May 6, 2015

Don't advocate for Israel one more day, until you've done this

Whatever your politicYou don't know me. I'm just a guy from California who once fell in love with Israel, and stayed. But if you're a person who advocates for Israel in California or anywhere else outside of here, I have a message for you

It's the same message whether you belong to StandWithUs or J Street, the Republican Jewish Coalition or the New Israel Fund, AIPAC or Americans for Peace Now, the ZOA or Ameinu: Before you advocate for Israel one more day, you owe it to yourself and to Israel to do this: Download and open a report called "This is How We Fought in Gaza: Soldiers' testimonies and photographs from Operation 'Protective Edge' (2014)."

Read it until you can't go on. Then read it some more. Don't go back to advocating for Israel until you've read it to the end. It's not that long. Length is not the problem. Nor is language. It's just people talking.

Honesty is the problem. The calmly shocking honesty of scores of brave and deeply scarred soldiers who served in that war last summer. It won't be easy to read this, nor should it be.s, you should know this: These soldiers and the people of Breaking the Silence are Israeli patriots. They are advocating for Israel.

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/.premium-1.655059

This is How We Fought in Gaza׳
testimonies and photographs from
Operation „Protective Edge ̋ (2014)
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/pdf/ProtectiveEdge.pdf

May 4, 2015

'If you spot someone, shoot': Israeli soldiers describe Gaza war

More than 60 Israeli soldiers have provided testimony on their time fighting in Gaza during Israel's summer 2014 assault on the enclave

May 4, 2015


A child sits among the rubble of Gaza after Israel's 50-day assault during the summer of 2014 (AFP)

A human rights group in Israel released a report on Monday including the testimonies of more than 60 soldiers which it says provides evidence the Israeli army may have committed “grave violations” of international law during their assault on Gaza last summer.

Soldiers told Breaking the Silence, a group comprised of former Israeli soldiers, that all Palestinians - civilians and fighters alike - were considered "targets" and that the invading Israeli forces wantonly destroyed swathes of Gaza’s residential areas.

More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s 50-day war against Hamas - an estimated 70 percent of casualties were civilian - and some 18,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged. On the Israeli side 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

Several testimonies given to Breaking the Silence describe the complete absence of rules of engagement in the war, and include allegations that Palestinian civilians were considered terrorists in Gaza.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/if-you-spot-someone-shoot-israeli-soldiers-describe-losing-their-morality-gaza-war-1149151567

May 3, 2015

Bernie Sanders On the Issues

The American people must make a fundamental decision. Do we continue the 40-year decline of our middle class and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, or do we fight for a progressive economic agenda that creates jobs, raises wages, protects the environment and provides health care for all? Are we prepared to take on the enormous economic and political power of the billionaire class, or do we continue to slide into economic and political oligarchy? These are the most important questions of our time, and how we answer them will determine the future of our country.

snip*
Rebuilding our Crumbling Infrastructure
Addressing Climate Change
Real Tax Reform
Protecting the Most Vulnerable Americans
Health Care as a Right for All
Taking on Wall Street
Making College Affordable for All
Trade Policies that Benefit American Workers
Pay Equity for Women Workers
Raising the Minimum Wage

in full: https://berniesanders.com/issues/


Bernie’s Record

A relentless fighter for America's middle class and working families — a "practical and successful legislator."

In Congress, Bernie has fought tirelessly for working families, focusing on the growing gap between the rich and poor. The Almanac of American Politics calls him a “practical and successful legislator.” As chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Bernie worked across the aisle to “bridge Washington’s toxic partisan divide and cut one of the most significant deals in years,” according to Congressional Quarterly. In 2015, Bernie was tapped to serve as the Democratic Caucus’ ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.

Growing the Trade Union Movement

Creating Worker Co-Ops

https://berniesanders.com/record/

May 2, 2015

Terrified citizens caught between Saudi Arabia and Iran as air strikes and blockade...

Full title: Yemen crisis: Terrified citizens caught between Saudi Arabia and Iran as air strikes and blockade threaten humanitarian disaster for millions

Friday May 1, 2014

Dozens of Saudi soldiers and Yemeni fighters have been killed in clashes on the border between the countries as five weeks of Saudi air attacks fail to bring the war to an end. Air strikes and heavy artillery fire in the southern port of Aden have left much of the city in ruins and the attempted incursion by Houthi fighters marks an escalation in a conflict seen regionally as part of the growing confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The Saudi interior ministry has said three of its soldiers were killed along with dozens of fighters from the Houthi movement, which has seized control of much of Yemen, when the Houthis attacked a border post in Najran province.

So far the air strikes have failed to force back the Houthis. The involvement of a Saudi-led Sunni coalition has connected the crisis firmly with the broader conflict between Sunni and Shia branches of Islam that is inflaming much of the region. The United Nations says that more than 1,200 people have been killed and 300,000 forced to flee their homes as a result of Saudi bombing and ground fighting, which is particularly intense in Aden.

“The scene is disastrous, not just in the streets where fighting is going on but inside houses where families are often trapped and terrified,” Ahmed al-Awgari, an activist in Aden, told Reuters. “Women and children have been burnt in homes, civilians have been shot in the streets or blown up by tank fire.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/yemen-crisis-terrified-citizens-caught-between-saudi-arabia-and-iran-as-air-strikes-and-blockade-threaten-humanitarian-disaster-for-millions-10220087.html

April 30, 2015

International Workers’ Day: The most invisible workers of all

May 1. 2015


Photo by Ron Amir, 2012, from a series depicting the lives of Palestinians working in Israel. The persons photographs are unrelated to the witnesses.

A couple of weeks ago we spoke with a number of Palestinian workers who live just a few dozen kilometers from where they work in Israel, but the difficulties involved in reaching their place of work mean they remain at their place of work all week, away from their families and home environment. At times, they must confine themselves to living in rough conditions at their workplace, with no option of leaving it. As one worker told us: “I feel like I’m working in a small prison".

On International Workers’ Day, the first of May, think of the workers who are the most invisible of all: the Palestinians. Give a thought to the tens of thousands who have a work permit, yet must stand for endless, humiliating hours on line at a crowded checkpoint, people for whom every moment of their daily routine is part of a struggle for survival, for whom getting safely home is not a given. Under such conditions, a struggle for fair pay, reasonable working hours and a pension is no more than a distant pipedream.

This reality is a direct outcome of the policy of Israeli authorities who prevent the development of an independent Palestinian economy that would provide employment to West Bank residents. Work in Israel is the only option available to many Palestinians. Some are granted work permits, others are not, but the rights of all these people are infringed upon even before reaching their place of employment. The Israeli authorities, responsible for most of these violations, are well aware of this reality, yet do nothing to change it.

Workers' testimonies:

http://www.btselem.org/workers/20150501_international_workers_day

April 26, 2015

Yemen crisis: This exotic war will soon become Europe's problem

World View: Terrorism and boatloads of desperate migrants will be the outcome of the Saudi air campaign

Patrick Cockburn
Sunday April 26, 2015

Yemen is short of many things, but weapons is not one of them. Yemenis own between 40 and 60 million guns, according to a report by UN experts published earlier this year. This should be enough for Yemen’s 26 million people, although the experts note that demand for grenades that used to cost $5, handguns ($150) and AK-47s ($150) has increased eightfold. Whatever else happens, the war in Yemen is not going to end because any of the participants are short of weaponry.

Yemeni politics is notoriously complicated and exotic, with shifting alliances in which former enemies embrace and old friends make strenuous efforts to kill each other. But this exoticism does not mean that the war in Yemen, where the Saudis started bombing on 26 March, is irrelevant to the rest of the world. Already the turmoil there is a breeding ground for al-Qaeda type attacks such as that on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

The collapse of the country into a permanent state of warfare will send waves of boat-people towards Western Europe or anywhere else they can find refuge. It is absurd for European leaders to pretend that they are doing something about “terrorism” or the refugees drowning in the Mediterranean when they ignore the wars that are the root causes of these events.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/yemen-crisis-this-exotic-war-will-soon-become-europes-problem-10204156.html

Tawakkol Karman calls for ousted Yemeni President Saleh to be put on trial

Friday, 24 April 2015

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/18238-tawakkol-karman-calls-for-ousted-yemeni-president-saleh-to-be-put-on-trial

April 25, 2015

US court rejects lawsuit against charity funding of settlements

April 25, 2015 4:26 P.M. (Updated: April 25, 2015 4:26 P.M.)


"Price tag" attack on a Palestinian monastery in 2013. (AFP/File)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The US Court of Appeals in New York has rejected an appeal from a group of 13 Palestinians seeking damages for alleged "terrorist attacks" by Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported Friday.

The complaint was filed against US-based charities that financially support settlements, alleging that such support leads to terrorist activity and is in violation of US anti-terrorism laws, reported Israeli news source Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The USA Patriot Act enacted in October 2001 prohibits citizens from "knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization."

Plaintiffs in the case argued that charities were financially supporting terrorist activity by funding settlers who have carried out acts of violence against Palestinians and their land, and desecrated houses of prayer.

in full: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=765080

April 19, 2015

From Iraq to Libya and Syria: The wars that come back to haunt us

Sunday, April 19, 2015

World View: Tony Blair is still pilloried for the decisions he took over Iraq. David Cameron should not escape blame for his role in conflicts that are still raging



Few recall that David Cameron led Britain into one war in Libya that overthrew Gaddafi, but was disastrous for most Libyans. Without this conflict, the drowned bodies of would-be emigrants to Europe would not be washing up in their hundreds on Libyan beaches. To get the full flavour of what went wrong, it is worth watching a YouTube clip of Cameron grandstanding on a balcony in Benghazi on 15 September 2011, as he lauds Libya’s new freedom. Then turn to almost any recent film of Benghazi or Tripoli showing militias battling in streets and buildings shattered by shellfire.

Another scene worth revisiting via YouTube is the House of Commons on 29 August 2013, when Cameron lost the vote which would have opened the door to British military intervention in Syria. Ostensibly this was in response to the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government in Damascus, but would have had an effect only if it had turned into a Libyan-type air campaign to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. There is every reason to believe that al-Qaeda-type movements would have filled the vacuum and Syria would have descended even deeper into anarchy.

What is striking here is not so much that Cameron never seemed to have much idea about what was going on in Libya or Syria as the degree to which his culpability has never been an issue. Contrast this with the way in which Tony Blair is still pilloried for the decisions he took over going to war in Iraq in 2003. Focus on the decisions taken in the lead-up to the invasion has become a national obsession in which Blair is a scapegoat, as if most of the British establishment and popular opinion did not support him at the time. Admittedly this support was partly the result of concocted evidence about Saddam Hussein’s non-existent WMD, but there is something absurd about the fact that it is almost impossible these days to meet a diplomat or a general who does not claim to have been deeply, if silently, opposed to the whole venture at the time.

A problem about this obsession with the events of 2002 and 2003 is that they have led to amnesia about what happened subsequently in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even the mourning for soldiers killed in these two wars treats them as if they were victims of a natural catastrophe rather casualties in conflicts which were the result of political decision-making. This is deeply convenient for the governments responsible since they don’t have to answer too many questions about their war aims and why they failed to achieve them.

in full: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/from-iraq-to-libya-and-syria-the-wars-that-come-back-tohaunt-us-10187065.html

April 16, 2015

On Developments in Yarmouk: France 24 Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani

In this interview with France 24, Jadaliyya Co-Editor Mouin Rabbani speaks about the situation in the Yarmouk district of Damascus. Yarmouk has historically been the primary center of Palestinian life in Syria, and much of it was recently seized by the Islamic State movement. Rabbani discusses the situation of the Palestinian community in Syria, the failure of Palestinian leaderships to serve their interests, and also the efforts of the UN Special Envoy for Syria.



http://interviews.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/21398/yarmouk-besieged_france-24-interview-with-jadaliyy

April 16, 2015

The Bernie Buzz: Stop the Ugland House Scam

On April 15, the income tax deadline for most Americans, Bernie introduced a bill to stop corporations from avoiding their fair share of taxes by stashing profits in the Cayman islands, Bermuda and other tax havens. He spoke at a Capitol news conference in front of a photo of the notorious Ugland House, the Cayman Islands office that is the registered address of more than 18,000 companies. Yes. There are supposedly 18,000 companies doing business in one small building. Needless to say, it's all a scam to avoid paying taxes to the U.S. government.

Nobody is really doing business there. It's just a postal address to allow the companies to claim that they do business in the Cayman islands which has no corporate income tax. “At a time when we have an $18.2 trillion national debt; at a time when many of the largest corporations in America are paying no federal income taxes; and at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high, it is past time for corporate America to pay their fair share in taxes so that we can address the many problems which this country faces," Bernie said.

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/offshore-tax-havens?utm_source=berniebuzz&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Headline+IMG+featured&utm_campaign=National+Bernie+Buzz+04-15