Sankofa Meets the Future

The Israeli Terror

This very long but compelling piece was posted at Fire on the Mountain. Written by David Rovics, it is mandatory reading for those who champion the rights of Palestinians to self-determination. For those who have more concerns for the "plight of Israelis, read with an open mind, this will surely generate at least an internal conversation about the realities of this six decade human tragedy.

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I was in Olympia, Washington driving towards Evergreen State College when I got a phone call from someone in the occupied West Bank of Palestine. An Evergreen graduate named Rachel Corrie had been killed a few days before by an Israeli soldier in an armored bulldozer, and someone with an Australian accent on my cell phone named Tom was wondering whether it was OK for the International Solidarity Movement to use the lyrics to a song I had just written about the incident on their website. Rachel's murder was followed quickly by the murder of a British ISM activist named Tom Hurndall.

And now, almost six years to the day after the murder of Rachel Corrie, my friend and comrade Tristan Anderson has been critically injured by the IDF. He joins ISM activist Brian Avery, who was also shot in the face. Brian survived, seriously disfigured but otherwise intact. Tristan lies in a coma in a hospital near Tel Aviv and may or may not be as lucky as Brian. His brain was exposed by the tear gas canister fired at close range at his face, and as I write, large parts of his frontal lobe have had to be removed by the surgeons. Rachel, Tom, Brian and Tristan join the ranks of the thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese civilians killed and the tens of thousands maimed by the IDF since 2000 alone. Being privileged foreigners (at least before they were killed or maimed), they did not have the opportunity to join the ranks of the millions of Palestinians and Lebanese who have been driven into desperate poverty, malnourishment and homelessness by the Israeli invasion and occupation of their lands.

Read more

Critical Discussions on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)

As the battle heats up in Congress and the business community sinks millions of dollars into the campaign to defeat this essential labor right, listen to a good discussion about the distortions and lies being used by the employers and their Congressional allies.

Israeli Lobby Strikes Again

This was posted on the March 13, 2009 Huffington Post

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Below is Chas Freeman's full statement following his decision not to serve as National Intelligence Council chairman.

* * * * *

You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council.

I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign.

As those who know me are well aware, I have greatly enjoyed life since retiring from government. Nothing was further from my mind than a return to public service. When Admiral Blair asked me to chair the NIC I responded that I understood he was "asking me to give my freedom of speech, my leisure, the greater part of my income, subject myself to the mental colonoscopy of a polygraph, and resume a daily commute to a job with long working hours and a daily ration of political abuse." I added that I wondered "whether there wasn't some sort of downside to this offer." I was mindful that no one is indispensable; I am not an exception. It took weeks of reflection for me to conclude that, given the unprecedentedly challenging circumstances in which our country now finds itself abroad and at home, I had no choice but accept the call to return to public service. I thereupon resigned from all positions that I had held and all activities in which I was engaged. I now look forward to returning to private life, freed of all previous obligations.

I am not so immodest as to believe that this controversy was about me rather than issues of public policy. These issues had little to do with the NIC and were not at the heart of what I hoped to contribute to the quality of analysis available to President Obama and his administration. Still, I am saddened by what the controversy and the manner in which the public vitriol of those who devoted themselves to sustaining it have revealed about the state of our civil society. It is apparent that we Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public discussion or exercise independent judgment about matters of great importance to our country as well as to our allies and friends.

The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.

There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government - in this case, the government of Israel. I believe that the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics has allowed that faction to adopt and sustain policies that ultimately threaten the existence of the state of Israel. It is not permitted for anyone in the United States to say so. This is not just a tragedy for Israelis and their neighbors in the Middle East; it is doing widening damage to the national security of the United States.

The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions about the Middle East and related issues. I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.

In the court of public opinion, unlike a court of law, one is guilty until proven innocent. The speeches from which quotations have been lifted from their context are available for anyone interested in the truth to read. The injustice of the accusations made against me has been obvious to those with open minds. Those who have sought to impugn my character are uninterested in any rebuttal that I or anyone else might make.

Still, for the record: I have never sought to be paid or accepted payment from any foreign government, including Saudi Arabia or China, for any service, nor have I ever spoken on behalf of a foreign government, its interests, or its policies. I have never lobbied any branch of our government for any cause, foreign or domestic. I am my own man, no one else's, and with my return to private life, I will once again - to my pleasure - serve no master other than myself. I will continue to speak out as I choose on issues of concern to me and other Americans.

I retain my respect and confidence in President Obama and DNI Blair. Our country now faces terrible challenges abroad as well as at home. Like all patriotic Americans, I continue to pray that our president can successfully lead us in surmounting them.

Slave in Jefferson Davis' home gave Union key secrets

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/20/spy.slaves/index.html

William Jackson was a slave in the home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis during the Civil War. It turns out he was also a spy for the Union Army, providing key secrets to the North about the Confederacy.

 

William Jackson, a slave, listened closely to Jefferson Davis' conversations and leaked them to the North.

Jackson was Davis' house servant and personal coachman. He learned high-level details about Confederate battle plans and movements because Davis saw him as a "piece of furniture" -- not a human, according to Ken Dagler, author of "Black Dispatches," which explores espionage by America's slaves.

"Because of his role as a menial servant, he simply was ignored," Dagler said. "So Jefferson Davis would hold conversations with military and Confederate civilian officials in his presence."

                                                                                                                                    

African American and Latino Unity in North Carolina

Supporting Gaza after 23 Days of Human Rights Abuses and War Crimes

 

There is so much to say about the crisis in Gaza and what lays ahead for the oppressed people of Palestine. Beyond the politics, or perhaps in order to make sense of the politics underlying my political and ideological frame of reference I have turned to a personalization of the casualties.

I have suggested in speeches and conversations that in addition to the maddening and terrifying statistics we can cite and refer people to, we need to embrace the death of individuals and families. That is to say that we should learn the names of civilian victims of these war crimes. We need to name them for our selves and those that we reach out to.  There is profound need to humanize them by calling them by their name(s) remembering that behind each is a life story, aspirations and hopes and emotionally damaged family members who remain to salvage their own lives. I have decided to embrace Bilal Mohammed al-Ashqar and Mohammed Mohammed al-Ashqar.  From Electronic Intifada:

At 6:30am, also Saturday, IOF fired a shell -- believed to be white phosphorus -- which landed in the UNRWA Beit Lahia Boys School, which shelters civilians. As the refugees tried to evacuate the school, an artillery shell struck a classroom, where civilians are sheltered. The shell broke through the roof and exploded on the ground, spreading its shrapnel into classrooms. Two children were killed and their mother, Nujoud Shaban al-Ashqar, was injured. The children were identified as:

• Bilal Mohammed al-Ashqar, five; and
• Mohammed Mohammed al-Ashqar, four.

Now that ceasefires have been declared by the Israelis and Hamas, with a withdrawal beginning immediately, US supporters of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and an end of the occupation need to be very intentional about the form of their advocacy, protest and support work going forward. The one thing that has to emerge from this murderous three weeks is a commitment to a very audible and sustained voice in support of peace that insists on no border blockades, no more settlements and no apartheid wall.

This means that the anti-war movement has to move the Israeli/ Palestinian struggle to the top of the agenda on par with Iraq and Afghanistan. The millions of people who have arrived at a point of questioning support for Israel having been deeply effected by the unimaginable carnage have to been brought into a movement that pushes the Obama administration for a departure from the one sided nature of US diplomacy when it come to intervention in this 60 year colonial struggle. The horror they have expressed should be directed in as many directions as is possible without expecting that they will become aligned with the most advance sections or the anti-war movement much less the anti-imperialist movement. Encourage them to “get in where they fit in” as the old expression goes. This is new social capital that must not be allowed to dissipate through unreasonable demands on people’s time or the adoption of political demands that go way beyond what they embrace at this juncture. Finding ways to include the most moderate opposition to Israeli militarism and racism will be critical in the coming months.

The other two arenas that progressives must turn their attention to are the Black Church and organized labor. A Black faith voice is essential to counter the powerful Christian Zionist current that prevails in many Black churches, perhaps the majority. The theological notion of dispensationalism has to be challenged by African American clergy who are willing to advance the discussion of the political and human rights nature of the six decades dispute using their progressive political outlook and command of the sacred texts that inform the retrograde views of those who see prophesy realized in the genocide of Palestinians.

Organized labor has again, in the main, failed to speak out it a timely or decisive way about the death and destruction being visited upon workers in Gaza, particularly the women and children. As with the Iraq war it has been the initiatives of progressive and left unionist that have cried out for an immediate halt to the bombing. US Labor Against the War issued a statement Solidarity with the Working People of Palestine and Israel. In characteristic and welcomed fashion the Executive Board of the United Electrical Workers-UE issued a supportive statement calling for an end to the bloodshed in Gaza. Again this is not surprising coming from what Nation magazine called the “most valuable union.”  Clearly, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win or whatever a future merged Federation is called has to put this on their agenda and use whatever influence they will have on Obama and/or the new State Department to push back on the rabid Zionist who have shaped US policy towards Israeli. There are no guarantees here but unionist must be persistent in this quest. The deaths of over a thousand Palestinians compel us to be relentless.

There is also the growing call for a righteous divestment movement. Forces that have been pushing this for awhile are looking to get traction from this monumental assault on Palestinian human rights. The calls for boycotting Caterpillar Tractors because they supply the bulldozers responsible destroying Palestinian homes to clear land for illegal Israeli settlers are not supplemented by pleas to boycott a wide array of retailers and manufacturers who have ties to Israel through financial or political support. Kali Akuno of the Malcolm X Grassroots movement has argued for an intensification of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement at Pambazuka News. His piece takes a broad view of the politics behind the struggle and how the anti-imperialist movement needs to view it. It does not however review the various ongoing efforts and the new calls for BDS actions. Our question is how effective can we be at this stage with a shotgun approach to our targets? As with any BDS campaign initiated by progressive forces, there has to be a sober projection and measurement of the symbolic aspects of the efforts in relationship to the actual economic and related public relations/image impact these activities may have. The Global BDS Movement has very detailed information about various campaigns and the steps activists can take to get involved.

Many activists should ask themselves serious questions about whether they can take on Starbucks, for example because of CEO Howard Schultz’s support for and ties to Israel and the social and political capital they may be able to use in a local government divestment campaign. The options abound and most are not mutually exclusive. Yet there seems to be a tremendous need for coherent, targeted and coordinated efforts. Activists in Durham, N.C. are doing research now to determine if a divestment campaign is possible which would  be added to the successful Anti-Apartheid campaign of the 1980’s in that city.

Stop the Criminal and Immoral Massacre of Palestinians

The following is a statement from the Black Workers for Justice on human tragedy unfolding in the Gaza Strip owning to Israeli attacks.

http://blackworkersforjustice.org/article.php?id=79

Stop the Criminal and Immoral Massacre of Palestinians

 

The Black Workers for Justice joins the tens of millions of people around the world who are outraged by the

vicious assault by the Israeli Defense Force on the Gaza Strip.  As of New Years Eve, the death toll is 380 Palestinians with over 1400 injured, overwhelmingly civilians. Innocent men, women and children in the densely populated city of 1.5 million people continue to be at risk.

 

This blatant and extreme violation of human rights and international law must end immediately. We are calling on all legislators, the Bush administration and President- Elect Obama to use the considerable political and financial influence they have to make the Israelis cease the bombings. Politics and the strength of the Israeli lobby in the

US

cannot continue to put the lives of millions of people at risk in what is becoming one of the worst humanitarian crises of this era.

 

Infrastructure has been destroyed including schools and factories while hospitals have been overwhelmed with the sick and injured. The current need for food and medical supplies has been worsened by the continuing blockade that prohibits fuel, food, equipment and other humanitarian goods from coming into the city. This has been the case for 18 months. In the current crisis seriously injured people who need treatment in

Egypt

due to lack of adequate medical facilities in the

Gaza

are experiencing difficulties in crossing the borders.  There has been a lack of electricity and other essential services resulting in deplorable conditions for residents.  The UN reported a Human Dignity Crisis on December 18, days before the bombing commenced.

 

Occupation and Resistance

We recognize that the Palestinians are resisting an occupation and the use of military force is permitted under international law. This does not justify targeting civilians. On the same token Israeli responses that clearly cannot avoid non-combatants is not justifiable or legitimate self defense. Moreover, what amounts to collective punishment is a violation of international law and is immoral in the extreme.

 

 

The Occupation of Palestinian territory is classic colonialism with apartheid features including a wall that restricts people’s movement for work, business, culture and family life. This Occupation continues to be supported by the

US

government. The F-16s and Apache helicopters as well as the TOW, Hellfire and Bunker missiles that are being used are provided by the

US

government meaning that our tax dollars support this carnage and oppression. The

US

government provides

Israel

with $3 billion in military aid annually.

 

Black People Express Their Humanity

Our history and recent experiences remind us of how white supremacist and imperialist regimes respond to misery and suffering.  The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation should be a constant reminder to us. Katrina, our most recent experience with inhumane policies and treatment should move us to determined and immediate support for Palestinians. We feel the pain of the Palestinian people.

 

We have to resist the call of misguided Black religious leaders who think this is fulfillment of prophecy and scriptures. We have to listen to the faith leaders that understand that this is a case of politics and an affront to the very faith traditions they profess. They recall that for a century there were those that justified slavery and racism based on their distorted religious understandings.

 

Stand Up and Speak Out

Black people and workers in particular must be in the forefront of the growing resistance to this atrocity. We will join with religious, labor and community groups. We will unite with Arab, Muslim and other advocacy groups. We will collect funds and material aid for the embattled families of the Gaza Strip. We condemn the ramming and damaging of the humanitarian ship bringing supplies to the

Gaza

and support the efforts of former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney to come to the aid of Palestinians.

 

We especially call on President Elect Obama to take the mandate for Change to alter

US

policy regarding the Israeli/Palestinian situation. This means an immediate halt to the bombings. It means forcing

Israel

to engage in peace negotiations with all the elected representatives of the Palestinian people.

 

Black Workers for Justice

December 31, 2008

Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America

Op-Ed by Dedrick Muhammad, Bokar Ture. Published November 12, 2008 12:00AM

http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/894

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Remembering the legacy of Kwame Ture in light of the historical election of Barack Obama.

Ten years ago, Nov. 15, 1998, Kwame Ture — formerly known as Stokely Carmichael — died. He died as he lived, fighting against social injustice, fighting with every bit of strength, intelligence and charm that was in his body. He died challenging the embargo against Libya and pledging allegiance and thankfulness to radical organizations and leaders like the Nation of Islam, Castro's Cuba, and African leaders Kwame Nkrumah and Sekou Toure, who all supported him and more importantly supported the Black liberation struggle to which Kwame Ture dedicated his life.

10 years later, Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State returned from an official state visit to Libya, which has been removed from the West's list of dangerous radical nations. Just a few days ago, a Black man with an African and Muslim name became President of the United State, the same nation which listed Kwame Ture as a threat to national security for his "Black Power" politics.

The question that we, a biological son and a political son of Kwame Ture, reflect upon 10 years after the death of this historical figure is: what does the legacy of this Black radical, Pan-African socialist mean in 2008? Is there space for Black radicalism when a Black man who emphasized moderation and advanced a post-racial politic becomes president of the most powerful, predominately white nation in the world?

Our response is yes, for we understand that an "African" (as Kwame Ture would say) in the most powerful position in the world doesn't change the radical truth that African/Black people throughout the world are still disproportionately disenfranchised and demand justice.

I trace my political ancestry to Kwame Ture when at the age of 12 I came across the book "Black Power: The Politics of Liberation" by Kwame Ture and Charles V. Hamilton. My mother had told me stories of her interactions with then Stokely Carmichael and how his example and kind words encouraged her, a white Southern woman, to participate in the Black freedom struggle of the 1960s. The analysis of "Black Power," of institutional and individual racism, highlighting the two problems Blacks faced in America being Black and poor, has guided my life work to fight against racism, economic inequality, and injustice. It has led me to my current position at the Institute for Policy Studies, where I study and analyze economic inequality and disenfranchisement faced by African Americans.

Today I still look back to the writings of Kwame Ture to address the reality that President-elect Obama will preside over: a nation where Black people make 57cents on every dollar made by white Americans, where Blacks have only 10% of the wealth of white America, and where the Black community appears to be falling into an economic depression as the whole country enters into a recession.

As a biological son of Kwame Ture, seeing the election of an African, who has vowed to "share the wealth", reminds me of my father's work and notable legacy. A little over forty years after Kwame Ture joined dedicated citizens to suffer beatings and all forms of violence to march for equal rights, the United States of America, a country he vigorously criticized for its contradictions, has elected an African American president of the nation. The efforts of civil rights leaders and the thousands of unnamed brave souls who confronted the country's institutions to live up to its constitution and its promoted image as a bearer of liberty in the world, were not in vain.

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Denounce and Oppose the Israeli Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza!

There are thousands of articles and blog post being written about the criminal attacks that began on Sunday. Likewise, there are protest taking place all across the globe, not just in the Arab world. Alerts as to where they are taking place can be found in other venues, including Facebook. Here we want to share three very thoughtful pieces that discuss the complicated and compelling politics in play.

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Gaza: the logic of colonial power

As so often, the term 'terrorism' has proved a rhetorical smokescreen under cover of which the strong crush the weak

Nir Rosen                                                                    

I have spent most of the Bush administration's tenure reporting from Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia and other conflicts. I have been published by most major publications. I have been interviewed by most major networks and I have even testified before the senate foreign relations committee. The Bush administration began its tenure with Palestinians being massacred and it ends with Israel committing one of its largest massacres yet in a 60-year history of occupying Palestinian land. Bush's final visit to the country he chose to occupy ended with an educated secular Shiite Iraqi throwing his shoes at him, expressing the feelings of the entire Arab world save its dictators who have imprudently attached themselves to a hated American regime.

Once again, the Israelis bomb the starving and imprisoned population of Gaza. The world watches the plight of 1.5 million Gazans live on TV and online; the western media largely justify the Israeli action. Even some Arab outlets try to equate the Palestinian resistance with the might of the Israeli military machine. And none of this is a surprise. The Israelis just concluded a round-the-world public relations campaign to gather support for their assault, even gaining the collaboration of Arab states like Egypt.

The international community is directly guilty for this latest massacre. Will it remain immune from the wrath of a desperate people? So far, there have been large demonstrations in Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The people of the Arab world will not forget. The Palestinians will not forget. "All that you have done to our people is registered in our notebooks," as the poet Mahmoud Darwish said.  Read More

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STATEMENT AGAINST THE MASSACRES IN GAZA

http://www.araborganizing.org/gaza

The Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) condemn the unprecedented Israeli attacks on Gaza, killing more than 300 Palestinians and injuring more than 700.   Israel will not cease to stop its terror and has vowed to continue and increase what it claims to be "terrorist centers" in Gaza.  Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, has announced that "…the operation will go on and be intensified as long as necessary". 

While Israel attempts to justify its massacres as targeting Hamas security centers in retaliation for rocket fires, in reality what one can clearly see in the streets of Gaza is nothing short of an outright massacre of men, women and children.  Children on their way to school, men and women who are simply walking around the street running daily errands were stricken down by US made F16 airplanes and missiles. 

The US immediately declared its support for the attacks and Israel's "war on terrorism".  This rhetoric has become far too familiar to the trained ear.  As we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan and as we've been seeing in Palestine the "war on terrorism" has become a war on all peoples pursuing their international human right for self-determination and freedom from occupation and oppression.  Israel's Zionist Colonial project must be exposed!  A country where a group of people have the exclusive right to a land and its resources based on religion/ethnicity, while the indigenous people of the land are forced to move and many murdered is Racist and Inhumane. 

 Three fabrications continuously being used by the US backed Israel and must be interpreted and understood as a complete falsehood to the reality on the ground;

1.    "Disengagement" from Gaza

The government of Israel claims it "disengaged" or "pulled out" of Gaza in August 2005.  As a result, Israel argues that it is no longer responsible for Gaza and that with the inception of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinian Authority is not responsible for the Gaza Strip. Even though Israeli soldiers are not physically present inside Gaza, they control all entry and exit points of all goods and people from land, air or sea. Gaza's main crossing point to the outside world, Karni, has repeatedly been shut down for extensive periods of time by Israel, except when Israeli producers wish to "dump cheap products into Gaza".  Israel has only allowed a few "essential items" through the Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings.   However, both these crossings are completely controlled by Israel. 

It does not stop there! 90 percent of private industries in Gaza have shut down, 80 percent of the population lives on food aid, if and when its allowed into Gaza, all construction sites are idle and unemployment has reached record highs.   Even more frightening, water, gas and electricity are also controlled by Israel.  All three of these supplies of BASIC resources have been cut of from Gaza in what has become what many top officials have described as the "gravest humanitarian crisis yet". 

Imagine living with no water to drink, no gas to run a vehicle or heat your food, no electricity for light and communication.  Imagine living in complete darkness for not one, two or three days but weeks at a time.  This is not disengagement, but is a strategic move to starve out a population because of their demographic threat to the exclusionary racist state of Israel. 

2.    Rocket Fire from Gaza into Sderot

Since the December 19th ceasefire has been broken NO Israeli's have been affected by the rocket fires.  Yet, the series of airstrikes culminating to Saturday's attacks have killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians by F16 warplanes and US made missiles and mortar shells. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declares Palestinian "citizens are not our enemy".  Israel argues that a ceasefire has been broken.  Yet, during the ceasefire, borders continue to be closed, movement restricted, and resources of the Palestinian people blocked by Israel.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a war with two equal participants. It is a colonial-settler occupation of a land at the expense of the indigenous population.  The Palestinian have a right, which has been recognized internationally by the United Nations, to protect themselves against this attack on their self-determination.

3.    Palestinian Authority and Arab Leaders Response

Recent negotiations amongst the Arab league and the Palestinian Authority have, as has become  customary, been a series of blank statements with no action on the ground to support the Palestinian people.  It was not until the Palestinian people, who found no hope amongst their Arab neighbors, broke down the border with Egypt on January 24, 2008 yearning for basic supplies and medicine.  Today, Egypt continues to deny the Palestinian people the ability to breathe from the Israeli stranglehold of Gaza. 

Giving the green light to Israel to kill innocent civilians in Gaza has become commonplace amongst Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies considered to be "friendly neighbors" to Israel, as Ehud Barak announced on CNN.  Ignoring the Palestinian people's calls for unity. Abbas and much of the Palestinian Authority have pushed aside the basic needs of its peoples for their own political agenda.  Disregarding the polemics of their so-called leaders, the Palestinian people in the West Bank broke out in protest declaring to their brothers and sisters in Gaza "we are here for you".

It is important to understand that: a) there continues to be an occupation of Gaza even though Israel claims it "disengaged", b) the Palestinians have the right to resist occupation, and c) the representatives of the Palestinian people, supported by the West, have not meet the needs of its own people. 

Our anger, frustration, sadness and love go to the courageous people of Gaza who are resisting the stranglehold of the Israeli occupation.  

For it is in the struggle for Justice that it has become imperative amongst freedom loving people all over the world to come together in solidarity with the Palestinian people for Liberation against Occupation.


WE CALL FOR:

1.    An Immediate Israeli Ceasefire and end to the Israeli siege of Gaza
2.    The Arab masses to come out in the streets to voice their support for the Palestinian people
3.    The United States government cease its unconditional support of the Apartheid State of Israel
4.    Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of all Israeli goods
5.    All allies and supporters of the Palestinian people to come out in protest against the Massacres in Gaza

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The neighborhood bully strikes again

By Gideon Levy

Israel embarked yesterday on yet another unnecessary, ill-fated war. On July 16, 2006, four days after the start of the Second Lebanon War, I wrote: "Every neighborhood has one, a loud-mouthed bully who shouldn't be provoked into anger... Not that the bully's not right - someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction!" Two and a half years later, these words repeat themselves, to our horror, with chilling precision. Within the span of a few hours on a Saturday afternoon, the IDF sowed death and destruction on a scale that the Qassam rockets never approached in all their years, and Operation "Cast Lead" is only in its infancy. Once again, Israel's violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all proportion international law and wisdom. What began yesterday in Gaza is a war crime and the foolishness of a country. History's bitter irony: A government that went to a futile war two months after its establishment - today nearly everyone acknowledges as much - embarks on another doomed war two months before the end of its term. In the interim, the loftiness of peace was on the tip of the tongue of Ehud Olmert, a man who uttered some of the most courageous words ever said by a prime minister. The loftiness of peace on the tip of his tongue, and two fruitless wars in his sheath. Joining him is his defense minister, Ehud Barak, the leader of the so-called left-wing party, who plays the role of senior accomplice to the crime. Israel did not exhaust the diplomatic processes before embarking yesterday on another dreadful campaign of killing and ruin. The Qassams that rained down on the communities near Gaza turned intolerable, even though they did not sow death. But the response to them needs to be fundamentally different: diplomatic efforts to restore the cease-fire - the same one that was initially breached, one should remember, by Israel when it unnecessarily bombed a tunnel - and then, if those efforts fail, a measured, gradual military response. Read more

There is RESISTANCE!!!

A View on Obama from Latin America

Progressives around the world are watching the Obama transition to the White House closely. While we in the US have our own expectations and misgivings about the presidency of the first African descendant to hold that office, people around the globe who for a century or more have been impacted by the imperial project have important insights to share. This is one from the journalist/writer Eduardo Galeano. Like many others he is both hopeful and sober.

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Eduardo Galeano: Let us hope 

Written by Eduardo Galeano / Inter Press Service  
Monday, 10 November 2008 00:15

MONTEVIDEO-Once in office, will Obama prove that his bellicose threats against Iran and Pakistan were just words spoken to lure in a certain category of voter during the election?

Let's hope so. And let's hope he isn't, for a moment, tempted to repeat the exploits of George W. Bush. After all, Obama had the dignity to vote against the war in Iraq while the Republican and Democratic parties cheered the announcement of this bloodbath.

During his campaign, "leadership" was the most frequently used word in Obama's speeches. As president, will he continue to believe that his country was chosen to save the world, a toxic idea that he shares with almost all of his colleagues? Will he continue to assert that the US is the leader of the world and believe in its messianic mission to command?

Let's hope the current crisis, which is shaking the imperial foundations, will at least serve to provide the incoming government with a healthy dose of realism and humility.

Will Obama accept that racism is permissible when practiced against countries that his country invades? Is it not racism to meticulously tally the deaths of the invaders of Iraq while ignoring with Olympian arrogance the far larger number of Iraqi dead? Isn't it racist that the world has first-, second- and third-class citizens and first, second, and third class dead?

Obama's victory was universally celebrated as a victory in the battle against racism. Let us hope that from his first acts as president he accepts and lives up to this beautiful responsibility.

Will the Obama administration confirm yet again that Democrat and Republican are two names for the same party?

Let us hope the will for change that these elections have consecrated is more than just a promise and a hope. May the new administration have the courage to break with the tradition of the single party disguised as two that, at the hour of truth, behave almost identically while they pretend to be fighting one another.

Will Obama make good on his promise to, close the sinister prison at Guantanamo?

Let us hope so, and that he will end the sinister blockade of Cuba.

Will Obama continue to believe that it is a good idea to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep Mexicans from crossing into the US, while vast sums of money move across without ever showing a passport?

During the campaign Obama never candidly discussed the subject of immigration. Let us hope that from today on, no longer having to worry about losing votes, he will be able and willing to abandon this idea of the wall -which would be far longer and more shameful than the Berlin Wall-and, indeed, all walls that violate people's freedom of movement.

Once president, will Obama, who enthusiastically supported the recent gift of $700 billion to the banking industry, continue the usual practice of privatizing profits while socializing losses?

I fear that he will, though I hope that he won't.

Will Obama sign and abide by the Kyoto agreement, or will he continue to allow the biggest polluter on the planet to  pollute with impunity? Will he govern for people, or for automobiles? Will he shift the devastating course of a way of life in which  the few steal the destiny of the many?

I fear he won't, though I hope he will.

Will Obama, the first black president of the United States, realize the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., or the nightmare of Condoleeza Rice?

This White House, which is now his house, was built with the labor of black slaves. Let's hope he never forgets that.