Marx is famous for saying that history repeats itself, first as tragedy & then as farce. And this case is an example of how neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, has made it impossible to distinguish between the two.

Last Monday, after a six-week trial, a US jury in a Manhattan federal court ordered the Palestinian Authority (PA) & PLO to pay more than $218 million in damages for “providing material support to terrorists” in attacks on Jerusalem over a decade ago. The law suit was on behalf of ten US families suing over six attacks attributed to Hamas between 2002 & 2004 that killed 33 & injured over 450. There is as yet no explanation for why the PA was sued rather than Hamas. Maybe because Hamas would spit in their eye?

Reportedly the award could be tripled under the US Anti-Terrorism Act which allows US citizens injured by acts of international terrorism to pursue damages in federal courts. Of course, the US also defines what “international terrorism” is & who is engaging in it. The PLO & PA are expected to appeal & hopefully they will after they piss on such belligerence & nonsense. Reports say it’s unclear if the defendants will be able to collect. How about acknowledging they have a snowball’s chance in hell of collecting?

The attorney behind this legal foolishness is Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli who founded Shurat HaDin law center in 2003 & which maintains a tight relationship with the Israeli government. While they engage in ethnic cleansing, she engages in what is called “lawfare” bringing suits on behalf of ‘terror victims’ against “Islamic & Arab groups engaged in terror attacks”–that is, Palestinian groups, their political leaders, & who she considers their financial patrons.

She’s a Zionist zealot & nutcase which has made her a media celebrity on Israeli, European, Canadian, & US radio & TV. But this strategy of hers is going to become an important impediment for Palestinian solidarity, which is what it’s intended to do since there is little chance most of the numerous law suits (including against banks) will reap much in actual damages. The intention is to discredit Palestinians as terrorists for defending themselves against ethnic cleansing, to tie up the resources of Palestinian groups, & to vilify Palestinian supporters as advocates of terrorism. She also wants to obstruct Palestinian access to the International Criminal Court. It is only a matter of time before Shurat HaDin begins targeting boycott (BDS) groups around the world.

There is an analog with the right-wing anti-abortion movement in the US which has used assassinations, paramilitary blockades at clinics, endless legislative initiatives in states, & even more silly-assed court actions to thwart abortion rights. This multi-faceted nonsense has reaped considerable benefits & strengthened the anti-abortion movement, especially in the absence of a defense by women’s rights groups.

One disturbing feature of these law suits by Darshan-Leitner’s law firm is her admission in an interview that she was schooled personally by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). This is not the first time the SPLC has been accused of facilitating Zionist projects. They have been criticized sharply for identifying antisemitism with anti-Zionism & have not refuted that criticism.

Led by Darshan-Leitner, Shurat HaDin is modeling her strategy on the SPLC strategy of bankrupting who they define as hate groups, like the KKK. But the question is, what gives SPLC the authority to define who is a hate group if they cannot (or will not) distinguish between antisemitism & anti-Zionism? If their commitment is to Israel, will they eventually place BDS groups on their hate list?

The only way to outflank this political treachery is to build Palestinian solidarity by evangelizing for the economic & cultural boycott of Israel (barcode beginning 729); holding teach-ins & forums on Palestinian’s just claims; & rallying to demand “No aid of any kind to Israel!”

(Photo is Nitsana Darshan-Leitner)

Emancipation US-style in Iraq: this photo is children brick workers at a large brick factory near Baghdad standing in front of the kilns. Faces covered with brick dust which includes silica, lead, & other contaminants; kilns emitting intense heat, hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, & carcinogenic dioxins. And no safety equipment.

The children are facing a brief lifetime of respiratory, cardiovascular, skin, & eye diseases including bronchitis, asthma, pharyngitis, coughing, fibrosis, emphysema, rhinitis. These hazards have been well known for over 100 years. But in the hellhole the US war has created in Iraq (& Afghanistan) the welfare of children & safety protection of workers is of no concern.

Saddam Hussein was rightly excoriated for violating human rights in Iraq, including secret police, torture, mass murder, forced disappearances, summary executions, chemical warfare. And that differs from US occupation, how? One can’t judge a country by its laws or certainly by what it proclaims itself to be, but under Hussein children were required to go to school at six years of age & education was free through university. Iraq received UN awards for the high level of literacy, especially among women.

Statistics on child labor under Hussein are not available for comparison but over a decade ago (2004) a UN & Iraqi study showed that more & more children were leaving school to work, often as the sole wage earner in the family due to parental death, disability, or unemployment–& of course, because that’s the neoliberal capitalist way of doing things. According to that study, nearly 1,300,000 children, between eight & 16-years-old were working. Multiply that by the eleven intervening years, since things have not improved one iota but only worsened.

The UN-Iraq report informs us that the main reason for child labor is poverty. The damn fools needed a study to tell them that!? According to official statistics, about 25% of Iraqis live below the farcical World Bank poverty line of US $1 per day. To get a more realistic assessment of poverty in Iraq, double the official statistics.

What’s wrenching is that well over a million kids work in often hazardous jobs, like the brick workers, & are subject to sexual abuse & violence. Some experts claim there is a strong cultural push for child labor in Iraq, that parents don’t want their kids to attend school & prefer them to start work young. Oh really? How far back does that cultural thing go? And can we get the names of those unidentified “experts” so we can have their heads examined?

Statistics on the number of children killed, maimed, starved to death by US/UN sanctions & war have been documented & 19 years ago were estimated at 500,000. When you update those figures & add in those mangled & traumatized by war, we’re looking at a lot more indictments for US war crimes. These victims were even acknowledged with pride by the despicable Madeleine Albright who said on public TV in 1996 that the gruesome deaths of those children was “worth it” to achieve US military objections. We look forward to dumping her in a grave & writing her obituary.

Join the spring actions against US war demanding “US out of Iraq!” “US out of Afghanistan!” Our fullest solidarity with the people of Iraq & Afghanistan.

(Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

Can someone from the UK give just cause why we should not feel glee at the public disgrace of Jack Straw caught on camera offering access to the government to a Chinese company in exchange for cash? He’d have mortgaged his soul too but even capitalist companies have no use for worn-out shoe leather.

Straw & the other schnook caught (Sir somebody) claim they were duped by reporters who set them up. Is that all they’re packing for defense? Is that why Straw supported the Iraq War? He was duped!? Is that why he let General Pinochet elude justice? Why he wanted the veil worn by Muslim women to be banned? Why he was implicated in extraordinary rendition allowing regimes to kidnap & transfer people from one country to another to torture them (a practice first authorized under Bill Clinton)? Would he rather be declared incompetent than exposed as criminal?

Gee I’m sorry I missed Sunday nights Academy Awards. I was looking forward to seeing “American Sniper” lose. It was awarded “Best Achievement in Sound Editing,” but no big deal. How hard is it to make sniper fire break your ear drums?

Even Lady Gaga dressed in a prom gown & singing the score of “The Sound of Music” doesn’t drown out the croaking from her gigs in Israel & her enthusiastic support for apartheid & ethnic cleansing.

And for my last pronouncement on the Academy Awards, which I did not watch (except in replay): good for Patricia Arquette for her rousing 5-second pitch about pay equality & equal rights for women. And I’m glad it wasn’t directed just at the film industry where women get a few (or is it several?) million dollars less than men.

But what a sorry-assed commentary on the US that this is still an issue in the 21st century. And that objection to racist exclusion in Hollywood was left up to Neil Patrick Harris, who emceed, & made a wee, itsy-bitsy joke out of it.