DORCHESTER PEOPLE for PEACE DPP’s Mission is to oppose current US wars and militarism as the core of our foreign policy. We work with local groups to build a multi-racial peace and justice movement throughout the neighborhoods of Dorchester; to work against the war at home -- including racism, violence, budget cuts, and political oppression; and to make clear the connection between neglect of local human needs and the movement toward a state of permanent war.  www.dotpeace.org Weekly Update,  Friday, February 27, 2015 If you don’t want to keep receiving these Updates, please reply to this email requesting to be removed from the mailing list. (See more information about this weekly email at the end) *************************************************************************** Save the Date! Next Regular DPP Membership Meeting Monday, March 9: 6:30-8:30pm, Vietnamese-American Center, 42 Charles St. (Near Fields Corner T station, Parking lot available at VACC). Agenda: Still developing, but will include updates on the Middle East war situation; Peace and Planet organizing for this April; Jobs Not Jails, Black Lives Matter activities in Boston and beyond.   Saturday, February 28: Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration,  11am-3pm, Vietnamese American Community Center, 42 Charles Street, Dorchester.  Lunar New Year is celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. Please come join VietAID to celebrate the New Year with our great community!  VietAID holds the Lunar New Year Celebration every year, more than 300 people attending in the past. This year, there will be observances of traditional ceremonies, performances, music and of course food and drinks. We sincerely hope to see you!  We are writing to invite you to attend VietAID's Lunar New Year Celebration, to welcome the Year of the Goat! In Vietnamese culture, the goat represents cleverness, politeness, tenderness and kind-heartedness.    *   *   *   * SAVE THE DATE! Sunday, March 15 St. Patrick's Peace Parade Gather 11am, D Street / West Broadway, South Boston Parade follows “official Parade” which starts: 12 noon Please join us for our 5th Annual Saint Patrick’s Peace Parade, the Alternative People’s Parade for Peace, Equality, Jobs, Environmental Stewardship, Social and Economic Justice!  Look for the white “Vets for Peace Flags” (More details to follow)   *   *   *   * DON’T LET CONGRESS (or ISRAEL!) DERAIL US-IRAN DIPLOMACY! AIPAC and even more extremist US supporters of Israel are mobilizing a pressure campaign to ensure that Democratic members of Congress attend Netanyahu’s address – and jump up and down with applause on cue. A Boston Globe op-ed (apparently not in the print edition) urged Congresspeople to boycott the speech because of the upcoming Israeli elections. (Up-to-date rundown of the speech fallout here) But the narrow focus on partisan issues diminishes the real dangers of a US Iran policy made in Tel Aviv.   As diplomats narrow gaps in Geneva, Congress readies an ambush Behind the controversy over Bibi Netanyahu’s speech to Congress about Iran, lurks an even more dangerous conflict. The dividing lines of this wider conflict are not simply between Republican leadership and the administration, or between Obama and the Israeli administration, but between Congress and most of the world. By giving Netanyahu a platform no other leader has been accorded, some in Congress are trying to mask where the international consensus on Iran lies. With promising news this week out of the nuclear talks in Geneva, the international community may be on the cusp of a historic agreement with Iran.  But bills being discussed by Congress could thwart this diplomacy and create a major rift between the U.S. and its allies… Long after Netanyahu’s speech ends, and the partisan applause fades, the U.S. will live with the consequences of Congress’ choices about Iran. If Congress chooses to play the spoiler, both isolation and war may follow.   More   Send a message to your legislators: No war with Iran Diplomacy with Iran is working, and there is strong evidence that a final deal is within reach. But some in Congress are pushing dangerous legislation that would pass new sanctions on Iran, which would blow up negotiations. It's a reckless approach that must be stopped immediately.   Netanyahu has crossed the point of no return on Iran Contrary to Israel's rhetoric, the fear of Iran getting a nuclear weapon has not been the driving factor  of Israel policy on Iran since the early 1990s. Obviously, Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon would be highly undesirable for Israel. But that has not been Israel's primary concern. Rather, the fear has been that Washington would end up finding a compromise with Iran that on the one hand would close off any Iranian path to a bomb, but on the other hand would lock in a shift in the regional balance of power in Israel's disfavor.  More   Forget Bibi: Let’s Hear More from Our NATO Allies And yet, all those clamoring for maximum attendance for Netanyahu haven’t suggested that it would perhaps be useful to hear from the leaders of the UK, France, and Germany in the same forum in order to consider the pros and cons of any agreement that is being negotiated. After all, they may offer perspectives that are actually new compared to those offered by Bibi, who denounced the Joint Program of Action of November 2014 as a “historic mistake” even before it was officially unveiled, and whose defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, said on Monday that “every deal that will be signed between the West and this messianic and apocalyptic regime will strike a severe blow to Western and Israeli interests and will allow Iran to become a nuclear threshold state and continue its terror activities” [emphasis added], thus seemingly ruling out Israeli support for any agreement between Iran and the P5+1.   More   So far only Jim McGovern and Catherine Clark from our Congressional delegation have so far announced they will skip Netanyahu’s speech; Elizabeth Warren has said that “the Netanyahu speech should be postponed." Tell Your Member of Congress not to attend.