By FRANK SCOTT
Columnist
Pt. Richmond, CA

“Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, torment, slavery, brutalization and moral degradation at the other…” Karl Marx may not have referred to the 1% and the 99% when he wrote of those extremes in the 19th century, but they certainly capture this moment in the 21st. Americans appalled at minority domination of national wealth as they pay for endless wars, increasing inequality and vanishing public services have joined a rising global movement for democracy. 65% of the planet’s 7 billion people are poor, bringing the 21st century still closer to Marx’s words of the 19th. Humanity’s call for another world is growing louder and more insistent. The forces of reaction are working to smother that voice through their private governments and media but also through supposedly public and even progressive political circles.

In a particularly sad irony, a budding form of anarchic democracy in America grows through the “Occupy” movement, while an attempt at such governance in Libya has been crushed, at least temporarily. The NATO attack succeeded in obliterating a governing force that tried representing a majority of the Libyan people. While Khadafy’s regime made many mistakes after its initial socialist phase, perhaps most seriously in re-aligning with the treacherous west, its Green Book attempt to create real and not simply representative democracy was laughed at by cynics but in line with anarchist dreams of power coming from collective will and not individual leadership. Many in the Occupy movement may not know what really happened in Libya, but under thought control exercised by agents of the 1% relatively few have any idea.    More important, growing numbers of people are learning that minority ruled society is the root cause of most problems facing humanity. That these problems grow more severe each day makes the increased demand for change both timely and ever more necessary. The Climate Change meetings in Durban that found the 1% ruling powers standing in the way of any change threatening their fanatic worship of private investment and belief in the market deity only showed more conclusively that democracy of the 99% must become reality to end the hypocritical sham that has gone by its name far too long.

Occupy Wall Street’s General Assembly urged “the people of the world…create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.”  These solutions are impossible under the domain of private capital’s 1%. The un-regulated markets of obsessive profit seeking are like un-protected sex. Even at their best they can produce unwanted results and at their worst they may produce terminal disease, which is what present global market forces have created. We cannot opt for a temporary remission via private profiteering which carries the disease; the 99% need to consider the abolition of minority dominated market forces and the beginning of democratic control of global resources, in the interest of all the earth’s inhabitants and not just a tiny group of multi billionaires. In an alleged modern, civilized, digitized society, it’s time we end stupid mythology about hard work earning people incredible sums of money that bring them the power of gods.
How do people come by such wealth? How many packages must they deliver, students must they teach, patrons must they serve, miles must they drive, wounds must they bandage, legal briefs must they submit, floors must they sweep, children must they raise, to end up with a billion dollars? Ten billion dollars?

What sense does it make to have one human living on millions of dollars a week while billions of humans live on less than five dollars a day? The imperial rulers maintain dominance only by virtue of military might. Without massive murder power such as was exercised in Libya and is threatened in Syria and Iran, they would already be gone and as global opposition grows that power will soon not be enough to dominate the planet. Newer threats to powerful nations like China and Russia only show the near dementia of rulers nearing the end of their reign.

But the madness of the diminishing cult, with nuclear weapons at their disposal, threatens our future, just as humanity shows signs of coming together to create a different world of peace, social justice and protection for the environment that sustains all mankind. Leaving control of social wealth in private hands would be suicide for the human race.
Henry Ford once said, “It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” He was correct. We need to understand that system and transform it by creating federal, state and municipal public banks, owned, administered and investing according to the wishes of the people whose funds are held by these institutions. We cannot rely on some wealthy people investing according to moral principles unknown to most of their class. They should be taxed and their money democratically invested in the societies that created this wealth in the first place. We need to create a sensible maximum wage and a higher minimum wage that guarantees survival, with a social safety net that allows no one to go hungry, experience untended illness, or live without shelter.

There is far more than enough wealth to house, feed, clothe and benefit everyone, if we simply stop squandering that wealth on minorities who use it to perpetuate a system that is bringing us closer to social disaster. Capitalism is in a crisis which will get much worse before we make it better. In order to do that we need to end inequality and begin to recognize that the survival of one is dependent on the survival of all.       Happy New Year, 2012 could be a great one.

Paul Pillar, former CIA official, is one of several high-profile critics of Israel

With Hamas and Fatah meeting this week in Cairo, reconciliation between the rival Palestinian political parties is likely only a matter of time. Official U.S. policy holds that Hamas is only a terrorist entity, and any agreement between the two factions jeopardizes continued U.S. aid.  There is reason to believe, however, that more flexible, productive positions will be expressed in the U.S. media. Slowly but unmistakably, space is opening up among the commentariat for new, critical ideas about Israel and its relationship to the United States.

Article courtesy Salon; Photo of Paul Pillar courtesy Rolling Stone

By Michael Gillespie, Contributing Editor

President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign in Iowa went into stealth mode in mid-December, temporarily closing its Des Moines office and removing all the campaign’s exterior signage.  Representatives of a coalition of peace and social justice organizations arrived at the campaign’s Des Moines headquarters on Saturday, December 17 to find the doors locked.  Though the office was scheduled to be open, the campaign’s Iowa staff  fled the site rather than talk with the activist peacemakers who have vowed to widen the public conversation about policies that matter to the American public.

“The elites have access to President Obama.  We came here to talk to the president’s people.  Since he’s locked us out of the process, we will say it outside, to the people here, in a press conference, to anyone willing to listen,” Des Moines Catholic Worker (DMCW) founder Frank Cordaro told a crowd of about 75, including members of the press and broadcast media.

“Our defense budget is approximately equal to that of the entire rest of the world. We could cut our defense budget in half, still have the highest spending in the world, and have more than $300 billion we could spend on the things we need here at home such as health care, education, roads and bridges – improvements to infrastructure,” said Elliott Adams, national president of Veterans For Peace (VFP), as he stood on the sidewalk outside Obama campaign headquarters at 621 E. 2nd Street.

“We have the power to create change.  The Occupy movement is wonderful!  It’s a new beginning, people taking charge of their future.  We need to use our power to create a world of justice, to create a world that is good for people,” Adams told The Independent Monitor.

Rev. Robert Cook of Des Moines spoke about the U.S. military’s impact in Central America.

“I’m out here because I am appalled for many reasons, not the least of which is that they’ve asked for a defense budget of $881 billion.  We have fought wars for decades and they just go on and on and on,” said Cook.

“The worst of it is the collateral damage, the civilians, the women, the children, and the unborn.  I went to El Salvador and saw the damage that was caused by the School of the Americas training in terror and torture.  There were more than 1,000 massacres and the worst was at El Mozote.  I visited El Mozote, where two little girls, 8 and 9 years old, grabbed me by the hand and took me to an excavation where they dug up and gave me this bone from an unborn baby,” said Cook, who produced a small box and displayed a tiny bone.

“So yes, I’m upset, by where our nation has been and where it is going,” said Cook.

“I was there during that war and after.  Our government was sending $1 million a day to fight that war.  The El Salvadorans would say to me, ‘We like you, we just don’t like what your government is doing,” Cook told The Independent Monitor.

Des Moines social worker Karla Hansen, producer of a documentary about Iran and the U.S. global war on terrorism titled Silent Screams, spoke to the crowd about the danger of an Israeli or U.S. attack on and war against Iran.

“Iran has not attacked another nation in over 250 years.  It is America that projects its interests beyond its own borders.  We are told that Iran can use its nuclear energy for peaceful means, but not for armaments.  Good!  This is exactly what we have been saying for a long time.  Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons.  We believe those who produce and stockpile nuclear weapons are politically backwards.  We believe that in this day and age, nuclear bombardment should have come to an end,” said Hansen, quoting from a letter by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Cordaro, a former priest, spoke about the assassination of Catholic Bishop Oscar Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass in a hospital chapel in El Salvador on March 24, 1980.  Audio recordings of the event reveal that Romero was shot while elevating the chalice at the end of the Eucharistic rite. When he was shot, his blood spilled over the altar along with the contents of the chalice.

Cordaro produced a small swatch of cloth embedded in a medal.

“I have here a Franciscan coin, and on the back is a swatch of the blood-stained alter cloth.  The sisters who run the cancer hospital where the good bishop lived, celebrated mass, and was gunned down by U.S. weapons, U.S. ammunition, and U.S.-trained killers, cleaned up after the bishop’s body was taken away,” said Cordaro.

“Bishop Romero had the courage to tell President Carter, a Democrat, to stop sending military aid to El Salvador, because it only kills the people.  That kind of policy is the policy that this country has been running on since the 1950s.  Because he said that, within a week Bishop Romero was gunned down while celebrating the Eucharist, the Mass, for his people.  The bishop paid a high price for speaking out against the U.S. empire,” said Cordaro.

Rene Espeland, a DMCW peace and social justice activist, spoke about the plight of veterans.

“We’ve got all of these guys who made it back, but we’ve got more soldiers killing themselves than are killed in combat.  Something is really wrong.  Some VA health care is being privatized, and then it drops out,” said Espeland, referring to reports by government officials who say the number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care.

United States Marine Corps veteran and VFP member Jeff Strottmann of Iowa City spoke to the crowd about Bradley Manning.  Manning, a US Army soldier, was arrested in May 2010 and has been incarcerated for allegedly leaking documents to Wikileaks, documents that exposed war crimes and embarrassed the U.S. government.

“Today is an international day of solidarity with Bradley Manning and the second day of his preliminary hearing for his court martial.  It’s also his 24th birthday.  The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has attempted several times to meet with him but has been refused access,” said Strottmann.

Manning was subjected by the U.S. government to conditions that clearly amount to torture while in custody in the Quantico brig, said Strottmann.

“He’s being held for doing not just what he had a right to do but what he had an obligation to do under international law and the Geneva Conventions.  He should be freed and he should be paid damages for his false arrest,” said Strottmann.

At that point, chants of “Free Bradley Manning” erupted spontaneously from the crowd.

Eric Hedberg of Des Moines spoke to the crowd about his early support for President Obama.

“Just a few years ago I read a some of Obama’s books, including one titled The Audacity of Hope, and I actually did have hope that things could change.  Over the last three years, I’ve seen things change in some ways for the worse.  Though they claim we are out of Iraq, they’ve escalated things in Afghanistan,” said Hedberg.

I’m troubled by the increased use of drones in Afghanistan under the Obama administration and what is called collateral damage, said Hedberg.

“That they would take the signs off the door and the windows and not be here to listen to what we have to say strikes me as ironic,” said Hedberg.

Following the press conference and rally, members of Occupy Des Moines erected tents on the sidewalk and lawn outside the Obama campaign headquarters and, with the help of VFP members, dropped a banner off the roof of the one-story building where the campaign headquarters is located.  Later in the day a group of about 45 Hispanic immigration rights activists joined the Occupy Des Moines action and spoke about the concerns of immigrant groups.

The Occupiers remained on the site until late Monday morning, December 19, when they decided to move their tents back to Stewart Square.

Unable to gain access to Obama campaign staffers, on December 19 about a dozen DMCW, Occupy Des Moines activists, and VFP members including Cordaro, Espeland, Megan Felt, Clarke Davidson, and Ed Bloomer occupied the offices of the Democratic Party of Iowa at 5661 Fleur Drive.

Seated in the office boardroom, Cordaro told reporters that, “We’ve already gotten more of a hearing here, from the state Democratic Party, than we did at the president’s office. We were able to read our message.”

“We’re being treated very nicely,” said Cordaro, adding that it seemed clear that party officials would not allow the occupation to continue.

Democratic Party of Iowa official Norm Sterzenbach called police to the scene and at the time of this report arrests were in progress.

Photo by Michael Gillespie

By IHSAN ALKHATIB, Ph.D, ESQ.

The Limitations of all tools of grasping “reality”

Sunday Nov.13 was the debut of the much-awaited TLC show All American Muslims. Five Arab American Muslim families from the Detroit area were chosen for a reality show. Much has been written on the show and most of it is positive.  This is good. There is national and international interest in Arab Americans and Muslim Americans- an interest that can be traced to the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent mix of curiosity, paranoia, suspicion and enmity displayed toward Arab and Muslim Americans, in part due to the fact that the community “looked” like the enemy. The show was supposed to stimulate conversations and challenge the negative stereotypes about the Muslim American community.

No spelling bee queen, no Snooki

Blessed are those who do not expect too much for they shall not be disappointed. It’s good to keep this saying in mind when thinking of anything in life, this show included. This is reality TV. Some of the comments that I have seen online made by Arab and Muslim Americans are humorous- and to some extent troubling. One mother said that she wants to raise her children as good Muslims and she thought that exposing her kids to the show would help her do the job! Seriously? I wonder how many Italian Americans are encouraging their kids to embrace their Italian roots by watching Jersey Shore’s Chilean Snooki?

Ordinary Lives

The media hype over the show made some think it is a documentary or some scientific and rigorous representation of American “good Muslims”- those who are fully compliant with all the demands of the faith. I understand why some would have that impression. But it’s important to keep things in perspective. It’s TLC, the Teaching and learning Channel, but it’s not the Harvard Channel, Public TV or CNN for that matter. It’s a show about some interesting and likable members of the community. One key lesson one takes from the show is that the community is ordinary and includes a diverse group of people with varying degrees of religiosity and compliance with cultural norms and expectations. In that sense the show is an accurate representation of Muslims Americans. But if one is worried about their daughter’s future just because Nina Bazzi wants to open a club or Shadia Amen marries from outside the community I suggest that these parents need a reality check, not reality TV. If you are expecting a reality show to teach your children how to be Arab Americans or Muslim Americans then I suggest that Shadia Amen and Nina Bazzi are the least of your worries. Seek counseling.

A Part of Reality

Some say reality TV has “nothing” to do with reality. Not true. Reality TV is part of reality- but not “reality”. It is entertainment. The TLC show is not a documentary on Arab Americans or Muslim Americans. This is not a scientific study of Muslim Americans. The five families are not a representative sample of Muslim Americans or Arab Americans. The majority of Arab Americans are Christian and the majority of Muslim Americans are South Asian and African Americans. Some have loudly protested the fact that the show does not represent the Muslim community accurately. Some thought that some individuals have scandalized the community with their comments or dress. This is an interesting and mildly comical response from a Muslim community that has been seen nationally in the dim light of a Muslim man who tried to blow up an airline with hundreds of innocent human beings in it over Detroit and became known as the “underwear bomber.” Ten years after 9/11 and after all the mainstream media stories and scholarly studies we find that when many Americans think of Muslims they think of the “underwear bomber” and the 9/11 hijackers. Given this reality, Nina Bazzi’s reality TV comments are welcome entertainment- even fresh and enlightening.

The Detroit Arab American Study

Those interested in Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and the Detroit Arab and Muslim American community can access a number of scholarly studies on the community. How many are aware of or remember the Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS)? How many Americans, or Muslim and Arab Americans, have read the scholarly studies on our community? It would be great if there was a documentary on DAAS where its findings are presented and explained. The book Citizenship and Crisis –Arab Detroit After 9/11 by the Detroit Arab American Study Team presents findings based on DAAS. It’s a rigorous empirical study. Those interested in the community could go and read the book and the other studies that used the same dataset. In Chapter one Wayne baker and Andrew Shyrock write: “This book intervenes in the post-9/11 process of normalization, slowing it down to enable careful analysis and clear understanding. Through a careful analysis of systematic data collected on these communities and on the general population in the same region, we hope to make two contributions. First, we aim to insert accurate, objective information into the vigorous and often misinformed public discourse about Arab Americans. Our topics include basic demographic patterns, the 9/11 backlash, attitudes about civil liberties, social identities, religion and religious practices, values, social capital, political beliefs, and attitudes about US foreign policy.” And describing the Detroit Arab American community they write:  “If Arab Detroit appears culturally distinctive to members of the larger American society, it seems even more peculiar in comparison to the Arab world. The broad range of lifestyles, national backgrounds, and levels of assimilation found among Detroit’s Arab and Arabic speaking population make it a difficult community to represent, both intellectually and politically.”

A Welcome Contribution

Reality TV has its clear and serious limitations in dealing with serious topics. But the other ways of dealing with serious topics also have their limitations. News articles and scholarly studies also have their limitations. A survey is a snapshot of reality that might not necessarily apply before or after. News stories also have their limitations. Go read mainstream articles and see whom they interview and quote when they write about the community and you will come up with a handful of names. Is that an accurate representation of the community? All American Muslims is a welcome contribution to the body of knowledge on Arab and Muslim Americans. The clear shortcomings on accuracy and representation are trumped by the positive message and the wide reach.

By FRANK SCOTT
Columnist
Pt. Richmond, CA

What began in Tunisia and was dubbed an Arab Spring has spread to the rest of the world, seemingly for different reasons in different places but slowly becoming one vast movement toward democracy and the political economic transformation necessary for humanity’s survival. But while this hopeful sign of people on the move increases, the threats to it become more numerous and deadly. As electronic communication tools help the tendency toward unity and democracy among the 99%, they also increase the destructive power of the 1% . The imperial minority’s ability to kill more people, destroy more governments , enslave  more populations and increase damage to the environmental basis of all life while rushing to further exploit it in pursuit of profit has brought dangers of a newer and more deadly kind. The dawning consciousness among people across the globe needs to overtake and end the destructive process of private profit accumulation at the loss of all publics on the planet, wherever they may reside and whatever belief system they practice or preach.

The American phase of this movement began with the Wall Street occupation in New York and has spread to many American cities since, with success in highlighting a radical democratic governance technique and message of unity that surpasses its flaws and overcomes attacks by agents of the 1% . This is all happening at a time when American belief in supposedly democratic government has sunk to deservedly new lows. Established power is at an extremely bipolar phase in response as it simultaneously attempts to crush, subvert or incorporate the growing demands of a public frustrated into becoming what minority power fears most: a majority democratic movement for substantial and not merely cosmetic change in the system.

Minority dominators practice obsessive concern for their economic private parts and this masturbatory focus brings the system closer to moral and financial bankruptcy. As the perverse lust for private profit reduces well paid employment in the center by increasing low paid labor in peripheral parts of the shrinking empire, it attacks meager social safety nets in that center which were created to save capitalism during its last global crisis in the 1930s. Public sector work forces are savagely slashed and pensions are cut as less and less people are employed in a political economy that has further reduced humanity from commodities in a market to electronic symbols on a computer screen.

Positive changes in communications offer an opportunity for a massive democratic leap forward but private profiteers still control staggering wealth and their blind lust to amass even more billions has eclipsed – until now – the need to trans-form and not simply re-form material reality.

The American movement has corporate media parroting the political line in the same bi-polar fashion that often lauds the democratic aspect of what’s going on while questioning its purpose. Meanwhile, military slaughters continue unabated, sometimes with long distance murderers who kill innocents with electronic devises that enable them do their dirty work in rooms thousands of miles away from their victims with no more human contact than someone playing a video game while seated on a commode. The isolated assassins are an ironic contrast in a world that sees millions in contact they have never before been able to achieve. While some agents of the 1% operate in solitude totally removed from the bloody murders they commit, Bradley Manning sits in prison for acting on his conscience and informing his fellow citizens of the crimes of modern warfare. His action, representative of the high moral ground most people at least wish to occupy, contrasts with the murderous idiocy of what passes for “normal” material reality, and what the new global movement stands against .

Electronic media have finally become truly social but they are not simply the domain of those organizing demonstrations that represent the 99%. Agents of the 1% operate networks of murder and spying that can’t succeed in the long term but add to producing confusion and more violence in the short term. Attacks on the 99% in order to maintain criminal profit margins for the 1% and their agents are taking on increasingly insane character, with even some ruling class members worrying that this could destroy everything and not just their personal wealth.

As an example, continued and ever more feverish claims that Iran is threatening to annihilate Jews with nuclear weapons which do not exist, while the hundreds of nuclear weapons which do exist in Israel are unmentioned by the fanatics there and alleged American government representatives who work for them here. More deadly war is threatened, with death and destruction that would make the present crisis  even greater, and it is already slipping beyond the control of the ruling 1% and its agents. Truly, it has never been more essential that the great majority of the 99% move towards the radical economic restructuring and totally transformed political process that is the only thing that will save humanity. And political democracy means the end of private profit accumulation in control of the social and natural environment of planet earth, and the beginning of a system that acknowledges the rights of all people to share the benefits of their world.

We should thank the demonstrators in Tunisia, Egypt and of the Occupy Wall Street Movement for calling our attention to the fact that another world is not only possible but necessary. And then we should join them in bringing it about. Quickly.

By NAOMI WOLF
Courtesy CNN

America’s politicians, it seems, have had their fill of democracy. Across the country, police, acting under orders from local officials, are breaking up protest encampments set up by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement – sometimes with shocking and utterly gratuitous violence.

In the worst incident so far, hundreds of police, dressed in riot gear, surrounded Occupy Oakland’s encampment and fired rubber bullets (which can be fatal), flash grenades and tear-gas canisters – with some officers taking aim directly at demonstrators.         The Occupy Oakland Twitter feed read like a report from Cairo’s Tahrir Square: “they are surrounding us”; “hundreds and hundreds of police”; “there are armoured vehicles and Hummers”. There were 170 arrests.

My own recent arrest, while obeying the terms of a permit and standing peacefully on a street in lower Manhattan, brought the reality of this crackdown close to home. America is waking up to what was built while it slept: Private companies have hired away its police (JPMorgan Chase gave $4.6m to the New York City Police Foundation); the federal Department of Homeland Security has given small municipal police forces military-grade weapons systems; citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and assembly have been stealthily undermined by opaque permit requirements.

Suddenly, the United States looks like the rest of the furious, protesting, not-completely-free world. Indeed, most commentators have not fully grasped that a world war is occurring. But it is unlike any previous war in human history: for the first time, people around the world are not identifying and organising themselves along national or religious lines, but rather in terms of a global consciousness and demands for a peaceful life, a sustainable future, economic justice and basic democracy. Their enemy is a global “corporatocracy” that has purchased governments and legislatures, created its own armed enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud, and plundered treasuries and ecosystems.

Around the world, peaceful protesters are being demonised for being disruptive. But democracy is disruptive. Martin Luther King, Jr argued that peaceful disruption of “business as usual” is healthy, because it exposes buried injustice, which can then be addressed. Protesters ideally should dedicate themselves to disciplined, nonviolent disruption in this spirit – especially disruption of traffic. This serves to keep provocateurs at bay, while highlighting the unjust militarisation of the police response.

Moreover, protest movements do not succeed in hours or days; they typically involve sitting down or “occupying” areas for the long hauls. That is one reason why protesters should raise their own money and hire their own lawyers. The corporatocracy is terrified that citizens will reclaim the rule of law. In every country, protesters should field an army of attorneys.
Protesters should also make their own media, rather than relying on mainstream outlets to cover them. They should blog, tweet, write editorials and press releases, as well as log and document cases of police abuse (and the abusers).
There are, unfortunately, many documented cases of violent provocateurs infiltrating demonstrations in places like Toronto, Pittsburgh, London and Athens – people whom one Greek described to me as “known unknowns”. Provocateurs, too, need to be photographed and logged, which is why it is important not to cover one’s face while protesting.

Protesters in democracies should create email lists locally, combine the lists nationally and start registering voters. They should tell their representatives how many voters they have registered in each district – and they should organise to oust politicians who are brutal or repressive. And they should support those – as in Albany, New York, for instance, where police and the local prosecutor refused to crack down on protesters – who respect the rights to free speech and assembly.

Many protesters insist in remaining leaderless, which is a mistake. A leader does not have to sit atop a hierarchy: A leader can be a simple representative. Protesters should elect representatives for a finite “term”, just like in any democracy, and train them to talk to the press and to negotiate with politicians.

Protests should model the kind of civil society that their participants want to create. In lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, for example, there is a library and a kitchen; food is donated; kids are invited to sleep over; and teach-ins are organised. Musicians should bring instruments, and the atmosphere should be joyful and positive. Protesters should clean up after themselves. The idea is to build a new city within the corrupt city, and to show that it reflects the majority of society, not a marginal, destructive fringe.

After all, what is most profound about these protest movements is not their demands, but rather the nascent infrastructure of a common humanity. For decades, citizens have been told to keep their heads down – whether in a consumerist fantasy world or in poverty and drudgery – and leave leadership to the elites. Protest is transformative precisely because people emerge, encounter one another face-to-face, and, in re-learning the habits of freedom, build new institutions, relationships and organisations.

None of that cannot happen in an atmosphere of political and police violence against peaceful democratic protesters. As Bertolt Brecht famously asked, following the East German Communists’ brutal crackdown on protesting workers in June 1953, “Would it not be easier … for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?” Across the United States, and in too many other countries, supposedly democratic leaders seem to be taking Brecht’s ironic question all too seriously.

By Michael Gillespie

The United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC) of Boston hosted Trinity College Professor and Director of International Studies Vijay Prashad on July 7. An appreciative audience of about 50 gathered at the Encuentro 5 community center on Harrison Avenue in Boston’s theater district to hear Prashad’s presentation, “Arab Spring/Libyan Winter.” Prashad prefaced his formal remarks with comments about UNAC and the importance of its role in the antiwar movement..

“The United National Antiwar Committee is essential,” said Prashad.

“This country suffers from a kind of addiction to hopefulness. … When Obama came on the scene and said that we can have a division between ‘the good war’ and ‘the bad war,’ in other words that Afghanistan was the good war and the problem with Bush was that he distracted us from the good war and took us into the bad war [in Iraq]. Essentially that was the limit of Obama’s antiwar position, and it was the limit in many ways of the Democratic Party’s position, which is for a sort of reasonable, moderate imperialism and not the sort of madcap, lunatic imperialism of the Republicans,” said Prashad, drawing approving laughter from his audience.

“The addiction to hopefulness on the one side meant that a very large section of people who were in the antiwar struggle – imagine, in February 2003 there were maybe 10 million people around the planet protesting against the war [and] even the New York Times Patrick Tyler had to admit that there remained two superpowers, one the United States and the other … world public opinion. Actually, it was not world public opinion; it was the global antiwar movement, but still, there was a sense at that time that there was a united front in the antiwar dynamic against militarism. But of course it was a united front against the bad wars, and the moment Obama came into office the antiwar platform that we had started to lose steam, because a section of the population put their faith not only in Obama to prosecute the good war, which is Afghanistan, but to close down Guantanamo, to stop using ‘black sites,’ etc. In fact, of course, it was George Bush who used to arrest terrorists, and it is Obama who kills them. But that is not for me to say, too often. Some people take offense at that,” said Prashad, again drawing laughter from his audience.

“So, the first reason I think it is important to have something like UNAC is that we must revive, from the bottom, the antiwar platform, which I think, until April 9, had become rather moribund. When UNAC appeared on April 9 in New York City, I think it was a message that the antiwar movement has been re-founded and will be revived,” said Prashad.

“The second reason is that, during the antiwar period from 2003 or 2002 maybe, until the election of Obama, the principal vehicle or ideological position against the war was against excessive war. But there was very little understanding of the twin processes of imperialism and Islamophobia. That is nobody, really, in the antiwar movement felt comfortable talking about Islamophobia,” said Prashad, noting that racism has somehow been made to seem banal, as if all racisms are the same.

“But actually, in the last decade or so, there has been a particularly sharp attack against real Muslims and those who get mistaken for Muslims, in other words, those who accidentally look like terrorists, which is really the heart of Islamophobia. I think what was really important in this re-founding of the antiwar position has been the linkage of imperialism and Islamophobia. In other words this formation, in its program, in its platform, says, ‘We oppose imperialism and we oppose Islamophobia,’ and believe me we are going to enter now the season of hate. When we come to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 on September 11, the climate of anti-Muslim hatred is going to rise exponentially. The media is a delightful ally in fanning the flames of hatred, and in that media there are people like Bill O’Reilly and others, Glenn Beck now has cried himself to the web, but there are others and they will be really pushing the Islamophobia message hard,” said Prashad.

Secondly the 10th anniversary of Afghanistan is going to show up and as you know in honor of that the United States has created a new continent in the world. No more North Africa, Middle East, South Asia. Now, the United States has created a geographical space that I consider to be ‘the drone lands.’ The drone lands go from Libya to Somalia to Yemen out to the borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan. So, the second reason why UNAC is important is that it has linked in its essence the processes of Islamophobia and imperialism, and it has said, ‘We need to combat both.’ So, for these two reasons, because we need to re-found a real antiwar presence, and we need to re-found that presence on the basis against imperialism and against Islamophobia … this is going to be an essential movement-building exercise for us,” said Prashad.

Prashad proceeded then to lay out for his audience what he called “a quick dossier” on the conflict in Libya in the context of the Arab Spring. In fact, his presentation included an overview of Libya’s history as well as U.S. interests and actions in the region and “the emergence of alternatives to militarism in the world … and how the antiwar movement could position itself against this bout of militarism.”

Prashad began by lamenting that the initial enthusiasm of and for the Arab Spring has seemed to begin to wane.

“It should not wane,” said Prashad.

“It is extraordinary that the people of Egypt after 30 years of struggle – you know, these struggles did not come from nowhere. … There is a history of peasant struggles, union struggles in Egypt, and struggles of professionals. There were lawyers for change, there were teachers for change, there strikes by police officers. There has been a great sense of disgruntlement in Egypt for 30 years at least. Fifty-three percent of the country lives under the poverty line. … This is a country that has been restive for many decades, and some breakthroughs took place,” said Prashad.

In Prashad’s analysis, revolutionary political change is often “unexpected … you cannot predict it, it’s conjunctural” and in part a result of economic developments and pressures.

“Last year the Russian wheat harvest failed, and because the wheat harvest failed, bread prices have gone crazy across the planet. In North Africa, bread prices used to be subsidized by the regimes. Thanks to their neoliberal prejudices, they decided some years ago to cut back on bread subsidies. Struggles against the rise in basic commodity prices, bread prices, fuel prices, et cetera, have broken out from last year. There was, as it were, a concatenation of events, the break in Tunisia first and then in Egypt, and this incredible thing happens. The thing that inspired people, the masses that formed themselves politically in Tahrir Square, refused to leave when the thugs came to beat them, and of course it was the organized masses that took on the thugs initially. If you go back and watch the video, pictures of when people came in on camel-back, you see these young men just break away from the crowd and form a line. I have no sympathy with the theory that revolutions happen only spontaneously; they may happen spontaneously, but they are defended through organization,” said Prashad.

“When the counter-revolutionary forces entered, it was the Muslim Brotherhood that went out there, defended the people in the square. Many died. Whatever I think of the Muslim Brotherhood, it was certainly an organized force able to create a wall to protect the square from the people who came in on camels with sabers and such,” said Prashad, who implored his listeners not to allow themselves or the media to minimize or forget the importance of what happened in Tunisia and Egypt.

“These are important developments. The revolutions there have not ended. They will continue; first a long march though the electoral process and who knows where it will go,” said Prashad.

The United States and France were both very uneasy regarding the revolutionary uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia respectively, said Prashad, noting that United States had too much to lose to allow its great friend in Egypt to be overthrown. Recalling that Obama sent Frank Wisner to Egypt “hold Mubarak’s hand” and “see the wisdom of creating more enthusiastic reforms,” Prashad recalled that Wisner, “who had no such subtlety, in a press conference said Mubarak should be allowed to cement his legacy.”

“The people in the square weren’t interested in Mubarak’s legacy. They had other things in mind,” said Prashad, who cautioned his audience against the revisionism that he said characterizes the Obama administration’s rhetoric about the Arab Spring.

“It is going to come hard; it is going to come fast; and it was full blown in Obama’s speech on the Arab Spring where he took it upon himself to declare virtually that it was his speech in Cairo that opened the doors to the Arab Spring,” said Prashad, who noted that demonstrators in Tahrir Square had held up tear gas canisters bearing the inscription, “Made in USA.”

Prashad said it was unfortunate for the US government that Arab Spring protests had spread to Bahrain because that country is an anchor of American power, policy, and interests in the region.

“[The peaceful revolution in] Bahrain had to be stopped,” said Prashad, because Bahrain’s collapse would have seriously endangered two of the principal pillars of American policy in the Middle East, one, that Iran has to be held back from exerting itself into the Arab world, and two, that nothing must happen to threaten the flow of oil.

“At that moment, Libya provided an historic opportunity,” said Prashad, who recalled for his audience Libya’s pre-Ghadaffi history, dating back to the 1920s, as an important base of Western power and influence in Africa.

“When [Qadaffi] nationalized the oil companies, when he threw out the Americans from their bases in Libya – people don’t remember that that the US had a major base in Wheelis AFB north of Tripoli. It was a principal place from which bombing raids were conducted in WWII, both in North Africa and in Southern Europe. [Wheelis] was a major US base in North Africa, and Ghadaffi removed the Americans from that base, which used to be a British base, before that a Luftwaffe base, and before that an Italian base,” said Prashad, recalling that Qadaffi had overthrown King Idriss, who had been effectively appointed by the victorious Allies after WWII and was friendly to their interests.

Prashad identified several political divisions in Libyan society, noted that many Libyans had long been deeply frustrated Qadaffi’s failings, and recalled that Ghadaffi’s government had sought to make a deal with the West in the 1990s and especially after 2001.

Prashad described the anti-Qadaffi group that defected to Benghazi in February as the former right-wing neo-liberal establishment within the Qadaffi government.

For the United States, that provided a huge opportunity, said Prashad.

“How better to take charge of the dynamic in the Arab Spring than to defend this particular uprising as the most authentic uprising, democratic uprising in the region?” asked Prashad, noting that these were Libyans who had already sought to make a deal with the West and were close to the Pentagon, the World Bank, and other Western institutions.

“From February to March, as the Egyptian struggle was increasing and gaining tempo, as the Tunisian struggle was ended in one sense but as the protests continued, and as Bahrain picks up, the United States and the French push for a second resolution [on Libya] in the UN. My thought was, ‘Why do they need a second resolution, when there was a pretty good resolution already?’ They begin to amp up the rhetoric that civilians were going to be killed. Meanwhile civilians were being killed in Bahrain, but there was no question of any UN resolution. Civilians were being killed brutally in Yemen, but there was no question of any UN resolution, which is why I was puzzled when some of our friends on the Left got themselves so excited about Libya. When they then said, ‘Well, just because it’s happening in Bahrain doesn’t mean we have to not support [intervention] in Libya,’ well, I’ve lived long enough to know that any imperialist intervention is a bad idea when it claims to be on the side of civilians,” said Prashad, drawing applause from his audience.

“If Libya goes to the American column, Wheelis AFB is going to be the home of AFRICOM. … Nothing like having a huge air force base between Libya on one side and Egypt on the other. Libya is strategically located,” said Prashad.

Reducing U.S. Middle East policy to a slogan, Prashad declared, “Oil must flow; Iran must go!” He added that the other two pillars of American policy are Israeli interests and the war on terror.

The West is addicted to war, said Prashad; rhetoric about helping women and civilians is often a smokescreen; and aerial bombardment as a failed strategy for delivering freedom to people has a terrible history. Prashad noted that, ironically, three very important women in the Obama administration, Susan Rice, Samantha Powers, and Hillary Clinton, have been pushing the humanitarian intervention line.

“Others are watching. Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, this BRICS formation is interesting. It’s not a socialist formation. It’s not even necessarily anti-neoliberal. None of these are great powers of a future dispensation, but certainly they are combating American power, and I think for the benefit of the planet, this is a very healthy development,” said Prashad.

“The IMF has predicted that by 2016 the United States will cease to be the largest economy in the world. It has been the largest economy since the 1920s. It will be a huge blow to our self-esteem not to be the greatest country in the world any longer, and I don’t know how presidential candidates are going to speak when they go to Iowa. What will they say? ‘We’re the second greatest country in the world’? Greatness is measured by the size of your GNP, so it will be inaccurate to brag now. China is going to take over economically. If you add the BRICS countries together, they are already much greater. Output, growth rate is much faster than the United States. The American Century essentially is already over,” declared Prashad.

“The BRICS countries, during the emergence of the Libyan crisis, tried to put forward an alternative strategy. … Now the BRICS countries are trying aggressively, very hard, to create an alternative platform, again virtually unreported in the American and European media,” an alternative to the NATO/G7 approach to international conflict, the Kosovo model, which is to bomb from the air, isolate and put the leader before the International Court, and set up a government friendly to Western neo-liberalism, said Prashad.

“The BRICS countries … have a theory about how to produce negotiations. It is two different power blocs in conflict, and … that is something to keep an eye on.”

Boston UNAC member Kim Foltz introduced Prashad, author of the award-winning The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (2009) and a soon to be published collection, Dispatches from Pakistan. Boston area community organizer and social justice activist Marilyn Levin also addressed the audience. A wide-ranging Q&A session followed.

Photo by Michael Gillespie

By TAMMY OBEIDALLAH
Staff Writer, Dayton, OH

The celebration following President Obama’s announcement that Osama Bin Laden was killed by a team of Navy Seals and his body dumped in the ocean was predictably raucous:  the mentality of the celebrants identifying them as the same people who still believe 19 hijackers brought down the Twin Towers in the first place. From drunken college kids to old biddies, the simple-minded euphoria spread with no questions asked as to why the story of the operation into Pakistan changes with every passing minute, the real reason as to why no photos were released, the un-Islamic disposal of the body—or bodies—the lack of dialysis equipment in the compound (Bin Laden allegedly suffered from kidney disease) and most importantly, why an unarmed man was shot in front of his family without benefit of an arrest or trial. Over one-third of Americans do not believe that Bin Laden was the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks, well beyond the “shadow of a doubt” necessitating acquittal in a court of law.

Unfortunately, groupthink spread to the very organizations which are supposed to be advocating for the Arab and Muslim communities here in America. The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) issued this statement:

“We join our fellow citizens in welcoming the announcement that Osama bin Laden has been eliminated as a threat to our nation and the world through the actions of American military personnel. As we have stated repeatedly since the 9/11 terror attacks, bin Laden never represented Muslims or Islam. In fact, in addition to the killing of thousands of Americans, he and Al Qaeda caused the deaths of countless Muslims worldwide. We also reiterate President Obama’s clear statement tonight that the United States is not at war with Islam.”

If the United States is not at war with Islam, someone needs to explain why over 1 million Iraqis are dead, in a country known to have had nothing to do with 9/11.  If there is no war on Islam, why—after Bin Laden’s alleged demise—do we now have the capability of flying 54 Predator drone missions at a time, with a goal to increase that number to 65 round-the-clock missions by 2013?  In fact, drones have not abated in their slaughter of innocent civilians in Waziristan since Bin Laden’s death. Drone attacks have expanded into Yemen, as seen in a recent botched attempt to murder Sheikh Anwar al-Awlaki, whose only apparent crime is to have e-mailed Army Major Nidal Hassan, the Ft. Hood shooter. The strike resulted in the deaths of two Yemenis.

Not to be outdone, Salam Al-Marayati, President of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) stated: “We hope this is a turning point away from the dark period of the last decade, in which bin Laden symbolized the evil face of global terrorism. His actions and those of Al-Qaeda have violated the sacred Islamic teachings upholding the sanctity of all human life. His acts of senseless terror have been met with moral outrage by Muslims worldwide at every turn in the past decade.”

It does indeed appear to be a turning point; however it is turning from a “dark period” to an even darker one, both in the United States and abroad. Hate crimes against Muslims have spiked in the wake of Bin Laden’s alleged demise. A mosque in Portland, Maine was spray painted with the words “Go Home,” among other things; the Islamic Center of Minnesota received no less than five hate mails immediately following reports of Bin Laden’s death. A schoolteacher in Texas is currently under suspension for making insensitive remarks to a Muslim student, telling her “I bet you’re grieving.”

Perhaps the most repugnant of sentiments came from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). The Michigan chapter issued a wordy diatribe, abbreviated here in the interest of space:
“ADC Michigan joins fellow Americans and all peace seeking people across the globe in rejoicing over the execution of Osama Bin Laden, head of the Al Qaeda terrorist group responsible for the national tragedy of September 11th as well as mass killings of innocent civilians in various parts of the world…While the death of Bin Laden ends one phase of our war on terror, the execution of the most recognized symbol of terrorism does not eradicate the ideology that Bin Laden represented.  Despite this great victory…the threat of terror is still sound and strong.  This mandates us to stay on alert and continue to be vigilant in a world that may be safer without Bin Laden.  Additionally, the beginning of this new chapter requires our US Administration to re-examine policies and actions in regards to the war on terror… Osama Bin Laden and his terrorist group hijacked the noble faith of Islam and, in its name, committed heinous crimes against us in America, and the rest of humanity, including Muslims.  His malevolent actions have unfortunately and unjustly cast a shadow of suspicion over the heads of the Arab and Muslim American communities in the US and abroad.  Now is the time to remove this ignorance and doubt and stand united once more as we celebrate our country’s triumph.  ADC Michigan salutes President Obama, his administration, and the American heroes who risked their lives for this mission on behalf of peace and humanity.”
Cast a shadow of suspicion? Who are they kidding? Muslims and Arabs have always been portrayed as terrorists in movies and television, years before 9/11. I recall watching then CBS anchor Dan Rather as those nightmarish events unfolded and he advised us “caution” when placing blame. Why did he say that? Because the first thing that came to everyone’s mind was Muslim hijackers. And “heroes?” We’re talking about a group of guys who, by the government’s own convoluted admission—threw grenades into a house full of women and children and shot unarmed people.

It is imperative that Arab and Muslim advocacy organizations start fulfilling their purpose instead of being lockstep with the U.S. administration. It is their responsibility to speak out, condemning in the strongest terms the aggression with which the U.S. has attacked Muslim countries since 9/11, and to hold the government and media accountable for the false statements, half-truths and blatant lies which allow such aggression to continue.

Veterans For Peace national and state officers and members presented a petition to Senators Grassley and Harkin in Des Moines on May 16

Veterans For Peace (VFP) national president Elliott Adams visited Des Moines on May 16 to present the state’s newest VFP chapter, Chapter 163, with its charter.

“I’m here in Des Moines today because we are proud that Iowa is now home to a new chapter of Veterans For Peace,” Adams told The Independent Monitor at a rally in front of the Federal Building.

“I’m out here on this street corner because there is a local effort to get Iowa’s Congressional representatives, Congressmen and Senators, to support moves to reduce the money spent on the war and bring our soldiers home. There is a time to recognize that a war has failed. The war in Afghanistan reminds me of the Vietnam War that I served in. The White House defended an un-winnable war when 20,000 of us were dead, and they kept talking about an exit strategy until 59,000 of us were dead. The people finally made the war stop,” said Adams.

“It’s time to bring ’em home,” said Adams.

Adams described VFP is a group of about 7,000 men and women across the United States who have served their country in uniform and who now recognize the necessity of a greater commitment to world peace. The group also accepts as associate members those who did not serve in uniform but support the organization’s efforts in behalf of peace.

Ed Flaherty of Iowa City, president of Eastern Iowa’s VFP Chapter 161, spoke about the points in the petition the veterans presented to representatives of Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA).

“Iraq, hey, we’re gonna be out of there by December 31, although some of the generals would like us to be there for longer. Let’s start bringing ’em home right now, 8,000 a month. That’s point number one. Point number two, President Obama said that on July 31 we’re gonna start withdrawing from Afghanistan. Well, fine. Some people would like to think a withdrawal is a couple of thousand troops – not true! Let’s bring at least 30,000 home in July and another 30,000 by the end of the year. Third point: Let’s freeze the Pentagon’s budget at 2008 levels. It’s a very modest request. It would still give ’em $480 billion for their base budget, which, you know, I could probably be prosecuted for suggesting that they be allowed that much. And the fourth thing is, let’s for the first time in history have an audit of the Department of Defense,” said Flaherty.

“That’s why we’re here. We want these two reasonable Senators, Grassley and Harkin, to go along with these very conservative first steps to peace,” said Flaherty.

Flaherty, along with Adams and Gil Landolt of Des Moines, president of VFP Chapter 163 in Central Iowa, noted the remarkable growth of VFP in Iowa.

“Chapter 161 in Eastern Iowa didn’t exist a year ago, and today here in Des Moines we are chartering Chapter 163 in Central Iowa,” said Flaherty.

Because the Iowa National Guard has contributed large numbers of troops to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, public awareness of and concern about the human costs of the wars is growing in Iowa. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) emerged years ago as the signature injuries of these wars. Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) recently returned from a Congressional fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and introduced a bill that would require a more accurate accounting of the human and financial costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“These wars are incredibly personal for me and the people of my district. I’ve met with dozens of my constituents – young men and women and their families – who have sacrificed a great deal in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And when I meet injured soldiers and I see the hardships – physical and financial – that they and their families will endure for the rest of their lives it becomes crystal clear that the true cost of the war is not being accurately reported. With this bill, we can change that,” said Braley in a statement issued recently and available on his website.

Harkin and Grassley worked together to push the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act through the Senate in 2007. The law, named after a Grundy Center, IA soldier who committed suicide in 2005 while suffering from untreated PTSD after he returned from an 11-month deployment in Iraq, directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer mental health screening and referrals, at a veteran’s request, for counseling and treatment.

Some 3,500 Iowa Guard troops are currently stationed in Afghanistan.

James Marren, a veteran and a member of VFP Chapter 163, serves as treasurer of the Veterans National Recovery Center (VNRC), which hopes to turn the former Knoxville, IA Veterans Hospital into a national center for the treatment of veterans suffering from PTSD and TBI.

VFP President Elliott Adams (left) talks with James Marren, VFP Chapter 163 member and treasurer of the Veterans National Recovery Center (VNRC), at the Vietnam War Memorial on the grounds of the Capitol in Des Moines on May 16

“We just had a hearing in Washington, DC. There were two other proposals, one from Chicago and one from a gentleman who used to be the president of the Chamber of Commerce in Knoxville. I think our proposal is really the best because it is the one that will provide the highest quality of service for our veterans,” said Marren.

Marren said he does not believe the other proposals are competitive and thinks VNRC has a very good chance of success.

Amy Beller from Harkin’s office and Bob Renaud from Grassley’s office met with the VFP delegation in front of the Federal building and accepted the petition from Adams, Flaherty, Landolt, and their fellow veterans.

“We’re pushing ’em!” Landolt told the crowd.

“I wish we didn’t have to do this. We all have other things that we’d rather be doing, but we need to end these wars and bring the troops home,” said Landolt.

Later, at the Vietnam War Memorial on the grounds of the Capitol, Adams presented Landolt with VFP Chapter 163’s official charter. Following the presentation ceremony, the group met for lunch at the Des Moines Catholic Worker hospitality house, Bishop Dingman House.

By TAMMY OBEIDALLAH
Staff Writer, Dayton, OH

Goldstone’s waffling diatribe in the Washington Post—although hardly the “retraction” of his report so heralded by the pro-Israel camp—should not have come as a surprise. Given the amount of Zionist pressure put on Goldstone, it is a wonder that his backpedaling took so long. He was blackballed throughout the international Jewish community, even prohibited from attending his own grandson’s bar mitzvah. It would be difficult for anyone to bear the extraordinary pressure wielded by such a powerful concerted effort and Goldstone must have been particularly susceptible because he was—and is—a self-described Zionist. Granted, in light of his initial report alleging Israeli war crimes, he could be labeled a “soft Zionist,” but a Zionist nonetheless.

The Jewish Virtual Library defines Zionism as “the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel…” In other words, Goldstone, along with every other Zionist, believes Jews have an unalienable right to come from the four corners of the world to take over Palestine. So, Goldstone’s betrayal of Operation Cast Lead’s victims, particularly the al-Simouni family, who lost 29 members in a single Israeli attack, was to be expected:

“The shelling of the (al-Simouni) home was apparently the consequence of an Israeli commander’s erroneous interpretation of a drone image, and an Israeli officer is under investigation for having ordered the attack. While the length of this investigation is frustrating, it appears that an appropriate process is underway, and I am confident that if the officer is found to have been negligent, Israel will respond accordingly.” –“Reconsidering the Goldstone Report on Israel War Crimes”

Of course Goldstone’s more recent conclusions are self-contradictory; they ignore the fact that, according to paragraph 1756 his original report, “The Mission found major structural flaws that in its view make the (Israeli investigatory) system inconsistent with international standards….there is the absence of any effective and impartial investigation mechanism and victims of such alleged violations are deprived of any effective or prompt remedy.” We are all too familiar with the criminal cover-ups inherent to IDF internal investigations, dubbing the attack on the Mavi Marmara an act of “self-defense” and Rachel Corrie’s murder an “accident.”

But Goldstone most blatantly reveals his true Zionist colors with the statement, “I had hoped that our inquiry into all aspects of the Gaza conflict would begin a new era of evenhandedness at the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose history of bias against Israel cannot be doubted.”

Come again? A history of bias? Israel’s proxy, the USA, has a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council; hence the vast majority of resolutions critical of the Jewish State are vetoed. In fact, a mere 79 resolutions condemning various forms of Israeli aggression managed to slip through since 1948.

It is this type of victimhood on which Israelis and their apologists rely; sadly we Palestinian activists have fallen prey to this phenomenon and feel the need to appease this victimization at every turn. We now spend far too much of our time qualifying all our statements with “…now I don’t have a problem with Jews or Judaism, but rather Zionism…” If you are a Jew who is against Zionism, you know who you are and don’t need the constant caveats from pro-Palestinian groups living in constant fear of being labeled “anti-Semitic.”

Moreover, many of the organizations supposedly advocating for Palestinian rights support the defunct “Two-State Solution,” which is inherently Zionist. Israeli settlements are ensconced in what is left of the West Bank, Palestinian communities are isolated by Jewish-only roads and the non-contiguous Gaza Strip is under siege. A Palestinian state under such circumstances is not viable and to declare statehood under these conditions only legitimizes the Israeli occupation of more than 85% of historic Palestine.

Some Arab-American and Muslim organizations have even praised J Street, the “kinder, gentler” face of Zionism to “counter” AIPAC in our halls of Congress. .” According to the Jerusalem Post, one of J Street’s finance committee members – with a $10,000 contribution threshold – is none other than Lebanese-American businessman Richard Abdoo, a current board member of Amideast and former board member of the Arab American Institute. If there was any doubt about J Street’s motives, New Israel Fund CEO Daniel Sokatch removed all doubt when addressing their conference thusly: “And we believe that working for justice and equality in Israel is the best way to re-ignite a commitment to Israel in our own American community.”

Somehow another recipient of the “balanced and moderate” label is New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. His condescending tripe entitled “US Must Step In to Pull Israel and Turkey Back to the Middle” in the aftermath of  the Mavi Marmara massacre included a quote from one of his Israeli friends “…and the Palestinians are beginning to act rationally.” I wonder how rational Friedman would act if he was denied the opportunity to work, travel, go to the hospital, or have access to little more than 6 hours of electricity a day for years and then watch close family members be blown apart?

Come on, people. We should know the “good cop-bad cop” routine by now. The reality of so called “moderate” voices such as Goldstone, Friedman, and J Street is that they represent the most insidious and virulent form of Zionism: the idea that this poisonous ideology can peacefully co-exist with the rest of humanity.