Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 12, 2023
Hello All – Saturday, November 11th, was the anniversary of the day in 1918 when the First World War ended. This horrible war killed some 20 million people, more than half of them civilians. The war ended with a ceasefire, an "armistice," and for decades Armistice Day was celebrated through the world as a day of peace, the end of the "war to end all wars."
After World War 2, the United States renamed Armistice Day "Veterans Day," turning a celebration of the end of a war into a celebration of soldiers who had fought in wars. Unlike Memorial Day, it does not mourn the dead, but celebrates "those who served." "Stripped of its original intention," writes the US organization Veterans for Peace, "November 11 became a day identified with war instead of peace – a day for remembering yet more war dead, honoring all veterans, and glorifying militarism." They continue:
As military veterans serving the cause of world peace, Veterans For Peace is a leader in lifting up the original intention of November 11 as a day for celebrating peace. Some Veterans For Peace chapters held annual Armistice Day commemorations for years before an official Veterans For Peace resolution made it a VFP national effort in 2008. By coordinating events held across the country, we insert our call for peace into the national conversation each Veterans Day. [Link].
For several years now, CFOW has joined the VFP campaign to restore Armistice Day to its rightful place in the calendar of humanity, and last Saturday we held up our signs and banners at the Hastings VFW Plaza in support of Armistice Day – and for an armistice or cease fire to stop the tsunami of killing in Gaza.
For armistice is back on the front-burner, as most of the world demands that a ceasefire be imposed on the War on Gaza. Outside the US, the support for a ceasefire is overwhelming – 140 countries supported a cease fire Resolution at the United Nations. In the United States, though Israel's war-making still has substantial support, polls show that most Americans support a cease fire. The spectre of the murder of more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 4,000 children, horrifies the world and is unraveling support for the Biden administration within the US itself. Today's reports of the deaths of babies in Gaza's hospitals, and the unrelenting bombardment of civilians in their homes or UN places of refuge, simply horrifies the world. This weekend more than 500,000 people protested in London, while tens of thousands marched in Brussels and Toronto. The "revolution may not be televised," but the genocide is live-streamed. As of Friday, 11,078 people have been killed in Gaza, including 4,506 children. President Biden and the United States have the power and the leverage to force Israel to agree to a ceasefire. Our job is to make President Biden do this.
This Week's Featured Essays on the War on Gaza
Armistice Day and the Empire: A Name Change and the Catastrophe that Followed
---- In 1954, the US Congress renamed Armistice Day to Veterans Day. The stated reason was to remember all generations of US veterans, not just veterans from the First World War. Congress advanced this rationale on the disingenuous notion that Armistice Day's purpose was a celebration of veterans. It was not. Armistice Day's purpose was to serve as a reminder of the horrors of the First World War and carry forward the declaration of those veterans of Never Again. [Read More]
(Video) Gaza hospitals on the brink of collapse
From Al Jazeera English [November 9, 2023]
---- As Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip shows no signs of abating, humanitarian organizations warn of an imminent and total collapse of Gaza's healthcare system. In this episode: Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, Pediatric Intensive Care and Humanitarian Doctor, Médecins Sans Frontières [See the Program] Also very useful is "Israel's War on Gaza's Hospitals and Patients: al-Shifa Bombed again, as 20 of 36 Hospitals Go Dark," b[Link].
Israel's Military Is Part of the U.S. War Machine
By
---- The governments of Israel and the United States are now in disagreement over how many Palestinian civilians it's okay to kill. Last week — as the death toll from massive Israeli bombardment of Gaza neared 10,000 people, including several thousand children — top U.S. officials began to worry about the rising horrified outcry at home and abroad. So, they went public with muted misgivings and calls for a "humanitarian pause." But Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he would have none of it. Such minor tactical discord does little to chip away at the solid bedrock alliance between the two countries,. [Read More] For (much) more about how the US is supporting Israel's war: "Israel's War in Gaza, Subsidized by the USA," by William D. Hartung, The Nation [November 10, 2023] [Link].
An Establishment Crack-Up, Aided by Mass Protests, Might Actually End This War
By Jeet Heer, The Nation [November 10, 2023]
---- Joe Biden's decision to give near-unequivocal support to Israel's ferocious war in Gaza is splintering not just the Democratic Party but also the insiders who staff his administration and ran his election campaign. … These public protests are being joined by a highly unusual mutiny from inside the establishment, with dissent being voiced by staffers in the White House, Congress, the State Department, and in the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—as well as among those who worked for Biden's election in 2020. [Read More]
For useful reports on the several parts of the Democratic "establishment" that are in revolt against Biden's Gaza war policy, read "Diplomats Warn White House Support for Israel Is Destroying US Image in Middle East" [Link]; "U.S. diplomats slam Israel policy in leaked memo" [Link]' and "They Helped to Get Biden Elected. Now They're Demanding That He Back a Cease-Fire" [Link]. The "moral panic" within the ideological Establishment about support for Palestinian rights, especially among young people, is reflected in the attacks by university presidents on student groups – e.g. "Two pro-Palestinian Groups Spearheading anti-Israel Protests at Columbia Suspended" [Link]; and "The 'NYTimes' continues to slander and silence Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace" [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
From Democracy Now!
Once again, this week's programming from Democracy Now! has given us outstanding coverage and analysis of the Gaza War. Each day 3-4 excellent segments are offered at www.democracynow.org, broadcast live from 8 to 9 am, and then available via live streaming at anytime. Below I've pasted in a few segments broadcast this week.
(Video) Voices from Largest Pro-Palestinian Protest in U.S. History: Stop the Siege on Gaza Now! - [November 6, 2023]
---- Tens of thousands marched from Washington, D.C.'s Freedom Plaza to the White House Saturday in the largest pro-Palestinian demonstration in U.S. history. Democracy Now!'s Messiah Rhodes, María Taracena and Hany Massoud spoke to protesters who condemned the U.S. government's support for Israel and called for a ceasefire in Gaza. We also play excerpts from speakers at the protest rally, including lawyer Noura Erakat, musician Macklemore and writer Mohammed El-Kurd. [See the Program]
(Video) "Clear Intention of Ethnic Cleansing": Israeli Holocaust Scholar Omer Bartov Warns of Genocide in Gaza - [November 10, 2023]
---- Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov, one of the world's leading experts on the Holocaust, says Israel's brutal assault on the Gaza Strip is at risk of becoming a genocide. The monthlong air and ground war has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave, a majority of them women and children. Israel has also severely limited the movement of food, water, fuel, medicine and other essentials into Gaza. Bartov says the disproportionate killing of civilians by Israel, as well as dehumanizing statements by Israeli leaders and suggestions of mass expulsion, are of grave concern. He recently joined hundreds of lawyers and academics in signing an open letter warning about Israel's violations of international law in Gaza. "There is an indication that there are war crimes happening in Gaza, potentially also crimes against humanity," says Bartov. "If this so-called operation continues, that may become ethnic cleansing … and that may become genocide." [See the Program] On Friday, the New York Times printed an op-ed by Bartov, "We Still Have Time to Stop the Worst" [Link].
(Video) Palestinian Groups Ask ICC to Arrest Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu for War Crimes & Genocide in Gaza - [November 10, 2023]
---- We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Noura Erakat about a new effort to hold Israel accountable at the International Criminal Court over the war in Gaza, where Israel's monthlong air and ground assault has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians. On Wednesday, three Palestinian rights groups filed a lawsuit with the international body, urging it to investigate Israel for the crimes of genocide and apartheid. The petition also calls for arrest warrants to be issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. International inaction against Israeli aggression is part of "a systematic failure to hold Israel to account for decades," as well as the "absolute double standard" applied to war crimes committed against people of the Global South, says Erakat, who was part of a team of academics and activists who came together to support the ICC lawsuit. "This is not just a crisis of international legal institutions, but also a crisis of democratic — or so-called democratic — institutions in the countries in which we live." [See the Program].
More Analysis about the Gaza War
Children Are Children, Whether in Israel or Gaza. They Never Deserve to Die
By Gideon Levy, Haaretz [Israel] [November 12, 2023]
---- Children are children, one must reiterate, and one cannot but be equally horrified by what has happened to them, both here and there. In the fascist reality now sweeping Israel, even this statement is considered treasonous, subversive and an expression of Israel hatred. How dare you compare? … One cannot escape being horrified by what is now happening in Gaza, even in the knowledge of what lies underneath those hospitals. No less horrific is the recognition that one must now take sides: You are either shocked by the atrocities committed by Hamas, or by the atrocities committed by the IDF. Decide. Choose sides. Which dead children shock you more? Which bereaved parents trouble you more? Can you not see the difference between Hamas, which came here to massacre, and an army that came to save hostages and wipe out Hamas? I can indeed, but the butchered children, and their no-less butchered parents, have little interest in the intentions of their killers. [Read More]
Designing the Future in Palestine
By Noura Erakat, Boston Review
---- Palestinian women and feminist organizations are reimagining what liberation can look like beyond national independence. … The Palestinian freedom struggle reveals that Palestinians came closest to freedom when they turned away from the settler sovereign and toward one another. During the Great Revolt and the First Intifada, for example, Palestinians built mutual exchange networks for food distribution, care for one another's families, underground schools, and alternative economies. That potential remains palpable among Palestinians today: among conservationists resurrecting the social history of seeds, among women who continue to anchor generational survival, and among designers literally building the future. Shifting the Palestinian gaze away from the oppressor and toward action centers new questions about Palestinians' relationships to the land and one another. Such Indigenous resurgence retrieves the process of renewal, relegated to some point after national independence, and foregrounds its present significance. [Read More]
We need a ceasefire. The existence of the Palestinian people is at stake.
By Jeremy Corbyn, Member of UK Parliament for Islington North. 6 Nov 2023
---- My last visit to Al-Shati refugee camp was early 2013. Located on the Mediterranean coast in the north of Gaza, Al-Shati was otherwise known as "Beach Camp". Beach Camp was established in 1948 after 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in the Nakba. Initially, the camp accommodated around 23,000 refugees. In the following seven decades, that number grew to 90,000, cramped inside 0.2 square miles of land – 70 times more populated than London's city centre. People in Gaza have been living under a blockade for the past 16 years and the Israeli occupation controls most of what goes in and out of Gaza. Beach Camp was no different – and people there largely relied on aid and services from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to survive, including a health centre, a food distribution centre and several school buildings. [Read More]
The genocide in Gaza is one of the worst in modern history
By, Mondoweiss [November 10, 2023]
---- Regardless of the final political, military, and demographic outcomes of the genocidal war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip, Gaza will go down in history as the place that witnessed the largest number of massacres in history carried out almost entirely against civilians and through aerial bombardment. The killing is being inflicted overwhelmingly on civilians. In fact, Gaza is the only city in history where the percentage of children and women killed is 68%. If we add to that percentage the elderly men, the results are horrific. … These massacres are also the first massacres in history to receive the full support of the major "Western democracies" (the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy) without any sympathy for the victims, even though they are broadcast live and there is no doubt about the identity of the perpetrators. This support is not only political, diplomatic, and in the media, but also military. [Read More]
Some Gaza War News Notes
Activists disrupt weapons cargo ship bound for Israel
---- Indigenous activists using a canoe at the Tacoma, Washington port blocked a container ship headed to Israel on Monday. The Cape Orlando is a US military supply vessel which was slated to be loaded with weapons at the port and delivered to Israel. [Read More]
AIPAC vs. The Squad: How the Israel-Gaza War Is Supercharging an Ugly Clash
From Haartz [Israel] [November 7, 2023]
---- More than a year before the 2024 elections, pro-Israel groups are already spending on attack ads against progressive Democrats, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib – who is also facing growing criticism after describing the Palestinian slogan 'From the river to the sea...' as a call for peaceful coexistence [Read More]
Anti-Defamation League Maps Jewish Peace Rallies With Antisemitic Attack
By Micah Lee, The Intercept [November 11 2023]---- American Jews have mobilized several thousand Jews across the U.S. to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. ADL calls these Jewish organizations "hate groups." … The Anti-Defamation League has classified the event — and dozens of other protests led by Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow — as "anti-Israel," according to an analysis by The Intercept, and added them to their database documenting rising antisemitism across the U.S. [Read More]
