Baltimore Nonviolence Center

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Baltimore Activist Alert July 29 to 30, 2018

Baltimore Activist Alert July 29 to 30, 2018

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net.

1] Books, buttons and stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists

4] Write Reality Winner

5] Pat Elder for Congress

6] Support the Duncan & Porter Hospitality House

7] Participate in Megan Shook's fundraiser for USA for UNHCR

8] Buy an Anti-War Veteran hat

9] Adopt a cat – through July 31

10] BARCS Benefit Day – July 29

11] “Multi-Dimensional Creativity” – July 29

12] Canvas for a better choice – July 29

13] History of Sparrows Point – July 29

14] Gun violence – July 29

15] DSA book club – July 29

16] Protest at the Pentagon -- July 30

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1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Call Max at 410-323-1607.

2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq.

To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email 6address to mobuszewski at Verizon.net. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.

THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. You will get a confirmation message once subscribed. If you have problems, please write to the list manager at ncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.

4] – On June 3, 2017 Reality Leigh Winner was arrested and jailed and later charged under the Espionage Act for allegedly releasing a top-secret document to a media outlet, The Intercept. The document analyzed information about Russian online intrusions prior to the 2016 presidential election. Reality had been employed by a contract agency and worked at the NSA in Augusta, Georgia following her hono8rable discharge from the U.S. Air Force in December of 2016. Reality has pleaded not guilty to this one charge, and her defense team is working furiously to defend against the Espionage charge, but the Court in Georgia continues to rule against Reality at every turn. Reality has been denied pretrial bail and awaits trial in a small county jail in Lincolnton, Georgia.

The impact this has had on Reality and our entire family is devastating. Because of the undue pressure, Reality decided to cop a plea, and now faces five years of imprisonment. Please write to Reality at Reality L. Winner, Inmate # 3342, Lincoln County Jail, PO Box 970, Lincolnton, GA 30817.

5] – Green Candidate Pat Elder is Running against Democratic House Whip Steny Hoyer -- www.elderforcongress.org/elderforcongress@gmail.com/301-997-3963. Elder is a life-long peace and justice activist, who will be on the ballot in November. He is a great progressive. Elder calls for shutting down the Chalk Point and Morgantown coal-fired stations in the 5th district. Pat is opposed to Dominion Energy’s terminal at Cove Point and other projects in the 5th. He also demands a cessation of weapons testing in the Potomac and an immediate cleanup of Superfund sites at the Indian Head Naval Warfare Center and Patuxent River Naval Air Station. He calls for subjecting the military’s ongoing environmental degradation to state oversight.

Pat supports Medicare for all, public financing of elections, free community college. Elder supports a living wage; strong measures to correct racial injustice; eliminating the Social Security taxable maximum of $128,400; He advocates for meaningful cuts in military spending and increasing the top tax for folks making more than $2 million to 50%. That’ll pay for everything. Pat supports non-violent, multilateral solutions to the problems facing our country.

Pat plans to capture 5% of the vote and expects to open the political debate. Pat expects to run the most successful Green Party congressional campaign ever. It shouldn’t be too tough. Hoyer is awful. Spread the message on social media. Send in a dollar or two if you can.

6] – Support the Duncan & Porter Hospitality House. What's a house of hospitality without a working kitchen? Donate at https://www.gofundme.com/v2s3h8.

More than 25 years ago Vincent Eirene, of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, opened up his doors to those in need. Vince, now 65, will always put others first and has given back to the community continuously. Avoiding the regulations of official shelters, he maintains an open door policy, working with a few men at a time that usually come from the local food pantry. He helps them with everything from medical care to social services. Vince has been running his open door home on his own disability check and the miracle of generosity. I personally have been helping him secure funding for purchasing the home and keeping it livable, from small touches to large ones. It is currently in need of a new stove. Please help us raise this modest amount before harvest, so the cooking can continue at the Duncan and Porter House of Hospitality.

7] – Participate in Megan Shook's fundraiser for USA for UNHCR. She asks, “Want to join me in supporting a good cause? I'm raising money for USA for UNHCR and your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $5 or $500. Every little bit helps. Thank you for your support. I've included information about USA for UNHCR, which helps and protects refugees and people displaced by violence, conflict and persecution. Supporting UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency – and its partners, we provide lifesaving essentials including shelter, water, food, safety and protection. Around the world, we help refugees survive, recover and build a better future. Together we give refugees the hope they deserve, restore their dignity and help them rebuild their lives.” Established by concerned citizens, USA for UNHCR is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C. Donate at https://www.facebook.com/donate/430046250797823/.

8] – Get a good-looking black hat which says Anti-War Veteran in the front and Viva House 50^th in the back. The cost is $10. Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

9] – Now is the purr-fect time to adopt and give an unwanted cat or kitten a loving, new family! During the entire month of July, the Maryland SPCA, along with 19 other shelters across Maryland, are waiving adoption fees for felines with the collective goal of finding homes for at least 2,000 unwanted cats and kittens across the state. Regular adoption procedures still apply. The Maryland 2,000 sponsor Cat Hospital At Towson (CHAT) will be offering free wellness exams for all cats adopted during the month of July from the Maryland SPCA and BAWA Partners (BARCS, Baltimore Humane Society and Baltimore County Animal Services). Click here http://www.mdspca.org/updates/detail/maryland-20001.

Help save more lives with Baltimore Animal Welfare Alliance partners–BARCS, Baltimore Humane Society, Baltimore County Animal Services and special guest Humane Society of Harford County. The standard adoption fee for cats and kittens will be waived as part of our Maryland 2,000 adoption promotion. To help you and your new feline get off on the right paw, adopters will receive a free certificate for a cat wellness exam at CHAT. Standard adoption procedures will apply for each participating shelter.

10] – On Sun., July29 from 10 AM to 9 PM, get involved with BARCS Benefit Day, hosted by Great Sage, 5809 Clarksville Square Dr., Clarksville 21029. This local nonprofit shelter operates Maryland's largest open-admission shelter and pet adoption center. BARCS accepts and cares for all animals in need and promotes responsible pet ownership for a more humane community in Baltimore City. Ten percent of the sales will be donated to BARCS to help them increase adoption and rescues. Reservations are welcome, at 443.535.9400. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/209049149726550/.

11] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 2521 St. Paul St., Baltimore 21218, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion at 10:30 AM. On Sun., July 22, the topic is “Multi-Dimensional Creativity.” Artist Therese Spadaro and poet Karen Elliott team up to get you playing in 3 dimensions (making maquettes out of some unexpected materials) and then adding some words to give your creativity a thorough workout. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.

12] – Join the Indivisible Team on Sat., July 29 at noon to canvas in the VA CD10 for Jennifer Wexton. Begin at the Kelly Price’s House, 6442 Lake Meadow Drive, Burke, VA 22015. This is one of the most flippable Congressional seats. Bring a friend, your kids, everyone is welcome to join in. RSVP at http://act.indivisible.org/event/attend-local-actions/15011/signup/?no_redirect=&akid=24977%2E839288%2E1qwKCg.

13] – A unique look at the history of Sparrows Point will be presented on Sun., July 29 from 1:30 to 3 PM at the Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Highway in Baltimore. Bill Wolf will present one of his incredible scale models of the mills and Andrew Morton will demonstrate his amazing computer-generated simulations of the mills. Both worked at The Point and have remembered the mill in very different ways. Bill Barry will introduce them. Contact Bill at billbarry21214@gmail.com.

14] – On Sun., July29 from 2 to 4 PM, check out Gun Violence: Patterns, Solutions and Hope, hosted by Karen 4 Maryland at the Anne Arundel County Police Eastern District, 204 E. Pasadena Road, Pasadena 21122. Victims of violence, Maryland residents and 2018 election candidates are cordially invited to join the community forum honoring the memory of Marylanders lost to gun violence. Help plan to conduct a constructive conversation about the problems with, solutions to, and hope for reducing violence in our community. Seek common ground to discuss community-based solutions. Gun violence survivors are invited to share their experiences. 2018 General Election candidates will be provided time to share their solutions. The invited guests include Ben Jealous. All guns are prohibited on premises. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/567348213660057/.

15] – On Sun., July 29 from 3 to 4:30 PM, join up with the Metro DC Socialist Book Group in the Kogod Courtyard, hosted by the Democratic Socialists of America at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 8th and F Streets NW, WDC 20001. Discuss Naomi Klein's new book "The Battle For Paradise: Puerto Rico Takes on the Disaster Capitalists." Please read the Socialist Reading Group's Participation Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16YKfMQwWe0yvM2i9VlWJRTvH_OGGJD3_3gLc6DYnpoY/edit?usp=sharing. All royalties from the sale of this book in English and Spanish go directly to JunteGente, a gathering of Puerto Rican organizations resisting disaster capitalism and advancing a fair and healthy recovery for their island. For more information, visit http://juntegente.org/. See https://www.facebook.com/events/2166982426869761/.

16] – There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop. The next vigil is July 30, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649. The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro. By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr., and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begin at 8 AM. No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Friday, July 27, 2018

Baltimore Activist Alert - July 27 -- August 9, 2018

58] Armistice – July 27

59] Discuss Firearm Violence – July 27

60] Food Rescue – July 27

61] Support Migrant's Rights – July 27

62] See the film DARK MONEY – July 27 – Aug. 2

63] Black Lives Matter – July 27

64] Iampeace – July 27

65] Ballroom Dancing – July 27

66] Transit, Housing & Health Town Hall – July 28

67] Chester County Peace Vigil – July 28

68] Socialists in the Housing Struggle – July 28

69] Commemorate Hiroshima – Aug. 6

70] Commemorate Nagasaki – Aug. 9

71] Do you want to join a peace caravan?

72] Emergency Demonstration against an attack on Iran or North Korea

73] JONAH HOUSE NEEDS WORKERS FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

74] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records

75] Do you need any book shelves?

76] Do you need a shredder?

77] Join the Global Zero campaign

78] Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

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58] -- Friday, July 27, 2018is the 65th anniversary of signing of the Armistice Agreement for Korea.

59] – Discuss Firearm Violence in Wilmington, DE on Fri., July 27 from noon to 1PM at the Christiana Hospital, room 1100 or watch on-line: https://bluejeans.com/361095905. Adolescents in Wilmington have a 3/1,000 risk of being a victim of firearm violence, and the risk for young boys and men of color within specific neighborhoods of the city is even higher. The rapid rise in firearm related injuries in Wilmington over the past decade was investigated by the CDC; epidemic and endemic violence in cities across the US has led to new approaches & interventions in medical and social research. Increasingly framed as both a consequence of and a contributor to social determinants of health, firearm violence presents unique challenges to healthcare systems. This talk will review the local patterns and risk factors for firearm related assault injuries, existing best practices, strategies for harm reduction, and opportunities for Delaware’s path forward. Lunch will be served. RSVP at http://valueinstitute.createsend1.com/t/ViewEmail/i/A42D416566FC64662540EF23F30FEDED.

60] -- On Fri., July 27 at noon, there is a food rescue at Grace Baptist Church, 3201 The Alameda, Baltimore 21218. The food rescue will continue on and August 3. Bring a bag, bring a friend, and take delicious, nutritious, free rescued food. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/579834149018638/.

61] – Join a Demonstration to Support Migrant's Rights on Fri., July 20 from 4 to 7 PM at Gorman Road overpass (over I-95) in Howard County. It is sponsored by the IndivisibleHoCoMD Immigration Action Team. Go to www.friendsoflatinamerica.org. Parking at that location on Gorman Road is probably best within 200 yards of the east side of the bridge in the residential area.

WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? The Trump Administration is failing to meet the deadline to reunite all children under age 5. There are a total of 3,000 children in custody that must be returned by the end of July. The Indivisible Howard County Immigration Team will be holding the Gorman Bridge Overpass of Route 95 Demonstrations every Friday in July from 4 to 7 PM until all children are returned. Please come and help us keep the pressure on the Trump administration to reunite the children that the US government took from their families. Call 410-599-4412 or email rozzinner@gmail.com.

62] – On Fri., July 27 through Thurs., Aug. 2, see the film DARK MONEY at The SNF Parkway / Maryland Film Festival,5 West North Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21201. On Tues., July 31 after the 7 PM screening: Enjoy a Q&A with Susan Ogden (Get Money Out - Maryland), Elaine Apter (League of Women Voters of Maryland) and Lois Hybl, (Action/ League of Women Voters of Baltimore City). It will be moderated by David Zurawik (The Baltimore Sun) This documentary, a political thriller, examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. It takes viewers to Montana—a frontline in the fight to preserve fair elections nationwide—to follow an intrepid local journalist working to expose the real-life impacts of the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Through this gripping story, the film uncovers the shocking and vital truth of how American elections are bought and sold. This Sundance award-winning documentary is directed/produced by Kimberly Reed (PRODIGAL SONS) and produced by Katy Chevigny (E-TEAM). Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/376011369586634/?event_time_id=413613952493042.

63] – There is usually a silent vigil on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, sponsored by Homewood Friends Meeting, outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. The next scheduled vigil is on July 27. Black Lives Matter.

64] – On Fri., July 27 from 6 to 9 PM, Iampeace welcomes you to its site, 300 E. 29th St., Baltimore 21218. In Baltimore city, violence has become an epidemic. Baltimore had 343 homicides in the year 2017! Something clearly has to be done in order for violence to decrease. Youth have nothing to do in Baltimore, which is a factor in why violence occurs. Instead of being on the streets, youth can come enjoy an event where there is food, activities, a speaker, and the opportunity to get involved with other people. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/968350740012458/.

65] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be on July 20. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.

66] – On Sat., July 28 from 11 AM to 1 PM, come to the Transit, Housing & Health Town Hall, hosted by the Baltimore Peoples Climate Movement at the Real News Network, 231 Holliday St., Baltimore 21202. Does your community have too many vacant homes and not enough affordable housing? Do you ride public transportation - or try to, but the bus doesn’t come? Or the metro shuts down unexpectedly? Have this year’s storms and extreme weather flooded your home or created mold? Worried about how climate change will make these problems worse? Get answers about these issues in the city, how they connect to one another, and how solutions can create more climate-resilient communities.

The panel will be moderated by Marc Steiner (host of the Marc Steiner Show and founder of the Center for Emerging Media) and Khalilah M. Harris (host and executive producer at the Real News Network). See https://www.facebook.com/events/259243031498052/.

67] – Each Saturday, 11 AM – 1 PM, Chester County Peace Movement holds a peace vigil in West Chester in front of the Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts. Go to www.ccpeace.org. Email ccpeacemovement@aol.com.

68] – The ANSWER Coalition encourages its supporters to attend the following Party for Socialism & Liberation community forum: Socialists in the Housing Struggle on Sat., July 28 @ 4 PM at the Justice Center, 617 Florida Ave. NW. Use the Shaw/Howard Metro (Yellow/Green lines). Many people think rising rents and gentrification are inevitable—just the way things are. What the politicians, the schools and the corporate press don't say is that this capitalist system is not the only way forward. Yasmina Mrabet, PSL member and housing organizer with Justice First and LinkUp will give a talk exposing the contradictions of the capitalist approach to housing and development, which, both as a policy and an outcome, promotes mass displacement and gentrification by various methods and tactics as a means of transferring wealth from the working poor to the ruling class. Yasmina will discuss how we can move forward to envision and work toward a serious socialist program for housing, based on her recent article in "Breaking The Chains" magazine. Call 202-234-2828 or email dc@pslweb.org or visit PSLweb.org.

69] – The 34^th annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration begins on Mon., Aug. 6 from 5 to 6 PM. Gather at 33rd and North Charles Streets in Baltimore, near Johns Hopkins University to speak out against JHU’s weapons contracts, including those of a nuclear nature, and the killer drone research. Afterwards, gather at Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 North Charles St., for a potluck dinner. After dinner, Jay Levy will speak about Takoma Park becoming a Nuclear Free Zone and its current work on divestment. Also some members of Preventing Nuclear War Maryland will discuss the Back From the Brink campaign, aimed at lessening the chances of a nuclear war. Finally, there would be a performance by Baltimore Guitarists Against Violence. Contact at Max at mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net or 410-323-1607.

70] – The 34^th annual Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration continues on Thurs., Aug. 9 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM, as we gather outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 North Charles Street, for an anti-nuke demonstration. Then we will go inside for the program. Paul Magno will speak about ways of supporting the Kings Bay Plowshares. Also that evening, some members of Preventing Nuclear War Maryland will discuss the Back From the Brink campaign. Again there would be a performance by Baltimore Guitarists Against Violence. We would close the evening with a late dinner at a Japanese restaurant at 33^rd & N. Charles Sts. Contact at Max at mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net or 410-323-1607.

71] – Do you have any interest in challenging the Trump administration for reneging on the Iran Deal? If yes, would you be interested in joining a Peace Caravan to the Iranian embassy in Washington, D.C.? Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

72] – It is a violation of U.S. law for us to attack a country that has not attacked us, as only Congress can declare war. The Trump administration is nevertheless beating the war drums for war against Iran and North Korea. The Mueller investigation is tightening the vise, and could cause Trump to attack those countries in order to divert attention from Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Such a military strike would demand an immediate and unequivocal response from us to show that we will not tolerate his abuse of power.

Let's mobilize to show that we the people will not tolerate another military adventure, which would be bound to have profound negative consequences. If a preemptive military strike against Iran or North Korea takes place, then meet outside the War Memorial, 101 N. Gay St., Baltimore, MD 21202. If the attack is before 2 PM local time, then events will begin at 5 PM, local time. If the attack occurs after 2 PM local time, then events will begin at noon, local time, the following day. Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

73] – JONAH HOUSE NEEDS WORKERS FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

After 44 years of resisting weapons and war, Jonah House is Baltimore is in danger of shutting down. Two of the three core members have announced their intention to leave the community as of May 2018. That leaves one core member, Joe Byrne, who will remain to recruit and re-form intentional community. But if no one steps forward, Jonah House will have to close. Jonah House was founded by Phil Berrigan, Liz McAlister, and others, in 1973, during the Vietnam War. It was a center of resistance to that war. When the war ended, the focus of resistance became the nuclear arms race. This resistance blossomed into the Plowshares movement. Jonah House members have spent years in jail for Plowshares disarmament actions. Other members have spent years supporting them, and doing the work of the community in their absence. Resistance to weapons and war continues at Jonah House. More recently, Jonah House has also become involved in racial justice efforts in Baltimore, and the environmental justice movement.

Jonah House is planted in the middle of a 22-acre, mostly-wooded cemetery in West Baltimore called St. Peter’s. Maintaining and slowly restoring St. Peter’s Cemetery is the work that pays the bills for the community. Jonah House also uses the property to serve the living as well as honor the dead. Our gardens and orchards feed the Jonah House community, and the surrounding neighborhood community, via a food pantry and weekly food distribution to low-income neighbors. We envision the cemetery—particularly the 11-acre forest patch—as a haven for the people of the neighborhood, international peace activists, and numberless living beings.

Jonah House is also an interfaith spiritual community. We pray or meditate together daily, and our spiritual practice informs and empowers everything we do, whether in the fields or in the streets. To continue the vision, Jonah House is looking for a few new core members willing to commit to a two-year stint. We are also open to short- and long-term interns (3 months to a year). The work of radical peacemaking, direct service to the poor, and stewarding the land requires workers. We pray that God will send laborers to the vineyard (yes, we have that too) and that Jonah House will continue to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable for another 44 years! For more information, call 443-804-3410, or email us at engage@jonahhouse.org.

74] -- If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs, records, tarps and table cloths, contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

75] -- Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

76] – Do you need a shredder? Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

77] -- Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees. This is an historic window of opportunity. With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.

78] – A Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981. Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan

Making Sense of U.S. Moves in the Middle East

Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 11:59 PM

Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)

Making Sense of U.S. Moves in the Middle East

Rebecca Gordon

July 19, 2018

Tom Dispatch

https://portside.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/US_middle_east_map.gif

My father and I always had a tacit agreement: “We will never speak of That Part of the World.” He’d grown up in an Orthodox Jewish family in Norfolk, Virginia. His own father, a refugee from early-twentieth-century pogroms in what is now Ukraine, had been the president of his local Zionist organization. A liberal in most things (including his ardent opposition to both of the U.S. wars against Iraq), my father remained a Zionist to his dying day. We both knew that if we were ever to have a real conversation about Israel/Palestine, unforgivable things would be said.

As a child in the 1950s, I absorbed the ambient belief that the state of Israel had been created after World War II as an apology gift from the rest of the world to European Jews who had survived the Holocaust. I was raised to think that if the worst were to happen and Jews were once again to become targets of genocidal rage, my family could always emigrate to Israel, where we would be safe. As a young woman, I developed a different (and, in retrospect, silly) line on That Part of the World: there’s entirely too much sun there, and it’s made them all crazy.

It wasn’t until I'd reached my thirties that I began to pay serious attention to the region that is variously known as the Middle East, the Arab world, or the Greater Middle East and North Africa. And when I did, I discovered how deep my ignorance (like that of so many fellow Americans) really was and how much history, geography, and politics there is to try to understand. What follows is my attempt to get a handle on how the Trump presidency has affected U.S. policy and actions in That Part of the World.

Old Alliances...

The United States has a long-standing and deep alliance with Israel. During the Cold War, Washington viewed that country as its bulwark in the oil-rich region against both a rising pan-Arab nationalism and real or imagined Soviet encroachments. In fact, according to the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service, “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the United States has provided Israel $134.7 billion current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.”

The vast majority of this largesse has been in military aid, which has allowed Israel, a country of a little more than eight million people, to become the 14th or 15th strongest military power on the planet. It is also the only nuclear power in the region with an arsenal of at least 80 weapons (even if its government has never officially acknowledged this reality). By comparison, Iran, its present archenemy, ranks 21st, despite having a population 10 times greater.

The history of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights -- territories it captured in the 1967 war -- is too long and complex for even a brief recap here. Suffice it to say that the United States has often been Israel’s sole ally as, in direct contravention of international law, that country has used its own settlements to carve Palestinian territory into a jigsaw puzzle of disparate pieces, making a contiguous Palestinian state a near impossibility.

Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon explained Israel’s plan for the Palestinian people in 1973 when he said, “We'll make a pastrami sandwich of them." Promising to insert “a strip of Jewish settlements in between the Palestinians and then another strip of Jewish settlements right across the West Bank,” he insisted that “in 25 years' time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart.”

Forty-five years later, his strategy has been fully implemented, as Barack Obama reportedly learned to his shock when, in 2015, he saw a State Department map of the shredded remains of the land on which Palestinians are allowed to exist on the West Bank.

The “pastrami sandwich” strategy has effectively killed any hope for a two-state solution. Now, as the number of non-Jews begins to surpass that of Jews in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, that country once again confronts the inherent contradiction of a state that aims to be both democratic and, in some sense, Jewish. If everyone living in Israel/Palestine today had equal political and economic rights, majority rule would no longer be Jewish rule. In effect, as some Israelis argue, Israel can be Jewish or democratic, but not both.

A solution to this demographic dilemma -- one supported by present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- is to legislate permanent inequality through what’s called “the basic law on Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” which is now being debated in the country’s parliament, the Knesset. Among other provisions, that “basic” law (which, if passed, would have the equivalent of constitutional status) will allow citizens “to establish ‘pure’ communities on the basis of religion or ethnicity.” In other words, it will put in place an official framework of legalized segregation.

In the Trump era, Washington’s alliance with Israel has only grown tighter. After recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital -- despite almost universal international objections -- Trump sealed the deal in May, traveling to Jerusalem with a coterie of Zionist evangelical Christians and, on Israeli Independence Day, opening a new U.S. embassy there. That day, May 14th, was the eve of the 70th anniversary of what Palestinians call the nakba (the catastrophe of Israel’s seizure of Palestinian homes and lands in 1948).

Donald Trump could not have sent a clearer signal to the world about exactly where the United States stands on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That same day, as Time reported, “cameras captured the chaos as Israeli soldiers methodically cut down some 2,700 Palestinians, 60 fatally, as they marched toward the fence that separates Israel from the Gaza Strip.” Gazans, in case you’ve forgotten, have been subject for years to a vicious blockade, both literal and economic, that has turned their homes into what has been called the world’s largest open-air prison. And keep in mind that Israel also launched major military operations against that tiny territory in 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014, and appears to be ramping up for a new one.

It’s unlikely, to say the least, that the new “peace deal” that the world awaits from President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will offer Palestinians much more than another bite of that pastrami sandwich.

...And New Ones

Geopolitics (and a common enemy) can make strange bedfellows. In a recent New Yorker article, Adam Entous suggests that a new ménage-à-quatre was formed in the region in the run-up to Donald Trump’s election, bringing Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States ever closer. As it happened, there was even an unexpected fifth player lurking in the shadows: Russia. Entous reports that Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and one of UAE's most powerful men, suggested to an American friend that Russian President Vladimir Putin “might be interested in resolving the conflict in Syria in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.”

The goal of this new alliance was not so much an end to the brutal Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad as an end to the Iranian military presence in Syria. The unofficial alliance of the Saudis, the UAE, and the Israelis was, above all, meant to push back or even bring an end to the present government of Iran. This seems to have been the genesis of a 2016 meeting in the Seychelles Islands between Erik Prince, the founder of the notorious hire-a-mercenary company, Blackwater, and a confidant of then-Trump adviser Steve Bannon as well as the brother of present Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and a figure who might serve as a Russian-UAE go-between. Endous indicates that the deal then proved “unworkable,” because Russia had neither the desire nor the capacity to evict Iran from Syria.

Nevertheless, this July 10th, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu flew to Moscow to meet with Putin for a discussion of the Syrian situation in which the Russians are now, of course, deeply enmeshed. At the same time, a top foreign policy adviser to Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was also on his way to Russia to speak with Putin. Netanyahu returned from Moscow with less than he’d hoped for, but at least with “a commitment to keep Iranian forces tens of kilometers from Israel,” according to the New York Times. The fact that these meetings were happening the week before presidents Trump and Putin were to sit down together in Helsinki and discuss Syria, among other topics, is, however, suggestive. Bloomberg News reported that Putin has “stepped up efforts to broker a deal on the pullback of pro-Iranian militias from Syria’s border with Israel" as he prepared for his summit with Trump.

The American president has already backed away from his predecessor’s insistence that the departure of Syrian leader Assad be a precondition for a peace settlement in that country. For his part, Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel can accept Assad in power as long as the Iranian military units in that country are withdrawn. Before leaving for Moscow, he told reporters, “We haven't had a problem with the Assad regime; for 40 years not a single bullet was fired on the Golan Heights.” Presumably, Trump and his feckless son-in-law feel the same way.

In the end, the target of all these machinations remains Iran. The dangers represented by a conflict between the Trump administration and Iran (with the Israelis, the Saudis, and the UAE all potentially involved) threaten to make the invasion of Iraq and ensuing events there look mild by comparison. And it’s hardly out of the question. As University of Michigan history professor and Middle East expert Juan Cole notes, overshadowed by other absurdities in Trump’s bombastic post-NATO-summit news conference was this warning: “I would say there might be an escalation between us and the Iranians.”

Meanwhile, in Syria...

Meanwhile, if it weren’t for Yemen (see below), it might be hard to imagine a more miserable place in 2018 than Syria. Since 2011, when a nonviolent movement to unseat Assad devolved into a vicious civil war, more than half the country’s pre-war population of 22 million has become internally displaced or refugees, according to numbers from the U.N. High Commission on Refugees. Actual casualty figures are impossible to pin down with any exactitude. In April 2018, however, the New York Times reported that the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of directly caused deaths at 511,000, including fighters and civilians.

Death and destruction have come from all sides: al-Qaeda-linked terror groups and the Islamic State killing civilians; the Syrian military, which is presently driving opposition forces out of the southern city of Dara’a, where the original uprising began (creating a quarter-million refugees with literally no place to go); and U.S. bombs and other munitions -- 20,000 of them -- reducing the city of Raqqa to rubble in a campaign to liberate it from ISIS militants. Add it all up and the war, still ongoing, has destroyed millions of homes and businesses, along with crucial infrastructure throughout an increasingly impoverished country.

So many military forces -- foreign and domestic -- are contending in Syria that it’s difficult to keep track. Wikipedia’s list of those fighting fills screen after screen. On the side of Assad’s government are the Syrian military, elements of the militia of the Iranian-supported Lebanese party Hezbollah (part of the government in that country), some Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, and of course the Russian military. On the other side are various militant terror groups, including what’s left of the Islamic State, and a wide variety of U.S.-supported anti-Assad groups, including those hailing from the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, a semi-autonomous, multi-ethnic area in the country’s northeast. Throw in Kurdish fighters, including Syrian natives and Kurds from Turkey, and the Turkish military itself (in its bid to tamp down any errant Kurdish nationalism), at least 2,000 U.S. military personnel, and the Israeli air force, striking at Iranian targets in the country, and even with an eventual peace settlement, Syria, the birthplace of the alphabet, will be a desperate nation for decades to come.

Whose fault was all of this? There’s plenty of blame to go around and plenty of actors to shoulder that blame. But when you begin to make that list, make sure to include Washington’s so-called neoconservatives who, as far back as 1996, offered Benjamin Netanyahu (Israel’s prime minister then, too) their “Clean Break” strategy to rebuild the Middle East. That plan started with unseating Iraqi autocrat Saddam Hussein and went on to destabilize Syria. A number of these neocons, including Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, then became top officials in George W. Bush’s administration, invading Iraq themselves to make sure their dream for the Israelis came true. And what a nightmare it proved to be. Nor should we forget that one of that plan’s loudest advocates during the Bush administration -- John Bolton -- is now Trump’s national security advisor. In other words, there’s plenty of blame to go around and plenty to worry about.

Does Anyone Remember Yemen?

If there is a place in the greater Middle East even more desperate than Syria, it has to be Yemen. With U.S. logistical and financial support, Saudi Arabia has waged a cruel air war against the Houthis, a home-grown movement that in 2015 overthrew the government of president Ali Abdullah Saleh. What is the Saudi interest in Yemen? As in their support for a potential UAE-Israel-Russia-U.S. alliance in Syria, they’re intent on fighting a proxy war -- and someday perhaps via the U.S. and Israel, a real war -- with Iran.

In this case, however, it seems that the other side in that war hasn’t shown up. Although, like the Iranian government and most Iranians, the Houthi are Shi’a Muslims, there is little evidence of Iranian involvement in Yemen. That hasn’t stopped the Saudis (with American support) from turning that country into “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.” Their destruction of infrastructure in rebel-held areas has collapsed a once-functioning public health system, touching off a cholera epidemic, with the World Health Organization reporting a total of 1,105,371 suspected cases between April 2017 and June 2018. The infection rate now stands at 934 per 10,000 people.

Even worse than the largely unchecked spread of cholera, however, is Yemen’s man-made famine. Photographs from the country display the familiar iconography of widespread hunger: children with stick-like limbs and blank, sunken eyes. As it happens, though, this famine was not caused by drought or any other natural disaster. It’s a direct result of a brutal Saudi air campaign and a naval blockade aimed directly at the country’s economic life.

Before the war, Yemen imported 80% of its food and even today, despite a disastrous ongoing Saudi/UAE campaign to blockade and take the port of Hodeidah, Yemen’s main economic center, there is actually plenty of food in the country. It now simply costs more than most Yemenis can pay.

Because the war has destroyed almost all economic activity in Houthi-controlled areas, people there have no money with which to buy food. In other words, the Saudi offensive against Hodeidah is starving people in two ways: directly by preventing the delivery of international food aid and indirectly by making the food in Yemen unaffordable for ordinary people.

We Have to Talk about It

With President Trump and his secretary of state now talking openly about a possible “escalation between us and the Iranians,” there is a real risk that some combination of the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia could initiate a war with Iran. If there’s one lesson to be learned from U.S. wars since 9/11, it’s “don’t start another one.”

For more than 70 years, Americans have largely ignored the effects of U.S. foreign policy in the rest of the world. Rubble in Syria? Famine in Yemen? It’s terribly sad, yes, but what, we still wonder, does it have to do with us?

That Part of the World doesn’t wonder about how U.S. actions and policies affect them. That Part of the World knows -- and what it knows is devastating. It’s time that real debate about future U.S. policy there becomes part of our world, too.

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Rebecca Gordon, a TomDispatch regular, teaches at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes. Her previous books include Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States and Letters from Nicaragua.

Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Storyand Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power, John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, and John Feffer's dystopian novel Splinterlands.

Source URL: https://portside.org/2018-07-26/making-sense-us-moves-middle-east