Answer to a Close Friend on Palestine
Dear Miriam,
Sorry, this is as brief as I can make it.
I was nine years old (1948) when there was HUGE celebration in the Bronx at founding of the state of Israel. No one told me that Arabs had lived on that land for centuries and were displaced by force, tens of thousands of them crammed into postage-stamp-size Gaza, now host to two million Palestinians.
Around 50 people staged a peaceful sit-in at the Washington DC office of Bernie Sanders on Wednesday to request that the Senator from Vermont discontinue his support for the war in Ukraine. Nearly a dozen of them left in handcuffs.
“He knows diplomacy is the right thing,” one activist said in a video as they were being hauled away by police. “He knows peace is the right thing. We’re here to tell him we need peace. He needs to call on Biden to go to the negotiating table.”
Tragically, this isn’t the first time Bernie Sanders has used the presence of police to arrest and intimidate anti-war voices.
Continue reading “This Isn’t the First Time Bernie Sanders Has Arrested Antiwar Protesters”
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is horrified at the new war that has just broken out in Israel/Palestine. FOR, a pacifist organization since its conception in 1914 in Europe and 1915 in the United States, condemns the initiation of this latest stage of violent conflict. In condemning Hamas’s attack launched on Shabbat and Simchat Torah, we are also led to condemn Israel for its decades of occupation, siege, and human rights violations and abuses that have led up to this moment.
At least 100 Israelis have been killed, over 900 wounded. Dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians are missing and Hamas is reporting that they have been taken hostage.. The Health Ministry in Gaza is reporting around 200 Palestinians killed so far by Israeli air strikes and over 1,600 injured and we expect this number to climb exponentially in the coming days. Among the strikes that Israel has already conducted, was the bombing of the tall Palestine Tower in Gaza City, which houses media institutions, offices, as well as apartments. According to Palestinian sources, the Department of Charitable Institutions building in Gaza City has been completely destroyed by airstrikes.
Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Did you know the Russia-Ukraine War is a great “investment” for the United States? A terrific opportunity to kill lots of Russians and to destroy lots of their military equipment at a relatively cheap cost to us? (Just don’t mention the price paid by Ukraine.) It gives new meaning to the expression “making a killing” on the “market.”
To Gordon Gekko’s infamous “greed is good” speech we must now add “war is good.” That war is “right.” That it “works” – at least for America, allegedly.
Continue reading “War as an ‘Investment’: The Bizarre Business-Speak of Mass Killing”
While reading the latest news of the war in Ukraine today, I was reminded of a song by Emma’s Revolution. The name of the song is Who Lies? It asks four fundamental questions that can be applied to just about any war:
“Who Lies? Who Dies? Who Pays? Who Profits?
Veterans For Peace certainly knows who lies. Our members have been lied into multiple wars, from Korea and Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond. Who lied? The President lied. Our political leaders lied. The newspapers and television lied. Even religious, academic and municipal leaders encouraged us to fight and die in a war based on lies.
Both US and UK weapons storehouses are nearly bare. Takes a lot of firepower to keep the Russo Ukraine war going in perpetuity. So many hundreds of thousands must die to protect US European dominance. What to do?
While the UK will simply stop sending weapons they don’t have, the US has gotten creative. They’re sending Ukraine weapons they stole from Iran last year to fill the void. The first shipment of 1.1 million rounds perloined from an Iranian vessel last year were sent Monday. In the works: 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, 194 rocket launchers, 70 anti-tank guided missiles and 700,000 more bullets, all “Made In Iran – Swiped by Uncle Sam.”
Continue reading “Running Low on Weapons for Ukraine, US Pivots to Stolen Iranian Ammo”
