Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
March 5, 2023
Hello All – As Israel continues its descent into a fascist state, what should the USA do? For decades, the USA has given unconditional support to Israel, defending it at the UN and elsewhere, and now giving it $3.8 billion each year. Under the new Netanyahu government, Israel is continuing the Zionist plan to have a state for Jews only, building an "apartheid state" that attacks the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians.
USA support for this Israel has to stop. Apartheid is considered a crime against humanity. Both US law and international law should condemn Israel's institutions and practices, and they did during the last days of South Africa's apartheid government.
The most obvious thing the USA can do is to put a "hold" on the $3.8 billion we give Israel each year, and to "condition" further support on Israel's move away from apartheid and towards democracy.
Another thing the USA can do is to join with other nations in publicly condemning Israel's repression of its Palestinian people. The practice of vetoing all UN resolutions critical of Israel must stop.
Finally, we can support the rights of Palestinians by becoming better informed, by frequently contacting our congressional representatives, and by supporting the BDS movement and other efforts to defend/support Palestinian rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Some Useful Reading on the Crisis in Israel/Palestine
American Jews who bought 'Jewish democracy' label for apartheid need to wake up
By Robert Herbst (JVP – Westchester), Mondoweiss [March 1, 2023]
---- We are all trying to wrap our heads around the political events happening in Israel now, and the speed with which they are happening. The latest is the transfer of governing authority over the West Bank from the Israeli military to Israeli civilian authorities, most notably headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the right-winger who runs the office governing settlement activity newly-installed in the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Cutting the Israeli Supreme Court down to size may change the so-called "democratic" character of the Jewish State, but asserting civilian governmental authority over the West Bank is no less than a breathtaking act of de jure, or legal, annexation. … In the last two years, the death of the two state solution has become more widely recognized, as Israeli, Palestinian, American and international human rights organizations have published at least six detailed analytical reports making clear that Israeli Jews are perpetrating the international crime against humanity of apartheid, not just in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but also in a one-state reality between the River and the Sea. [Read More]
In Bulldozing Israeli Democracy, Benjamin Netanyahu Could Become the BDS Movement's Greatest Ally
By Daniel Boguslaw, The Intercept [
---- In recent years, the Israeli government has identified boycott, divestment, and sanctions of the Jewish state over its treatment of Palestinians as a top threat to the country. Today, right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be the BDS movement's greatest ally. In his bid to evade prosecution for influence peddling and bribery, Netanyahu has forged a political alliance with Israel's extremist religious parties, allied himself with the remnants of the anti-Arab terror organization Kach, and now charged forward with plans to gut the Israeli Supreme Court. … "The BDS movement has tracked the most recent divestments and threats of divestment from Israel, concluding that the self-identified 'Start-up Nation' is increasingly and gradually looking like a Shut Down Nation," Omar Barghouti, one of the co-founders of the BDS movement, told The Intercept. [Read More]
What's Behind the Calls for "Democracy" in Israel?
By Meron Rapoport and Oren Ziv (Israeli journalists), The Nation [March 1, 2023]
---- It is almost inconceivable for Palestinians to describe Israel as a "democracy." That is also the case for many Israeli human rights activists. Seventy-five years of ethnic cleansing, military rule, Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian-owned land, and an established system of discrimination that amounts to apartheid have all rendered, in their eyes, the terms "Israel" and "democracy" incompatible. The latest Israeli raid in Nablus, in which 11 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers is just another flagrant example. Yet, in the last few weeks, Israeli society has been torn apart by the question of democracy. Hundreds of thousands of protesters, the vast majority of them Jews, have filled the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, and other cities and towns in "defense of democracy," calling for mass civil disobedience and even "rebellion" should the new far-right government implement its plans for so-called judicial reform. The term "civil war" (or in the Hebrew version, "a war of brothers") has become a mainstay in the collective political vocabulary, alongside explicit warnings of potential bloodshed in the clash between the government and Jewish citizens. [Read More]
News Notes
The grassroots fight to stop the dumping of more than a million gallons of radioactive water into the Hudson River continues. One interesting event will take place in NYC on April 8th, when Peace Action and other organizations are holding a march and rally to protest both the danger to the Hudson and the danger to the Pacific Ocean if the owners of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan dump their zillion gallons of radioactive water also. To learn more about this event, go here. ALSO, a draft Resolution protesting the plan to dump radioactive water into the Hudson has been delivered to the Hastings Board of Trustees; we hope they take action on it soon. ALSO, a similar Resolution will be voted on at the Westchester Board of Legislators tomorrow
We're coming up on the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, one of history's stupidest and most horrific events. At "The Dissenter," stalwart Kevin Gosztola has a "March to War" sequence going on, with reminders of what happened on the way to March 19/20. "Each post encapsulates what took place that day as both political and media elites beat the drums of war," writes Kevin. Here's the news from March 5, 2003.
An interesting exhibit about Yonkers, called "Yonkers Through the Lens: A Photographic Perspective," will have an opening reception on Saturday, March 11th, from 1 to 6 pm at the Blue Door Art Center, 13 Riverdale Ave. in Yonkers. On display will be two pictures by CFOW photographer Susan Rutman. Check 'em out.
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 (winter schedule) on the first Monday of each month; the next vigil will be March 6th, from 5:30 to 6:00 pm in Yonkers 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
Featured Essays
(Video) Noam Chomsky on Ukraine, China, BRICS, and the Middle East
Interviewed by Richard Medhurst [March 3, 2023]
[FB – This is an hour-long, in-depth interview with Chomsky, one of his recent best, imo, covering especially the prospects for war and peace in the Ukraine, the Middle East, and between the US and China. The interview starts at 2:21] [See the Program]
Can the World Save the World?
By March 1, 2023]
---- The United Nations has convened 27 conferences on climate change. For nearly three decades, the international community has come together at a different location every year to pool its collective wisdom, resources, and resolve to address this global threat. These Conferences of Parties (COPs) have produced important agreements, such as the Paris Accords of 2015 on the reduction of carbon emissions and most recently at Sharm el-Sheikh a Loss & Damage Fund to help countries currently experiencing the most impact from climate change. And yet the threat of climate change has only grown larger. In 2022, carbon emissions grew by nearly 2 percent. [Read More]
Left to Die: Deterrence, Death, and Rescue in the Borderlands
By Todd Miller, The Border Chronicle [March 2, 2023]
---- On February 16, a Guatemalan family contacted groups in southern Arizona about one of their family members who was lost in the Sonoran Desert after he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. They had his exact coordinates, they had a photo of him, and they had a photo of his ID. Martín (not his real name) had been walking for about six days with a small group of people but couldn't continue because of chest pain. Around 9 p.m., volunteers from the Tucson-based Frontera Aid Collective—a search and rescue and humanitarian aid group founded about two years ago—got involved. One of its members, Taylor Leigh, contacted BORSTAR, the U.S. Border Patrol's rescue, search, and trauma unit. Leigh hoped this unit could rescue the stranded man. … These were the first of more than 40 phone calls made by different people over two days. That night alone, humanitarian aid organizations called BORSTAR, the Three Points Police Department, the Pima County Sheriff's Department, and the Tohono O'odham Police Department. Meanwhile, the temperature was plummeting. [Read More]
War & Peace
At the Brink of War in the Pacific?
By March 3, 2023]
---- While the world has been distracted, even amused, by the diplomatic tussle around China's recent high-altitude balloon flights across North America, there are signs that Beijing and Washington are preparing for something so much more serious: armed conflict over Taiwan. Reviewing recent developments in the Asia-Pacific region raises a tried-and-true historical lesson that bears repeating at this dangerous moment in history: when nations prepare for war, they are far more likely to go to war. … If Beijing and Washington somehow let the pull of policy and planning drag them into such an ever-widening war, however, the damage could still prove incalculable — with cities devastated, untold thousands dead, and the global economy, with its epicenter in Asia, left in ruins. [Read More]
We Shouldn't Need an Earthquake to Know Sanctions Don't Work
By Phyllis Bennis, In These Times [March 1, 2023]
---- In the face of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria on February 6 — claiming the lives of more than 50,000 people — the Biden administration took a symbolically important but thoroughly insufficient step toward doing the right thing: It temporarily eased certain economic sanctions to allow humanitarian support into a ravaged Syria. After years of crippling sanctions and efforts to isolate Syria from the rest of the world, Washington's decision February 9 reflected at least some level of recognition of the quake's devastation.… Talking about sanctions is particularly relevant right now because we have been immersed in almost a full year of U.S.- and European-led cheerleading for sanctions against Russia. That cheerleading has led many to claim that sanctions are useful, that they play a key role in changing the behavior of human rights-violating governments, and that they are targeted so carefully that ordinary people are not harmed. None of those things are true. [Read More]
Hawkish Israel Is Pulling U.S. Into War With Iran
By Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept [March 1, 2023]
---- Almost two decades after the U.S. launched the disastrous invasion of Iraq, the Biden administration is on the verge of sleepwalking into yet another major armed conflict in the Middle East. Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides appeared to endorse a plan for Israel to attack Iranian nuclear facilities with U.S. support. "Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with [Iran], and we've got their back," he said at a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations … The Israeli escalations mean that the U.S. now faces the unsavory prospect of a major crisis flaring up in the Middle East at the exact moment when its bandwidth is already stretched thin because of a major war in Europe and its deteriorating relationship with China. [Read More]
The War in Ukraine
Why Biden Snubbed China's Ukraine Peace Plan
By
---- There's something irrational about President Biden's knee-jerk dismissal of China's 12-point peace proposal titled "China's Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis." "Not rational" is how Biden described the plan that calls for de-escalation toward a ceasefire, respect for national sovereignty, establishment of humanitarian corridors and resumption of peace talks. "Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable solution to the Ukraine crisis," reads the plan. "All efforts conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be encouraged and supported." Biden turned thumbs down. … China's call for de-escalation would surely benefit someone in Ukraine. Other points in China's plan, which is really more a set of principles rather than a detailed proposal, call for protection for prisoners of war, cessation of attacks on civilians, safeguards for nuclear power plants and facilitation of grain exports. [Read More] Also of interest is (Video) "Could Lula Help End the War in Ukraine? Brazil's President Vows to Pursue Diplomacy, Won't Arm Kyiv," from Democracy Now! [February 28, 2023] [Link].
European antiwar protests gain strength as NATO's Ukraine proxy war escalates
---- This February 21, several thousand Greeks filled Athens' streets to denounce NATO and the United States in the wake of Antony Blinken's Greece visit, where the US Secretary of State applauded the Mediterranean country for being amongst the first European countries to support Ukraine, thus leading to way for "the support of democracy." It was just one action among many protest actions across the continent as the NATO proxy conflict in Ukraine approached its first anniversary. European citizens are growing agitated as their leaders appear set on extending the war at least another year…. As the war escalates, so too are protest actions in core NATO states, from Greece to Britain to the Czech Republic to France and Spain. The recent wave of demonstrations builds on sizable displays of opposition to the war throughout the winter in cities from Chișinău to Paris to Brussels to Tirana to Vienna. [Read More]
For more useful reading on the Ukraine war – "The Disturbing Groupthink Over the War in Ukraine," by Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept [[Link]; "Nuclear Armageddon Games in Ukraine" [nuclear plants], by[Link]; and "On the First Anniversary of the War: How much longer can this go on?" by Boris Kagarlitsky, Russian Dissent [February 28, 2023] [Link].
The Climate Crisis
We Face a Climate Abyss, But There Are Sparks of Hope
[FB – An interview with climate/economist Robert Pollin.]
---- Large-scale climate adaptation investments are an absolute imperative. Let's come back to the brutal heat wave last spring in India. One obvious way to protect people during heat waves is with air conditioning. However, only 8 percent of Indian households now own air conditioning units. The situation in most of the rest of the world is not that different than India. More generally, the global Green New Deal must incorporate a range of robust protections against climate change impacts. This includes greatly expanding available storage facilities for food, seed and fresh water, and ensuring that these structures are themselves strongly protected against climate events. It must also include water demand management infrastructure, including — where they can be introduced without damaging local ecologies — sea walls, dams, pumping capacity, permeable pavements and abundant water-buffeting vegetation. … In other words, the challenges of advancing an effective unified framework for addressing both climate change and biodiversity loss are formidable. But we simply have no alternative other than continuing to build the movement that is capable of meeting these challenges. [Read More] Also of interest re: the climate crisis is "We need a climate movement that addresses the trauma of fighting for a burning planet," bMarch 3, 2023] [Link].
The State of the Union
The Case Against Privatizing Social Security
By Henry Scott Wallace, et al., The Nation [March 3, 2023]
---- The five of us are descended from President Franklin Roosevelt and his four top advisors who designed the New Deal. We think our ancestors would view it as irresponsible not to consider possible increases in revenue. They viewed Social Security as an unshakable compact with the American worker. It's an insurance policy you pay into with payroll taxes in every paycheck—and when you retire, you are guaranteed a monthly stipend to live on. FDR said the payroll tax was key to the success of Social Security: It gives workers "a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program." Republican President Dwight Eisenhower was equally blunt. There may be "a tiny splinter group" of politicians who want to mess with Social Security, he wrote, but "their number is negligible, and they are stupid." [Read More]
Student Loan Forgiveness Program Appears Headed for Defeat in the Supreme Court
By
---- A right-wing majority of the Supreme Court is on the verge of denying student debt relief to more than 40 million borrowers. On February 28, the high court heard oral arguments in a pair of cases challenging President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness program. Instituted to ameliorate the effects of the COVID pandemic, the program could provide up to $20,000 of debt relief to people with federally held loans. … Conservatives John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh appeared impervious to the economic plight of the tens of millions of people who carry debilitating student loan debt. These "justices" bent over backwards to find a way to deny the borrowers debt relief. …Roughly one in six adults in the United States has federal student loan debt. Many undergraduates graduate with almost $25,000 of debt, which takes, on average, 20 years to repay. According to estimates by the White House, almost 90 percent of the 45 million student loan borrowers would qualify for relief under the program and the debts of 18 million people would be fully canceled. [Read More] Also of interest is "How the Government Cancelled Betty Ann's Debts," by Eleni Schirmer, The New Yorker [February 23, 2023] [Link].
Our History
FB – To start off Women's History Month, here is an interesting documentary film on the fight by women and their allies to gain the right to vote: "One Woman, One Vote." The film is narrated by Susan Sarandon and has good music and film clips from the time. Also, as the anniversary of the (February/March) Russian Revolution is (no accident) on March 8th, International Women's Day, I found a documentary film by the Ukrainian film-editor and director Esther Shub, which was prepared/shown in Russia for the 10th anniversary of the Revolution (1927). It is "The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty." [A silent film, I prefer it without the added piano music.] Shub put the film together from hundreds of short clips, home movies, etc., in the spirit of artistic "constructivism" that informed Soviet art of the 1920s. To learn more about this fabulous, creative moment in the arts, go here.
