Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
February 25, 2024
Hello All – What do we want our government to do about the war in Gaza? Last Tuesday, at the UN Security Council, our government vetoed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and bringing food and aid to the victims of this war. This was the third such veto cast at the UN by the Biden people against "pausing" or ending this war. Instead of supporting an "immediate ceasefire," our government advocates a ceasefire "as soon as is practical." How long will this be, "as soon as practical"? If it is Israel that decides, "as soon" becomes "never." Is this acceptable?
This week The New York Times reported on medical and health studies warning that as many as 100,000 people would die in Gaza if the war continued for another 6 months. Currently, about 100 people a day, or three thousand a month, are being killed in Gaza. The medical experts warned that soon death by starvation and disease would kill more people than bombs and bullets. As noted in the article by Israeli writer Amira Hass below, starvation in Gaza has reached the extent that civil order is breaking down, as people are driven by famine to do what they must to stay alive.
The bombs and bullets killing people in Gaza are supplied by our government. Our government is anxious to send another $14 billion to Israel to support the war. Yet our government has cut off support for the UN agency that supplies food, housing, and education to people in Gaza; the agency now says it will have to end its operations in a few weeks. And our government is one of only a few countries in the world that is opposing an immediate end to this war.
In the USA, the opposition to the War on Gaza remains strong. A recent poll showed that even a majority of Jewish Democrats support an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Protests continue in the USA and around the world, attended by hundreds of thousands of people. Please join the antiwar movement. For starters, call the White House (202) 456-1111; Rep. Bowman (202) 225-2464; Sen. Gillibrand (202) 224-4451 and Sen. Schumer (202)224-6542. Just say you want a CEASEFIRE NOW FOR GAZA. Thanks.
Some articles illuminating this editorial
War and Illness Could Kill 85,000 Gazans in 6 Months
By Stephanie Nolen, New York Times [February 21, 2024]
---- An escalation of the war in Gaza could lead to the deaths of 85,000 Palestinians from injuries and disease over the next six months, in the worst of three scenarios that prominent epidemiologists have modeled in an effort to understand the potential future death toll of the conflict. These fatalities would be in addition to the more than 29,000 deaths in Gaza that local authorities have attributed to the conflict since it began in October. The estimate represents "excess deaths," above what would have been expected had there been no war. … Their study considers deaths from traumatic injuries, infectious diseases, maternal and neonatal causes, and noncommunicable diseases for which people can no longer receive medication or treatment, such as dialysis. [Read More] A useful discussion of these medical reports can be read in "If Israel continues War on Gaza for 6 Months, death toll will Exceed 100,000 from Trauma and Disease: Public Health Study," by Juan Cole, Iinformed Comment [February 22, 2024] [Link].
The Trauma Experienced in Gaza Is Beyond PTSD
By Yara M. Asi, New York Times [February 22, 2024]
---- When the bombing finally stops, the rebuilding of Gaza's homes, schools, hospitals and essential infrastructure will begin — a process Gazans are extremely familiar with at this point. They will also begin processing trauma many people on Earth cannot understand: the prospect of starving to death; waking up at the hospital and finding out you are one of the last surviving members of your family; watching a child killed by an airstrike being pulled from rubble; displacement for the second, fifth or tenth time. … How do we repair the shattered minds and emotions of these survivors? Where do we begin to bring people back from a state of mental anguish where the thought of a quick death is seen as a glimmer of mercy? [Read More]
As Hunger Spreads in Gaza, Gangs Looting Aid Become Increasingly Brazen
By Amira Hass, Haaretz [Israel] [February 22, 2024]
---- Looting by Palestinians in Gaza of aid trucks, food warehouses and the contents of internally displaced people's homes has increased amid the spread of hunger, Gazans and international aid officials have reported. There have also been cases of attacks on aid truck drivers. Both individuals and organized gangs are participating in the looting. The gangs exploit the fact that Hamas police officers are unable to go out armed and in uniform to protect the aid trucks. … Four factors are preventing basic food items from coming into northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people have remained and with thousands more returning. One, Israel has prevented aid trucks from reaching the area. Two, there was insufficient fuel for Gazan trucks to carry the aid to the north. Three, the few trucks that did make it through were looted on the way. Finally, drivers are afraid to make the journey without protection for themselves and their cargo. [Read More]
The Bowman Campaign
FB – Paying attention to the congressional race in Westchester's CD 16th district illuminates some larger national issues about the role of Very Big Money – and especially money connected with the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC – that is (once again) reshaping the political landscape and undermining what's left of our democracy. For some useful insights published recently, please read "There Sure Are a Lot of Republican Billionaires Funding the Democratic Primaries. I wonder why!" by Alexander Sammon, Slate [February 7, 2024] [Link]; and "How AIPAC is Making the US Congress pro-Genocide," by Zachary Foster, Palestine Nexus [February 23, 2024] [Link].
News Notes
Westchester can't tolerate its largest polluter — the Peekskill incinerator — any longer
By Courtney Williams and Michael Shank, USA TODAY [February 15, 2024]
---- At the end of January, one of New York State's dirtiest trash incinerators owned by WIN Waste marked 40 years of operation and trash burning. No one who lives near it, however, is celebrating. The local community of Peekskill, New York, which lives in the shadow of Westchester County's largest industrial polluter, isn't celebrating four decades of trash burning. Local residents have been living with and breathing forty years of air and water pollution and they're tired of it. They don't want this in their air and water anymore. And who can blame them? [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 is March 4th) 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 (so far) fruitless diplomacy and posturing of "world leaders" in efforts to stop the genocide taking place in Gaza jogged my brain this week and reminded me of the opening scenes of the great antiwar ballet (1932) "The Green Table." (Back then, the table where diplomatic deals were made was covered by green cloth.) I was very lucky to see a performance a half-century ago (h/t RM), and it has remained with me every since. The ballet was first performed in Germany on the eve of Hitler's election to power (1933), and followed a frantic (unsuccessful) decade of state and pacifist attempts to preclude the carnage that had taken place across Europe during the First World War (1914-18). Here is the Joffrey Ballet Co. with the 1967 version of "The Green Table" (36 minutes), and here is an interesting modern day discussion/rehearsal showing what makes "The Green Table" different and an extraordinary antiwar statement. Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
CFOW Weekly Reader
Featured Essays
(Video) Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Dies in Arctic Prison; "No Doubt" He Was Killed, Says Masha Gessen
From Democracy Now! [February 19, 2024]
---- More than 400 people have reportedly been detained in Russia for publicly mourning the death of Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic penal colony on Friday at age 47. He was the most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin in Russia and was serving a 19-year sentence at the time of his death on "extremism" charges. U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders directly have blamed Putin for Navalny's death. … For more, we speak with Russian American writer Masha Gessen, who charts Navalny's political evolution from an ethnonationalist libertarian tapping into "xenophobic discontent" to an anti-corruption activist promoting a vision of civic nationalism. "I have no doubt … that he was killed," says Gessen. "Putin was determined to see Navalny die in prison." [See the Program]
AI Behavior, Human Destiny and the Rise of the Killer Robots
By Michael T. Klare, Tom Dispatch [February 21, 2024]
---- As the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have shown, the earliest drone equivalents of "killer robots" have made it onto the battlefield and proved to be devastating weapons. But at least they remain largely under human control. Imagine, for a moment, a world of war in which those aerial drones (or their ground and sea equivalents) controlled us, rather than vice-versa. Then we would be on a destructively different planet in a fashion that might seem almost unimaginable today. … When the leading advocates of autonomous weaponry tell us to be concerned about the unintended dangers posed by their use in battle, the rest of us should be worried indeed. Even if we lack the mathematical skills to understand emergent behavior in AI, it should be obvious that humanity could face a significant risk to its existence, should killing machines acquire the ability to think on their own. [Read More]
The Zone of Interest Is Much More Than a Holocaust Film
By Eileen Jones, Jacobin Magazine [February 2024]
---- Many critics believe this is primarily a film about the twisted psychology of the Nazis and the Final Solution. A more artfully crafted one than most, but it's that and nothing more. However, this isn't just a film about Nazis. This is a film about us. Surely that's obvious? … The whole movie centers on the most extreme form of living in denial about genocide, even when it's so close that it's occurring on the other side of a wall. While we watch Nazi family members cheerfully weed gardens and entertain friends and take dips in the pool and lead their deliberately oblivious lives right next to the Auschwitz prison camp, we're given a great deal of time to think about how much easier it is to ignore genocide when it's occurring, say, on another continent thirteen hours away by plane. The whole ghastly effect of The Zone of Interest is in making us aware of how persistently we're willing to live in a state of convenient denial of mass slaughter, even with full knowledge of our own complicity in it. We're doing it right now. [Read More]
The War on Gaza
(Video) Palestine: Transfer
From Aljazeera [February 22, 2024] – 25 minutes
---- Israel's war on Gaza has displaced nearly two million Palestinians since October 2023. A majority of them are sheltering in the southernmost city of Rafah. Now, with the threat of an Israeli ground offensive on the area and calls by some Israeli politicians to permanently expel Palestinians from the Strip, fears are growing of yet another forced population transfer. An Israeli minister has even called the current war the "Gaza Nakba", referring to the devastating forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948-1949.People and Power delves into the history of Palestinian displacement and asks whether population transfer is Israel's ultimate goal. [See the Program]
Israel Has No Real Alternative to Netanyahu
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [February 25, 2024]
---- Once again it has been proved that there is no real substitute, no genuine alternative and no true opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu. The behavior by the centrist parties throughout the war, including the results of two important votes in the Knesset last week, clearly prove that on the state's fundamental issues which define Israel's character – the occupation, the war, and incredibly, democracy – there are no significant differences among the right, the center and the Zionist left. On these issues we are a state with one voice, one outlook, one opinion: Together we will win. These things are particularly astonishing in light of the raucous political struggle now raging between the camps. Everyone speaks of a division, a rift, a chasm, when in fact no real differences of opinion exist. [Read More]
(Video) The Death of Liberal Zionism
Chris Hedges interviews Rabbi Shaul Magid, The Real News Network [February 24, 2024]
---- Liberal Zionism, the notion that Israel's existence can be compatible with liberal values, has run its course. As Israel's genocide in Gaza continues despite the outcry of the world and the International Court of Justice, it is clear that any hopes of earlier generations to build a humanistic society in Israel have failed. Israel has long legitimized itself by purporting to be necessary for the protection of Jewish people from antisemitism. But Judaism and Jewish identity are far older than Zionism, and far more diverse than Zionism's narrow claims to monopolize the meaning of faith and ancestry. Rabbi Shaul Magid joins The Chris Hedges Report for a discussion on how religious fanaticism has come to dominate Israeli politics, and how a Jewish identity that rejects Zionism can be constructed from the rich and profound history of the Jewish faith and people. [See the Program]
What Doctors Saw in Gaza
[FB – Last week Democracy Now! aired three interviews with doctors who had volunteered to work in hospitals in Gaza, and had now returned home. – They illuminate some of the medical aspects of Israel's genocide that are largely excluded by the US (and Israeli) mainstream media.]
(Video) "What I Saw Wasn't War — It Was Annihilation," Says U.S. Doctor Who Volunteered in Gaza Hospital
From Democracy Now! [February 20, 2024]
---- We speak with an American doctor just back from Gaza about the "unimaginable scale" of its humanitarian crisis. Irfan Galaria, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, recently wrote an op-ed for the L.A. Times describing Israel's assault on Gaza's civilians as "annihilation." Dr. Galaria, who has worked in conflict zones around the world, says he and his team witnessed "a collateral humanitarian crisis of an unimaginable scale," involving the "deliberate attempt" to both target civilians with military assault and to deprive them of aid. "I thought I was going to be prepared, but I was not prepared for what I saw," he says. [See the Program]. Also of interest – "(Video) 'Like Horror Movies': Forced to Evacuate Nasser Hospital, Surgeon Describes Israeli Raid & Arrests [February 19, 2024] [Link]; and (Video) "'3 Days of Hell': Israel Raids Nasser Hospital, Arrests Staff in Latest Assault on Gaza Medical System" [February 19, 2024] [Link].
The International Court of Justice: Round Two
(Video) More Than 50 Countries Argue Before World Court Against Israeli Occupation of Palestine
From Democracy Now! [February 20, 2024]
---- Arguments are underway at the International Court of Justice, where more than 50 countries are asking the World Court to issue a nonbinding legal opinion against Israel's occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza since 1967. The request is separate from South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the ICJ. "Israel has been instrumentalizing the rules of international humanitarian law … to further its settler-colonial project in Palestine," says Ahmed Abofoul of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq.[See the Program]
A Wider War
[FB – Last week the US stated that Israel was responsible for the destruction of gas pipelines in Iran – imo an attempt by Israel to widen the war and, eventually, to draw the USA into a war with Iran. The Biden administration's anticipation that the war will widen – to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and perhaps Iran – is illustrated by the details of the Biden $14 billion budget request for Israel, now stalled in Congress.]
MAD in Lebanon: Are We on Our Way to Mutual Assured Destruction?
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz [Israel] [February 22, 2024]
---- There is a considerable number of people in Israel – among the public, in the military and in the government – who think Israel will have no choice but to attack in Lebanon when the Gaza war is over. … The war with Hezbollah would become a multifront one. The missiles would also be fired from Syria, Iraq and Yemen and perhaps even Iran. There would be a major danger that the West Bank would ignite and that Israel would find itself in a war the likes of which it has never experienced. It can't be totally excluded that there would be those in Israel who would consider resorting to strategic moves using the most extreme means imaginable. [Read More]
The Mainstream Media and the War
What the Mass Media Needs to Cover Re: Israel/Gaza Conflict
By Ralph Nader [February 23, 2024]
---- Last October 27, I suggested subjects the mainstream media needed to cover relating to the saturation bombing of Gaza and its defenseless civilian families and infrastructure. Looking at these topics now, four months later, despite massive reporting, the attention to these subjects is still thin and more deserving of reporting than ever. (1.) How did Hamas, with tiny Gaza surrounded by a 17-year Israeli blockade, subjected to unparalleled electronic surveillance, with spies and informants, and augmented by an overwhelming air, sea and land military presence, manage to get the weapons and associated technology for their October 7th surprise raid? Readers still do not know how and from where these weapons entered Gaza year after year. [And 9 more questions/topics] [Read More] Also of interest is "Shielding US Public From Israeli Reports of Friendly Fire on October 7," by Bryce Greene, FAIR [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting] [February 23, 2024] [Link].
The West Bank
[FB – Continuing its timid distancing from Israel's genocide in Palestine, this week Secretary of State Antony Blinked said the Israel announcement of new settlement construction (more than 3,000 housing units) was a 'disappointment,' adding that they are 'counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace'. Since October 7, 2023, more than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank, and more than 7,000 have been "detained" – arrested, but usually without charges or a trial date – indefinite detention."]
The Roots of Violence in the West Bank
By Jasper Diamond Nathaniel, Infinite Jaz [February 25, 2024]
---- Zionists took most of what we now call Israel by force and UN Resolution in 1948, but East Jerusalem and the West Bank—which refers to the west bank of the Jordan River—remained under Jordanian control (and the Gaza Strip under Egyptian) until the 1967 Arab-Israeli War when Israel defeated a coalition of Arab States in six days.For the purposes of this argument, I'm going to stipulate that everything that happened between 1948 and 1967 was legitimate. People (and countries) fight wars, they say, and the winners claim new land. Even within this framing, though, there are, actually, rules: the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 had made it illegal for an occupying power to transfer parts of its own population into its occupied territory. But in 1967, before the blood-soaked ground could dry, young Israelis had demolished 160 homes near East Jerusalem, expelled over 6,000 residents, and begun construction on the first settlement. [Read More] For an illuminating exposition of how Israel is making peoples' lives miserable/unbearable in the West Bank, read "Israel's Crackdown on Hebron," by Maya Rosen, Jewish Currents [February 13, 2024] [Link].?
The War in Ukraine
After Two Years of War in Ukraine, It's Time for Peace
By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Code Pink [February 22, 2024]
---- As we mark two full years since Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian government forces have withdrawn from Avdiivka, a town they first captured from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in July 2014… Neither side made significant territorial gains in the entire 2023 year of fighting, with a net gain to Russia of a mere 188 square miles, or 0.1% of Ukraine. And while it is the Ukrainians and Russians fighting and dying in this war of attrition with over half a million casualties, it is the United States, with some its Western allies, that has stood in the way of peace talks. [Read More] Also of interest – "New poll: Nearly 70% of Americans want talks to end war in Ukraine," by Connor Echols, Responsible Statecraft [February 16, 2024] [Link]; (Video) "Russia-Ukraine two years on: towards an endless and wider war?" from Aljazeera (Marc Lamont Hill) [February 23, 2024] [Link]; "Throwing Good Money After Bad in Ukraine?," by Ray McGovern and Lawrence Wilkerson, Consortium News [February 16, 2024] [Link]; and "The Ukraine War Runs on Prevarication," by James W. Carden, The American Conservative [February 17, 2024] [Link].
The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin
By Adam Entous and Michael Schwirtz, New York Times [February 25, 2024]
---- Now entering the third year of a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the intelligence partnership between Washington and Kyiv is a linchpin of Ukraine's ability to defend itself. The C.I.A. and other American intelligence agencies provide intelligence for targeted missile strikes, track Russian troop movements and help support spy networks. … It took root a decade ago, coming together in fits and starts under three very different U.S. presidents, pushed forward by key individuals who often took daring risks. It has transformed Ukraine, whose intelligence agencies were long seen as thoroughly compromised by Russia, into one of Washington's most important intelligence partners against the Kremlin today. [Read More]
The Climate Crisis
'Every Molecule of Hydrocarbon Will Come Out' [Climate Crisis & The Gulf States]
By Adam Hanieh, New York Review of Books [February 21, 2024]
---- Climate activists in the west tend to focus on the traditional "supermajors" like BP, Shell, and ExxonMobil. Those firms are still extremely powerful and destructive, especially in North America and Western Europe. But the oil industry has fragmented along regional lines, and in recent decades its center has shifted toward the Middle East. A perspective on the climate crisis that ignores this development is fundamentally out of step with reality. [Read More]. Also of interest is "We Can Still Resist a Pipeline to Hell" [Tennessee] by Margaret Renkl, The New York Times [February 19, 2024] [Link].
Civil Liberties/Julian Assange
Tears for Navalny. Assange? Not So Much.
By Andrew Cockburn, Spoils of War [February 19, 2024]
---- Today, February 20, Julian Assange will have his last chance to appeal the order for his extradition from Britain to the United States. The unremitting campaign to crush one of the most consequential journalists of our era may be on the brink of success. But while the press bestows tears by the bucketful on the memory of Alexei Navalny, media eyes are cold and dry for Assange, persecuted for the crime of telling us what we needed to know. The campaign to discredit Assange was artfully constructed and implemented, but it required the active complicity of the press in suppressing the truth. A year ago I published the following article in Harper's magazine to set the record straight. Sadly, there is little reason to change what I wrote. (The Committee to Protect Journalists still refuses to acknowledge Assange as an imprisoned journalist.) [Read More] Also of interest – "Assange Is No 'Ordinary Journalist': US Opposes Request For Appeal," by Mohamed Elmaazi, The Dissenter [February 21, 2024] [Link]; and "Life Inside the Brutal U.S. Prison That Awaits Julian Assange," by Ryan Grim, The Intercept [February 20, 2024] [Link].
Anti-Palestinian Animus at Root of U.S. Anti-Terrorism Laws, New Report Reveals
From The Center for Constitutional Rights [February 21, 2024]
---- Opposition to Palestinian rights has shaped U.S. federal anti-terrorism law from its beginnings, according to a briefing paper released today. Dating back to the 1960s, the government has used anti-terrorism law to target the Palestinian movement and supporters and to stigmatize Palestinians as terrorists, the paper says. Published by Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the paper provides historical and political context for the escalating effort to restrict the rights of activists protesting Israel's brutal assault on Gaza – and those that extend well beyond the movement for Palestinian rights. [Read More] For some explication of the report, read "How the ADL's Anti-Palestinian Advocacy Helped Shape U.S. Terror Laws," by Alice Speri, The Intercept [February 21 2024] [Link].
Our History
The Obligation of Self-Discovery [Simone de Beauvoir]
By Vivian Gornick, Boston Review [October 22, 2020]
---- The Algerian war was the most agonizing event in Beauvoir's life, worse even than World War II. The shame she felt over French colonialism ate her alive. In this she was not alone. Thousands of her countrymen and women endured the same burden of shame; they had collaborated with the Nazis and now, it was felt, they were acting like Nazis themselves. Beauvoir began to write passionately—articles, books, essays—as though she felt personally responsible for her government's actions. Many of her fellow intellectuals called into question what seemed like melodramatic self-laceration but the hundreds of letters she personally received were "soaked in shame" for reasons that echoed her own. … Then one day she wrote a vividly detailed column about an Algerian woman who had been tortured and raped multiple times by French soldiers. To her amazement, the whole country turned on her. [Read More]
