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Stuck in limbo, Alawieh kept his phone hooked to a portable charger tucked in a blazer pocket, so that he wouldn't miss the call if it ever arrived. But before the end of Wednesday night, it was confirmed: The DNC, despite making space earlier in the evening for the parents of an Israeli-American hostage held by Hamas, would not feature a Palestinian speaker. [Read More]
(Video) Uncommitted Delegates Launch Sit-In After DNC Rejects Request for a Palestinian Speaker at Convention
From Democracy Now! [August 22, 2024]
---- Delegates from the Uncommitted National Movement and their allies launched a sit-in protest Wednesday night outside the convention hall in Chicago after the DNC refused to honor their request to let a Palestinian American speak onstage, despite allowing family members of an Israeli American hostage to address the convention. We hear voices from the sit-in with uncommitted delegates and their allies. "Today I watched my party say, 'Our tent can fit anti-choice Republicans,' but it can't fit an elected official like me?" said Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, referring to convention addresses given by anti-Trump Republicans. Romman was among the list of speakers offered by the uncommitted movement that the DNC refused to allow on onstage. "We can't take no for an answer here," Minneapolis City Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, tells Democracy Now!. [See the Program].
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 make out your check to "Frank Brodhead," write "CFOW" on the memo line, and send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
Most of the weekly Rewards! for stalwart newsletter reader feature musical selections that I enjoy or find interesting. But not always. This week I hope you will like learning about (or learning more about) comic book genius Joe Sacco. Several of his books are about Gaza, including the acclaimed Footnotes on Gaza (2009). In January 2024 The Comics Journal began running a new series by Sacco, "The War on Gaza." Some amazing drawing and thinking. Check it out.
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Articles
How to Be Truly Free: Lessons From a Philosopher President [Pepe Mujica of Uruguay]
By Jack Nicas, New York Times [August 23, 2024]
---- A decade ago, the world had a brief fascination with José Mujica. He was the folksy president of Uruguay who had shunned his nation's presidential palace to live in a tiny tin-roof home with his wife and three-legged dog. In speeches to world leaders, interviews with foreign journalists and documentaries on Netflix, Pepe Mujica, as he is universally known, shared countless tales from a life story fit for film. He had robbed banks as a leftist urban guerrilla; survived 15 years as a prisoner, including by befriending a frog while kept in a hole in the ground; and helped lead the transformation of his small South American nation into one of the world's healthiest and most socially liberal democracies. [Read More] And about Pepe's comrade Lucia Topolansky, "Two Armed Rebels Who Led a Nation: A Love Story" [Read More]
The DNC Fiddles While the World Burns
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Code Pink [August 22, 2l024]
---- An Orwellian disconnect haunts the 2024 Democratic National Convention. In the isolation of the convention hall, shielded from the outside world behind thousands of armed police, few of the delegates seem to realize that their country is on the brink of direct involvement in major wars with Russia and Iran, either of which could escalate into World War III. Inside the hall, the mass slaughter in the Middle East and Ukraine are treated only as troublesome "issues," which "the greatest military in the history of the world" can surely deal with. In the real world, the most explosive flashpoint right now is the Middle East, where U.S. weapons and Israeli troops are slaughtering tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly children and families, at the bidding of Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu. [Read more]
(Video) Remembering TV Icon Phil Donahue: He Brought Antiwar Voices to the Airwaves Until MSNBC Fired Him
From Democracy Now! [August 20, 2024]
---- The acclaimed television host Phil Donahue died Sunday at the age of 88. Donahue's commitment to bringing major social and political issues to the American public spanned decades, a mission that was perhaps best encapsulated by his platforming of antiwar perspectives during the lead up to the Iraq War. He was fired in 2003 from his eponymous MSNBC talk show for doing so. In 2013, Democracy Now! spoke to Donahue about his firing. We play an excerpt from that interview and speak to journalist Jeff Cohen, who served as a senior producer on MSNBC's Donahue before its cancellation. "Phil was a progressive. He was for peace and justice. He exuded it. It's what made him tick," recalls Cohen. [Read More] Also of interest is "Fired by MSNBC for Giving Voice to Iraq War Opposition, Phil Donahue (1935-2024) Was Courage Personified," by Jeff Cohen, Common Dreams [Link].
The War on Gaza
(Video) What I Saw Was "Unfathomable": Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel
From Democracy Now! [August 21, 2024]
---- A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel's war on the territory. The press conference, taking place during the Democratic National Convention, was organized by the Uncommitted National Movement, which is pressuring Democrats for an end to blanket U.S. support for Israel. Among those who spoke was Dr. Ahmed Yousaf, who returned from Gaza just weeks earlier. "When we got to the hospital, everything I saw on TikTok and Instagram and all the television, all the stuff that we had in alternative media … it was 100 times worse than I could have ever imagined," he said. [See the Program]
The Politics of Water Under Occupation
By M. Reza Behnam, ZNet [August 22, 2024]
---- Israel's objective has always been to decrease the supply of water to Palestinians so that they will inevitably have to leave. … The catastrophic water crisis in Gaza today predates the October 2023 war. Israel's 16-year blockade contributed to severe water shortages. And potable water was hard to find after decades of Israeli invasions. With no surface sources of water, the coastal aquifer, on the brink of collapse, provided 81 percent of the enclave's supply. Three desalination plants and three Mekorot pipes provided the remainder. Families had to buy often questionable drinking water from street vendors at high prices. On 9 October 2023, Israel cut off the piped water it had been sending Gaza. Since Israel withdrew in 2005, it has conducted five major wars on the small densely-populated Strip, destroying much of its infrastructure. And for years, Gazans have lived with depleted, contaminated and salinated water because Israel has restricted the entry of construction and other materials like cement and iron needed to repair, maintain or develop the enclave's water infrastructure. [Read More]
Explained: Philadelphi and Netzarim, the Two 'Corridors' Blocking a Gaza-Israel Cease-fire
By Allison Kaplan Sommer, Haaretz [Israel] [August 21, 2024]
---- A deal between Israel and Hamas that could see hostages released and a cease-fire sealed – and possibly a regional war averted – has been paralyzed for months. Two small strips of land - the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border and the Netzarim corridor that bisects the Gaza Strip - are now seen as the main obstacles to an agreement. This week, with negotiations at a critical phase, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained his hard line, declaring, "Israel will not under any circumstances leave the Philadelphi corridor or the Netzarim corridor, despite the enormous pressure both at home and abroad." So where are these corridors and why are they so important to Israel? [Read More]
Also of Interest – "It's Ideology That Drives Netanyahu, Not Just Power," by Gideon Levy Haaretz [Israel] [August 25, 2024] [Link]; "Israel Will Collapse Within a Year if the War of Attrition Against Hamas and Hezbollah Continues," by Yitzhak Brik, Haaretz [Israel] [August 22, 2024] [Link]; and "Understanding Netanyahu's endgame in the war on Gaza," by Qassam Muaddi and Faris Giacaman, Mondoweiss [August 23, 2024] [Link].
The West Bank
Prolonging Genocide as a Smokescreen: On Israel's Other War in the West Bank
By Ramzy Baroud [August 22, 2024]
---- Promises of "absolute victory" in Gaza are nothing but "gibberish", according to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Gallant's comments were not meant to be public, but somehow were leaked and published by Israeli media on August 12. The explanation of why Netanyahu is pursuing a losing war in Gaza has been largely confined to the prime minister's personal interests: avoiding the outcome of his corruption trials, preserving his extremist government coalition and avoiding early elections. Still, none of these rationales explain the absurdity of continuing with a war, which, in the words of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is "the worst failure in Israel's history". What else could explain Netanyahu's motive behind the war? And why are his most crucial government allies, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich determined to prolong it? The answer may not lie in Gaza, but in the West Bank. While Israel is extending its failed military campaign in the Strip with no clear strategic objectives, its war on the West Bank is driven by clear strategic motives: the annexation of the West Bank and the ethnic cleansing of large sectors of the Palestinian population. [Read More] Also of interest is this editorial from Israel's leading liberal newspaper Haaretz, "Jewish Terror Has Exploded, and Nothing Is Standing in Its Way. It May Bring Israel Down" [August 25, 2024 [Link].
The Climate Crisis
What Would a Real Renewable Energy Transition Look Like?
By Richard Heinberg, Resilience.org [August 22, 2024]
---- The transition of society from fossil fuel dependency to reliance on low-carbon energy sources will be impossible to achieve without also reducing overall energy usage substantially and maintaining this lower rate of energy usage indefinitely. This transition isn't just about building lots of solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries. It is about organizing society differently so that is uses much less energy and gets whatever energy it uses from sources that can be sustained over the long run. … Even with a new social movement advocating for a real energy transition, there is no guarantee that civilization will emerge from this century of unraveling in a recognizable form. But we all need to understand: this is a fight for survival in which cooperation and sacrifice are required, just as in total war. Until we feel that level of shared urgency, there will be no real energy transition, and little prospect for a desirable human future. [Read More] Also of interest is the latest Global Newsletter from Extinction Rebellion, "The Biggest Death Project in Human History," [August 23, 2024] [Link].
The State of the Union
Healthcare for All Isn't on the Ballot This November, But It Should Be
By Sonali Kolhatkar Other Words [August 24, 2024]
---- All it took for Olympian Ariana Ramsey to call herself a "universal free healthcare advocate" was—unsurprisingly—a taste of free health care. The bronze-medalist rugby player, who represented the U.S. at the 2024 Paris games, posted Tik Tok videos of herself getting care at the Olympic Village. "The fact that I'm actually so excited to be getting free dental…!" she said incredulously, unable to finish her sentence. "This is going to be my new fight for action—free healthcare in America—period." While in Paris, Ramsey got a pap smear, eye exam, and eyeglasses all free of charge—and said she was "truly amazed" that such a thing was possible. Ramsey went viral for her endearing enthusiasm over a right that a majority of people in wealthy nations take for granted. … A majority of Americans report feeling dissatisfied with their access to healthcare. Millions turn to crowdfunding campaigns to ask family, friends, and random strangers to help them pay for unexpected care. But ahead of the 2024 presidential race, neither of the two major party nominees has offered a pathway for a universal, publicly funded healthcare system. [Link].
Our History
The Real Scandal of Campus Protest
By Erik Baker, Boston Review [April 25, 2024]
----One of the courses I teach is called "Science, Activism, and Political Conflict," and one of my ambitions with that course is to show students that both of these things—activism and political conflict—are normal in science, and in academic life more generally. That's a theme that we like to emphasize when speaking in "defense" of student protest. It's part of a storied tradition, it's respectable, it's normal. But in order to explain why I think what you all are doing is so important, I want to start today by saying that actually, student protest is nowhere near normal enough in the history of higher education in this country. The real scandal is not that there has been student protest. It is that there has not been much, much more of it. … The fundamental historical reality is that mass student protest—especially at elite schools like this one—is a relatively recent phenomenon and a product of the belated and incomplete diversification of American universities that began after World War II. All of a sudden there were students on campus who didn't have any reason to accept their institutions' historic commitment to oppressive hierarchies. In some cases, they even came from the very communities who were victimized by the violence that universities profited from materially and supported ideologically. And they revolted. [Read More]
