progressiveissuesblog

RFK Jr.

Updated 2024-07-30

Help me pressure RFK Jr to change is pro-Israel stance, because we can’t afford a Biden, Trump, or any other MIC President any longer!  

[MEK Update: Now that Biden has stepped down my previous messages might be mute. It appears that VP Harris is the most likely DNC Presidential Candidate and hopefully better than Biden amnd RFK Jr. on Palestine Gaza Genocide!]

[MEK Note: I am appealing to my progressive friends.  Yes RFK Jt. Is currently a pro-Israel supporter, but he is no worse than 98% of Congress, Biden or any Republican candidate for President!  However, RFK Jr. is much better on many other issues and even openly attacks that Military-Industrial complex (MIC).  RFK Jr’s consultant, the Left’s Pro-Palestine Denis Kucinich, understands this!  I know that many on the “Left” have joined the MIC in attacking RFK Jr.’s stance on the Covid issue, but I am doing the research, and I am sorry, but RFK Jr. is 100% right. Coronavirus Covid-19 Research History – Index ] 

Here is my e-mail to RFK Jr. campaign today.  I had made earlier contact, but this is a more specific one to educate himself about the Israel/Palestine conflict.  I sent e-mail to at least 100 people so far! Let’s all make an effort to educate RFK Jr even if you think it is hopeless. Please forward this e-mail to others!  I ask everyone to do what I have done, because we need a viable good candidate other than Biden and Trump! Kennedy is the only one who could possibly defeat the those two.  Maybe we can eventually get a Kennedy/West ticket!  I can dream anyway!

Here is the contact link and his Peace platform.

Contact Us | Kennedy24

Bring it Home Peace Platform | Kennedy24

RFK Jr. wants to hear your opinion  https://www.kennedy24.com/keeps-you-up

Who is Bobby Kennedy? Documentary  www.whoisBobbyKennedy.com

2023-12-20 Krystal Ball Shreds RFK’s Israel Propaganda      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=217WSwim9pw

2023-12-14 RFK JR. Challenged On Israel, Free Speech     [MEK Note: I had so much hoped RFK Jr would come around, but his interview concerning Israel was disgusting, so many misbeliefs, with so many interruptions of the host  just trying to ask a question and he seemed to lose it several times.  AND he has it posted on his campaign webpage thinking it shows him in a positive light.]  

Krystal and Saagar welcome Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. back to Breaking Points for another long-form discussion on a range of topics surrounding 2024 and his candidacy. https://www.kennedy24.com/rfk_jr_breaking_points_israel_free_speech     

2023-12-06 Scott Ritter “RFK Has LOST My Support” (Interview Clip)     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8usEXs4Beqs

2023-10-27 RFK, Jr. Intruder Mentioned In Secret Service Assessment    On Wednesday, a 28-year-old man named Jonathan Macht entered RFK, Jr.’s Los Angeles property while the presidential candidate was at home. The LAPD took him into custody at a nearby police station, where he was cited for trespassing and then released. Macht then returned to the Kennedy’s home and was arrested a second time at 5:45 p.m. for violating a protective order. He is currently being held on $30,000 bail.   Jonathan Macht has been sending unsolicited communications to RFK, Jr. for several months and was cited as presenting a “Behavior of Interest” by the Secret Service in its June 1, 2023 Protective Intelligence Assessment of 2024 Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.   

The Biden Administration continues to deny RFK, Jr. the customary Secret Service protection that has been granted to all presidential candidates since his father, Senator Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968. If (God forbid) RFK, Jr. is harmed, the Biden Administration will be obliged to acknowledge that it has been expressly warned about specific dangers to the presidential candidate.   https://petermcculloughmd.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-intruder-mentioned-in-secret?

2023-10-24 Bobby Kennedy, Israel, and the hypocrisy of Peace and Diplomacy     “It’s time for Americans to turn America away from this new imperialism and back to the path of idealism and democracy,” Bobby wrote, addressing America’s oil-driven presence in the Middle East. “We should let the Arabs govern Arabia and turn our energies to the great endeavor of nation building at home. We need to begin this process, not by invading Syria, but by ending the ruinous addiction to oil that has warped US foreign policy for half a century.”

These words were again music to my ears. There was, however, one note that sounded off-key. Tucked away near the end of Bobby’s lengthy piece was a single reference to Israel. I was struck by the fact that Israel wasn’t factoring more in his narrative. “[W]e need,” Bobby wrote, “to dramatically reduce our military profile in the Middle East and let the Arabs run Arabia. Other than humanitarian assistance and guaranteeing the security of Israel’s borders, the US has no legitimate role in this conflict.”

The security of Israel’s borders was a touchy subject, given the fact that Israel was in the process of expanding its borders by stealing Palestinian land through illegal settlements, occupying Lebanese territory (the Shebaa Farms), and illegally annexing the Golan Heights, I had to wonder which Israeli border Bobby was so keen upon securing with American lives. 

Kennedy then added, “I support Israel’s right to exist within secure borders and I also support the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.”

What Bobby was admitting to was being as ignorant as the shallow politicians he was trying to differentiate himself from, people who, when armed with superficial knowledge about a topic, embrace an issue they had nothing to do with on the assumption that it might enhance their profile purpose, only to turn on a dime when confronted with controversy they did not understand, and lacked the courage of their convictions to defend against.     

on October 14, Bobby removed Dennis Kucinich as his campaign manager, replacing the veteran politician with a political neophyte—Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, Bobby’s daughter-in-law, and a former CIA clandestine officer.   Dennis’ hand could be felt in Bobby’s powerful Peace and Diplomacy speech. Sadly, the same could not be said of Bobby’s stance on Israel—Dennis had spent his political life defending the rights of Palestinians in the face of Israeli oppression. While both Dennis and the Kennedy campaign have been silent as to the reasons behind the precipitous firing, smart money says that the Israeli issue played a major factor in the decision.

Bobby’s commitment to peace and diplomacy is what made him viable as a presidential candidate where his two likely opponents were on record supporting Israel without question.  Bobby could have followed in his uncle’s path, advocating that all Americans walk in the shoes of the Palestinian people to better understand their grievances and, in doing so, be better positioned to come up with a fair and equitable peace based on diplomacy, not war.  Bobby did not and has not. But until he fundamentally changes course on Israel, I can’t in good faith claim to support his candidacy.     https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/bobby-kennedy-israel-and-the-hypocrisy

2023-10-07 RFK Jr. and Maryland’s 3rd Senator (via Newsolini/California) Have a Common Blindspot    Many people whom I love and respect have jumped on the RFK Jr bandwagon, which is their right/option, even though they all admit he is tragically wrong on the Palestinian issue. I have heard that he is “running in the Democratic primary so he has to say things like that.” Well, I don’t think he will be doing that anymore (running in the Dem primary), but today, he tweets this horrendous bucket of bullshit:

This ignominious, unprovoked, and barbaric attack on Israel must be met with world condemnation and unequivocal support for the Jewish state’s right to self-defense. We must provide Israel with whatever it needs to defend itself — now. As President, I’ll make sure that our policy is unambiguous so that the enemies of Israel will think long and hard before attempting aggression of any kind. I applaud the strong statements of support from the Biden White House for Israel in her hour of need. However, the scale of these attacks means it is likely that Israel will need to wage a sustained military campaign to protect its citizens. Statements of support are fine, but we must follow through with unwavering, resolute, and practical action. America must stand by our ally throughout this operation and beyond as it exercises its sovereign right to self-defense.  https://kennedy24.com/kennedy_condemns_terrorist_attacks_against_israel   https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/rfk-jr-and-marylands-3rd-senator

2023-08-12 Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – The Israel Lobby’s Useful Idiot   To stand up to Israel has a political cost few, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are willing to pay. But if you do stand up, it singles you out as someone who puts principles before expediency, who is willing to fight for the wretched of the earth and, if necessary, sacrifice your political future to retain your integrity. Kennedy fails this crucial test of political and moral courage.

Kennedy, instead, regurgitates every lie, every racist trope, every distortion of history and every demeaning comment about the backwardness of the Palestinian people peddled by the most retrograde and far-right elements of Israeli society. He peddles the myth of what Pappe calls “Fantasy Israel.” This alone discredits him as a progressive candidate. It calls into question his judgment and sincerity. It makes him another Democratic Party hack who dances to the macabre tune the Israeli government plays.   https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/robert-f-kennedy-jr-the-israel-lobbys

2023-08-05 Anti-Zionist Jewish Group Protesting Outside Of RFK Jr. Event      Members of the organization Neturei Karta demonstrated outside while RFK Jr. was speaking at his event with Schmuley Boteach. They spoke and chanted about decoupling the idea that supporting Israel means supporting all Jewish people.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I6rDd7a_X4&t=36s

2023-08-05 Journalist Max Blumenthal Takes RFK Jr to School About Israel    Again, if there is anyone out there who doesn’t think that the Israel/Palestine issue is so important, there is one person in the world who DOES, and that’s RFK, Jr. He won’t stop doubling down on his Likudnik agit-crap!  RFK Jr is so massively WRONG about Israel, it makes me question his other claims and beliefs—if I didn’t have other sources to confirm what I have come to know is true, I would doubt RFK on vaccines, lockdowns, and health freedom. https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/journalist-max-blumenthal-takes-rfk

2023-07-09 Bobby’s “Peaceful Democracy”   Remember when RFK Jr recently said to Glenn Greenwald: “Israel doesn’t go in to the West Bank to kill Palestinian children deliberately?” They did when he said it and are doing it now!  https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/bobbys-peaceful-democracy

2023-06-15 George Galloway Masterfully Answers RFK Jr   On the Israel/Palestine Question “What’s Wrong With You Man?”   https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/george-galloway-masterfully-answers

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Responsibility of West

2023-10-11 The blood of Gaza is on the West’s hands as much as Israel’s      The bloodiest hand in the current slaughter of Palestinians and Israelis belongs, not to Hamas or the Netanyahu government, but to the West.

Yes, Palestinian fighters carried out a brutal attack at the weekend on Israeli settlements on the edge of the Gaza Strip. But this attack did not emerge from nowhere, or without warning. It was not “unprovoked”, as Israel would like us to believe.    In fact, western capitals know exactly how much the Palestinians of Gaza have been provoked, because those same governments have been complicit for decades in supporting Israel as it has ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homeland and imprisoned the remnants of the population in ghettoes inside historic Palestine.

For the the past 16 years, western backing for Israel has not wavered, even as Israel has turned the coastal enclave of Gaza from the world’s largest open-air prison into a gruesome torture chamber, where Palestinians are experimented on.  Their food and power have been rationed, essentials of life denied to them, their access to drinkable water slowly removed, and their hospitals prevented from receiving medical supplies and equipment.

The problem is not ignorance. Western governments have been informed in real-time of the crimes Israel is committing: in confidential cables from their own embassy officials, and in endless reports from human rights groups documenting Israel’s apartheid rule over Palestinians.   And yet western politicians have time and again done nothing to intervene, done nothing to exert meaningful pressure. Worse, they have rewarded Israel with endless military, financial and diplomatic support.   https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/the-blood-of-gaza-is-on-the-wests

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Public Opinion

Updated 2024-02-26

2024-02-02 Israel is Going ‘Too Far’ – Most Americans Do Not Approve of Israel’s War on Gaza     Among American adults, 50 percent said they believe that Israel’s actions in Gaza had “gone too far”, compared to 40 percent in November.  “Two-thirds of US adults disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling the conflict,” the poll found.

The numbers are even more astonishing among young Democrats. According to the poll, “seventy-two percent of Democrats aged 18-44 disapprove” of Biden’s conduct.  Nearly 40 percent of Americans think that the US is too supportive of Israel in its war on Gaza, while about half of US adults are “extremely or very concerned” that the war “will lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East”.   https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israel-is-going-too-far-most-americans-do-not-approve-of-israels-war-on-gaza/

2024-01-12 Americans Are More Likely to Back Candidates Who Support a Cease-Fire, a New Poll Shows     The survey finds high levels of enthusiasm for a Gaza cease-fire, especially among young voters and key Democratic constituencies.

Powerful political action committees and dark money groups that want the United States to continue to support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have signaled that they intend to spend epic amounts of campaign funds to defeat progressive House members who support a cease-fire in Gaza. Indeed, there have been reports that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its allies could spend as much as $100 million to boost primary challenges to popular incumbent Democrats such as Missouri’s Cori Bush and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, the chief sponsors of a cease-fire resolution in the House, along with co-sponsors of the proposal to stop the killing, such as Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, and New Yorkers Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Jamaal Bowman.

But the evidence is clear that Americans are not inclined to punish House members who, since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli bombardment and invasion of Gaza, have called for de-escalation. In fact, according to a new nationwide poll, likely voters are substantially more likely to back candidates for Congress if they know those candidates favor de-escalation.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/americans-are-more-likely-to-back-candidates-who-support-a-cease-fire-a-new-poll-shows/ar-AA1mSnv9

2023-10-00 Palestine and Empire  As chilling as it is, the vicious military and settler violence is also having an impact on sectors of U.S. society. While the Democratic Party leadership remains unshakably committed to the Israeli-partnership, sympathy with Palestine is growing among the voting base and especially young people.

More of the U.S. Jewish community is becoming alienated and angry, particularly as the pillar of the Zionist lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) turns more and more to supporting rightwing politicians including election-denying Trump Republicans. In the face of state-level attempts to criminalize Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions activism, support for the BDS movement is gaining ground.   https://againstthecurrent.org/atc226/palestine-and-empire/

2023-07-18 Overton Windows: Israel/Palestine 

00:05 What is this new Overton Windows series about?

9:37 Tamler’s connections to Israel and Bob’s experiences there

18:54 What does Zionism mean in practice?

27:07 The shifting Overton window around Israel/Palestine

45:06 The heavy-handed response to the BDS movement

56:45 What the Israel/Palestine discourse says about Overton windows

1:01:41 So where should the boundaries be set?

The Overton window of political possibility is the range of ideas the public is willing to consider and accept. 

In the United States, the idea of different races mixing in public or women’s suffrage were once considered fringe, extreme policies. That they’re now deemed common sense, reflects progress in shifting the Overton window.

https://nonzero.substack.com/p/overton-windows-israelpalestine#details

2022-08-17  Why Did 72% of Israelis Want Attack on Gaza to Continue?    Shir Hever, a political economist who grew up in Israel, talks about the extreme right-wing radicalization of most of the Israeli Jewish population.    https://theanalysis.news/why-did-72-of-israelis-want-attack-on-gaza-to-continue/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Provoking Civil War

2022-04-05 Israel is stoking a civil war against its Palestinian citizens   Three separate, deadly Palestinian attacks in Israeli cities in a week have elicited a predictable response. The Israeli army has drafted large numbers of extra soldiers into the West Bank and around Gaza, Palestinian territories already under decades of brutal military occupation.   But the fact that, unusually, two of the attacks were carried out by Israeli citizens – members of a large Palestinian minority whose rights are severely circumscribed and inferior to those of the Jewish majority – has raised the stakes considerably for the Israeli right.

A total of 11 Israelis died in the attacks a few days apart in the cities of Beersheba, Hadera and Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Trigger-happy Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in separate incidents on Thursday, in the immediate wake of the attacks.   The lethal attacks were an opportunity for Naftali Bennett, the far-right leader who snatched the Israeli premiership from Benjamin Netanyahu last summer, to prove his credentials to his party’s main constituency: Jewish settlers determined to drive Palestinians off their lands and reclaim a supposed biblical birthright.  

In the occupied territories, armed settlers operate effectively as militias, terrorising nearby Palestinian communities, watched impassively, or sometimes assisted, by the Israeli army. They act as the long arm of the Israeli state – offering plausible deniability for Israeli officials as they exploit the settlers’ violence.    https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/israel-is-stoking-a-civil-war-against

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Peaceful Solutions (also see One State – Two State)

Updated 2024-08-28

The Real Fauda – Documentary   Can a TV drama bring life-long enemies together?   Set in the cloak-and-dagger world of the IDF’s undercover special forces – the Mista’arvim – Fauda is an Israeli-produced TV drama which has garnered praise for its realistic depiction of military tactics alongside its empathetic portrayal of Palestinians, militant or otherwise. BBC Arabic joins the production of the hotly anticipated second season, and tries to understand how it might one day pave the way for a dialogue between the two sides built on mutual understanding and compassion.     https://www.journeyman.tv/film/7282

“Peace Train” featuring Yusuf / Cat Stevens | Playing For Change | Song Around The World     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QpjR6-Uuks&t=47s

2024-08-21 Former Israeli and Palestinian Fighters Join With US GIs to Call for Peace in Gaza      A group of former fighters from Palestine and Israel plus active duty U.S. GIs announced last week why they decided to stop participating in war and urged U.S. military members to tell Congress to stop funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza via the ” Appeal for Redress v2.”

The online news conference was organized by Veterans For Peace and featured a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) special forces member, a young Israeli who just finished 85 days in jail for refusing to join the military, a former Hamas youth activist, and three active-duty U.S. military members who are awaiting discharge as conscientious objectors.   

 Elik Elhanan is a former special forces soldier in the IDF who, from 1995-98, served in south Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza. In 1997, his 14-year old sister was killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem. He joined Courage to Refuse in 2002, co-founded the Israeli-Palestinian group Combatants for Peace in 2005, and now serves on the board of American Friends of Combatants for Peace. 

Sofia Orr, 19, spent 85 days in an Israeli military jail for refusing to join the Israeli Defense Force. Granted conscientious objector status and released in June, she wrote in her statement of refusal: “I refuse to enlist in order to show that change is needed and that change is possible, for the security and safety of all of us in Israel-Palestine, and in the name of empathy that is not restricted by national identity… I want to create a reality in which all children between the Jordan River and the [Mediterranean] Sea can dream without cages.”  

Ahmed Helou, now 52, lives in the West Bank and is a member of Combatants for Peace. He said: “I was born to a refugee family that was forced to flee from their home in 1948.  “At 15, I was invited to join a group called Hamas, to fight for the freedom of my people. It was 1987, the First Intifada. I threw rocks and made Palestinian flags. In 1992, I was sentenced to seven months in an Israeli military prison as a political detainee. When my parents visited, they told me about the Oslo process and I couldn’t stop thinking about how we could have another life.”

USAF Senior Airman Larry Hebert said: “As an active duty servicemember who joined believing our military was a force for good in the world, I’m horrified by the position of the United States government to fully support the genocide and occupation of civilians in Palestine.

USAF Senior Airman Juan Bettancourt said: “After 311 days, the death toll is appalling: nearly 41,000 innocent lives brutally taken, the majority women and children. Excruciating reports estimate a devastating total of 186,000 deaths, with almost 93,000 more suffering from severe injuries. Stories of widespread sexual violence, merciless executions, torture, and an endless list of war crimes flood the news, and yet our government remains apathetic to the suffering of Palestinians and the cries of millions calling for a lasting cease-fire and justice. As conscientious objectors, as advocates for peace and human rights, as service members with a shred of moral decency left in us, we adamantly refuse to be accomplices in this genocide.   

USAF Second Lt. Joy Metzler said: “As an active duty service member, I have been told repeatedly that military strength is the only way to counteract the threats we face in the world. But once again we see that violence, this time perpetrated by the Israeli government, only leads to death and destruction in an ever growing conflict.

Mike Ferner, special projects coordinator for Veterans For Peace, said: “It is highly significant that former fighters from Israel and Palestine have joined American GIs to say, ‘War is not the answer.’    https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israeli-palestinian-fighters-peace

2024-06-24 An Age of Coexistence in Palestine  Guest: Ussama Makdisi is Professor of History and Chancellor’s Chair at the University of California Berkeley. He is the author of the Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World.  https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-june-25-2024/

2024-06-10’Glimmer of Hope’ as UN Security Council Approves Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution   In a move that boosts the three-phase plan announced by President Joe Biden late last month, the United Nations Security Council on Monday voted 14-0—with permanent member Russia abstaining—in favor of a U.S.-sponsored resolution for a cease-fire in Gaza.   Russia chose not to exercise its power to veto the resolution, which urges Israel and Hamas to “fully implement its terms without delay and without condition.”

Responding to the vote, Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement that “although the Biden administration should have allowed the U.N. Security Council to pass a permanent cease-fire resolution many months and many slaughtered Palestinians ago, we welcome today’s development as a positive and long overdue step toward ending the genocide.”

“The Biden administration must now use American leverage to force [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to agree to a permanent cease-fire so that the massacres of Palestinian civilians can end, all hostages and political prisoners can safely go free, international tribunals can begin holding those responsible for war crimes accountable, and the world can finally begin pursuing a credible end to the illegal occupation of Palestine that has fomented decades of injustice and oppression.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/cease-fire-resolution-passes   

2024-05-12   19th Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony   The lives of everyone connected to Israel and Palestine will never be the same since October 7th 2023. With tens of thousands of lives cut short, families torn apart, children traumatized, now more than ever we need to continue to show up for one another to mourn and remember. And, as we do every year, call for an end to the violence and demand a political solution that brings freedom, justice and safety for all. With all eyes of the international community on Israel and Palestine, now more than ever, we need to unite around our sorrow and stay strong in building hope that another way is not only possible but imperative.

This year the 19th annual Joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony was organized by Combatants for Peace and the Parents Circle-Families Forum. It is the only one of its kind and it is the largest Israeli-Palestinian jointly organized peace event. Last year over 15,000 people were in attendance physically and around 200,000 virtually from all around the world. The event is held every year on “Yom HaZikaron” (Israeli Memorial Day), a national day of mourning for Israelis.   https://cfpeace.org/israeli-palestinian-joint-memorial/

2024-04-13 The Oasis Plan: The LaRouche Solution for Peace Through Development      Today’s conflict in Gaza has come to the point that it stains the collective soul of humanity. Though it is born out of decades of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, and amidst a swamp of imperial ambitions, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on Jan. 26 delivered an undeniable verdict: Israel is on the verge of creating a genocide in Gaza. Either an end to this conflict is reached soon, or the words “Never Again,” which were so clearly stated at the end of the Nazi holocaust during the 1940’s, will forever ring hollow. https://laroucheorganization.com/larouche-plan-southwest-asia

2024-02-12 Which Side Are You On?   Israel wants all the territory devoid of Palestinians so they can claim it for their own, giving the U.S. commanders of capital an even more powerful base in the Middle East/Southwest Asia.

Under capitalism’s laws, owning the means of production gives the capitalist class the right to all of the surplus value we workers create—and there’s no limit to how much wealth any one capitalist can accumulate.  

There was a meme circulating on Facebook, “It’s 80,000 BC. You are immortal. The world is still frozen in an ice age. You decide to save $10,000 every day, never spending a cent. 82,021 years later, it’s 2021 ($300 billion). You still don’t have as much money as Elon Musk.” That’s an example of how much surplus value they are allowed to accumulate on an individual basis. 

But we have the ultimate power in our hands to stop them in their tracks by withholding our labor—rendering them helpless.   We must build and support our own workers’ party democratically controlled and run by the working class and dedicated to fighting for our interests—a party against war, environmental destruction, police repression, racism, and sexism. A party that stands for turning the ownership and control of the means of production and the surplus value our labor creates over to the world’s working class.

We have the means right now to build a Labor Party of our own that supports socialism and opposes all capitalist parties—a party that can win freedom, democracy, economic and social equality, and justice—a socialist world under the democratic control of the masses of working people.  https://www.socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_24/marapr_24_02.html

2024-02-05 As Israeli’s Mass Murder Continues, U.S. Makes it Worse    The world is riveted, as it should be, on Israel’s horrifying war on Gaza. The fact that Israel, critically supported by the most powerful imperialist state in the world, is committing the worst crime of genocide the world has seen since World War II, has sunk in, even in the U.S.  Most Americans, especially the young adults, are disgusted by what Israel is doing, and showing it, by conducting numerous demonstrations demanding “Cease Fire Now!,” and dropping President Biden’s approval rating into the toilet.  

Now comes the question of what is the plan for saving this persecuted and terrorized people? It’s certainly not killing off the Jews, which no one wants, but which some imperialist/terrorists assert is the case. And it is certainly not a “two state solution,” which is a ridiculous folly. Two people—one more powerful and murderous than the other—living side by side with the same paper border that they have now? Really?

First, we must note, that these two peoples lived side by side in peace in the same area for centuries before feudal-capitalist cultures screwed everything up.

Second, the boundaries and inequalities of nationalism and capitalism must be scrapped by scrapping nationalism and capitalism and replacing them with equality and socialism. This means that the state of Israel—along with any entity that equates a political entity with a religion—must be demolished. The Palestinians have never been a recognized state.

Last and most important, a secular, united, and socialist Palestine, uniting all ethnicities and based primarily on none, and linked in with a socialist federation of Mid-East socialist states, must be the goal. It will, of course, be necessary for nationalism and capitalism to be abolished first, in a revolution of the working-class masses.  https://socialistviewpoint.org/marapr_24/marapr_24_03.html

2023-12-26 Netanyahu Says Peace Depends on Hamas’ End, Demilitarized Gaza [MEK Note: Let’s look at Netanyahu’s prerequisites from a Palestinian viewpoint: End of oppression of Palestinians, demilitarize internal Israel forces and make Palestinians full and equal members of society with Jewish members] 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined three prerequisites to achieving peace in its war with Hamas: the destruction of the group, the demilitarization of Gaza and for Palestinian society to be “deradicalized.” 

The comments, made in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal published Monday, come amid rising pressure on Israel to scale back the conflict in Gaza, which began following Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on southern Israeli communities that killed 1,200 people — with Hamas militants kidnapping scores of Israelis.   “In destroying Hamas, Israel will continue to act in full compliance with international law,” Netanyahu wrote, saying that eliminating Hamas “is the only proportional response to prevent the repeat of such horrific atrocities.”    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/netanyahu-says-peace-depends-on-hamas-end-demilitarized-gaza/ar-AA1m1P1G

2023-12-23 Man whose parents were killed on Oct. 7 calls for peace in Gaza    As the war between Israel and Hamas rages, the word “peace” may feel like an unreachable goal.  For Maoz Inon, it’s the only thing to hope for.   Inon’s mother and father were both murdered by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, along with hundreds of other Israelis. His mother, Bilha, was 76, and his father, Yacovi, was 78. Both were still “in the prime of their life,” Inon said, practicing Pilates and yoga and participating in their kibbutz.

But on Oct. 7, their home was burned to ashes. Security officers said two bodies were found inside.   After receiving the news, Inon entered a seven-day period of mourning in the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva. After that, though, Inon says he “woke up.”   Since then, Inon has called for peace and an end to the war, which the Hamas-run health ministry says has claimed 20,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza.

“I strongly believe this land was promised to both Israelis and Palestinians,” Inon said. “A military invasion into Gaza will just makes things worse, will just keep this cycle of blood, the cycle of death, the cycle of violence that’s been going for a century. We must break this pattern of violence of answering, and terrorist attacks with more violence. We need to stop. And we need to act differently because we are acting the same for a century and receiving the same results.”

Inon has joined many of his countrymen in protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Demonstrations against Netanyahu have occurred in the the country almost every night since Oct. 7, and his approval rating has plunged, with a new poll finding that less than a third of Israelis find him “suitable” for his position.   Many critics say that Netanyahu is using Israeli deaths to justify even more death in Gaza, a statement that Inon agrees with.    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/man-whose-parents-were-killed-on-oct-7-calls-for-peace-in-gaza/ar-AA1lWGzU

2023-12-12 WHAT IS THE PATH TO PEACE IN GAZA?     After Hamas’s depraved attack and the unfathomable destruction of Palestinian life, infrastructure and society in Gaza by the Israeli military offensive, any hope for the territory feels far away. But once the guns fall silent and Gazans are allowed to contemplate the reconstruction of their shattered home, the time will come when Israelis, Palestinians and the rest of the world must wrestle with the future of Gaza and its people.

Times Opinion reached out to thinkers, political leaders and experts for their vision of what might meet the moment. Because in the end, two neighboring groups of millions of people must find a way to live their lives. Here are 10 ideas for a path forward.   https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/12/opinion/gaza-israel-palestinians-plans.html

2023-11-27 “There Is an Alternative”: Meet the Israeli & Palestinian “Combatants for Peace” Urging Nonviolence   With Israel and Palestine experiencing the worst violence in decades, we speak with two co-founders of Combatants for Peace, a group composed of people from both sides of the conflict who have committed to nonviolence and peaceful coexistence. Avner Wishnitzer is a former member of Sayeret Matkal, one of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite commando units, and Sulaiman Khatib spent more than 10 years in prison after being arrested as a teenager for an attack on Israeli soldiers. The two recently co-authored a piece for The New York Review of Books on modeling a nonviolent path toward peace. “We are offering a different direction that’s based on partnership and common interest and common values,” says Khatib. Wishnitzer adds that only a political solution can bring lasting peace. “When people are fed with the idea that there is no choice but violence, they respond with violence to each other,” he says.    https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/27/combatants_for_peace_israel_palestine

2023-11-21 The Best Primer I’ve Heard on Israeli-Palestinian Peace Efforts    It is too early to talk about a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians. With the trauma of Oct. 7 still fresh for the Israeli public and with the ongoing devastation in Gaza, any talk of conflict-ending solutions is cruel fantasy.   But it wasn’t always. Peace efforts in the Middle East have been tried over and over again. It is not a history without breakthroughs. There was a time when a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt would have been unthinkable. But that agreement lives alongside a long list of collapsed negotiations. Why?

I wanted to have someone on the show who could help me read this checkered history. Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author of “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo… Few people have been as intimately involved in the many Middle East peace processes as Miller. He’s a decades-long veteran of the State Department who has touched peace negotiations under the Reagan, the Clinton and both Bush administrations. His book is the best I’ve read on the peace processes and what went wrong.  In this conversation, we explore the frustrating, uneven history of Arab-Israeli peace efforts, Miller’s hard-won insights about the reality of peace negotiations and the idiosyncratic personalities who have most influenced the prospects for peace in the Middle East. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8eeZO_x6PI

2023-10-27 The Courage of Calling for Peace When the World Wants More Blood   War begets hatred. War begets fear. War begets insanity   History is taught from one war to the next. Winning, losing: This is so much easier to understand, to organize around, than, for instance, words such as these from the Dalai Lama:    “We can help ourselves only if we help the Other. It is the cultivation of love and compassion, our ability to enter into and to share another’s suffering, that are the preconditions for the continued survival of our species. . . . The feeling of community with all living creatures can be attained only if we recognize that we are all basically united and dependent on one another.”    https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/calling-for-peace-amid-war 

2023-10-17 The Case for Hope in Israel and Gaza. Really       https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/10/17/the-case-for-hope-in-israel-and-gaza-really/

2023-10-15 Peace in Palestine: Solving the Solvable   An Improbable Yet Possible Solution to the Israel/Palestine Conflict – Let Peace and the Right of Return Rule!     Average Israelis and Palestinians must be brought to the peace table: Not “Israeli” governmental lunatics, or Palestinians who have sold their souls to the occupational forces (collaborators).

The idea of a two-state solution to the conflict has been around for decades, but it’s time to accept that it’s outdated. The idea of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip may have been feasible back in the 90s, but since then, “Israel” has expanded its settlements so much so that there is very little land left for Palestine. Also, many Palestinians want to return to their homes in what is now “Israel,” and accepting a two-state solution means having to give up that right.

The only way one can move forward is if “Israelis” start to acknowledge that the homes they have built in Palestine are not in line with international law. “Israelis” have to start taking responsibility for the illegal settlements they have built in Palestine and relinquish them.  Palestinians aren’t wrong when they say that they want their land back. However, is it unrealistic to think that Palestinians can peacefully have all their land back in what is now “Israel?”

An ideal solution would be to create a state for all, where Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace. This solution would require “Israelis” and Palestinians to put aside their differences regarding security fears, language, culture, and religion, and work towards creating an inclusive society that nurtures a culture of peace, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence.  

It’s time for “Israelis” and Palestinians to come together and acknowledge that for the greater good, a peaceful solution must be achieved. It’s time to move from toleration and coexistence to genuine understanding and compassion for the other’s historically based pain and fears. That kind of growth would require real courageous work on both sides. But imagine the positive impact it could have. It’s time to lead with love and end this conflict once and for all!  https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/peace-in-palestine-solving-the-solvable

2010-12 23-Palestinian-Jewish Solidarity Statement   This statement is written and signed by Palestinians, Jews, and others who are committed to holding complex truths and striving to overcome polarization. We feel the pain of our people, identify with their pain, and need to work together to uplift our shared humanity.

The unfolding horror in Israel and Gaza is an escalation of decades of state-sanctioned violence by Israel against Palestinians. We condemn the horrific actions of Hamas against Israeli civilians. We likewise condemn Israel’s unbridled bombing and cutting off access to all basic needs, including food, water, electricity, and medical care. Attacks on Palestinian and Israeli civilians are repugnant.

Israeli violence against Palestinians has been intentionally hidden, slow, and steady. Contrary to what the media is reporting, this attack was not unprovoked. The Israeli and American governments have worked together to suppress and deny the inhumane acts against Palestinians that have led to this moment. There are Palestinians and Jews who have been raising red flags and warning about this inevitable outcome for decades, only to be dismissed and ignored.

The world’s failure to challenge Israel’s ongoing occupation, apartheid, and unbridled violence by settlers and soldiers in the West Bank provides the context for what is happening now. The recent Israeli government’s escalation of violence, encroachment of Al Aqsa Mosque, and its 16-year siege of Gaza has led to the current explosion…More  https://www.tikkun.org/statement-of-solidarity-with-israel-palestine/

2023-10-08 Fellowship of Reconciliation Condemns Palestine – Israel Conflict     In condemning Hamas’s attack launched on Shabbat and Simchat Torah, we are also led to condemn Israel for its decades of occupation, siege, and human rights violations and abuses that have led up to this moment.       FOR unequivocally condemns actions of violence that avoid the harder battles of justice. The killing and maiming of civilians, whether by Hamas rockets or Israeli airstrikes are unjustifiable, a war crime under international law. Also, unjustifiable are the actions of Israel that led to this current war: decades of military occupation with no end in sight, apartheid policies, recurrent massacres, and a siege so brutal that has turned Gaza into the largest open-air prison on earth. 

FOR recognizes and condemns the failure of the Biden administration to pursue a peaceful solution to this entrenched conflict while providing Israel with almost $3.8 billion annually in unconditional military aid. Even while pursuing normalization agreements between Israel and Arab countries, the U.S. has not worked to bring an end to the occupation or demanded an improvement in the rights and status of Palestinians. To call Hamas’s actions “unprovoked,” as the White House initially did in a statement today, is to put one’s head in the sand.

Whether this current war results in another status quo in Gaza, as past wars have, or a reoccupation of Gaza by Israel, this violence will not aid the aims of safety, equality, freedom, and peace for all people between the river and the sea. In the words of renowned theologian, political analyst, and former FOR executive director, A.J. Muste, ‘There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”  https://countercurrents.org/2023/10/fellowship-of-reconciliation-condemns-palestine-israel-conflict/

2023-09-14 The Mothers’ Call, 2023    Women from the Israeli movement “Women Wage Peace” and the Palestinian movement “Women of the Sun” will hold a joint event on October 4th demanding to end the cycle of bloodshed and to promote “The Mothers’ Call” which was formulated by both movements and calls on peoples of both nations – Palestinian and Israeli, and peoples of the region to join our call and demonstrate their support for the resolution of the conflict.    https://www.womenwagepeace.org.il/en/the-mothers-call-2023/

2014-07-30 Rays of Hope in Gaza: 13 Israeli and Palestinian Groups Building Peace    Sami Al Jundi, a Palestinian former militant-turned-peacemaker whose story I chronicle in The Hour of Sunlight, once boiled down for me his vision of a peaceful future in the Middle East: Israeli children will only know safety and security when Palestinian children’s rights and needs are secured; and Palestinian children will only know safety and security when Israeli children’s rights and needs are secured.  Below are just a handful of the organizations and initiatives that are building toward true peace—a peace that comes with dignity, security, equality, and respect for human rights for all Palestinians and Israelis.    https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2014/07/30/13-peacebuilders-in-gaza

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Palestinians

Updated 2024-02-26

The Palestinian people (UN)      We monitor the impact of the Israeli occupation on socioeconomic conditions in the Palestinian Territory    https://unctad.org/topic/palestinian-people 

2024-02-15 Born in a Tent – The Moment Arkan Came into a Rafah Refugee Camp (PHOTOS & VIDEO)    Meet Arkan, his name means ‘pillars’, pillars of faith, pillars of hope, and the pillars of steadfastness. Arkan has just joined the struggle for freedom.  https://www.palestinechronicle.com/born-in-a-tent-the-moment-arkan-came-into-a-rafah-refugee-camp-photos-video/

2023-10-23 Palestine Letter: Israel is Imposing a Blackout on Gaza to Hide a Massacre     All around us, it looks like another Nakba. People are carrying bags on their backs, fastening furniture on top of cars, and fleeing on foot in every direction. They don’t know if they will even be able to return to find their homes intact. Neither do I. Before I left, I stood in the middle of my home and said goodbye to every corner and every stone.  https://www.wrmea.org/israel-palestine/palestine-letter-israel-is-imposing-a-blackout-on-gaza-to-hide-a-massacre.html

2023-11-17 “I want our house to have walls”   A Palestinian child and his family displaced in Khan Younis    “All I am asking for is for the war to stop and for us to return to our homes, if they are still standing.”  Mohammad Waleed Mohammad Obaid is 10 years old, and up until October 7, lived in Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza city, with his mother and sisters: Leen, 13, and Reem, four. Mohammad’s father lives and works in the United Arab Emirates.

“I do not know if our home is still standing, because it is close to Al-Shifa Hospital,” Mohammad told DCIP. Israeli forces have besieged Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza city, surrounding the hospital compound and attacking patients with artillery shells and live ammunition. “I learned from the news that Israeli tanks have stormed the area, and we do not know the fate of our home.”   “I want our house to have walls. I do not really care if the doors and windows are gone. We will be able to live without them,” Mohammad said. “The important thing is that the house is still standing where it is.”   https://www.dci-palestine.org/i_want_our_house_to_have_walls_a_palestinian_child_and_his_family_displaced_in_khan_younis?utm_campaign=nov_17&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dcipalestine

2023-11-14 We Are Not Numbers: Palestinian Journalist Ahmed Alnaouq Mourns 21 Family Members Killed by Israel     One-and-a-half million residents of Gaza have been displaced by Israeli bombing and siege since October 7 in what many Palestinians are calling a second Nakba, or catastrophe, referencing the 1948 expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians to create the state of Israel. “It’s what has been going on for the past 75 years,” says Palestinian journalist Ahmed Alnaouq, who describes how 21 members of his family were killed in Gaza, including his father and several siblings. Alnaouq had not been able to visit his family for four years prior to their deaths, due to restrictions upon entry into Gaza. He joins us from London, where historic protests calling for a ceasefire were deemed “hate marches” by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who was fired shortly thereafter. Alnaouq speaks about global support for Palestinians and responds to U.S. President Joe Biden’s latest comments on Israel’s targeting of hospitals in Gaza.   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1dmng0TCk

2023-11-13 ‘They call us terrorists’: Inside the Palestinian resistance forces of Jenin, West Bank       Israel continues to unleash hell upon the 22-by-5-mile concentrated area of Gaza, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, with relentless airstrikes and indiscriminate bombings of hospitals, residential buildings, schools, and other civilian sites. As besieged Palestinians shelter and flee and die within the walls of their cage in Gaza, Resistance forces are mobilizing to rise up against an Occupation that has presided over lives for 75 years.

Where there is occupation, there is resistance, and numerous Palestinian resistance groups exist across the Occupied Territories. These groups consist of occupied subjects turned freedom fighters—those who have been directly targeted by Israel, who have witnessed their friends and families die at the hands of occupying forces, and who have been labeled “terrorists” for resisting their slow extermination. In Jenin, a 1km square ghetto-like refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and the target of numerous Israeli incursions, there are many who have chosen the path of armed resistance, and many who felt they had no other choice.

For those who suffer under the direct oppression and daily practices of apartheid—including the suspension of human and civil rights, military-imposed blockades and checkpoints restricting people’s movements, the demolition of homes and killing of family members—there comes a breaking point. Generations of Palestinians, born into Occupation and violence, do not live a life of dignity. As they describe, under these conditions, they have nothing to live for and nothing to lose, and they have everything to fight for.

In July of this year, before the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks and Israel’s genocidal retaliatory offensive in Gaza, The Real News Network spoke to members of the community in Jenin refugee camp about their lives under Occupation, the role of the Resistance there, and the fight for freedom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WfLVa1u4pk

2023-11-13 “Beacon of Light”: Fellow Doctors Recall Dr. Hammam Alloh, Gaza Doctor Killed by Israeli Airstrike      We speak with two physicians who knew Dr. Hammam Alloh, a Palestinian nephrologist at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital who was killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike. They recall him as a “committed physician, wonderful father” and “beacon of light.” He had refused to heed Israeli directives to evacuate in order to continue providing care to his patients. “He spent a decade learning how to serve his people,” says Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan with Doctors Without Borders. “He wanted his children to be able to see a day when they had a free, just, durable, free life in Palestine, without occupation,” says Dr. Ben Thomson, a fellow nephrologist who worked with Dr. Alloh.   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hourhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvLS_zbVwGM  

2023-11-13 “We’re Being Exterminated”: Hear Dr. Hammam Alloh’s Interview from Gaza Before His Death   We feature one of the final interviews with Palestinian doctor Hammam Alloh, who died Saturday when an Israeli artillery shell struck his wife’s home, killing him, his father, brother-in-law and father-in-law. On October 31, Democracy Now! spoke to Dr. Alloh about conditions at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, and his decision to continue working, as he called on people in the United States and the rest of the world to take action against Israel’s indiscriminate assault. When asked about why he refused to leave his patients, Dr. Alloh responded, “You think I went to medical school and for my postgraduate degrees for a total of 14 years so I think only about my life and not my patients?”  Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfOyMz9pJjg

2023-11-04 The Only Way to End the Inhumanity Is to Humanize Palestinians     Where are the stories in mainstream media of Palestinian lives lost? Not just in the latest Israeli war on Gaza but in all the wars that preceded it?     We live in an era where, in theory, we have accepted that all human beings are deserving of equal treatment—that skin color, national origin, language, accent, clothing, and other markers of ethnicity are secondary to the fact that we all deserve dignity.  In theory.

In practice, the otherizing of human beings remains central to the grim calculus by which we justify violence against one another and even accept it as virtuous. This violence, inflicted by states or by vigilantes, is everywhere we look. In the United States, it’s in the way Black communities are over-policed, Indigenous communities are neglected, migrants are warehoused, and asylum seekers are kept out.   Internationally, it’s in the way our society dismisses the targets of Western wars and capitalism.   Most prominently today, it’s in the dehumanization of Palestinians during what, by many accounts, is an unfolding Israeli genocide against the people of Gaza.  

The only way to end the inhumanity is to humanize the victims of war in pursuit of justice.https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-dehumanizes-palestinians

2020-11-18 Palestinian women as a threat to Israel and feminist foreign policy as we go into the Trump administration    Join the antiwar group CODEPINK for our weekly radio show every Thursday! Each week features a different CODEPINK organizer hosting robust conversations with grassroots peacemakers all over the world from Korea to Yemen to Venezuela to Iran and beyond. Tune in to get weekly updates on the global antiwar movement and learn all about peacemakers in communities worldwide confronting war hawks wherever they may find them. https://codepink.substack.com/p/episode-65-palestinian-women-as-a-77e#details

2003-05-00 A Palestinian Labor Leader Speaks Out    In the three years since the current intifada, or uprising, began, the already-fragile Palestinian economy has nearly broken down. Under military and economic siege, entire economic sectors have collapsed. Unemployment runs well over 50%, with 411,000 people out of work. Almost half of the population lives on less than $2 a day, and food shortages have struck certain areas. The besieged and directionless Palestinian Authority (PA) appears unable to meet the staggering crisis.

In this context, the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) is focused on the literal survival of its members and their families. As one of the largest nongovernmental organizations in Palestine, the PGFTU is responding to the mass deprivation by stepping into a role previously fulfilled by the PA: providing an economic and social safety net for its members. The federation delivers unemployment and health insurance benefits to tens of thousands.   PGFTU also continues its long-term struggle to build a movement for workers’ rights in Palestine, and recently succeeded in pushing the PA to establish a set of working labor laws. With 500,000 public and private worker-members in the West Bank and Gaza strip, PGFTU represents 75% of the Palestinian workforce. That’s a unionization level most unions in the West would envy. But its members have faced conditions that no one would envy.  https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2003/0503aruri.html

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

One State – Two State

Updated 2024-04-03

What is the relationship between Israel and Palestine? – Britannica      “Palestine” was the name of the region along the eastern Mediterranean Sea that came under British administration after World War I. It came to denote the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, while the lands east of the Jordan River became known as Transjordan. “Israel” is the name of a state which was established in Palestine in 1948 for the Jewish people. Both names are ancient in origin. Another term, the “Palestinian territories,” refers to areas of Palestine known as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip were the areas of Palestine that remained under Arab control after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948–49. The territories were later captured by Israel in 1967 but were never brought under Israeli civil law. An agreement in 1993 between Israel and representatives of the Palestinian people sought to establish a Palestinian state in these territories, but that process has not been completed. Israel is an independent state governed by a form of parliamentary democracy. The Palestinian territories have some level of autonomy: the West Bank is governed by the Palestinian Authority, a self-governing body established after the 1993 agreement with Israel, and the Gaza Strip is governed by Hamas, a militant movement that until recently rejected the notion of a two-state solution. The conflict at its core is about the self-determination of two peoples living in the same place: Jews and Palestinians both want to control their own futures and both seek the ability to live in peace, freedom, and security.   But how to achieve that for two peoples on a tract of land slightly larger than Vermont has been very difficult to work out.     https://www.britannica.com/video/223179/Britannica-Insights-Israel-Palestine-conflict

2024-04-13 The Oasis Plan: The LaRouche Solution for Peace Through Development      Today’s conflict in Gaza has come to the point that it stains the collective soul of humanity. Though it is born out of decades of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, and amidst a swamp of imperial ambitions, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on Jan. 26 delivered an undeniable verdict: Israel is on the verge of creating a genocide in Gaza. Either an end to this conflict is reached soon, or the words “Never Again,” which were so clearly stated at the end of the Nazi holocaust during the 1940’s, will forever ring hollow.   

Therefore, an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza is urgently required. No good will come, either for Palestinians or for Israelis, from a continuation of this conflict. Additionally, steps must be taken toward the implementation of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. A solid basis for this already exists in United Nations Resolution 242, adopted November 22, 1967, which calls for the return to the pre-1967 borders. Without these basic steps, this war threatens to not only annihilate the people of Gaza, but to engulf the entire region in war—a situation which could rapidly become a nuclear World War III.  https://laroucheorganization.com/larouche-plan-southwest-asia

2024-03-22 How a One-State Solution for Israelis and Palestinians Could Heal the World     This is the language of peace. It swells the heart, it transcends the small-mindedness of global politics.  Probably fewer ideas are treated with more contempt in today’s world than . . . ahem: a one-state solution for Palestine and Israel, with, good God, every resident equally valued, equally free.

I acknowledge from the start: This is not a simple process, any more than America’s reluctant embrace of the civil rights movement was, or is, simple. But armed dehumanization — which is to say war, hatred, ethnic cleansing, cultural erasure, endless slaughter, the murder of children, genocide — is neither “simple” nor the least bit effective in creating a world that is safe for anyone. War and hatred perpetuate nothing but themselves. You know that, right?

 But what about a two-state solution? Neither side actually wants this and, with the West Bank overrun with Israeli settlers, it’s hardly possible anyway. The concept of a two-state solution, Samer Elchahabi writes at the Arab Center website. “has been used to delegitimize Palestinians’ aspirations for equality and freedom, has allowed for relentless settlement expansion on Palestinian land, and has offered a fig leaf for perpetuating occupation with Western support.” 

There are three basic ways of dealing with conflict: domination, compromise and what I would call transcendence.   Domination is simplistic. I win, you lose.   “Compromise does not create, it deals with what already exists.” And the conflict doesn’t really go away. It just takes a different form.

But the third option, which she referred to in her essay as “integration,” addresses the needs and wishes of all parties to the conflict and creates something — a solution — that hadn’t previously existed. In short, it creates a better world. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-palestine-one-state-solution

2024-03-05 Achieving the Two-State Solution in the Wake of Gaza War   The two-state solution is enshrined in international law and is the only viable path to a long-lasting peace. All other solutions—a continuation of Israel’s apartheid regime, one bi-national state, or one unitary state—would guarantee a continuation of war by one side or the other or both. Yet the two-state solution seems irretrievably blocked. It is not. Here is a pathway.

The Israeli government strongly opposes a two-state solution, as does a significant proportion of the Israeli population, some on religious grounds (“God gave us the land”) and some on security grounds (“We can never be safe with a State of Palestine”). A significant proportion of Palestinians regard Israel as an illegitimate settler-colonial entity, and in any event distrust any peace process. 

The usual recommendation is the following six-step sequence of events: (1) ceasefire; (2) release of hostages; (3) humanitarian assistance; (4) reconstruction; (5) peace conference for negotiations between Israel and Palestine; and finally (6) establishment of two states on agreed boundaries. This path is impossible. There is a perpetual deadlock on steps 5 and 6, and this sequence has failed for 57 years since the 1967 war.

Thus, the settlement should follow this order: (1) establishment of Palestine as 194th member state within two-state solution framework on June 4, 1967 borders; (2) immediate ceasefire; (3) release of hostages; (4) humanitarian assistance; (5) peacekeepers, disarmament and mutual security; and (6) negotiation on modalities (settlements, return of refugees, mutually agreed land-swaps, and others; but not boundaries).  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/two-state-solution-gaza-2667433791

2023-12-17 Netanyahu’s Bold Boast: ‘Proud’ to Thwart Palestinian State Creation       Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was “proud” of preventing the creation of a Palestinian state during a press conference in Tel Aviv Saturday night.   Speaking alongside Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, Netanyahu claimed that he had halted the progression of the Oslo peace process, which began in 1993, calling the Oslo Accords “a fateful mistake” and said the results of the “little Palestinian state in Gaza” brought about by the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 demonstrated the danger of allowing Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank.

The Oslo Accords were an agreement signed by Israel and the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) that saw the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza as part of a process that was meant to lead to a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  

Netanyahu’s comments come after several Israeli officials said that there would be no two-state solution following the end of Israel’s indiscriminate war on Gaza, which has destroyed much of the occupied territory and killed at least 18,800 Palestinians, primarily women and children, in Israeli attacks since October 7, according to the territory’s health ministry.https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-s-bold-boast-proud-to-thwart-palestinian-state-creation

2023-11-28 Calls for a Two-State Solution Provide a Distraction—Not Hope     We are moving from a phase in which the mantra of the two-state solution has been used as cover for Israel’s colonisation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, to one involving the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, which has become the world’s biggest open-air concentration camp.  All of this is being justified by the need to remove the purported greatest obstacle to peace.

It is absurd to join together two such contradictory trajectories—one that talks of peace, and another that entails the ongoing process of exterminating a group of people who are supposed to benefit from the peace process.

But such a proposition is by no means unfamiliar within the context of US history, which began with the extermination of the indigenous population and extended to Iraq and Afghanistan by the 21st century. It is by design, based on the assumption that this is an opportune time to go ahead with a plan whose main goal is to guarantee the security of Israel and rebuild Washington’s regional alliances.  But what does invoking the two-state solution really mean after so many years of neglect, and the ensuing destruction and suffering inflicted on a colonized people? Will it translate into a real shift in U.S. policy?

And is the two-state solution still a serious or viable option, given the entrenched settler project in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the deepening fanaticism and trend towards fascism exacerbated by the current war? Is Washington’s version of the two-state solution the same one that the Palestinian leadership aspires to, and is the U.S. willing to put real pressure on Israel?   https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/two-state-solution-gaza

2023-11-28 Netanyahu Says He Is ‘Only One Who Will Prevent a Palestinian State’     “Look Joe Biden: Netanyahu is spitting in your face,” said one critic. “Are you going to keep hugging him in public or are you going to finally end the blank check and hold him accountable for his words and actions?”  

With his approval ratings in the tank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly been lobbying members of his Likud party in a bid to keep their support, claiming he is “the only one who will prevent a Palestinian state” in Gaza and the West Bank.  “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told his colleagues in 2019. “This is part of our strategy—to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

 Analysts have long argued that one democratic state, not two states, is the only viable alternative to the apartheid status quo, given factors such as ever-expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Throughout his career, Netanyahu has vociferously opposed a peaceful resolution and worked to divide Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank by propping up Hamas.  https://www.commondreams.org/news/netanyahu-palestinian-state

2023-11-18 What ‘From the River to the Sea’ Really   In 1969, the Palestinian National Council, the highest decision-making body of the Palestinians in exile, formally called for a “Palestinian democratic state” that would be “free of all forms of religious and social discrimination.”   A 1986 poll found that 78% of respondents “supported the establishment of a democratic-secular Palestinian state encompassing all of Palestine,” while only 17% supported two states.   This remained a popular vision among Palestinians, even as some of their leaders inched toward the idea of establishing a truncated Palestinian state alongside Israel in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.

Many Palestinians were skeptical of this two-state solution. For refugees exiled since 1948, a two-state solution would not allow them to return to their towns and villages in Israel. Some Palestinian citizens of Israel feared that a two-state solution would leave them even more isolated as an Arab minority in a Jewish state.   Even Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip—those who stood the most to gain from a two-state solution—were lukewarm to the idea..

Two States or One?   The 1993 signing of the Oslo Accords led many to believe that a two-state solution was just around the corner.    But as hopes for a two-state solution dimmed, some Palestinians returned to the idea of a single, democratic state from the river to the sea.   Today, broad swaths of Palestinians still favor the idea of equality. A 2022 poll found strong support among Palestinians for the idea of a single state with equal rights for all.  https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/from-the-river-to-the-sea-meaning, https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/from-the-river-to-the-sea-a-palestinian-historian-explores-the-meaning-and-intent-of-a-scrutinized-slogan/

2023-11-10 “From the River to the Sea”: Omer Bartov on Contested Slogan & Why Two-State Solution Is Not Viable  Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov says the two-state solution is dead after decades of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, making the creation of an independent Palestinian state all but impossible. He says a one-state solution — a single democratic state for all Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — is also unlikely to work given the competing national visions of the two communities. “The only solution is a confederation,” says Bartov, describing a scenario in which two states would be closely intertwined and interdependent. He also discusses the phrase “from the river to the sea,” used by both Israelis and Palestinians to refer to the land.   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBaf3LpNJeQ

2023-11-03 A One-State Solution Could Work in Israel    But the end of South African apartheid demonstrates it would take an Israeli commitment to peace that is nowhere in evidence.    The stated objective of the Israeli government is to defeat Hamas permanently. But what then? Israeli officials insist that they won’t govern the territory, but there is no one aside from Hamas in a position to run anything. Even if Gazans were to cobble together some group to run what remains of Gaza’s shattered civil administration, the boiling hatred and despair that fuel Hamas’s terrorism will remain—indeed, it likely will get much worse.   It has been obvious for decades that the only path forward is to end the occupation and grant some kind of government to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Whether this should be as two separate states or as a single one is the question.    The case against the two-state solution is mainly one of practicality.  

Apartheid was always going to leave deep scars. But the proximate problem with modern South Africa is that Mandela’s ANC, thanks, perhaps ironically, to the deep loyalty among the majority Black population created by the ending of apartheid, has faced no serious political competition in any election since 1994. As a result, it has degenerated into a deeply corrupt and incompetent organization. The major lesson here is that thirty years of one-party rule tends to lead to poor governance, not that the idea of a democratic South Africa was a bad one.

One could argue that the violence in Israel-Palestine is so much worse than what happened in South Africa that it is a difference in kind, not degree. But South Africans of all races would have had more than enough justification to cling to bitterness and resentment if they wished, and keep fighting until the country disintegrated. They simply chose not to do.  

The question for Jewish Israelis—who hold most of the power in this situation and therefore must take the lead on any lasting resolution—is whether they can muster this kind of sensible farsightedness. The biggest difference between the South Africa’s late apartheid regime and that of Israel is that there has not been any serious attempt to reach lasting peace from the latter party for decades now, since the pro-peace Israeli Prime Minister Yitzakh Rabin was assassinated by an ultra-Zionist terrorist.

 As Jerome Karabel writes here at the Prospect, there is a man currently in Israeli prison, Marwan Barghouti, who bears an eerie similarity to Mandela. Like Mandela, he once advocated violent resistance but turned against it in prison; like Mandela he is by far the most popular potential leader among Palestinians. If Israel wanted a credible negotiating partner, there he sits. But he remains locked up.  https://prospect.org/world/11-03-2023-gaza-israel-war-one-state-solution/

2023-10-20 China and Russia plan to work together for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians    China and Russia share the same position on the Palestinian issue and plan to try to work together to cool the situation and help establish a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, a top Chinese envoy said Friday.

 “The fundamental reason for the current situation of the Palestine-Israel conflict is that the Palestinian people’s lawful national rights have not been guaranteed,” Zhai said, according to a statement released on Friday by the Chinese foreign ministry.    The two countries want to “play a positive role in resuming talks for peace between Palestine and Israel, truly implementing the two-state solution, and promoting a comprehensive, just and enduring solution to the Palestinian question at an early date,” Zhai said.   https://apnews.com/article/china-middle-east-envoy-israel-gaza-c08587a566ff38fec882118a0e117c3a

2021-05-00 Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State    Activist and scholar Jeff Halper believes we are living at an inflection point in the history of the Israel-Palestine “conflict.” There’s a caveat, though: In order for the impending waters of justice to rise, the Palestinian people must coalesce behind a clear and cohesive political plan, he argues.

Halper’s latest book, Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine, makes the case for one state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, and argues that the global civil society and solidarity infrastructure is in place to make this outcome a reality. The book is a byproduct of the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC), an upstart movement launched by Halper and others to provide a clear vision for one, democratic state.   https://www.wrmea.org/book-talks/decolonizing-israel-liberating-palestine-zionism-settler-colonialism-and-the-case-for-one-democratic-state.html

2021-04-03 Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State    Halper’s latest book, Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine, makes the case for one state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, and argues that the global civil society and solidarity infrastructure is in place to make this outcome a reality. The book is a byproduct of the One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC), an upstart movement launched by Halper and others to provide a clear vision for one, democratic state. 

In order for this plan to work it needs buy-in from weary Palestinians, and Halper acknowledged this has yet to happen. If Palestinians were to take off and run with the one-state solution, Halper believes it would be a success.

Halper sees a plethora of groups and individuals advocating for Palestinians and engaging in movements such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, but he fears this energy is not being effectively channeled. In his mind, it’s time to move from resistance and advocacy to action. Palestinians, he believes, can energize this global support in a historical way if they launch a clear political campaign.   It’s important to note that Halper’s book is not merely a plea to encourage a course change among Palestinians. Decolonizing Israel offers people of goodwill across the world an opportunity to rethink how this issue is discussed and what outcomes citizens and practitioners alike ought to be realistically promoting.  

While Palestinians are the primary victims of settler colonialism, Halper noted that this pernicious reality also leaves Israelis feeling unsettled. “One of the problems with settler colonialism is that you are constantly living in a state of insecurity because everything is built on injustice,” he said. “You can’t relax and say ‘I’m in my country, I’m at home, I’m at peace’…because you’re constantly aware that there is that underside of oppression and suffering that is ongoing that will never go away until decolonization takes place.” 

Halper also convincingly argues that there is much global energy and solidarity to be tapped into. Yet, one cannot but remain cynical that those in power—from Washington to Israel—are prepared to let the voices of Palestinians and their supporters be heard, regardless of how organized and numerous they are.    https://www.wrmea.org/book-talks/decolonizing-israel-liberating-palestine-zionism-settler-colonialism-and-the-case-for-one-democratic-state.html

2020-11-30 Green Party – One secular, democratic state for Palestinians and Israelis      https://progressiveissuesblog.com/2020/11/30/israel-palestine/

2020-05-10 The Political Program of the Campaign for One Democratic State in Historic Palestine    In recent years, the idea of a one democratic state in all of historic Palestine as the best solution to the conflict has re-emerged. It started gaining increased support in the public domain. It is not a new idea. The Palestinian liberation movement, before the catastrophe of 1948 (the Nakba) and after it, had adopted this vision, including the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The PLO abandoned this idea in the framework of the diplomatic negotiations at the late eighties that led to the Oslo agreement of 1993. The Palestinian leadership hoped that this agreement would enable the building of an independent Palestinian state on the territories that Israel occupied in 1967. But on the ground Israel has strengthened its colonial control, fragmenting the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza into isolated cantons, separated from one another by settlements, checkpoints, military bases and fences.

The two-state solution, which is basically an unfair solution, is clearly dead. Israel buried it deep under its colonial settlement policies in the territories that were supposed to become the independent Palestinian state. Israel has imposed a single repressive regime that extends over all the Palestinians who live in historic Palestine, including those with Israeli citizenship.    https://icahd.org/2020/05/10/the-political-program-of-the-campaign-for-one-democratic-state-in-historic-palestine/

2018-06-05 A just “one-state solution” is still possible in Israel/Palestine: But not if the media buries it     The one-state solution is the idea of bringing justice and peace to Palestine/Israel by having all inhabitants of historic Palestine — the land that includes Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza — living in one, binational country, where everyone has equal rights and political matters are settled on the basis of one person, one vote. This arrangement differs from the two-state solution, which would partition historic Palestine into two states divided along ethno-religious lines, and contrasts with present conditions, in which Palestinians live as second-class citizens inside Israel, and under Israeli occupation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — the last of which is subject to a merciless siege.

The one-state option is gaining traction, but media coverage consistently suggests that the only possible scenarios for Palestine/Israel are either the two-state solution or the continued regime of Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid. https://www.salon.com/2018/06/05/a-just-one-state-solution-is-still-possible-in-israelpalestine-but-not-if-the-media-buries-it/

2017-01-07 Israel/Palestine: One State/Two State? Ralph Nader    Ralph talks to Israeli activist, Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine about whether a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is even possible.   https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/israelpalestine-one-statetwo-state-137#details

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Occupation

Updated 2023-11-22

2023-11-10 “I Want American Workers to Be United to Make the Occupation Costly, to Make the Israeli Apartheid Costly.”  Every day, the Palestinian civilian death toll is rising dramatically as Israel continues its genocidal bombing and ground invasion of Gaza and settler and military violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank intensifies.

“It’s a closure, it’s a curfew, in many places in the West Bank,” says Issa Amro. ​“It’s not normal life these days. Soldiers are everywhere, settlers are everywhere, people are afraid to leave their homes, they don’t go to work, they don’t go to school, they don’t go to universities.”

After losing touch with Issa during the day because he was escaping from settlers who were chasing him in Hebron, we managed to reconnect over the phone and record a nine minute conversation about the hell working people in Palestine are going through right now and what their fellow workers in the United States and Canada can do to stop the slaughter. Issa is a Palestinian human rights defender living in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. He is the co-founder and former coordinator of the grassroots group Youth Against Settlements. Days prior to this recording, Issa was evicted from his home in Hebron and tortured by Israeli troops.   https://inthesetimes.com/article/issa-amro-palestinian-activist

2023-10-11 A Brutal Occupation Begets a Brutal War Between Israel and Hamas – Trita Parsi     Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, analyzes Iran’s role in supporting Hamas’ brutal coordinated attack on civilians in Israel. Parsi unpacks Palestinian grievances, as well as Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and illegal blockade of Gaza. With host Talia Baroncelli.   https://theanalysis.news/a-brutal-occupation-begets-a-brutal-war-between-israel-and-hamas-trita-parsi/

2023-10-10 Mohammed El-Kurd: How Much Palestinian Blood Will It Take to End Israel’s Occupation & Apartheid?   Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd says Western reaction to Israel’s assault on Gaza has once again highlighted the double standard when it comes to how Israeli and Palestinian lives are valued. Israel is bombarding the densely populated coastal territory in retaliation for Saturday’s Hamas attack on southern Israel, as well as tightening the existing siege even further. Israeli officials have vowed to wipe out Hamas despite warnings of massive civilian casualties inside Gaza. “One wonders how much bloodshed, how much Palestinian death is necessary for people to realize that violence begets violence and that the occupation and the colonization of Palestine, the blockade of the Gaza Strip needs to end for all of this violence to end.”  https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/10/mohammed_el_kurd_palestine_israel_gaza

2023-06-23 “The Palestine Laboratory”: Antony Loewenstein on How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation    We speak with journalist and author Antony Loewenstein about his new book, The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel Exports the Technology of Occupation Around the World. Loewenstein explains that Israel’s military-industrial complex has used the Occupied Palestinian Territories for decades as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that it then exports around the world for profit. “You find in over 130 countries across the globe in the last decades, Israel has sold … a range of tools of occupation and repression that have initially been tested in Palestine on Palestinians,” Loewenstein says.   Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eYVjWwOVC4&t=22s

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Nuclear Arsenal

Updated 2024-07-26

Nuclear War Survival Skills https://ia802306.us.archive.org/19/items/NuclearWarSurvivalSkills_201405/nwss.pdf#page=170

2024-04-12 Russians sent warning that nuclear war is now ‘inevitable’ with ‘millions at risk’     Russians have been chillingly told that nuclear war is now unavoidable and millions are set to perish. Experts stated that nuclear conflict is certain – with Vladimir Putin poised to annihilate 250 million Europeans.

This horrifying assertion was made by a professor on the state-controlled Rossiya 1 TV channel, alarming Russian viewers. Dmitry Evstafiev, a Russian political analyst, declared on the broadcast that Putin’s deployment of nuclear arms against Europe is an inescapable reality.  https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russians-sent-warning-that-nuclear-war-is-now-inevitable-with-millions-at-risk/ar-BB1lw7dk?

2024-03-04 THE RISK OF NUCLEAR CONFLICT    Today’s generation of weapons — many of which are fractions of the size of the bombs America dropped in 1945 but magnitudes more deadly than conventional ones — poses an unpredictable threat.  It hangs over battlefields in Ukraine as well as places where the next war might occur: the Persian Gulf, the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula.    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/04/opinion/nuclear-war-prevention.html?

2023-12-04 Nuclear Abolitionists Occupy New York       The risk of nuclear war by intent, miscalculation, or accident coupled with the growing concern over cyber-terrorism and AI is growing.    This past week New York City was invaded by nuclear abolitionists from around the world coming together as part of civil society, scientific, and affected communities, to support, strengthen, and move forward with the universalization of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons , TPNW, as the United Nations convened the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty . They gathered to celebrate what has been achieved and with hope and conviction for the complete elimination of these weapons to achieve a future free from the threat of their use.  The Treaty which entered into force January 22, 2021 calls for a verifiable, time bound, complete elimination of nuclear weapons. It establishes “a new global norm and taboo against the use, threatened use or possession of these weapons”.  

The world is closer to nuclear war than any time since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 78 years ago. This risk is heightened by the current war in Ukraine, where Russia has threatened the use of nuclear weapons, the ongoing nuclear weapons research by North Korea, the buildup of China’s arsenal and the current war and humanitarian crisis in Israel/Palestine, where there have been suggestions of using nuclear weapons against Palestinians. The risk of nuclear war by intent, miscalculation, or accident coupled with the growing concern over cyber-terrorism and AI is growing.    https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/nuclear-weapon-abolition

2023-11-20 A Nuclear Attack on Gaza: Israel Wouldn’t, Would They?     A cornered, nuclear-armed Benjamin Netanyahu would be the definition of a perilous situation in a war where nothing, not journalists, schools, or even hospitals, has proven off-limits. 

Israel’s robust military, the fourth-strongest in the world, is ravaging Gaza and, along with armed settlers, terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank following the brutal Hamas massacres of October 7th. Like so many other colonial projects, Israel was born of terror and has necessitated the use of violence to occupy Arab territory and segregate Palestinians ever since. The realization that its existence was dependent on a superior military in an unfriendly region also encouraged Israel to pursue a nuclear weapons program shortly after the state’s founding in 1948.    https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-nuclear-weapons-gaza

2023-11-19 The Dangers Only Multiply, A Growing Middle Eastern Nightmare    Yes, on a radio show, Israeli Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu insisted that there were “no non-combatants in Gaza” (assumedly including the thousands of young people slaughtered in recent weeks in that “children’s graveyard”). He then added that “one option” for Israel was to consider using a nuclear weapon and so wiping out more or less everyone left in that strip of land hardly bigger than two Washington, D.C.s. (Forget the radioactive fallout that would hit Israel as well.) And yes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly “suspended” him from regular cabinet meetings (even if that, as it turns out, wasn’t the most meaningful of actions).

It’s also true that Israel, one of the planet’s nine nuclear powers, has only — and given the nightmarish impact of such weaponry that has to be italicized — an estimated 90 such weapons, while the United States and Russia each have more than 5,000. Still, consider Eliyahu’s comment a rare admission by an Israeli official that his country is even nuclear armed. As Netanyahu himself typically said years ago, “We have a longstanding policy that we won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East.”  

Israel’s robust military, the fourth-strongest in the world, is ravaging Gaza and, along with armed settlers, terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank following the brutal Hamas massacres of October 7th. Like so many other colonial projects, Israel was born of terror and has necessitated the use of violence to occupy Arab territory and segregate Palestinians ever since. The realization that its existence was dependent on a superior military in an unfriendly region also encouraged Israel to pursue a nuclear weapons program shortly after the state’s founding in 1948.   https://tomdispatch.com/the-dangers-only-multiply/

1991-10-27 The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy   Exposes one of the most well-protected political-military secrets of the Cold War  Ever since the early 1950s, Israel has had one military eye firmly fixed on atomic weapons as a means of salvation, using them primarily as a military threat for both offensive and defensive purposes. Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize winner, expounds on the steady but quiet growth of an Israeli nuclear industry that proved so successful that Israel was able to coerce several U.S. administrations into doing its bidding. He also explores in depth Israeli access to U.S. intelligence satellite technologies that resulted from inattention by Washington leaders as well as from the four years of insider spying by Jonathan Jay Pollard. He reveals that the Soviet Union has been targeted by Israeli nuclear warheads since the mid-1980s. Unlike several other recent expos es of Israeli intelligence apparatus (Ian Black and Benny Morris’s Israel’s Secret Wars , LJ 8/91, and Andrew and Leslie Cockburn’s Dangerous Liaison , LJ 6/15/91), Hersh follows the threads of a specific intelligence focus while highlighting U.S. policies that ultimately ignore the very real presence of the Israeli nuclear arsenal. This incredibly well-written book should be in every collection.   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0394570065/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Non-Violent Protest – Israel \U.S. Response

2022-06-19 PEACE HEROES: The Martyrs of the Mavi Marmara   The activists who sailed on the Freedom Flotilla that was brutally attacked by the IDF (Israel Defense Force) that resulted in the murders of at least 10 people, were not terrorists or terrorist sympathizers—they are sympathetic with the plight of the people of Gaza and have been willing to face the wrath of a psychotically paranoid state to call attention to the blockade. 

What happened to the Martyrs of the Mavi Marmara is beyond tragic—it’s unthinkable and was a shocking act—even for the State of Israel, but it did happen. Nothing can change the fact that at least nine people are dead that should still be here with us today. What is, is. So what do we do about it now?

The autopsy report on the nine confirmed deaths show that 30 bullets were taken from the nine bodies. That’s not self-defense, that’s targeted assassination. From such a negative event, a great positive has occurred—Israel, by this monstrous act, has shone its own spotlight on at least two things: 1) there is no end to its paranoia and its inappropriate and disproportionate reactions, and 2) its barbaric siege on Gaza.

So many people have died in the struggle for peace and justice all over the world. One of the boats in the flotilla was named after courageous Rachel Corrie, a young American-Jewish peace activist who sacrificed her own life to prevent Palestinian homes from being destroyed by the State of Israel with US made bulldozers. Now, a ship is named after Rachel, and her legacy to free Palestinians from the wrath of an illegal and immoral occupation is still alive.   https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/the-martyrs-of-the-mavi-marmara

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

.

Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World