Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
January 23, 2024
Hello All – Famine now stalks Gaza. The World Food Program and similar UN organizations report that the supplies of flour and rice on hand are now less than half of what's needed. Despite promises to the contrary, the amount of humanitarian aid – including food, water, and medicine – remains grossly inadequate. Last week the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that, of Gaza's 2.3 million people, "the Israeli campaign has left 378,000 people at catastrophic phase 5 levels of starvation." De-coding the language and doing the math, this means that an estimated "756 Palestinians in Gaza are dying of hunger each day, which comes to a projected 22,680 deaths from starvation over the next month. If, as expected, that Israel allows no meaningful increase in the amount of food aid entering Gaza, the prognosis is that this will only get worse. Going forward, in addition to the one thousand Gazan's killed each week by bombs and bullets, some 5,000 will die of starvation.
As some of the essays linked below discuss, to these 6,000 deaths per week or 25,000 deaths per month, we must add an unknown number of Palestinians dying from infectious diseases or from winter cold, especially for those now without housing. Certainly a high percentage of the 160 babies born each day in Gaza, now almost always in circumstances that risks death for both mother and child, will add to the death toll. Will it reach 50,000 a month? It seems possible.
And so we must ask, Can the world – can the people of the USA – absorb the information that tens of thousands of helpless civilians are being killed each month by Israel's war on Gaza, and frequently by the US-made bombs and ammunition fueling this war, without spiritual meltdown and moral collapse? In years to come, every child growing up will learn that our government inflicted a great evil on the people of Gaza. What will we say when asked, some years from now, "How could this happen?" "What did you do?"
How To Save the Hostages? Ceasefire!
In Israel, the families and loved ones of those held hostage by Hamas and other organizations in Gaza are getting increasingly desperate. Yesterday they invaded a cabinet committee meeting, disrupting with shouts of "free them now!" For the most part, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's repeated claims that military action, leading to the defeat of the Hamas armed wing, is the most likely/only way to free the hostages. Is this true?
The facts are that, of the 240-50 hostages kidnapped on October 7th, only 1 has been freed by the Israeli military. 108 hostages were released in step-by-step negotiations in November. Further efforts broke down, and fighting was resumed on December 1. Although Israel continues to list 130 people as held captive in Gaza, perhaps two dozen of these have been killed or have died while in captivity. Hostage families raise the alarm that this will be the fate of all the remaining hostages if hostilities continue.
Last week Peter Beinart posted an excellent video (11 minutes) arguing that "to save the hostages, end the war." The failure of the Netanyahu people to free more hostages, and their refusal to consider a ceasefire, persuades many people that, when it comes to defeating Hamas, the hostages are simply "collateral damage" and an embarrassing PR problem, The blowback from Israeli society against this callousness is intensifying: Read "The Families of Hostages Are Calling on Israel to Do Something Radical," by Mairav Zonszein, New York Times [January 5, 2024] [Link].
Some Essays on Gaza's Crisis
Starvation as a Method of Warfare
By Alex de Waal, London Review of Books [January 11, 2024]
---- If the catastrophe in Gaza continues on its current trajectory, the prediction of mass death from disease, hunger and exposure will come to pass. If humanitarian assistance is provided promptly and at scale, deaths from hunger and disease will stabilise and decline, but they will still take time to return to pre-crisis levels. Even with an immediate cessation of hostilities and delivery of emergency aid, along with efforts to restore water, sanitation and health services, mortality would remain elevated for weeks or months. Even this would constitute a 'major' famine, according to the definition of 10,000 or more deaths. A 'great' famine, with 100,000 or more excess deaths, may be in prospect if the current level of hostilities and destruction continues. [Read More]
(Video) "Israel Is Starving Gaza": Israeli Rights Group B'Tselem Says IDF Is Using Hunger as a Weapon of War
From Democracy Now! [January 10, 2024]
---- Human rights groups say Israel is using starvation as a weapon in the Gaza Strip as Israel severely restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid, medicine and food supplies to millions inside the besieged and bombed territory. In a new report," Israeli human rights group B'Tselem lays out how Israel's decision to cut off electricity, water and international humanitarian aid to Gaza after a 17-year blockade against the territory has led to a very quick collapse of infrastructure. "The things that impede this provision of food for people who are starving is a declared policy by Israel," says Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem international advocacy lead. "The Israeli government is at fault, is responsible for this, and this should lead to immediate international action." [See the Program] The coming famine - "Israel is starving Gaza" [the B'Tselem report] [January 8, 2024] [Link]; "Israeli-Made Famine: Denial of Food Aid could Kill 22,000 Palestinians this Month, Half of them Children," by Juan Cole, Informed Comment [January 15, 2024] [Link];
The Epidemiological War on Gaza
By Maya Rosen January 5, 2024
---- Since October 7th, Israel has severely reduced the entry of food, water, and fuel into Gaza, successfully creating what global health expert Yara Asi described as "a dire human-made humanitarian catastrophe" characterized by mass hunger, thirst, homelessness, and lack of medical services. As months pass without any meaningful relief, these conditions have produced "the perfect storm for disease," in the words of United Nations Children's Fund spokesperson James Elder. On January 2nd, the WHO announced that there are currently 424,639 cases of infectious diseases in Gaza. Since such official counts only represent those who were able to make it to a clinic or hospital, experts assume that the true rates are much higher. A half million infectious disease cases would still have overwhelmed Gaza's healthcare system before October 7th, though many would have been treatable with food, water, and medical care. But today, amid an ongoing assault that has destroyed 27 of Gaza's 36 hospitals, as well as the very foundations of the enclave's public health—in the form of food, water, and shelter—epidemics are likely to mean mass death. [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 the first Monday of the month (next month February 5) 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!
The Rewards for stalwart readers this week bring back a personal favorite, Amy Rigby and (sometimes) Wreckless Eric. So first up we have "The Good Girls." And next we have Amy's "Dancing with Joey Ramone." And finally, now with Wreckless Eric, we have her 2020 gentle good-bye to Donald Trump, "Vote That Fucker Out!" Lots more of her/their stuff on-line; enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
The CFOW Weekly Reader
The Political Costs of Biden's Wars
By Seymour Hersh, ZNet [January 18, 2024]
---- Donald Trump won big in Iowa this week, as anyone with an ounce of sense knew would happen, despite days of dishonest and tedious wishful thinking from CNN and MSNBC, and some print media, about the possibility of a Haley surge in Iowa that could carry over to New Hampshire. Forget about that. The Republican nominee will be Donald Trump, unless he is stopped by the courts, and at this point the odds are that he, if untethered, will sweep to victory this November and could bring the House and Senate with him. The Democratic response, with a few exceptions, has been to enter a state of denial. In my Washington world, the looming disaster is swept aside by loyal Democrats who insist that Biden beat Trump once before and he can do it again. [Read More]
The Dems Should Hear 2024 Alarm Bells Over Biden's Gaza Policy
By James Zogby, The Arab American Institute [January 16, 2024]
---- 2024 may be the first election in which the issues involving Palestinian rights may impact the outcome. Over the past several decades, elections have been fought over a range of domestic and foreign policy concerns—from civil rights and abortion to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. In most instances these were partisan "wedge" issues—that is, issues that were used by one party against the other. What is important to note about the growing concern for Palestinian rights is that it has become a "wedge issue" that is dividing the Democratic Party. [Read More]
The Genocide Case Against Israel at the International Court of Justice
(Video) Omer Bartov on Israel, Gaza and the Charge of Genocide
---- On January 12, Peter [Beinart] hosted an online discussion entitled "Omer Bartov on Israel, Gaza and the Charge of Genocide." He was joined by special guest Omer Bartov, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown. Omer is one of the world's most prominent scholars of the Holocaust. He's also an Israeli who has warned about the genocidal rhetoric of some Israeli leaders since October 7. Now that South Africa has brought a case to the International Court of Justice charging Israel with genocide for its actions since October 7, Peter wanted to ask Omer what he thinks of that legal argument. In the wake of the controversy over Masha Gessen's declaration that in Gaza, "the ghetto is being liquidated," [See the Program[ Also of interest – "South Africa's genocide case against Israel: How will the ICJ decide?" from Aljazeera [January 10, 2024] [Link]; and "South African ICJ Initiative, Gaza Atrocities, and the Ceasefire Imperative," by Richard Falk, ZNet [January 21, 2024] [Link].
The Widening War – Yemen
How Biden Can Stop Houthi Missile Attacks—Without Risking War
By Trita Parsi, Responsible Statecraft [January 15, 2024]
---- Here is a simple reason why U.S. and U.K. military strikes against Yemen's Houthis will not achieve their objective of re-opening the crucial Red Sea lanes for international shipping: The Houthis don't have to succeed in striking additional commercial vessels, or even successfully retaliate against U.S. military ships. All they need to do is to try. That is enough to sustain a de facto shipping blockade of the Red Sea, through which a staggering 12% of global trade flows. Many Western commercial vessels will simply not risk moving their ships through those waters, not in spite of President Joe Biden's military strikes, but now because of them. [Read More] Also of interest – "The Houthis May Have Checkmated Biden in Red Sea Standoff," by Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept [January 19, 2024] [Link]; "U.S. Officials Care More About Protecting Oil Tankers Than Palestinians," by Edward Hunt, Foreign Policy in Focus [January 11, 2024] [Link]; "President Biden Needs to Go to Congress for Authorization on Yemen," by Rep. Ro Khanna, The Nation [January 22, 2024] [Link]; and "The Only Solution to the Violence in Yemen and the Red Sea is a Cease-Fire in Gaza," by Phyllis Bennis, In These Times [January 17, 2024] [Link].
And in the West Bank
Israel Wants a Palestinian Intifada in the West Bank
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [January 17, 2024]
---- Israel is now doing everything to drive the West Bank to another intifada. It won't be easy. The West Bank has neither the leadership nor the fighting spirit of the second intifada, but how can one not explode? Some 150,000 laborers who worked in Israel have been out of work for three months. You can also explode from the army's hypocrisy. Its commanders are warning that we must enable laborers to go to work, but the IDF will be the main culprit for the Palestinian uprising if it breaks out. The problem is not merely economic. Under the guise of the war and with the extreme rightist government's assistance, the IDF has changed its conduct in the occupied territories in a dangerous way – it wants Gaza in the West Bank. [Read More]
You Don't Understand How Bad It Is Here [Occupied West Bank]
By Jasper Diamond Nathaniel (Graduated from Hastings schools) [January 19, 2024]
---- In the middle of this nightmare in Gaza, I traveled to the West Bank to bear witness to Palestinian life under the occupation (I am a Jewish American guy who lives in Brooklyn, for those who don't know)—I guess I got tired of being told, "You don't understand." The plan had been to send out dispatches along the way (as I did from East Africa and across America), but I encountered a few obstacles that forced me to abandon this plan somewhere in the Jordan River Valley where it was presumably trampled by settlers. [Read More] Today, Jasper Diamond Nathaniel sent out another article: "The Perfect Context for Murder: The killing of a Palestinian American teenager in the West Bank forces the U.S. to respond" [January 22, 2024] [Link].
The Media and the War
How the Gaza War Can Be Big News and Invisible at the Same Time
By Norman Solomon, Counterpunch [January 19, 2024]
---- In-depth content analysis by The Intercept found that coverage of the Gaza war by the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times "showed a consistent bias against Palestinians." Those highly influential papers "disproportionately emphasized Israeli deaths in the conflict" and "used emotive language to describe the killings of Israelis, but not Palestinians." What is most profoundly important about war in Gaza — what actually happens to people being terrorized, massacred, maimed and traumatized — has remained close to invisible for the U.S. public. Extensive surface coverage seems repetitious and increasingly normal, as death numbers keep rising and Gaza becomes a routine topic in news media. And yet, what's going on now in Gaza is "the most transparent genocide in human history." [Read More] Also of interest – (Podcast) "Gregory Shupak on Gaza and Genocide," from FAIR [CounterSpin] [January 19, 2024] [main article starts at 7:30 into the program] [Link]; and "Netanyahu just said Israel will permanently occupy the land 'from the river to the sea.' The U.S. media is covering it up," by James North, Mondoweiss [January 19, 2024] [Link]
Conflict on Campus
Amid Gaza Protests, Universities Are Cracking Down on a Celebrated Protest Tactic: Sit-ins
By Prem Thakker, The Intercept [January 21, 2024]
---- On October 25, hundreds of people participated in a sit-in at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, calling on school administrators to cut ties with weapons manufacturers involved in Israel's occupation of Palestine. … The incident at Amherst is reflective of a broader university crackdown against students participating in a form of protest with deep roots in the American civil rights movement: the sit-in. Elsewhere across the country, universities have met such sit-downs — often driven by demands related to divestment from companies selling arms to Israel, a tactic with roots in protests against apartheid South Africa — with disciplinary action, off-campus criminal charges, and an over-application of campus policies seldom used in similar circumstances. [Read More] Also of interest - (Video) "Jewish Scholars vs. Jewish Donors on Antisemitism," from Peter Beinart [January 22, 2024] – 8 minutes [Link]; and "Rutgers SJP is reinstated and still defiant," by Students for Justice in Palestine at Rutgers - New Brunswick [January 20, 2024] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
Alongside Soaring Global Temperatures, Growing Oil and Gas Drilling and Profits
By David Suzuki, ZNet [January 21, 2024]
---- We've just come out of the hottest year on record — by a lot! Scientists predict that this year we'll exceed the 1.5 C limit for warming set by countries in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Meanwhile, Canada and the U.S. are setting records for oil and gas production, and industry would like to keep it that way. The main cause of the record warming — and the floods, droughts, wildfires, mass human migrations, species extinctions and economic hardships that come with it — is increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning gas, oil and coal. We've known this for at least half a century! … There are signs of hope — decreasing emissions in the U.S., falling prices and growing uptake for renewable energy and more. But we've taken so long to act on the crisis that far more ambition is needed. [Read More]
The State of the Union
We Are Witnessing the Biggest Judicial Power Grab Since 1803
By Elie Mystal, The Nation [January 18, 2024]
---- The Supreme Court heard two consolidated cases yesterday that could reshape the legal landscape and, with them, the country. The cases take on Chevron deference—the idea that courts should defer to executive agencies when applying regulations passed by Congress. They're the most important cases about democracy on the court's docket this year. That's because what conservatives on the court are quietly trying to do is pull off the biggest judicial power grab since 1803, when it elevated itself to be the final arbiter of the Constitution in Marbury v. Madison. … If conservatives get their way, elections won't really matter, because courts will be able to limit the scope of congressional regulation and the ability of presidents to enforce those regulations effectively. [Read More]. Also of interest, "Does the EPA Die Today?" by Thom Hartmann, The Hartman Report [January 17, 2024] [Link].
Our History
Wiping Away the Tears [Remembering Wounded Knee – December 1890]
By Winona LaDuke, The Barnraiser [January 17, 2024]
---- The ride is hard. Si Tanka Wokiksuye Omaka Tokatakiya, the Future Generations Ride, commemorates the Lakota ancestors and families who were brutally murdered in the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890. The ancestors had ridden from Standing Rock to Pine Ridge to save their people; instead, they were shot by the United States Cavalry. This year, the seven-day ride had 100 riders at the end, most of them under 20-years-old. The ride is grueling and there is suffering. That's part of the grieving process, the healing process. That's the next generation. … But in our grieving, something else begins. A new chapter, a time to heal from the brutality of history. The time for massacres is long over. The time for healing is now. That's true, whether you live in North America, South America or Palestine. As I witnessed those horse riders, I saw the coming of a new generation. They are the ones already here. It is time to wipe away the tears. [Read More] Also of interest re: "Our History" – "For a Model of Working-Class Mass Organizing, Look to the CIO," an interview with Steve Fraser,(labor/CIO historian) Jacobin [January 2024] [Link]; and "Norma Barzman, Blacklisted Screenwriter, Dies at 103," by Clay Risen, New York Times [January 19, 2024] [Link].
