Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
July 23, 2017
Hello All – In a preface to a new book, Noam Chomsky speaks of the Italian political thinker Antonio Gramsci, who observed that his own era (that of Italian fascism) seemed to be an "interregnum," a time between two worlds that "consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid Symptoms appear." This certainly rings a bell for me, not just about our era, but about this summer as well. We seem to be "on pause," daily waiting for some other shoe to drop, with "morbid symptoms" aplenty.
Consider, while the Trump White House self-destructs and the US media obsess about Russian conspiracies to take over the United States via a "Manchurian Candidate," we have wall-to-wall crises of great importance that seldom figure in our mainstream political discourse: terminal climate change, another nuclear arms race, questions about war with Iran or North Korea, military expansion in Libya and Afghanistan, tremendous civilian casualties in Mosul, Raqqa, and Yemen, the imminent possibility of extreme violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories … etc. What is really going on?
I hope that this newsletter helps stalwarts for peace and justice to make some sense out of this chaos. In addition to illuminating Featured Essays by Tom Engelhardt (on US "rubble-izing" much of the Middle East) and Matt Taibbi (on how "Russia-gate" might look from Russia), I've linked excellent essays by Kathy Kelly (Voices for Creative Nonviolence) on Yemen, Patrick Cockburn on Mosul/Iraq, and an interview with Trita Parsi and V. J. Prashad on the what the Trump people intend to do to promote regime change in Iran. This newsletter also includes an imo useful collection or articles about what's happening in Israel (bound to affect us in the US), a section on Turkey (now an on-going focus for me), and some useful analysis about the congressional rush to penalize the "Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions" movement against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian Territories. But if all this is simply too dreadful, please check out the interesting review of the new novel by Arundhati Roy ("The Ministry of Utmost Happiness"), Louis Proyect's interesting review of two classic American films, and a memoir about Clancy Sigal, the American writer of "Going Away" who passed this week.
Get Involved! Take Action!
Food and Water Watch alerts us to the dangers of the "Dirty Energy Bill" (S. 1460) and the fact that it may be voted on as soon as next Monday. They write: "This is legislation being rammed through the Senate by Mitch McConnell in the wake of the health care fiasco in a desperate attempt to achieve something. The bill would be a disaster: it would promote fracking and drilling for fossil fuels, making it easier to approve gas export facilities and build new pipelines." They ask that we call Sen. Charles Schumer and urge him to vote against the bill. They suggest that we use this toll-free number - 866-584-6799 – so that F&WW can track the number of calls made. For more information about this dangerous legislation, go here.
Our friends at Westchester For Change ask us to give a call to our county legislators in support of the Immigrant Protection Act, which will be voted on at the Board of Legislators meeting on August 7th. In support of this legislation, they suggest we tell our legislators:
Recent actions taken by ICE in our community and around the country have me concerned about the safety of all residents of Westchester County. This is not a "sanctuary city" bill nor is it a symbolic bill. This is a bill that will simply instruct the County to not use any resources to assist the federal government in an immigration crackdown. This bill does not instruct the County to inhibit or disobey any orders from immigration officials. Local municipalities all across Westchester are passing resolutions in support of this policy. The time to pass this important law that will help ensure public safety for all is now.
MaryJane Shimsky is the legislator representing the Rivertowns. You can call her at 914-895-2821. If you are in a different legislative district, you can get your legislator's phone number here.
On July 27th there will be a public meeting to speak out against the recently-released draft of the Westchester County airport master plan, which calls for massive expansion of the airport. The format is a presentation of the airport master plan by the county consultants/author(s), followed by Q&A. The meeting will take place in the Little Theater at the Westchester County Center from 7 to 9 p.m. You can learn about the issues by reading this "White Paper."
Contributions to CFOW
If you are able to contribute to CFOW work, we would appreciate it very much. Please send your check to Concerned Families of Westchester, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Rewards!
This week's rewards for stalwart readers are some Leonard Cohen songs that I like and that helped to produce this issue of the newsletter. So here are some favorites: "Boogie Street" and "Waiting for the Miracle." Cohen departed this world last November; and his "muse," Marianne Ihlen, died one year ago this week. Someone put together a tender photo album of their life together; here is "So Long, Marianne." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
FEATURED ESSAYS
Empire of Destruction
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [July 19, 2017]
By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch [July 19, 2017]
---- In the first months of the Trump administration, the U.S. has essentially decided on a new mini-surge of troops and air power in Afghanistan; deployed for the first time the largest non-nuclear weapon in its arsenal there; promised the Saudis more support in their war in Yemen; has increased its air strikes and special operations activities in Somalia; is preparing for a new U.S. military presence in Libya; increased U.S. forces and eased the rules for air strikes in civilian areas of Iraq and elsewhere; and sent U.S. special operators and other personnel in rising numbers into both Iraq and Syria. … In this country, there is essentially no sense of responsibility for the spread of terrorism, the crumbling of states, the destruction of lives and livelihoods, the tidal flow of refugees, and the rubblization of some of the planet's great cities. There's no reasonable assessment of the true nature and effects of American warfare abroad: its imprecision, its idiocy, its destructiveness. In this peaceful land, it's hard to imagine the true impact of the imprecision of war. [Read More]
What Does Russiagate Look Like to Russians?
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone [July 21, 2017]
---- Russia isn't as strong as we think, but they do have nukes – which is why beating the war drum is a mistake. … For all the fears about Trump being a Manchurian Candidate bent on destroying America from within, the far more likely nightmare endgame involves our political establishment egging the moron Trump into a shooting war as a means of proving his not-puppetness. … Rising anti-Russian hysteria and a nuclear button-holder in the White House who acts before he thinks is a very bad combination. We should try to chill while we still can, especially since the Russians, once again, probably aren't as powerful as we think. [Read More]
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Through Eyes of an Activist for Palestine
[FB – An interesting review of Indian activist/writer Arundhati Roy's new novel, which I read and highly recommend.]
---- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a tough yet stunning literary experience. … It is wondrously creative. It is an experience that must be mindfully savoured as you wonder word by word where Roy's brilliance is taking you… what is around the roller coasting corner of the next word, poetry that will make you gasp, quirkiness that charms, flagellating condemnation, a chuckle of humour, awesome acuity, shuddering contempt, fierce tenderness, brittle satire, outlandish juxtapositions where Cadbury's Fruit and Nut sit square with Torture, and where Mango Frooti can spark a Massacre. This is not a novel for ostriches desiring soma comfort, it is for adults demanding their destiny of human dignity and Roy guides us to that end. [Read More]
Planting the Seeds of the Future
By Noam Chomsky, ZNet [July 20, 2017]
[FB – This is a preface to a new book by ZNet's Michael Albert, Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society.]
[FB – This is a preface to a new book by ZNet's Michael Albert, Practical Utopia: Strategies for a Desirable Society.]
---- It is tempting, and plausible, to regard the current historical period as an "interregnum" in Antonio Gramsci's sense, recalling his words on the crisis of his day, which "consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid Symptoms appear." The morbidity of many of the symptoms is all too apparent, and the crises are all too real. The crises of our day come in two forms: some are merely very serious, while others are literally existential. In the latter category there are two crises, each posing challenges that have never arisen before in human history-literally challenges of survival, for humans and innumerable other species. [Read More]
WAR & PEACE
At Every Door [The war in Yemen]
By Kathy Kelly, Creative Nonviolence [July 21, 2017]
---- Yemen is being bombarded and blockaded, using US-supplied weapons and vehicles, by a local coalition marshaled by U.S. client state Saudi Arabia. Yemen's near-famine conditions, with attendant cholera outbreak, are so dire that in Yemen it is estimated a child dies every 10 minutes of preventable disease. …Billions, perhaps trillions, will be spent to send weapons, weapon systems, fighter jets, ammunition, and military support to the region, fueling new arms races and raising the profits of U.S. weapon makers. But, we can choose to stand at the doors of our leaders and of our neighbors, honoring past sacrifices and the innocent lives we were unable to save, as we redouble efforts to stop war makers from constantly gaining the upper hand in our lives. We can never reverse the decisions to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we cannot prevent all of the dying that is set to come, this fateful summer, in the countries of the Four Famines. [Read More]
---- Yemen is being bombarded and blockaded, using US-supplied weapons and vehicles, by a local coalition marshaled by U.S. client state Saudi Arabia. Yemen's near-famine conditions, with attendant cholera outbreak, are so dire that in Yemen it is estimated a child dies every 10 minutes of preventable disease. …Billions, perhaps trillions, will be spent to send weapons, weapon systems, fighter jets, ammunition, and military support to the region, fueling new arms races and raising the profits of U.S. weapon makers. But, we can choose to stand at the doors of our leaders and of our neighbors, honoring past sacrifices and the innocent lives we were unable to save, as we redouble efforts to stop war makers from constantly gaining the upper hand in our lives. We can never reverse the decisions to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and we cannot prevent all of the dying that is set to come, this fateful summer, in the countries of the Four Famines. [Read More]
The War Against ISIS
The World's Lack of Outrage
By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent [UK] [July 22, 2017]
---- The catastrophic number of civilian casualties in Mosul is receiving little attention internationally from politicians and journalists. This is in sharp contrast to the outrage expressed worldwide over the bombardment of east Aleppo by Syrian government and Russian forces at the end of 2016. The real number of dead who are buried under the mounds of rubble in west Mosul is unknown, but their numbers are likely to be in the tens of thousands, rather than the much lower estimates previously given. … Why has there not been more outcry over the destruction of west Mosul? There should be no question about the massive civilian loss of life, even if there are differences over the exact numbers of the dead. The biggest reason for the lack of outrage is that Isis was seen as a uniquely evil movement that had to be defeated – whatever the cost in dead bodies to the people of Mosul. [Read More] Amnesty Internatinal just published a report on the civilian deaths in Mosul, which can be read here.
---- The catastrophic number of civilian casualties in Mosul is receiving little attention internationally from politicians and journalists. This is in sharp contrast to the outrage expressed worldwide over the bombardment of east Aleppo by Syrian government and Russian forces at the end of 2016. The real number of dead who are buried under the mounds of rubble in west Mosul is unknown, but their numbers are likely to be in the tens of thousands, rather than the much lower estimates previously given. … Why has there not been more outcry over the destruction of west Mosul? There should be no question about the massive civilian loss of life, even if there are differences over the exact numbers of the dead. The biggest reason for the lack of outrage is that Isis was seen as a uniquely evil movement that had to be defeated – whatever the cost in dead bodies to the people of Mosul. [Read More] Amnesty Internatinal just published a report on the civilian deaths in Mosul, which can be read here.
The Post-IS Proxy War
By Vijay Prashad, The Hindu [India] [July 20, 2017]
---- In Iraq, the Iranians have become indispensable. Their close allies govern in Baghdad, while their trained militias have been fighting alongside the Iraqi Army against the IS. Syria's Bashar al-Assad would have lost Damascus without Iranian military support as well as the assistance of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. It is impossible to imagine a scenario where Iran does not have influence in Damascus and Baghdad. … The defeat of the IS is inevitable. But this is not the end of the war. The next conflict has already begun, with Iran in the gunsights of the U.S. Clashes between the U.S. and Iranian forces in Syria could spiral out of control. [Read More]
---- In Iraq, the Iranians have become indispensable. Their close allies govern in Baghdad, while their trained militias have been fighting alongside the Iraqi Army against the IS. Syria's Bashar al-Assad would have lost Damascus without Iranian military support as well as the assistance of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. It is impossible to imagine a scenario where Iran does not have influence in Damascus and Baghdad. … The defeat of the IS is inevitable. But this is not the end of the war. The next conflict has already begun, with Iran in the gunsights of the U.S. Clashes between the U.S. and Iranian forces in Syria could spiral out of control. [Read More]
War with Iran?
New York Times Beats War Drums Against Iran
An interview with Vijay Prashad and Trita Parsi, Real News Network [July 2017]
---- On Sunday [7/16], The New York Times ran an article front page titled "Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. 'Handed the Country Over'" written by Tim Arango. Discussing the article …. [Read the Interview] Also useful is this article by Robin Wright, "Is the Nuclear Deal with Iran Slipping Away?" The New Yorker [July 19, 2017] [Link]
The Crisis in Turkey
[FB – As I noted in previous newsletters, I think what is happening in Turkey now is important for the prospects for peace in the Middle East, as well as important for the Turkish people who are faced with the repression of the Turkish government. Yet there is little news about all this in the USA. Current events in Turkey, especially about arrests, etc., can be followed on the websites of Turkey Purge and the Stockholm Center for Freedom. (The later site is run by former editors of Turkey's main English-language newspaper, which was closed by the government.) Also, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are following events in Turkey closely. I also look at the Turkey page of Jadaliyya, an interesting website run by dissenting Middle Eastern scholars.]
Democracy on Trial
By Melanie Gingell, Jacobin Magazine [July 20, 2017]
---- Earlier this month the trial of Figen Yüksekdağ, co-chair of the People's Democratic Party (HDP), began in Turkey's capital of Ankara. Accused of supporting Kurdish separatists in the country's southeast, Yüksekdağ has already been stripped of her place in Turkey's parliament — but now the Erdoğan government is pursuing terrorism-related charges which come with the threat of an eighty-three-year jail term. Her lawyer, Gülseren Yoleri, argues that stripping her of her seat was illegal, her arrest was dubious, and the entire process resembles a "premeditated" attack on the HDP. On July 4 I, as part of a delegation of politicians and lawyers from across Europe, attempted to observe the first hearing in the prosecution. [Read More]
CIVIL LIBERTIES/"THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR"
Crackdown in the States
By Chip Gibbons, Jacobin Magazine [July 20, 2017]
---- In the US in particular, social movement repression is the norm, not the exception. Whether it is BDS or Black Lives Matter, any hint that movements are in ascendency means the crackdown is not far behind. But some causes and groups attract special scrutiny. Protests led by people of color, asserting their rights, are likely to be met with militarized police that resemble an occupying army. Black Lives Matter, Palestinian solidarity activists, and Standing Rock water protectors have all struggled against racism and seen the "right hand of the state" unleashed in response. In the case of Standing Rock and Palestine, activists have also incensed the state by challenging settler colonialism head on. Threatening capitalist profitability is another sure way to bring down the hammer of the state. [Read More]
Anti-BDS Legislation in Washington
(Video) Criminalizing Critics of Israel: Congress Considers Sweeping Bills to Fine & Jail Backers of BDS
From Democracy Now! [July 21, 2017]
---- U.S. lawmakers are seeking to criminally outlaw support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. If a proposed bipartisan law is passed, backers of BDS could face up to 20 years in prison and a million-dollar fine. We speak to Rabbi Joseph Berman of Jewish Voice for Peace and Ryan Grim of The Intercept. [See the Program]
U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel
By Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Grim
---- The criminalization of political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. In the U.S., governors compete with one another over who can implement the most extreme regulations to bar businesses from participating in any boycotts aimed even at Israeli settlements, which the world regards as illegal. On U.S. campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of Israel is so commonplace that the Center for Constitutional Rights refers to it as "the Palestine Exception" to free speech. But now, a group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country's decades-old occupation of Palestine. [Read More]
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Six ways Trump is 'dismantling' the US after six months in office
By Dominic Rushe, et al., The Guardian [UK] [July 19, 2017]
---- After years of gains for consumer, environmental and worker rights groups, the pendulum is being swung the other way – but most often those changes are happening behind closed doors.
In March, Trump pledged to "remove every job-killing regulation we can find" and deregulation teams have been set up to comb through the statutes looking for rules to cull. A recent ProPublica and New York Times investigation found Trump's deregulation teams were being conducted in the dark in large part by appointees with deep industry ties and potential conflicts of interest. [Read More]
Charleston workers renew region's ties to Highlander Center
July 19, 2017]
---- Seventy years ago, a group of cigar factory workers from Charleston, South Carolina, traveled almost 500 miles to the Highlander Folk School, a leadership training school founded in East Tennessee in 1932. There, the workers introduced the school's musical director to a gospel song that had boosted their spirits during a protracted strike the previous year. Highlander staff taught the song to thousands of labor and civil rights movement activists over the years and, as its popularity spread, "We Shall Overcome" became an anthem for human rights causes worldwide. It has been sung by left-wing college students in India, anti-apartheid protesters in South Africa, and civil rights supporters from Birmingham, Alabama, to Belfast, Northern Ireland. [Read More]
ISRAEL/PALESTINE
[FB – It's hard to see how the Israeli/Palestinian conflict can avoid a serious explosion in the very near term. Given the mainstream media's absorption with all things Trump, and given the traditional media bias to write Palestinians out of the news except when one of them commits an atrocity, I don't think Americans are prepared to understand what the coming upheaval is about. Linked here are several articles that put forward a Palestinian perspective, or a perspective sympathetic to Palestinian aspirations and rejection of the Occupation.]
The Al-Aqsa/Temple Mount Crisis
[FB – The basics of the story can be read in this article from today's Haaretz, Israel's liberal daily paper ("Temple Mount Crisis: Fears of Political Rivals Led Netanyahu to Make a Grave Error") [Link], and yesterday's New York Times account ("Deadly Violence Erupts in Standoff Over Mosque in Jerusalem") [Link]. Below are some articles that go into greater depth.]
Jerusalem's Red Weekend: Only when blood flows does Israel relent
By Gideon Levy, Middle East Eye [July 23, 2017]
[FB – Gideon Levy is a correspondent for Haaretz [Israel]. He spoke at a forum in Greenburgh a few years ago, co-sponsored by CFOW.]
---- The ball is in Israel's court, as usual. If the government behaves wisely and removes the offensive metal detectors, returning the situation to the status quo ante, and meanwhile does not undertake violent reprisals for the attack in Halamish, perhaps the evil genie can be recorked in his bottle. But even then, the genie can be banished only temporarily, for some indeterminate period of time. Ultimately, resistance to the occupation will not cease, but only change guise, waxing and waning in its degree of violence, but never disappearing; this we learn from human history. [Read More]
(Video) Israel's extremism stoking Jerusalem violence
---- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refusing to remove metal detectors at the gates of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque compound, despite advice from the Israeli army and Shin Bet secret police that he should do so. I told Al Jazeera English on Saturday evening that Netanyahu's rejection of this advice is a further indication that his move is political – part of Israel's plan to consolidate its control over al-Aqsa, one of the holiest sites for Muslims. [See the Interview]
Also useful/insightful – Amira Hass, "Temple Mount Crisis: Jerusalem Unifies the Muslims Through Struggle," Haaretz [Israel] [July 23, 2017] [Link]; Haggai Matar, "Six things that must be said about the violence in Jerusalem and West Bank," +972 Magazine [July 23, 2017] [Link]; and Ramzy Baroud, "The Story Behind the Jerusalem Attack: How Trump and Netanyahu Pushed Palestinians to A Corner," [Link].
The Crisis in Gaza
(Video) Gaza on Verge of Collapse as Israel Sends 2.2M People "Back to Middle Ages" in Electricity Crisis
From Democracy Now! [July 19, 2017]
---- Israeli-imposed restrictions have limited electricity in Gaza to barely four hours a day, creating a humanitarian catastrophe for its 2 million residents. In 2012, the World Health Organization warned that Gaza would be uninhabitable by 2020. The U.N. now says the area has already become unlivable, with living conditions in Gaza deteriorating faster than expected. [See the Program]
(Video) Gaza Crisis, Global Silence
Ali Abunimah [Electronic Intifada] interviewed on The Real News [July 15, 2017]
---- After 10 years of Israeli siege, the UN warns Gaza is becoming 'unlivable.' Ali Abunimah of The Electronic Intifada says Israel, with the Palestinian Authority's help, is responsible for the crisis, as most of the world looks on in silence. [See the Interview]
OUR HISTORY
Clancy Sigal Has... 'Gone Away' (1926-2017)
By Peter Dreier, Common Dreams [July 18, 2017]
[FB – Like this writer, while in college my friends and I were avid readers of Sigal's Going Away. What I remember most is Sigal's anger at the Hollywood "sell-outs" and other liberals who had made their peace with the Establishment. (But of course, that's what I would remember.) – And so Sigal meditates on America while driving across the country from California to the East Coast, and at the end of his book sets sail for England – where he shows up in Doris Lessing's book, The Golden Notebook, as "Saul Green," who gives Anna (Lessing's character) the gold-colored notebook in which she finally integrates her life, until then scattered in a political book (red, of course), a writing book, and a personal diary. Check out this picture of Sigal and Lessing on the way to a "Ban the Bomb" demo in England in 1958. So romantic!]
---- Reading "Going Away" — a fictional memoir of his life as a former union organizer and Hollywood agent, who travels across America to visit old friends victimized by the Red Scare blacklist — was transformational for me and for many others. The novel describes a cross-country road trip that Sigal, then a 29-year old blacklisted Hollywood agent, embarked on in 1956 to visit old friends, and some old enemies, many of them victimized by McCarthyism. Some of his old friends left their leftism behind, but Sigal remained a radical, unwilling to give up hope. In collecting and telling the stories of his comrades, old girlfriends, and new acquaintances, Sigal captured the spirit of the era, much more so than Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," to which "Going Away" (which was nominated for a National Book Award) is often compared. [Read More]
Reversals of Imperial Fortune: From the Comanche to Vietnam
[FB – Here are some interesting thoughts on how two mainstream films reflected "America in crisis" in ways that we might not have thought of.]
---- I had never made the connection between John Ford's "The Searchers" and Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," but found myself saying "of course" after Stewart pointed out that both involve anti-heroes trying to "rescue" women who don't really feel any such need. Another important insight found in Taxi Searchers is their proximity in time to two important reversals of imperial fortune. Ford's film was made just two years after the French were defeated in Vietnam and Scorsese's came out just a year after the Vietnamese kicked the imperialists out once again. [Read More]
