Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 02.04.09

[David Shove (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    02.04.09

1. Health/color/KFAI  2.04 11am
2. Rice/Hwy36 bridge  2.04 4:30pm

3. MidEast/photos     2.05 4pm
4. Eagan peace vigil  2.05 4:30pm
5. Northtown vigil    2.05 5pm
6. Islam/universalism 2.05 5pm
7. Choice             2.05 5:30pm
8. NativeAm film      2.05 6pm
9. AntiWarMN          2.05 7pm

10. Jim Fuller   - A modest propsal for MidEast peace
11. James Petras - Israel asserts MidEast supremacy: Gaza to Tehran [1/2]

--------1 of 11--------

From: Andy Driscoll <andy [at] driscollgroup.com>
Subject: Health/color/KFAI 2.04 11am

TRUTH TO TELL Weds KFAI: HEALTH DISPARITIES IN
    COMMUNITIES OF COLOR: Access or Responsibility?
NOW 900 WATTS STRONG: FM 90.3/Minneapolis-106.7/St. Paul and STREAMING
LIVE AT KFAI.org

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4 - 11:00AM - LIVE SPECIAL
LIVE From the OPEN CITIES HEALTH FAIR at Wilder Foundation
Headquarters in St. Paul:

A BLACK HISTORY MONTH discussion:
HEALTH DISPARITIES IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR: Access or Responsibility?

On first blush, it would be no surprise if we learned that access to
good health and adequate health care would be less available within
Twin Cities Area communities of color. Access to the resources for
preventing illness and injury as well as acute care for sickness and
trauma would seem to be less available among folks who live in poverty
and that appears truer of African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and other
New Americans.

But is it? Are the resources actually plenty, but their actual uses
meager? Why do so many people use emergency rooms and not doctors and
clinics for care best received in less expensive settings?

TTT'S ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN talk with community health
professionals about the data and the reality of adequate care and
accessibility among people with low incomes and a tradition of
discrimination in many public services. Can patients be held more
responsible for their care and conditions than we do?

GUESTS:
 MITCHELL DAVIS, JR., Director,OFFICE OF MINORITY & MULTICULTURAL
HEALTH-MN Dept. of Health
  CHAR LANKFARD, Certified Community Healthcare Worker (CHW) - Open Cities
Health Center, St. Paul
 AKHMIRI SEKHR-RA, Health Systems Navigator, Doula - Powderhorn Cultural
Wellness Center
AND YOU! COMMENTS? QUESTIONS? CALL IN: 612-341-0980


--------2 of 11--------

From: Steve G <gjeste [at] bethel.edu>
Subject: Rice/Hwy36 bridge 2.04 4:30pm

There is going to be an open house on the 4th on February from 4:30-6:30,
at the Roseville Skating Center, about the redesign of this important
interchange.

One thing that I'm really hoping that comes from this new redesign are
better facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.  As we know, conditions
along Rice Street are very unfavorable to anyone not travelling in a bus
or automobile at 40 mph.  In many spots, Rice Street is missing shoulders,
sidewalks, and other things which you would normally hope to find along a
busy roadway in an inner suburb.  At the Highway 36 interchange, there is
only a pathway along the west side of Rice, and the sidewalks on the
bridge are narrow.  There is no shoulder on the bridge, so cyclists have
to merge into and share 1 through lane with cars travelling at 40mph.

Another thing that will probably be discussed at this meeting is the
interchange design.  Currently, in the diamond configuration the Rice St /
36 interchange can still be navigated by pedestrians/bikers, but if more
"rounded turns" or perhaps "cloverleafs" were added, this would make this
interchange much harder to navigate on a bike or on foot.  Up north on
Rice Street, at 694, MNDOT wants to throw in some cloverleafs when that
interchange gets redone in the near future. Take a look at this PDF on
MN-DOT's site:
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projects/694expand/pdfs/RiceStreet.pdf Of
course, they won't succeed if enough people stand up for their right to
walk/bike places (more than just at the park).

Let's protect our city, make it a livable environment, and not let the
"powers that be" stamp another cloverleaf or disgusting intersection in
the middle of our city.  ADT (Average Daily Traffic) is not the appointed
ruler in our state, so we shouldn't let it be.  If this were Minneapolis,
careful design consideration would be put into place to make sure this new
bridge/intersection didn't destroy the neighborhood.  I don't see why we
should treat our city with any less care than Minneapolis would treat
theirs.  Can you imagine cloverleafs on Lake Street?  Didn't think so.
Let's make Rice Street our home in addition to being a road, and not just
a highway that people use to pass by at 40 mph and to make non-stop 25 mph
turns onto our interstate/freeway system with.


--------3 of 11--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: MidEast/photos 2.05 4pm

Thursday, 2/5, 4 to 5:30 pm, Pulitzer-Prize-winning photojournalist Bill
Foley gives a free presentation from work done in 47 countries around the
world, especially the Middle East, Nolte Center for Continuing Ed, room
125, 315 Pillsbury Dr SE, U of M East Bank, Mpls.  Institute for Advanced
Study, http://ing.cla.umn.edu/events/ or 612-626-5054.


--------4 of 11--------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <family4peace [at] msn.com>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 2.05 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.


--------5 of 11--------

From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 2.05 5pm

NORTHTOWN Peace Vigil every Thursday 5-6pm, at the intersection of Co. Hwy
10 and University Ave NE (SE corner across from Denny's), in Blaine.

Communities situated near the Northtown Mall include: Blaine, Mounds View,
New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Spring Lake Park,
Fridley, and Coon Rapids.  We'll have extra signs.

For more information people can contact Evangelos Kalambokidis by phone or
email: (763)574-9615, ekalamboki [at] aol.com.


--------6 of 11--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Islam/universalism 2.05 5pm

Thursday, 2/5, 5 to 7 pm, New School history prof Faisal Devji speaks on
"The Guilt of Humanity: Militant Islam and the Problem of Universalism,"
room 120B, Elmer L Andersen Library, 222 - 21st Ave S, West Bank U of M,
Mpls.  http://igs.cla.umn.edu/events/


--------7 of 11--------

From: Erin Parrish <erin [at] mnwomen.org>
Subject: Choice 2.05 5:30pm

February 5: womenwinning Wine, Cheese and Choice. Guest speakers include
Senator Tarryl Clark and NARAL's Misty Winters. Silent auction and
selections from the 2009 production of the Vagina Monologues performed by
MPIRG students.  5:30 - 7:30 PM at the Varsity Theater, Minneapolis. For
more information contact Jenna at 651-251-0727.


--------8 of 11--------

From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: NativeAm film 2.05 6pm

Augsburg Native American Film Series - 2008-2009 Season

Our yearly series has various types of film events that include regional
venues for Native American filmmakers, build collaborative relationships
between communities, and provide a variety of film viewing experiences.

Georgiana Lightning, directorFebruary 5, 2009
"Older than America" - Directed and hosted by Georgina Lightning
Augsburg College
Science Hall, Room 123, 707 21^st Avenue South
Screening at 6 p.m.
Limited parking available in Lot A (see map link below)

/Older Than America/ a film by Georgina Lightning. A woman's haunting
visions reveal a Catholic priest's sinister plot to silence her mother
from speaking the truth about the atrocities that occurred at Native
American boarding school. A contemporary drama of suspense, /Older Than
America /focuses on the lasting impact of the cultural genocide that
occurred at such schools. For more information: www.olderthanamerica.com
<http://www.olderthanamerica.com/>


--------9 of 11--------

From: Jess Sundin <jess [at] antiwarcommittee.org>
Subject: AntiWarMN 2.05 7pm

ORGANIZE WITH THE A.W.C.: The Anti-War Committee always need help
organizing protests and educational events. Join us at our weekly meetings
(Thursdays at 7pm, 1313 5th St SE #112C, Minneapolis).


--------10 of 11--------

JIM FULLER is a semi-retired veteran journalist who was the business
reporter and jazz writer for the MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE for 30 years.
His insightful (and sometimes sardonic) commentaries can be read at
http://www.jamesclayfuller.com

A modest propsal for peace
by Jim Fuller
Thursday, January 15, 2009

Obviously, I have been away from this blog for some time. It happens every
year in December and January, and perhaps next year I'll just admit in
advance that I can't keep up with holiday-time demands and continue to
write frequently. At any rate, I hope to be back to normal frequency from
now until the end of November of this year.

There is a workable solution to the central problem of the Middle East.
I refer, of course, to the unending hatred between Israel's right wing,
terrorist-born leaders and the equally murderous Islamic extremists who
want Israel wiped out.

The solution is not obvious, at least to the great majority of Americans
who get their ignorance fully cooked from this country's corporate "news"
media, but more intelligent readers will grasp the concept when it is laid
before them.

Therefore, with great humility, I lay it before you:

Probably the only possibly action that does not end with the annihilation
of humankind, is to move Israel to what is now called Texas.

Other locations also could work, but Texas is by far the best.

Don't laugh.

Any objections that will at first occur to you are easily washed away by
pure reason.

For example: Some readers may reflexively point out that Texas already is
occupied and possesses a semblance of government.

So what?

In 1948, a western world steeping in guilt over what happened to European
Jews under the sadistic madmen from Germany - and wetting its pants in
fear of the Irgun and other Zionist terrorists - had no qualms about
brushing aside the Arabic people who had occupied what was then Palestine
for a thousand years or so.

We, the western world, simply declared that Palestine was, in a moment,
Israel, a Jewish state. We allowed, indeed encouraged, the new country to
strip the former residents of their homes, olive groves, gardens, and all
livelihoods and drive them out. We nodded in understanding when the newly
designated Israelis bulldozed entire villages and towns - often with no
more than an hour's notice - and, indeed, occasionally gunned down men,
women and children who were slow to get moving.

After all, who has more right to murder, torture and brutalize innocent
human beings than those who, as innocent human beings, were murdered,
tortured and otherwise brutalized by someone entirely different from their
own victims. Vengeance on the not guilty, we could call it.

Why, do tell, should we treat Texas and Texans any differently?

In fact, the similarities between Palestine and Texas are striking.

It was widely said in western Europe and the United States in the late
1940s and early '50s that the people of Palestine were followers of a
peculiar and suspect religion (that is, a religion different from those
commonly practiced here). The word also spread widely that they had done
little with the land they occupied - there were hardly any tall
buildings or supermarkets - so it made sense to replace them with those
whose religion was at least familiar to us and who would "turn the desert
into a garden."

Well, Texas is populated, to the extent it is, by people who mostly are at
least nominal members of a peculiar religion - it's called Southern
Baptist, or Baptism or Baptistry or some such - and who have done almost
nothing useful with the property.

(Vulgar people and those who need to belittle others whom they would
destroy in order to strengthen their sense of superiority are prone to
call those peculiar religionists "water heads" or "dunkers." We won't
encourage that, but we will be understanding.)

We must declare that Southern Baptists have every right to their religion,
and that it does not, in itself, make them wasters, drunks and prone to
violence and pickup trucks. But, privately, we know that they are not the
moral equals of Episcopalians, Methodists and Lutherans.  Just look at the
rates of divorce, domestic abuse and alcoholism.

But, religious rights aside, they must go.

It is fair to point out that while Texas has the shell of a democratic
system of government, it does not, in fact, practice democracy - which
makes it very like both Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza in respect to
governance.

Evidence is everywhere.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled a couple of weeks ago that the Israeli
government must allow news reporters into Gaza and give them room to move
around and report what they see and learn. Israel's government and its
military have refused to honor that ruling because they don't like it and
"what the world doesn't know won't hurt us." Thus, there is no rule of
law. (There are dozens of other easily available examples of the dismissal
of law.)

In Texas, legislators did not like the possibility of substantial numbers
of their body being replaced through honest elections; the legislators
redistricted the entire state so that liberals are permanently relegated
to a safely small minority in their legislature and congressional
delegation, regardless of the wishes of the wider population.

Equally, one of the people Texas sent to Washington - the very one who
chiefly engineered the redistricting, oddly enough - was pretty much
forced to avoid running for re-election after having been censured three
times by colleagues in Washington and having been indicted for criminal
activity. He, Tom DeLay, has been "awaiting" trial for three years, but no
trial is in sight; it will not happen unless and until acquittal can be
guaranteed before proceedings begin. Thus, there is no rule of law.
Dozens of other examples can be found to support that statement.

So let's bring in the Israelis to drive out the beer-swilling, spouse
beating water head fornicators and create a garden spot of the now largely
wasted area called Texas.

But the region is part of the United States?

So what? We're not doing anything with it, certainly nothing that benefits
mankind.

Some also may question where the Texans can go. That is no more a problem
that was the relocation of Palestinians who, remember, occupied their
homeland a whole lot longer than have today's Texans.

Push them over the borders into New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and
Louisiana, all of which are largely occupied by similar peoples. Better
yet, drive them, as proud early American occupiers did the continent's
native peoples, to places even more suited to their lazy, ignorant,
unproductive lifestyles and weird religions.

Mississippi would be perfect.

As in the Middle East, some of those already occupying the other spaces
may object to having large numbers of refugees thrust upon them,
especially with no international help to sustain the newcomers, to feed
and house them, but, hey, you can't make an omelet...

There are benefits to the plan beyond the obvious.

For one thing, Israel's population has grown very rapidly since we
encouraged them to kick out and/or eliminate Palestinians in 1948.
Various sources say most growth now is internal, rather than through
immigration. Despite the generally effective methods previously mentioned,
many Arabs/Palestinians remain within Israel's borders. The Arab
population is growing more rapidly than the Jewish population, which
scares the hell out of the ruling class of Israelis despite the fact that
the Arab "citizens" are all but entirely disenfranchised and Israel is,
officially, a Jewish state.

(Israel's government just adopted a law that makes Arab political parties
illegal. See comments above about rule of law.)

>From its first day as an officially recognized country, the leaders of
Israel admitted - actually bragged - that they had no intention of
staying within the internationally declared borders. Almost all of the
country's early leaders (many of whom were flat-out unrepentant
terrorists) wrote of their intention to expand, although western
journalists ignored their statements in that regard. Later political
leaders have not repudiated the expansionist intent.

So, when we move Israel to Texas, we will leave the Palestinian/Arab
residents to be absorbed again into the new Palestinian state, or
protectorate or whatever it becomes. Not our problem.

Some Americans almost certainly will raise the question of cost. Even if
we merely herd the present Texans on foot to their new locations, some
cost is involved. And, of course, there will be a great cost attached to
moving Israel to Texas.

I assure you it is not a problem.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful
organization of Zionists who hold U.S. citizenship, raises enormous sums
of money at the drop of a hat. That money now is mostly used to buy
American politicians, control U.S. public opinion about Israel, abuse
Palestinians and publicly castigate anyone with different views. The money
can easily be shifted to the cause of moving Israel to Texas.

Using AIPAC for the cause has the additional great benefit of bringing
great pressure to bear on anyone who might object to the relocation plan.

The American "news" media are terrified of taking any position not
thoroughly supported by AIPAC. More, the organization's long-standing
tactic of labeling anyone who opposes it on any subject as "antiSemitic"
tends to intimidate into silence almost everyone who thinks of taking a
stance contrary to the organization or Israel's right-wing government.

The citizens of New Israel will have far less population density than they
now have so it should be a considerable number of years before they begin
pushing at the United States to the north, east and west and Mexico to the
south. Perhaps the additional land will, in fact, suffice until such point
that later generations lose the expansionist desire.  It's possible.

Unfortunately, it also is possible that former Texans - known for their
adoration of guns and violent recreation - may begin sniping and firing
rockets into New Israel from their new locations. In truth, it's almost a
sure thing. But I'll leave that to other heads to explore. I've done my
bit.

I'll also leave to more experienced and clever people the choosing of a
new enemy.

Hamas, now in control in Gaza, has been presented as the new Al Quida, or
Taliban, or, at any rate, the presently most-cited devil's disciple.
And, indeed, Al Quida and the Taliban have long since lost their grip on
the attention of the American public. Their place on the fear scale has
slipped to the level of impotence. Hamas, as touted by Israel and the U.S.
government, has kept American hearts palpitating, but Hamas recruitment
will immediately sink to almost nothing as soon as Israel moves, and many
of its present members will melt away. (Indeed, Hamas never would have
existed without Israel's help.)

The American arms industry, fronted by right wing politicians and
"pundits," will require a new and frightening foe in order to maintain
profits. But they've been completely successful over many years in
manufacturing such foes as needed, and that success no doubt will
continue.

-
Gaza, the center of the present conflict, has 1.5 million people held
captive in 140 square miles. That's roughly 10,000 people per square mile.
Imports of even essentials such as food and medical supplies, are greatly
limited. The residents are not allowed to leave; Israel even denies visas
to young people who have been accepted as students at foreign
universities. Some sources say unemployment is more than 40 percent, and
human rights organizations report that a very large percentage of the
population is routinely malnourished.

Israel has a bit more than 7.3 million people in 7,850 square miles, a
space about the size of new Jersey. That's about 935 people per square
mile, although various demographic studies indicate that Arab residents
are considerably more crowded than others.

Texas has 23.5 million people in 268,601 square miles - about 87.5 people
per square mile. Lots of room.

[The "modest proposal" idea goes back to Jonathan Swift. Britain's ruling
class ruthlessly exploited Ireland, causing a poverty that could not
support all its people. Swift proposes to 1) bring money to Ireland, 2)
cut the Irish population, and 3) provide deliciious delicacies for the
British ruling class - by having them buy and eat tender young Irish
children.  Totally ironic, he never cracks a smile - the sort of cold
efficiency one expects of imperial governments. -ed]


--------11 of 11--------

Israel Asserting Middle East Supremacy: From Gaza to Tehran  [1/2]
by James Petras
February 2nd, 2009
Dissident Voice

The Israeli Defense Force is the most moral army in the World!
- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany bombed, invaded and annexed countries and
territories as a prelude to their quest for World Empire. Israel's drive
for regional dominance has followed in their footsteps, imitating their
style: Indiscriminate aerial bombings of civilian and military facilities,
a savage blitzkrieg led by armored vehicles, disdain and repudiation of
all criticism from international agencies was accompanied by an open,
military buildup for a new and bigger war against Iran. Like the Nazi
leadership, who played on the "Bolshevik threat", the Israeli high command
has set in motion a vast world-wide propaganda campaign led by its world
Zionist network, raising the specter of "Islamic terror" to justify its
preparations for a military assault on seventy-four million Iranians. Just
as Nazi Germany interpreted the passivity, sympathy and impotence of the
West when confronted by "facts on the ground" as license for aggression,
the Israeli military machine receives a powerful impetus for new wars by
the Western governments' inaction and flaccid response to its invasion of
Lebanon, the bombing of Syria and now its Nazi style blitz and conquest of
Gaza. For the Israeli high command, the impotence and complicity of the
Western states, marks the way to bigger and bloodier wars to establish
Israel's supremacy and dominance of the Middle East, from the Red Sea to
the Persian Gulf.

           Gaza Blitz: Dress Rehearsal for an Assault on Iran

Israel's military victory in Gaza is a dress rehearsal for a full-scale
military assault on Iran. In the course of their Gaza extermination
campaign, Israeli political and military strategists gained a great deal
of vital information about: (1) the levels of complicity and impotence of
European, North American and Arab states; (2) the high degree and depth of
material and political support obtainable from the United States
government in pulverizing adversaries; (3) the high degree of internal
support among the Jewish electorate for even the most brutal killing
fields; (4) the massive unquestioning backing of an offensive war from all
the biggest and most politically influential and wealthiest Jewish-Zionist
organizations in the US and Western Europe; (5) the weakness and
ineffectiveness of the United Nations and the incapacity of the entire
range of humanitarian organizations to limit Israel's extermination
campaign directed at destroying the very existence of an entire people;
(6) the unconditional backing of the entire mass media and news agencies
in the US and most of the mass media in Europe and the rest of the world;
(7) the willingness of the liberal critics to equally blame the victims of
extermination and the exterminators for the "violence", thus neutralizing
any effective consequential condemnation of the Israeli state; and (8) the
adaptation of practically all the journalists, writers, academics and
politicians to the entire euphemistic vocabulary of the Israeli propaganda
office.

For example, sustained total war is called an "incursion". Ten thousand
aerial assaults by hundreds of Israeli helicopters and fighter-bombers are
equated with sporadic harmless homemade rocket attacks as "violence".
Israeli targeting of thousands of civilian homes, hospitals and basic
infrastructure are labeled "terrorist" targets. Resistance fighters are
labeled "Hamas terrorists". The bombing of the Red Cross, the United
Nations relief facilities, hospitals, mosques are called "mistakes" or
justified as "launching sites for Hamas terrorists".

Israeli political leaders have drawn the lesson from their dirty little
"war" that they can totally destroy a nation, decimate a society and
murder and maim 7000 civilians with impunity. Israeli leaders learned they
can carry out an offensive genocidal war without suffering breaks in
diplomatic relations (except Mauritania, Qatar, Bolivia and Venezuela).
The Israelis have successfully tested the loyalty and submissiveness of
the major Arab regimes in the region and secured cooperation and
acquiescence from Egypt, the "Palestinian Authority", Jordan and Saudi
Arabia. Israeli civilian-military leaders calculate that with this high
degree of governmental complicity, combined with support from all the
major Zionist leaders and mass media moguls, they can dismiss even
large-scale street protests, repeated calls for boycotts and United
Nations denunciations. Israeli leaders know that the criticism of major
religious leaders and the growing number of Jewish dissidents, critical
intellectuals and activists will have no consequential impact on Western
governments nor lessen the fervor and loyalty of the major Jewish
organizations.

                Invisible Threats and Visible Impunity

The two potential threats to Israel's genocidal offensive wars, namely,
economic boycotts by important trading and investing countries and a
cut-off of military aid, did not materialize. In North America the
leading Zionist organizations ensured that the issue of a boycott was
never even raised in the legislature and executive branches. In the US,
AIPAC wrote resolutions and secured near unanimous passage (100% in the
Senate, 90% in the Congress) of an AIPAC dictated resolution endorsing
Israel's invasion and slaughter. Moreover the Zionist colonized Pentagon
authorized massive new shipments of missiles and 1000 pound bombs to
re-supply Israel in the midst of its massacres of the Palestinians.
Israel's leaders gloated over the fact that Jewish Zionist Lobbies control
over US policy went un-contested by the anti-war protestors. Few, if any,
of the demonstrators around the world identified and denounced the role of
the Zionist organizations in their own countries in making US, Canadian
and European policy toward the Middle East.

Nothing exemplifies the total and blind subordination of the 51 Major
American Jewish Organizations (see appendix #1) to Israeli foreign policy
goals as two incidents during the Gaza Genocide. When the "51" got wind
that Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice was working to come up with a
Security Council resolution calling for a cease fire in Gaza, to stop
Israeli genocide, every major Jewish organization mobilized their entire
membership to oppose her. As the Jewish weekly magazine, Forward, reports:
"During a January 5 (2009) conference call with Jewish activists, Malcolm
Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of President of Major
American Jewish Organizations, gave special priority to blocking the
international body from taking a stand on the Gaza issue. 'We need to work
hard to ensure the Security Council doesn't pass the resolution, Hoenlein
said'". (Forward, January 15, 2009)

The second example of Zionist belief in Israeli supremacy over US Middle
East policy and Presidential servility came in response to Israeli Prime
Minister Olmert's boast that he successfully dictated and imposed White
House policy in the United Nation. According to the Forward: "Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert didn't do anything wrong but he should have
kept his mouth shut. That was the reaction of several Jewish leaders. "I
have no problem with what Olmert did", said Abraham Foxman, National
Director of the Anti-Defamation League". (Forward, January 15, 2009)
Former AIPAC chief lobbyist Douglas Bloomfield, stated that he (an
American citizen) had no problem with Israel dictating US policies but "it
is a mistake to talk about it". (Forward, January 15, 2009). By talking
about Israel's power in Washington, it exposes the role of the Zionist
Power Configuration in deciding US policies.

These examples demonstrate once again the indivisible links between Israel
and its US-Zionist Fifth Column and their power to make US policy - even
when it is a question of supporting genocide. These cases also illustrate
the fact that the major American Jewish organizations will not tolerate
the smallest White House deviation from any Israeli policy, even if it
involves mass murder. It wasn't enough that for 8 years, President Bush
slavishly followed and funded Israel's war machine: For US Jewish leaders
it is 100% subservience up to and including his last day in office. As the
Forward writes, "That tough words from Israel and the Jewish groups serve
as a message to the incoming (Obama) administrations". (Ibid).

In addition to capturing positions of political power, one of the highest
priorities of all the major Zionist Jewish organizations in the US is to
propagandize, apologize and fabricate stories on behalf of Israel. Even in
the face of Israel's most blatant violent crimes against Palestinians,
condemned by the UN General Assembly, the International Red Cross and
every humanitarian group, the principle American Jewish religious
institutions and lobbies have demonstrated their loyalty to the state of
Israel. The modus operendi as documented by their internal memos is to
dominate the mass media through "plants" - pro-Zionist journalist,
academics, "experts" and editors - who write and broadcast justifications
and apologies for Israeli war crimes (parroting the line of the Israeli
state) in the mass media. The Zionist propagandists then circulate the
planted articles by their colleagues, giving the impression of broad
public support when in fact they are reproducing prepared Israeli-Zionist
propaganda. The style and substance of the Zionist propaganda operation is
evident in its defense of Israel's Gaza bloodbath. The style is the Big
Lie, reminiscent of totalitarian regimes. It is worthwhile to sample a few
examples from the main mouthpiece of the 51 Presidents of the Major
American Jewish Organizations (PMAJO):

1. Denying Israeli war crimes and fabricating accounts minimizing the
Jewish State's killings. The Daily Alert (January 22, 2009) claimed that
Israel killed only 600 Palestinians and "most were fighters". The Daily
Alert denied on site reports by major human rights workers, Red Cross
officials, Palestinian and international doctors and medical workers and
journalists, who risked their lives (and some died) documenting the nearly
1,400 deaths, over 2/3 of which were children, women and non-combatants.

2. Repeating Israeli propaganda justifying the bombing of the United
Nations-run schools by claiming the schools were "infiltrated by
Palestinian terrorists" among the thousands of refugees (Daily Alert,
January 22, 2009). There was not a single armed resistance fighter found
among the 40 bodies recovered from the rubble by the United Nations
workers, International Red Cross and Palestinian medical crews at the
girls' elementary school; all were children, teachers and refugees. Every
organization and individual eyewitness refutes the Zionist-American
apology of the Israeli bombing of the school, including the entire
European Union. The most bizarre fabrication printed in the Daily Alert is
a headline, which read: "Hamas Shot from Civilian Neighborhoods" over an
article by Rod Nordland (Newsweek), which, in fact, reports the opposite,
"Everyone of the residents interviewed in eastern Jabeliya insisted that
there had been no provocation from the area, no resistance fighters and no
rocket launchings".

3. The third lie is a whopper: "Israel Doing its Best to Help Gazans",
(Daily Alert, January 16, 2009). In fact, Israel blocked all medicine and
medical equipment from entering Gaza, bombed hospitals, shot up
ambulances, murdered doctors and medical aid workers and blocked all
shipment of water, food and fuel. The Israelis bombed the main United
Nations food and medical supply warehouse, destroying its entire contents.
The US Zionists defended this bombing by citing Olmert's blood libel that
the destruction of thousands of tons of food was a "response to fire
coming from the building". The United Nations Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon was outraged by this barefaced lie as he visited the still
smoldering UN warehouse to view the destruction while the US Secretary of
State Rice crawled before the Israelis, begging them to "avoid (a repeat
of) such incidents". (Daily Alert, January 16, 2009)

4. "Saving Gaza by Destroying the Heart of Terror" (Daily Alert, January
16, 2009). The Jewish propaganda sheet reproduces an article by the
ultra-nationalist Natan Sharansky, who advocates expelling all Palestinian
Arabs from "Greater Israel". In an article published in Bloomberg,
Sharansky defended the destruction of over 10,000 houses, damaging over
40,000 homes, roads, hospitals, power installations, water and sewage
installations, 121 industries and commercial workshops, 30 mosques, 29
educational institutions, farms, poultries, dairies, small fishing vessels
and the fishing port (according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights
and cited in Stephen Lendman's essay, "Israel Killed Everything but the
Will to Resist", January 25, 2009).

5. The Fifth Big Lie: "Israeli Pilot Tries to Avoid Hitting Civilians",
(Daily Alert, January 14, 2009). Photos published in all the international
mass media refute this Zionist propaganda claim. The ghostly rubble of
whole apartment blocks resembles a nuclear strike or an earthquake,
according to the BBC reporters who finally made it into Gaza. Numerous
European Parliamentary representatives and other on site visitors from
throughout the world were shocked by the devastation. Not only did Israeli
pilots target all civilian targets, but their ground troops assassinated
unarmed civilians holding white flags and in some cases even small
children attempting to flee. Surviving Palestinian children tell of their
fathers executed in front of their families.

The Big Lie promoted by the leading Zionist organizations resonates from
the Rabbinical pulpits, to their members and beyond: Informal phone
surveys with rank and file members of local Zionists groups echoes the
same lies and apologies, almost verbatim. In a word, neither facts, nor
reports, nor universal condemnation, nor challenges by dissident rabbis,
Jewish notables, writers and activists have made a dent on the major
Jewish organizations and their agents in influential positions in the new
Obama administration. They are the willing accomplices to mass murder in
Gaza. They are active promoters of a pre-emptive aerial assault on Iran.
They will unconditionally apologize for any crime against humanity that
Israel perpetrates. Their academic apologists at Harvard defend Israeli
Genocide as part of a "Just War". In the face of universal condemnation
they continue to cite the Holocaust and claim that they and their State
are the only Moral People entitled to decide and judge, what is just and
what is sacred Truth.

The Israeli leaders are perfectly aware of the "free hand" with which
their "Fifth Column" operates, up to and including their prominent role in
defense of genocide. Israeli leaders are assured that even when they
launch a bigger, bolder and more destructive war (including the
possibility of pre-emptive nuclear strike) against Iran or Syria/Lebanon,
they can count on the million-member US Zionist lobby securing White House
and US Congressional support. Israeli leaders now know for a fact that the
anti-war movement will once again engage in inconsequential protests
against the "shadows of power" and not the real power wielders embedded in
the Zionist Power Configuration.

 Gaza: Testing the Subservience of the US Congress and the White House

By savaging Gaza with extreme brutality, Israel is testing the waters of
US support for more offensive wars. Gaza allowed the Jewish leaders to
measure the depth and scope of US Zionist political influence and their
willingness to "go all the way" when Israel decides to bomb 74 million
Iranians in to the stone age. Or as the famous Israeli Zionist historian
Benny Morris suggested in the New York Times, July 18,2008: turn Iran
"into a nuclear wasteland".

Prime Minister Olmert's public boasting that he pulled President Bush off
the stage from an official public appearance and successfully ordered him
to instruct the Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice to abstain from voting
on her own authored resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza before the
Security Council has many profound meanings. On the most obvious level
Olmert's revelation confirms the power of Israeli leaders over the White
House. Secondly, the public nature of the exercise of power, tells the
world that Israel can openly flaunt its capacity to humiliate and ridicule
the President of the United States and later brag before Israeli officials
with no adverse consequences. Thirdly it tells us that Israel has a
greater say in US foreign policy than the American Secretary of State (or
Foreign Minister). Fourthly it tells us that Israel decides how the US
behaves, votes, vetoes and abstains in the Security Council, subject to
Israeli approval.

              Israel, the Zionist Fifth Column and Iran

Israel exercises power in the Middle East through its military weaponry.
Its repeated threats and aerial and ground assaults on neighboring
countries is a deliberate strategy to assert its regional supremacy. In
recent years, Israel's regional power has been enhanced by the Zionist
Power Configuration in the US and Canada, who use the armed forces in
their own countries to destroy any country that contests Israeli military
supremacy. The classic case was the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq and
the follow-up occupation, in which long-term Israel Firsters in the US
Government played a deadly role in promoting the war.

>From the late 1980's to the present, the US Zionist Power Configuration
has been in the forefront of a campaign to promote a US military
confrontation with Iran in collaboration with Israel. The Zionist military
proposals gained tremendous momentum during the eight years of the Bush
Administration. The ZPC mounted an unrelenting mass media propaganda
campaign demonizing Iran, fabricating and disseminating falsified accounts
of its nuclear programs, infiltrating and occupying key positions in the
US Treasury Department (led by Stuart Levey) aggressively bludgeoning
other governments, industries, banks and investors to boycott Iran.
Zionist Treasury Department officials hope to strangle and weaken Iran's
economy in order to soften it up for a military strike. No other single or
combined force in North America, or, for that matter, any place in the
world (except Israel) has played as big a role in promoting an offensive
war against Iran as the Zionist politicians and officials in the US
government. They were aided and abetted by Jewish lobbies, Zionist
propaganda centers, multi-billionaires and hundreds of Jewish community
organizations.

Major Jewish religious organizations play a very influential role as
conduits of Israeli propaganda and are an important force within the
principle Zionist umbrella organizations (e.g. Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations or CPMAJO). Fully one-fifth of the
Conference (see appendix for a full list) is made up of clerical-Zionist
organizations, whose principle function is promoting Israeli goals through
direct intervention in US politics at all levels. A memo from one group,
the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, issued on January 3, 2009,
outlines their detailed strategy in defense of Israel's Gaza massacre:
"Every congregation should issue a statement supporting Israel. Solicit
statements from elected officials at the city, state or provincial, or
federal levels. Solicit statements from local religious, ethnic and other
prominent personalities. Monitor and respond to media coverage. Whenever
possible, enlist non-Jews as well as public officials and prominent
spokespeople to demonstrate their support for Israel". The memo then
proposes a series of "talking points on the situation in the Gaza Strip"
that repeats verbatim the identical propaganda fabrications of the Israeli
political-military high command: Affirming Israel's peaceful intentions,
blaming Hamas as the aggressor and claiming that "Israel, as always, is
doing everything within its powers to limit non-combatant casualties in
Gaza"?. The Jewish clerics in the United Synagogues tell their faithful
congregants to ignore the more than 5000 civilian casualties and the 1,300
deaths, of which three quarters are women, children and unarmed civilians,
the sixty schools and the tens of thousands of homes and the dozen mosques
demolished, the condemnations of war crimes by the United Nations, Red
Cross and every Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups.

The strategy paper issued by the religious Conservative Jews is very
similar to that followed by the entire network of 51 religious and secular
groups affiliated with the "Presidents". This highlights the way in which
a highly disciplined, well-financed minority captures and multiplies its
power far beyond its own membership, "leveraging" influential Gentiles,
the mass media at all levels and public figures into a powerful juggernaut
in defense of Israeli genocide in Gaza today and for war against Iran
tomorrow.

                 Israel's Military Threat to Iran

Israel, contrary to some leftist skeptics, had advanced operational plans
to launch a massive aerial assault on Iran. On several occasions in the
recent past, Israel has planned several aerial attacks on Iran, only to be
thwarted by the Bush White House. The Jewish state has publicly announced
that it will unilaterally strike Iran if it continues its legal,
internationally recognized, right to enrich uranium. The most likely
winner in this February's national elections, Binyamin Netanyahu, has
publicly stated that a military attack on Iran is at the top of his agenda
- a message which has activated all the major Zionist-Jewish organizations
in the US to redouble their efforts to secure US compliance, support and
active collaboration.

On January 7, 2009, the London Sunday Times, quoting several high level
Israeli military sources, reported, "Israel has drawn up secret plans to
destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear
weapons. Two Israeli Air Force squadrons are training to blow up an
Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear 'bunker-buster'.  Robert Gates,
the new (sic) US Defense Secretary, has described military action against
Iran as a last resort - leading Israeli officials to conclude that it will
be left to them to strike. The preparations have been overseen by Major
General Eliezar Shkedi, Commander of the Israeli Air Force". (Times on
Line, January 7, 2009).

A subsequent article in the pro-Israel New York Times (January 11, 2009)
by David Sanger, a prominent Zionist sympathizer, reported that "President
Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year (2008) for specialized
bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran's main nuclear
complex; the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli
request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran's major nuclear complex. The White
House denied that request outright." Sanger goes on to claim that the
Israelis were furious at a detailed report by 16 US intelligence agencies
(The National Intelligence Estimate) which demonstrated that Iran had
halted development of a nuclear warhead in 2003 because it undermined
Israeli efforts to secure US collaborations for a military attack on Iran.
Sanger spends several paragraphs trying to bolster the Israeli
unsubstantiated claims regarding Iran's nuclear program framing the case
for a unilateral Israeli attack - which he dates began "early 2008" but
was stalled by opposition from the US military.

The forthcoming Israeli national elections (February 10, 2009) promise to
accelerate Israeli plans for a massive military assault on Iran, as the
polls indicate that the majority of Jewish voters will elect the
ultra-militarist Zionist Binyamin Netanyahu, a favorite of the most
influential Zionist-American organizations. In a very recent interview
with the Wall Street Journal (January 24, 2009), Netanyahu speaks of Iran
as the "terrorist mother base" and "that Israel cannot accept an Iranian
terror base (Gaza) next to its major cities". He then goes on to justify
the Israeli murder of civilians because, he claims, the Palestinian
resistance ("terrorists") "hide behind civilians". The Wall Street
journalist, one Brett Stephens, in complete awe and wonder at the feet of
the Israeli leader, writes approvingly of Netanyahu's justifications for
an attack on Iran, "the threat of a nuclear Iran poses a much greater
danger to the world than the economic crises this poses an existential
threat to Israel directly". Stephens goes on to sum up Netanyahu's
position toward Obama: "If diplomacy fails and the US does not resort to
military force, Israel will decide to go it alone".

Israeli leaders have temporarily backed off attacking Iran - launching,
instead, the Gaza assault to weaken any possible resistance among
Palestinians to an Israeli war against their Muslim ally in Tehran. The
Israeli war plans toward Iran will be reinforced with the new Obama
Presidency. With the rise to power of the ultra-Zionist Dennis Ross as
Chief Adviser on to President Obama on Iran and Hillary ("We will
obliterate Iran") Clinton as Secretary of State, the question of a US
backed Israeli preemptive attack on Iran looms closer to becoming a
reality. As late as two months ago Ross signed on to a document, which
provided a "roadmap" to war with Iran. Zionist infestation of the entire
policy-making apparatus of the Obama regime means that any official
military or intelligence opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran will be
blunted and their spokespersons marginalized.

                     The Obama Regime and Israel

The Obama regime is, if anything, even more penetrated from the top to
bottom and from Executive offices to Congress with Zionists in positions
to influence every strategic decision having any relation to Middle East
policy.

The Jewish Telegraph Agency (January 20, 2009), the principle news agency
of American Jewish-Zionist publications, provides a detailed list of the
"pro-Israel" Zionists in strategic Middle East positions in the Obama
regime. The evidence of Zionist control is overwhelming and the
consequences are deadly to any "balanced" peace negotiations and extremely
promising for Israel's war ambitions in the regions:

1. Dennis Ross will be an influential adviser on Iran policy. Ross is an
advocate of intensifying sanctions to undermine negotiations and force the
military option.

2. Richard Holbrooke, appointed as Obama's envoy to Afghanistan, is a
prominent Zionist who served as UN envoy under Clinton. He has recently
headed an ad hoc group called United Against a Nuclear Iran, which
advocates military action against Iran if it does not submit to an
Israeli-dictated cessation of its legal nuclear energy program.

3. George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to the Palestine-Israel conflict, is one
of the four co-chairs of the Zionist front group, Bipartisan Policy
Center, which propose a step by step approach, from sanctions to embargo
to naval blockade to a military strike on Iran.

4. Dan Shapiro and Puneet Talwar will collaborate on Middle East policy at
the National Security Council. Shapiro, in consultation with Israel, was
"key in shepherding the Syrian Accountability Act through the Senate (a
measure that imposed tough sanctions on Syria)". Shapiro drafted Obama's
cringing, belly crawling speech to the AIPAC conference in Washington on
May 2008. Puneet Talwar will handle Persian Gulf issues - including Iran.
He was a staffer of former Senator and current Vice President Joe Biden
and was a close collaborator and conduit for AIPAC.

5. Eric Lynn is heading for a White House Middle East policy job. He
started his career as an AIPAC intern in 1998 and continued as a staff
person for Congressman Peter Deutsch, "one of the most committed
pro-Israel figures in Congress". Lynn spent a year in Israel, imbibing
Zionist military culture and learning Hebrew.

6. James Steinberg and Jacob "Jack" Lew have been named as Clinton's
deputies at the State Department. Steinberg has been in a "strong relation
with the pro-Israel community" and was a conduit for Israeli pressure on
Arafat to capitulate to Israeli demands. Jack Law will direct economic
stimulus overseas. He is an orthodox-Zionist, who will use American
economic resources to back Israeli militarism and reward or punish its
adversaries. A former head of a Citigroup investment unit, he holds
between $50,000 to $100,000 in Israel State Bonds.

7. Samantha Power, once a critic of Israeli war crimes in 2002 for which
the Zionist Power Configuration had her removed from the Obama campaign in
March 2008. She was "rehabilitated" and re-incorporated as a member of the
Clinton transition team after an "abject apology" to Israel.
[Rejuvenated?-ed]

8. Cass Sunstein, a lifetime Zion-Lib, is head of the White House Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs - a key propaganda arm of the Obama
regime.

9. Rand Beers was lead national security adviser to Senator Kerry during
his presidential campaign of 2004 and "built close relations" with the
pro-Israel political apparatus. As adviser to Homeland Security, he will
"likely be a linchpin as Israel and the US forge a closer alliance"
(Jewish Telegraph Agency January 20, 2009).

10. Lee Feinstein and Mara Rudman are Zionist veterans from the Clinton
Administrations. Feinstein is a lead adviser of Secretary of State Clinton
and Rudman is Senior Foreign Policy Adviser of President Obama.

11. Susan Rice, UN Ambassador appointed by Obama, signed on to a
Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) paper last summer
calling for greater Israeli-US coordination for an embargo and military
attack on Iran. WINEP is a well-known propaganda mill for Israel's most
fanatical, bellicose and unconditional supporters. In her Senate
testimony, Rice denounced the United Nation General Assembly's criticism
of Israel's Gaza bloodbath.

At the head of Obama's foreign policy regime, Vice Presiden Biden ("I am a
Zionist"), Secretary of State Clinton ("demolish Iran") and Secretary of
Defense Gates (a holdover from the Israeli-dominated Bush Administration)
have put in place the most Zionist-infested Middle East policy regime in
US history. This regime is neither by background, loyalties or commitments
prepared to open serious negotiations with Iran, or to "broker" an end of
Israeli occupation of Palestine. On the contrary, their close ties with
the Zionist Power Configuration and long-term commitment to Israeli
militarism and expansionist policies ensure that the Obama regime will
proceed toward collaboration with the Jewish State in a military
confrontation with Iran. Everyone on Obama's team supported the Israeli
carnage in Gaza and endorsed Israel's efforts to destroy the
democratically elected Hamas government and prop up the discredited and
corrupt quisling clique headed by Abbas.

The Obama Presidency has achieved what many observers thought impossible:
It has placed more Zionists in more strategic power positions with a
greater commitment to war with Iran than even the Bush Administration.
Given Obama's appointments and his own personal subservience to Israeli
leaders it is difficult to imagine the 16 major intelligence services
issuing a report refuting Israel's fabrications about Iran's nuclear
program, as happened under Bush. Even more egregious, given the Zionist
stranglehold on the White House, it is unlikely that Obama would block a
proposed Israeli air assault on Iran as Bush is reputed to have done.

The Israeli war strategy toward Iran follows the "salami tactics" of its
Nazi forerunner: Attacks are designed for maximum destructiveness against
civilian infrastructure, against countries and leaders opposed to any
Israeli aggression toward Iran. Israel bombed and invaded Lebanon. It
bombed Syria. Israel savaged Gaza. Its "lobby" has extended and enforced
global economic sanctions through the forceful intervention of a Zionist
infested Treasury Department. Obama's top economic adviser, the
ultra-Zionist Lawrence Summers, promotes tighter sanctions, boycotts and
embargoes against the designated enemies of Israel: policies pointing
toward war.
[end 1/2]

James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University,
New York, owns a 50-year membership in the class struggle, is an adviser
to the landless and jobless in Brazil and Argentina, and is co-author of
Globalization Unmasked (Zed Books). Petras' most recent book is Zionism,
Militarism and the Decline of US Power (Clarity Press, 2008). He can be
reached at: jpetras [at] binghamton.edu.


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