[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Invitation to record AWARE ON THE AIR

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

My remarks are “anti-Obama” in the sense that they are opposed to the American military and economic policies, over which Obama presides as chief executive. As an American speaking to Americans on our public TV program, AWARE ON THE AIR, I want my fellow citizens to become aware of why the US executive is enabling murderous regimes in eastern Europe and southwest Asia. When Americans realize that these crimes are in the interest only of the American one percent and its allies - and opposed to the interests of most Americans, and indeed of most people in the world - they can be brought to an end.

It is in fact the case that the US acquiesces in Israel’s “oppression of the Palestinians so long as Israel acts as a ‘stationary aircraft carrier’ for US control of Mideast oil and gas.” That’s been the basis for US support for Israel since the 1967 war, when Israel did the American rulers a service by neutralizing the greatest threat to US hegemony in the region, secular Arab nationalism as represented by Nasser’s Egypt.  

Since then Israel has been the principal “local cop on the beat.” The expression comes from the Nixon administration (1969-74) - it was their conception of how the Middle East should be run. There should be a peripheral region of gendarme states (Turkey, Iran under the Shah, Israel after the ‘67 war, Pakistan for a while). These states were to be the local cops on the beat while the US would be the police headquarters.

That’s why the ’79 revolution in Iran was such a blow to the US. The US had to replace Iran with Saudi Arabia, and now US clients Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and Bahrain - in what is in effect an alliance - confront US enemies Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. (And it has not escaped notice - although it may not be as important as some say - that Israel is aligned with Sunni states and against Shia states.) Meanwhile, the US attempts to maintain control over the powerful states of Turkey and Pakistan. 

“Obama hasn’t started that, nor stopped it.” True enough; in fact, his Mideast policy is quite continuous with earlier administrations’: in spite of his promise of “hope and change,” he continued Bush’s policy without a break (and with the same personnel, from Gates to Brennan). The only thing new he did was to lie about it, because of US popular opposition to Mideast war. Even before he was elected, he wrote that he wanted to avoid the fate of Presidents Johnson and Nixon - driven from office, owing to a criminal colonial war...

The rest of the world - including a good bit of the EU - in fact rejects US imperialism in the Mideast as “unambiguously wrong” and does indeed “call for seeking a new strategy, one which will involve directly Palestinians” (other than as victims of Israeli massacres). 

The world sees Gaza accurately as an “open air prison.” It’s fatuous to suggest that the misery that Israel has subjected the Gazans to, is a result of [Hamas’] “decision to invest financial assistance sent to Ghaza into tunnels and not houses, the decision to maintain refugee camps rather than build houses ... the decision to maintain the telegenic image of refugees ... [and] using children as human shields,  spending finance assistance for Ghaza on building [tunnels] into Israel, launching rockets on Israelis,” etc.

The US government and media have acquiesced in the Israeli government’s demonization of Hamas (whose charter incidentally is no more exclusionary than that of Likud, Israel’s leading party). They also ignore the fact that Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, was founded a generation ago with explicit aid from Israel so as to undercut the appeal of the secular Fatah party.

Furthermore, the US - supposedly the patron of democracy - ignores the fact that Hamas won a free election over Fatah in 2006 to govern the Occupied Territories. The US immediately backed a coup against Hamas, and the coup was defeated in Gaza, which Israel then separated from the West Bank, contrary to what had been agreed in the Oslo Accords. 

‘For Gaza, the plans for the norm were explained forthrightly by Dov Weissglass, a confidant of Ariel Sharon, the person who negotiated the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from Gaza in 2005. Israeli hawks, led by Sharon, realized that it made good sense to transfer the illegal settlers from their subsidized communities in devastated Gaza, where they were sustained at exorbitant cost, to subsidized settlements in the other occupied territories, which Israel intends to keep.  

‘Weisglass explained  that Gazans would remain “on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger” – which would not help Israel’s fading reputation. Israeli experts determined precisely how many calories a day Gazans needed for bare survival, while also depriving them of medicines and other means of decent life. Israeli military forces confined them by land, sea and air to what British Prime Minister David Cameron accurately described as a prison camp. The Israeli withdrawal left Israel in total control of Gaza, hence the occupying power under international law. And to close the prison walls even more tightly, Israel excluded Palestinians from a large region along the border, including a third or more of Gaza’s scarce arable land.’ [Noam Chomsky]

‘This is now the third major Israeli offensive against Hamas and the people of Gaza in the last six years. Refusing to accept international legality as the basis for resolving its dispute with the Palestinians, Israel's right-wing government is ever ready to resort to military force.
	
‘With a degree of cynicism that is difficult to comprehend and impossible to condone, Israel's leaders describe their periodic incursions into Gaza as ‘mowing the lawn’. Now, once again, and with characteristic callousness, they have unleashed the full force of the IDF against Gaza's captive population.
	
‘The death toll in the current round of hostilities is a grim reflection of the asymmetry of power between the fourth strongest army in the world and a virtually defenceless civilian population...

‘Beyond a ceasefire to end the current round of fighting, the international community will need to tackle the much tougher task of persuading Israel to abide by the laws of war, respect UN resolutions, end the odious occupation, and recognise the natural right of the Palestinians to live on their land in freedom and dignity.’ [Avi Shlaim]

‘Could US policy change? It’s not impossible. Public opinion has shifted considerably in recent years, particularly among the young, and it cannot be completely ignored. For some years there has been a good basis for public demands that Washington observe its own laws and cut off military aid to Israel. US law requires that “no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” Israel most certainly is guilty of this consistent pattern, and has been for many years. That is why Amnesty International, in the course of Israel’s murderous Cast Lead operation in Gaza, called for an arms embargo against Israel (and Hamas). Senator Patrick Leahy, author of this provision of the law, has brought up its potential applicability to Israel in specific cases, and with a well-conducted educational, organizational, and activist effort such initiatives could be pursued successively. That could have a very significant impact in itself, while also providing a springboard for further actions not only to punish Israel for its criminal behavior, but also to compel Washington to become part of “the international community” and to observe international law and decent moral principles.’ [Chomsky]

--CGE


On Aug 6, 2014, at 2:18 PM, ya'aQov <yaaqovz at gmail.com> wrote:

> Please find my response to Carl's message, as I read it on AWARE on the Air, Tuesday, 8-5-2014.
> ​====================​
> I do not support Carl Estabrook’s Anti-Obama statements, definitely not as a blanket approval.  
> 
> Carl’s statement ‘oppression of the Palestinians so long as Israel acts as a “stationary aircraft carrier” for US control of Mideast oil and gas’.  Well, the US sells arms to Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, feeding the Middle East with as many weapons they can stock.  Nothing changed about that since 1967. The military complex is doing its business as usual. Obama hasn’t started that, nor stopped it.  Yet I prefer Obama to any of the alternatives who ran for president last.
> 
> I pointed at the simplistic US tendency for unambiguous right/wrong.  I pointed out the failure to represent Israelis and Palestinians, drawing  efforts from an obsolete  and inefficient concept, that didn’t generate desired results.
> 
> I called and call for seeking a new strategy, one which will involve directly Palestinians.  Szoke called it, off the cuff ‘completely ineffectual’.  Abundance of terms taken from Nazi Germany, such as Gaza a concentration camp. What?!  people with arms, administration, elections, a charter calling for the destruction of Israel is a concentration camp? Open air prison, yes, but not a concentration camp. The decision to invest financial assistance sent to Ghaza into tunnels and not houses, the decision to maintain refugee camps rather than build houses was taken by these people.  The decision to maintain the telegenic image of refugees was corroborated again and again by these very people.
> 
> Szoke called to negotiate with Hamas. I pointed out that Szoke that had no idea of what Hamas say, their charter, their names and standpoints.  Szoke replied to my challenge for him to name 5 Hamas leaders ‘completely incoherent ,  Hamas don’t have designated leaders and that is their strength’.
> 
> The problem is that Szoke represents so many US intellectuals , who essentially have no clue about the  Palestinians and Israelis they talk about.  Ron Szokes of the US academia choose to not discourse with Israelis and Palestinians.  
> 
> I ran the Google search>>  'Hamas leaders' and got:
> 
> Mohammad Deif, Commander of Hamas military wing,
> Isra al-Modallal, spokeperson
> Khaled Mashal, leader
> Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi, co founder d. 2004
> Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin, founder, d.2004
> Mahmoud al-Zahar, co-founder
> Ismail Haniyeh, Leader
> 
> Moreover, in the evening of last Tuesday’s AWARE on the Air,  Khaled Mashal, leader of the Hamas,  spoke on Charlie Rose, providing  standpoints and clarifications galore, to learn from.
> 
> There are plenty opportunities to get informed on what Hamas are intent on, on
> Hamas position on what they are doing and on their rationale.  Also plenty opportunities to get informed on how and why Hamas are:
> using children as human shield spending finance assistance for Ghaza on building into Israel launching rockets on Israelis
> Ultimately, these ‘standpoints’ feed into increasing hatred  and anti-Zionism feeding into anti-Israel and anti-Jews, and into anti-Moslems and anti-Palestinians on the other hand. 
> 
> Ron Szokes of the academic world are responsible for this hatred and the way it, in turn, fuels mobs into aggression and perpetuation of violence.
> 
> Ya'aqov Ziso
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 10:47 PM, C. G. Estabrook via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> > Members and friends of AWARE are invited to sit in and participate (if you wish) in this week's recording of "AWARE on the Air" on Urbana Public Television.
> >
> > We record the program on Tuesdays from noon to 1pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana.
> >
> > The program is unrehearsed, but here is the planned introduction:
> >
> > ====================================================
> > Good evening & welcome to AWARE ON THE AIR. I’m Carl Estabrook.
> >
> > Our program is presented by members & friends of AWARE, the Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana, a local peace group, in the 32nd week of 2014, a week in which the Obama administration had two bloody hands in eastern Europe and SW Asia, squeezing the life out of men, women and children. The hands are called Ukraine and Israel, and we Americans are responsible for what the USG is doing with them.
> >
> > In 2011, after killing US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki and his son in separate drone strikes, President Obama said, "Turns out I'm really good at killing people. Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine." On his orders, five thousand people have been killed with drones, including two hundred children.
> >
> > Last Friday, after the revelation that his CIA director John Brennan lied about CIA activities in regard to the still-unreleased Senate Intelligence Committee report on torture, President Obama admitted casually, “We tortured some folks."  Later it turned out that Obama’s claim to have banned all forms of torture was false. He admitted casually that he banned only SOME of the CIA’s torture techniques.
> >
> > President Obama has in fact shown himself willing to kill thousands of men, women, and children as a minion of  “the one percent,” because the president’s crimes of torture and murder are certainly not in the interest of most Americans - only those who want to maintain the American one percent’s control over the world economy, which they have enjoyed since the Second World War. To maintain that control, Washington uses its 1,000 military bases around the world and “special forces,” active in 124 countries. (Their activities include kidnapping - we call it “rendition” - torture and murder)
> >
> > This month, murders are also being carried out by two client states of the US, Israel and Ukraine - the bloody hands of the Obama administration in Europe and Asia. Israel has massacred almost two thousand people in Gaza, mostly civilians, and the US-backed (and installed) government in Kiev has killed almost as many in eastern Ukraine, the Donbas region; and its war has resulted in the destruction of a commercial airliner that killed 298 men, women, and children.
> >
> > Who is responsible for mass murder in Gaza and Donbas? Of course their leaders can be blamed for Israel and Ukraine’s committing what the Nuremberg Tribunal called “the supreme international crime” (i.e., worse than terrorism): waging aggressive war. But the final responsibility lies with the President of the United States. Without the support - economic, military, political, and diplomatic - that the U.S. government provides, Israel’s crimes would not be possible - and neither would the coup and military assaults by the Ukrainian government.
> >
> > President Obama fails to stop Israel’s ongoing murders in Gaza - as he could, with a word - because it’s been the policy of all U.S. administrations for two generations to allow the Israelis to continue their oppression of the Palestinians so long as Israel acts as a “stationary aircraft carrier” for US control of Mideast oil and gas.
> >
> > In eastern Europe the US immediately violated its promise not to extend NATO to the borders of Russia and is now scheming to do so through Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. President Obama’s administration engineered the coup against an elected government in Ukraine and sent the CIA chief to encourage a Ukrainian army attack on the regions that resisted the new government - the first government in Europe since WWII to include fascist parties.
> >
> > How much longer will Americans put up with a murderous president in Washington, who can smile and smile and be a villain? Will the pictures of dead children for whom he’s responsible lead to his being driven form office, as Presidents Johnson and Nixon were?
> >
> > Will his failure to provide jobs and economic relief for millions of Americans - what he was elected for - lead to his impeachment? Will the real distress of most Americans finally boil over into direct opposition to the Obama administration?
> >
> > The Pentagon thinks it’s a possibility: the Guardian newspaper in London reports that the US  military is preparing for mass civil breakdown. “The multi-million dollar programme is designed to develop immediate and long-term "warfighter-relevant insights" for senior officials and decision makers in "the defense policy community," and to inform policy implemented by "combatant commands" - that is, against US citizens.
> >
> > But Obama’s main task is to cover over the wars he’s sponsoring, the murders he’s committing, and the misery he’s causing. Three-quarters of Americans disapprove of the wars of the Bush-Obama years, and the billions of collars spent on them that could have been used here at home. Obama was elected to end the wars and provide jobs. He hasn’t done either one, and Americans’ anger is growing. His job is to turn aside that anger.
> >
> > One way that’s done is to use a compliant media to misrepresent the Obama administration’s military and economic policy. Our task here at AWARE ON THE AIR - like similar independent programs around the country - is to combat that overwhelming propaganda.
> >
> > We’ll try to do that tonight with reports & comments from members are friends of AWARE...
> >
> > ###
> >
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