OUTLINE: Introduction. Reflection on recent news, especially the embarrassing, corrupt, cruelly anti-Palestine stance trumpeted by certain politicians, notably Congressman Henry Waxman. Finally a prerecorded recent interview with Mr. Lenni Brenner, prominent Jewish civil rights activist, in which the focus of discussion is on ways to realistically achieve a one-state solution.
SCRIPT: Good morning everyone, and welcome to "This Week in Palestine," a weekly forty-five minute segment of news from Palestine, and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization of their homeland. This program presents news and analysis from the Palestinian perspective, a perspective we do not get from the mainstream media.
We ask our listeners as we do every week: were you involved last week in the Palestine-Israel peace movement and the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's savage military attacks against them to force them out of their homes and annex their properties into Israel? Did you speak out on the atrocities Israel is committing every day in Gaza and the West Bank? If not, what is your reason not to?
It is Sunday, August 9th, 2009. We begin with a summary of news highlights.
Last Sunday, August 2nd, the celebrated journalist and founding member of the Palestine Liberation Organization Shafiq al-Hout passed away in Beirut, Lebanon at the age of 77. A fierce fighter for the Palestinian cause, he enthusiastically participated in an oral history project to inform Palestinian children about their history. He once said: "They want to erase Palestine from the memory of the new generation, and anything I can do to fight that, I will be more than happy."
The Fateh conference in Bethlehem which started last Tuesday, August 4th, will continue in session through today to attempt to resolve internal disputes. President Abbas stood unopposed for the leadership of Fateh and was elected yesterday to serve another term. As expected, Mr. Abbas used the conference as a pulpit to slam his rival faction of Hamas. Although calls were made in more than one stormy session for changes in the leadership and an end to corruption, little if any change is expected in that regard. At this point, one has little reason to call the conference a success.
In an interview on Democracy Now on August 5th, Amy Goodman asked Representative Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee: "Why aren't you opposing the Israeli government on the issue of the settlements that are called illegal under international law?" Here is what he said: "Now, the Israeli settlement policy, I think, has to be changed. And I think that it's inexcusable to build settlements outside the bloc areas that everybody recognizes will be part of Israel when there's a settlement for land. I think the outlying illegal settlements should be closed, and I did say that to Prime Minister Netanyahu when I met with him in Israel."
When Amy Goodman pressed him on the question of why he did not call for the acceptance of the Arab League peace plan, which would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories, he replied, like a good little boy who has learned his lines: "Well, I don't think that the Arab League peace plan is clear enough that Israel would withdraw from territories and with whom they would make peace. The Palestinians are going through a civil war. Hamas's reason for being is to destroy Israel. The Fatah organization, we have high hopes that they will be willing to make peace, but they've never said that they're willing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, and so Israel doesn't have a partner for peace. I wish she did. And the United States has got to try to promote that peace."
Like all the other Congressmen, Henry Waxman clearly has been bought and paid for. Press the button, and like a well trained puppet, he faithfully pipes out the lines he was taught to say.
Democracy Now has also reported that on Thursday, August 6th, a group of Republican lawmakers met with Israeli officials in Jerusalem in what was billed as a "solidarity mission." Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia said after a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres: "We are here first and foremost to reconfirm the message that the U.S. Congress stands staunchly on the side of Israel in its struggle and we are here to figure how to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship." House Democrats will follow up later this month with a 35-member delegation led by House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Needless to say that Representative Henry Waxman will join the delegation.
All of this bodes ill for the much heralded Obama peace initiative. We have received a preview of the nightmarish American view of the so-called "two-state solution."
Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, and Senator James Risch, Republican of Idaho, are asking colleagues to sign on to a letter they wrote on July 23rd to President Obama. The letter expresses support for Israel and puts the burden on Arab countries to make what they call dramatic gestures toward Israel. Senator Kennedy has not signed the letter and does not intend to sign it - nor does Senator Kerry.
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is expected to visit Gaza later this month with a delegation of "Elders," a group of global leaders brought together by former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Meanwhile, we are finally beginning to hear former Israeli commanders admit to the abuse and beating of Palestinian children in their custody. Eran Efrati, a former Israeli military commander who served in the West Bank, told the BBC that allegations that soldiers like him often mistreat Palestinian minors are true. He said: "You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he's really shaking... Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the circulation."
"He doesn't understand a word of what's going on around him. He doesn't know what you're going to do with him. He just knows we are soldiers with guns; that we kill people. Maybe they think we're going to kill him."
"Every soldier who was in the Occupied Territories can tell you the same story," he went on: "The first months after I left the army I dreamed about kids all the time. Jewish kids. Arab kids. Screaming.
"Maybe [the kid is] blindfolded for him not to see the base and how we're working... But I believe maybe we put the blindfold because we don't want to see his eyes. You don't want him to look at us - you know, beg us to stop, or cry in front of us. It's a lot easier if we don't see his eyes.
"When the kid is sitting there in the base, I didn't do it, but nobody is thinking of him as a kid, you know - if there is someone blindfolded and handcuffed, he's probably done something really bad. It's OK to slap him, it's OK to spit on him, it's OK to kick him sometimes. It doesn't really matter."
Today, we continue our discussion of Zionism and the permissive atmosphere it breeds for the dehumanization of Palestinians and the cruel and abusive treatment even of children. Our guest is Mr. Lenni Brenner, a prominent Jewish civil rights activist. Mr. Brenner opposed the Vietnam war from the first days of the war. He became involved in the American Civil Rights Movement [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955-1968)] when he met James Farmer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Farmer,_Jr.] of the Congress of Racial Equality [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Racial_Equality], later the organizer of the "freedom rides" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_rides] of the early 1960s. He also worked with Bayard Rustin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin], later the organizer of Martin Luther King [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King]'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_a_Dream] march on Washington. He was arrested three times during civil rights sit-ins in the San Francisco Bay Area [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area] where he spoke frequently at rallies opposing the Vietnam war. He spent 39 months in jail when a court revoked his probation because of his activities during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Free_Speech_Movement] at the University of California in 1964.
In the 1990s, he and Stokely Carmichael [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokely_Carmichael], the legendary "Black Power" leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Non-Violent_Coordinating_Committee], co-founded the Committee against Zionism and Racism [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Committee_against_Zionism_and_Racism&action=edit&redlink=1].
Born into an Orthodox Jewish [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Jewish] family, Mr. Brenner authored six books: Zionism in the Age of the Dictators [http://www.marxists.de/middleast/brenner/index.htm], The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir [http://www.marxists.de/middleast/ironwall/index.htm], Jews in America Today, and The Lesser Evil, a study of the Democratic Party [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Democratic_Party]. In 2002, he edited the book: "51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis" [http://www.CounterPunch.org/brenner1223.html] which contains complete translations of many of the documents quoted in Zionism in the Age of the Dictators and The Iron Wall. In 2004, he edited "Jefferson & Madison: On Separation of Church and State: Writings on Religion and Secularism." His books have been widely translated, and have been reviewed in 11 languages.
I interviewed Mr. Brenner yesterday evening on the broad subject of Zionism and its role. Here is a recording of the interview. A follow-up discussion will be aired next Sunday.
Interview (30 mins, 52 secs) followed by brief commentary
And that is all we have for today. We wish our listeners a pleasant and restful weekend and look forward to having you with us next week, same time. Until then, this is Sherif Fam signing off for now and reminding our listeners to GET INVOLVED!
This Week In Palestine (a weekly part of Truth and Justice Radio) is (normally) a three-quarter-hour segment of news from Palestine and discussion of issues relevant to the Palestinians' struggle for freedom from Israel's brutal military occupation and colonization, and now bombing, devastation, and murder, of their homeland.
It's part of Truth and Justice Radio, aired Sundays 6:00-9:30am ET on WZBC 90.3FM, Newton, MA, streaming (and also archived for two weeks) at wzbc.org. Our website, truthandjusticeradio.org, links to This Week In Palestine's 2008/2009 audio archives; earlier editions are obtainable by going to radio4all.net and using its search feature to get "This Week In Palestine".
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