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</v:shapetype><![endif]-->From Phyllis Bennis, "Talking Points",
Institute for Policy Studies -
via the United for Peace and Justice mailing list. I think
it's a good article, wide-ranging and timely (though it is many
times too
long to make a flyer...)<big><big><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"">.<br>
<br>
================================== <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Dear friends,<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">President Obama’s
West Point graduation speech
outlining his foreign policy had some pretty good stuff in
it. Leadership
doesn’t mean only military force. Just because you have a
big hammer doesn’t
mean everything is a nail. “A world of greater freedom and
tolerance is not
only a moral imperative; it also helps keep us safe.” It all
sounded great.
Just an hour or so later <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=PMrChdMdXb7Q9t20HA4wOg"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">I
discussed the
speech on Al-Jazeera.</span></b></a><br>
<br>
It was a pretty great speech that challenged much of the
militarization of
post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy—the problem is, like too many
great speeches
before, it has far too little to do with what the Obama
administration actually
does.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">No question Ben
Rhodes is a terrific
speechwriter (though don’t get me started on what he doesn’t
know as deputy
national security adviser,) and Obama knows how to talk the
talk. The
problem isn’t the speech. The problem is the policy. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Obama was right
to criticize the isolationism
of “self-described realists” whose interest in the world
starts and ends with
what is useful for traditionally-defined U.S. interests —
that is, mainly
military and corporate ones. And he was right to criticize
and address the
“interventionists from the left and right” who believe that
“America’s
willingness to apply force around the world is the ultimate
safeguard against
chaos” — essentially, those who want to use force even more
than he does.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">But once again
Obama didn’t answer his critics
— also from the right and left, though most especially from
the left — who are
outraged at how much he and his administration <i>are</i>
using military force,
in far too many places, against far too many people, far too
often, and far out
of public sight. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">The mainstream
media was full of post-speech
carping about Obama setting up a straw man when he accused
others of wanting to
send ground troops to Syria (or Ukraine, or Nigeria, or
Thailand.) The real
problem is not that he’s refusing to send ground troops —
it's that he <i>is</i>
escalating the military conflicts by involving the U.S.
military: providing
weapons, supplies, planes and pilots, training, CIA
counter-terrorism troops
(the CIA now has its own fleet of armed planes, special
forces in all but name,)
and looking for military solutions all over the world. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Obama was right
to push back against critics
who complain that the U.S. has lost its global leadership
role because it
hasn’t sent troops everywhere the warmongers wanted. He was
right when he said
that leadership doesn’t only mean military force. The
problem is, though, U.S.
leadership and credibility have been dramatically weakened
because of too <i>much</i>,
not too little military force. The direct U.S. military
interventions that
failed (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya,) the U.S. search for
military solutions even
when they claim there are none (Syria,) the continuing U.S.
reliance on
might-makes-right arguments (Guantanamo, the drone war,) the
U.S. refusal to
get out of the way to let other, more legitimate global
institutions lead
(Israel-Palestine) have all weakened U.S. global leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Obama’s repeated
statement that “there is no
military solution” in Syria is belied by the CIA training
rebel forces in
Jordan, by U.S. allies being allowed to provide
U.S.-produced weapons to the
rebels, by apparently imminent efforts to send U.S.
shoulder-fired
anti-aircraft missiles. If the president believed there is
no military solution
in Syria, then he should stop supporting one side of this
brutal civil war; call
for an immediate ceasefire and immediate international arms
embargo on all
sides; and re-engage with Russia to figure out a diplomatic
solution. The
current progress in negotiations with Iran should lead to
new engagement with
Iran on the Syria crisis as well.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">When Obama extols
American exceptionalism and
says, “What makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout
international
norms and the rule of law; it is our willingness to affirm
them through our
actions,” he is wrong. It is precisely Washington’s ability
— and willingness —
“to flout international norms and the rule of law” that
shows its exceptional
military and economic power. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman""><o:p> </o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">What other
country could get away with
violating sovereignty by using drone missiles to kill
citizens of other
countries — within those countries’ borders — because it
claims the target of
those drone strikes were "bad guys?" What if some <i>other</i>
government decided that certain Americans in the U.S. were
the bad guys and
sent missiles to kill them? Affirming international norms
and the rule of law
means ending drone strikes and illegal invasions and bombing
campaigns, not
simply claiming they’re legal because it’s Washington that
does it instead of
Moscow or Beijing.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">The president
said he would “continue to push
to close Gitmo” because U.S. values and legal traditions “do
not permit the
indefinite detention of people beyond our borders.” The
problem is, that
“indefinite detention” is now precisely what defines the
values and legal
traditions of our country. Like his predecessor, Obama has
relied on memos
drafted by his own lawyers, without oversight by any court,
to reinterpret U.S.
law by simply declaring things like assassination of
American citizens
“legal.” That’s the <i>new</i> American legal tradition.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">It’s great to
hear that the president
describes his most important lesson in foreign affairs being
“don’t do stupid
shit,” meaning, don’t go to war like we did in Iraq. (<i>The
New York Times </i>primly
described President Obama’s language as a “saltier variation
of the phrase
‘don’t do stupid stuff. ’”) How does he not recognize, even
ignoring the
morality of the issue, that killing over 3,000 people by
drone strikes in
Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia — and antagonizing whole
populations of restive
countries by doing so — qualifies as “stupid shit?” If
Congress balks at
closing down Guantanamo, it sure sounds pretty stupid not to
at least begin to
show some leadership by freeing those long-term prisoners
already cleared for
release. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">It’s not
completely off-base to say that with
Al-Qaeda’s leadership largely decimated, the U.S. (and many
other countries)
face danger from scattered bands of terrorists across the
Middle East, South
Asia, and parts of Africa. But what is completely wrong is
the notion that
somehow going to war can stop terrorism. For any who doubt
it, 13 years of
responding to the crime of September 11 with a limitless
global war has
unequivocally proved the point: Terrorism is a tactic, not
an enemy, and it’s
not possible to conquer terrorism with war. It doesn’t work
— it hasn’t worked
in Afghanistan (and won’t, with two and a half more years of
U.S. war) or in
Iraq, and it isn’t working in Yemen, Pakistan, or Somalia
either. The U.S.
never went to war against “terrorism” — it went to war
against the land,
people, economy, and environment of the countries it
invaded. And still,
terrorism has thrived. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">President Obama
reminded the world that, “As
the Syrian civil war spills across borders, the capacity of
battle-hardened
extremist groups to come after us only increases.” It might
have been more
powerful if he acknowledged that many of those extremists
first gained their
battle-hardening experience in Iraq — fighting against the
U.S. occupation and
its Iraqi partners.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">If Obama really
believed that “respect for
human rights is an antidote to instability and the
grievances that fuel
violence and terror,” wouldn’t he move to do something
differently, something
like renouncing — without waiting for Congress — the
Authorization for the Use
of Military Force that followed September 11? Wouldn’t he
move to do something
to show respect for human rights and international law, like
joining the
International Criminal Court or working to strengthen,
instead of undermine,
the United Nations? <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333">The Afghanistan war
continues</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman""><o:p> </o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Instead we now
hear that the U.S. war in
Afghanistan will go on for another two and a half years. How
many more Afghans
will die, be grievously wounded, be made refugees, by this
occupation? How many
more U.S. troops will come home with grave physical and
psychological wounds?
On the Real News I discussed why keeping <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=zdiMFqUQrCCL2o4JHa_MfQ"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">U.S.
troops in
Afghanistan won’t solve the problems</span></b></a>
that country faces after
almost three decades of war and occupation: If 100,000 U.S.
troops and 30,000
NATO troops didn’t bring peace, stability, democracy,
development, or any of
the other things we promised, keeping 10,000 troops there
won’t do it either. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">And we should not
forget that the special
forces troops who remain will have only one military job: to
kill those the
U.S. (based on who-knows-what intelligence) identifies as
bad guys. That’s why
we’re almost certainly going to see access to military bases
as part of the
agreement with Afghanistan — to keep the drone war going, to
kill more bad
guys. No pretense that “protecting Afghans” is somehow on
the U.S. agenda, just
straight-up counter-terrorism, plus training the Afghan
military to do the same
thing. Not such a great prospect for Afghan civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">The Afghan
elections — the final round of
voting is scheduled very soon — are not likely to have much
impact on the war,
except that both of the leading candidates have indicated
their willingness to
sign off on a Bilateral Security Agreement allowing U.S.
troops to remain.
We’ll see whether they can convince their parliament to
guarantee full immunity
for U.S. troops for any war crimes they might commit — the
refusal of which was
what led to the full troop withdrawal from Iraq. Both
candidates have also
recruited notorious warlords as running mates in the
interest of winning
various ethnic votes. I’ve been talking about that, and what
has and hasn’t
changed in Afghanistan — you can watch <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=5ruPNpFqzOl7J0LQZWJUiw"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">The Real
News
interview</span></b></a> or listen to my discussion on
<a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=FkyOYIUtD4JiswWGZAb7SQ"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">FAIR’s
Counterspin show</span></b></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">A few weeks ago I
wrote about a <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=W4riyO2LyVg1WxurllxyuQ"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Washington
event
where I joined Iraq Veterans Against the War</span></b></a>
and veterans'
families to call for “the right to heal” — challenging the
Pentagon’s
longstanding habit of sending back to active duty soldiers
diagnosed with PTSD
or other traumatic brain injuries. But they went beyond the
demand for better
health care for veterans — an issue that remains at the top
of the political
agenda despite the dismissal of Eric Shinseki as head of
Veteran's Affairs — to
include the call for real accountability and support for
health care as well as
more for the victims of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">As our great
congressional heroine Barbara Lee
said last week, in response to President Obama’s
announcement about keeping
troops in Afghanistan through the end of 2016, “There is no
military solution
in Afghanistan.” That’s true now, and it will still be true
in 2016. This just
means 30 more months of U.S. war.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333">Syria: The war still
expands</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Syria’s
multi-faceted civil war continues to
expand, and conditions for Syrian civilians continue to
deteriorate. In early
May, the UN opened a new refugee camp for Syrians in Jordan
with space for
130,000 people — 6,500 arrived just in the first month. When
it reaches
capacity — and unfortunately, it seems certain that it will
— it will surpass
the Zaatari camp in Jordan, already the second largest
refugee camp in the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman""><o:p> </o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Reports of
bombings, sieges, and killings
continue. By May 29, the <i>BBC</i> reports that almost 3
million people have
fled across Syria’s borders, one of the largest forced
migrations since World
War II. I talked about this humanitarian crisis and Syria’s
six wars <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=QdDVS7HlkaAAGGhaMZR07g"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">in the
Real News</span></b></a>.
And after UN and Arab League special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi
resigned in mid-May
— in frustration with the world’s failure to do enough to
stop the killing — I
discussed <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=FwIcrHMyq937pO8GqvcCtg"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">the
consequences
of this decision for Syria on Al Jazeera</span></b></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333">So what do we do about
Syria?</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Of course it’s
not enough to say the U.S.
shouldn’t send missile strikes or arm one side of the civil
war: We need a
serious campaign to change U.S. policy towards Syria. Over
the last several
weeks, many of the leaders of national anti-war and peace
and justice
organizations have been meeting to figure out what our “ask”
should be — what
should we be demanding of our government? Out of these
discussions, I wrote <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=EIstdIMb9sl6hYOPu0fMaw"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">“5
Concrete
Steps the US Can Take to End the Syria Crisis”</span></b></a>
for last week’s
issue of <i>The Nation</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Read it, add to
it, use it as talking points
for meeting with members of Congress, as the basis for
letters to the editor,
or as the beginning of new campaigns. We can’t allow Syria
to slip away from
our attention. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333">Good news with the bad:
Iran and Palestine</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">There is some
good news, weirdly enough, on a
couple of fronts not known for good tidings. On Iran, there
are serious
indications that the talks underway between Iran and the
U.S. with its allies
(known as the P-5 + 1, for the five permanent members of the
UN Security
Council plus Germany) are going reasonably well. The fact
that we’re not
hearing a lot of debate and opposition in the Congress is
actually a good
sign. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Following last
February’s interim agreement,
the talks are shaped around Iran’s nuclear power program on
one side and ending
sanctions and Iran being taken seriously as a regional power
on the other. The
current deadline is July 20, but the interim agreement
allows for a six-month
extension — and both sides have an interest in making an
effort. President
Obama is desperate for some kind of foreign policy success,
and a bargain with
Iran — grand or not — would give a huge boost to his claimed
commitment to
diplomacy over force (even if he still falsely claims that
only sanctions
brought Iran to the table.) President Rouhani is under
significant public
pressure to get U.S. and United Nations sanctions lifted,
and he still faces
political challenges from other factions of Iran’s powerful
ruling circles.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">(It must be
mentioned, but it’s not all good
news: the <i>Washington Post</i>, rarely supportive of
diplomacy with Iran,
took their usual editorial position warning that a deal was
unlikely — but then
went further, reassuring readers that if a deal were somehow
reached there
would be “a strong check on any concessions made by the
Obama administration.
If Congress or Israel are dissatisfied, they may be able to
scuttle the
deal.” Really? If another country — Israel is not part of
the P-5 + 1 —
is “dissatisfied,” it might have equal status with the U.S.
Congress to
“scuttle the deal?” I’m torn between being pleased that the
<i>Post</i>
felt compelled finally to admit that possibility, or
outraged that as usual
they appear to think it’s a good thing.)<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333">In Palestine, the Pope
replaces the peace process</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:
Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">The other good
news has to do, first, with the
collapse of the U.S.-orchestrated “peace process” between
Israel and Palestine.
After 23 years of failed diplomacy and nine months of
intensive John Kerry-led
talks with and between Palestinians and Israelis, <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=ra0ejuPlB0Ss44bxIqnUtw"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">the
latest
“Einstein Round”</span></b></a> ended unceremoniously.
(I’ve been calling this
the “Einstein Round” based on the great scientist’s
definition of crazy: Doing
the same thing over and over again and expecting a different
result.)<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">The talks ended
after Israel reneged on its
earlier promise to release the last 29 of 104 prisoners,
following that up with
announcing its plans to build hundreds of new illegal
settlement apartments.
That’s all business-as-usual for Israeli occupation. The
good news included the
Palestinian response, which was to sign on to 15 human
rights and other
treaties and covenants, bringing Palestine into compliance
with a wide range of
international norms. What a contrast: Israel violates more
agreements and more
international laws, Palestinians respond with claiming
international law as
their own. And the U.S. responds that both sides have done
unhelpful things.
Great.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333"> But, for a
change, there was some good
news when the White House and State Department made clear
their view that, in
fact, Israel was responsible for the talks’ collapse. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Kerry even used
the term “apartheid” — and
while he used it only in the sense of warning Israel that it
could face a
future as an apartheid state if it didn’t manage a two-state
solution, rather
than recognizing Israel today as an apartheid state — his
very mention of the
word reflected the change in U.S. discourse on the issue. <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=2e6lC1RDZbzvhPCtTn18hw"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">As
CNN reported
it</span></b></a>, “John Kerry wasn't the first to use
the A-word — apartheid —
when talking about Israel, and he likely won't be the last.”
Of course his
statement led to attacks and calls for Kerry’s resignation
from Israel
supporters in the U.S. and beyond, but there were no serious
political
consequences.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Discourse shifts
are never enough, though. On
the ground things have not changed for most Palestinians.
Two young boys,
15-year-old Muhammad Abu Thahr and 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara,
were killed by
Israeli soldiers firing live ammunition at a protest outside
Israel’s Ofer
Prison in the occupied West Bank on May 15, Nakba Day, the
day Palestinians
commemorate their massive dispossession that accompanied the
creation of the
state of Israel in 1948. They were only the latest
casualties of the
occupation. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">There is some
cause for optimism regarding the
Palestinian unity process that may result in a new
technocratic government of
national unity for the Palestinian Authority supported by
both main factions,
Fatah (that controls the PA in the West Bank) and Hamas
(running the authority
in Gaza.) It isn’t yet a full unity process — it remains
unclear how
Palestinians living inside Israel and the millions of
Palestinian refugees
scattered in far-flung exile will be included — but if it
succeeds it
represents a major step forward.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Times;mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman""><o:p> </o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">And then,
finally, we had the Pope. Pope
Francis went to Palestine and Israel, and — as we’ve seen so
many times already
in his shifting the church’s focus to the poor and
dispossessed — here he made
clear that he was not, as his predecessors have been,
interested only in
strengthening the Vatican’s ties to Israel. This time, it
was all about the
visuals — and that meant the extraordinary photograph of the
Pope praying and
leaning his head against the Apartheid Wall in Bethlehem
splashed across the
front pages of newspapers around the world. <o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">I talked about it
<a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=4dKuT4o3UYT8EbgA7XuyEw"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">on The
Real News</span></b></a>
and <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=-SumG-hTNc2PImgGLKfbWw"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">wrote
about it
for FPIF and <i>The Nation</i></span></b></a> last
week — and since the Pope
went to lay a wreath at his tomb, I got to include my
favorite quote from
Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. It’s the one
from his letter to
the infamous Cecil Rhodes (who conquered much of Africa for
the British Crown)
in which Herzl begs Rhodes to join his project for a
European Jewish state in
Palestine because it is “something colonial.” <br>
He should know.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";color:#333333">On the road</span></b><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman";
color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Welcome to all my
new
subscribers/supporters/comrades/friends I met at the Sabeel
conference in
Portland and in Louisville at the 6,000-strong Methodist
Women’s Assembly. I’m
heading to Japan this week, to speak at a UN conference on
Palestine and then
to meet with anti-war, anti-militarism, and anti-nuclear
activists in Tokyo and
Hiroshima.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Thanks for all
you do, all your commitment,
all your passion.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">We all have a lot
of work to do.<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">Phyllis<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
<big><big>
</big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:12.0pt;
line-height:12.0pt"><big><big><span
style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-font-family:
"Times New Roman";color:#333333">NB – If you can,
please <a
href="http://act.ips-dc.org/site/R?i=wNopZMzl66c_cUgMkQlupA"><b><span
style="color:#044270;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">help
support my
New Internationalism Project here at IPS</span></b></a> —
every one-time
donation or monthly sustainer pledge is crucial to helping
my work
survive. Thanks!<o:p></o:p></span></big></big></p>
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