Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 19, 2023
Hello All – Israel's slaughter of people in Gaza continues. More than 12,000 people have been killed since the war started, including more than 5,000 children. Only the US, only President Biden, can stop this. The world begs him to do so; no other path seems open. Yesterday a UN-run school in Gaza was bombed, and thousands of patients and refugees were forced to flee from Gaza's largest hospital in the north. Where will they go? To the south, where dozens of people are killed in bombing attacks daily? There is no place that is safe for civilians in Gaza.
The immediate need is for a CEASEFIRE. This cry has been raised by millions of people marching for peace throughout the world, including hundreds of thousands of people in the US. Israel's refusal to allow food, water, medical supplies and fuel to enter Gaza dooms thousand more civilians. We are watching genocide live-streamed.
US law (the "Leahy Law") requires our government to end military assistance to armies or units that are committing human rights violations with US-supplied weapons. As Israel kills civilians with US-made bombs, planes, and ammunition, the law clearly applies. And as noted in an essay linked below, Palestinian-Americans have asked a US federal court to take action against the Biden administration for failing to prevent genocide and enabling Israel's commitment of genocide. In response to the on-going horror in Gaza, we have a responsibility to act, a "responsibility to protect."
Finally, if there is one thing linking the "supporters of Israel" to the opponents of this war, it is the demand that the civilians held hostage by Hamas and other fighting units in Gaza be freed. A common denominator for peace people is that civilians should be exempt from war, and that warring parties have an obligation to protect them, not kill them. The slaughter of Israeli civilians on October 7th, and the murder of thousands of Palestinians in the weeks since then, are simply war crimes and crimes against humanity. Opponents of war must make this clear to all.
This week's featured essays on the war
(Video) "Never again is NOW!"
---- In Geneva last week, at a meeting of the UN's "high contracting parties" about dangerous non-nuclear weapons, the Palestinian representative Nada Abu Tarbush replied to the statement of the Israeli delegation, focusing on the current war in Gaza. Pease listen to the eloquent statement of Ms. Tarbush. [See the speech]. – 11 minutes.
Israeli War Crimes and Propaganda Follow US Blueprint
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Code Pink [November 14, 2023]
---- Despite Israel's efforts to impose a media blackout, the massacre is taking place in a small, enclosed, densely-populated urban area, often called an open-air prison, where the world can see a great deal more than usual of how it impacts real people. Israel has killed a record number of journalists in Gaza. But we are still seeing horrifying video and photos of daily new atrocities: dead and wounded children; hospitals struggling to treat the injured; and desperate people fleeing from one place to another through the rubble of their destroyed homes. [Read More]
A paradigm shift in the hundred years' war on Palestine?
By Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University historian [November 18, 2023]
---- This is not an age-old conflict between Arabs and Jews, and it has not been going on since time immemorial. It is an entirely recent product of the irruption of imperialism into the Middle East and of the rise of modern nation-state nationalisms, both Arab and Jewish. It always involved the massive intervention of the great powers on the side of the Zionist movement and Israel: Britain until World War II, and the U.S. and other powers since then. However, we may be seeing a paradigm shift because of new elements that have appeared since October 7. [Read More]
Israel's Ludicrous Propaganda Wins Over the Only Audience That Counts
By Jeet Heer, The Nation [November 17, 2023]
---- Lying and propaganda are endemic to warfare. Public opinion is always as much a battlefield as actual territory. But in the case of Israel's ongoing war in Gaza—nominally against Hamas but actually devastating to the civilian population of the besieged territory—propaganda has taken a bizarre turn. This is propaganda that barely makes any effort to convince, instead offering ludicrous arguments in implausible forms. To pay attention to Israeli propaganda in recent weeks is like watching a magic trick done by an inept conjurer who constantly lets the audience see the mirrors and wires that are supposed to create optical illusions. [Read More] Also of interest – "Rape, ISIS, Mein Kampf and other Lies: How Israel Lost All Credibility," by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo, ZNet [November 16, 2023] [Link].
This War Did Not Start a Month Ago
By Dalia Hatuqa, New York Times [November 14, 2023]
---- To many inside and outside this war, the brutality of Hamas's Oct. 7 attacks was unthinkable, as has been the scale and ferocity of Israel's reprisal. But Palestinians have been subject to a steady stream of unfathomable violence — as well as the creeping annexation of their land by Israel and Israeli settlers — for generations. If people are going to understand this latest conflict and see a path forward for everyone, we need to be more honest, nuanced and comprehensive about the recent decades of history in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank, particularly the impact of occupation and violence on the Palestinians. This story is measured in decades, not weeks; it is not one war, but a continuum of destruction, revenge and trauma. [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 Monday 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
CFOW Weekly Reader
The War within the War
Frank Brodhead
---- Over the last two or three weeks, the pro-war consensus within the US political and media elite has begun to fracture. Driven in part by growing dissent within the US, and in large part by the tsunami of opposition to Israel's war throughout much of the world, some daylight between the US and the Israeli government is beginning to show. Much of the dissent is due to the live-streaming of horrible civilian casualties suffered by Palestinians in Gaza, and by media coverage of the Israeli destruction of Gaza's hospitals. (Though only a fraction of this horror is shown by the US media, consumers of media in Europe and throughout the Middle East an inundated with pictures of dying babies and civilian casualties.) This section of the Newsletter groups some useful/interesting articles and videos addressing debates raging in the background of the war.
Is it Genocide Yet?
(Video) "Failure to Prevent Genocide": Biden Sued as U.S. Provides Arms & Support for Israel's Gaza Assault
From Democracy Now! [November 16, 2023]
---- As Israel rejects growing international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States is suing President Biden for failing to prevent genocide. The center is seeking an emergency order to block Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from providing further military funding, arms and diplomatic support to Israel. Katherine Gallagher, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights on the case, argues the U.S. is complicit with Israel in the "crime of crimes" by "aiding and abetting genocide" with military aid, advisers and political support despite clear signs of intent to collectively punish the Palestinian population. [See the Program]. A press release from the CCR on the genocide case can be read here. Also of interest on the question of genocide - (Video) "Is Israel engaged in genocide in Gaza?" From Aljazeera [November 6, 2023] [Link] – 28 minutes; and "More than Genocide," by A. Dirk Moses, Boston Review [November 14 2023] [Link];
Anti-Semitism
(Video) Israel-Gaza war: The dangers of weaponising anti-Semitism
From Aljazeera ("Upfront," with Marc Lamont Hill) [November 17, 2023] -25 minutes
---- As the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, some experts warn of a potential genocide. Israeli leaders have at times justified their attacks on the besieged strip by invoking the history of persecution of Jewish people. How is Jewish history influencing Israel's response in the war on Gaza? In an UpFront special, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace Stefanie Fox, political analyst and commentator Omar Baddar, and professor of Holocaust and genocide studies Omer Bartov join Marc Lamont Hill to discuss both the rise of anti-Semitism and also how anti-Semitism charges are sometimes used for political ends. [See the Program]
Also of interest – "On Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism and Dangerous Conflations," from Jewish Voice for Peace [November 9, 2023] [Link]; "When Anti, Anti-Zionism Becomes Anti-Semitism," by Stephen F. Eisenman, Counterpunch [November 17, 2023] [Link]; and "'From the river to the sea' – a Palestinian historian explores the meaning and intent of scrutinized slogan," by Maha Nassar, The Conversation [November 16, 2023] [Link].
The Hostages
Editorial, "Out of Time: The Lack of Urgency for a Hostage Deal Is Reaching a Tipping Point," from Haaretz [Israel] [November 19, 2023] [Link].
The "Endgame" of This War
No Endgame in Gaza
By Fintan O'Toole, New York Review of Books [November 16, 2023]
---- The idea of controlled carnage ended in the unrestrained slaughter of October 7. Netanyahu was forced to abandon overnight the scheme that had been the touchstone of his whole approach to the Palestinian question: keeping Hamas strong enough to deny authority to the Palestinian Authority, but weak enough to pose no more than a sporadic and limited threat to Israeli citizens. … Bombs and tanks do not answer questions. Who is to govern Gaza if not Hamas or Israel itself? Does Israel really think that, without the creation of a Palestinian state, somebody else—either an international consortium or a Palestinian puppet regime—will sail into a blood-soaked hellscape of rubble and dust, inhabited by traumatized survivors, and take responsibility for rebuilding, policing, and governing it? How is Israel going to make the kind of peace with its immediate neighbors without which the security of its citizens cannot be rebuilt? [Read More]
Was the hospital a Hamas "command center"?
The IDF is Coming Up Almost Empty in Search for Underground Hamas 'Pentagon'
By Dave Lindorff, Counterpunch [November 17, 2023]
---- The US is backpedaling its support for Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza; destruction of the entire northern half (or third) of the walled-off and blockaded territory that is home and prison for 2.3 million trapped Palestinians is occurring now that the IDF has achieved its objective of gaining control of the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The reason is that Israel has not been able to convincingly display the "underground command center" that it has been for weeks claiming justified its siege and eventual attack on that hospital. The pointed declarations that Israeli and US "intelligence" had made both governments, in Jerusalem and Washington, "confident" that there was a Hamas "command and control center" operating in a Hamas-constructed bunker under the hospital connected to a network of reinforced tunnels leading into and out of the hospital, have not been borne out. [Read More]
The Role of the Weapons-Makers
(Video) Israel Is Testing New Weapons on Gaza as Arms Dealers Profit from Gaza War
From Democracy Now! [November 14, 2023]
---- There is "a growing public awareness and anger" about the global connection between Western powers and the Israeli military industry, says Antony Loewenstein, who has investigated how Israeli weaponry and surveillance technology are used on Palestinians and exported around the world. "Israel is already, as we speak … live-testing new weapons in Gaza," says Loewenstein. He also discusses what he characterizes as the "intelligence" and "political" failures of the October 7 Hamas incursion. [See the Program] Also of interest – "When it comes to the Israeli-led 'war on terror', follow the money," by Antony Loewenstein, Aljazeera [November 19, 2023] [Link]; and (Video) "Could Israel's war on Gaza boost arms sales?: from "Counting the Costs" Aljazeera [November 11, 2023] [Link].
The War in the West Bank
(Video) The Occupied West Bank: The Other Front
From Aljazeera [November 16, 2023]
---- Since Israel began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, violence has also surged in the occupied West Bank to unprecedented levels. More than 2,000 Palestinians have been arrested and almost 200 have been killed in the last month alone. Scores more have been arrested, beaten and tortured, fueling concerns that this could erupt into a second front as Israel pushes on in their stated objective to access and control Palestinian territory. [See the Program]
A Population Transfer Under the Cover of War: A Visit to the Forsaken Land of Settler Militias
By Gideon Levy and Alex Levac, Haaretz [Israel] [November 18, 2023]
---- Since the start of the war, residents of 16 Palestinian shepherding communities have been forced out of their villages by settlers. The South Hebron Hills are now being ruled effectively by local defense squads, made up in many cases by violent settlers in uniform who are committing a population transfer. … The settler bullies exploit the weakness of the residents and the chaos of war to expand the population transfer. Their goal is to cleanse the entire South Hebron Hills and other areas of their Palestinian residents. Their success can already be observed. In the territories south of the town of Samu and the city of Dahiriya, and in Masafer Yatta, abandoned tent villages were visible this week, with the flag of the occupier and expeller flying above them. [Read More]
The Mainstream Media
New York Times Runs Interference for IDF as It Bombs Jabalia Refugee Camp
By Robin Andersen, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [November 15, 2023]
---- The Times' pro-genocide tropes have become recognizable over the three weeks that the paper has "reported" on the systematic killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip. There is the familiar discrediting of Gaza's health ministry, with the Times saying it is "controlled by Hamas" before referencing its information, that "the damage was the result of an attack by Israel that killed and wounded 'hundreds' of people." Human Rights Watch has stated that the figures released by the Gaza health ministry are reliable. [Read More]
Also of interest – "For Cable News, a Palestinian Life Is Not the Same as an Israeli Life," by Conor Smyth, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [November 18, 2023] [Link]; "Years of mainstream media neglect of Palestinian reality means that truths come as shocks to most Americans," by James North, Mondoweiss [November 18, 2023] [Link]; and "This Photograph Demands an Answer," by Lydia Polgreen, New York Times [November 13, 2023] [Link].
Campus Dissent and Repression
Student Protests for Gaza Targeted by Pro-Israel Groups for Alleged Civil Rights Violations
By Schuyler Mitchell and Prem Thakker, The Intercept [November 16, 2023] ---- Alongside Israel advocacy groups like the Brandeis Center, the International Legal Forum, and the David Horowitz Freedom Center, StandWithUs has spent years trying to shut down criticism of Israel on college campuses, often by weaponizing civil rights law. The groups allege that, while the political speech may be protected by the First Amendment, it fosters a campus climate of antisemitism in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded programs from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. As students have ramped up pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past month, Israel advocacy groups have escalated a pressure campaign of their own. [Read More] Also of interest are "Israel's War on American Student Activists," by James Bamford, The Nation [November 17, 2023] [Link]; and "Inside Brown University's Sit-In for Palestine," by Nicholas Miller, The Nation [November 17, 2023] [Link],
Gaza War News Notes
Progressive Democrats launch first effort to block U.S. arms sales to Israel since start of Gaza war
By Ben Samuels, Haaretz [Israel] [November 16, 2023]
---- A group of progressive Democrats, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar, will on Wednesday introduce the first legislation aimed at blocking U.S. arms sales to Israel since the war in Gaza began on October 7. Alongside Reps. Summer Lee, Delia Ramirez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Omar is introducing a joint resolution of disapproval against the $320-million transfer of precision-guided bomb equipment to Israel. [Read More]
Vivian Silver, Missing Israeli-Canadian Peace Activist, Confirmed Killed in Oct 7 Hamas Attack
By Judy Maltz, Haaretz [Israel] [November 14, 2023]
---- Vivian Silver, the veteran peace activist who was believed to be among the approximately 240 Israeli civilians and soldiers kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, is now confirmed to have been killed on the morning of the attack. A longtime member of Be'eri – one of the kibbutzim on the Gaza border invaded by dozens of Hamas terrorists on October 7 – Silver had volunteered for years to help Palestinian residents of Gaza in need of medical aid in Israel…. The 74-year-old, born in Winnipeg, immigrated to Israel 50 years ago with Habonim Dror, a Socialist Zionist youth movement. She was among a group of young North Americans who helped found Kibbutz Gezer in central Israel. [Read More]
Israeli death toll under scrutiny
FB – Israel initially put its October 7th death toll at 1,400. Last week it reduced the number to 1,200 – 900 civilians and 300 military – after determining that 200 of the (burned) bodies were actually Hamas fighters. This raises the question of whether some/any of the Israeli civilians killed on October 7th were also killed by errant Israeli fire power. [Link]. Today (11/19) the Israeli liberal newspaper Haaretz reported the Israeli investigators have concluded that some/many of the "Supernova rave" dance-party victims (364) were killed by Israeli helicopter fire, and not by Hamas. [Link]. 
