2024-04-9 Refuting Jurists, Lloyd Austin Says US Has No Evidence of Gaza Genocide The U.S. defense secretary’s remarks came after Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other law experts around the world asserted that Israel’s Gaza onslaught meets the legal definition of genocide.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday became the latest Biden administration official to deny that Israel’s six-month bombardment, invasion, and siege of Gaza constitute a genocide.
After pro-Palestine protesters wearing T-shirts with the message “Austin’s Legacy = Genocide” interrupted a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday morning, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked the Pentagon chief if Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. “We don’t have any evidence of genocide being created,” Austin replied after a short pause.
After telling the defense secretary his response was “better than” the replies from CIA Director William Burns and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines—whom Cotton said “dodged that question” before the committee last month—the senator asked Austin to respond to allegations of “greenlighting genocide” in Gaza. “From the very beginning, we committed to help assist Israel in defending its territory and its people by providing security assistance…” https://www.commondreams.org/news/lloyd-austin-israel
2024-04-15 USC Cancels Valedictorian’s Commencement Address Amid Accusations of Antisemitism University of Southern California canceled the commencement address of valedictorian Asna Tabassum on Monday in the wake of complaints and petitions accusing the biomedical engineering senior of antisemitism.
Provost Andrew T. Guzman announced the school’s decision in a community-wide notice on Monday, writing, “When tensions are running so high across the world, we must prioritize the safety of our community” and that the decision “is consistent with the fundamental legal obligation – including the expectations of federal regulators – that universities act to protect students and keep our campus community safe.
Guzman said that discussion relating to Tabassum’s social media presence — which in addition to linking to a “Free Palestine” website in her Instagram bio has been accused by USC student group Trojans for Israel of being that of “a student who openly traffics antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” — has reached “an alarming tenor” on and off campus.
“The intensity of feelings, fueled by both social media and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, has grown to include many voices outside of USC and has escalated to the point of creating substantial risks relating to security and disruption at commencement,” he wrote. “We cannot ignore the fact that similar risks have led to harassment and even violence at other campuses.” “https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/usc-cancels-valedictorian-s-commencement-address-amid-accusations-of-antisemitism/ar-BB1lGsEx?
2024-08-19 Kamala Harris Is Reaching Out to Arab American Leaders, But Will There Be Any Change in Gaza Policy? Arab American voters could significantly impact the 2024 presidential election, particularly in Michigan, home to the largest Arab community in the United States. Many of these voters, incensed at U.S. support for the Israeli war on Gaza, have mobilized over the past year to pressure the Biden administration to change policy, including by casting hundreds of thousands of ballots for “uncommitted” in Democratic primary elections to signal their demand for policy changes. We speak with Osama Siblani, founder and publisher of _The Arab American News_, who has had several meetings with senior figures from the White House and the Democratic presidential campaign. Despite all those meetings, “nothing has happened” except “more killing,” Siblani says. “Something has to be done to stop Benjamin Netanyahu’s appetite for killing.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr6KiRizPDk
2024-06-10 A Poll of Arab American Voters’ Message for Biden? Reverse Course on Gaza An Arab American Institute poll shows that if the president, even at this late date, were to dramatically change policy on Israel and Gaza, he could potentially win back much of the support he has lost.
The AAI poll received good coverage, all of which noted that while in 2020 U.S. President Joe Biden bested former President Donald Trump by 59%-35% among Arab Americans, Biden is now losing to Trump by 32%-18%. This was true, but what was missed were the details that make this picture so much more revealing. For example, while “not sure” and third-party candidates received less than 10% support in 2020, that goes up to 50% this year. The main reason for this is that 40% of Arab Americans say they are “not enthusiastic at all” about casting a vote in November, while another 21% are “not really enthusiastic”—increasing the percentage of those who aren’t sure for whom they’ll vote (or if they’ll vote at all) in November. Importantly, the lack of enthusiasm is most evident among Democratic voters, 50% of whom aren’t “enthusiastic at all.” That’s only the case for 11% of Republicans.
The AAI poll also shows that 79% of Arab Americans have an unfavorable view of President Biden, while 55% have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. Biden’s negative ratings are largely driven by the 56% of Democrats who view him unfavorably. On the other hand, Trump’s numbers are higher because he retains the near total support of those who identify as Republicans. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/arab-american-voters-poll
2024-06-13 Why the Senate Must Reject the Dangerous Antisemitism Awareness Act The bill could be used to crush legitimate debate about Israel, its policies, and American policies toward it—policies that have given rise to one of the greatest acts of genocide since the Holocaust.
Totalitarianism rarely shows its true face when it arises. Instead, it often pretends to stand for good and decent values. A new bill claims to fight antisemitism, something all decent people oppose. But antisemitism—that is, bias and discrimination against Jews because of their religion or ethnic identity—is already barred under civil rights law. The real goal of the so-called “Antisemitism Awareness Act” is to suppress free speech.
This dangerous bill was already passed by the House of Representatives and now awaits a Senate vote. It outsources some of our constitutional rights to an outside organization, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, whose arbitrary definition of antisemitism poses a threat to civil liberties. It could be used to crush legitimate debate about Israel, its policies, and American policies toward it—policies that have given rise to one of the greatest acts of genocide since the Holocaust.
The implications are enormous. The federal government spends more than $100 billion per year on education, including $85.3 billion for kindergarten through high school, $24.6 billion in federal student aid assistance, and $1.3 billion in congressional earmarks for colleges (for projects that range from equipment purchases and airport runways to prison education programs). All these expenditures could be used as leverage to stifle legitimate debate.
Despite its “antisemitic” branding, the bill targets Jews as well as non-Jews. As literature professor Benjamin Balthasar writes, it would effectively ban the teaching of “much Jewish history and culture.” Balthasar observes that Hannah Arendt, Albert Einstein, Ed Asner, and “countless other Jews would now be considered ‘antisemitic’ under the new law.”
The bill defines criticism of Israel as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That legislation allows citizens to file “administrative complaints with the federal agency that provides funds,” or to sue in federal court. That means that non-Jews could take action against anti-apartheid Jews—including deeply religious Jews who object to Israel’s existence on theological grounds. And they could do it in the name of antisemitism. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/antisemitism-awareness-act
2024-04-10 Stopping the Dance of Death: Building a 21st Century Anti-War Movement Foreign policy analysts Phyllis Bennis, Jackson Lears, and Jeffrey Sachs discuss how to win a cease-fire in Gaza, prevent a nuclear war, and shift U.S. policy and funds away from imperialist wars. In this thoughtful roundtable, Institute for Policy Studies fellow Phyllis Bennis, Rutgers University professor Jackson Lears, and Columbia University professor Jeffrey D. Sachs reflect on the state of U.S. foreign policy and how to shift its priorities for a better world. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/21st-century-anti-war
For more than a week now, Israeli settlers have been attacking West Bank Palestinians in towns and villages including Al-Mughayir, Duma, Deir Dibwan, Beitin, and Aqraba, killing at least four people including a child; wounding dozens of others; and destroying homes, vehicles, and other property.v Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops have either stood and watched or participated in the settler attacks, which the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and others are calling a “pogrom.”
Amnesty said the “alarming spike in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in recent days highlights the urgent need to dismantle illegal settlements, end Israel’s occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories, and its longstanding system of apartheid. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-settler-attacks-west-bank
2024-05-01 The role of US citizens in Israel’s settlement & military activities | People & Power Documentary Settler violence and Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank have surged since October 7. Residents have been displaced, homes have been attacked and Palestinians have been killed and injured. More than a dozen countries, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Australia have condemned the violence, and some have announced visa restrictions on anyone found to have taken part in the attacks.
But these restrictions miss a big loophole: dual nationals. It is estimated that of the 700,000 settlers who live in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, at least 60,000 are also American citizens. People & Power investigates the role US citizens play in Israel’s settlement and military activities in the occupied Palestinian territory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1kLUVK8NaU
2024-07-31 Israel Kills Al Jazeera Journalists Ismail Al-Ghoul and Rami Al-Rifi in Gaza Israel killed Palestinian Al Jazeera journalists Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi in Gaza on Wednesday, in what Al Jazeera Media Network called a “targeted assassination” of the two journalists known for their prolific coverage of the genocide as they, themselves, faced relentless persecution from Israeli forces. Correspondent al-Ghoul and cameraman al-Rifi were killed by an Israeli strike as they were working from al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza on Wednesday, reporting on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran hours before.
2024-07-14 Israel Faces No Apparent Red Line, But Pro-Palestinian Media Workers Do A study released in May by the U.S.-based National Writers Union (NWU) demonstrates that there is a clear pattern of reprisal against Western media workers who oppose the ongoing Israeli genocide that has killed nearly 40,000 Gazans during the last nine months. The report documents 44 cases of workplace recrimination between October 7, 2023, and February 1, 2024, in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, with the majority of dismissals, suspensions, speech cancellations and censorship impacting workers of color (76 percent), Muslims (38 percent) and those from the Middle East. (This, of course, pales in comparison to what is happening in the Middle East: According to Al Jazeera, 158 journalists and media workers were killed between October 2023 and July 7, 2024 — the majority of them Palestinian; an additional 32 were injured.)
“Since Hamas’s attack on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza, leaders of Western media companies and cultural institutions have acted to suppress the speech of media workers who seek to elevate Palestinian voices or express concern over Israel’s human rights violations,” according to the report. https://truthout.org/articles/israel-faces-no-apparent-red-line-but-pro-palestinian-media-workers-do/
2024-05-05 Israel Bans Al Jazeera in ‘Assault on Freedom of the Press’ The Jerusalem offices of Al Jazeera were raided Sunday after Israel’s far-right Cabinet banned the Qatar-based satellite news network—the sole international media outlet providing 24/7 live coverage from Gaza—from operating in the country.
“If you’re watching this… then Al Jazeera has been banned in Israel,” correspondent Imran Khan said in a pre-recorded report from occupied East Jerusalem preempting the Israeli Cabinet’s unanimous vote to shutter the network.
The order—which does not affect Al Jazeera’s ability to operate in Gaza or the illegally occupied Palestinian territories—is believed to be the first of its kind targeting a foreign media outlet operating in Israel. It comes after the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, recently voted 71-10 in favor of a law empowering the Israeli communications minister to ban foreign news organizations from working in Israel and to confiscate their equipment.
2024-04-06 In Gaza and Beyond, War Itself Is the Problem Condemning “war crimes” is nothing more than a shrug; it’s war itself that must be not simply “condemned,” but transcended.
And then I thought about Larry Hebert, a U.S. airman who recently began waging a hunger strike in defiance of his country’s complicity in the genocide of Gaza. He stood in front of the White House holding a sign declaring: “Active-Duty Airman Refuses to Eat While Gaza Starves.”
And Hebert was influenced by Aaron Bushnell, also an active-duty airman, who stood in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. on February 24, doused himself in flammable liquid, lit a match, and set himself on fire, shouting, “Free Palestine!” as he burned to death.
War is personal, even when it’s occurring on the other side of the planet—or it can be. Hebert and Bushnell—and all the others on the planet who feel the same connection with the victims of war—aren’t simply “being critical” of how Israel is “conducting” its war. They’re screaming from their souls: “No! No! No! Stop blowing the limbs off children! Stop killing moms and newborns! Stop dehumanizing them, stop doing what you’re doing. War is wrong!”
Even the international condemnation of the Israeli devastation of Gaza often feels tepid. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said: “This is unconscionable. But it is an inevitable result of the way the war is being conducted.”
Yes, of course, this is unconscionable, but the implication here is that there are decent, moral ways to conduct a war, to “defend yourself” from an impoverished, occupied population.
Attention, patriots! Attention, mainstream journalists! Waging war doesn’t keep us safe. Diminishing the humanity of others, then killing them and stealing their land, while it may be embedded in our history, doesn’t make anyone safe. It guarantees endless hell. But guess what? “Just as individuals can relinquish their righteous rage and compulsion to punish indiscriminately, so, too, can groups and nations. But doing so requires leaders who can reach across divided communities and provide hope in a seemingly hopeless time to override the all-too-human drive to retaliate.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/war-problem-in-gaza
2024-03-03 Mourning Two Principled Opponents of War Aaron Bushnell and Johan Galtung both devoted their lives to ending war in different ways.
Johan Galtung died on February 17 at the age of 93. The Norwegian sociologist was known as the father of peace studies and spent his life researching conflicts and fostering dialog in pursuit of peace. Johan Galtung was also a conscientious objector, as a young man in Norway. As a child, Nazi Germany occupied his country and imprisoned his father. In one interview, he recalled how his mother made him read the newspaper to learn the names of political prisoners who the Germans had executed the day before, to see if his father was among them, to spare her the pain of reading the list. His father survived, but the war forever changed Johan. He devoted his life to bridging divides and finding creative solutions to real-world conflicts.
Aaron Bushnell was just 25 years old. He was an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force. On Sunday, February 25, Aaron Bushnell started a live video stream as he walked toward the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” Bushnell said. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/aaron-bushnell-johan-galtung
2024-03-01 Self-Sacrifice is Not Suicide: Understanding Aaron Bushnell’s Self-Immolation with Help from the Humanities On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force walked to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., poured the contents of a canister over his army fatigues, and lit himself on fire. He died later in the day from his self-inflicted injuries. Bushnell’s final words were “Free Palestine,” a statement he cried out at least six times as the flames consumed him.
Bushnell believed that the U.S. government’s support for the Israeli war in Gaza constituted complicity in “genocide.” The war has caused more than 30,000 deaths including more than 12,000 children and a currently unfolding famine. The morning of his death, Bushnell posted a message to Facebook that read: “Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’ The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
2024-02-29 Targeting the sponsors of genocide “We don’t need a gun, we need a fire extinguisher.”
On Sunday, Aaron Bushnell lit himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., in protest of the U.S.’s support of the Israeli government’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Bushnell, a 25-year-old serving in the United States Air Force, died on Sunday night.
As he walked to the embassy, he spoke plainly: “I am an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force, and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all.” Flicking a lighter at his clothes, he yelled “free Palestine.”
Self-immolation has a long history as the most extreme level of political protest — an act taken only in the most dire moments, out of the deepest urgency and desperation for change. Incredibly, a policeman first on the scene drew his gun at Aaron. A first responder on the scene yelled in disbelief, “we don’t need a gun, we need a fire extinguisher.” May Aaron’s memory be a blessing, and may these words guide us all as a metaphor in the coming days. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2024/02/29/targeting-sponsors-of-genocide/
2024-02-28 Aaron Bushnell HAD SECRET INTEL That US Troops ARE FIGHTING IN GAZA, Friend Claims: NY Post well we’ve got a major update on the story of Air Force Soldier Aaron Bushnell who set himself on fire in protest of Israel just hours before his self imulation Bushnell claimed that he had secret knowledge of American troops fighting in Hamas tunnels under Gaza now per the New York Post the 25-year-old Airman claimed he had quote Top Secret clearance for military intelligence data in the call to his friends on Saturday night now his friends claim quote he told me on Saturday that we have troops in those tunnels that it’s US soldiers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4v2khCDLPE
2024-04-27 Aaron Bushnell Is the Latest Victim of Madmen Arsonists Aaron Bushnell just couldn’t take any more.
He couldn’t bear to see any more people eviscerated and incinerated by American bombs dropped by Israelis on innocent Palestinians.
So, in his Air Force uniform, he walked determinedly to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and set himself on fire. What can we say about a young man who would do that to protest his government’s acts of cruelty and genocide?
It is important we say nothing before quoting his own calmly spoken, final words to the world. “I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine!” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/aaron-bushnell-gaza-free-palestine
Six days that changed the Middle East: The ’67 Arab-Israeli War | Featured Documentary The June 1967 War was a milestone in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with consequences still felt across the region to this day. It altered the political and military landscape, expanded Israel’s territorial claims and confirmed Israel’s military dominance in the region.
This war is known to Arabs as ‘The War in June’ and in Israel as ‘The Six Day War’. It came just two decades after the 1948 ‘Nakba,’ or catastrophe, when the state of Israel was established and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes and land. ‘The War in June’ looks at the roots of the 1967 War and documents the actual details of six days of battle, before considering the profound long-term consequences of this conflict.
progressiveissuesblog 