Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
October 8, 2023
Hello All – Many in the news media are comparing Saturday's attack on Israel to 9/11. Pearl Harbor is also mentioned. From the point of view of Israel and its supporters the attack was/is devastating beyond the numbers killed and wounded, and the dozens taken hostage. The nation's intelligence services taken by surprise – comparisons to the (almost) surprise attack against Israel in 1973 are widespread. The failure to prevent and protect, as in 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, raises questions about the soundness of the government (in this case, Netanyahu's coalition). And the attack destroys any thoughts that the Palestinians have been defeated, pacified, squashed to mere "things" by Jewish supremacy. So yes, the attack from Gaza will live as trauma for Israelis and Zionists for decades to come, as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor have done for us.
What about a Palestinian perspective? I think the Tet Offensive, 1968 in Vietnam, might be a good historical analogy. In terms of the outcome of battles and numbers killed, the Tet Offensive was not a win for the Vietnamese. But it was a great political victory, destroying the Lyndon Johnson government and ending all talk that there was "light at the end of the tunnel." Though I fear that the attack from Gaza will lead to thousands of dead Palestinians, and in this light alone must be questioned (as was Tet by many Vietnamese leaders), the political impact of this war may well be a defeat for the Zionist project.
What should American supporters of the Palestinian freedom movement do now? We can support the Palestinian resistance by stressing again and again the context of this war, the decades of oppression and cruelty suffered by Palestinians, and the blindness and perversity of our own government in writing blank checks for Israel over and over again, shielding Israel from criticism in international forums and at the United Nations, and blocking serious discussions of realistic diplomatic options for peace in the Middle East. Some of these viewpoints are discussed in the reading linked below. Deferred until next week's Newsletter are some major issues that will be clarified in the next few days, such as the nature/extent of the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza, and the spread of the war to the West Bank and the border with Lebanon. Give peace a chance.
Some Useful Reading about the War & Its Background
Gaza's shock attack has terrified Israelis. It should also unveil the context
By Haggai Matar, +972 Magazine [Israel] [October 7, 2023]
---- The absolute dread of people who are seeing armed militants in their streets and homes, or the sight of fighter jets and approaching tanks, is unimaginable. Attacks on civilians are war crimes, and my heart goes to the victims and their families. Contrary to what many Israelis are saying, and while the army was clearly caught completely off guard by this invasion, this is not a "unilateral" or "unprovoked" attack. The dread Israelis are feeling right now, myself included, is a sliver of what Palestinians have been feeling on a daily basis under the decades-long military regime in the West Bank, and under the siege and repeated assaults on Gaza. The responses we are hearing from many Israelis today — of people calling to "flatten Gaza," that "these are savages, not people you can negotiate with," "they are murdering whole families," "there's no room to talk with these people" — are exactly what I have heard occupied Palestinians say about Israelis countless times. [Read More]
As Israel and Gaza erupt, the US must commit to ending the violence — all the violence
By Phyllis Bennis, [October 7, 2023]
[FB – Phyllis Bennis is the author of "Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer" and many other books on the Middle East.]
---- The most recent eruption of violence in Gaza and Israel is a tragic reminder of the human consequences of decades of oppression. The human toll – hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis killed so far – tells that appalling story. Many of the targets, and many of those killed, on both sides, were civilians. … But while it's necessary, condemning attacks on civilians isn't enough. If we are serious about ending this spiraling violence, we need to look at root causes. And that means – hard as it may be for some to acknowledge it – we must look at the context. … Our understanding of reality is shaped by when we start the clock. Saturday's attack from Gaza did not happen out of thin air. It took place in the context of decades of Israel's domination and control over Palestinians. As the Israeli human rights organization B'tselem describes it, "in the entire area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians." [Read More]
Some Statements on the War
From Jewish Voice for Peace - The Root of Violence Is Oppression. Right now, Palestinians, Israelis and all of us with family on the ground are terrified for loved ones. We grieve the lives of those already lost and remain committed to a future where every life is precious, and all people live in freedom and safety. … For the past year, the most racist, fundamentalist, far-right government in Israeli history has ruthlessly escalated its military occupation over Palestinians in the name of Jewish supremacy with violent expulsions and home demolitions, mass killings, military raids on refugee camps, unrelenting siege and daily humiliation. In recent weeks, Israeli forces repeatedly stormed the holiest Muslim sites in Jerusalem. … From the U.S., there are no sidelines. We will uproot complicity where we are: we demand that the U.S. government immediately take steps to withdraw military funding to Israel and to hold the Israeli government accountable for its gross violations of human rights and war crimes against Palestinians. … Inevitably, oppressed people everywhere will seek — and gain — their freedom. We all deserve liberation, safety, and equality. The only way to get there is by uprooting the sources of the violence, beginning with our own government's complicity. [Read More]
From WESPAC - The attack from Gaza has a context. It follows months and years of constant violence, pogroms, expulsions and other manifestations of apartheid inflicted on Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. We do not condone attacks on civilians or violence of any kind. We do recognize its root causes in oppression, injustice and apartheid. The only solution, as it has always been, is to bring an end of apartheid, occupation, and siege, and promote a future based on justice, equality and human dignity for all. We call for a change from unconditional US support for Israël to equitable support for both Palestinians and Israelis in their struggle for peace with justice.
News Notes
Ed Young Dies at 91; Infused His Illustrations With Chinese Tradition
FB – Beloved by many in his hometown of Hastings, the illustrator of some 100 books of fairy tales, poetry and memoirs, and a teacher to hundreds of tai-kwon-do students, Ed Young left us last week. The New York Times published a warm and insightful obituary of his "life and times," which can be read here.
On Sunday, October 22nd, the UN Association of Westchester will offer a program at Mercy College (from 2 to 4 pm) to celebrate UN Day. The program is titled "Appreciating Peace and Celebrating Nonviolence: The Role of the UN and Local Youth Movements." CFOW is a co-sponsor of this program. To learn more, and to register, go here.
We benefit greatly by having now a nucleus of progressives, including our own Rep. Jamaal Bowman, in the House of Representatives. Though greatly restricted by a right-wing House Republican majority, we look to "the squad" and its network to advocate for issues of peace and justice usually excluded by the mainstream political parties. Now the Israel lobby organization, AIPAC, has targeted these progressives for defeat in the 2024 elections, backing more conservative Democrats or Republicans. The extent of this campaign, and what can/must be done to keep our progressive representatives in office, is laid out in a useful article by Alexandra Rojas, executive director of the Justice Democrats, which supported AOC, Jamaal Bowman, and others in the election campaigns: "Progressive Democrats in Congress Have Had Our Backs. Now We Need to Have Theirs" [Link].
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
Featured Essays
A "New Cold War" on an Ever-Hotter Planet
By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [October 1, 2023]
---- These days, despite an all too "hot" war in Ukraine in which the U.S. has, at least indirectly, faced off against the crew that replaced those Soviet cold warriors of yore, the new Cold War references are largely aimed at this country's increasingly tense, ever more militarized relationship with China. Its focus is both the island of Taiwan and much of the rest of Asia … On a planet burning up ahead of schedule — and where, no matter how you look at it, humanity is reaching beyond some of the boundaries set for life itself — isn't it time to refocus in a major way on the new Hot War (and not the one in Ukraine) that has this planet in its grip? Isn't it time for the American and Chinese leaderships to cut the war-like posturing and together face a world in desperate danger, for the sake, if nothing else, of all our children and grandchildren who don't deserve the planet we're heating up for them in such a devastatingly rapid fashion? [Read More]
We Should Have Known So Much About Covid From the Start
By David Wallace-Wells, New York Times [October 5, 2023]
---- America has begun to treat Covid-19 like just any other disease — boosters are now arriving on an annual fall cycle, on the flu model, with large portions of the country not bothering with them, also on the flu model. But, objectively, Covid is not just another disease — not yet. Last year, it was the only infectious disease among the country's top 10 causes of death. We are obviously on an off-ramp from the pandemic emergency, since even though many more Americans have gotten Covid over the last year, many fewer are dying than did in the first two years of Covid-19. But while the worst is behind us, it's also not quite right to see the disease as epidemiological wallpaper. [Read More]
(Video) "Crime Against Humanity": Exiled from Diego Garcia for U.S. Military Base, Residents Demand to Return
From Democracy Now! [October 3, 2023]
---- Over 50 years since the United States forced them out in order to build a military base on the island of Diego Garcia, exiled residents of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean continue to pressure Britain and the U.S. to pay reparations and apologize for expelling residents. Located halfway between Africa and Indonesia and about 1,000 miles south of India, the military base on Diego Garcia played a key role in the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. [See the Program] Also of interest is "Britain Holds On to a Colony in Africa, With America's Help," by Philippe Sands, New York Times [April 1, 2021] [Link]. Mr. Sands is a writer and law professor at University College London, and advises Mauritius about the status of the Chagos Archipelago.
The War in Ukraine
CFOW recently joined Code Pink's "Peace in Ukraine" coalition. To learn what the coalition is doing, go here. To learn more about Code Pink, go here. For a user-friendly "Background on the crisis in Ukraine,"go here. The ground war in Ukraine appears to be locked in a stalemate, as the long-awaited "counter offensive" by Ukraine has achieved little since it began in June. The lack of "progress" in the war has put some wind in the sails of political leaders, both in Europe and the USA, who see political gain in calling for an end to the war and its great costs. This sentiment played a role in the recent US congressional crisis over the federal budget, with the compromise outcome deleting President Biden's request for more money for Ukraine. Just how much the US is authorizing/spending on the war can be read here. Polls show (here and here) that a slight majority of the US still supports the war, or "think that it's worth it," but that support for the war is sharply divided by party, with Democrats in support and Republicans largely opposed.
Useful reading about the Ukraine war
Past Time for Ukraine Ceasefire and Negotiations
By Joseph Gerson, American Friends Service Committee [October 1, 2023]
[FB - The following is based on the prepared remarks for a speech that was given at the Peace in Ukraine rally in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday, September 30, 2023.]
---- This week marks the Days of International Action for a Ukraine ceasefire and negotiations called in last June's International Peace Summit in Vienna. The killing must stop, and potentially far worse geographical or vertical escalation must be prevented. … Regardless of rights and wrongs, NATO's reckless expansion to Russia's borders, the EU's insistence that Kyiv sever all economic ties with Moscow to join the Economic Union, and Putin's brutal preemptive and imperial invasion of Ukraine, the reality is that time is NOT on Ukraine's side. And, as Tom Friedman wrote in the New York Times in the early days of the war, like it or not the war can only end with a "dirty deal." Better now than later. [Read More]
War with China?
A useful site for learning about China, and about US-China military tensions, is the Committee for a SANE US-China Policy. Two of their website's sections for "learning more" are "Taiwan, the U.S., & China" [Link] and "China, the U.S., & the war in Ukraine" [Link]. Another useful resource is Code Pink's, "China is not our enemy" campaign. An overview of "official" US policy/strategy towards China was laid out in the 2022 National Defense Strategy, which described China as the "top threat" to the USA. Until recently, the basic US position on China and Taiwan was "One China," adhering to China's argument that the island of Taiwan was part of China, though in rebellion. When the former "nationalist" government was defeated by Mao's communist forces in the Chinese civil war [1949], it fled to Taiwan, where it has been "protected" ever since by the US Navy. Threats by China to invade and "restore" the rebellious province – in 1950, 1960, etc., have raised the specter of nuclear war, a subject addressed in the article below.
Useful reading on the danger of war with China
A US-China War Over Taiwan? There are few barriers to nuclear escalation.
By Michael T. Klare, The Nation [April 26, 2023]
---- It is natural to assume that a conflict over Taiwan would look something like the ongoing war in Ukraine, with the Taiwanese fighting off the Chinese as the Ukrainians have been fighting off the Russians. But this would be misleading. The war in Ukraine has largely devolved into a brutal ground conflict, with each side fighting to take or hold key swaths of territory and the United States limiting its involvement to the supply of arms, training, and intelligence. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan, however, would look very different, involving giant air and sea battles and, in all likelihood, immediate US intervention—indeed, President Biden has said as much on four separate occasions. The resulting melee, involving hundreds of warplanes on each side and dozens of major warships, is sure to produce vast numbers of casualties and generate enormous escalatory pressures. [Read More]
The Climate Crisis
Scientists Stunned by Planet's Record September Heat
By Damian Carrington, The Guardian [UK] [October 4, 2023]
---- Global temperatures soared to a new record in September by a huge margin, stunning scientists and leading one to describe it as "absolutely gobsmackingly bananas". The hottest September on record follows the hottest August and hottest July, with the latter being the hottest month ever recorded. The high temperatures have driven heatwaves and wildfires across the world. September 2023 beat the previous record for that month by 0.5C, the largest jump in temperature ever seen. [Read More]
Also of interest – "Why Summers May Never Be the Same," by Julie Bosman, New York Times [October 5, 2023] [Link]; and "Slow route to net zero will worsen global climate crisis, IPCC chief warns," by Damian Carrington, The Guardian [UK] [October 2, 2023] [Link].
The State of the Union
In America, Not Having a College Degree Can Take Years Off Your Life
By Anne Case and Angus Deaton, New York Times [October 3, 2023]
[FB - Ms. Case and Mr. Deaton are the authors of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.]--- By many measures, the U.S. economy is thriving: Unemployment stands close to the 50-year low set in April, the fraction of people aged 25 to 54 in work is at a two-decade high, gross domestic product is growing rapidly, inflation is falling, and the S & P 500 is a third higher than it was before the pandemic. While encouraging, economic statistics like these offer an incomplete picture of the state of the country. What the economic statistics obscure in the averages is that there is not one but two Americas — and a clear line demarcating the division is educational attainment. Americans with four-year college degrees are flourishing economically, while those without are struggling. Worse still, as we discovered in new research, the America of those without college degrees has been scarred by death and a staggeringly shorter life span. [Read More]
Our History
FB – Monday is "Columbus Day," or what is increasingly called "Indigenous Peoples Day." (Yonkers and Hastings still call it Columbus Day; Dobbs, Irvington, and Ardsley combine the names, thus "Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day.") How and why this "naming controversy" works itself out in the USA can be learned from the admirable Zinn Education Project and from sources such as Indian Country Today.
The United States Is Not "a Nation of Immigrants"
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Boston Review [August 16, 2021]
[FB – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is the author of many books about America's indigenous peoples, including An Indigenous Peoples History of the United States and Not a Nation of Immigrants.]
---- The United States has never been "a nation of immigrants." It has always been a settler state with a core of descendants from the original colonial settlers, that is, primarily Anglo-Saxons, Scots, Irish, and Germans. The vortex of settler colonialism sucked immigrants through a kind of seasoning process of Americanization—not as rigid and organized as the "seasoning" of Africans, which rendered them into human commodities, but effective nevertheless. … Attempts to "include" Native peoples as victims of racism further camouflages settler colonialism and constitutes a type of social genocide. The U.S. polity has been trying to rid itself of Indigenous nations since first settlement. Four hundred years later, multiculturalism is the mechanism for avoiding acknowledgment of settler colonialism. Prof. Mahmood Mamdani correctly observes that the very existence of Indigenous nations "constitutes a claim on land and therefore a critique of settler sovereignty and an obstacle to the settler economy." [Read More] 
