Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
May 16, 2021
Hello All – While the Biden administration chants that "Israel has a right to defend itself," the horrible conflict in Israel/Palestine marches on. Despite growing international outcry against Israel's assault on Gaza and its terror against Palestinians in the West Bank, E. Jerusalem, and what is called '48 Israel, it is clear that only stern orders from the USA can stop the slaughter. How can we make that come about?
During the George Bush the First government, stern orders to stop Israeli settlement expansion were obeyed. During the first days of the Obama government, stern orders to stop Israeli's war against Gaza were obeyed. Obedience will not follow from soft-peddled wishes that violence "on both sides" must somehow go away. The US has in its power to deploy threats (and the actuality) to cut military aid to Israel, and to refrain from giving it diplomatic protection in the United Nations and elsewhere. The realistic target of international pressure and protests in the United States is not somehow to appeal to Netanyahu's "good sense," but to force the Biden administration to see that its own interests are threatened by Israel's continued assault on Gaza and the Palestinians.
Threats to cut military aid to Israel have significant leverage. Except for the war in Afghanistan, the US gives Israel more military aid each year than any other country. And we have promised to give Israel $3.8 billion per year for years to come, more per capita that any other country. US financial support is vital to Israel's apartheid regime. Yet despite laws that regulate the use of US aid, we do not threaten to reduce US aid when Israel uses the aid to commit war crimes or maintain apartheid.
A bill now in Congress would start to change that. Introduced by Minnesota congresswoman Betty McCollum, the bill is called the "Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act." Supported by 15 members of the House, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the bill (H.R.2590) would ensure that U.S. financial assistance provided to Israel is not used to support holding Palestinian children in Israeli military detention or prosecuting them in a military court. It also restricts aid use for the unlawful seizure, appropriation and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, as well as further Israeli annexation of Palestinian land.
As long as Israel's settler-colonial governments deny the human and civil rights of Palestinians living under their Occupation, pro-Palestinian actions in the USA must keep our eyes on the target that can actually do something to relieve Palestinians: the uncritical support, military and otherwise, given by the United States to Israel. As Noam Chomsky argued at length in a discussion with Prof. Noura Erakat last month, what is at issue is not principle so much as tactics, and we need to measure our pro-Palestinian work in terms of how our tactics might bring pressure on our own government to change course.
Some useful reading on Israel's war against Palestinians
This isn't a civil war, it is settler-colonial brutality
ByMay 13, 2021]
---- The civil war narrative is misleading and plays into Israel's hands. It masks settler-colonial power relations, settler-colonial violence and Jewish supremacist violence. What we are witnessing are not "clashes," or between two equal sides, but rather the Israeli settler state together with Zionist militias declaring a war on its colonized "citizens," who need to protect their lives, homes, and families themselves. [Read More]
A Nightmare of Terror Across the Landscape of Palestine
By Yousef Munayyer, The Nation [May 13, 2021]
---- The origins of this moment are as obvious as they are painful, but they bear explaining and re-explaining for a world that too often fails—in fact, refuses—to see the true terms of Palestinian suffering. To understand how we've arrived at this moment, it is essential to start with the story of Sheikh Jarrah. That small Jerusalem enclave, from which several Palestinian families have been under threat of expulsion, is perhaps, the most immediate proximate cause of this latest crisis. It is also just the latest targeted dispossession of Palestinians by Israel, which has been part of a more than 70-year process. [Read More]
Can Palestinian Lives Matter?
By Sarah Aziza, The Intercept [
---- Palestinians, as a people, are visible but rarely seen. We do not "exist" as others do; we have neither a formal country nor any economic or military power to speak of. We have a history and culture, but these are eroded and appropriated more with every passing year. Mostly, we are collectively obscured by what people think they know, what they think we are: threats, troublemakers, terrorists. This is how we can be in so many headlines and yet die such endless deaths. We die, in part, because that is what the world expects of us. Our name is invoked only in connection to brutality and strife, which are presented as inevitable, our natural state. [Read More]
Some Items of Interest
Saturday, May 15th, was the anniversary of the Nakba, the events in 1948 whereby some 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes by the Israeli army, a foundational step in creating the state of Israel. Over the last decade, debates about the outcome of the 1967 war and the Occupied Territories have been supplemented by paying attention to this earlier Israeli crime, the Nakba. Last week the Foundation for Middle East Peace held an informative webinar, "The Palestinian Nakba: What Happened in 1948 and Why It Still Matters, that featured US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Prof. Rashid Khalidi, and other excellent speakers. See it here.
I think Prof. Noura Erakat is one of the most articulate and knowledgeable spokespeople for the Palestinian cause. She has appeared on several Democacy Now! programs, and she is the author of an imo outstanding book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine. Last week she was interviewed at length on the program "Majority Report," where she placed the ongoing Palestinian protests in context and refuted Israeli talking points about the conflict in Israel-Palestine. See the Program here.
In "Art Against Drones," peace activist Kathy Kelly announces an interesting new project that will install a replica of a US military Predator drone will be installed on the newly re-opened High Line elevated park in Lower Manhattan's West Side. Though it will be unarmed (no Hellfire missiles or a surveillance camera), it is bound to start discussions about today's American Way of Death. Read about this here. To learn more, go to www.bankillerdrones.org.
Finally, this week I saw a broadcast of the 1966 docudrama The War Game. Commissioned by the BBC, the film dramatized what happens shortly before and during a nuclear attack on the town of Rochester, England, struck by a one megaton Soviet bomb. The BBC cancelled the scheduled broadcast, saying "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." (The film was eventually shown in theaters, won many prizes, etc.) At that time I was interested in "peace messaging": was it better to talk about the beauties of peace or the horrors of war, in order to move an audience to action. The film, in all its 1966 clunkiness, frightened a nation's elite, determined to keep up with the Yanks as a "nuclear power." Check it out here.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. Taking the Covid Crisis into account, we meet (with safe distancing) for a protest/rally on Saturday in Hastings, at 12 noon at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) A "Black Lives Matter/Say Their Names" vigil takes place every Monday from 5:30 to 6 pm, in Yonkers at the intersection of Warburton Ave. and Odell. In this time of coronavirus, we are meeting by Zoom conference; if you would like to join one of our Zoom meetings, Tuesday and Thursday at noon and/or Sunday at 7 pm., please send a return email. Our newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. 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!
Tomorrow, May 17th, is Income Tax Day. Good luck to all you people out there with incomes. This week's Rewards consider different musical views of taxes. Starting out with Gene Autry and the (1942) wartime view about taxes, we have "I paid my income taxes today." By 1965 things had become contested, as witnessed by Joni Mitchell's "Tax Free." Ry Cooder speaks for Middle America (1972) in "Taxes on the Farmer Feeds us All." And Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings bring it home (2006) with a message to George Bush: "What if we all stopped paying taxes" Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
914-478-3848
CFOW WEEKLY READER
Chomsky: Without US Aid, Israel Wouldn't Be Killing Palestinians En Masse
By C.J. Polychroniou, Truthout [May 12, 2021]
---- Israel has been a highly valued client since the demonstration of its mastery of violence in 1967. Law is no impediment. U.S. governments have always had a cavalier attitude to U.S. law, adhering to standard imperial practice. Take what is arguably the major example: The U.S. Constitution declares that treaties entered into by the U.S. government are the "supreme law of the land." The major postwar treaty is the UN Charter, which bars "the threat or use of force" in international affairs (with exceptions that are not relevant in real cases). Can you think of a president who hasn't violated this provision of the supreme law of the land with abandon? For example, by proclaiming that all options are open if Iran disobeys U.S. orders — let alone such textbook examples of the "supreme international crime" (the Nuremberg judgment) as the invasion of Iraq. The substantial Israeli nuclear arsenal should, under U.S. law, raise serious questions about the legality of military and economic aid to Israel. That difficulty is overcome by not recognizing its existence, an unconcealed farce, and a highly consequential one, as we've discussed elsewhere. U.S. military aid to Israel also violates the Leahy Law, which bans military aid to units engaged in systematic human rights violations. The Israeli armed forces provide many candidates. Congresswoman Betty McCollum has taken the lead in pursuing this initiative. Carrying it further should be a prime commitment for those concerned with U.S. support for the terrible Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Even a threat to the huge flow of aid could have a dramatic impact. [Read More]
The State of the Union
(Video) Can the Criminal Justice System Be Reformed? PBS Series "Philly D.A." Follows Larry Krasner's Efforts
From Democracy Now! [May 12, 2021]
[FB – The election and then the work of Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner illuminates many aspects of criminal "justice" reform demanded by BLM and the "defund the police" movements this year. The Philadelphia Democratic primary – tantamount to the election – will take place on Tuesday, and Krasner has a strong challenger from the "law & order" side of policing. As John Nichols puts it in an article in The Nation, "Tuesday's Democratic primary, is a political test that has local and national ramifications. If Krasner wins the primary, … the assessment will be that this movement is here to stay." Here is a useful perspective on grassroots views of Krasner and the election from the Philadelphia Inquirer.]
---- Four years ago, the longtime civil rights attorney Larry Krasner shocked the political establishment in Philadelphia by being elected district attorney. Now he faces a tough reelection next week. We delve into his record as captured in a new eight-part series by PBS "Independent Lens" that follows how Krasner, who had sued the Philadelphia Police Department 75 times during his career, ran on a platform of ending mass incarceration and has fought to overhaul the DA's Office. "Is change possible in an institution like this?" asks series co-creator Ted Passon. "Why or why not?" We also speak with co-creator Nicole Salazar about how the series explores "the tensions between the new guard, between Krasner's team and the existing prosecutors in the office." [See the Program]. The PBS program site has some useful background material about both the issues and the making of the film.
Israel/Palestine
Palestinian Refugees Deserve to Return Home. Jews Should Understand.
By Peter Beinart, New York Times [May 12, 2021]
[FB – Saturday, May 15th, was celebrated in Palestine and around the world as the anniversary of the Nakba, in Arabic, "the catastrophe," marking the 1948 expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home in the newly created state of Israel. Beinart's article, and it publication in the New York Times, is important in part because it reflects the leftward movement – more critical of Zionism – in both the liberal Jewish mainstream and in the elite media.]
---- Why has the impending eviction of six Palestinian families in East Jerusalem drawn Israelis and Palestinians into a conflict that appears to be spiraling toward yet another war? Because of a word that in the American Jewish community remains largely taboo: the Nakba. The Nakba, or "catastrophe" in Arabic, need not refer only to the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled or fled in terror during Israel's founding. It can also evoke the many expulsions that have occurred since: the about 300,000 Palestinians whom Israel displaced when it conquered the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967; the roughly 250,000 Palestinians who could not return to the West Bank and Gaza after Israel revoked their residency rights between 1967 and 1994; the hundreds of Palestinians whose homes Israel demolished in 2020 alone. The East Jerusalem evictions are so combustible because they continue a pattern of expulsion that is as old as Israel itself. … The crimes of the past, when left unaddressed, do not remain in the past. That's also the lesson of the evictions that have set Israel-Palestine aflame. More than seven decades ago, Palestinians were expelled to create a Jewish state. Now they are being expelled to make Jerusalem a Jewish city. By refusing to face the Nakba of 1948, the Israeli government and its American Jewish allies ensure that the Nakba continues. [Read More]
Our History
When Queers Fought the State and Won
By Hugh Ryan, Boston Review [May 11, 2021]
[FB – This is a review of Sarah Schulman's new book, Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987–1993. Among the reasons for the book's importance is that ACT UP was one of the most successful direct-action movements in our era. Many lessons to learn from ACT Up and this book looks like the place to start.]
---- Let the Record Show, Sarah Schulman's monumental new history of ACT UP New York, is a war chronicle in which the teller is both scribe and veteran. Schulman joined the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) a few months after it was founded in 1987. At that point, six years into the crisis, there were an estimated 500,000 people living with HIV in the United States alone, there were still no effective medical treatments, and the U.S. government's anemic response to the pandemic was a toxic cocktail of homophobia and hysteria. ACT UP was most effective when it had the broadest coalition of members. As such, its story cannot be accurately told in a traditional narrative format that focused on a few "heroes" and their journey. ACT UP burst onto this scene determined to confront apathy and create change on every level, from getting new drugs approved to creating alternative media through which to disseminate accurate information about the crisis. As the founding chapter, ACT UP New York was "the mother ship," but 148 other chapters, all acting autonomously, have since sprung up around the globe. Unquestionably, they have been one of the most effective activist movements in modern U.S. history—though as Schulman chronicles, their successes did not come without great costs. In fact, Let the Record Show is in part a grand accounting, tallying up what was won, what was lost, and the process through which those battles were fought. Only by this kind of rigorous analysis can the lessons of ACT UP be passed on to current and future activists. [Read More]
