Tidbits – Oct. 26, 2023 – Reader Comments: Israel-Gaza War – Ceasefire, Stop the Bombing, Free the Hostages; Israeli Occupation and Apartheid; Solidarity and War Crimes; House Speaker; Elliott Abrams; Take Action for Ceasefire; Gaza Sources; More..
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More Bombs In 6 Days -- Solidarity Info Service
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Re: To Defeat Injustice Follow Mandela’s, Castro’s Example (Lisa Brock; Dan Morgan)
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Re: The Inexcusable Omission in Biden’s Big Israel Speech – Ceasefire (Ben Cupp; John Weber)
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Casualties of War -- Cartoon by Nick Anderson
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Re: On Solidarity and War Crimes (Arlene Halfon)
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Re: The Most Successful Murder in History (David Wilson)
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Peace -- Cartoon by Clay Bennett
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Witch Hunt -- Cartoon by Randy Bish
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Re: The Real Reason House Republicans Can’t Elect a Speaker (Joel McClurg)
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Jim Jordan: 'Done with Coups' -- Cartoon by Mike Luckovich
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Re: Religious Charter Schools Undermine the Foundations of Public Education (Gina Klein)
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The Daily Sacrifices -- Cartoon by Herb Block
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Re: The US Supreme Court’s Incoherent, Idiotic, and Racist Rulings on Gerrymandering (Tarkpor Grupee)
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Re: Biden’s Nomination of Elliott Abrams Ignores a Violent Past (Norm Littlejohn; Gian Giacomo Migone)
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Troubles Cause Rebels -- Meme
Take Action:
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Never Again. For Anyone. (Jewish Voice For Peace)
Resources:
Announcements:
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Solidarity Speaks - Webinar - join with three longstanding Israeli activists who have worked to build solidarity across checkpoints, border walls, and closed military zones for many years - This Sunday - October 29 (Green Olive Collective)
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Film Screening - Revolutionary Hearts - Brooklyn - This Saturday - October 28 (Park Slope Methodist Church)
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House Party to Celebrate and Support EDUCACIÓN POPULAR EN SALUD (Chile) - New York - November 5 (Action for Health in the Americas -AHANY)
More Bombs In 6 Days -- Solidarity Info Service
Re: To Defeat Injustice Follow Mandela’s, Castro’s Example
For those who compare the South African liberation struggle with the Palestinian Struggle ignore many differences but a primary one is this: Israel is committing genocide, they want Palestinians dead or gone. The apartheid regime, and international capital needed millions of laborers in SA alive and working in the mining industries. What is happening in Israel is more like what happened to indigenous people in the US. The manifest destiny crowd wanted land and were prepared to engage in mass murder to get it and recruit white settler immigrants to live on Indian land, who then become "innocent civilians". While the colonial settler model at the top is similar in all three, the resistance struggles in SA and Palestine are very different because of the goals of the settler-colonial states.
Also, Israel was set up by Zionists and the International Military Industrial Complex, not Jews. Stop conflating the two.
See Joe Biden some years ago. Its pretty clear why the US "created" Israel.
https://youtu.be/86Nrv5izaTs?si=IwM3dV6bGREg2Gop
Lisa Brock
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The author says " "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free," to wit, free of Jewish people." That is a misrepresentation of the slogan. It is a call for a one-state solution, yes, but many serious proponents of it want a secular Palestine that includes all its inhabitants - neither a Muslim state nor a Jewish state. It might be mistaken or unrealistic, but this slogan, in itself, is not a call for genocide.
Dan Morgan
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: The Inexcusable Omission in Biden’s Big Israel Speech – Ceasefire
Biden doesn't want a ceasefire. He wants to present himself as a wartime president to try to win re election.
Ben Cupp
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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Absolutely right. That was in INEXCUSABLE omission and may lead to his defeat. He lost the Arab American vote right there
John Weber
Casualties of War -- Cartoon by Nick Anderson
Nick Anderson
October 20, 2023
Reform Austin
Re: On Solidarity and War Crimes
All wars are "crimes". Most people who are killed are innocent; they are killed because powerful people want greater power and status and more money.
If the Government does it, its "legitimate"; if people have no power, the same acts are "terrorist".
When you talk about Hamas' killing those who are not responsible, they are "terrorists". When you talk about what Israel did and do to the Palestinians, it is "justifiable" because it's "defense."
But remember, Nat Turner was a "terrorist". The people in the Warsaw Ghetto who rebelled were "terrorists." The Auschwitz prisoners who, when released, killed the people living in the local town were "terrorists." The Native Americans who killed the "peaceful" people coming in their wagons for a better life were "terrorists."
There will be "terrorism" as long as there are people in power who never have enough.
Arlene Halfon
Re: The Most Successful Murder in History
This is an interesting article, but there's a problem with a sentence in the English translation. "Amir triggered the revolver, but before others had loaded their hands with gunpowder." I think a more idiomatic and accurate translation would be: "Amir pulled the trigger, but others had previously loaded his hands with the gunpowder."
(The original reads: "Amir gatilló el revólver, pero antes otros habían cargado de pólvora sus manos.")
David Wilson
Peace -- Cartoon by Clay Bennett
Clay Bennett
October 24, 2023
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Witch Hunt -- Cartoon by Randy Bish
Randy Bish
October 22, 2023
Bishtoons
Re: The Real Reason House Republicans Can’t Elect a Speaker
This all started in 1994 when Newt Gingrich decided that the Republicans would never work with Democrats and they have followed that stupid idea ever since! And that is part of their disfunction today! Our form of government with its "checks and balances" requires negotiation and compromise, it drives everything toward the political center! When you refuse to negotiate and compromise you are swimming upstream against the current when you try to impose your agenda on everyone without the participation of the opposition! Republicans are in a corner and it is a problem that they created for themselves!
Joel McClurg
Jim Jordan: 'Done with Coups' -- Cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Mike Luckovich
October 18, 2023
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Re: Religious Charter Schools Undermine the Foundations of Public Education
This ranks up there with my worst nightmares.
Gina Klein
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
The Daily Sacrifices -- Cartoon by Herb Block
Herb Block
October 1, 1993
Washington Post
Herbert L. Block Collection (Library of Congress)
Re: The US Supreme Court’s Incoherent, Idiotic, and Racist Rulings on Gerrymandering
What a great democracy???
Tarkpor Grupee
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
Re: Biden’s Nomination of Elliott Abrams Ignores a Violent Past
“[Elliott] Abrams was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to chair the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a public relations post whose goal is to shape international perceptions about the United States. It’s appalling that Abrams, a former member of the Trump and Reagan Administrations, can still be seen as a respectable candidate for any public office, much less one that’s involved with diplomacy. It is still not too late, however, for Congress—the same body that Abrams lied to about the Iran-Contra Affair—to correct course by showing him the door.”
Norm Littlejohn
Posted on Portside's Facebook page
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My wife and I were personal witnesses in 1981, at the time of the horrors that took place in Salvador, with US support.
Gian Giacomo Migone
Chair
Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate
Republic of Italy (1994-2001)
Jewish Voice For Peace took out a full-page ad in the New York Times, calling on Biden to facilitate an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and stop sending the Israeli military more weapons.
We're calling for a ceasefire — and bringing our message to 740,000 print subscribers.
Add your name now.
Sign the petition at jvp.org/ceasefire
Who to Follow In and From Gaza
Join us this Sunday for Solidarity Speaks, a special session of our emergency webinar series highlighting Palestinian and Israeli voices of solidarity calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to collective punishment in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The occupation regime does all it can to segregate Palestinians and Israelis. We are honored to join with three longstanding Israeli activists who have worked to build solidarity across checkpoints, border walls, and closed military zones for many years. They will each shed light on the current moment and discuss the urgent need to build empathy and common cause against the limits of the dominant discourse set by Biden and Netanyahu.
Noam Shuster-Eliassi is a comedian, creator, and unique cultural voice who uses humour to satirize and lampoon systems of racial inequality. She has gained global recognition for her uncompromising commitment to justice and her ability to challenge dominant narratives with hilarity and biting wit. Her comedy show Coexistence My A** is a groundbreaking work commenting on the absurdities of identity and power in Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East.
Sahar Vardi is a prolific activist who began her solidarity work as a member of Anarchists Against The Wall supporting the popular struggle of Palestinians in Area C against land expropriation. Since then she is known for her participation in weekly demonstrations in Sheikh Jarrah and a variety of organizations including the Refuser Solidarity Network, Free Jerusalem, American Friends Service Committee, and others challenging unbridled militarism in Israeli society.
Yossef Mekyton is an animal liberation, environmental, queer, and decolonial activist. During the Great March of Return in 2018 he helped organize Israeli solidarity demonstrations across the fence from the Gazan returnees. He is working with Zochrot to promote Israeli accountability for the Nakba of 1948 and a future beyond partitions.
Register at this link to join Solidarity Speaks.
*Sunday, October 29th:
8PM Jerusalem, 7PM Berlin, 6PM London, 1PM NYC
This event will be a fundraiser for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), providing emergency medical relief and humanitarian aid during this ongoing catastrophe.
Please help us spread the word and share this emergency webinar series with relevant activist, faith, and learning communities. We know many people are looking for perspective in this moment of urgency and want as many people as possible to hear directly from Palestinians and Israelis calling for justice.
Green Olive Collective Inc.
PO Box 1135
Jerusalem, 9101001
www.greenolivetours.com
office@greenolivecollective.com
Israel Tel: +972-3-721-9540 • USA Tel: 1-612-276-2077
Don't miss the screening of the new documentary, Revolutionary Hearts, by Peter Kinoy & Mary Lutz, on Saturday, October 28, at 6:30 at the Park Slope Methodist Church, (6th Avenue and 8th Street).
REVOLUTIONARY HEARTS is the story of a working-class couple who lead an extraordinary life. David and Janet Greene built formal and informal freedom schools for liberation from the coal fields of West Virginia to adult literacy classes in Harlem, NY, to the rust belt of Ohio. But 50 years of industrial labor and bad working conditions in coal mines and auto plants left David with several life-threatening cancers. Unable to continue his former activities David takes up art and begins to paint the story of his life.
Saturday, October 28, at 6:30
Park Slope Methodist Church, (6th Avenue and 8th Street). Brooklyn
REVOLUTIONARY HEARTS trailer 2:40
With special guest singer/songwriter/activist
BETHANY YARROW
Sunday, November 5, 2023
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
At the home of Sheila Dauer 280 Riverside Drive, Apt. 15E, NYC
Hosted by Action for Health in the Americas (AHANY)
Light refreshments served. Tax-deductible donations to support the work of EPES will be welcome at the event.
Please join us to support the ground-breaking work of EPES, now in its 41st year training and mobilizing people to build healthier communities in Chile and around the world. Bethany Yarrow sings music of power and praise. She is a song keeper, earth activist, and student of the spiritual traditions of the Americas. Both musically and in her activism, Bethany carries on a family legacy. Her father is Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary; and her mother’s uncle was the great peace activist and politician Eugene McCarthy from Minnesota.
Bethany is deeply connected to Chile and to EPES. In 1995 she produced the film Long Roads about EPES and she has sung with her father in many fundraisers to support the work of EPES.
EPES is an independent non-profit Chilean foundation founded in 1982 to promote health with dignity for the poor through empowerment, mobilization and collective action. For more information on EPES, see: www.epes.cl and/or Facebook: EPES Foundation
Action for Health in the Americas (AHA) is the North American counterpart of EPES) founded in 2006 to ensure that supporters in the U.S. receive regular updates on EPES and can make tax-deductible donations to immediately support EPES’ work. For more information on AHA, see www.actionforhealth.org
RSVP to Sarah at Sarahfeggleston@gmail.com
If you cannot attend but would like to make a tax-deductible contribution, please give online at www.actionforhealth.org
Or send a check to:
Action for Health in the Americas (AHA)
c/o Prince of Peace Lutheran Church 4 Northcrest Drive
Clifton Park, NY 12065
Please write “AHANY” in the memo line of your check or in the “additional comments” section in the online donation form. Gracias!