Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

END the

MASSACRE in GAZA!



National March in Washington


#FreePalestine

#2DC4Gaza
Sat. Aug. 2, 1pmat the White HouseBUSES LEAVING FROM BOSTON!ANSWERcoalition.org H boston@ANSWERcoalition.org H 857-334-5084


Sponsors: ANSWER Coalition, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition, CODEPINK, Muslim Legal Fund of America, World Can’t Wait, Partership for Civil Justice, MAS Immigrant Justice Center, UNAC - United National Antiwar Coalition, Islamic Circle of North America

As The 100th Anniversary Of The Beginning of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Starts ... Some Remembrances-Dulce et Decorum Est

Dulce et Decorum Est

Dulce et Decorum Est

By Wilfred Owen 1893–1918 Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

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NOTES: Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

Source: Poems (Viking Press, 1921)

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Discover this poem’s context and related poetry, articles, and media.

Poet Wilfred Owen 1893–1918

POET’S REGIONEngland

SCHOOL / PERIODModern

SubjectsWar & Conflict, Living, Social Commentaries, Death

Poetic TermsRhymed Stanza

 

From The Pen Of American Communist Party Founder And Trotskyist Leader James P. Cannon

Click below to link to the “James P. Cannon Internet Archives.”

http://www.marxists.org/archive/cannon/works/index.htm

*************

Markin comment on founding member James P. Cannon and the early American Communist Party taken from a book review, James P. Cannon and the Early American Communist Party, on the “American Left History” blog:

If you are interested in the history of the American Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past mistakes of our history and want to know some of the problems that confronted the early American Communist Party and some of the key personalities, including James Cannon, who formed that party this book is for you.

At the beginning of the 21st century after the demise of the Soviet Union and the apparent ‘death of communism’ it may seem fantastic and utopian to today’s militants that early in the 20th century many anarchist, socialist, syndicalist and other working class militants of this country coalesced to form an American Communist Party. For the most part, these militants honestly did so in order to organize an American socialist revolution patterned on and influenced by the Russian October Revolution of 1917. James P. Cannon represents one of the important individuals and faction leaders in that effort and was in the thick of the battle as a central leader of the Party in this period. Whatever his political mistakes at the time, or later, one could certainly use such a militant leader today. His mistakes were the mistakes of a man looking for a revolutionary path.

For those not familiar with this period a helpful introduction by the editors gives an analysis of the important fights which occurred inside the party. That overview highlights some of the now more obscure personalities (a helpful biographical glossary is provided), where they stood on the issues and insights into the significance of the crucial early fights in the party.

These include questions which are still relevant today; a legal vs. an underground party; the proper attitude toward parliamentary politics; support to third- party bourgeois candidates;trade union policy; class-war prisoner defense as well as how to rein in the intense internal struggle of the various factions for organizational control of the party. This makes it somewhat easier for those not well-versed in the intricacies of the political disputes which wracked the early American party to understand how these questions tended to pull it in on itself. In many ways, given the undisputed rise of American imperialism in the immediate aftermath of World War I, this is a story of the ‘dog days’ of the party. Unfortunately, that rise combined with the international ramifications of the internal disputes in the Russian Communist Party and in the Communist International shipwrecked the party as a revolutionary party toward the end of this period.

In the introduction the editors motivate the purpose for the publication of the book by stating the Cannon was the finest Communist leader that America had ever produced. This an intriguing question. The editors trace their political lineage back to Cannon’s leadership of the early Communist Party and later after his expulsion to the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party so their perspective is obvious. What does the documentation provided here show? I would argue that the period under study represented Cannon’s apprenticeship. Although the hothouse politics of the early party clarified some of the issues of revolutionary strategy for him I believe that it was not until he linked up with Trotsky in the late 1920’s that he became the kind of leader who could lead a revolution. Of course, since Cannon never got a serious opportunity to lead revolutionary struggles in America this is mainly reduced to speculation on my part. Later books written by him make the case better. One thing is sure- in his prime he had the instincts to want to lead a revolution.

As an addition to the historical record of this period this book is a very good companion to the two-volume set by Theodore Draper - The Roots of American Communism and Soviet Russia and American Communism- the definitive study on the early history of the American Communist Party. It is also a useful companion to Cannon’s own The First Ten Years of American Communism. I would add that this is something of a labor of love on the part of the editors. This book was published at a time when the demise of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was in full swing and anything related to Communist studies was deeply discounted. Nevertheless, for better or worse, the American Communist Party (and its offshoots) needs to be studied as an ultimately flawed example of a party that failed in its mission to create a radical version of society in America. Now is the time to study this history.

***Free The Cuban Five- Ahora!-In Defense Of The Cuban Revolution

The following is being passed on from the Partisan Defense Committee (2008). Please note the link to the National Committee to Free the Five below to find more information about the Cuban Five. As always here is a case where defense of the Cuban revolution begins concretely with the defense of the Five- Libertad Ahora!

http://freethefive.org/

The Cuban Five have now been incarcerated for almost ten years. Three Cuban citizens and two U.S. citizens who infiltrated and monitored violent anti-communist exile groups in Florida in order to stop terrorist attacks against Cuba, these men were arrested in 1998 under the Clinton administration on bogus charges of conspiracy to commit espionage and murder, as well as lesser charges like failing to register as agents of a foreign power. After being tried in Miami, a den of counterrevolutionary gusano (worm) activities, Gerardo Hernandez was sentenced to two life terms plus 15 years; Antonio Guerrero and Ram6n Labanino to life plus ten and 18 years, respectively; Fernando Gonzalez to 19 years; and Rene Gonzalez to 15 years. They are held in federal maximum security prisons, separated by hundreds of miles from loved ones, their lawyers and each other. As Marxists, we demand immediate freedom for the Cuban Five, whose heroic actions were in defense of the Cuban Revolution against U.S. imperialism and its counterrevolutionary agents.

From the CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, to the repeated attempts on Fidel Castro's life, to the ongoing starvation embargo, the U.S. imperialists, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, have never ceased in their drive to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. In 2002, Ana Belen Montes, a Defense Intelligence Agency officer, was sentenced to 25 years for passing military information to the Cuban government.

In their drive to restore capitalism in Cuba, the U.S. rulers have trained terrorists like Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles, who engineered the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airliner that killed 73 people. In the 1990s, as the Cuban government began to promote tourism, gusano groups launched a campaign of bombings that targeted hotels and airport buses in an attempt to cripple the economy. Posada has admitted to masterminding bombings of tourist spots in Havana in 1997 that killed an Italian businessman. We say: Send Posada and Bosch back to Cuba to be tried by their victims!

It was in the context of such terrorist activity that gusano activities were being monitored by the Cuban Five, three of whom were veterans of Cuba's military campaign in Angola that in the 1970s and '80s fought the U.S.-sponsored invasion by the South African apartheid regime. In June 1998, the Cuban government shared its intelligence on gusano terrorist activity with the FBI. In September of that year, the FBI arrested the Cubans instead of the CIA's "ex"-employees.

The government built its case on "conspiracy to commit espionage" charges, conspiracy charges being the hallmark of political witchhunts when the government has no evidence that an actual crime has been committed. Months after their arrest, "conspiracy to commit murder" was tacked on to the charges against Gerardo Hernandez in connection with the deaths of four pilots from the Brothers to the Rescue gusano outfit. The latter were shot down by the Cuban air force in 1996 after repeatedly and provocatively flying into Cuban airspace in a brazen challenge to the country's air defenses.

Held in Miami, the trial was engulfed in anti-communist hysteria and intimidation of anyone not toeing the gusano line on Cuba. The judge refused five defense requests for a change of venue. During jury selection, potential jurors asked to be excused, fearing the consequences of rendering an "unsatisfactory" verdict. The impaneled jurors' license plates appeared on nightly news broadcasts. The prosecution claimed that Guerrero, who worked as a janitor at the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West, had endangered secret U.S. military plans by watching aircraft take off and land in training exercises. As Guerrero's lawyer pointed out, the information he gathered "could've been published in the Miami Herald." So inflamed was the atmosphere that the jury even convicted Hernandez of conspiracy murder charges that the prosecution itself had already concluded would be an "insurmountable hurdle" to prove!

In 2005, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta threw out the 2001 convictions and ordered a new trial in a new venue because of the "pervasive community prejudice" in Miami. The Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales appealed for a rehearing by the full court, which reinstated the convictions in August 2006. Last August, another three-judge panel heard oral arguments in the case that this time focused on the bogus murder and espionage charges and the gross prosecutorial misconduct.

The brutality these five men endure in prison is designed to break them and echoes the treatment of other class-war prisoners like Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Before their trial even started, the Cuban Five spent 17 months in solitary. Between their convictions in June and their sentencing in December 2001, they spent 48 days in the hole. In 2003 as they worked on their first appeal, they were sent to solitary and denied communication with the outside world, even their lawyers.

Every family visit involves an arduous and arbitrary visa process. Sometimes a relative waits out the precious time they are allotted and never gets to see their loved one. Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, has been repeatedly denied a visa. Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene Gonzalez, was deported on phony spy charges in 2000.

In combatting the degenerate end-products of a decaying capitalism, the Cuban Five have performed a service not only in defense of Cuba but for working people throughout the hemisphere and around the world. Free the Cuban Five! Defend the Cuban Revolution

******

Good News For The Cuban Five-Free The Rest (Feb 27,2014)

Cuban Spy Set to Be Released from U.S. Prison

 

A Cuban intelligence officer convicted of spying in the United States was set to be released from federal prison on Thursday after serving around 15 years.

Fernando Gonzalez, 50, a member of the so-called Cuban Five, will be released and is expected to return to Cuba in a few days, the Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald reported.

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Gonzalez and fellow members of the spy ring -- that was also known as the Miami Five -- were arrested in 1998. The Cuban government eventually acknowledged that they targeted anti-Cuban government exile groups in the United States but denied they spied on American interests. All five were convicted of spying on U.S. military installations.

One member of the group, Gerardo Hernandez, was charged with conspiracy to murder after he gathered information on Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exile group that dropped anti-government leaflets on Cuba. Four members of Brothers to the Rescue died in 1996 after their two planes were shot down by the Cuban air force. Hernandez was handed a double life sentence plus 15 years.

Rene Gonzalez, another member of the jailed group, was released in 2011. Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero remain in prison.

F. Brinley Bruton and Mary Murray of NBC News contributed to this report.

DRONES: Free Online Screening on July 30th -- You'll Want to See This By David Swanson http://warisacrime.org/content/drones-free-online-screening-july-30th-youll-want-see There's a chance to watch DRONES, the movie, online on July 30th and then to join a discussion with filmmakers and experts.  There's a preview video below. The movie's website is at http://dronesthefilm.com and the free screening is at http://demandprogress.tv/drones I saw a screening of this film back in November at the drone summit in DC. It's wonderful. I was a bit put-off and staggered, to be frank, at the time, because someone involved with the film bragged about how inexpensively it had been made, and yet the budget was so unfathomably huge that I knew that if an anti-war organization had that kind of money we could hire organizers all over the world and quite possibly make the abolition of war a major mainstream force.  And, of course, you can't simply ask if the money was well spent, because no one will say that it was spent to end the practice of drone murder.  The director and the cast, of course, say they wanted to make a socially important film about a serious issue, but not what they wanted to accomplish, beyond raising questions and being entertaining.  Everyone's always happy to say that a film opposes racism or cruelty to animals or bullying, but not war.  But, you hundreds of millions of odd-balls who, like me, happen to give a damn whether your government is murdering people in your name with your money will, in fact, want to make this film a huge viral success.  I'm telling you, right now, it's a good one.  It is indeed entertaining.  It's not simple, predictable, pedantic, or preaching.  But neither is the film itself reluctant to face head-on the banal, evil, arrogant mass-murder engaged in by these young people who dress up in pilots suits to sit at desks in trailers taking orders from military bureaucrats and private contractors, and ultimately from a president who reviews a list of potential men, women, and children to murder on Tuesdays.  [aka: Assassination Tuesdays] Drones look like a golden opportunity to war makers who don't want to ask Congress or the U.N. or the public, don't want to send in armies, just want to target people and groups for death anywhere in the world and obliterate them with the push of a button from an air-conditioned -- or, sometimes not so air-conditioned -- office. But drones also look like a golden opportunity to those of us who have been trying to point out that murder and war are distinguished only by scale.  I suspect that many who cannot see the bombing of a city as murder will see the drone-targeting of an individual as nothing else -- particularly if they watch this film. If you can watch the film and not want to Ban Weaponized Drones, watch it again.

Copyright © 2014 Voices for Creative Nonviolence, All rights reserved. You are receiving our newsletter because you either signed up at vcnv.org or signed up at one of our events. Our mailing address is: Voices for Creative Nonviolence 1249 W Argyle Street Chicago, IL 60640

------ Original Message --------

No Fracked Gas in Mass

— BOSTON RALLY  – July 30, 2014 – Info Here
— Latest News & Thoughts Blog
— Annotated FAQ about the Proposed Pipeline
— What you can do!

Our Current Mission:   To stop the Kinder Morgan/TGP Northeast Energy Direct project (a high-pressure gas pipeline planned by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, to run from Richmond in Berkshire County through to Dracut, north of Boston.)

Our Broader Mission:   To stop the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in Massachusetts and to promote expanded efficiency and sustainable, renewable sources of energy and local, permanent jobs in a clean energy economy.

Why the pipeline is being proposed:

Concerned about possible shortages of energy grid supply once the region’s coal, oil and nuclear plants are off-line in a few years, all six New England Governors signed a letter, urging regional cooperation between them to make sure the grid stays sufficiently supplied.  They asked ISO New England and NESCOE to investigate what would be necessary.  Studies by these organizations resulted in a plan to upgrade efficiency of the grid and to bring an extra 0.6 Billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/day) of natural gas capacity into New England, along with an unprecedented tariff on all electric ratepayers to cover the costs of the new infrastructure.

According to KM/TGP’s meetings with selectboards across the state, thier pipeline proposal is in direct response to this plan, but they pipeline they’re proposing is 2.2 Bcf/day. They say they will need to secure at least 0.7 Bcf/day to make the project worth their while but have not publicly disclosed how much is already slated in contracts they’re currently developing.

Concerns over how the Governor’s letter and NESCOE’s creation of the tariff came about were raised in a report from Conservation Law Foundation, which presented a substantial amount of evidence that closed door meetings with energy companies led to the request for more pipeline capacity.
Read CLF’s report

Why the pipeline is being opposed:

The proposed pipeline path runs through hundreds of private properties and through some of the state’s most sensitive ecosystems and would be paid for through new tariffs on our electric bills.

We have been researching the need for this pipeline (or lack thereof), environmental and economic impacts and presenting across the state since February and are constantly updating and filling out with new findings.

LOW DEMAND SCENARIO SHOWS NO NEED
Studies commissioned by NESCOE and conducted by Black & Veatch show that if current levels of state energy efficiency programs continue, there is no need for additional natural gas infrastructure even with economic growth taken into account.  This is called the “Low Demand Scenario”.  The low demand scenario is the only one that was never cost-analyzed as a possible solution to current peak demand crunches in electric generation gas supply.  ISO New England’s own report states that their number one challenge is dependence on natural gas.  Yet ISO New England and NESCOE are calling for more pipeline capacity, rather than first developing more efficiency and clean energy solutions.

POOR INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT
Even if there were an actual need, there are currently enough leaks in the existing infrastructure to provide another 400 MW of power. The two most dangerous classes of these leaks are now slated to be fixed under new legislation that has passed, but repairing Class 3 leaks (considered non-dangerous) is not mandatory. We think it should be.

There are also existing pipelines that are standing at least partially unused.  Using these to capacity to store gas during non-peak times can keep enough reserve to cover the few days every winter when peak demand drives up prices. This project is not being driven by a shortage of gas supply, just a shortage of cheap gas available to electric generation plants during extremely cold weather when people use more of the gas supply for heat.

» Inefficiencies in the grid are a problem nationwide.

OVERSIZED SOLUTION TO PROPOSED “PROBLEM” – LIKELY EXPORT
Even if the Low Demand Scenario was not proven, the amount of additional pipeline capacity requested by NESCOE is 0.6 Billion cubic feet a day (Bcf/d), but the Northeast Energy Direct pipeline project proposed by KM/TGP is being planned for 2.2 Bcf/d.

With nearly four times the capacity called for, where is the other three quarters of that capacity destined? The terminal hub in Dracut is also connection point to the Martimes & Northeast (M&NE) pipeline which has just applied to switch direction, bringing gas from Massachusetts, through Maine to the Maritimes of Canada, where two ports have just applied to switch from import to export. There is also new potential for export from facilities in Maine and Everett, MA.

In selectboard meetings across the state, KM representatives have repeatedly said that they have no control over who their customers are, so exports are on the table. Their own open season bidding memo  called from LNG developers and customers in the Maritimes as well as local distribution and electric utilities.

NATURAL GAS POLLUTES MORE THAN EXISTING GRID SOURCES in MA
Looking into the CO2 emissions averaged over all sources of electric generation in MA, the average per source is 910 lb. per MWh. The average natural gas generation plant is 1,210 lb. per MWh.  Natural gas has done it’s “bridge” work.  With renewables phasing in at an unprecedented rate, adding more natural gas would now take is in the wrong direction for achieving the state’s greenhouse gas emissions goals – based on CO2 output alone.

Natural gas is also primarily methane, a greenhouse gas over 86 times more powerful than CO2. When a full accounting of methane’s impact is taken into consideration, studies show that it has no benefit over coal or oil in reducing greenhouse gas effects.

Natural gas is often touted as a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy economy.  We are standing at the far end, having crossed that “bridge”.  It’s time to step forward into that future we’ve been building.

Opposition to the Pipeline

Project overview memo
Letter to NESCOE

WHAT YOU CAN DO!

WHAT WE ARE DOING

• Making informational presentations across the state, showing what the pipeline components would be, where the areas of concern are, what the possible impacts would be and why it’s not necessary and an unfair economic and ecological burden.
  
  
• Organizing the impacted landowners, towns,  concerned citizens, and others to resist the pipeline project
  
  
• Creating space for groups and individuals to find and share information, organize,  collaborate, and plan — Networking with elected officials, regulators and clean energy experts to help form strategy for transitioning to a clean energy economy, creating local, permanent, climate-friendly jobs

Check our tally of progress – and realize that it’s only the tip of the iceberg.  Please explore our website and contact us with any questions or suggestions.

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

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‘West moral claims shattered in Gaza’ The silence and inaction of the Western governments over Israel’s crimes in Gaza has obliterated any residual moral standing that the West has claimed for itself, a political analyst tells Press TV. In a Tuesday interview with Press TV, Jim W. Dean, Chief Editor of Veteran’s Today, slammed the West for turning a blind eye to Israel’s crimes, saying, “The whole reputation and morality of Western jurisprudence and everything is … on display here as to how decrepit it is, and how hollowed out, and how it really represents nothing.” “Any claim to any morality by Western governments is … dying in Gaza as we speak” The analyst also lashed out at the UN for its failure to put an end to Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and said, “They never contribute anything to try to end this because they would rather be a friend of Israel than a friend to the Arabs and the Palestinians in Gaza. For them they have earned a special disgrace for their behavior.”  The Israeli regime is continuing its relentless aerial and ground attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip for the 22nd consecutive day, causing more deaths and destruction. At least 100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed and many more injured since the Israeli regime escalated the war on Gaza Monday night. Since July 8, Israeli warplanes have been pounding numerous sites in the Gaza Strip, demolishing houses and burying families in the rubble. Israeli forces also began a ground offensive against the impoverished Palestinian land on July 17. The overall death toll among the Palestinians in more than three weeks of Israeli attacks has neared 1,200. More than 6,700 others have been injured. Exceprt: Press TV: Whether or not the attacks do end today, tomorrow or within the week the question is these internationally regarded crimes have been committed in the Gaza strip against the people of Palestine, the Palestinians in Gaza... What I’d like to know is will the Israelis ever be held accountable for what they commit in the West Bank against the people of Gaza; the past three wars over the past 5-6 years; and also the atrocities and crimes they commit in the region altogether? Dean: Well what we have on display here once again is Israeli supremacism put out before the whole world that: we can do this, we will do it on our terms; when the pile of bodies gets big enough that we think is big enough we will stop and we will not stop before then. And Mr. Kerry can twiddle his thumbs and do this; and they can stop the air flights; but they’re showing once again... they were really worried about the (Hamas Fatah PLO) coalition government and I think that what happened is that they saw this as a very big threat and we’ve just got to blow the whole thing up and buy ourselves another couple of years - which is what they usually do with these Gaza attacks.http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/07/29/373269/any-west-claim-to-morality-dying-in-gaza/ No Human can Brook Zionist Crimes Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip cannot be countenanced by any conscientious human being.  “The catastrophes and crimes by the Zionists in Gaza are not tolerable for any human being,” Rouhani said in a Tuesday meeting with Iranian ministers, deputies and state authorities. The Iranian president expressed hope that all Muslims in the world would fulfill their human and Islamic duty in the face of the Israeli regime’s brutal attacks against the Palestinians. “The Zionists behave very savagely as they do not even have an iota of conscience and mercy and are only after their own interests,” he added. Rouhani further expressed hope that peace and stability would return to the region, particularly in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, adding that all countries will benefit from sustainable stability in the Middle East. “Maintaining stability in the region will be beneficial to all regional countries and the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on its humanitarian and religious duties, has been making its utmost efforts to settle regional woes.” The Israeli regime is carrying out brutal acts in Gaza by killing civilians, particularly children and women because Tel Aviv only seeks to achieve its own interests, he pointed out. Since July 8, Israeli warplanes have been pounding numerous sites in the Gaza Strip, demolishing houses and burying families in the rubble. Israeli forces also began a ground offensive against the impoverished Palestinian land on July 17. The Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 22-day deadly military offensive against the blockaded Gaza Strip has risen to at least 1,159. More than 6,700 others have been injured in the Israeli onslaught. Countries divorcing from Israhell, recalling ambassadors just a tip of the wave: Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Brazil recall envoys from Israel citizens of  Ireland  and elsewhere are demanding their countries recall  ambassadors to Israel Related: Erdogan ‘glad’ to return Jewish award Kashmiris slam Israel’s war on Gaza Tesco Ireland takes a small step towards boycotting Israeli goods Why won’t the US investigate Israeli violence against US citizens? Josh Ruebner, The Electronic Intifada, 19 July 2014 Earlier this month, fifteen-year-old Tariq Abukhdeir, a US citizen from Tampa, Florida, was savagely beaten by undercover Israeli police in the Shuafat neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. The attack was caught on video, showing Israeli police repeatedly kicking and punching Abukhdeir in the face and head as he lay handcuffed on the ground. According to the Palestinian human rights organization Addameer, Abukhdeir was arrested without charge and denied urgently needed medical attention and access to his family for five hours. He was released on bail after three days in Israeli jail and placed under house arrest before returning to Florida on 16 July. On 5 July, the US State Department called “for a speedy, transparent and credible investigation and full accountability for any excessive use of force” in Abukhdeir’s beating. However, in previous instances of Israel injuring and even killing US citizens, the United States has pressed similar demands, only to have Israel thumb its nose at its benefactor. History of attacks Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Olympia, Washington, was run over and killed by an Israeli soldier operating a militarized Caterpillar bulldozer as she nonviolently attempted to prevent a Palestinian home from being demolished in the Gaza Strip on 16 March 2003. Although the Israeli government promised the United States a “thorough, credible and transparent” investigation into her death, the State Department informed the Corrie family that the Israeli investigation did not meet these standards. But instead of taking up her case, the US government left the family to its own devices, counseling the Corries to “use the Israeli court system” to seek accountability. The case is now on appeal at the Israeli high court, after a lower court ruled against the Corrie family, blaming Rachel for her own death. On 5 April 2003, Brian Avery, a 24-year-old activist from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was shot in the face in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli soldiers who fired machine guns from an armored personnel carrier. Tristan Anderson, a 37-year-old activist from Oakland, California, suffered permanent brain damage after Israeli forces shot him in the forehead with a high-velocity tear gas canister as he observed a protest in the West Bank village of Nilin in March 2009. Furkan Doğan, an 18-year-old Turkish resident born in Troy, New York, was killed aboard the Mavi Marmara in the Mediterranean Sea on 31 May 2010 as a flotilla of international activists attempted to break Israel’s illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip and to deliver humanitarian goods. The United Nations’ General Assembly Human Rights Council found that Doğan was killed by Israeli naval commandos in an “extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution,” shot five times, including a shot to his face at “point blank range.” Broken promises According to documents obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) through a Freedom of Information Act request, State Department officials were promised by the Israeli foreign ministry that “each incident” on the flotilla involving US citizens “would be thoroughly and transparently investigated by appropriate GOI [Government of Israel] agencies and that information from those investigations will be made available to the [US government] as soon as they are available.” CCR concluded, however, that “the Israeli government at every step of the way declined to provide the US government information regarding the investigation,” which was eventually released without “any information about how and under what circumstances Furkan was killed.” Nevertheless, as of February 2013, the Obama administration still had not “conducted its own investigation into the killing,” instead continuing “to defer to the Israeli government’s investigation,” according to CCR. The same day that Israel killed Furkan Doğan, 21-year-old Emily Henochowicz of Potomac, Maryland, participated in a protest against Israel’s attack on the flotilla at the Qalandiya checkpoint near Jerusalem. An Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister at her face, causing her to lose an eye. Impunity Israel’s pattern of injuring and killing Americans has drawn a woefully inadequate response not only from the White House, but from Congress as well, and is symptomatic of the broader impunity the United States affords Israel to commit systematic and egregious human rights abuses against Palestinians and anyone standing in solidarity with them. A resolution introduced in 2003 by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) called for a US investigation into Rachel Corrie’s killing and garnered 77 co-sponsors but died in committee. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a resolution in 2010 merely calling on the United States and Israel to “intensify their cooperation in determining the circumstances” of Tristan Anderson’s injury; it gained a paltry four co-sponsors. A US Senate report accompanying a 2011 appropriations bill would have required the State Department to report on actions taken “to conduct thorough, credible and transparent investigations” of these and other incidents in which US citizens were harmed by Israel; however, this reporting requirement was rendered moot since Congress failed to pass separate appropriations bills that year. It is atrocious enough that the US government has failed in its most elemental duty to advocate for justice for those of its citizens injured or killed by Israel. This disgraceful position is even more scandalous given that the weapons used to injure or kill these Americans was, definitely in some and potentially in all of these cases, provided to Israel by the United States as part of its more than $3 billion per year military aid package. Thus, ironically, the US taxpayer is funding the Israeli military to injure and kill US citizens with US weapons with the US government failing to hold Israel accountable for its actions. Last month, after US forces apprehended Ahmed Abu Khatallah — suspected of involvement in the attack on State Department and CIA installations in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans — President Barack Obama declared unequivocally “that we will do whatever it takes to see that justice is done when people harm Americans.” It is high time for the United States to end the double standard that affords Israel impunity to injure and kill Americans and to see that justice is done for them. Josh Ruebner is the author of Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Policy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

 

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Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel -VFP
Statement Against Israeli Assault on Gaza

VFP
Statement Against Israeli Assault on Gaza
2014
Veterans For Peace National Convention
Asheville, North
Carolina
July 26, 2014
As
veterans who have witnessed the horror of war, we are deeply outraged by
the State of Israel's slaughter of many innocent civilians in Gaza.
The military assault against children, women and men, by air, by sea
and now by land, is a clear violation of international laws of war
and of human rights. Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been murdered,
almost all of them civilians, nearly a quarter of them children. Over
5,000 are wounded.
Veterans
For Peace joins millions of people all around the globewho are shocked by this vicious, one-sided slaughter. We understand
the huge injustice of the Israeli occupation. Palestinians have been
ethnically cleansed from their homes and forced to live in the
Occupied West Bank, or in the open-air prison that is Gaza.
We
call on Israel to stop the massacre now! There
should be an immediate end to all bombing and an immediate withdrawal
of all Israeli military from Gaza. We join with the international
community in calling for a cease-fire.
Veterans
For Peace calls for an end to the inhumane 8-year siege of Gaza, so
that normal trade and travel can occur, and so that residents of Gaza
may have the basic necessities of life.
Veterans
For Peace will push for an end to all military aid to Israel.
Veterans
For Peace recommits itself to participating in the international
campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel and
Israeli products.
We
encourage all parties to search for a nonviolent path to peace.
It
is time to recognize the human rights of the Palestinian people,including their right to return to the homes from which they were
forced to flee in 1948.
Veterans
For Peace applauds the courage of over 50 Israeli reservists who
have publicly refused to fight in Gaza, or to serve in any military
support roles whatsoever. We will attempt to make contact with these
Israeli war resisters in order to help spread their message of peace
and we will join in international efforts to protect them from
repression by the Israeli government.
We
encourage all Israeli soldiers to avoid becoming party to war
crimes against innocent Palestinian civilians, and to consider
all their options for standing on the side of humanity.
The
peoples of Palestine, Israel and the world deserve to live in peace
and harmony. The ultimate goal of Veterans For Peace is to
abolish war. In the meantime, we stand ready to assist those Israelis
and Palestinians who seek peace and reconciliation.

Approved
overwhelmingly at 2014 VFP National Convention
--

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

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4. Press Release - National Veterans For Peace Leadership to Issue Statement Regarding Military Actions in Iraq and Gaza

Press Release - National Veterans For Peace Leadership to Issue Statement Regarding Military Actions in Iraq and Gaza

July 21, 2014 Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 and to Address Problems with Veterans Healthcare and the VA Crisis What: Press Conference and Vigil Who: Patrick McCann, VFP National President Michael McPhearson, VFP Interim Executive Director Gerry Condon, VFP National Vice President John Spitzberg, Chapter 099 Convention Coordinator and others. When: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 5:30 PM Where: Vance Monument, Pack Square, Asheville NC Why: With the increasing conflict at home and abroad, Veterans For Peace offers a unique voice, solution and perspective that affects our world. The VFP annual convention is open to the general public with paid registration Saint Louis, MO–Veterans For Peace is kicking off its 29th National Convention this Thursday, July 24th in Asheville, NC.Veterans from WWII through the current Post 9-11 era will gather with military families, supporters and friends to share information and experiences and to discuss how to move the U.S. away from endless war to an age of diplomacy and global cooperation. As a lead up to convention activities, this Tuesday members of Veterans For Peace national leadership will participate in the local Asheville Chapter 099 weekly peace vigil from 5pm to 6pm at Vance Monument, Pack Square in downtown Asheville. VFP will hold a press conference during the vigil at 5:30 pm to comment and take questions on how war and peace impact our service members, veterans and the nation. Speakers will comment on the Veterans Administration, the U.S. and its policies toward the Russia, Iran, Syria, and Iraq. The organization will also make a clear statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people, calling for the end to the Israeli siege of Gaza and cessation of violence and targeting of civilians by Israel and Hamas. “As veterans who have witnessed the horrors of war, we are outraged by Israel's slaughter of hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians in the open-air prison that is Gaza,” said Gerry Condon, National Vice-President of Veterans For Peace. “We call for an immediate and to the bombing and a withdrawal of all Israeli military from Gaza.” Veterans For Peace Interim Executive Director Michael McPhearson stated, “For more than a decade the U.S. has spent trillions of dollars conducting a policy of global endless wars. According to an April State Department report, there was a worldwide 43% increase in terrorist incidents 2013. If the purpose of these wars is to reduce or end terrorism, the policy is an abysmal failure.” Veterans For Peace asks, with all the money spent on these wars and the outcome being more terrorism, more war and more violence, who benefits from them? “These wars do not benefit military families who wait in fear every day for their loved one to come home, many times never seeing them whole or alive again. They do not benefit the service members who sacrifice their time, bodies and minds and some, their lives. These wars do not benefit the veterans that find they cannot get the help they need and deserve. And the wars do not benefit the average U.S. citizen who pays for them yet receives little help in a stagnant economy and still faces the specter of terrorism,” remarked Veterans For Peace National President Patrick McCann. "We are excited to be hosting hundreds of veterans and friends from all over the U.S. Viet Nam and England," said John Spitzberg, Asheville Veterans For Peace Convention Coordinator. "We will bring attention to the plight of homeless veterans in Asheville, with whom we will share a meal on Sunday morning,” said John Spitzberg. “We want peace at home as well as peace abroad, and to bring all the troops home from Afghanistan and from the 900 U.S. bases around the world. Furthermore, we insist the Veterans Administration be fully funded so it can provide prompt quality healthcare to all our veterans when they need it." ASHEVILLE RESIDENTS INVITED TO CONVENTION and FRIDAY NIGHT CONCERT The Asheville community is invited to a special Friday night concert by master musician and songwriter, John McCutcheon. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Asheville residents may also participate in the many Convention workshops and activities by paying a modest daily fee, or by volunteering to help out at the Convention. * Veterans For Peace is a 29-year-old U.S. based nonprofit educational organization with chapters in over 100 US cities and several international chapters. VFP members include veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as non-veteran allies. The mission of Veterans For Peace is to abolish war as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, July 21, 2014 For more information: Regarding press conference and convention media queries: Ed Sacco, 828-686-8791 Regarding VFP and interview arrangements: Tom Palumbo, VFP Communications Chairperson, 828-335-3627, TPeacenik@gmail.com Gerry Condon, VFP National Vice President, 206-499-1220, projectsafehaven@hotmail.com Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on email Share on print More Sharing Services 0 Categories: Press Release Tags: Iraq Gaza military actions VFP National Convention statement VFP Veterans For Peace « Press Release: VETERANS TO DELIVER LETTER TO ISRAELI AMBASSADOR: Stop the Slaughter of Palestinian Civilians in Gaza! Mayor Welcomes Veterans in Asheville, NC »