Dear All, Tuesday’s election results were a decidedly mixed bag. Ballot measures on progressive issues in many states fared well, but the conservative consolidation of House and Senate control bodes ill for a pro-peace, pro-people agenda. Pro-peace candidates in many states and districts stood against the overall conservative swing, with six of eight endorsed candidates in Peace Action’s top priority races winning. In the Senate, Jeff Merkley (OR), Al Franken (MN), Gary Peters (MI) and Jeanne Shaheen (NH) won, with Bruce Braley (IA) losing. In the House, Mike Honda (CA) and Rick Nolan (MN) won, with Carol Shea Porter (NH) losing her re-election bid. Special thanks to Peace Action West, Peace Action of Michigan and New Hampshire Peace Action for their work on these races. After a brief post-election respite (not that our staff took any time off!) we are gearing up to organize to end the U.S. military intervention in Syria and Iraq, and our timing couldn’t be better. Congress will be back in Washington for its post-election lame duck session starting next week, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans hearings on the ISIS crisis. Next week, two dozen groups, part of a coalition Peace Action helps lead, will mobilize an outpouring of calls and emails to Congress as the beginning of a series of nationally coordinated actions to end the war in Syria and Iraq. Stay tuned for the details coming next week. In the meantime, thank you for your support of, and actions for, peace and justice. Humbly for Peace, Kevin Martin Executive Director Peace Action P.S. With the new conservative majority in the Senate, we’ll have our work to end the wars, support successful diplomacy with Iran and cut Pentagon spending in order to invest in human priorities cut out for us, but we’re up to the challenge, and I’m sure you feel the same. Please consider a $14 gift to Peace Action to help us close 2014 on a positive note. Take Action: Help us close out 2014 on a positive note. CONNECT TO US:  Find us on Facebook  Follow us on Twitter  Read our blog  Contact us You are subscribed to Peace Action's Action Alert Network. You can unsubscribe here.

ISRAEL, PALESTINE, GAZA. . . and the US

 

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Israeli  ‘callous indifference’ in attacks on family homes in Gaza

Israeli forces have killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families which in some cases have amounted to war crimes, Amnesty International has disclosed in a new report on the latest Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip. Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes details eight cases where residential family homes in Gaza were attacked by Israeli forces without warning during Operation Protective Edge in July and August 2014, causing the deaths of at least 104 civilians including 62 children. The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families. “Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. More

 

Gaza Cut Off From All Sides As 'Collective Punishment' Deepens

Despite widespread calls for increased humanitarian aid and economic activity, the approximately 1.8 million people living in the Gaza Strip have been further isolated from the outside world following Israel's closure Sunday, and Egypt's closure last week, of border crossings into the Palestinian territory. The Israeli Defense Ministry stated Sunday it has closed its Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings to Gaza in response to a single rocket fire from Gaza, which resulted in no injuries, deaths, or damages. Gisha, a legal center that advocates for Palestinian freedom of movement, reported Monday that both passages remained closed for a second day, save for extremely limited transport of fuel in and medical patients.

The U.S.-backed Egyptian government last week shut the Rafah crossing into Gaza and commenced destroying Egyptian nearby homes to create a so-called "buffer zone" along the border.   More

 

Israeli Cease Fire Violations and Media Propaganda

After Israel assassinated 6 Hamas members in July, Hamas responded with rocket fire into Israel. U.S. officials unanimously proclaimed that Israel had a right to defend itself. The press uncritically repeated these assertions, despite no such self-defense justification existing in international law.  Israel went on to carry out the slaughter of 2,150 Palestinians, including 578 children. Civilians accounted for at least 70% of all Palestinian deaths. On August 26, 2014 after the conclusion of Protective Edge a new cease fire was reached that called for cessation of hostilities, opening all crossings to Gaza, and permitting fishing for a distance of six nautical miles, increasing up to 12 miles. Since then, Israeli cease fire violations have been an almost daily occurrence.  More

 

Rejectionism from a Minister in the Israeli Government. .

FOR ISRAEL, TWO-STATE IS NO SOLUTION

Israel cannot withdraw from more territory and cannot allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. If we were to pull out of the West Bank, the entire country would become a target for terrorists who would be able to set up rocket launchers adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem and on the hills above the runways of Ben-Gurion International Airport and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.  Take the Jordan Valley. The Palestinians demand that Israel withdraw from this narrow piece of land, which borders Jordan. But if we do so in today’s climate, we potentially open the door for the Islamic State and other extremists to flood into the new Palestinian state. We cannot take that risk.  More

 

The Peace Process Hustle

An intractable process, one that never seems to resolve itself, is either no process at all or a fraudulent one contrived to hide an ulterior motive. The so-called Israeli-Palestinian (at one time the Israeli-Arab) “peace process,” now in its sixth decade (counting from 1948) or fourth decade (counting from 1967) is, and probably always has been, just such a fraud.  More

 

Israel moves to outlaw Palestinian political parties in the Knesset

The Israeli parliament voted overwhelmingly last week to suspend Haneen Zoabi, a legislator representing the state’s large Palestinian minority, for six months as a campaign to silence political dissent intensified. The Israeli parliament, or Knesset, voted by 68 to 16 to endorse a decision in late July by its ethics committee to bar Zoabi from the chamber for what it termed “incitement.”  It is the longest suspension in the Knesset’s history and the maximum punishment allowed under Israeli law… But Zoabi is not the only Palestinian representative in the firing line. Earlier this year the Knesset raised the threshold for election to the parliament, in what has been widely interpreted as an attempt to exclude all three small parties representing the Palestinian minority. One in five citizens of Israel belong to the minority.  More

 

A Small Band of Activists Is Humiliating an Israeli Shipping Giant

Capping a series of victories by a modest band of pro-Palestinian activists, an Israel-based shipping company has re-routed a container ship from the Port of Oakland, where protestors had vowed to keep the ship from unloading, to an alternate destination in Russia. The company, Zim Integrated Shipping Services is one of the largest cargo shipping outfits in the world, but of late it has seen its operations seriously disrupted by a small group of activists motivated by the global Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement (BDS), which targets companies implicated in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Zim is an Israel-based company, and the “Block the Boat” movement – a combined effort of labor activists and Palestinian solidarity groups – has successfully stopped its ships from docking at Oakland ports several times since this summer.  More

 

Pentagon Praises, Aims to Copy Israel Tactics in Gaza

The United States sent a team of senior officers to Israel three months ago to learn from Israel's tactics in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza over the summer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said on Thursday. Dempsey praised the IDF for taking "extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties" in its war against Hamas. The militant organization, Dempsey said, "had become very nearly a subterranean society," burrowing underground and hiding amongst the civilian population.  More

 

WALT: Netanyahu's Not Chickenshit, the White House Is

News flash: Plenty of U.S. politicians -- including Bill Clinton -- have disliked Netanyahu intensely, and for pretty obvious reasons. He's smug, pretentious, bombastic, and plays fast and loose with facts (which hardly makes him unique among world leaders), and he sometimes treats U.S. officials with contempt. If you're Obama, Kerry, or one of their aides, and you've been working overtime trying to get a peace deal and save Israel from its suicidal settlements policy, and you get precisely zero help from Netanyahu and his lieutenants, a degree of irritation is to be expected… U.S. officials are prevented from taking this obvious step by the lingering political clout of AIPAC and other groups in the lobby. When they speak in public or on the record, they have to pretend that the "special relationship" is hunky-dory, even when it is obvious to even casual observers that it is not.  More

 

Tell Congress not to Reward Israel's Discrimination against U.S. Citizens

Having a U.S. passport doesn't protect you from Israel's brutality and discrimination, especially if you're a Palestinian-American.  Just ask Sandra Tamari, Nour Joudah, Tariq Abu Khdeir, or the family of Orwa Hammad.  Or ask journalist Rula Jebreal, who writes in The New York Times this week of her and her daughter being strip-searched at Ben-Gurion Airport.  For the past two years, in coordination with a nationwide network of organizations and activists, we helped stall AIPAC's top-priority legislation -- The United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act.  The Senate version of the original bill would have rewarded Israel's discrimination against U.S. citizens, granting Israelis visa-free access to the United States while Israel continues to systemically mistreat and deny entry to Americans of Arab or Muslim heritage, or those who are critical of Israel's policies. 

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OTHER EVENTS

In Boston    

 

DAYS OF ACTION AGAINST THE NEW US WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

Tuesday, November 11 12:00 pm Park Street Station Boston Rally followed by the Armistice Day Parade of Veterans for Peace

Saturday, November 15 1:00 pm Park Street Station Boston Rally and march to Downtown Crossing with a mock drone and die-in

Stop the Bombing in Syria and Iraq

Bring the troops home now

Stop sending weapons into the region which are leading to so much bloodshed

Support humanitarian aid, through neutral institutions, for victims of the conflict

Support self-determination and the demilitarization of the area

 

Tuesday, November 11

ARMISTICE / VETERANS DAY PARADE AND VIGIL

We will gather between 12:00 pm (noon) and 12:30 pm on the corner of Charles and Beacon Streets.
1st Parade steps off at 1:00 pm – our parade will follow the same route then we will continue to Faneuil Hall for our Armistice / Veterans Day for Peace Event.

Parade at noon; rally 3:00 pm

Faneuil Hall • Boston

Attention Veterans & Peace Activists

Please Join Veterans For Peace and The Leftist Marching Band for
Armistice / Veterans Day Peace Parade and Peace Event

 Houses of Worship throughout Massachusetts will Ring Bells for Peace at 11:00 am, November 11th

Armistice Day / Veterans Parade for Peace & Faneuil Hall Peace Event

Veterans for Peace will proudly walk behind the first parade on Armistice / Veterans Day in Boston. We honor and celebrate the original intention for Armistice Day – a Day of Peace. 

Veterans from different eras will recite original works of Poetry, Prose and Song

 

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DORCHESTER VOTERS SEND A MESSAGE:

“Get Big Money Out of Politics”

Big Money in the elections also has its effects – on both parties, as I wrote a few years ago in the Dorchester Reporter.  Large donors bolster the Republican Party while keeping the Democrats on a short, Neo-Liberal leash. That’s why modern “Liberalism” is mostly defined by supporting individual rights but avoids (with a few exceptions like Elizabeth Warren) populist economic themes. Voters understand the role of money in politics, but have few means of expressing their opinion or effecting change. An exception was the advisory question that was placed on the ballot in part of Dorchester by the work of DPP in collaboration with “MOVE TO AMEND”:

We the People, Not We the Corporations

The ballot question called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to saying that corporations are not people and money is not a form of speech – it must be regulated in political campaigns.

Two-thirds of voters agreed!

 

QUESTION 5-12th Suffolk

 Total  Number of Precincts 15

  Total Votes 6779

 Number of Uncast Votes (blanks) 3541

 YES 4604 67.92%

 NO   2175 32.08%

 

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ELECTION 2014: Two Americas, Two States of Massachusetts

You’ve all been watching and reading about “The Republican Landslide” in this election, but few commentators note how unreal this is as any kind of broad democratic (small “d”!) expression.  For one thing, any political shift is magnified by our winner-take-all electoral system, where the winning side takes office – and the losing side, no matter how small the margin, gets nothing.   This effect has become even more lopsided in recent years as Republican state legislatures – building on demographic trends --  have distorted the electoral maps to concentrate the Democratic electorate into fewer districts, allowing for more safe, majority conservative Congressional seats.  In 2012, Democratic Congressional candidates actually got more votes nationwide, even as the Republican solidified their majority in the House of Representatives.

 

Then there is the intentionally unrepresentative system of two Senate seats for every state, regardless of population.  The states that “turned over” this year to produce a Republican majority – North Caroline, Iowa, Montana, Colorado, Arkansas, South Dakota and West Virginia – have 14 Senators representing a combined population of 24 million;  California alone has 38 million residents, but only two Senators.  This is no accident.  The framers of the US Constitution were at pains to limit popular sovereignty and to protect the control of elites in the various states, along with their undue influence on the Federal government.  It was also a means to offer protection and guarantees for the continuation of slavery.

 

Meanwhile, the Democrats, especially in the contested states, ran tepid, relatively conservative campaigns that did little to stir enthusiasm among the voters and allowed the Republican message about the economy to resonate without serious challenge. The Right mobilized its base with a barely-disguised undercurrent of racism and a well-funded, relentless campaign of fear-mongering over “terror,” Ebola and supposed “threats to the border.” At the same time, Republican legislatures have also enacted voting regulations aimed at suppressing the natural Democratic-leaning vote. As a result, the electorate across the country this year was much whiter and older than in 2012 – and more Republican-leaning. The overall turnout was just 37%.

 

However, when there was a clear-cut populist option, such as raising the minimum wage or voting for paid sick leave, these measures all passed.  A look at the Massachusetts electoral result for Question 4 (Earned Sick Leave) also shows a clear geographic, racial and class map: the measure passed handily in the cities and towns of the eastern and western parts of the state, losing in the wealthier suburbs and mostly white rural towns.

 

So in short, we have two separate Americas voting every two years. We have one that is more representative, that includes about 60 percent of voting age adults. Then we have one where we can barely get a third of voting age adults to turn out, and is much whiter and older than the country. And Democrats can win easily with the one, and Republicans can win easily with the other.  More

 

A Big Night For Minimum Wage Increases

Voters in five states endorsed minimum wage increases Tuesday. Significantly, minimum wage initiatives carried the day even in states where Republicans won statewide offices. In Arkansas, for example, Republican Tom Cotton won a hard-fought victory over incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor. Yet a ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage to $7.50 won the support of nearly two-thirds of voters. Similarly, voters in Nebraska and South Dakota approved minimum wage hikes even as they elected or re-elected Republicans in Senate and gubernatorial races.  More

 

Beyond Mid-Election Babble: What's the Alternative?

The right-wing Republican sweep of Congress testifies to a massive memory and educational deficit among the US public and a failure among progressives and the left regarding how to think about politics outside of the established boundaries of liberal reform. The educative nature of politics has never been more crucial than it is now and testifies to the need for a new politics in which culture and education are as important as economic forces in shaping individual and social agency, if not resistance itself… The biggest challenge facing those who believe in social justice is to provide an alternative discourse, educational apparatuses, vision and modes of identification that can convince the US public that a real democracy is worth fighting for, and that such struggles need to begin immediately before the elected oligarchs and the financial interests they serve close down any hope of a future in which matters of justice and equality prevail.  More

 

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The Wars Abroad, the Wars at Home

 

Martin Luther King: “The bombs that are falling [overseas] are exploding in our cities”

 

BPD Petitions - Please Sign & Share!

Many of you have already signed the ACLU petition to the BPD calling for three key reforms. The petition is now online here: End Racially Discriminatory Police Practices in Boston (for residents of Boston) and Support the Movement to End Racially Discriminatory Police Practices in Boston (for people who aren’t residents of Boston).  We encourage you to sign one of these two petitions and share widely among friends and supporters!

 

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NEW WARS / OLD WARS – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

 

Concerned About ISIS, but Also About Endless War? Back Limits on the Use of Force

In response to the US bombing of Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Iraq and Syria, which Congress has never explicitly approved, members of Congress long concerned about presidents and Congresses skirting the constitutional role of Congress in deciding when the United States will use military force have introduced H. Con. Res. 114, "Urging Congress to debate and vote on a statutory authorization for any sustained United States combat role in Iraq or Syria."  When Congress returns from recess after the election in November, it will still not have debated and voted on a sustained US combat role in Iraq or Syria, even though a "sustained combat role" is obviously what the Pentagon is doing and plans to do. Polls have shown that the majority of Americans think that Congress should debate and vote. Members of Congress can show that they back the public's desire for a Congressional debate and vote by supporting H. Con. Res. 114.  More

 

Please strongly encourage your Congressional Reps to sign on to proposed House Resolution 114.

THREE MA REPS are co-sponsors: CLARK, MCGOVERN & TSONGAS!  

thanks for your continued advocacy!  SIGN PETITION

 

Obama to seek new war powers from Congress

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he would work with Congress on new war powers to fight Islamic State militants and expressed cautious optimism about whether the international face-off over Iran's nuclear program will be resolved — two issues that could prove harder for the White House to maneuver with Republicans in charge on Capitol Hill.  More

THE PRESSURE TO ESCALATE

From the beginning, the president had repeatedly and insistently taken one thing off that famed “table” in Washington on which all “options” reputedly sit: the possibility that there would ever be American “boots on the ground” in Iraq -- that is, military personnel sent directly into combat.  This, in effect, represented what was left of Obama’s previous proud claim that he had gotten us out of Iraq never to return.  Assumedly, it also represented a bedrock formulation in a situation that otherwise seemed to be in a constant state of flux.  In a way that has been rare in the history of American civilian-military relations, Dempsey and others in the Pentagon simply refused to accept this.  No matter what the commander-in-chief’s bottom line may have been, they evidently saw the future quite differently and didn’t hesitate to say so. …Under the pressure of a powerful national security state (and the various complexes that have grown to gigantic proportions around it), in a Washington in which beating the drums for war has become a reflexive act and Republican hawks may well rule the roost.  More

 

How Many Muslim Countries Has the U.S. Bombed Or Occupied Since 1980?

Barack Obama, in his post-election press conference yesterday, announced that he would seek an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from the new Congress, one that would authorize Obama’s bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria—the one he began three months ago. If one were being generous, one could say that seeking congressional authorization for a war that commenced months ago is at least better than fighting a war even after Congress explicitly rejected its authorization, as Obama lawlessly did in the now-collapsed country of Libya. When Obama began bombing targets inside Syria in September, I noted that it was the seventh predominantly Muslim country that had been bombed by the U.S. during his presidency (that did not count Obama’s bombing of the Muslim minority in the Philippines). I also previously noted that this new bombing campaign meant that Obama had become the fourth consecutive U.S. President to order bombs dropped on Iraq.   More

 

DRONE-STRIKE FEMINISM

Of all the justifications the Obama administration has employed to sanctify yet another war on Iraq, none have been more disingenuous than the portrayal of the latest US bombing campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS, aka ISIL) as a feminist rescue mission… But if airstrikes are warranted because ISIS is engaged in sexual violence, then the governments of the nations the US has appointed to spearhead its anti-ISIS coalition may need to be bombed as well—namely, the Iraqi, Egyptian and Saudi regimes… The voices of women-led Iraqi civil society groups are completely absent from the establishment media. You won't see any mention in the corporate press of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), which, along with its sister organization MADRE, strongly opposes US airstrikes and holds the US responsible for creating and perpetuations the sectarian violence that fueled ISIS's rise to power.  More

 

The Middle East’s Unholy Alliance

They’ve been referred to as “moderates” and even the “Axis of Reason”. Now, America’s friends in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are in talks to form a joint military force to intervene throughout the Middle East and “deal with extremists in the region.” … For its purposes, the United States is today closely aligned with the reactionaries of our time. In the face of free and fair electoral victories by groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the U.S. has tended to rationalize their decision to side with the ancien régime as being in defense of liberal values… Rather than relying upon an old order which is both brutal, corrupt, and unlikely to survive in the long term, the United States should take the farsighted and principled position of committing itself to democracy in the region – even if it doesn’t always like who wins.  More

 

But fighting them in Syria!

Obama Coordinating With Iran In Islamic State Fight, Growing Evidence Suggests

Adding to mounting evidence that President Barack Obama's administration sees Iran as something of a partner in its fight against the Islamic State, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Obama wrote to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last month about the campaign against the Islamic State.  The WSJ reported last week that the U.S. had assured Iran that it would not be targeting the forces of its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad, as it began striking targets in Syria.Like that news, the latest revelation will likely stir consternation among many of Obama's current partners in this campaign. From Arab nations that have launched their own strikes against the militant group to moderate U.S.-backed Syrian rebels who are presently besieged by Iranian forces aiding the Syrian regime, key Obama allies see collaborating with Iran as unacceptable because of the country's unwavering support for Assad.    More

 

Obama Wrote Secret Letter to Iran’s Khamenei About Fighting Islamic State

President Barack Obama secretly wrote to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the middle of last month and described a shared interest in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, according to people briefed on the correspondence. The letter appeared aimed both at buttressing the campaign against Islamic State and nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal. Mr. Obama stressed to Mr. Khamenei that any cooperation on Islamic State was largely contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by a Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline, the same people say.   More

 

Syrian rebels armed and trained by US surrender to al-Qaeda

Two of the main rebel groups receiving weapons from the United States to fight both the regime and jihadist groups in Syria have surrendered to al-Qaeda. The US and its allies were relying on Harakat Hazm and the Syrian Revolutionary Front to become part of a ground force that would attack the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). For the last six months the Hazm movement, and the SRF through them, had been receiving heavy weapons from the US-led coalition, including GRAD rockets and TOW anti-tank missiles. But on Saturday night Harakat Hazm surrendered military bases and weapons supplies to Jabhat al-Nusra, when the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria stormed villages they controlled in northern Idlib province. The development came a day after Jabhat al-Nusra dealt a final blow to the SRF, storming and capturing Deir Sinbal, home town of the group's leader Jamal Marouf.   More

 

A Syrian Speaks Out. . .

Why arming the rebels will fuel Syria's inferno

Aleppo is a microcosm of Syria. The suffering here is just as real and horrible as it is everywhere else. It does not distinguish friend from foe or regime loyalist from opposition supporter. It affects us all. Ironically, this shared suffering might be the only thing that unites Syrians now, but I believe they are also united by an urgent desire to stop the suffering and end the war and killing that is causing it… Those who justify the continuation of our death and suffering either do so on the premise of liberating our lives from tyranny or on the premise of protecting it from extremism. Both are lies, of course, but they do have one truth in common as we jokingly note here: They all want to “liberate” our lives from this earthly world… Arming the rebels is de facto arming the extremists, period.  More

 

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 Diplomacy with Iran More Necessary than Ever

 

If Nuclear Negotiations With Iran Fail, US Will Be to Blame

Nuclear negotiations between Iran and P5+1 – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany – have entered their critical stage. The original Geneva interim agreement expired last July, but both sides agreed to extend the deadline for reaching a comprehensive agreement to November 24. Much progress has been made, but some difficult issues have remained unresolved… At a symposium in Washington on October 23, Wendy Sherman, Under Secretary of State who leads the US negotiation team with Iran, asserted that, "We hope the leaders in Tehran will agree to the steps necessary to assure the world that this program will be exclusively peaceful. If that does not happen, the responsibility will be seen by all to rest with Iran." Given all the concessions that Iran has made, given US excessive demands on Iran, and given the fact that, in effect, the US is trying to impose a new and illegal interpretation of Iran’s obligations under the NPT and its SG Agreement and the meaning of "peaceful nuclear program," it will be the US that will be blamed for the failure of the negotiations, not Iran.  More

 

Let Diplomacy Work with Iran!

One month from now, we could be celebrating a historic nuclear deal with Iran. This is our chance to solve one of America’s greatest security concerns without dropping a single bomb. But that's not stopping some in Congress from trying to kill the deal before its even finalized. A deal with Iran is within reach, but time is short. Take Action!
Please urge your Members of Congress to support this historic opportunity.

 

Israel, Iran, and the Republican Victory

The Republicans’ Senate victory offers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu new hope for outmaneuvering President Barack Obama on Iran; in the coming weeks, he could use a Republican-led Congress to sabotage negotiations with the Islamic Republic on its nuclear program. But the victory would be short lived. By scuttling the talks, Netanyahu could empower Iran’s hardliners… With Republicans now in control of Congress, Israel’s concerns will fall on more receptive ears. But that could spell more trouble than Israel expects. If the P5+1 (the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) and Iran reach an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program by the November 24 deadline, any continued effort to oppose the agreement would no longer be just toughness on Iran. It would also be directly against the United States.  More

 

Israeli policy on Iran is threat to its 'special relationship' with America

American interests are far more threatened by Netanyahu’s Iran positions than by his reluctance to make peace with the Palestinians: the direct costs to America of Israeli settlement expansion and peace process intransigence over the past six years pale in comparison to the potential costs of a hot American war with another Middle Eastern country (especially a country whose regional power outstrips by orders of magnitude any actor the US has fought over the past decade).  For example, an eminent bi-partisan panel of experts from the Iran Project warned last year that the “unintended consequences” of an American attack on Iran could lead to the US being bogged down in an “all-out regional war”.

More

 

 

Rasmea Defense Committee statement Report on Trial Day 4: Rasmea & her defense finish strong on last day of trial! On the coldest morning all week, supporters gathered early outside the federal courthouse in Detroit on the final day of the trial for Rasmea Odeh.  Each day of the trial, security officers have closed the main courtroom before it was full. Today, supporters squeezed into the seats early, ensuring no one would miss the chance to stick by the beloved Palestinian community icon, on trial for allegedly gaining U.S. citizenship unlawfully because of answers she gave on her naturalization documents.  In an unnecessary attempt at intimidation, a number of U.S. Marshals and Department of Homeland Security agents were seated in front of friends and family of Rasmea, including close to twenty members of the Arab Women’s Committee that she founded in Chicago. The morning began with a defense motion for a “directed verdict”—which basically asked the judge to throw out the case against Rasmea because the government failed to prove that Rasmea “knowingly lied” at any point in the immigration process.  Judge Gershwin Drain denied the motion, and Rasmea took the stand to continue her testimony. There was a palpable tension when U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel rose to begin his cross-examination.  For more than half an hour, he tried to trip Rasmea up with questions, asking the same ones repeatedly, and often interrupting her, prompting Judge Drain to admonish him at least twice.  In spite of this, Rasmea remained calm and clear, frustrating Tukel’s attempt to undermine her credibility or trap her into misspeaking.  As a survivor of vicious Israeli physical and sexual torture, her legendary strength was in full effect in the courtroom. Throughout the trial, Rasmea’s defense has been hindered by countless unjust rulings from Judge Drain, including his refusal to allow evidence about either the torture that forced Rasmea into a confession and a 10-year sentence as a political prisoner, or the chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that caused her to block out that time in her life when she answered the questions on the naturalization form.   Nevertheless, her attorneys put on a strong show, explaining that Rasmea never knowingly gave false information.  Her initial immigrant visa application was completed by her brother, because Rasmea could not read or write in English at the time.  The naturalization form she filled out 10 years later was unclear and the questions at issue were easily misunderstood. And in Rasmea’s citizenship interview, no one had ever asked her about arrests or convictions in other countries. While we are hopeful this legal defense is enough to win over the jury, we also know that the government’s case, an immigration charge, is nothing but a pretext. Rasmea is under attack because she is Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim; because U.S. law enforcement is going after our successful Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid; and because she embodies the proud and steadfast Palestinian struggle for self-determination, liberation, and the Right of Return. As the jury begins deliberations on Monday, Rasmea’s supporters will be there as well, to hear the verdict and to rally with her.  Join us at 8 AM Eastern Standard Time at the federal courthouse in downtown Detroit, 231 W. Lafayette Blvd.  Another large delegation of Chicagoans are returning to Rasmea’s side after the weekend, emboldened by her thank you speech after the trial: “I [tried] to be…strong and to [re]present the Palestinians and every one of you here in a strong way.  It's very important Monday [for] all of us here to say ‘yes, we are together, and we are fight[ing] for our rights.” Stay tuned to uspcn.org and stopfbi.net for more information about transportation from Chicago and other cities.

follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2014 Committee to Stop FBI Repression, All rights reserved. Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists! Our mailing address is: Committee to Stop FBI Repression PO Box 14183 Minneapolis, MN 55414

Damn-As Obama Escalates With 1500 Additional Troops-  

As Obama, His House And Senate Allies, His “Coalition Of The Willing”    Beat The War Drums-Again- Stop The Escalations-No New U.S. War In Iraq- No Intervention In Syria! Immediate Withdrawal Of All U.S. Troops And Mercenaries!  Stop The U.S. And Allied Bombings! –Stop The Arms Shipments …

Frank Jackman comment:

As the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, U.S. President Barack Obama, abetted by the usual suspects in the House and Senate as well as internationally, orders more air bombing strikes in the north and in Syria,  sends more “advisers” to “protect” American outposts in Iraq, and sends arms shipments to the Kurds, supplies arms to the moderate Syrian opposition if it can be found to give weapons to, guys who served in the American military during the Vietnam War and who, like me, belatedly, got “religion” on the war issue as a kneejerk way to resolve the conflicts in this wicked old world might very well be excused for disbelief when the White House keeps pounding out the propaganda that these actions are limited when all signs point to the slippery slope of escalation. And all the time saying the familiar (Vietnam era familiar updated for the present)-“we seek no wider war”-meaning no American combat troops. Well if you start bombing places back to the Stone Age, cannot rely on the Iraqi troops who have already shown what they are made of and cannot rely on a now non-existent “Syrian Free Army” which you are willing to get whatever they want and will still come up short what do you think the next step will be? Now not every event in history gets exactly repeated but given the recent United States Government’s history in Iraq those old time vets might be on to something. In any case dust off the old banners, placards, and buttons and get your voices in shape- just in case. No New War In Iraq –Stop The Bombings- No Intervention In Syria! 

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Here is something to think about:  

Workers and the oppressed have no interest in a victory by one combatant or the other in the reactionary Sunni-Shi’ite civil war. However, the international working class definitely has a side in opposing imperialist intervention in Iraq and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops and mercenaries. It is U.S. imperialism that constitutes the greatest danger to the world’s working people and downtrodden.