A few days ago Chile joined Brazil, Uruguay, Ecuador and other countries in putting a thumb in the eye of the USA and Israel by recognizing a Palestinian state. There are 300,000 Palestinians living in Chile. Chile is also being true to its legacy of popular struggle against imperialism.
Here's to you Chile. A song from the great revolutionary Chilean band, Inti-Illimani.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Can it Happen Here? Is Antisemitism on the Rampage in Philosemitic America?
R. Congress
In arguments about Zionism, Israel and Palestine a standard refrain is along the lines of: "Jews have to have Israel as a refuge from antisemitism. It's everywhere, and can erupt into violent attacks against Jews..even a holocaust here in the United States or anywhere. Antisemitism is rampant in the world. Look what happened in Germany and throughout history."
Paranoia and an "us against the world" attitude is an integral part of zionism. I find that even fairly politically astute and realistic people can be swayed by fears of antisemitism in the US.
Is antisemitism a threat in the U.S? Is there an upsurge of Jew hating world wide?
One thing that has to be dismissed right away is the false and outright lying accusation that the growing support for basic human rights for Palestinians is "antisemitic." the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is growing. More and more people are not buying into the lame excuses used by the media and our government to justify ethnic cleansing and outright murders committed by the Israeli occupation. Groups around the world are sponsoring boats to attempt to sail into port in Gaza to highlight the illegality and immorality of Israel's blockade.
This isn't anti Jewish. It's politics. It's defense of universal human rights. Apologists for Israel can't put together any coherent arguments in the face of undeniable facts, so their only recourse is name calling and intimidation.
Well, its been said: "in times of economic and/or social crisis people look around for a scapegoat. We're having really hard economic times and we've got right wing populism with the Tea Party and such...aren't conditions ripe?"
It's true that there are many demagogues who are railing against scapegoats to blame for our economic and other woes. We got Glen Beck, Fox's O'Reily and Hannity and the ever reliable windbag Rush Limburger among others.
Who are they scapegoating?
Jews?
The pogrom in this country is being carried out against Muslims and immigrants (mainly Hispanic, do we have any Hispanic Muslim immigrants!? Fuggedaboutit!)
No Jews are in the crosshairs. Jews are among the inciters of anti-Islamic racism. Jews are secure members of the establishment and also beloved of the usually antisemitic crowd of right wing xenophobes, theocratic Christian lunatics and even pro fascist groups!
There was a rally recently in New York to support the right of Muslims to have a Mosque near the World Trade Center at "ground zero." At the counter-demonstration were a group of British nazi skinheads who normally spend their time in the UK "Paki bashing." At the NY rally they were waving the flag of St. George (beloved of UK racists) and the Israeli flag!
Does Michelle Bachman denounce Jews? Rush? The "grass roots" Tea Party (TM) (c) INC, LLC?
Are conditions the same here and now as they were in Europe in the 1920s and 30s when Nazis and Fascists were coming to power in some countries and gaining influence in others?
In Europe from the end of the 19th century up to Hitler's coming to power there were openly antisemitic mass circulation newspapers. There were antisemitic politicians elected to high office. Before there was a nazi party the banner of antisemitism was carried by anti-democratic, aristocratic, clerical and pro-monarchists groups that represented a significant part of society. There were big scandals and controversial accusations that shook the social order. The brutal pogroms in Russia in the 1880s, The Dreyfuss case in France in the 1890s.
Has anything like that been going on in the U.S. for the last 50 years? All the forces that could realistically be part of an anti-democratic fascist-like mass organization love Israel and have warm relations with zionist Jews.
Where is the threat? Are Palestinian students on U.S. campuses allied with diabolical groups like, say, Jewish Voice for Peace, or the Free Gaza Movement a dire existential threat to Jews in America?
Get real!
In arguments about Zionism, Israel and Palestine a standard refrain is along the lines of: "Jews have to have Israel as a refuge from antisemitism. It's everywhere, and can erupt into violent attacks against Jews..even a holocaust here in the United States or anywhere. Antisemitism is rampant in the world. Look what happened in Germany and throughout history."
Paranoia and an "us against the world" attitude is an integral part of zionism. I find that even fairly politically astute and realistic people can be swayed by fears of antisemitism in the US.
Is antisemitism a threat in the U.S? Is there an upsurge of Jew hating world wide?
One thing that has to be dismissed right away is the false and outright lying accusation that the growing support for basic human rights for Palestinians is "antisemitic." the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is growing. More and more people are not buying into the lame excuses used by the media and our government to justify ethnic cleansing and outright murders committed by the Israeli occupation. Groups around the world are sponsoring boats to attempt to sail into port in Gaza to highlight the illegality and immorality of Israel's blockade.
This isn't anti Jewish. It's politics. It's defense of universal human rights. Apologists for Israel can't put together any coherent arguments in the face of undeniable facts, so their only recourse is name calling and intimidation.
Well, its been said: "in times of economic and/or social crisis people look around for a scapegoat. We're having really hard economic times and we've got right wing populism with the Tea Party and such...aren't conditions ripe?"
It's true that there are many demagogues who are railing against scapegoats to blame for our economic and other woes. We got Glen Beck, Fox's O'Reily and Hannity and the ever reliable windbag Rush Limburger among others.
Who are they scapegoating?
Jews?
The pogrom in this country is being carried out against Muslims and immigrants (mainly Hispanic, do we have any Hispanic Muslim immigrants!? Fuggedaboutit!)
No Jews are in the crosshairs. Jews are among the inciters of anti-Islamic racism. Jews are secure members of the establishment and also beloved of the usually antisemitic crowd of right wing xenophobes, theocratic Christian lunatics and even pro fascist groups!
There was a rally recently in New York to support the right of Muslims to have a Mosque near the World Trade Center at "ground zero." At the counter-demonstration were a group of British nazi skinheads who normally spend their time in the UK "Paki bashing." At the NY rally they were waving the flag of St. George (beloved of UK racists) and the Israeli flag!
Does Michelle Bachman denounce Jews? Rush? The "grass roots" Tea Party (TM) (c) INC, LLC?
Are conditions the same here and now as they were in Europe in the 1920s and 30s when Nazis and Fascists were coming to power in some countries and gaining influence in others?
In Europe from the end of the 19th century up to Hitler's coming to power there were openly antisemitic mass circulation newspapers. There were antisemitic politicians elected to high office. Before there was a nazi party the banner of antisemitism was carried by anti-democratic, aristocratic, clerical and pro-monarchists groups that represented a significant part of society. There were big scandals and controversial accusations that shook the social order. The brutal pogroms in Russia in the 1880s, The Dreyfuss case in France in the 1890s.
Has anything like that been going on in the U.S. for the last 50 years? All the forces that could realistically be part of an anti-democratic fascist-like mass organization love Israel and have warm relations with zionist Jews.
Where is the threat? Are Palestinian students on U.S. campuses allied with diabolical groups like, say, Jewish Voice for Peace, or the Free Gaza Movement a dire existential threat to Jews in America?
Get real!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Oops! Obama Lied Again
Published on Thursday, January 6, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Obama: No Whistleblowing on My Watch
The US Military Should Be Ashamed of Its Treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning
by Ann Wright
Candidate Obama said "Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal."
As a U.S. presidential candidate in 2008, in referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Barack Obama said, "We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal." Candidate Obama was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans.
President Obama says No whistleblowing on my watch!
Yet, Obama, as he has on so many issues as President, is taking a 180 degree turn from his comments as a candidate, comments on which the American people relied and elected him.
Now, the Obama administration's warning to Bradley Manning and to other whistle blowers is this: blow the whistle on government criminal actions and we will put you in solitary confinement before you are charged, much less go to trial. You will be treated as an "enemy combatant," in America's ongoing wars on about everything, including the truth.
Evidence of Murder of Civilians in Iraq by US military helicopter pilots
Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army Private First Class (PFC) intelligence analyst who turned 23 years old in late December, allegedly leaked a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters reporters, to the website Wikileaks. Two Iraqi children were also severely wounded in the attack.
PFC Manning's alleged actions are just as important as those of the whistleblowers who informed us of the Bush administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans. The video taken from the U.S. military helicopter that fired the killing rounds of ammunition, graphically showed US military pilots firing on and killing innocent civilians in Iraq. In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, PFC Manning is suspected by the government of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" - tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort.
Manning had the legal responsibility to disclose evidence, even classified evidence, of criminal actions conducted by government officials
If indeed, Manning did give the video to Wikileaks, his actions show clearly that he reasonably believed that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on that belief. Exposing criminal actions done under the cover of government orders is a responsibility and duty of military personnel as codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as the Geneva conventions and the Nuremberg Principles.
Nuremberg Principle I
Principle I states, "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment."
Principle II
Principle II states, "The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law."
Principle III
Principle III states, "The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law."
Principle IV
Principle IV states: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him".
This principle could be paraphrased as follows: "It is not an acceptable excuse to say 'I was just following my superior's orders'".
Classifying the evidence of criminal actions does not make the actions untouchable
Reporting criminal actions done by others and providing evidence of those criminal actions, especially when the evidence of criminal actions have been covered up by "classifying" the evidence, is not illegal, but in fact, is a very brave response.
Punishment before the Trial-Solitary Confinement
Manning has now been in prison in solitary confinement for 7 months and still neither the U.S. military nor the U.S. government has indicted him for any offense. Manning essentially is being treated by the U.S. government as an American citizen "enemy combatant."
Manning's treatment in detention, pre-trial confinement in prison is cruel and unusual. He is being kept in solitary confinement, alone in a cell for 23 hours a day. He is forbidden to exercise in his cell. He is deprived of sleep. He is not given a pillow or sheets for his steel bed, although recently after publicity about he conditions in the prison, he was given a mattress for the bed. Prison medical personnel now "administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation."
US Soldier Treated as Those Detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo
The U.S. military's treatment of Manning is tragically consistent with its treatment of persons detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. America's military uses harsh conditions and torture, physical or mental, for those who have not been convicted of any crimes used to break the person to provide whatever information the military wants to receive. This type of treatment is inhumane, immoral and wrong for those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo and is wrong for Bradley Manning.
Nothing to be Proud of
Nothing in this to be proud of, President Obama. Nothing in this to be proud of, US Military.
If you, the reader, are offended by this, please -- Raise Hell for Bradley, the undeclared American "enemy combatant."
Contribute to Manning's defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org
Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com)
Obama: No Whistleblowing on My Watch
The US Military Should Be Ashamed of Its Treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning
by Ann Wright
Candidate Obama said "Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal."
As a U.S. presidential candidate in 2008, in referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans, Barack Obama said, "We only know these crimes took place because insiders blew the whistle at great personal risk ... Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal." Candidate Obama was referring to the Bush Administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans.
President Obama says No whistleblowing on my watch!
Yet, Obama, as he has on so many issues as President, is taking a 180 degree turn from his comments as a candidate, comments on which the American people relied and elected him.
Now, the Obama administration's warning to Bradley Manning and to other whistle blowers is this: blow the whistle on government criminal actions and we will put you in solitary confinement before you are charged, much less go to trial. You will be treated as an "enemy combatant," in America's ongoing wars on about everything, including the truth.
Evidence of Murder of Civilians in Iraq by US military helicopter pilots
Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army Private First Class (PFC) intelligence analyst who turned 23 years old in late December, allegedly leaked a video of a US helicopter attack that killed at least eleven Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters reporters, to the website Wikileaks. Two Iraqi children were also severely wounded in the attack.
PFC Manning's alleged actions are just as important as those of the whistleblowers who informed us of the Bush administration's use of phone companies to illegally spy on Americans. The video taken from the U.S. military helicopter that fired the killing rounds of ammunition, graphically showed US military pilots firing on and killing innocent civilians in Iraq. In addition to this "Collateral Murder" video, PFC Manning is suspected by the government of leaking the "Afghan War Diaries" - tens of thousands of battlefield reports that explicitly describe civilian deaths and cover-ups, corrupt officials, collusion with warlords, and a failing US/NATO war effort.
Manning had the legal responsibility to disclose evidence, even classified evidence, of criminal actions conducted by government officials
If indeed, Manning did give the video to Wikileaks, his actions show clearly that he reasonably believed that war crimes were being covered up, and that he took action based on that belief. Exposing criminal actions done under the cover of government orders is a responsibility and duty of military personnel as codified in the Uniform Code of Military Justice as well as the Geneva conventions and the Nuremberg Principles.
Nuremberg Principle I
Principle I states, "Any person who commits an act which constitutes a crime under international law is responsible therefor and liable to punishment."
Principle II
Principle II states, "The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law."
Principle III
Principle III states, "The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law."
Principle IV
Principle IV states: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him".
This principle could be paraphrased as follows: "It is not an acceptable excuse to say 'I was just following my superior's orders'".
Classifying the evidence of criminal actions does not make the actions untouchable
Reporting criminal actions done by others and providing evidence of those criminal actions, especially when the evidence of criminal actions have been covered up by "classifying" the evidence, is not illegal, but in fact, is a very brave response.
Punishment before the Trial-Solitary Confinement
Manning has now been in prison in solitary confinement for 7 months and still neither the U.S. military nor the U.S. government has indicted him for any offense. Manning essentially is being treated by the U.S. government as an American citizen "enemy combatant."
Manning's treatment in detention, pre-trial confinement in prison is cruel and unusual. He is being kept in solitary confinement, alone in a cell for 23 hours a day. He is forbidden to exercise in his cell. He is deprived of sleep. He is not given a pillow or sheets for his steel bed, although recently after publicity about he conditions in the prison, he was given a mattress for the bed. Prison medical personnel now "administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation."
US Soldier Treated as Those Detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo
The U.S. military's treatment of Manning is tragically consistent with its treatment of persons detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. America's military uses harsh conditions and torture, physical or mental, for those who have not been convicted of any crimes used to break the person to provide whatever information the military wants to receive. This type of treatment is inhumane, immoral and wrong for those in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo and is wrong for Bradley Manning.
Nothing to be Proud of
Nothing in this to be proud of, President Obama. Nothing in this to be proud of, US Military.
If you, the reader, are offended by this, please -- Raise Hell for Bradley, the undeclared American "enemy combatant."
Contribute to Manning's defense fund at www.couragetoresist.org
Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com)
Challenging the USA on its enabling of Israeli war crimes
Breaking the Israel-Palestine Deadlock
Monday 03 January 2011
By: Noam Chomsky
While intensively engaged in illegal settlement expansion, the government of Israel is also seeking to deal with two problems: a global campaign of what it perceives as “delegitimation” – that is, objections to its crimes and withdrawal of participation in them – and a parallel campaign of legitimation of Palestine.
The “delegitimation,” which is progressing rapidly, was carried forward in December by a Human Rights Watch call on the U.S. “to suspend financing to Israel in an amount equivalent to the costs of Israel’s spending in support of settlements,” and to monitor contributions to Israel from tax-exempt U.S. organizations that violate international law, “including prohibitions against discrimination” – which would cast a wide net. Amnesty International had already called for an arms embargo on Israel. The legitimation process also took a long step forward in December, when Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil recognized the State of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), bringing the number of supporting nations to more than 100.
International lawyer John Whitbeck estimates that 80-90 percent of the world’s population live in states that recognize Palestine, while 10-20 percent live in states that recognize the Republic of Kosovo. The U.S. recognizes Kosovo but not Palestine. Accordingly, as Whitbeck writes in Counterpunch, media “act as though Kosovo’s independence were an accomplished fact while Palestine’s independence is only an aspiration which can never be realized without Israeli-American consent,” reflecting the normal workings of power in the international arena.
Given the scale of Israeli settlement of the West Bank, it has been argued for more a decade that the international consensus on a two-state settlement is dead, or mistaken (though evidently most of the world does not agree). Therefore those concerned with Palestinian rights should call for Israeli takeover of the entire West Bank, followed by an anti-apartheid struggle of the South African variety that would lead to full citizenship for the Arab population there.
The argument assumes that Israel would agree to the takeover. It is far more likely that Israel will instead continue the programs leading to annexation of the parts of the West Bank that it is developing, roughly half the area, and take no responsibility for the rest, thus defending itself from the “demographic problem” – too many non-Jews in a Jewish state – and meanwhile severing besieged Gaza from the rest of Palestine.
One analogy between Israel and South Africa merits attention. Once apartheid was implemented, South African nationalists recognized they were becoming international pariahs because of it. In 1958, however, the foreign minister informed the U.S. ambassador that U.N. condemnations and other protests were of little concern as long as South Africa was supported by the global hegemon – the United States. By the 1970s, the U.N. declared an arms embargo, soon followed by boycott campaigns and divestment. South Africa reacted in ways calculated to enrage international opinion. In a gesture of contempt for the U.N. and President Jimmy Carter – who failed to react so as not to disrupt worthless negotiations – South Africa launched a murderous raid on the Cassinga refugee camp in Angola just as the Carter-led “contact group” was to present a settlement for Namibia. The similarity to Israel’s behavior today is striking – for example, the attack on Gaza in January 2009 and on the Gaza freedom flotilla in May 2010.
When President Reagan took office in 1981, he lent full support to South Africa’s domestic crimes and its murderous depredations in neighboring countries. The policies were justified in the framework of the war on terror that Reagan had declared on coming into office. In 1988, Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress was designated one of the world’s “more notorious terrorist groups” (Mandela himself was only removed from Washington’s “terrorist list” in 2008). South Africa was defiant, and even triumphant, with its internal enemies crushed, and enjoying solid support from the one state that mattered in the global system.
Shortly after, U.S. policy shifted. U.S. and South African business interests very likely realized they would be better off by ending the apartheid burden. And apartheid soon collapsed. South Africa is not the only recent case where ending U.S. support for crimes has led to significant progress. Can such a transformative shift happen in Israel’s case, clearing the way to a diplomatic settlement? Among the barriers firmly in place are the very close military and intelligence ties between the U.S. and Israel.
The most outspoken support for Israeli crimes comes from the business world. U.S. high-tech industry is closely integrated with its Israeli counterpart. To cite just one example, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, Intel, is establishing its most advanced production unit in Israel.
A U.S. cable released by WikiLeaks reveals that Rafael military industries in Haifa is one of the sites considered vital to U.S. interests due to its production of cluster bombs; Rafael had already moved some operations to the U.S. to gain better access to U.S. aid and markets. There is also a powerful Israel lobby, though of course dwarfed by the business and military lobbies.
Critical cultural facts apply, too. Christian Zionism long precedes Jewish Zionism, and is not restricted to the one-third of the U.S. population that believes in the literal truth of the Bible. When British Gen. Edmund Allenby conquered Jerusalem in 1917, the national press declared him to be Richard the Lionhearted, finally rescuing the Holy Land from the infidels.
Next, Jews must return to the homeland promised to them by the Lord. Articulating a common elite view, Harold Ickes, Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of the interior, described Jewish colonization of Palestine as an achievement “without comparison in the history of the human race.”
There is also an instinctive sympathy for a settler-colonial society that is seen to be retracing the history of the U.S. itself, bringing civilization to the lands that the undeserving natives had misused – doctrines deeply rooted in centuries of imperialism.
To break the logjam it will be necessary to dismantle the reigning illusion that the U.S. is an “honest broker” desperately seeking to reconcile recalcitrant adversaries and to recognize that serious negotiations would be between the U.S.-Israel and the rest of the world.
If U.S. power centers can be compelled by popular opinion to abandon decades-old rejectionism, many prospects that seem remote might become suddenly possible.
· (Noam Chomsky’s most recent book, with co-author Ilan Pappe, is "Gaza in Crisis." Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.)
© 2011 Noam Chomsky
Monday 03 January 2011
By: Noam Chomsky
While intensively engaged in illegal settlement expansion, the government of Israel is also seeking to deal with two problems: a global campaign of what it perceives as “delegitimation” – that is, objections to its crimes and withdrawal of participation in them – and a parallel campaign of legitimation of Palestine.
The “delegitimation,” which is progressing rapidly, was carried forward in December by a Human Rights Watch call on the U.S. “to suspend financing to Israel in an amount equivalent to the costs of Israel’s spending in support of settlements,” and to monitor contributions to Israel from tax-exempt U.S. organizations that violate international law, “including prohibitions against discrimination” – which would cast a wide net. Amnesty International had already called for an arms embargo on Israel. The legitimation process also took a long step forward in December, when Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil recognized the State of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), bringing the number of supporting nations to more than 100.
International lawyer John Whitbeck estimates that 80-90 percent of the world’s population live in states that recognize Palestine, while 10-20 percent live in states that recognize the Republic of Kosovo. The U.S. recognizes Kosovo but not Palestine. Accordingly, as Whitbeck writes in Counterpunch, media “act as though Kosovo’s independence were an accomplished fact while Palestine’s independence is only an aspiration which can never be realized without Israeli-American consent,” reflecting the normal workings of power in the international arena.
Given the scale of Israeli settlement of the West Bank, it has been argued for more a decade that the international consensus on a two-state settlement is dead, or mistaken (though evidently most of the world does not agree). Therefore those concerned with Palestinian rights should call for Israeli takeover of the entire West Bank, followed by an anti-apartheid struggle of the South African variety that would lead to full citizenship for the Arab population there.
The argument assumes that Israel would agree to the takeover. It is far more likely that Israel will instead continue the programs leading to annexation of the parts of the West Bank that it is developing, roughly half the area, and take no responsibility for the rest, thus defending itself from the “demographic problem” – too many non-Jews in a Jewish state – and meanwhile severing besieged Gaza from the rest of Palestine.
One analogy between Israel and South Africa merits attention. Once apartheid was implemented, South African nationalists recognized they were becoming international pariahs because of it. In 1958, however, the foreign minister informed the U.S. ambassador that U.N. condemnations and other protests were of little concern as long as South Africa was supported by the global hegemon – the United States. By the 1970s, the U.N. declared an arms embargo, soon followed by boycott campaigns and divestment. South Africa reacted in ways calculated to enrage international opinion. In a gesture of contempt for the U.N. and President Jimmy Carter – who failed to react so as not to disrupt worthless negotiations – South Africa launched a murderous raid on the Cassinga refugee camp in Angola just as the Carter-led “contact group” was to present a settlement for Namibia. The similarity to Israel’s behavior today is striking – for example, the attack on Gaza in January 2009 and on the Gaza freedom flotilla in May 2010.
When President Reagan took office in 1981, he lent full support to South Africa’s domestic crimes and its murderous depredations in neighboring countries. The policies were justified in the framework of the war on terror that Reagan had declared on coming into office. In 1988, Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress was designated one of the world’s “more notorious terrorist groups” (Mandela himself was only removed from Washington’s “terrorist list” in 2008). South Africa was defiant, and even triumphant, with its internal enemies crushed, and enjoying solid support from the one state that mattered in the global system.
Shortly after, U.S. policy shifted. U.S. and South African business interests very likely realized they would be better off by ending the apartheid burden. And apartheid soon collapsed. South Africa is not the only recent case where ending U.S. support for crimes has led to significant progress. Can such a transformative shift happen in Israel’s case, clearing the way to a diplomatic settlement? Among the barriers firmly in place are the very close military and intelligence ties between the U.S. and Israel.
The most outspoken support for Israeli crimes comes from the business world. U.S. high-tech industry is closely integrated with its Israeli counterpart. To cite just one example, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, Intel, is establishing its most advanced production unit in Israel.
A U.S. cable released by WikiLeaks reveals that Rafael military industries in Haifa is one of the sites considered vital to U.S. interests due to its production of cluster bombs; Rafael had already moved some operations to the U.S. to gain better access to U.S. aid and markets. There is also a powerful Israel lobby, though of course dwarfed by the business and military lobbies.
Critical cultural facts apply, too. Christian Zionism long precedes Jewish Zionism, and is not restricted to the one-third of the U.S. population that believes in the literal truth of the Bible. When British Gen. Edmund Allenby conquered Jerusalem in 1917, the national press declared him to be Richard the Lionhearted, finally rescuing the Holy Land from the infidels.
Next, Jews must return to the homeland promised to them by the Lord. Articulating a common elite view, Harold Ickes, Franklin Roosevelt’s secretary of the interior, described Jewish colonization of Palestine as an achievement “without comparison in the history of the human race.”
There is also an instinctive sympathy for a settler-colonial society that is seen to be retracing the history of the U.S. itself, bringing civilization to the lands that the undeserving natives had misused – doctrines deeply rooted in centuries of imperialism.
To break the logjam it will be necessary to dismantle the reigning illusion that the U.S. is an “honest broker” desperately seeking to reconcile recalcitrant adversaries and to recognize that serious negotiations would be between the U.S.-Israel and the rest of the world.
If U.S. power centers can be compelled by popular opinion to abandon decades-old rejectionism, many prospects that seem remote might become suddenly possible.
· (Noam Chomsky’s most recent book, with co-author Ilan Pappe, is "Gaza in Crisis." Chomsky is emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.)
© 2011 Noam Chomsky
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
American Idiots and Neocon dimwits
R. Congress
Today's New York Times has a feature article on how Turkey is extending its political and economic influence throughout Iraq. The article says that it now has more sway in Iraq than Iran has.
Interesting. How about the good ole USA? Does it have more clout in Iraq than, say, Bolivia?
Wasn't the invasion and occupation of Iraq supposed to show the A-rab world who is boss in these here parts? Hundreds of billions of dollars blown up and hundreds of thousands of lives lost (well..not so many American lives...) and besides stopping Hussein's fictional scary weapons of world destruction, wasn't the idea to establish a US beachhead in the oil rich Mideast and to bring about a model of American style democracy (or at least a lot of KFCs, McDonalds, GAP stores and oil exports to the US of A)?
The Times article even said that members of the new Iraqi parliament went to Istanbul (!) to learn about legislative protocol.
So the great neocon adventure -- the tragedy--to remake the world ended up as a farce.
The Iraq invasion has weakened US imperial power. Afghanistan is bleeding it some more. Now, Obama, following in the footsteps of the neocons, is making a mess of Pakistan and Yemen. Washington deservedly is looking worse and worse as the increasingly isolated enabler of Israel's descent into Judeofacsism and accelerated ethnic cleansing.
Even the USA's backyard, Latin America, is no longer subservient before the colossus of the North. Brazil joins with Turkey to try and stop the US race to war with Iran. Latin countries make their own policies for their own interests first. Something the US never tolerated in the past. Remember the botched clown show of a coup in Venezuela ten years ago? -- last year there was another botched coup against the progressive president of Ecuador..another US flop).
Meanwhile China is kicking Washington's ass up and down the block, economically speaking and laughing at US complaints about China's currency policies.
China is just borrowing a page from a great American icon, W.C.Fields who said:"never give a sucker an even break."
Arrogance, obtuseness, lack of attention to reality, narcissism, racism (of course), living in a fantasy world...you name it -- all define the American approach to the world.
It's not 1956 any more. Or even 1966. Them daze is gone.
The empire is in serious decline and the USA can't throw its weight around like the old days. I think it was inevitable that this happen. It's the way of all predatory empires. But the neocns really helped speed it along. And the mass of know-nothing, middle-American Idiots who still live in the past can't wrap their small minds around the fact that the rest of the world doesn't see their mission in life as servants of the USA.
Today's New York Times has a feature article on how Turkey is extending its political and economic influence throughout Iraq. The article says that it now has more sway in Iraq than Iran has.
Interesting. How about the good ole USA? Does it have more clout in Iraq than, say, Bolivia?
Wasn't the invasion and occupation of Iraq supposed to show the A-rab world who is boss in these here parts? Hundreds of billions of dollars blown up and hundreds of thousands of lives lost (well..not so many American lives...) and besides stopping Hussein's fictional scary weapons of world destruction, wasn't the idea to establish a US beachhead in the oil rich Mideast and to bring about a model of American style democracy (or at least a lot of KFCs, McDonalds, GAP stores and oil exports to the US of A)?
The Times article even said that members of the new Iraqi parliament went to Istanbul (!) to learn about legislative protocol.
So the great neocon adventure -- the tragedy--to remake the world ended up as a farce.
The Iraq invasion has weakened US imperial power. Afghanistan is bleeding it some more. Now, Obama, following in the footsteps of the neocons, is making a mess of Pakistan and Yemen. Washington deservedly is looking worse and worse as the increasingly isolated enabler of Israel's descent into Judeofacsism and accelerated ethnic cleansing.
Even the USA's backyard, Latin America, is no longer subservient before the colossus of the North. Brazil joins with Turkey to try and stop the US race to war with Iran. Latin countries make their own policies for their own interests first. Something the US never tolerated in the past. Remember the botched clown show of a coup in Venezuela ten years ago? -- last year there was another botched coup against the progressive president of Ecuador..another US flop).
Meanwhile China is kicking Washington's ass up and down the block, economically speaking and laughing at US complaints about China's currency policies.
China is just borrowing a page from a great American icon, W.C.Fields who said:"never give a sucker an even break."
Arrogance, obtuseness, lack of attention to reality, narcissism, racism (of course), living in a fantasy world...you name it -- all define the American approach to the world.
It's not 1956 any more. Or even 1966. Them daze is gone.
The empire is in serious decline and the USA can't throw its weight around like the old days. I think it was inevitable that this happen. It's the way of all predatory empires. But the neocns really helped speed it along. And the mass of know-nothing, middle-American Idiots who still live in the past can't wrap their small minds around the fact that the rest of the world doesn't see their mission in life as servants of the USA.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Jazz Bassist Charles Fambrough dies at age 60
I got to know and work with Charles Fambrough starting in 2001, when he performed on my first jazz release pianist Bill O'Connell's "Black Sand." I later released Fambrough's "Live @ Zanzibar Blue" and reissued his album "Upright Citizen." The best part of my starting up a record label has been knowing the musicians and working with them in the recording studio. Charles was a great composer, arranger and musician and a truely good person.
R. Congress
This syndicated blog entry appears courtesy of Sound Insights by Doug Payne.
Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved.
After a long bout battling liver disease and many years of suffering, the great jazz bassist Charles Fambrough passed away on Saturday, January 1, 2011. Fambrough had apparently been awaiting a transplant match. Several musical tributes were held in Philadelphia over the last several years to help Fambrough and his family pay the bassist's outrageous medical expenses.
Philadelphia resident Charles Fambrough was born on August 25, 1950. Fambrough studied classical piano throughout his elementary and high-school years. He gravitated to bass at the age of 13, attempting to imitate Paul Chambers, the first jazz bassist he ever heard. He began studying classical bass in the seventh grade but gave it up in 1968 to begin working in the pit bands for such theatrical productions as You Can't Take it With You and By e-Bye Birdie and, by day, playing on The Mike Douglas Show.
In 1969, Charles began working with a cover band called Andy Aaron's Mean Machine that also featured a young saxophonist by the name of Grover Washington, Jr. A year later, Charles joined Grover Washington's road band, staying with the saxophonist during his popular CTI years. In 1975, Fambrough joined Airto Moreira's band, where he stayed for two years until joining legendary pianist McCoy Tyner's group, playing on Tyner's Focal Point (1977), The Greeting (1978) and Horizon (1979), as well as Rahsaan Roland Kik's Boogie Woogie String Along For Real (1977)—his earliest known recordings.
Upon leaving Tyner's group, Fambrough hooked up with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers at about the same time Wynton Marsalis was part of the group, recording with the great jazz drummer from 1980 until 1982 and featuring on the pivotal Album of the Year (1981). Fambrough once said “McCoy showed me how to play with endurance. Art gave me refinement."
He continued, “With McCoy, the gig is about speed and strength. He plays so much stuff that you're lucky if you're heard, so you struggle to keep up with him. But with Art it was a lot different. He heard every note you played and if there was anything raggedy, he immediately let you know about it. He really taught you how to play behind a horn player, how to develop in a rhythm section."
Surprisingly, Charles Fambrough made his own solo recording debut on Creed Taylor's famed CTI Records in 1991 with The Proper Angle, an excellent, star-studded affair featuring Wynton Marsalis (who featured Fambrough in his first band in 1982) and Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Branford Marsalis and Joe Ford (who first met Fambrough on a McCoy Tyner gig 13 years earlier) on sax, the late, lamented Kenny Kirkland on piano, Jeff “Tain" Watts on drums (both Kirkland and Watts featured with Fambrough in a trio at the time dubbed “Jazz From Keystone") and Steve Barrios, Mino Cinelu and Jerry Gonzalez on percussion. The record is the first bassist-led date on CTI Records since the legendary Ron Carter in 1976 and it's clear that Fambrough, like Carter, was a bassist who could lead an interesting jazz record of his own. It also ranks among the very best the label issued during its 1989-98 resurgence.
The Proper Angle was not only one of CTI's only straight-ahead albums of the time, it also showcased some of jazz's best young lions at the top of their game. It surely proved that Fambrough was a tremendously capable leader adept at helming a band of great improvisers who worked beautifully well together and it introduced the bassist's amazing facility for interesting composition ("The Dreamer," “Sand Jewels," “Broski," the bassist's nickname from his Jazz Messenger days, “Dolores Carla Maria," named for Fambrough's wife and widow, a singer of great renown in her own right, “Earthlings," “The Proper Angle," “One for Honor," originally written for McCoy Tyner's Horizon, and the beautifully titled “Our Father Who Art Blakey," named for the drummer who had passed away the year before).
Fambrough issued two more records on CTI, The Charmer (1992), featuring Roy Hargrove on trumpet, Kenny Garrett on alto sax, pianists Bill O'Connell, Kenny Kirkland and Abdullah Ibrahim (!), drummers Jeff “Tain" Watts, Billy Drummond and Yoron Israel (!) on drums and a reunion on three tracks with Grover Washington, Jr., and the splendiferously excellent live album Blues at Bradley's (1993) featuring Donald Harrison, Steve Turre, Joe Ford, Bill O'Connell, Bobby Broom, Ricky Sebastian and Steve Berrios. These records remain the undisputed highpoint of CTI in the nineties.
Several other discs under Charles Fambrough's name also appeared, including Keep of the Spirit (AudioQuest, 1995), City Tribes (Evidence, 1995), Upright Citizen (NuGroove, 1997) and Charles Fambrough Live @ Zanzibar Blue (Random Chance, 2002). The bassist also continued to appear on a wide array of discs by others, including Pharoah Sanders (Crescent with Love), Bill O'Connell (including the pianist's great CTI album Lost Voices), Ernie Watts (Reaching Up), Kevin Mahogany (My Romance) and the jazz-rock cover bands Beatlejazz and Stonejazz.
In recent years, health problems prevented Charles Fambrough from participating as much as he once had on the recording scene. But he continued playing around his hometown as much as possible and was one of the bassists featured on drummer/composer Lenny White's 2010 album Anomoly (Abstract Logix).
A fellow musician and Fambrough friend, pianist, composer and educator George Colligan, said on his jazztruth blog today that “Charles had health issues for many of his last years, but it never seemed to deter him from his passion for music. He talked about his condition like it was a minor nuisance. He seemed determined to press on despite his health."
There was something undeniably special about the sound Charles Fambrough made. While you never got the sense that his bass was leading the music's charge, you often stopped to wonder exactly what drove the music he was port of to be as magnificently magnetic as it was. Simple consideration reveals just how emphatic and empathic his role in the music was.
Fellow bassist Ron Carter has stated that he doesn't like his playing to be considered an anchor, something that holds a vessel from moving. Bassists hear that kind of thing all the time, and it's no wonder Carter resents it.
When listening to Charles Fambrough, it's clear that a good bassist propels the music where it needs to go. It's a shame that the music will no longer be propelled by Charles Fambrough, an inventive and imaginative bassist and one of the finest of “the young lions" who emerged in jazz's new traditionalism of the early 1980s.
January 9th: March and Rally for Gaza
January 9: March and Rally for Gaza
Sunday, January 9
1:00pm
33rd and 6th Avenue, Manhattan, NY
On December 27, 2008, the Zionist military savagely attacked Gaza, using weapons paid for by the US to kill hundreds in the first day, and by the end of the three-week assault murdering at least 1,400 and wounding thousands more.
In the years before and since the massacres, Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza leading to malnutrition, stunted growth, and death — and a recent human rights report found that the announced “easing” of the siege never occurred. Murder by Israeli snipers of Gaza farmers trying to work their land is an everyday occurrence.
Meanwhile Israel’s main sponsor, the US, continues to block international legal bodies from pursuing the findings of war crimes during the attacks laid out in the Goldstone Report. Nor has justice been brought against the murderers of the Turkish and American citizens on the Mavi Marmara.
Within occupied ’48 Palestine, the Zionist government passes ever more explicitly racist laws against its Palestinian “citizens.” And on the diplomatic front, the US has dropped its farcical “direct talks” between unelected officials in favor of equally farcical “indirect talks,” all with the goal of imposing a final apartheid solution — one which will above all deny the right of return, a right cherished by the overwhelming majority of Gazans who came from ’48 Palestine.
The two years since the massacres have been years of mushrooming mobilization against Zionism’s crimes, and an unprecedented degree of isolation for the Israeli regime. But this has brought with it retaliation against Palestinians and their supporters, from harassment by campus officials to raids and grand jury subpoenas by the FBI.
This repression is a sign that the Zionists and their sponsors in Washington are worried — not only that further crimes will be met with equally fierce resistance, but also because they know Palestinians are more determined than ever to fight on until total liberation, until every refugee can return, until the land of Palestine is free from the river to the sea!
Join us January 9th to demand:
End the Siege!
No US Aid to Zionist Racism and Murder!
Bring Zionist War Criminals to Justice!
Free Palestine!
Download Flyer (PDF – 8.5 x 11)
Download Poster (PDF – 11 x 17)
Sunday, January 9
1:00pm
33rd and 6th Avenue, Manhattan, NY
On December 27, 2008, the Zionist military savagely attacked Gaza, using weapons paid for by the US to kill hundreds in the first day, and by the end of the three-week assault murdering at least 1,400 and wounding thousands more.
In the years before and since the massacres, Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza leading to malnutrition, stunted growth, and death — and a recent human rights report found that the announced “easing” of the siege never occurred. Murder by Israeli snipers of Gaza farmers trying to work their land is an everyday occurrence.
Meanwhile Israel’s main sponsor, the US, continues to block international legal bodies from pursuing the findings of war crimes during the attacks laid out in the Goldstone Report. Nor has justice been brought against the murderers of the Turkish and American citizens on the Mavi Marmara.
Within occupied ’48 Palestine, the Zionist government passes ever more explicitly racist laws against its Palestinian “citizens.” And on the diplomatic front, the US has dropped its farcical “direct talks” between unelected officials in favor of equally farcical “indirect talks,” all with the goal of imposing a final apartheid solution — one which will above all deny the right of return, a right cherished by the overwhelming majority of Gazans who came from ’48 Palestine.
The two years since the massacres have been years of mushrooming mobilization against Zionism’s crimes, and an unprecedented degree of isolation for the Israeli regime. But this has brought with it retaliation against Palestinians and their supporters, from harassment by campus officials to raids and grand jury subpoenas by the FBI.
This repression is a sign that the Zionists and their sponsors in Washington are worried — not only that further crimes will be met with equally fierce resistance, but also because they know Palestinians are more determined than ever to fight on until total liberation, until every refugee can return, until the land of Palestine is free from the river to the sea!
Join us January 9th to demand:
End the Siege!
No US Aid to Zionist Racism and Murder!
Bring Zionist War Criminals to Justice!
Free Palestine!
Download Flyer (PDF – 8.5 x 11)
Download Poster (PDF – 11 x 17)
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