Monday is Veterans Day. It will be celebrated with patriotic events throughout the Rivertowns and across the USA. “Veterans Day” was once “Armistice Day’,” marking the moment in 1918 that ended the fighting in the Fort World War. Today, Israel’s war on Gaza urgently needs an Armistice. In the final ten week in the presidency, the Biden administration must work to make this happen.
Can anything move the Biden administration to withdraw its blank check for Israel, which has killed more than 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza? Even as last week’s presidential election draw near and then was upon us, Biden and Harris refused to make any concessions to the millions of Americans demanding an end to US support for Israel’s genocide. We do not know yet to what extent the failure to make any concession to those urging an end to the war affected the outcome, but legal expert Marjorie Cohn offered a first draft of the evidence in her recent article, “Palestine was a Top Concern for Many Voters – Harris Refused to Listen to Them” [Link]. Similarly, in an article published in The New York Times two days after the election, Peter Beinart argued that “Democrats Ignored Gaza and Brought Down Their Party” [Link]. The Democrats’ commitment to Israel’s war, even as the presidential election hung in the balance, indicates the stranglehold that Israel and its supports have on our democracy.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 100,000 Palestinians. UN reports last Friday say that 70 percent of those killed are women and children, and that 80 percent of those killed died in residential buildings. Another UN report last Friday highlighted the famine now sweeping Gaza, where – especially in northern Gaza – Israel has blocked food and medicine from reaching people. Yesterday’s New York Times summarized the UN report:
“[The UN report] said on Friday that 13 months of war had created “an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine” because of the “rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.” The panel, which includes major relief agencies, warned that action was needed “within days, not weeks” to alleviate the immense suffering in the enclave. Last month, the panel said that conditions in Gaza had improved from May to August because of a surge of humanitarian assistance, but that the gains had largely been reversed since.”
The Times also noted that the Biden administration has pledged to take action against Israel if it refused to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza:
“The Friday warning came days before the mid-November deadline set by the Biden administration last month, when it demanded that Israel improve the flow of aid to Gaza’s 2.2 million residents. The administration warned that failure to provide more aid “may have implications for U.S. policy,” including on the provision of the military assistance upon which Israel depends.” [Link]
Bombs, disease, and now famine compose the genocide now being unleashed on the people of Gaza. As the war has reached its 400th day, the people of the world – and especially Americans – are called on to demand that Israel stop the war and the people of Gaza be allowed to live.
[FURTHER READING]
The North of Gaza Is an Open Graveyard
By Ezzideen Shehab, The Nation [November 1, 2024]
---- As the world watches, Palestinians in Gaza are living through a deliberately engineered humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions that worsens by the hour. In recent weeks, Israel has imposed a total siege of northern Gaza and intensified its bombardment here, with reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is implementing a policy of starvation to force the remaining Palestinians south. Israel has already laid waste to much of Gaza, but if the international community does not act immediately, there will be nothing and no one remaining in the north. [Read More]
(Video) End the Arms: Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland Urges U.S. to Stop Arming Israel Before Trump Takes Office
From Democracy Now! [November 8, 2024]
---- At least 1,800 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children, since October, when Israel imposed a draconian siege and began an intensified campaign of ethnic cleansing on northern Gaza. Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council recently spent several days in Gaza. He describes what he saw as “devastation beyond belief,” as Palestinians face “the most intense and most indiscriminate bombardment anywhere in the world in recent memory,” coupled with the utter depletion of aid. Egeland pleads for the United States, the largest supplier of military funding and equipment to Israel, to condition its weapons to Israel, enforce the provision of aid and commit to ending Israel’s assault. [Read More]
‘Strong likelihood’ of imminent famine in north Gaza: Food security experts
From Aljazeera [November 9, 2024]
---- There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza, according to a committee of global food security experts, as Israeli forces press on with a major offensive in the area. “Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert on Friday. The warning comes just days before a United States deadline for Israel, which started its offensive in the north of the enclave last month, to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid. [Read More]
ELECTION 2024 FINISHED AT LAST
Sanders Slams 'Big Money Interests' and Consultants That Control Democratic Party After Loss to Trump
By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams [November 6, 2024]
---- Shortly before Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her concession speech, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders forcefully called out Democratic Party leadership for losing the White House and at least one chamber of Congress to Republicans. "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them," Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. …In Sanders' new statement, he highlighted U.S. income and wealth inequality, worker concerns about artificial intelligence, and the federal government's failure to provide paid leave and universal healthcare while pouring billions of dollars into Israel's war on the Gaza Strip. [Read More]
There’s No Denying It Anymore: Trump Is Not a Fluke—He’s America
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [November 7, 2024]
---- America deserves everything it is about to get. We had a chance to stand united against fascism, authoritarianism, racism, and bigotry, but we did not. We had a chance to create a better world for not just ourselves but our sisters and brothers in at least some of the communities most vulnerable to unchecked white rule, but we did not. We had a chance to pass down a better, safer, and cleaner world to our children, but we did not. ... America did this. America, through the process of a free and fair election, demanded this. America, as an idea, concept, and institution, wanted this. And America, as a collective, deserves to get what it wants. [Read More]
(Video) Democrats Abandoned the Working Class: Robin D.G. Kelley on Trump’s Win & Need for Class Solidarity
From Democracy Now! [November 7, 2024]
---- We speak with historian Robin D. G. Kelley about the roots of Donald Trump’s election victory and the decline of Democratic support among many of the party’s traditional constituencies. Kelley says he agrees with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who said Democrats have “abandoned” working-class people. “There was really no program to focus on the actual suffering of working people across the board,” Kelley says of the Harris campaign. He says the highly individualistic, neoliberal culture of the United States makes it difficult to organize along class lines and reject the appeal of authoritarians like Trump. “Solidarity is what’s missing — the sense that we, as a class, have to protect each other.” [See the Program]
NEWS NOTE - AMSTERDAM
The Amsterdam Attack Shows Israelis' Denial of the Reality They Created
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [November 10, 2024]
---- An anti-Israeli wind blew in Amsterdam Thursday, and that's what ignited the pogrom. The North African immigrants, the Arabs and the Dutch people who rioted saw the horrors in Gaza over the past year. They are not willing to remain silent about them. [Read More] ALSO OF INTEREST IS “No, there were no ‘anti-Semitic pogroms’ in Amsterdam. Here’s what really happened,” by Sana Saeed, Mondoweiss [November 9, 2024] [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 the first Monday of the month 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!
Best Wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW WEEKLY READER
FEATURED ESSAYS
Authoritarians like Trump love fear, defeatism, surrender. Do not give them what they want
By Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian [UK] [November 9, 2024]
---- Here we are in a crisis in which almost everything we love is going to be under siege in the US in ways that will affect the world in many ways. Most of all this will be because a Trump administration is going to go to war on climate action domestically and internationally – on nature itself and the ways we protect it and thereby protect the systems on which human life depends. I was asked to talk about hope. First of all, hope does not mean saying this is not bad, and it does not mean saying that we can defeat it. It just means saying we will keep showing up. That we will not give up. That we will assess our powers and weaknesses and recognise that the future we face looks grim, but we do not know how it will unfold, and neither do those we oppose. How it will unfold depends in no small part on what we do. People too often think hope is smiles and sunshine, when it’s fury in the face of danger and oppression, and pressing on in the storm. [Read More]
A New Age of Presidential Unilaterism?
By Karen J. Greenberg, Counterpunch [November 8, 2024]
---- As the dust settles over Election Day, it’s worth reflecting that it’s not only the election results that have been at stake, but the future of the presidency and its powers. Over the course of the first quarter of this century, the American presidency has accumulated ever more power, rendering the office increasingly less constrained by either Congress or the courts. With Donald Trump’s reelection, the slide toward a dangerously empowered president has reached a moment of reckoning, particularly when it comes to foreign affairs and warfare. … The growing power of the presidency has been taking place in plain view, as unilateral powers have accumulated decade after decade in the Oval Office, while the recent choice of president has also become a grim choice about the nature and powers of the presidency itself. Notably, the rise in executive powers has coincided with a creeping distrust of government in this country. … Sadly, in this era, the benefits of restoring the very notion of checks and balances that birthed the nation have come to seem ever more like a quaint dream. [Read More]
Walking Along the Border on Election Day
By Todd Miller, Counterpunch [November 8, 2024]
---- Near the DeConcini port of entry, I passed a man who strummed a mandolin and sang “La Llorona” with the voice of an opera singer. The song stopped me in my tracks, and I listened with complete attention. Then I began to jot down inspired notes about how hope doesn’t lie with the politicians from the upper echelons but rather from below, in art, in conversation, in song, in graffiti, in normal everyday people. I have heard “La Llorona” hundreds of times before, but this rendition soared, and I realized I was seeking something much more than an election assessment. I was searching for the source of change, how things really move, how they transform. It usually does not come from above, but from below, like a passionate song. [Read More]
The Other Great Depression
By Kristen R Ghodsee, Le Monde diplomatique [France] [November 2024]
---- In 1989, East German youth tore down the Berlin Wall, dreaming of freedom and prosperity. However, the reform programme that was soon imposed on them had devastating effects, comparable to those of war. … It began 35 years ago, in November 1989, when jubilant crowds climbed a Berlin Wall rendered suddenly irrelevant. From Poland to Bulgaria, communist regimes toppled. Formerly autocratic states held free and fair elections. And in December 1991, the Soviet flag flew for the last time above the Kremlin. The cold war was coming to an unexpected end: it was a time of great optimism for a more prosperous future. … Things did not go as planned. What followed in the majority of these former socialist countries was an economic decline longer and deeper than the Great Depression of the 1930s, an absolutely devastating upheaval in the lives of about 420 million people, or about 9% of the world’s population in 1989. Whether measured by the fall in economic output, the explosion of hyperinflation, the collapse of birth rates, the sudden growth of inequality and violent crime, or the massive increases in unemployment, displacement and excess deaths linked to the neoliberal policies, the human collateral damage of the creation of market economies was unprecedented in peacetime. [Read More]
THE WAR ON GAZA
A Gaza child’s last will
By Asem Alnabih, Aljazeera 3 Nov 2024
---- My 10-year-old niece was killed by an Israeli bomb. Before she died, she decided to write a will. - “My will, if I become a martyr or pass away: Please do not cry for me, because your tears cause me pain. I hope my clothes will be given to those in need. My accessories should be shared between Rahaf, Sara, Judy, Lana, and Batool. My bead kits should go to Ahmed and Rahaf. My monthly allowance, 50 shekels, 25 to Rahaf and 25 to Ahmed. My stories and notebooks to Rahaf. My toys to Batool. And please, do not yell at my brother Ahmed, please follow these wishes.” … No one in the family knew anything about a will from my 10-year-old niece Rasha, not until after we buried her in the same grave as her brother, Ahmed, aged 11, with half their faces gone as a result of an Israeli air strike on their home on September 30. [Read More]
The Israeli army admitted it’s staying in north Gaza. Here’s the next phase of its plan.
By Tareq S. Hajjaj, Mondoweiss [November 8, 2024]
---- Ever since the Israeli army launched its assault on northern Gaza on October 5 last month, it has now become clear that Israel has been implementing the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” a proposal put forward by a group of senior Israeli military officials based on the vision of retired Israeli general Giora Eiland. In the early months of the war on Gaza, Eiland penned an Op-Ed making the case that the strip’s northern governorate — the area north of Gaza City comprising Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun — should be emptied of all civilians through mass displacement and deliberate starvation. Anyone who remained would be considered an enemy combatant and would either be killed or starved to death, as Eiland said that no food or humanitarian aid would be allowed to enter north Gaza. … Last month, the United Nations estimated that some 400,000 civilians were unable or unwilling to comply with Israeli evacuation orders. As the army continues to operate in the north, the now estimated 80,000 people in the north are under threat of extermination. [Read More]
Criminalizing UNRWA: How Israel is delegitimizing the United Nations
By Ramzy Baroud, ZNet [November 7, 2024]
---- On October 28, the Israeli Knesset passed a second reading of two bills that effectively ban the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) from carrying out “any activity” in Israel and occupied Palestine. Simply put, the decision is catastrophic, because UNRWA is the main international body responsible for the welfare of millions of Palestinians throughout the occupied territories, and throughout much of the region. … According to Tel Aviv’s thinking, UNRWA’s existence is a constant reminder that there is a distinct group of people called Palestinian refugees. And though UNRWA is not a political organization, the Palestinian refugee crisis and all related UN resolutions that emphasize the ‘inalienable’ rights of these refugees are very political. [Read More]
THE WEST BANK
No Other Land and the Brutal Truth of Israel’s Occupation
By Ahmed Moor, The Nation [November 4, 2024]
---- The film showcases the banality of “service” in the occupation: The men and women of the Israeli army are shown milling about or growing apoplectic at Palestinian children, even as they commit war crimes in the West Bank. Israel’s script in the region is well-known and well-rehearsed: The army—which governs Palestinian life—declares an area of land closed to Palestinians in order to conduct live training exercises; then, settlers are invited to erect their encampments in the “military zone.” The whole show, which has resulted in the presence of more than 700,000 settlers in colonies across the West Bank, amounts to a countrywide grand larceny. Meanwhile, Israeli courts have been used to launder the proceeds—and the biggest fence is the one draped in legal robes. [Read More]
THE WAR ON LEBANON
Prepping Readers to Accept Mass Slaughter in Lebanese ‘Strongholds’
By Belén Fernández, FAIR [November 9, 2024]
---- From October 2023 through November 5, more than 3,000 people have been slaughtered in the country—among them 589 women and at least 185 children. The vast majority were killed in September through November of 2024, when Israel ramped up its assault on Lebanese territory as a sideshow to the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. More than 800,000 people have been displaced. Muhaybib has literally been blown up in its entirety, and much of Shaqra has been pulverized as well. Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of all buildings along the entire southern border. And while the United States newspaper of record and other Western corporate media outlets have not exactly been preemptively calling in the strikes, they have nonetheless done a fine job of legitimizing mass killing, displacement and destruction in other ways. … When Israel in September staged an unprecedented terrorist attack in Lebanon by detonating personal electronic devices across the country — killing 12 people, including two children—CNN (9/17/24) spun the episode thusly: “Exploding Pagers Injure Members of Iran-Backed Terror Group.” [Read More]
THE WAR IN UKRAINE
US Sending Ukraine New $425 Million Weapons Package
By Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com [November 3, 2024]
—— The Pentagon announced on Friday [November 1] that it was sending Ukraine a new weapons package worth $425 million, which includes HIMARS ammunition, air defenses, artillery rounds, and other equipment. The new military aid comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging his Western backers to adopt his so-called “Victory Plan,” which calls for major escalations, including the provision of Tomahawk missiles. But there’s no sign the US and NATO are willing to take those steps. Despite the lack of a path toward a Ukrainian victory, the US continues to pour weapons into the conflict. … The Pentagon also released a fact sheet that said the Biden administration has committed $60.4 billion in weapons for Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022. Factoring in other types of assistance and all the Ukraine spending in the $95 billion foreign military aid bill President Biden signed into law back in April, the proxy war has cost US taxpayers at least $186 billion so far. [Read More]
THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Anti-Protest Laws Won’t Silence Climate Activists
By Stan Cox, The Nation [November 6, 2024]
---- Nonviolent, nondestructive climate protest is increasingly being subjected to criminal prosecution, while punishments are being ratcheted up to levels befitting violent and far more serious crimes. Across the Global South, such environmental protests are all too often being met by corporate and state forces with extreme extrajudicial violence, especially in Indigenous communities. Here in the Global North, however, the clampdown on protest has largely been through legal action, at least so far. But that might—especially in an America with Donald Trump as its president again—only be a prelude to more violent kinds of suppression as global warming accelerates. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES
Trump Might Get Unfettered Surveillance Powers. How Did We Get Here?
By Matt Sledge, The Intercept [November 5 2024]
---- Privacy advocates have warned since Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013 that the government’s surveillance tools could be misused by presidents of any stripe. In the intervening decade, however, Congress has failed to rein in those powers. Now, Trump is preparing to retake office with a plan that includes deploying the military on domestic enemies. He would have at his disposal a program that compels American companies to cooperate with the National Security Agency, rules for “foreign” surveillance that changed at the stroke of a pen, and data peddlers who sell location information to the government. … Beyond the programs that privacy advocates are already concerned about are the ones that haven’t yet come to light. Advocates noted that the Snowden revelations shocked the same members of Congress who had voted for the laws authorizing the surveillance, and that the George W. Bush administration used twisted legal interpretations to justify domestic surveillance for years before being exposed. [Read More] ALSO OF INTEREST IS “Congress Is About to Gift Trump Sweeping Powers to Crush His Political Enemies,” by Noah Hurowitz, The Intercept [November 10 2024] [Link]
OUR HISTORY
(Video) “Communities Were Destroyed”: Mass Deportations of 1930s & ’50s Show Harm of Trump Plan, If Implemented
From Democracy Now! [November 7, 2024]
---- Donald Trump has made the mass deportation of immigrants a centerpiece of his plans for a second term, vowing to forcibly remove as many as 20 million people from the country. Historian Ana Raquel Minian, who studies the history of immigration, says earlier mass deportation programs in the 1930s and '50s led to widespread abuse, tearing many families apart through violent means that also resulted in the expulsion of many U.S. citizens. “These deportations that Trump is claiming that he will do will have mass implications to our civil rights, to our communities and to our economy, and of course to the people who are being deported themselves,” says Minian. She also says that while Trump's extremist rhetoric encourages hate and violence against vulnerable communities, in terms of policy there is great continuity with the Biden administration, which kept many of the same policies in place. [Read More]
