[Peace-discuss] Draft flyer for July 20 demo - comments welcomed

Sun Jul 20 10:52:32 EDT 2014

How about this version?   It just fits on a page at this point, in 
mostly 11- and 12-point type.    (It would be good to include Shlaim's 
final paragraph on what the international community should aim for, but 
I couldn't see what more to cut elsewhere.)

/_*AWARE ~ The Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana ~ 20 July 
2014*_/

*ISRAEL'S MURDERS IN GAZA - OBAMA'S RESPONSIBILITY,  AND OURS*

After two weeks of airstrikes the Israeli army (IDF) has invaded Gaza, 
the 140-square mile territory - with 1.8 million people - that it 
surrounds and controls. (Hamas is the party that won a free election in 
the territories occupied by Israel in 2006.) More than 300 Palestinians 
have been killed, and two Israelis.

"/*Israel invades Gaza because it can.* ... Israel has total military 
superiority, an air force which can knock and then bomb, a navy which 
can shell Gazans from miles off shore, an army which can roll tanks into 
Gaza nonstop. Gazans have no army, navy, or air force with which to 
defend. *Israel, as any nation, has a right to defend itself, but it 
confuses offense with defense. It is on the offensive in Gaza.*/

"/Israel, with its overwhelming military strength, is attacking and 
invading Gaza in violation of international and U.S. law. Its 
construction of settlements violates the Oslo agreement. Its Central 
Bank dries up the Gaza economy and blocks payments to Gazan civil 
servants. Its total control brings the Palestinians to utter subjection 
and total despair. /

"/Israel will go door to door in Gaza in the hunt for Hamas, which 
comprises the government of the Palestinians and is therefore a 
necessary party to any peace talks. It is axiomatic that if you kill 
your partner for peace, you will have no partner for peace." -- /from 
*Dennis Kucinich,*in**Huffington 
Post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-j-kucinich/israel-invades-gaza_b_5598535.html

"... /*What is needed now is an immediate ceasefire. The Egyptian 
ceasefire proposal of July 15 met Israel's needs but utterly failed to 
meet the needs of the people of Gaza.*//Israel was consulted before the 
proposal was announced; Hamas was not. /

"/The proposal involved a return to the status quo with calm for 
Israelis but with the people of Gaza continuing to live under a 
crippling siege. Hamas demands an end to Israeli aggression, the easing 
of the blockade by Israel and Egypt, and the release of recently 
rearrested prisoners. It refuses to return to the status quo ante 
because it is intolerable." -- /*Avi Shlaim, Oxford University*

*
Who is responsible for the Israeli military assault on Gaza?* Many can 
be blamed for Israel's committing what the Nuremberg Tribunal called 
"the supreme international crime - launching 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.* But the U.S. does not provide this support because of undue 
influence from the  government of Israel or the Israel lobby. The U.S. 
government supports Israel - and its oppression of Palestinians - 
because Israel is America's "stationary aircraft carrier" in the Mideast.

Most Americans think of U.S. war in the Mideast as beginning after 
9/11/2001, with the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but in 
fact our government has been killing people in the Mideast since the 
Second World War to secure control of what the U.S. State Department 
called then "the world's greatest material prize," Mideast gas and oil. 
The U.S. government demands not just access to Mideast energy resources 
but control of them, because a strangle-hold over world energy flows 
gives the U.S. the advantage over its economic rivals in Europe and 
Asia, notably Germany and China.

*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 supports and 
participates in the crimes of its U.S. master.*

*It's time for Americans to say no to the child-killers in the U.S. and 
Israeli governments.

Contact the President (202-456-1111) and our Congressional 
representatives (202-224-3121), or on line at:
*

*President Obama - 
*/*<http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments>
*/*Senator Durbin - */*<http://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm>
*/*Senator Kirk - */*<http://www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=comment_on_legislation>
*/*Representative Davis - 
*/*<https://rodneydavis.house.gov/contact/email-me>*/

On 7/20/14 9:42 AM, Carl G. Estabrook wrote:
> I could see substituting the first four paragraphs of Kucinich's piece 
> for Shlaim's [but I want to explain "abbatoir" - more 'academic' than 
> Shlaim's vocabulary...].
>
> But Shlaim's is better, I think, & provides answers for the arguments 
> we'll get on the street ("Hamas started it...."]. And I could remove 
> the reference to Oxford.
>
> And I thought it worthwhile to quote a Jewish scholar.
>
> Please advise. --CGE
>
>
> On Jul 20, 2014, at 9:08 AM, Stuart Levy <stuartnlevy at gmail.com 
> <mailto:stuartnlevy at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> I've been trying to shorten Avi Shlaim's piece, which is possible but 
>> maybe not the best way to do it - he says very good things, but the 
>> language is pretty academic and liable to put people off from quick 
>> reading.
>>
>> I'm trying now to make a mashup of Dennis Kucinich's piece from 
>> HuffPo, and Avi Shlaim's description of what a cease fire should be 
>> which I think is especially clear, and your text bringing 
>> responsibility back to US.... will broadcast when there is something 
>> concrete... OK?
>>
>>
>>
>> On 7/19/14 7:47 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote:
>>> Give me an edited version. I haven't printed them yet.
>>>
>>> On Jul 19, 2014, at 7:36 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com 
>>> <mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have to agree with her, when it comes to flyers, being concise 
>>>> as opposed to comprehensive is better, because most people won't 
>>>> read it if its too long. It's not something they paid for, its 
>>>> free, thus they are tempted to just disguard if it looks like work.
>>>>
>>>> > Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Draft flyer for July 20 demo - 
>>>> comments welcomed
>>>> > From:galliher at illinois.edu <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>
>>>> > Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 19:33:00 -0500
>>>> > To:karenaram at hotmail.com <mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>
>>>> >
>>>> > Even my wife says it's readable on the printed page, tho' too 
>>>> long (her usual comment - she wants concision...)
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Jul 19, 2014, at 7:08 PM, Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com 
>>>> <mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > > I had to increase the size of the print to read, but the 
>>>> content looks comprehensive, good.
>>>> > >
>>>> > > Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 17:49:16 -0500
>>>> > > To:peace-discuss at anti-war.net <mailto:peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
>>>> > > Subject: [Peace-discuss] Draft flyer for July 20 demo - 
>>>> comments welcomed
>>>> > > From:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net 
>>>> <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>>>> > >
>>>> > > AWARE ~ The Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort of Champaign-Urbana ~ 
>>>> 20 July 2014
>>>> > >
>>>> > > ISRAEL'S MURDERS IN GAZA - OBAMA'S RESPONSIBILITY, AND OURS
>>>> > >
>>>> > > After two weeks of airstrikes the Israeli army (IDF) has 
>>>> invaded Gaza, the 140-square mile territory - with 1.8 million 
>>>> people - that it surrounds and controls. (Hamas is the party that 
>>>> won a free election in the territories occupied by Israel in 2006.)
>>>> > >
>>>> > > "...This is 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. 
>>>> In the first ten days of aerial bombardment, the 'score' was 260 
>>>> Palestinian dead, mostly civilians, and one Israeli.
>>>> > > "By launching a ground offensive on July 17, Israel sharply 
>>>> escalated the death toll to over 300; destroyed many more houses, 
>>>> hospitals, and water plants; and displaced some 50,000 people out 
>>>> of their homes. 'Operation Protective Edge' has thus turned the 
>>>> densely populated Palestinian enclave on the eastern shore of the 
>>>> Mediterranean into a living hell.
>>>> > > "Both sides claim to be responding to aggression by the other 
>>>> side. The stated aim of Israel's incursion into the strip is to put 
>>>> an end to the firing of rockets by Hamas militants on Israeli 
>>>> civilians. Hamas, the Islamic party that rules Gaza, claims it is 
>>>> engaged in legitimate resistance to Israel's military occupation 
>>>> and that the rockets fired by its military wing were a response to 
>>>> the violent IDF crackdown on the West Bank following the abduction 
>>>> and murder of three Israeli youths. The chain of action and 
>>>> reaction is endless. But the underlying cause of the violence is 
>>>> the Israeli colonialism ... for the last seven years the entire 
>>>> population of Gaza, mostly refugees from previous Arab-Israeli 
>>>> wars, has been subjected to an illegal, inhumane, and unrelenting 
>>>> siege...
>>>> > > "What is needed now is an immediate ceasefire. The Egyptian 
>>>> ceasefire proposal of July 15 met Israel's needs but utterly failed 
>>>> to meet the needs of the people of Gaza. Israel was consulted 
>>>> before the proposal was announced; Hamas was not. Hamas found out 
>>>> about the one-sided proposal from the media, not through diplomatic 
>>>> channels.
>>>> > > "The proposal involved a return to the status quo with calm for 
>>>> Israelis but with the people of Gaza continuing to live under a 
>>>> crippling siege. Not unreasonably, Hamas demands an end to Israeli 
>>>> aggression, the easing of the blockade by Israel and Egypt, and the 
>>>> release of recently rearrested prisoners. It refuses to return to 
>>>> the status quo ante because it is intolerable.
>>>> > > "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, Oxford University]
>>>> > >
>>>> > > Who is responsible for the Israeli military assault on Gaza? 
>>>> Many can be blamed for Israel's committing what the Nuremberg 
>>>> Tribunal called "the supreme international crime - launching 
>>>> 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. But the U.S. does not provide this support 
>>>> because of undue influence from the government of Israel or the 
>>>> Israel lobby. The U.S. government supports Israel - and its 
>>>> oppression of Palestinians - because Israel is America's 
>>>> "stationary aircraft carrier" in the Mideast.
>>>> > > Most Americans think of U.S. war in the Mideast as beginning 
>>>> after 9/11/2001, with the American invasions of Afghanistan and 
>>>> Iraq, but in fact our government has been killing people in the 
>>>> Mideast since the Second World War to secure control of what the 
>>>> U.S. State Department called then "the world's greatest material 
>>>> prize," Mideast gas and oil. The U.S. government demands not just 
>>>> access to Mideast energy resources but control of them, because a 
>>>> strangle-hold over world energy flows gives the U.S. the advantage 
>>>> over its economic rivals in Europe and Asia, notably Germany and China.
>>>> > > 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 
>>>> supports and participates in the crimes of its U.S. master.
>>>> > >
>>>> > > It's time for Americans to say no to the child-killers in the 
>>>> U.S. and Israeli governments.
>>>> > > Contact the president (202-456-1111) and our representatives in 
>>>> Congress (202-224-3121), by phone or online:
>>>> > > President Obama - 
>>>> <http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments>
>>>> > > Senator Durbin - <http://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm>
>>>> > > Senator Kirk - 
>>>> <http://www.kirk.senate.gov/?p=comment_on_legislation>
>>>> > > Representative Davis - 
>>>> <https://rodneydavis.house.gov/contact/email-me>
>>>> > > ###
>>>> > >
>>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>>
>

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