Progressive Calendar 01.04.09
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu)
Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 22:35:17 -0800 (PST)
             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R   01.04.09

1. Atheists Talk      1.04 9am
2. Stillwater vigil   1.04 1pm
3. Police brutality   1.04 3pm

4. Single-payer rally 1.05 11:30am
5. Gaza peace rally   1.05 1pm
6. Peace walk         1.05 6pm RiverFalls WI
7. CAMpaign Gordon    1.05 7pm
8. Uhcan-mn           1.05 7pm

9. Adrian Croft Adrian - Thousands protest in Europe at Gaza offensive
10. Anna in Palestine  - Gaza massacres; the time is now
11. Nir Rosen          - Gaza: the logic of colonial power
12. James Petras       - Politics of an Israeli extermination campaign
13. ed                 - Zionism  (poem)

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From: August Berkshire <augustberkshire [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Atheists Talk 1.04 9am

Minnesota Atheists - "Atheists Talk" radio show.
Sunday, January 4, 2009, 9-10 a.m. Central Time

Michael Newdow & Inauguration Lawsuit

On Dec. 30, 2008, Michael Newdow filed suit in U.S. District Court to stop
prayers and religious invocations at Barack Obama's Jan. 20, 2009
presidential inauguration.

Newdow's lawsuit, titled "Newdow v. Roberts," included group plaintiffs
such as the American Humanist Association, the Freedom From Religion
Foundation, Atheist Alliance International, and Minnesota Atheists.  The
lawsuit also featured individual plaintiffs, such as Michael Newdow, Dan
Barker, Annie Laurie Gaylor, and Minnesota Atheists president August
Berkshire.

Michael Newdow will be our guest for the entire hour to discuss his latest
attempt to uphold the wall of separation between state and church. We
welcome questions during the program at (952) 946-6205 or
radio [at] MinnesotaAtheists.org.

"Atheists Talk" airs live on AM 950 KTNF in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
To stream live, go to http://www.am950ktnf.com/listen.

Podcasts of past shows are available at http://MinnesotaAtheists.org or
through iTunes.

Program Notes are available at http://MinnesotaAtheists.org.
 D.C. Examiner: "Atheist will attempt to boot God from inauguration"
http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/123008-Atheist_will_attempt_to_boot_God_from_inauguration.html
 Washington Post: "Atheists to Challenge Prayer at Inauguration"
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-watch/2008/12/atheists_to_challenge_prayer_a.html
 CNN: "Lawsuit seeks to take 'so help me God' out of inaugural"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/31/inauguration.lawsuit/index.html
 The Minnesota Independent: "Minnesotans join suit to stop religious
events at inauguration"
http://minnesotaindependent.com/21571/minnesotans-join-suit-to-stop-religious-events-at-inauguration
 "Newdow v. Roberts" Lawsuit (pdf download)
http://mnatheists.org/images/stories/Newdow_v_Roberts_Lawsuit.pdf
 "Newdow v. Roberts" Appendix A (pdf download)
http://mnatheists.org/images/stories/Newdow_v_Roberts_Appendix_A.pdf
 "Newdow v. Roberts" Appendix B (pdf download)
http://mnatheists.org/images/stories/Newdow_v_Roberts_Appendix_B.pdf
 "Newdow v. Roberts" Appendix C (pdf download)
http://mnatheists.org/images/stories/Newdow_v_Roberts_Appendix_C.pdf
 "Newdow v. Roberts" Appendix D (pdf download)
http://mnatheists.org/images/stories/Newdow_v_Roberts_Appendix_D.pdf


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From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Stillwater vigil 1.04 1pm

A weekly Vigil for Peace Every Sunday, at the Stillwater bridge from 1- 2
p.m.  Come after Church or after brunch ! All are invited to join in song
and witness to the human desire for peace in our world. Signs need to be
positive.  Sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Peacemakers.

If you have a United Nations flag or a United States flag please bring it.
Be sure to dress for the weather . For more information go to
<http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/>http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/

For more information you could call 651 275 0247 or 651 999 - 9560


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From: James Mayer <jmayer [at] academymayer.com>
Subject: Police brutality 1.04 3pm

Police Brutality:  We can end it!
January 4, 2009
Join in THE CONVERSATION.  TUNE YOUR RADIO TO:

Of the People this Sunday, January 4th at 3 p.m. on AM950 KTNF (formerly
Air America Minnesota) with Host James Mayer.  Or stream us:
http://www.am950ktnf.com/listen Call-in line: 952-946-6205

Police brutality is terrorism at the heart of our communities.  It strikes
at our democratic rights as well as our personal security.  Join me, James
Mayer, with guest Michelle Gross of Communities United Against Police
Brutality as we talk about recent local examples, the broader threat to
Democracy and how We the People can stand together to defeat Police
Brutality by the Rule of Law on The Program of the People this Sunday
afternoon at 3 on AM950KTNF.

Threats to the health, strength and endurance of healthy democracy,
society and environment don't go away for the weekend.  Neither does the
bad news the corporate media establishment uses to make us feel alienated
from one another, shocked, depressed, or even helpless, and to distract us
from real priorities, realistic solutions and positive actions we can take
together. But for a few weekend moments you can refresh and regenerate
your energy with James Mayer on Of the People, a place to go for good news
that the "news" corporations monopolizing our airwaves seldom let through:
people taking action together, on real solutions.

We hope you will tune your radio to 950 AM and join us not only in your
car, but at home as well, or stream us:http://www.am950ktnf.com/listen
(You will be asked to put in a MN zip code).

Again, when we're on-air we invite you to call us at 952-946-6205 or
e-mail us at info [at] jamesmayer.org

Off-air, you can reach us by calling James Mayer at 651-238-3740, by
e-mail at info [at] jamesmayer.org, or by U.S. mail, address: James Mayer, 970
Raymond Ave, St. Paul, MN 55114.

If you can find a moment, forward this message to "add voice and strength
to our contribution to government of, by and for the PEOPLE ".  This is a
call to action to send this to your contacts and friends, asking them to
do the same and join us on:

Of the People this Sunday, January 4th at 3 P.M. on AM 950, KTNF.


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From: Kip Sullivan <kiprs [at] usinternet.com>
Subject: Single-payer rally 1.05 11:30am

HEALTHCARE 2009 KICKOFF RALLY

Healthcare advocates, trade organizations and legislators will come
together on January 5, 2009 at the state capitol for a kickoff Rally to
promote dramatic healthcare change in Minnesota.  The Rally for the
Minnesota Health Plan (MHP) will start at 11:30 a.m. and go until 12:30
p.m. in the state capitol rotunda in St. Paul.

This unique mix of groups, individuals and legislators will be coming
together in support of the MHP legislation which was introduced in 2008.
With healthcare costs continuing their dramatic rise and economic
situations worsening, now is the time to address one of the biggest
problems facing individuals and businesses alike; the unmanageable burden
of healthcare expense.

Proven to be the leading cause of personal bankruptcies in this country,
excessive healthcare expenses need to be reined in so as to protect the
lives and livelihoods of Minnesota's citizens.  The Minnesota Health Plan
will help do this by decoupling healthcare from employment and by
eliminating excessive administrative waste by removing the "middleman"
(HMO's and insurance companies). This move will also allow for
comprehensive coverage for all Minnesotans without imposing co-pays or
deductibles and will expand the network of health providers in the state
by stabilizing and, in most cases, improving the reimbursement rates for
providers.

Speakers who will be on hand for the Rally:
 Vicki Sanville - Greater MN Health Care Coalition (gmhcc.org)
 Prof. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer (U.S. Senate Candidate)
 Sen. John Marty (MN Senate Author)
 Rep. David Bly (MN House co-author)
 Nancy Breymeier - MN Independent Business Alliance (metroiba.org)
 Doug Peterson - MN Farmers Union (mfu.org)
 Charlotte Fisher - MN Nurses Association (mnnurses.org)
 Dr. Ann Settgast - Physicians for a National Health Plan - MN
 (pnhpminnesota.org)
 Dan McGrath - TakeAction MN  (takeactionminnesota.org)
 Barb Person - MN League of Women Voters   (lwvmn.org)
 Dr. Lisa Nilles - MN Universal Health Care Coalition  (muhcc.org)
 Dave Bicking or Rhoda Gilman  -  Green Party of MN  (mngreens.org)
 Zev Alony - Universal Health Care Action Network - MN (uhcan-mn.org)
 Craig Brooks - Great Northern States Health Care Initiative

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
TIM BURKHARDT  ~>   888-694-5055 (TOLL-FREE)  320-630-3514 (CELL)  tsb [at] 
gmhcc.org
BUDDY ROBINSON ~>   218-727-0207   buddy [at] citizensfed.org


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From: wammdirector [at] mtn.org
Subject: Gaza peace rally 1.05 1pm

Pro-Peace Rally: addressing the Massacre of Gaza so that the killing stops
Monday, January 5, 1:00 p.m. Minnesota State Capitol, 75 Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Blvd., St. Paul.

Support Muslim student initiated-rally. There will also be a candle light
vigil outside the Capitol at night, as well. In the words of the student
organizers, ?This is the chance to truly make your voice heard. Please try
to be at the demonstration so that, as a community, we can: condemn the
attacks on Gazans, mourn the innocent lives lost and urge the U.S. to
promote diplomacy rather than violence. If we don't speak up now, then
when??? There will be guest speakers present.***PLEASE WEAR ALL
BLACK!!!*** Bring signs and posters with you if you have any!?

We were asked to circulate the following actions, as well:

?Sign the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR)'s Gaza Peace and Justice
Petition http://petition.cair.com/

Forward the link to friends, family, anybody you know, Muslims and
non-Muslims alike. This petition will be referenced when CAIR-MN meets with
congressmen and senators to discuss the Gaza issue. If anyone is interested
in the congressional meetings, please email CAIR-MN at info [at] mn.cair.com.

Send an e-mail to President-elect Obama. Go to change.gov. Make "Gaza"
the subject.

Send an email to President Bush: comments [at] whitehouse.gov or call him
at Comments: 202-456-1111.

Ask both Obama and Bush what they would do if their daughters lived in Gaza.

Hundreds of innocent children, men, and women in Gaza are being wounded
and massacred by Israel's senseless and brutal air raids on neighborhoods,
houses, universities, and mosques. Children walking in the wrong place at
the wrong time had their lives taken away, and their parents are suffering
with more pain and despair as an endless stream of Apache helicopters are
rained down on Gaza with no end in sight.

These people are depending on us to make a difference.

It's time we do something about this.
It's time we make our voices heard.

ANYTHING you do to make your voice heard can make a small difference?. ?


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From: Nancy Holden <d.n.holden [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Peace walk 1.05 6pm RiverFalls WI

River Falls Peace and Justice Walkers. We meet every Monday from 6-7 pm on
the UWRF campus at Cascade Ave. and 2nd Street, immediately across from
"Journey" House. We walk through the downtown of River Falls. Contact:
d.n.holden [at] comcast.net. Douglas H Holden 1004 Morgan Road River Falls,
Wisconsin 54022


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From: Cam Gordon <CamGordon333 [at] msn.com>
Subject: CAMpaign Gordon 1.05 7pm

Monday, January 5, 7-9pm, the Second Moon
www.camgordon.org
Green Party ward 2 Mpls


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From: Joel Albers <joel [at] uhcan-mn.org>
Subject: Uhcan-mn 1.05 7pm

Note Location change this time only. The next UHCAN-MN mtg will be at Joel
Albers home, 3500 35th Ave S, Mpls. Directions: Going south on Hiawatha (
say from downtown) take a left on 35th street (going east) until you reach
35th avenue. It's at that intersection. There is a single-payer sign in
front and multi-colored lights will be on.

The next UHCAN-MN organizing meeting is Monday, Jan 5, 7PM,


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Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 15:45:38 -0500
From: moderator [at] PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: Massive Protest Sweep Europe at Gaza Offensive

Thousands Protest in Europe at Gaza Offensive
By Adrian Croft Adrian
Reuters
January 3, 2008
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_palestinians_israel_protests

LONDON

Thousands of chanting, banner-waving demonstrators marched in cities
across Europe on Saturday to demand a halt to Israeli bombing in the Gaza
Strip.

Protests were held in Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy,
the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey as the Israeli offensive entered its
second week, and before Israel confirmed ground forces had entered Gaza.

Israeli Arabs held a protest march and Kuwaitis also took to the streets,
a day after bigger Middle East rallies.

In Paris, police said more than 20,000 demonstrators, many wearing
Palestinian keffiyeh headscarves, marched through the city center chanting
slogans such as "Israel murderer!" and waving banners demanding an end to
the air attacks.

Similar protests were planned in some 30 other towns.

London police said more than 10,000 people staged a noisy march and rally
to urge an end to an Israeli offensive against Hamas militants that has
killed at least 435 Palestinians.

In many cities people waved shoes -- recalling the action of an Iraqi
journalist who hurled footwear at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad
last month in a symbolic insult.

British demonstrators threw dozens of shoes into the street as they passed
the gated entrance to Downing Street, where Prime Minister Gordon Brown
lives, and shouted angrily at a line of 40 police officers on guard there.

"Come to get your shoes Gordon," one woman shouted as other marchers
directed chants of "Shame on you" at Brown.

A spokesman said Brown had spoken again to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert on Saturday and was pressing hard for an immediate ceasefire.

Leading the march were singer Annie Lennox, politicians Tony Benn and
George Galloway and comic Alexei Sayle. Demonstrators carried Palestinian
flags and placards with slogans such as "End the siege on Gaza" and "Stop
the massacre."

Israel says rocket attacks from Gaza by Hamas Islamists must stop before
it halts operations, but the attacks continued on Saturday. Four Israelis
have been killed by Hamas rockets since the offensive began.

ANGER AT WESTERN REACTION

Paul Mukerji, 42, from Birmingham, acknowledged Israel had security
reasons but called its action disproportionate.

"The best way for peace for Palestinians and Israelis is to end the
occupation," he said.

Ali Saeed, 24, from Luton, said Western governments had failed to condemn
Israel's actions.

"What's going on in Gaza is not right ... It's not a coincidence that it's
going on Iraq, in Chechnya, in Kashmir. It's just about going on
everywhere. It's almost a direct insult to every single Muslim," he said.

Greek police said they fired teargas at protesters outside the Israeli
embassy in Athens. Protesters burned flags and effigies, hurled stones at
the embassy and clashed with police during a march by about 5,000 people,
they said.

Tens of thousands of people marched in the town of Sakhnin, northern
Israel, on Saturday in one of the biggest rallies held by Israeli Arabs in
recent years, Israeli media reported. Calling Israeli leaders "war
criminals," the demonstrators demanded an end to the onslaught on Gaza,
they said.

Around 3,500 people marched in Berlin and 4,000 in the western city of
Duesseldorf, police said.

Hundreds joined a protest in central Dublin.

"I just thought the fact that 300-400 people would've been bombed,
would've been killed, was extremely wrong," said Andy Defaoite, a
27-year-old teacher in the Irish capital.

Several thousand people demonstrated in Ankara in a second day of protests
in Turkey. In smaller protests in Istanbul, demonstrators carried baby
dolls smeared with fake blood, and images of Rottweiler dogs branded with
the word "Israel" savaging human beings.

More than 1,000 demonstrators marched through Kuwait City, with banners
reading "Gaza will not die" and "We want a free Gaza." Other protests of
at least 1,000 people took place in Madrid, Amsterdam, Milan and Turin.

(Additional reporting by Laure Bretton, Noah Barkin, Raissa Kasolowsky,
George Hatzidakis, Andras Gergely, Jonathan Gleave, Ulf Laessing, Silvia
Aloisi, James Mackenzie, Aaron Gray-Block)


--------10 of x--------

From: travelinganna <anna.baltzer [at] gmail.com>
To: annas_peacework_palestine [at] yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Anna in Palestine] Gaza Massacres; The Time is Now

Please, everyone, stop what you're doing. This is not just any report from
Palestine, but the worst in my lifetime, the worst in 40 years. At this
moment, Israel is raining bombs down on Gaza, an enclosed tiny area that
is home to 1.5 million men, women, and children, most of them innocent
civilians. This space is tightly sealed by Israel, which constantly denies
Gazans electricity, food, medicine, and the ability to leave. Gaza is one
big prison being bombed from above. The death toll is up to 428 in the
past 7 days. That's more than the number of Israelis killed in the last 7
years. This is what I would call a massacre.

Yes, more Palestinians killed in 7 days than Israelis in 7 years, and yet
no comments from President Bush or President-elect Obama. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice places blame solely on Hamas for holding Gazans
"hostage," as if Israel's actions were beyond judgment. Would Rice ever
respond to a Palestinian attack on Israelis by blaming the Israeli
government for holding its citizens hostage with their army's violence?

I am writing you from Jordan. I arrived the day after the attacks began.
The day before they began, my friend and colleague Hannah had asked me to
deliver a book of poetry to her friend Summer in Gaza, hoping I'd manage
to make it on a Free Gaza boat. Since then, these boats bringing unarmed
witnesses to Gaza (www.freegaza.org) have been attacked in international
waters, and Summer's house has been blown to pieces, her brother almost
died under the rubble, and her father desperately needs an operation but
the hospitals are overflowing. In every home or shop I enter in Jordan,
people are huddled watching the stories unfold: a family killed in their
home, a university destroyed, a pharmacy blown to pieces, countless bloody
babies screaming or worse, silent.

I wonder if people in the US are also seeing the bodies and faces or, as I
fear, only some rubble and angry Gazans. The day after attacks began,
Israel's largest newspaper Yediot Aharonot covered almost the entire front
page with the words, "500,000 Israelis Under Attack!" In smaller font, one
could learn that in addition to 1 Israeli, 225 Palestinians had also been
killed. It was surreal. Consider where you are getting your news, and what
is not being told to you.

For example, the stated purpose of the attack is to drive out Hamas, i.e.
to kill anyone in Hamas and scare the rest into turning against Hamas. Not
only does this tactic not work (brutality fosters violence), but it
clearly fits the definition of terrorism: unlawful violence intended to
frighten or coerce a people or government in order to achieve a political
or ideological agenda. Israel is operating as a terrorist state in the
true sense of the word.

Hamas is also a terrorist organization by this definition, so it would be
easy to simplify the conflict as "an endless cycle of violence" were there
no historical context. But there is a context, and there are alternatives:
Let us remember that Hamas was elected after an intentional shift away
from violence towards a mainstream political agenda. Hamas stopped its
attacks and began offering the Palestinian people an alternative to the
corruption of Fatah. Hamas was democratically elected and immediately
strangled by a US-led boycott, preventing the government from functioning.
Hamas continued to hold to its one-sided ceasefire (totaling almost 2
years), meanwhile the US and Israel began to train and arm the opposition
government, Fatah, which they preferred. In response to plans for a coup
in Gaza (anti-democratic takeover by the US-supported opposition
government), Hamas secured its control (again, democratically-elected
whether or not we like them) over Gaza, and continues to offer Israel an
indefinite ceasefire - no more violent attacks, period - if Israel simply
complies with international law. The Arab League (comprised of 22 Arab
nation members) has offered the same. These offers are dismissed by Israel
and silenced in the US media. Israel says it has tried everything else,
but it has not tried the most obvious: complying with international law
and accepting repeated offers for a peaceful resolution.

As events unfold in Gaza neither the media nor the people are silent here
in Jordan, where people refuse to go on as if nothing were happening to
their brothers and sisters (sometimes literally - more than 60% of
Jordan's population is Palestinian refugees). Just one day after attacks
began, the king of Jordan gave blood to send to Gaza and inspired hundreds
of others to do the same (meanwhile President Bush was on vacation in
Texas). Spontaneous demonstrations have erupted at least twice here in the
capitol today, and thousands are protesting in various major cities around
the Middle East and around the world.

Please, wherever you are, do something. Write a letter to the editor. Get
a large group to inundate your congressperson at once. Protest! There are
demonstrations being organized around the US. If there isn't one happening
near you, then do what I would do: buy a poster-board and large marker and
write something on it ("Gazans Are People Too," "Massacre in Gaza: Silence
is Complicity," "Our Weapons Are Killing Palestinian Children," or
anything you can think of). Go outside and stand on a busy corner with it.
Force others to confront the reality. Talk to people, invite them to join
you. People around the world are empowered enough to take to the streets;
we have no excuse not to. The time is now.


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Gaza: The Logic of Colonial Power
by Nir Rosen
As so often, the term 'terrorism' has proved a rhetorical smokescreen
under cover of which the strong crush the weak
Published on Monday, December 29, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
Common Dreams

I have spent most of the Bush administration's tenure reporting from Iraq,
Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia and other conflicts. I have been published
by most major publications. I have been interviewed by most major networks
and I have even testified before the senate foreign relations committee.
The Bush administration began its tenure with Palestinians being massacred
and it ends with Israel committing one of its largest massacres yet in a
60-year history of occupying Palestinian land. Bush's final visit to the
country he chose to occupy ended with an educated secular Shiite Iraqi
throwing his shoes at him, expressing the feelings of the entire Arab
world save its dictators who have imprudently attached themselves to a
hated American regime.

Once again, the Israelis bomb the starving and imprisoned population of
Gaza. The world watches the plight of 1.5 million Gazans live on TV and
online; the western media largely justify the Israeli action. Even some
Arab outlets try to equate the Palestinian resistance with the might of
the Israeli military machine. And none of this is a surprise. The Israelis
just concluded a round-the-world public relations campaign to gather
support for their assault, even gaining the collaboration of Arab states
like Egypt.

The international community is directly guilty for this latest massacre.
Will it remain immune from the wrath of a desperate people? So far, there
have been large demonstrations in Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and
Iraq. The people of the Arab world will not forget. The Palestinians will
not forget. "All that you have done to our people is registered in our
notebooks," as the poet Mahmoud Darwish said.

I have often been asked by policy analysts, policy-makers and those stuck
with implementing those policies for my advice on what I think America
should do to promote peace or win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. It
too often feels futile, because such a revolution in American policy would
be required that only a true revolution in the American government could
bring about the needed changes. An American journal once asked me to
contribute an essay to a discussion on whether terrorism or attacks
against civilians could ever be justified. My answer was that an American
journal should not be asking whether attacks on civilians can ever be
justified. This is a question for the weak, for the Native Americans in
the past, for the Jews in Nazi Germany, for the Palestinians today, to ask
themselves.

Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word
that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other
does, not what we do. The powerful - whether Israel, America, Russia or
China - will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism, but the
destruction of Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the slow
slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the American occupation of Iraq
and Afghanistan - with the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed
... these will never earn the title of terrorism, though civilians were
the target and terrorising them was the purpose.

Counterinsurgency, now popular again among in the Pentagon, is another way
of saying the suppression of national liberation struggles. Terror and
intimidation are as essential to it as is winning hearts and minds.

Normative rules are determined by power relations. Those with power
determine what is legal and illegal. They besiege the weak in legal
prohibitions to prevent the weak from resisting. For the weak to resist is
illegal by definition. Concepts like terrorism are invented and used
normatively as if a neutral court had produced them, instead of the
oppressors. The danger in this excessive use of legality actually
undermines legality, diminishing the credibility of international
institutions such as the United Nations. It becomes apparent that the
powerful, those who make the rules, insist on legality merely to preserve
the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation and
colonialism.

Attacking civilians is the last, most desperate and basic method of
resistance when confronting overwhelming odds and imminent eradication.
The Palestinians do not attack Israeli civilians with the expectation that
they will destroy Israel. The land of Palestine is being stolen day after
day; the Palestinian people is being eradicated day after day. As a
result, they respond in whatever way they can to apply pressure on Israel.
Colonial powers use civilians strategically, settling them to claim land
and dispossess the native population, be they Indians in North America or
Palestinians in what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories. When the
native population sees that there is an irreversible dynamic that is
taking away their land and identity with the support of an overwhelming
power, then they are forced to resort to whatever methods of resistance
they can.

Not long ago, 19-year-old Qassem al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian man from
Jerusalem drove his car into a group of soldiers at an intersection. "The
terrorist", as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz called him, was shot and
killed. In two separate incidents last July, Palestinians from Jerusalem
also used vehicles to attack Israelis. The attackers were not part of an
organisation. Although those Palestinian men were also killed, senior
Israeli officials called for their homes to be demolished. In a separate
incident, Haaretz reported that a Palestinian woman blinded an Israeli
soldier in one eye when she threw acid n his face. "The terrorist was
arrested by security forces," the paper said. An occupied citizen attacks
an occupying soldier, and she is the terrorist?

In September, Bush spoke at the United Nations. No cause could justify the
deliberate taking of human life, he said. Yet the US has killed thousands
of civilians in airstrikes on populated areas. When you drop bombs on
populated areas knowing there will be some "collateral" civilian damage,
but accepting it as worth it, then it is deliberate. When you impose
sanctions, as the US did on Saddam era Iraq, that kill hundreds of
thousands, and then say their deaths were worth it, as secretary of state
Albright did, then you are deliberately killing people for a political
goal. When you seek to "shock and awe", as president Bush did, when he
bombed Iraq, you are engaging in terrorism.

Just as the traditional American cowboy film presented white Americans
under siege, with Indians as the aggressors, which was the opposite of
reality, so, too, have Palestinians become the aggressors and not the
victims. Beginning in 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were deliberately
cleansed and expelled from their homes, and hundreds of their villages
were destroyed, and their land was settled by colonists, who went on to
deny their very existence and wage a 60-year war against the remaining
natives and the national liberation movements the Palestinians established
around the world. Every day, more of Palestine is stolen, more
Palestinians are killed. To call oneself an Israeli Zionist is to engage
in the dispossession of entire people. It is not that, qua Palestinians,
they have the right to use any means necessary, it is because they are
weak. The weak have much less power than the strong, and can do much less
damage. The Palestinians would not have ever bombed cafes or used
home-made missiles if they had tanks and airplanes. It is only in the
current context that their actions are justified, and there are obvious
limits.

It is impossible to make a universal ethical claim or establish a Kantian
principle justifying any act to resist colonialism or domination by
overwhelming power. And there are other questions I have trouble
answering. Can an Iraqi be justified in attacking the United States? After
all, his country was attacked without provocation, and destroyed, with
millions of refugees created, hundreds of thousands of dead. And this,
after 12 years of bombings and sanctions, which killed many and destroyed
the lives of many others.

I could argue that all Americans are benefiting from their country's
exploits without having to pay the price, and that, in today's world, the
imperial machine is not merely the military but a military-civilian
network. And I could also say that Americans elected the Bush
administration twice and elected representatives who did nothing to stop
the war, and the American people themselves did nothing. From the
perspective of an American, or an Israeli, or other powerful aggressors,
if you are strong, everything you do is justifiable, and nothing the weak
do is legitimate. It's merely a question of what side you choose: the side
of the strong or the side of the weak.

Israel and its allies in the west and in Arab regimes such as Egypt,
Jordan and Saudi Arabia have managed to corrupt the PLO leadership, to
suborn them with the promise of power at the expense of liberty for their
people, creating a first - a liberation movement that collaborated with
the occupier. Israeli elections are coming up and, as usual, these
elections are accompanied by war to bolster the candidates. You cannot be
prime minister of Israel without enough Arab blood on your hands. An
Israeli general has threatened to set Gaza back decades, just as they
threatened to set Lebanon back decades in 2006. As if strangling Gaza and
denying its people fuel, power or food had not set it back decades
already.

The democratically elected Hamas government was targeted for destruction
from the day it won the elections in 2006. The world told the Palestinians
that they cannot have democracy, as if the goal was to radicalise them
further and as if that would not have a consequence. Israel claims it is
targeting Hamas's military forces. This is not true. It is targeting
Palestinian police forces and killing them, including some such as the
chief of police, Tawfiq Jaber, who was actually a former Fatah official
who stayed on in his post after Hamas took control of Gaza. What will
happen to a society with no security forces? What do the Israelis expect
to happen when forces more radical than Hamas gain power?

A Zionist Israel is not a viable long-term project and Israeli
settlements, land expropriation and separation barriers have long since
made a two state solution impossible. There can be only one state in
historic Palestine. In coming decades, Israelis will be confronted with
two options. Will they peacefully transition towards an equal society,
where Palestinians are given the same rights, a la post-apartheid South
Africa? Or will they continue to view democracy as a threat? If so, one of
the peoples will be forced to leave. Colonialism has only worked when most
of the natives have been exterminated. But often, as in occupied Algeria,
it is the settlers who flee. Eventually, the Palestinians will not be
willing to compromise and seek one state for both people. Does the world
want to further radicalise them?

Do not be deceived: the persistence of the Palestine problem is the main
motive for every anti-American militant in the Arab world and beyond. But
now the Bush administration has added Iraq and Afghanistan as additional
grievances. America has lost its influence on the Arab masses, even if it
can still apply pressure on Arab regimes. But reformists and elites in the
Arab world want nothing to do with America.

A failed American administration departs, the promise of a Palestinian
state a lie, as more Palestinians are murdered. A new president comes to
power, but the people of the Middle East have too much bitter experience
of US administrations to have any hope for change. President-elect Obama,
Vice President-elect Biden and incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton
have not demonstrated that their view of the Middle East is at all
different from previous administrations. As the world prepares to
celebrate a new year, how long before it is once again made to feel the
pain of those whose oppression it either ignores or supports?

 2008 Guardian News and Media Limited
Nir Rosen is a journalist specialising in US foreign policy in the Middle
East, Iraq and Afghanistan. A fellow at the New York university center on
law and security, his work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the New
York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, Rolling Stone magazine, Harper's
Magazine, the New Republic and Mother Jones. His book on postwar Iraq, The
Triumph of the Martyrs: A Reporter's Journey into Occupied Iraq , was
published in 2006. His articles are available at nirrosen.com


--------12 of x--------

The Politics of An Israeli Extermination Campaign: Backers, Apologists and
Arms Suppliers
by James Petras / January 2nd, 2009

Because of the unconditional support of the entire political class in the
US, from the White House to Congress, including both Parties, incoming and
outgoing elected officials and all the principle print and electronic mass
media, the Israeli Government feels no compunction in publicly proclaiming
a detailed and graphic account of its policy of mass extermination of the
population of Gaza.

Israel's sustained and comprehensive bombing campaign of every aspect of
governance, civic institutions and society is directed toward destroying
civilized life in Gaza. Israel's totalitarian vision is driven by the
practice of a permanent purge of Arab Palestine informed by Zionism, an
ethno-racist ideology, promulgated by the Jewish state and justified,
enforced and pursued by its organized backers in the United States.

The facts of Israeli extermination have become known: In the first six
days of round the clock terror bombing of major and minor populations
centers, the Jewish State has murdered and seriously maimed over 2,500
people, mostly dismembered and burned in the open ovens of missile fire.
Scores of children and women have been slaughtered as well as defenseless
civilians and officials.

They have sealed off all access to Gaza and declared it a military, free
fire zone, while expanding their target to include the entire population
of 1.5 millions semi-starved prisoners. According to the Boston Globe
(December 30, 2008): Israeli military officials said their target lists
have expanded to include the vast support network on which the Islamist
movement relies to stay in power "..we are trying to hit the whole
spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports
terrorism against Israel". A top Israeli in its secret police apparatus is
quoted saying, "Hamas' civilian infrastructure is a very sensitive target"
(ibid). What the Israeli Jewish politicians and military planners
designate as "Hamas" is the entire social service network, the entire
government and the vast majority of economic activity, embracing almost
the entire 1.5 million imprisoned residents of Gaza.

Israel's "target" list thus involves the "total population," using the
totality of its non-nuclear weaponry and for an unlimited time period
(until the "bitter end" according to the Israeli Prime Minister). Israel's
defense ministry spokesman has emphatically reiterated the Jewish state's
totalitarian war concept emphasizing the targeting of civilians:  "Hamas
has used ostensibly civilian operations as a cover for military
activities. Anything affiliated with Hamas is a legitimate target."

Like all totalitarians in the past, the Jewish state boasts of having
systematically pre-planned the extermination campaign - months in advance
. up to and including the precise hour and day of the bombing to coincide
with inflicting the maximum murder of civilians: The rockets and bombs
fell as children were leaving school, as graduating police cadets were
receiving their diplomas and as frantic mothers ran out from their homes
to find their sons and daughters.

The mass military extermination campaign was a follow up of its non-stop
total economic embargo and unremitting selective assassination campaign of
the previous two years: Both were designed to purge Palestine of its Arab
population, first via mass hunger, disease, humiliation and violent
intimidation and the proxy power grab by the PLO Quislings under Zionist
puppet Abbas. When they discovered that mass hunger and selective Israeli
murder only strengthened the population's links to its democratically
elected government and the resolve of the Hamas government to resist
Israel, the Israeli regimes unleashed its entire arsenal of weapons,
including its new "American gifts" - up-to-date 1000 pound "bunker buster"
bombs and high tech missiles to incinerate large numbers of human beings
within their deadly radius and to obliterate Palestinian civilization.
[Well that's Yahweh for you -ed]

Moving directly from its totalitarian vision to its military blueprint to
the savaging of Palestinian population centers, the Jewish state destroyed
the principle university with over 18,000 students (mostly women),
mosques, pharmacies, electrical and water lines, power stations, fishing
villages, fishing boats and the little fishing port that provided a meager
supply of fish for the starving population. They destroyed roads,
transport facilities, food warehouses, science buildings, small factories,
shops and apartments. They destroyed a women's dormitory at the
university. In the words of the Israel leader: "..because everything is
connected to everything" it is necessary to destroy each and every facet
of life, which allows humans to exist with some dignity and independence.
[More Yahweh]

The Israeli totalitarian leaders knew with confidence that they could act
and they could kill with impunity, locally and before the entire world,
because of the influence of the US Zionist Power Configuration in and over
the US White House and Congress. They knew they had the full backing of
all the major Israeli political parties (Right, Left and Center), trade
unions, mass media and especially public opinion. Israeli state terror is
backed by 81% of Jewish Israelis according to a poll taken by Israel's
Channel 10 (Financial Times, December 30, 2008). Israeli totalitarian
violence and extermination of Palestinians is extremely popular among the
Jewish electorate, especially in raising support for the Labor Party
candidate Minister Ehud Barak. They knew they would "succeed" with
virtually no casualties because they bombed, burned and dismembered a
defenseless population totally lacking the minimum means to defend
themselves from F16 bombers, helicopter gun ships and missile assaults.
The vile depravity of the assault on the defenseless population is matched
by the utter cowardice of the Israeli military command and its cheering
bloodthirsty public ensconced behind their aerial monopoly. They suffered
no threats of aerial retaliation, no wounded or dead pilots, helicopter
gunners, as wave after wave swept in and over a defenseless imprisoned
population in a crowded and besieged ghetto. [Watching fish in a barrel,
Yahweh chuckles]

Hundreds of tanks and armored carriers are prepared to invade once the
cities and towns have been leveled, once the population is too weakened by
starvation to resist, once the leaders and fighters have been murdered and
the normal Palestinian institutions of law and order have been pulverized,
making way for the corrupt thuggish collaborators of the so-called
Palestinian Authority - then and only then, will the Israeli General staff
risk the skin of a precious Jewish "soldier" and risk the anxiety and
worry of their kin in Israel and the US. [Yahweh's favorites]

      Overseas Allies: The Presidents of the Major American Jewish
                          Organizations (PMAJO)

>From the moment that the Israeli Government decided it would destroy the
newly elected Hamas government and punish the democratic electorate of
Gaza with starvation and murder, the entire Zionist Power Configuration
(ZPC) in the US, including the PMAJO, pulled all stops in implementing the
Israeli policy. The PMAJO encompasses the fifty-two Jewish organizations
with the largest membership, with the greatest financial clout and the
most influential backers. The most prominent lobbyist within the PMAJO is
AIPAC, which has over 100,000 members and 150 full-time operatives in
Washington actively pressuring the US Congress, the White House and all
administrative agencies whose policies may relate to the interests of the
State of Israel. However Israeli political extends far beyond its
non-governmental agencies. Over two score legislators in the Congress and
over a dozen senators are committed Zionists who automatically back
Israel's policies and push for US funding and armaments for its military
machine. Top officials in key administrative positions, in Treasury,
Commerce and the National Security Council, senior functionaries in the
Pentagon and top advisers on Middle East affairs are also life-long,
fanatically committed Zionists, who consistently and unreservedly back the
policies of the State of Israel. [Yahweh's chosen people]

Equally important, the majority of the largest film, print and electronic
media are owned or deeply influenced by Jewish-Zionist media moguls who
are committed to slanting the "news" in favor of Israel. The composition
and influence of the ZPC is central to understanding three main
characteristics of Israel's power: (1) Israel can commit what leading
United Nations and international human rights experts have defined as
"crimes against humanity" with total impunity; (2) Israel can secure an
unlimited supply of the most technologically advanced and destructive
weapons and use them without limit on a civilian population in violation
of even US Congressional restrictions and (3) scores of almost unanimous
United Nations condemnations of the construction of genocidal apartheid
barriers against a native population, starvation embargoes and the current
extermination campaign in Gaza are always vetoed by the US representative.

Many critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza also condemn what they call "the
complicity" of Washington or "the United States" without clearly
identifying the actual socio-political forces influencing policy-makers or
the "dual" political loyalties and identities of the "American"
politicians who have long-standing and deep allegiances to Israel. As a
consequence, most critics fail to counter, protest or even identify the
ideology and politics of the organized power configurations which define
US complicity with Israel, who intimidate potential critics, who write and
mouth the pro-Israel editorials in the mass media and who filter out any
criticism, any truth - even when Israel engages in sustained bloody
extermination campaigns.

        The ZPC and the Israeli War of Extermination in Gaza

The ZPC played a major role in all stages of Israel's extermination
campaign against Gaza including a sustained propaganda effort. The ZPC
orchestrated a massive successful campaign through the extensive network
of American mass media, which it controls and influences. It fabricated an
image of the Hamas administration in Gaza as a terrorist organization,
which allegedly seized power through violence  -  totally denying its rise
to power through internationally supervised, democratic elections and its
defense of its electoral mandate against a US-Israeli backed PLO military
takeover. The entire Zionist Jewish leadership backed Israel's land grabs,
its ghetto wall around Palestinians, the hundreds of road blocks, the
Jewish settlers violently taking over Palestinian homes in the West Bank
and East Jerusalem and the criminal, genocidal Israeli economic embargo on
Gaza designed to systematically starve the Palestinians into submission.

Throughout the two years of this Israeli extermination campaign, American
Zionists played a major role in leading the servile US government at home
and abroad in backing each totalitarian measure: The vast majority of
local synagogues became bully-pulpits defending the starvation and
degradation of 1.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza caged on all sides
by deadly force and the "walling off" into economically and socially
devastating cantons of the 4.5 million West Bank Palestinian population
under foreign occupation. The US Congress shamelessly followed the Zionist
lead, backing every single criminal measure taken by the State of Israel
and approving dozens of resolutions, which in most cases were entirely
written by AIPAC lobbyists acting as unregistered agents of the Israeli
government (contrary to US federal statute, which requires foreign agents
and lobbyists to be registered as such). Israel's demands for the most
up-to-date US warplanes, including F-16s, Apache helicopter gun ships, and
1,000 pound bombs were secured by dint of effort of the AIPAC lobbyists
and their clients in the US Congress. In other words, the American ZPC
created the ideological cover and military instruments for Israel's "total
war" against the defenseless Palestinian population. Equally important,
prominent Zionist leaders in the US Congress and members of the foreign
policy establishment blocked or vetoed any international criticism of
Israel - securing its impunity and immunity from any of the Congressional
sanctions usually enacted against criminal states. In other words, Israeli
policy makers operated with the knowledge that there would be no negative
economic, diplomatic and military repercussions to their launching the
planned Gaza extermination campaign because they knew, in advance, that
"their people" were in total control of US Middle East policy to the
extent of actually repeating verbatim each and every propaganda lie in
defense of Israel's total war against the entire population of Gaza.

           In Defense of Israel's War of Extermination

The Zionist-controlled US print media, in particular the New York Times
and the Washington Post, systematically fabricated an account that fit
perfectly with Israel's official line defending its massive assault on
Gaza: Omitting any historical account of the hundreds of Israeli armed
incursions and "targeted" assassinations of Palestinian leaders and
officials (even in their own homes) which repeatedly violated the "cease
fire" agreed by Hamas and provoked its retaliation in self-defense of its
people; omitting the years of an Israeli enforced starvation embargo of
food and essentials that threatened the lives of 1.5 million Palestinians
and led to the desperate efforts of the elected Hamas leadership to secure
supplies for the people's survival via tunnels across the Egyptian border
and through missile attacks against Israel to pressure the Jewish state to
negotiate an end of the criminal blockade.

The Conference of President of the Major American Jewish Organizations,
and the vast majority of Jewish communal groups and congregations, gave
enthusiastic and unanimous support to Israel's total war, its
extermination campaign against the captive Palestinian population of Gaza.
Even as images and reports of the massive destruction, killing and
wounding of over 2,500 defenseless Palestinians filtered in the mass
media, not a single major Jewish organization broke ranks; only
individuals and small groups protested. All the "Majors" persisted in the
politics of the Big Lie: the destruction of hospitals, mosques,
universities, roads, apartments, pharmacies and fishing ports were all
labeled "Hamas targets". The systematic all-out assault by uncontested
helicopter gunships against 1.5 millions civilians was erased by
tendentious accounts of Hamas' homemade missiles falling ineffectively
near Israeli towns.

A close reading of the most important propaganda organ of the PMAJO, the
Daily Alert (TDA), during the first 5 days of Israel's assault, reveals
the propaganda tack taken by the leadership of the pro-Israel power
configuration. TDA systematically worked to achieve the following:

    1. Exaggerate the threats to Israel by the Palestinian missiles from
Gaza, citing 4 Israeli deaths, while omitting any mention of the 2,500
Palestinian dead and wounded and the total destruction of their economy
and living conditions (without safe water, electricity, food, cooking
fuel, medicine and heat in the winter).

    2. Promote Israel's military assault as "defensive", directed at
eliminating Hamas rocket attacks while omitting mention of Israel's
clearly stated purpose of destroying all civil organizations, social
welfare agencies, educational facilities, medical clinics and public
security institutions connected in any way with the elected Hamas
government and any auxiliary agencies.

    3. Cite select statement from Israel's allies and clients (Washington,
the US media, Germany and the UK) blaming Hamas for the conflict without
mentioning the vast majority of countries in the United Nations General
Assembly condemning Israel's brutality.

    4. Reproduce Israeli slanders against any and all international human
rights leaders and organizations that condemn the Jewish state's policy of
genocide against the native Palestinians. In this regard, TDA is the
foremost "genocide denier" in the United States and, perhaps outside of
Israel, in the world.

    5. Repeatedly cite Israeli political and military leaders' claims of
acting "with restraint", "safeguarding civilians", and "targeting military
objectives", even in the face of reports and images of mass civilian
destruction and loss of life documented in the vast majority of (non-US)
Western media.

    6. Defend every Israeli bombing mission, every day, every hour, of
every building, every home, and every economic, religious and educational
institution in Gaza as "defensive" or a "reprisal", all the while quoting
some of the most notorious, unconditional, perennial apologists of Israeli
violence as if they were unbiased intellectuals, including Benny "Nuke
Tehran" Morris, Marty Peretz and Amos Oz.

    7. The Daily Alert quotes US writers, journalists and editors who
praise and defend Israel's "total war" without identifying their
long-standing affiliation and identification with Zionist organizations,
giving the false image of a wide spectrum of opinion behind the assault.
Never has even the most moderate Jewish or Gentile critic of Israel's
massive extermination campaign appeared in any issues of the Daily Alert.

The principle American Jewish organizations have bombarded the US
Congress, influencing, intimidating and purchasing the craven so-called
"representatives" of the American people, the media and public notables
with lies in defense of Israel's total war to exterminate a people. Their
public, brazen, open complicity in genocide can be considered crime
against humanity: The willful promotion of acts of a state designed to
destroy an entire people.

And yet these willing accomplices, these "willing executioners" of state
mass murder go uncontested within the US political class. One of their
leading mouthpieces in the incoming Obama Administration, Chief
Presidential Adviser David Axelrod, even cites an Obama campaign speech
defending Israeli assaults on the people of Gaza.

Israel arrogantly repudiates all calls to end this mass murder, because
Israel knows that "its people" are still in control of US policy toward
the Middle East and will use their power in the new president's
administration to block any condemnation of this crime.

To date the entire human rights and anti-war movements have failed to even
mention, let along challenge, the most powerful propaganda and political
organizations, which influence US policy and manipulate the mass media in
favor of Israel's extermination campaign. They will play no restraining
role on Israel's totalitarian policies as long as its principal US backers
are free to lie, manipulate and defend each and every crime.

There is little hope for an independent US Congressional policy as long as
Israel's war of extermination in Gaza can be defended by the Chairman of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee (and Zionist zealot) Congressman
Howard Berman in the following terms: "Israel has a right, indeed a duty,
to defend itself in response to the hundreds of rockets and mortars fired
from Gaza over the past week. No government in world would sit by and
allow its citizens to be subjected to this kind of indiscriminate
bombardment. The loss of innocent life is a terribly tragedy and the blame
for that tragedy lies with Hamas". Thus Congressman Berman cynically omits
the 2 years of Israel's embargo, the daily "targeted" assassinations of
Palestinians, the "targeted" missile attacks against civilians, the land,
sea and air blockades and the blatant "targeted" destruction of the
infrastructure of Gaza. No government, indeed a democratically elected
Islamist government, can stand by while its people are starved and
murdered into submission. But according to the respected Congressmen
Bermans of the world, only the lives of Jews matter, not the growing
thousands of murdered, dismembered and mutilated citizens of Gaza - they
do not count as people! [Yahweh doesn't recognize them. -ed]]

What is to be Done

Israel's crimes against humanity demand a public response: social action,
which will force it to cease and desist from its campaign to exterminate
the people of Gaza. Because the Jewish state has assaulted a vast array of
Palestinian social institutions, which resonate with those in our own
society, we can and should mobilize them to condemn and boycott their
counterparts in Israel:

    1. We should urge the entire academic community to denounce Israel's
bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza and the total destruction of
all of its science facilities. An organized boycott of Israeli
universities and all academic exchanges, especially scientific, should
become university policy throughout the country. Special attention should
be paid to the 450 US university presidents, who in the recent past,
denounced a call by British academics for a boycott and who remain silent
and complicit in the face of Israel's total physical annihilation of all
ten faculties for 20,000 Palestinian university students.

    2. All American health workers, doctors, nurses, technicians, should
organize and denounce Israel's medical embargo against the 1.5 million
Palestinians crowded into the Gaza Strip. They must condemn Israel's
bombardment of Gaza's Children's Hospital, the neighborhood pharmacies and
the attacks on any transport of those critically wounded Palestinian
victims of its aerial and missile attacks. Medical personnel should raise
the fundamental ethical issues regarding the collaboration of US medical
personnel and programs with the Jewish State's "total war" policies of
extermination.

    3. All citizens should demand the end of all US military aid to
Israel, especially F-16 fighter planes, Apache attack helicopters,
missiles, 1000 pound "bunker buster" bombs used by the Israeli armed
forces on the civilian infrastructure of Gaza and the murder and maiming
of over 2,500 Palestinians, civilians, civil servants, police and national
militia. In pursuit of a cutoff of US military aid to Israel, every effort
should be made to target and denounce the most forceful, aggressive and
successful Zionist advocates and lobbyists who influence the elected
members of the US Congress and White House on foreign military aid
budgets. No progress in ending US military aid for Israel's ethnic
cleansing will succeed unless the peace movement and others appalled by
Israel's mass murder tackles the Zionist lobby head on. This includes
boycotts, rebuttals and demonstrations against the AIPAC, the Jewish
Anti-Defamation League and the other 50 leading American Jewish
organizations, which initiate and secure US governmental endorsement of
Israel's extermination policies.

    4. US religious institutions should forcefully denounce Israel's
crimes against humanity, including its demolition of 5 mosques, uniting
all faiths (Christian, Moslem, Buddhist) and especially reaching out to
the tiny minority of rabbis and observant Jews willing to forthrightly
denounce the totalitarian practices of the Israeli state.

    5. Port and long shore workers, sailors and other maritime workers and
officials should boycott the handling of all trade with Israel and
denounce its Navy's violent illegal assault, in international waters, of
civilian fishing boats and vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. No
ships carrying Israeli products should be loaded or unloaded as long as
Israel maintains its criminal military blockade of the port facilities of
Gaza.

    6. Tens of millions of US citizens subject to the one-sided pro-Israel
bias of the electronic and print media, the lop-sided presentations of
Zionist "op-ed" writers, "news" reports and the self-styled Middle East
experts, should demand equal time, coverage and reportage for non-Zionist
specialists, analysts and commentators. We should demand the end of
euphemisms and fabrications, which convert victims into aggressors and
exterminators into victims.

    7. We should wage a battle of ideas everywhere (in every public forum)
against the efforts by the Zionist Power Configuration to monopolize
discussion over the Israeli policy of genocide, to censor, intimidate and
slander critics of Israeli apartheid - as UN General Assembly President
Manuel d'Escoto so aptly calls Israel's Ghetto Wall surrounding
Palestinian villages. The outpouring of public protest over Israel's war
of extermination is an enormous step forward in countering the Zionist
monopoly of the mass media and encouraging the tens of millions of
Americans who clearly recognize and privately despise Israel's crimes
against humanity and resent the local Zionist elited'.s thuggery against
those who speak out. Mass pressure on elected representative may sway some
to reconsider their abject servility to their Zionist "contributors" and
their "Israel First" Congressional colleagues.

    8. A patriotic nationwide campaign should demand that the Israel
lobby, especially AIPAC, come clean and register as a foreign agent of the
State of Israel. This might undermine the Lobby's appeal to American Jews,
reduce its influence over Congress and open up judicial processes and
investigations over its abuse of tax-exemptions, money-laundering and lead
to revelations over its treasonous procurement of confidential US state
documents for a foreign power. There is a powerful political and legal
basis for such a denial of the "Lobby's" tax-exempt status and legality,
apart from the transparent and overwhelming evidence that all Zionist
organizations act as transmission belts for Israeli state policies: In the
early 1950's up to 1963, the forerunner of AIPAC was obligated to register
as a foreign agent of the State of Israel. More recently, an Israeli
prosecutor presented evidence that the Israeli-Jewish Agency and its US
counterparts were laundering billions of dollars especially for the
funding of Israeli colonial settlements on occupied Palestinian land,
condemned as illegal under international law. Congressional hearings, law
suits and further published research would reveal the role of the Lobby as
a Fifth Column for the State of Israel against the interest of the people
of the United States.

Until we neutralize the pervasive power of the Zionist Power Configuration
in all of its manifestations - in American public and civic life - and its
deep penetration of American legislative and executive offices, we will
fall short of preventing Israel from receiving the arms, funding and
political backing to sustain its wars of ethnic extermination.

When told that the great majority of the world's people are sickened and
incensed by Israel's mass murder of the citizens of Gaza, we can easily
imagine the contemptuous dismissal by Israel's top leaders, paraphrasing
Joseph Stalin: How many bombers, missiles, fighter planes and powerful
lobbies do they (the outraged people of the world) have?

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. Read other articles by James, or visit
James's website.

This article was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 8:02am and is
filed under Crimes against Humanity, Israel/Palestine, Zionism.


--------13 of x--------

 Zionism - don't
 ask whyonism - just make
 them dieonism.


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