It’s justice time for Palestinians: build BDS

Samir al-Najjar (AFP Photo:Said Khatib) Feb 2 2016

Samir al-Najjar became wheelchair-bound after being shot by Israeli soldiers in 2008. He & his family live in temporary housing in Khan Yunis, Gaza, since their home was destroyed by Israeli bombers in the 2014 carpet bombing siege. “We live–but that’s only because we’re not dead,” al-Najjar said.

It really is justice time for Palestinians. Build & honor the economic, cultural, & academic boycott of Israel. Check every label & buy nothing with a barcode beginning 729. Solidarity is imperative.

(Photo by Said Khatib/AFP)

Politicians still pushing Palestinian bantustates as solution to Israeli colonialism

Funeral of Majdi Abu Omar (Nidal Eshtayeh:Xinhua) Feb 2 2016

The French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius just announced that France will initiate an international conference to “bring about the two-state solution” for Israel & the Palestinians & will recognize a Palestinian state. Mahmoud Abbas says he’s all for the conference. What bad idea isn’t he in favor of? Monsieur Fabius should have been picked up soon after the announcement & sent back to the planet he flew in from.

There is no future in a bantustate solution for Palestinians. And no justice either. There is no future in continuing these phony peace negotiations where more concessions are wrung from disloyal & unelected Palestinian representatives. Why should Palestinians have to concede an iota to Israeli colonialism? They’ve sustained more than enough already.

When Palestinian activists propose a democratic secular state where Jews & Palestinians live as peers, that involves massive compromises & an extraordinary political & humanitarian spirit that puts the past of Israeli colonialism & apartheid behind to forge a new future based on fraternity & sorority. It’s a just solution & the only workable one.

A bantustate solution for Palestinians is a pipe dream only promoted by those committed to the existence of a Jewish-only state. It’s politically dishonest & reprehensible to blither on about a two-state solution whilst Israel continues to move in Jewish settlers from all over Kingdom Come to take over & live on Palestinian lands. Israel has no intentions of a bantustate solution. That’s what ethnic cleansing is all about–to make Palestinians go away. To believe otherwise is more idiotic than to be on Medicare & still believing in the tooth fairy.

The French initiative came after UN official Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council that Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank ‘raised questions about its commitment to a two-state solution.’ Can’t get anything past that guy! Members of the UN Security Council didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. The US is sitting there listening while, by Obama’s own admission, they’re bankrolling the settlements. How much of this charade are we expected to play along with?

If there’s going to be any international conferences about Palestinian justice, it should exclude the shysters trying to get something past us. It should instead involve Palestinian activists educating other activists about the problems they face & how we can build solidarity with them; it should be about building BDS; & it should be about promoting a democratic secular solution that is the only possible solution. Enough with the bantustate drivel. Enough with the treacheries. It’s justice time.

This is the funeral cortege of 29-year-old Palestinian Majdi Abu Omar who was shot dead near Nablus, West Bank by Israeli soldiers. There isn’t much information about his murder except a vilifying reference to him as a “gunman.” That’s not how we see those who stand up against Israeli colonialism. May he Rest In Peace.

(Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua)

What just happened in Iowa caucus elections?

Sanders in Iowa

If there’s anything more rigged than a craps game, it’s the US electoral system. We’re hearing all about the election results in Iowa, like it meant something, but few could tell you what actually took place. The Iowa caucus elections that took place last night have nothing to do with popular democracy but instead play a role in the ruling elite’s method for vetting the electability of candidates.

Iowans did not go to the polls. Those who voted in the one-hour procedure were a tiny minority of people from both parties who actually attend infrequent meetings called precinct caucuses. Neither party is a membership organization; they’re elite apparatuses for electoral purposes. The caucus structure of the two parties is a hack job that gives a semblance of democratic control that does not exist.

How I know this is only because I worked my way through college & one of my jobs was for Margaret Harding, the former head of the Minnesota Democratic Party (DFL), & a preeminent snob. Though she disdained me as working class, she encouraged me to join a DFL precinct caucus prior to the 1968 elections. People who have illusions in that party should join a caucus because you will see what I did: that it had nothing to do with my life or my political & economic interests.

The people who attended were snobs, hacks; half of my caucus were members of the Communist Party (CP) who I knew from the antiwar movement. At the same meeting they voted for withdrawal from Vietnam & endorsed pro-war candidate Hubert Humphrey for president–contradictions principled people cannot live with. The members of the CP were in the DFL because they are committed to changing it from the inside. But it changed them & not for the better.

What happened in Iowa is significant to the power brokers in both parties in order to gauge what to do in this election which has become a fiasco. Even if Sanders took the caucus vote in a sweep, it doesn’t mean those who really run the Democratic Party would nominate him as candidate. They can’t deliver on his rhetoric. The GOP power structure would be down on their hands & knees thanking God that Trump lost but it’s more likely they engineered the outcome. That’s how rigged the game is.

Tribute to Shaimaa al-Sabbagh & all who died for Egyptian democracy

Shaimaa al-Sabbagh

Shaimaa al-Sabbagh was an Egyptian socialist & activist who was shot to death on January 24th 2015 when police attacked a peaceful protest with tear gas & bird pellets. The protesters were marching to commemorate those many activists killed during the Egyptian uprising of 2011 that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Many have drawn cynical conclusions from the reversal of the Egyptian uprising. It’s easier to be a cynical smart-ass than it is to sustain hope because the latter doesn’t rely on miracles or deus ex machina solutions but requires diligent commitment. That’s why al-Sabbagh has become a symbol of resistance to Egypt’s military junta–because despite massive repression, she dared defiance. That’s what makes Palestinians & Kashmiris so politically vital–that they dare defiance against what seems all odds.

We should take a moment to honor Shaimaa al-Sabbagh & all those who lost their lives in the Arab uprisings that began five years ago. The revolutions against tyranny aren’t over. Social transformation is not child’s play nor for smart-alecks so the forces of change need time to recover from the blows, assess what happened, & reassemble under conditions of extreme repression.

The image on the left is a photograph of the moment of the police murder of Shaimaa al-Sabbagh at a peaceful protest commemorating the 2011 revolution ousting Hosni Mubarak. She was part of a protest going to lay flowers in Tahrir Square in honor of those who died. The moment of her death has become a political icon & a grafitti call to arms now appearing on Cairo’s streets.

Our deepest respect & fullest solidarity with the democracy movement in Egypt. May we learn from them how to stand against tyranny as they did–without flinching.

(Photo from Reuters; stencil from twitter)

(This is repost from February 2nd, 2015)

Bombing of Yemen is attempt to destroy every vestige of Yemen uprising of 2011

Yemen uprising 2011

The justifications given for the barbaric bombing siege of Yemen, now gone on for nearly a year, include the threat of the Houthi insurgency & role of Iran. Somewhere along the line, they appear to have dropped the fear-mongering about Al-Qaeda which the US used for years to justify drone bombing in Yemen & restrictions on civil liberties in the US.

The massive destruction is an attempt to wipe out every trace of the Yemeni uprising in 2011 that was massive, determined, powerful, defiant, & often led by women in burqas. Even after it was thwarted by the intervention & maneuvers of other regimes in the region (most prominently Saudi Arabia), protests continued, including to demand the release of Yemeni citizens held in Guantanamo. Stealth graffiti was often the only form of protest.

The monarchical & military regimes involved in this barbarism against Yemen, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, Kuwait, Qatar, Sudan, UAE, along with the US & UK, are terrified at the prospect of democracy in the Middle East because it is at odds with the best interests of tyranny in all its many forms.

The scope of the relentless savagery against the people of Yemen is to signal not just to people in the Middle East but around the world that resistance to tyranny will be crushed without mercy. Those of us not under the bombs have every obligation to stand with the people of Yemen by rebuilding the international antiwar movement. They led the way where we must follow.

Our deepest respect for the people of Yemen; our most heartfelt regrets the antiwar movement is too weak to stop the violence against you.

(Photo is protest in Sana’a on March 30, 2011 as part of Yemeni uprising, by Muhammed Muheisen/AP)

Haute couture leads the way to Armageddon

Paris fashion show ( Patrick Kovarik:AFP:Getty Images) Feb 1 2016

Isn’t creativity supposed to be capitalism’s vaunted selling point? Is there a problem with the creativity thing developing in haute couture? Has neoliberal degeneration begun to manifest on the runway? Will the fashion world get to Armageddon before the rest of us? And is this how we’ll all be dressed?

(Photo by Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images)

When it comes to refugees & asylum rights there is only one option: solidarity or barbarism

Refugees at Idomeni, Greece (Alexandros Avramidis:Reuters) Feb 1 2016

Is any commentary on this photo necessary? Because we are speechless in condemnation of European refugee policies. This is Idomeni, Greece at the border with Macedonia where nighttime temperatures are just above freezing. These refugees–already exhausted, traumatized from loss, afraid for their children, elders, disabled, infirm, & their futures–are still forced to endure inhuman conditions–with miles & months to go before the ordeal ends. Most have no idea where they will end up.

Sixty-million people across the globe on the move fleeing from war, bombing, impoverishment. They present only one option to humanity: solidarity or barbarism.

(Photo by Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters)

The killing fields of Yemen

Yemen rubble ( Hani Mohammed:AP) Feb 1 2016

The killing fields of Yemen–now being democratized by a Saudi-led US-backed alliance of feudal monarchies & military juntas bombing it to smithereens. You can’t tell the difference between Yemen, Syria, & Gaza.

The old saying that ‘politics makes strange bedfellows’ needs to be updated for the neoliberal era, the barbaric phase of capitalism. There’s nothing strange at all that the US & UK are in league with Saudi Arabia, a regime that started the new year with a mass beheading of 47 people on January 2nd & which has been bombing Yemen since March of last year.

Last year, we learned of the extent of the Obama administration’s involvement in the merciless bombing with increased arms sales & logistical & intelligence support. Now we learn that under Cameron the UK increased bomb & missile exports to Saudi Arabia from £9 million to £1 billion just over three months last year.

It now stands exposed that UK military advisers are sitting in Saudi war rooms providing instruction & assistance to the bombing in Yemen, using British planes & bombs targeting schools, homes, & the healthcare system. It’s reported 130 medical facilities have been taken out by bombs; 2.4 million have been driven from their homes; 14 million are “food insecure,” with half on the starvation point & no access to clean water or sanitation; nearly 19 million out of 24 million Yemenis are now dependent on humanitarian aid for survival–with no report on how much aid is actually being delivered in the middle of a killing field. Saudi Arabia doesn’t have the lock on barbarism.

The bombing has killed an estimated 6,000 Yemenis. Some reports say half of them are civilians; other reports claim an estimated 93 percent are civilians. Who the hell would the others be? There are reports of 10,000 Saudi ground troops & thousands of mercenaries deployed by the United Arab Emirates but no reports about the Yemeni military in the field.

A UN panel investigating the bombing campaign issued a 51-page report exposing “widespread & systematic” attacks on civilian targets & raising questions about the role of the British military advisers. The UN also says the naval blockade & bombing have created a “humanitarian catastrophe” in Yemen & involve violations of international humanitarian law. Well what about some UN sanctions then against the Saudi coalition, the US & UK–like they imposed on Iraq to justify US bombing?

The people in this photo are inspecting a house in Sana’a, Yemen which was destroyed by a Saudi bomber made in Britain under the direction of British advisers using US intelligence.

The historic imperative remains: rebuild the international antiwar movement.

End the bombing in Yemen!

(Photo by Hani Mohammed/AP)

Chomsky is not an infallible god: no gods, no gurus–only teachers

Forgive me for not thinking Noam Chomsky a god & daring to disagree with him. Plebeian women have no such rights when even breathing air is an infringement of elite male entitlement. Yeah right! That’ll fly on my wall. If you insult me for criticizing Chomsky because I’m unworthy, imagine what vituperations you’ll unleash. I detest elitism & am not real polite about it. So don’t push your luck if that’s your schtick.

BDS shows up on “The Good Wife” episode

BDS was part of the plot line on “The Good Wife” episode tonight. It was awkwardly presented & somewhat confusing, but the character Diane Lockhart legally defended a student who wrote an article about the boycott of Israel after the school defunded the student newspaper for publishing it. It was surprising they didn’t have the author morph into a terrorist which is how they usually portray Arabs & Muslims on these shows.

There isn’t much info about the politics of lead Good Wife actress Juliana Margulis. Her American parents lived in Israel for a short time & her father-in-law works for the Brookings Institute, but you can’t draw much from that about her. Because her husband is Jewish & Irish, she used to frequently quip that their son would be proficient as a thinker & a drinker. I wrote her a note saying it was great that she acknowledged the intellectual achievements of the Irish but that she shouldn’t disparage Jewish people that way. They had considerable intellectual achievements of their own, just like all other nationalities, & weren’t known for drinking any more than others