Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 02.06.09

[David Shove (shove001]

              P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    02.06.09

1. Silencing activists 2.06 11am
2. Ffunch (egad!)      2.06 11:30am
3. Devji               2.06 1pm
4. Boycott Israel      2.06 3pm
5. RNC8 benefit        2.06 10pm
6. Antiracism/register 2.06

7. Permaculture        2.07 9am
8. Community garden    2.07 9am
9. Peace walk          2.07 9am Cambridge MN
10. Guatemala/rights   2.07 10am
11. Homeless vets      2.07 10am
12. Mpls strike/tour   2.07 1pm
13. Northtown vigil    2.07 2pm
14. RNC litigation     2.07 4pm
15. Dakota/justice/CTV 2.07 9pm

16. rnc08          - Support postRNC organizing!
17. Steven Salaita - Call for academic boycott of Israel
18. George C-Maher - Culture of police brutality; the struggle continues
19. James Petras   - Israel asserts MidEast supremacy: Gaza to Tehran 2/2

--------1 of 19--------

From: Lydia Howell
Silencing activists 2.06 11am

The Green Scare - Using Terrorism Laws to Silence Political
Will Potter on "The Green Scare: Using Terrorism Laws to Silence Political
Activists"

TUNE IN; Friday, Feb. 6, 11am KFAI Radio to hear an interview with WILL
POTTER on "Catalyst:politics & culture", hosted/produced by Lydia Howell.
KFAI Radio, now powerede up to  900 watts!
90.3fm Mpls 106.7fm St.Paul

Live-streaming/archived for 2 weeks after broadcaSt on the "Catalyst" page
at http://www.kfai.org


--------2 of 19--------

From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Ffunch (egad!) 2.06 11:30am

Ffunch 2.06 11:30am

Meet the FFUNCH BUNCH!
11:30am-1pm
First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for progressives.
Informal political talk and hanging out.

Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul.
Meet on the far south side.

Day By Day has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous
apple pie; is close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines

Egad, how can you resist??


--------3 of 19--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Devji 2.06 1pm

Friday, 2/6, 1 to 3 pm, New School history prof Faisal Devji speaks on
"The Terrorist in Search of Humanity: Militant Islam and Global Politics,"
room 308, Elmer L Andersen Library, 222 - 21st Ave S, West Bank U of M,
Mpls.  http://igs.cla.umn.edu/events/


--------4 of 19--------

From: luce <luce [at] riseup.net>
Subject: Boycott Israel 2.06 3pm

MINNESOTA OUT OF PALESTINE!
DEMAND THE END TO ALL TRADE WITH ISRAEL
Protest outside of the Minnesota Trade Office
THIS Friday, February 6th, 3pm
332 Minnesota Street, Saint Paul
bring signs, banners, bullhorns
Demand the Immediate End to All Trade with Israel


--------5 of 19--------

From: info [at] rnc8.org
Subject: RNC8 benefit 2.06 10pm

Blondie and Best Friends Forever

Despite rumors to the contrary, members of the RNC8 DO love to dance and
listen to live music. So we are stoked about this concert on Friday
February 6 at the Bedlam Theatre!

City Pages 2008 Picked to Click choice Bouncer Fighter
(http://tinyurl.com/acpc72) will mix it up with the amazingly smooth Black
Blondie (http://tinyurl.com/6brj27) and a big scoop of the sugar-coated
pop of Best Friends Forever (http://tinyurl.com/33bcjk) for a Friends of
the RNC 8 benefit.

Friday, FEB 6
10PM, $5 and up suggested donation
@ the Bedlam Theatre www.bedlamtheatre.org
1501 6th St. S, next to the Cedar-Riverside lightrail station in Minneapolis
See ya on the dance floor!


-------6 of 19--------

From: Margery Otto <motto [at] hobt.org>
Subject: Antiracism/register 2.06

Antiracism Circles  2.6.09 registration

From:  Margery Otto  motto [at] asdic-alliance.org
Subject:  Antiracism Circles  2.6 registration

Register now to participate in an Antiracism Study-Dialogue Circle.  An
ASDIC Circle is a community of 10 to 12 people who meet once a week for 12
weeks.  The upcoming Circle will be meeting on Tuesday evenings in the
West Side neighborhood of St Paul, starting on February 17th.  Together
members of the Circle will create supportive relationships as they explore
the ways our social behaviors and identities are formed in the context of
³race² and racism in the United States.  Relationships are built on
honest, informed and deep dialogue that leads to formation of Action
Plans.  Through the ASDIC experience we create antiracist patterns of
relationships in the settings of our own lives and advocate for
relational, antiracist policies in the wider systems of our society.
Members of past ASDIC Circles report the Circles to be deeply
transformative.

The Tuesday evening ASDIC Circle will meet from 6:00 to 8:30pm, with a
shared meal at 5:30.  Address:  371 West Baker Street, Saint Paul 55107.
Suggested donation is $150 which includes textbook, manual and all meals.
Kindly pay what you can ­ all are welcome without regard to financial
circumstances.

To register or FFI:  Tim Johnson, 651-227-4275 or cpuc [at] usfamily.net.
www.cherokeeparkunited.org <http://www.cherokeeparkunited.org> - ADSIC.
Although this ASDIC Circle will be held in a community church building,
ASDIC Circles are not based on any religious tradition and are
non-sectarian in nature.

ASDIC ­ Fostering wholeness ­ Spinning webs of relationship ­ Untangling
knots of oppression.


--------7 of 19--------

From: Dan Halsey <dhalsey [at] integra.net>
Subject: Permaculture 2.07 9am

Event Date: 7 Feb 2009 9:00am - 5:00pm
$75.00

PRI Cold Climate presents:
An Introduction to Permaculture
Minnesota and the Midwest is at a crucial stage in climate change,
economics, energy descent and transitioning to self reliant homesteads.
Permaculture has principles and ethics to help individuals, communities
and families develop their resources into stable and continuously viable
homes and property.

Permaculture principles guide participants in observing patterns of energy
use and collection and storage of diminishing resources.

This workshop will introduce Permaculture to participants and assist them
in entering new patterns of existence that secure an environmentally
supported lifestyle.

Saturday February 7, 2009, 9:00am - 5:00pm
Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), 2501 Stevens Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55404 - MCAD Parking in 3rd Ave Ramp or on Stevens Ave.
Workshop at MCAD, Room 410
Instructors include, Fred Rozumalski;CPD and Landscape Ecologist,
Courtney Tchida;CPD, Bob Dahm;CPD

Materials: Participants will be given supporting materials based on the
days presentations. Participants should bring lunch. Snacks and
refreshments will be provided at breaks.

Cost:
$75 Members,
$85 Non-Members,
$150 Workshop Kit (Workshop, Mollison Permaculture Intro Book & PRI
Membership) Save $30

Please register
Questions? Contact:
Daniel Halsey, PRI Teachers Guild Coordinator, dhalsey [at] integra.net,
612.720.5001
Daniel Halsey
SouthWoodsForestGardens.blogspot.com
Permaculture and Polyculture Design

Sponsored by PRI Cold Climate and Minneapolis College or Art and Design

[I've always wanted to join a permacult. -ed]


--------8 of 19--------

From: ila duntemann <ila.gardeningmatters [at] GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Community garden  2.07 9am

Community Gardeners:
Promoting Participation & Sharing Wisdom
A new learning community series for gardeners who want to increase
participation and opportunities for growing community gardens!

Sessions 1-4 will be held Saturdays from 9-11:30 am
Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association
821 E 35th St, Minneapolis

Session 2-February 7
Shared Leadership for the 21st Century


--------9 of 19--------

From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Peace walk 2.07 9am Cambridge MN

every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM
Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street


--------10 of 19--------

From: biego001 [at] umn.edu
Subject: Guatemala/rights 2.07 10am

Resource Center of the Americas Sat. am coffeehour series:
Feb. 7, 10-11:30am, at 3019 Minnehaha Ave. S. (Mosaic of the Americas
Bldg., lower level)

New Tactics in Human Rights: Join Kristin Antin from The Center for Victims
of Torture to discuss her recent experience working with Mayan Educators in
Guatemala using human rights tools to build tactical and strategic thinking
skills

for more info, check www.americas.org, or call 612-276-0788


--------11 of 19--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Homeless vets 2.07 10am

Saturday, 2/7, 10 to 11:30 am, meeting Homeless Veterans for Peace,
Peacehouse, 510 E Franklin, Mpls.  Bob Heberle 612-789-9020.


--------12 of 19--------

From: David Riehle <djrie [at] visi.com>
Subject: Mpls strike/bus tour 2.07 1pm

Feb 7 bus tour to mark 75th Anniversary of Minneapolis coal drivers strike

The free tour will visit the site of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union's
1934 headquarters on First Avenue North, along with former coal yard sites
on NE Harrison Street, West Broadway, East 24th Street and Lyndale Avenue.
The lightning 3-day coal strike was the first of three strikes in 1934 by
Minneapolis truck drivers and inside workers that "Made Minneapolis a
Union Town."

The Minnesota Transportation Museum will supply a reconditioned 1954 Twin
Cities line bus for the free two-hour tour which will leave from the
Minneapolis Labor Center at 312 Central Ave, at 1 PM on Saturday, February
7 and take about two hours.

RSVP Please: To reserve a seat on the tour, call the Minneapolis Labor
Review at 612-379-4725.

Headline: FEB 7 TOUR TO MARK 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF MINNEAPOLIS COAL DRIVERS
STRIKE
by Eric Nathanson for the Longfellow Messenger

"The Great Depression still held this country in its grip during the
brutal winter of 1934, but the Minneapolis Labor Review had some good news
to report.  "Coal Drivers' Whirlwind Strike Wins Recognition of
Organization, " the Labor Review declared on the front page of its
February 16 issue.

"With a dash and unity that electrified the city, Coal Drivers of
Minneapolis last week after a whirlwind strike of two days and a half won
recognition of the union,"Ô this paper went on to tell its readers 75
years ago. "It was a short sharp but effective engagement with employers
who had steadfastly maintained that their employees were not organized,
and it sent shivers up the back of the Citizens Alliance bosses as they
witnessed the power of labor militantly organized."

The brief February strike, organized by Teamster Local 574, laid the
foundation for further job actions that would change the course of labor
history in Minneapolis in 1934.

Now, in 2009, a group of labor activists are marking the 75th anniversary
of the 1934 Teamsters strikes with a bus tour on February 7 of sites
associated with the walk out by the coal drivers.  The tour, sponsored by
the Minneapolis Labor Review, will be led by David Riehle, a labor
historian and union activist, who is helping organize a series of 75th
anniversary events.

"The coal drivers job action, as brief as it was, gave Local 574 the
momentum it needed to launch major strikes that summer that would make
this city a national center of union activism," Riehle said. "The bitter
Teamsters strike of 1934, which culminated in street violence in the
city's market district, broke the hold of the anti-union Citizens Alliance
which had thwarted union organizing in this city for decades."

"While the coal yards of the 1930s have disappeared, we will be visiting
their sites to get a better understanding of the events that occurred
there at the height of the Great Depression," Riehle said.

The tour will visit the site of the CLU's 1934 headquarters on First
Avenue North, along with former coal yard sites on NE Harrison Street,
West Broadway, East 24th Street and Lyndale Avenue

The Minnesota Transportation Museum will supply a reconditioned 1954 Twin
Cities line bus for the free two-hour tour which will leave from the
Minneapolis Labor Center at 312 Central Ave, at 1 PM on Saturday, February
7."

To reserve a seat on the tour, call the Minneapolis Labor Review at
612-379-4725.


--------13 of 19--------

From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 2.07 2pm

Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday
2-3pm


--------14 of 19--------

From: Meredith Aby <awcmere [at] gmail.com>
Subject: RNC litigation 2.07 4pm

RNC Civil Litigation Workshop
Saturday, February 7, 2009 @ 4-6 pm @ Walker Community Church, 3104 16th
Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN

If you were present at the RNC and affected by the police state, come out to
a sweet workshop this Saturday to find out about taking the first steps in
filing a civil suit against the state. Civil suits are one way we can hold
the state accountable for violating our rights. We're fighting them off in
criminal court, so let's take the battle to civil court as well!  If you
need childcare or can help provide it, please email
suethebastards [at] riseup.net.

This will be an introduction to civil litigation (law suits) for people
affected by the RNC. It will be a forum for people to discuss why they want
to sue the city of st. paul, ramsey county, the rnc, etc. We will also
discuss how law suits against the state fit into the broader anti-oppression
movement and a description of the first steps in filing a lawsuit. Finally,
we will be announcing the Notice of Claim Mardi-Gras Action and building
support for it.  Organized by CRASS.


--------15 of 19--------

From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net>
Subject: Dakota/justice/CTV 2.07 9pm

Erudite Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) viewers:
"Our World In Depth" cablecasts on MTN Channel 17 on Saturdays at 9pm and
Tuesdays at 8am, after DemocracyNow!  Households with basic cable may
watch.

Sat, 2/7, 9pm and Tues, 2/10, 8am
What Does Justice Look Like?

Guest Waziyatawin, Dakota author and scholar of indigenous peoples'
history, describes some of the key events around the founding of the state
of MN 150 years ago.  With an important narrative, Waziyatawin shares the
struggles of the Dakota people to retain their lives, land and identity
and gives an indigenous perspective on current environmental crises.
Cohosted by Karen Redleaf and Eric Angell.


--------16 of 19--------

From: rnc08 [at] riseup.net
Subject: Support postRNC Organizing!

We Need Your Help!

The Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (CRASS) is in need of
immediate financial support. We've been working hard since the Republican
National Convention to enact a powerful movement of court solidarity and
we are turning to the larger activist community to support us in this
essential work.

One of the major problems with mass demos and summits is that the local
community lucky enough to host thousands of our radical out-of-town
friends ends up being really strained by the long-lasting effects after
the protesters have gone home. The RNC isn't over here in the Twin Cities.
Our court solidarity strategy has blocked the state from achieving its
goal of criminalizing dissent: we've supported people fighting charges
every step of the way and everyone who has fought their charges thusfar
has won in court!!

After more than two years of organizing -- both pre- and post- RNC - our
local resources are close to tapped. We have raised almost $19,000 and
spent more than $16,000 for bail, the travel fund, the jail hotline, and
other expenses to directly support the 800+ RNC arrestees.

And our financial needs continue with additional charges being filed by
the state and court cases moving into trial. We are calling upon the
people who came out to Minnesota in September (and those of you who
couldn't make it) to raise some money in your own local community and send
it out here to support your friends and fellow trouble-makers.

You can donate online at http://www.rncaftermath.org. Click on the "Donate
to Arrestee Support" button. Or you can mail checks or money orders to:
Coldsnap Legal Collective with "CRASS" in the subject line:

CRASS c/o Coldsnap Legal Collective P.O. Box 50514 Minneapolis, MN 55405

If you want to learn more about what we've been up to since the RNC (and
we've certainly been busy), check out our website at
http://www.rncaftermath.org. Coldsnap's website is also a good
informational resource- http://www.coldsnaplegal.org.

Please forward our plea to friends and listservs. Bring it up in your
community and see if you can get a few people excited about helping out
their midwest comrades. Anything helps, whether it's hosting a benefit
show, donating $5 online, or forking over your life savings. We'll be so
happy and send you a homemade thank you card with a big kiss inside (if
you give us a return address). And you can sleep easy knowing that you're
doing your part to help ameliorate the impact of the police state.

So, give us your money!! either here via paypal-
http://www.rncaftermath.org

or here- CRASS c/o Coldsnap Legal Collective PO Box 50514 Minneapolis MN
55405

We've got a really nifty fundraising ChipIn.com Web 'widget' on our
website that you can put on your blog, MySpace, Facebook or website, to
help us get the word out & show that we're getting it done. (check out
CUAPB.org for the RNC 8's ChipIn widget, which you can also embed, too).

We're fighting to set the precedent that they can't just bomb a community
into submission without getting themselves into a huge legal quagmire in
court and political challenges in the street. Don't let them terrorize
dissent into silence: Support CRASS today!

Also, please check out the website for the RNC8- a local group of awesome
organizers who are facing terrorism charges under the Minnesota Patriot
Act. www.RNC8.org

We love you!!! -The Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (CRASS)


--------17 of 19--------

Call for ACADEMICS & WRITERS! (Letter below)
LINK TO U.S. Campaign for Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel:
http://usacbi.wordpress.com/press-release/
> http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/2009/02/02/letter__an_academic_boycott_of_israel

Letter: An academic boycott of Israel
by Letter to the editor
<http://www.collegiatetimes.com/author/Letter%20to%20the%20editor>
Monday, February 2, 2009; 9:56 PM

We stand in support of the indigenous Palestinian people in Gaza, who are
fighting for their survival against one of the most brutal uses of state
power in both this century and the last.

We condemn Israel's recent (December 2008/ January 2009) breaches of
international law in the Gaza Strip, which include the bombing of densely
populated neighborhoods, illegal deployment of the chemical white
phosphorous, and attacks on schools, ambulances, relief agencies,
hospitals, universities, and places of worship. We condemn Israel's
restriction of access to media and aid workers.

We reject as false Israel's characterization of its military attacks on
Gaza as retaliation.

Israel's latest assault on Gaza is part of its longtime racist
jurisprudence against its indigenous Palestinian population, during which
the Israeli state has systematically dispossessed, starved, tortured, and
economically exploited the Palestinian people.

We reject as untrue the Israeli government's claims that the Palestinians
use civilians as human shields, and that Hamas is an irredeemable
terrorist organization. Without endorsing its platforms or philosophy, we
recognize Hamas as a democratically elected ruling party.

We do not endorse the regime of any existing Arab state and call for the
upholding of internationally mandated human rights and democratic
elections in all Arab states.

We call upon our fellow writers and academics in the United States to
question discourses that justify and rationalize injustice, and to address
Israeli assaults on civilians in Gaza as one of the most important moral
issues of our time.

We call upon institutions of higher education in the U.S. to cut ties with
Israeli academic institutions, dissolve study abroad programs in Israel,
and divest institutional funds from Israeli companies, using the 1980s
boycott against apartheid South Africa as a model.

We call on all people of conscience to join us in boycotting Israeli
products and institutions until a just, democratic state for all residents
of Palestine/Israel comes into existence.

/Steven Salaita
Assistant Professor,
department of English
Virginia Tech/

/Mohammed Abed/ /Elmaz Abinader/ /Ali Abunimah/ /Opal Palmer Adisa/ /Etel
Adnan/ /Deborah Al-Najjar/ /Evelyn Azeeza Alsultany/ /Amina Baraka/ /Amiri
Baraka/ /George Bisharat/ /Sherwin Bitsui/ /Breyten Breytenbach/ /Van
Brock/ /Hayan Charara/ /Alison Hedge Coke/ /Lara Deeb/ /Vicente Diaz/
/Marilyn Hacker/ /Mechthild Hart/ /Sam Hamill/ /Randa Jarrar/ /Fady
Joudah/ /Tony Judt/ /Mohja Kahf/ /Rima Najjar Kapitan/ /Persis Karim/ /J.
Kehaulani Kauanui/ /Haunani Kay-Trask/ /David Lloyd/ /Sunaina Maira/ /Nur
Masalha/ /Khaled Mattawa/ /Daniel AbdalHayy Moore/ /Aileen
Moreton-Robinson/ /Nadine Naber/ /Marcy Newman/ /Viet Nguyen/ /Simon
Ortiz/ /Vijay Prashad/ /Adrienne Rich/ /Steven Salaita/ /Therese Saliba/
/Sarita See/ /Deema Shehabi/ /Matthew Shenoda/ /Naomi Shihab Nye/ /Magid
Shihade/ /Vandana Shiva/ /Ella Habiba Shohat/ /Noenoe Silva/ /Andrea
Smith/ /Ahdaf Soueif/ /Ghada Talhami/ /Frank X. Walker/ /Robert Warrior


--------18 of 19--------

[Culture of police brutality]
From Oakland to Santa Rita, the Struggle Continues
"Fired Up, Can't Take It No More"
By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER
CounterPunch
February 3, 2009
[Vivid account -ed]

"Town Bizness"

Efforts at the moderation and cooptation of the Oscar Grant movement had
failed in the face of revolutionary pressure and state weakness. The
various radical organizations that dot the Oakland landscape had slipped
the yoke of the official organizations with links to Mayor Dellums'
campaign and enmeshed in the non-profit industrial complex. The place was
the historic Black Dot Cafe in West Oakland; the event, a "Town Bizness"
town hall meeting hosted by the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC)
with the presence of Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and a number of others,
former and current Black Panthers included. "This ain't like the other
town halls where a preacher talks for three hours," said POCC Minister of
Information JR by way of introduction, in oblique reference to the weekly
meetings held at Olivet Baptist Church.

Those gathered at the Black Dot were among the few organizations and
individuals still insisting, with the unequivocal support of all the
events that had come to pass in recent weeks, that organized rebellion in
the streets had been fundamental in the arrest of Johannes Mehserle for
the murder of Oscar Grant. Many of those present took aim at the
"opportunists" and the self-appointed leadership which, by virtue of city
contracts and non-profit status, had been perceived as hijacking a city's
anger and turned it down the path of institutional power (some hoping, no
doubt, to ride the masses all the way to elected power themselves). As an
alternative, those gathered at the Black Dot agreed on a list of demands,
and on a strategy of mobilizing for the bail hearing of Johannes Mehserle,
to be held on January 30th.

New Video, New Pressure

But in the intervening days, the political balance of forces had shifted
dramatically, with the legitimacy of both the BART police and the OPD
seemingly in free-fall. First, it was announced that the head of OPD
internal affairs, Ed Poulson, had been suspended and that the FBI is
currently investigating the force over the death in custody of Jerry Amaro
some nine years ago. This combined with a threatened no-confidence vote
for Police Chief Wayne Tucker partly over handling of the investigation
into the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey, led Tucker to announce his
unceremonious resignation, leaving a gaping power vacuum at the head of
this force, which would make itself felt later.

In addition, BART police chief Gary Gee, who seems hell-bent on
infuriating the public as much as is humanly possible, was circulating a
memo instructing all BART officers on how they could show their solidarity
with Mehserle by making a donation to his defense. "You have our full
support," writes Gee, who went on to blame "public abuse and the media's
reporting" for placing undue stress on his department. As Grant family
attorney John Burris put it, "It is unacceptable for the police chief, who
ostensibly is investigating Mehserle and other officers, related to their
conduct on the night that Oscar Grant was killed, to encourage officers to
visit and make financial contributions to Mehserle".

But perhaps the most important element in this new upsurge in public anger
and disillusionment with the police was a new cellphone video release by
KTVU news, and taped on the BART platform the night Oscar Grant was
executed. The recording shows a different officer, now identified as Tony
Pirone, who would later have his knee on Oscar Grant when he was shot by
Mehserle, punching Grant in the face for no apparent reason, and clearly
escalating the tone of the situation. While those in the streets have been
demanding the arrest of the other officers as accessories to murder, this
demand had been largely ignored until it gained a degree of tangible
reality in that video, at which point BART officials announced an
investigation would be opened.

"We Fired Up, Can't Take it No More"

On January 30th, an overflow crowd filled the hallway of the Rene Davidson
Courthouse in an effort to gain access to the bail hearing. Family members
and an undisclosed number of BART officers had been escorted into the
courtroom by a back door, and the nearly 100 gathered in the hallway were
promised 44 available seats for the hearing. After some 20 had entered,
the crowd was told that the courtroom was full. Spontaneous chants of "We
are all Oscar Grant!" filled the hall, clearly audible to those within the
courtroom itself, and at one point county police attempted to forcibly
remove the crowd, seizing people one-by-one and pushing them into the
elevators.

Inside the hearing, Mehserle's newly-contracted attorney Michael Rains,
who previously got corrupt OPD officers off in the Riders case, was making
the case for bail. Mehserle had yet to open his mouth about what happened
that night on the BART platform, a refusal that many interpreted as
individual cowardice given the protests rocking the city. But if he wanted
bail he would have to say something, and in the end, that "something" was
not convincing at all. Mehserle's lawyer simultaneously suggested that
Mehserle meant to deploy his Taser against Grant, while adding that he
thought Grant was reaching for a gun. Again, both claims have been
thoroughly discredited: Mehserle had removed his Taser, which bears no
resemblance to his gun, from the opposite side of his belt earlier, and
Grant was face-down with Pirone holding his neck, showing no signs of
struggle.

Moreover, if Grant were reaching for a gun, surely Mehserle would admit to
purposefully pulling his own weapon. But there was a method to this
madness, and it was this: Mehserle had to mention the Taser defense to
leave open the possibility of a reduced charge, but he had to add that he
thought Grant may be armed to leave open the possibility for a total
acquittal under the tried-and-true police defense of "justifiable
homicide". Luckily, Judge Morris Jacobson noticed the ambiguity and wasn't
buying it: Mehserle, Jacobson acknowledged, did indeed represent a flight
risk, and his contradictory story made him a potential danger to the
community. However, under California guidelines, and since this was not a
capital murder case, the judge nevertheless granted Mehserle a bail of $3
million. But concealed beneath this seemingly "technical" bail decision
was a more important one: certainly, Mehserle has not been charged with a
capital offense, but this is because he was white and a cop to begin with.

It was this fact more than anything that motivated the angry crowd that
streamed from the courtroom, infuriated that this murderer would be
released with a bond payment of only $300,000, surely not too much for
someone from a well-off family with the full support of BART-PD and the
police union. The crowd exited the court past a hungry press corps,
eagerly sniffing out a controversial quote, which was delivered soon
enough, as a young man insisted before the cameras that "if the court
doesn't get him [pauses] we'll get him". But while the press was quick to
paint popular anger with the racist brush of vigilantism, he insisted that
this wasn't a threat, but instead an indicator of the fact that few have
faith in the even-handedness of the court system.

Immediately, those gathered took up positions to block the exits to
prevent Mehserle's departure, with chants of "No Justice, No Peace, Fuck
the Police!" But after a few minutes, representatives of the Panthers and
POCC decided to set out on a march that would retrace the path of the
street rebellion some three weeks prior. The crowd of around 100 surged up
14th to Broadway, where the intersection was closed and an AC Transit bus
taken over, with a Black Panther addressing the crowd from the roof. After
a few minutes, we moved down Broadway toward the OPD station, and as we
arrived, a small contingent of police was hurriedly setting up a cordon to
protect their home. After a brief standoff, the crowd began to move back
up Broadway, by now 150-strong as passers-by and young students
spontaneously joined in. Now, the chant was: "We fired up, can't take it
no more!"

As we stream past vehicles, some in the crowd notice a small, unmarked SUV
full of cops, and the crowd showed its contempt in no uncertain terms.
>From a few feet away, I saw the rear window of the vehicle explode,
revealing an officer pointing a rubber-bullet gun from inside the vehicle.
Immediately, half a dozen flash-bang grenades were lobbed into the crowd,
weapons which even the manufacturers admit are deadly and should only be
used as a last resort. Now, of course, they were used as a first resort,
and several protestors were on the ground screaming for medics from the
impact of the explosions. People scattered, taking refuge behind cars as
the officers climbed out of the vehicle, each tossing several more
grenades in all directions to disperse the crowd.

"I'm Gonna Fuck You Up"

By now, the new OPD strategy was in full force, either on orders from
Mayor Dellums or due to the power vacuum created by Tucker's abrupt exit:
heavy and prominent presence, blocking streets and repeatedly cutting the
march into smaller and smaller segments in the hopes that it would
disperse. At one point, we were completely blocked-in on 14th near
Jackson, and the only exit appeared to be through the parking lot of the
same McDonalds that was smashed three weeks prior. But upon reaching the
other side, this path too was quickly blocked by a contingent of
particularly aggressive cops with a bone to pick.

To be clear: no order to disperse had yet been read, and we were in the
parking lot of a private business. As the crowd approached the police
line, a fairly massive black officer named Smith began to taunt a much
smaller demonstrator, urging him to give the cop reason to arrest him.
When no reason was forthcoming, Smith grabbed the young man by his bandana
and threw him into another officer, who then proceeded, along with some
comrades, to brutally pound the young man and his friend for a number of
minutes. When the crowd began to loudly protest the brutality they were
witnessing, the cops made their intentions clear. As Smith himself
promised me with a swipe of his baton: "I'm gonna fuck you up".

And it wouldn't be long before this hefty soldier made good on his
promise. About 20 minutes later, after a dispersal order had been read at
another intersection, the crowd was ordered to move to the sidewalks, and
as a friend and I crossed a crosswalk (with the light green, no less)
Smith and friends saw their chance. My friend was tackled from behind, his
forehead smashed into a light pole. I hadn't taken but two steps toward
him when five officers flattened me. Skillfully navigating the avenues of
pain and skirting the fine line separating a broken bone from a soft
tissue injury, these portly knights of order made the most of their 30
seconds of absolute sovereignty, twisting and wrenching shoulder, elbow,
wrist, and individual finger, kicking and punching me in the face and
back.

In the back of the wagon, we were a sorry-looking lot, my friend bleeding
profusely from the forehead, and one of the McDonald's arrestees with a
smashed nose. Our cellphones had been confiscated as "evidence" (as this
article is published, we are told that these will not be returned until we
consent to police downloading their contents). Our transporting officer,
Miller, immediately promised that we were all "CRs," cite and release, so
no worries, we would be out soon. This, of course, was a lie for all but
one, but it served another purpose: if any of the arrested wished to
complain about excessive force and injuries (we all had suffered excessive
force and were all injured to some degree), we would need to be
transported to Santa Rita County Jail, where we would be spending the
night so as to receive "proper treatment". Such was the blackmail to
prevent complaints.

Around the same time, we overheard an officer speaking to several black
juveniles in the compartment in front, in a display of unmitigated racism
urging them to hand over any "crack pipes" or weapons they might have. And
in response to several officers persistently referring to him as a "body,"
a Latino minor shouted angrily and in disbelief, "I am not a body!  I am a
human being!"

Preaching at the Bully Pulpit

More painful than any injuries, more uncomfortable than the concrete slabs
we slept on, more disgusting than the food, was the preaching we were
forced to endure from police. I guess it's easy to think you're right when
you only lecture to a handcuffed audience, but even so, the hypocrisies
were breathtaking.

This began with the case of Oscar Grant himself, who a vast majority of
the public agree was brutally murdered by BART cop Johannes Mehserle. All
the fine Miller had to say was that "the media played a large role in the
problem". Evidently, "the problem" was the fact that Mehserle had been
arrested, not that Grant had been murdered. To claims of racism, both
against Grant and as an unspoken rule of policing, he appealed to
demographics: sure, in Oakland his drug arrests were mostly of black and
Latino men, but when he had worked in (mostly white) Hayward, he arrested
mostly whites. Only the barest of logic is necessary to convince someone
of something they already believe.

I brought up the 2007 murder of Gary King, shot in the back on Miller's
own beat as he fled. He insisted that while many argued King didn't have a
gun, he was sure that he did, and not just that, but he was "going for
it". When I asked how he could possibly "know" that there was a gun, and
more to the point, "know" that King was "going for it," when only Pat
Gonzalez, the murdering officer was present, the debate is over: he
mutters "justifiable homicide" and changes the subject. We are quite
simply speaking different languages.

Still worse was the lengthy lecture one imprisoned protester was given at
fingerprinting. A young cop, insisting that he defends the right to
protest, launched into a condescending explanation of the lessons of
Martin Luther King Jr. It was tempting to point out that he had clearly
failed to grasp the dynamics of the Civil Rights Movement, the necessary
dialectic of militancy and nonviolence, of MLK and Malcolm, that had
driven political change. It was tempting to suggest that someone in his
position 50 years ago would likely have seen King as a communist and a
terrorist, and most certainly as violent, as was the public perception and
press portrayal before the Black Power Movement entered the scene and
liberals rushed to the cause of moderate change. It was tempting, too, to
note that the government and even some clergy turned again on King near
the end of his life for his increasingly radical views and criticism of
the Vietnam War and capitalism, reserving for this prophet of nonviolence
an assassin's bullet. But concrete walls, uniforms, and guns don't
generally make for productive debate.

When one of the arrestees requested food after being held for 9 hours, the
response was gleefully insulting: "you should always make sure you're full
if you're gonna get arrested," one officer chirped with proud
condescension, "maybe next time you should stop at Chili's on the way to
the protest".

"Damn Another Santa Rita Weekend" --The Coup

At around 3am, after being systematically shifted between holding cells
for more than nine hours to cultivate disorientation and prevent what
little sleep was possible on a concrete bench or a filthy floor, we are
transported to Santa Rita. They had lied to us about citing and releasing
us, and without reading us our rights, without even telling us we were
arrested, without telling us what the charges were or the bail amount, we
were shipped out. There, the holding cell is even filthier, and while we
are the first to arrive, by 8am the room is full to capacity with some 30
new inmates. Most, it seems, were grabbed on incorrect warrants or bogus
charges that are unlikely to stick, but it doesn't matter much: for those
unable to post bail or bond, there is little recourse, and many were
resigned to spending a month, or at least a "Santa Rita weekend" at the
facility only for the charges to be dropped or to be found innocent.
There's no presumed innocence when you're poor.

As day breaks, we are issued our 2XL county blues and fish-kits, and as we
are preparing to be moved yet again, we begin to discuss the Oscar Grant
case. Unsurprisingly, everyone in our holding cell knows about it,
everyone has seen the video. Even less surprising, perhaps, is the fact
that everyone knows what side they are on. One Latino inmate stands on the
bench and begins an impromptu speech: "what we need to do is to attack the
code of silence that binds these cops to each other, they know who kills
who, and we need to get them to snitch on each other, that's the only way
we'll get justice". He ends his speech by advocating a generalized and
indefinite hunger strike until the other officers on the platform when
Grant was murdered are arrested as accessories to the crime.

After inmates are strip-searched, we move into the general housing unit
bunk areas, or "pods". We are disoriented from lack of sleep, but as soon
as our pod-mates find out what our charges are, their support is immediate
and unwavering. When I mention that I'm a writer, it is not but a few
short moments before I am handed the small pen and the disheveled stack of
paper with which I am writing this very document. "At least you in here on
some real shit," one remarked, fist in the air.

George Ciccariello-Maher is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at UC
Berkeley. He lives in Oakland, and can be reached at gjcm(at)berkeley.edu.


--------19 of 19--------

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

             "Peace" Negotiations Geared Toward War

The likelihood that the Obama regime will move the world closer to an
offensive war with Iran is not based on idle speculation or selected
quotes from his presidential campaign. No one can take serious President
Obama or his Secretary of State Clinton's advocacy of "negotiations with
Iran", when they are accompanied by conditions unacceptable to Iran's
sovereignty or national interests. The Obama regime openly threatens war
if Iran does not accept unilateral disarmament with intrusive inspection
of its strategic defense installations, allowing Israel and the US a
unique opportunity for pinpointing vital targets for their first wave of
attack.

What conclusively demonstrates Obama's drive to war with Iran is his
appointment of the most zealous Zionist militarist, Dennis Ross, to the
key strategic position dealing with Iran.

Obama appointed Ross to the post of "Special Envoy to Iran". He will act
as Czar of Middle East policy. George Mitchell is his envoy on
Israel-Palestine negotiations, a typical "good cop" (Mitchell) strategy to
counter the "bad cop" (Ross). Ross, who is often called "Israel's Lawyer",
is the ultimate Zionist, a crown prince of the US Zionist Jewish Lobby in
all of its major undertakings regarding Iran. Ross is a founding leader of
AIPAC, the principle and most powerful Israel First Lobby in Washington.
He has been a lifelong and influential ZionCon ideologue, who successfully
led the campaign in favor of the invasion of Iraq. He is among the most
prolific and influential writers and propagandists at the Zionist-financed
propaganda mill, WINEP (Washington Institute for Near East Policy), which
has produced the most bellicose position papers pushing US military
intervention in favor of Israel's expansionist ambitions. During the
Clinton years, Ross was appointed head of the US "mediation" committee
during the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations (1999-2000). In that position,
he acted as "Israel's lawyer" according to a fellow US Zionist diplomat.
He scuttled all possibility of any acceptable compromise by "following
Israel's lead". He set up the conditions, which made Palestinian rejection
inevitable while placing the blame on that embittered people. Ross has a
profound influence on Obama's politics to Israel.

Ross is a leader in a relatively new Zionist front group, known as the
"Bipartisan Policy Center". The "Center" recently published a report
entitled, M"eeting the Challenge: US Policy Toward Iranian Nuclear
Development". This roadmap for war with Iran was produced by a task force,
which included Ross and two other extremist Zioncons, the dual-Israel-US
citizen Michal Makovsky and Michael Rubin. Ross' endorsement of the
"Report" reflects his rejection of any possibility of a negotiated
agreement with Iran, which would accept Iran's legal right to a uranium
enrichment program as recognized by international treaty.

A recently reported wrinkle in Dennis Ross' appointment to the Obama
Cabinet is his role as current Chairman of the Jerusalem-based Jewish
People Policy Planning Institute, under the Jewish Agency, which is an
official part of the Israeli Government. His current work for an Israeli
government agency could place Ross at odds with the Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA), a Federal statute that requires individuals
working on behalf of a foreign government to register as such - something
Ross has never done.

The "Report" advocates a preemptive Israeli aerial bombing and missile
campaign against Iran should the US and Europe fail to strike first. This
Dennis Ross-endorsed "Report" proposes a total naval and air blockade and
embargo of Iran as a prelude to a US attack on Iran's vital
infrastructure. This document called on Obama to "bring in troops and
material to the region under the cover of the Iraq and Afghanistan
conflicts, thus maintaining a degree of strategic and tactical surprise".
In other words, Obama's forthcoming appointment of Ross to head his
regime's Middle East Policy Advisory Group places an unconditional
advocate and promoter of genocidal war with Iran in a key strategic
foreign policy position.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Dennis Ross will do everything in
their power to promote and justify a US-Israeli joint attack on Iran. Ross
and Clinton will begin with phony negotiations based on unacceptable
ultimatums. This will be followed by acts of war in the form of Gaza style
embargoes designed to starve and impoverish the people of Iran, and
conclude with a Gaza-style aerial blitzkrieg. Given the extraordinary
number of Zionists appointed by Obama in every key level of his
government, the possibility of any internal debate or dissent over the
Ross roadmap for war in Israel's interest is minimal. Obama has put
together a policy-making elite so closely linked and loyal to the Israeli
military that it precludes any type of meaningful negotiations with Iran.

    Possible External Constraints on Zionist-Israeli-US War on Iran

The only effective deterrent to a Gaza style Israeli assault on Iran is
Tehran's capacity for military retaliation, especially accurate long-range
missiles capable of reaching Israel's principle military sites,
infrastructure and related support systems. Given the Israeli leaders lack
of any moral constraints and their immersion in a militarist ideology, in
which brutal force and widespread violence are the primary means of
projecting power and securing Israeli public support, a costly massive
military counter-attack is probably the most effective deterrent to force
its leaders to reconsider Israel's military-driven foreign policy.

While Israeli militarists adopt a "defensive" rhetoric, their strategy is
to weaken Iran's defense capability and make it more vulnerable to
military threats and diplomatic pressure in a lead-up to a pre-emptive
aerial assault. International inspections by United Nation agencies are
only carried out of Iranian sites but not of US regional military
installations, including their nuclear-armed war ships and submarines, or
of Israel's nuclear weapons sites and nuclear weapon laboratories. The
one-sided inspections provide a wealth of information on Iranian military
capacity and defense locations and of advanced strategic research
laboratories. UN inspections prior to the US invasion of Iraq identified
key defense installations and Iraqi scientists, their places of work and
homes, which were used in bombing missions and the subsequent
assassination campaign against top Iraqi scientists. This kind of
information was crucial in guiding Israel's bombing and missile assaults
and assassination of leaders and their families during its invasions of
Lebanon and Gaza.

The Israeli dictated and US Zionist implemented economic boycott of Iran
is clearly directed toward undermining both Iranian living standards and
the performance of their economy, similar to what the Jewish state imposed
on Gaza. It is part of the "softening up" campaign prior to its all out
attack.

To date however, despite a sustained effort by all top Zionist
functionaries in the US government and the intense pressures of its
lobbies on US pension fund managers, the embargo has not crippled the
Iranian economy. Especially with the onset of the recession, the decline
of world markets and the growing energy demands of China, there are
numerous Western and Asian multinationals eager to trade with Iran and to
ignore Israeli and US Zionist pressures.

Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has finally forced important cracks in the
overseas Zionist monopoly over Jewish opinion. The leading Jewish communal
organizations and their spiritual spokespeople continue to support each
and every crime from the bombing of Red Cross ambulances and clinic to
United Nations schools, food and medical supplies warehouses and refugee
centers. This has finally provoked vigorous opposition among leading
Jewish intellectuals, writers and other professionals.

New organizations and personalities have emerged within the Jewish
community, which have forcibly repudiated Israel's genocide. Some Jewish
activists have taken bold direct actions, occupying Israeli consular
offices in a few major cities and calling for a total boycott of Israeli
goods and academic exchanges. Others have confronted Zionist apologists in
public forums and press conferences. While the number and influence of
Jewish critics of Zionist war crimes is small, their importance is found
in giving legitimacy and encouraging millions of otherwise intimidated and
silent Gentiles to "come out". As a result, an unprecedented number of
people in the West have voiced their horror and opposition to the Zionist
military juggernaut and expressed their support for economic boycotts
against Israel. While Jewish and Gentile mass opposition neither stopped
or weakened Israel's massacre of Gazan civilians, it has laid the
political and organizational basis to launch a massive campaign against
the US Zionist war plans against Iran.

Israel's military successes have created an irrational triumphalist war
fever among all of its leaders and their enthusiastic supporters in the
million member Jewish-Zionist organizations in the US. This has led them
to underestimate the catastrophic costs of a war with Iran. An Israeli-US
sneak attack on Iran will unleash major military and political retaliatory
action throughout the Middle East. This will certainly inflict major
human, military, political and economic losses on many US military
installations in the Gulf region. This is especially the case in Iraq and
the adjoining client Gulf States, where US military forces are highly
vulnerable. An Israeli assault might lead to the destabilization or
overthrow of Arab client states. Moreover, Iran may retaliate by
successfully launching accurate long-range missiles, which will target
major Israeli military complexes and adjoining population centers.

Given the enormous worldwide disgust and horror at Israel's war crimes in
Gaza and the hatred evoked by the prospect of new aerial assaults on
millions of Iranians, Tehran's reprisals against Israel and the US are not
likely to raise much condemnation. More likely, most people will feel a
sense of righteous vindication, that finally the arrogant bully is finally
getting paid back for its assaults on unarmed, imprisoned civilians in
Gaza. Just as the British survivors of Nazi V-2 rocket attacks on English
population centers cheered the firebombing of Dresden, vast sections of
public opinion may greet an Iranian retaliatory strike on Israel as a
valid deterrent for its serial atrocities against humanity.

One of the most effective threats to Israel's genocidal war drive is the
launching of investigations into Israeli war crimes, the establishment of
tribunals to try Israeli military and political leaders for their crimes
against humanity (Financial Times, January 16, 2009 page 5). Israeli
leaders have advised their soldier-criminals they will be provided with
legal protection. The leaders have expressed concern that they themselves
may be subject to citizen arrests and tried by overseas courts. Several
governments are filing war crimes charges before the International
Criminal Court in The Hague. The problem with laying charges on Israeli
war criminals is where to draw the line between military-political leaders
who directed the war crimes and the field officers, who implemented the
policies violating the Geneva Conventions. For example, identifying the
officials who specifically barred medical and emergency workers for over
four days from evacuating wounded and starving civilians, including small
children, from the site of a horrific Israeli massacre of Gazan civilians.

What about the great masses of Israeli Jewish citizens who were so elated
by the bombing of whole civilian neighborhoods that some Israelis set up
observation posts with picnic baskets to survey the ongoing carnage? The
same Israelis "delighted in the images, splashed across the front pages,
of smiling Israeli soldiers riding homes on tanks in victory post".
(Financial Times, January 26, 2009). Mass Israeli elation, political
intoxication and embrace of the perpetrators of the killing of unarmed
people may be repugnant to world opinion, but it is not a sufficient
offense to merit an international tribunal. However it is subject to the
same moral repudiation, which many of us felt toward the German people who
celebrated Hitler's savage bombing of Soviet, Polish and Balkan cities.
Even if the Zionist-controlled White House succeeds in using its veto on
the United Nations Security Council to prevent a war crimes investigation
of Israeli leaders, the presentation of charges and possible arrests in
several European countries will force the Israeli leaders to reflect on
their pariah status and might inhibit their push for a murderous war with
Iran. We have included a list (see Appendix #2) of the names of Israeli
military leaders, their rank and operational role and responsibility for
war crimes in Gaza.

Israelis currently dismiss out of hand the opprobrium of world opinion as
irrelevant to its ongoing military offensive. This causes the Jewish state
to overlook the importance of world opinion in eroding strategic political
support in the future. Many observers believe hundreds of millions of Arab
citizens and multitudes of non-Arabs and non-Muslims are coming to believe
that Israel and its overseas Zionist Fifth column will only understand the
language of force since they routinely practice state terrorism to impose
their interests on captive, impoverished people. As a result, many
analysts argue that it is understandable that the weapons of choice for
the victims of Israel will inevitably rely on sustained, organized and
militarized people's resistance. In these circumstances, the current crop
of anemic, impotent, collaborationist Arab leaders and regimes may be
overthrown and a new combative and consequential leadership could emerge,
one which consults and draws its mass support from the deepest feelings of
national dignity and profound hatred of Zionist imposed humiliations.

                           Conclusions

Israel's Gaza war is leading its leaders and its strategically placed
overseas agents in the US political system to overreach and to pursue a
new war with Iran, as part of a regional strategy to secure imperial
power. The Obama Administration and the newly elected Israeli prime
minister share more than overlapping policy-makers and long-term
commitments to military-driven empire building. They have made it clear
that they will proceed in setting in motion a series of diplomatic and
economic moves destined to prepare the stage for launching a genocidal war
against Iran. This will be in line with Obama's rhetoric of recreating a
Jewish-Afro-American alliance, one based on Israeli interests and American
lives! The only deterrent to new wars of extermination is mass action,
which increases the political, economic and military costs for Israeli
aggression. Only when Israeli casualties mount, when Zionist exploiters
and bankers suffer losses, when its academics and tourist sites are
boycotted, then and only then will the Israelis and their US acolytes
begin to rethink their blind adherence to militarist policies. It is only
then that they will rethink their irrational Judeo-centric vision of a
world made by and for the one Chosen People living in the Only Moral State
in the world.

Unfortunately it may take some military shocks to dispel these tribal
fantasies. History teaches us that there is nothing like a bloody defeat
to end the Superman Complex.

Appendix #1

51 Member Organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major American
Jewish Organizations:

1. Ameinu
2. American Friends of Likud
3. American Gathering/Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
4. American-Israel Friendship League
5. American Israel Public Affairs Committee
6. American Jewish Committee
7. American Jewish Congress
8. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
9. American Sephardi Federation
10. American Zionist Movement
11. Americans for Peace Now
12. AMIT
13. Anti-Defamation League
14. Association of Reform Zionist of America
15. B'nai B'rith International
16. Bnai Zion
17. Central Committee of American Rabbis
18. Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
19. Development Corporation for Israel/State of Israel Bonds
20. Emunah of America
21. Friends of Israel Defense Forces
22. Hadassah, Women's Zionist Organization of America
23. Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
24. Hillel: The Foundation of Jewish Campus Life
25. Jewish Community Centers Association
26. Jewish Council for Public Affairs
27. Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
28. Jewish Labor Committee
29. Jewish National Fund
30. Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
31. Jewish War Veterans of the USA
32. Jewish Women International
33. MERCAZ USA, Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement
34. NA.AMAT USA
35. NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic
    States and Eurasia
36. National Council of Jewish Women
37. National Council of Young Israel
38. ORT America
39. Rabbinical Assembly
40. Rabbinical Council of America
41. Religious Zionist of America
42. Union for Reform Judaism
43. Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
44. United Jewish Communities
45. United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
46. WIZO
47. Women's League for Conservative Judaism
48. Women of Reform Judaism
49. Workmen's Circle
50. World Zionist Executive, US
51. Zionist Organization of America

Appendix #2

List of Israeli Officials involved in War Crimes during the Gaza Invasion.
This a partial and growing list of potential war criminals compiled by a
group of Israeli activists, despite Israeli government censorship, and as
a challenge to the Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and his
military counterpart, Judge Advocate General Brigadier General Avihai
Mandelblit:

1. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minster
2. Ehud Barak, Israeli War Minister
3. Tzipi Livni, Foreign Minister of Israel
4. Yuval Diskin, Shin Bet security service chief
5. Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, IOF Chief of Staff
6. Colonel Hartzi Halevi, Paratroops Brigade Commander
7. Commander of the 401st Brigade Colonel Yigal Slovik
8. Brig Gen Jonathan Locker, head of Israeli air forces
9. Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, Israeli air forces
10. Colonel Ron Ashrov, Commander of the Northern Gaza
11. Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg - Commander of all the IOF
12. Colonel Yigal Slovik, commander of 401st Armored Corps Brigade convoy
13. Sho.alay Marom, Brigadier (res.)
14. Lt. Col. Yoav Mordechai, Golani infantry brigade.s 13th Battalion in
Gaza
15. Lt. Col. Oren Cohen, Battalion 13 in the Golani Brigade
16. Lt. Col. Avi Blot 101st Battalion Paratrooper Brigade
17. Lieutenant-Colonel Yehuda Cohen, Givati infantry Brigade.s Rotem
Regiment
18. Lieutenant-Colonel Ronen Dagmi, deputy commander of the 401st Armored
Brigade
19. Col. Avi Peled, commander brigade in Battalion 51
20. Brig.-Gen.( res.) Zvika Fogel former deputy OC Southern Command
21. Brigadier-General Yuval Halamish, Chief IOF Intelligence Officer
22. Paratrooper Brigade commander, Hartzi Halevi
23. Col. Hertzi Halevy, brigade commander
24. Col. Tomer Tsiter, participated in the massacre in Gaza during
.Operation Cast Lead., and previously he participated in the massacre
.Operation Defensive Shield. in the Jeninrefugee camp in 2002.
25. Gur Rosenblatt, infantry reserve officer
26. Guy Ohaion, infantry reserve officer
27. Lt. Col. Erez
28. Maj. Nimrod Aloni
29. Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Shlomo Saban
30. Capt. Ron Vardi ,
31. Col. Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, head of the International Law Department,
Military Advocate General.s Office,
32. Major-General Yoav Galant, southern command chief
33. Richard Awizrat, Senior Warrant Officer,
34. Major General Amos Yadlin, Military Intelligence chief

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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