Editorials & Actions

AIPAC influence Bad for Israel and for America

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AIPAC Influence Bad for the US and Israel
By Allan C. Brownfeld

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2016 — The annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has attracted almost 20,000 people to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the nation’s capital. Every presidential candidate except Bernie Sanders appeared as a speaker, as did Vice President Joe Biden. AIPAC is considered Washington’s second most powerful lobbying group after the National Rifle Association. Israel has received more foreign aid from the U.S. than any other country, more than $235 billion so far. With its friends at AIPAC, it is asking for more.

Editorials & Actions

Philip Roth’s Warning About US Fascism

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Philip Roth’s warning
by Arthur J. Magida
Posted on Mar. 16, 2016 at 8:43 am

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Cover of Roth’s “The Plot Against America”

    Slightly more than a decade ago, Philip Roth warned how fascism would come to America – legally, of course, since we’re a nation of laws, and attached to a hero, a legend, a star: the aviator ex machina himself, Charles Lindbergh, since Roth was writing about the U.S. in the late 30’s and early 40s, the years when Lucky Lindy’s popularity peaked.     Roth cautioned about all this in his 2004 novel, The Plot Against America — an almost plausible schematic of a Nazi takeover of the United States. We foolishly paid no heed to Roth’s prophecy because we’re supposedly too smart, too wedded to democracy, too cynical of salesmen pitching quickie panaceas, and too… well, too gosh darn decent to let that Nazi stuff sully our certainty that we’re a beacon for the world, a gleaming city on a hill. No way, we crowed, thumping our chests in pride: it can’t happen here.

Editorials & Actions

The Alzheimer’s Party by Trish Vradenburg

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A third party the Dems and GOP can get behind: Alzheimer’s Party

UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, a nonprofit devoted to stopping the progression of Alzheimer’s by 2020, is calling to unify around the “Alzheimer’s Party.” (NJ Advance Media wire services)

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 updated March 17, 2016 at 12:37 PM Reprinted with author’s permission from the New Jersey STAR LEDGER

By Trish Vradenburg

My role in life has been to cancel my husband’s vote. George grew up in Colorado – God’s country as he calls it – where being a Republican is served with mother’s milk.  I, on the other hand, was raised in New Jersey, the Garden State, populated with people who, after hearing both sides of every argument, chose to be Democrats. And then we met each other and, well, somehow in the heat of passion I forgot to ask about party affiliation. Not that it would have been a deal breaker since I assumed that once we married I could break George’s silly habit of voting with the elephants.

Editorials & Actions

The U.S. Role In Honduras by Stephen Zunes

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The US role in the Honduras coup and subsequent violence

People carry the coffin of indigenous leader and environmental activist Berta Caceres after a five-hour autopsy at the Forensic Medicine Center in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, March 3. (CNS/EPA/Stringer)

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Stephen Zunes  |  Mar. 14, 2016NCR Today

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On March 3, Berta Cáceres, a brave and outspoken indigenous Honduran environmental activist and winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, was gunned down in her hometown of La Esperanza. Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director for Amnesty International, noted how “For years, she had been the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment and threats to stop her from defending the rights of indigenous communities.” She is just one of thousands of indigenous activists, peasant leaders, trade unionists, journalists, environmentalists, judges, opposition political candidates, human rights activists, and others murdered since a military coup ousted the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya in 2009. Despite being a wealthy logger and rancher from the centrist Liberal Party, Zelaya had moved his government to the left during his four years in office.

Editorials & Actions

What Ever Happened to Civilian Control of the Military?

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Pentagon Excess Has Fueled a Civil-Military Crisis
How Civilian Control of the Military Has Become a Fantasy
By Gregory D. Foster

Item: Two U.S. Navy patrol boats, with 10 sailors aboard, “stray” into Iranian territorial waters, and are apprehended and held by Iranian revolutionary guards, precipitating a 24-hour international incident involving negotiations at the highest levels of government to secure their release. The Pentagon offers conflicting reports on why this happened: navigational error, mechanical breakdown, fuel depletion — but not intelligence-gathering, intentional provocation, or hormonally induced hot-dogging. Item: The Pentagon, according to a Reuters exposé, has been consciously and systematically engaged in thwarting White House efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and release cleared detainees. Pentagon officials have repeatedly refused to provide basic documentation to foreign governments willing to take those detainees and have made it increasingly difficult for foreign delegations to visit Guantanamo to assess them. Ninety-one of the 779 detainees held there over the years remain, 34 of whom have been cleared for release.

Editorials & Actions

Pope Francis Restores the Good Sense of Jesus–by Leonardo Boff

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Editor’s Note: We at Tikkun continue to rejoice in the good teachings of the world’s most prominent Spiritual Progressive– Pope Francis. If only his teachings could become mainstream within his own church instead of being resisted by so many conservative forces within the Catholic hierarchy! And if only all the other branches of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Budhism, Jainism, Quakerism, Unitarian Universalism, Moromonism, and the varieties of secular humanism and atheism could produce leaders with this level of courage and insight to bring the world closer to becoming drenched in the love and compassion that this great teacher of humanity seeks to spread. For our part, and with all due humility at our own limitatiions, we once again invite those who want to build a global transformation of consciousness in the direction that is described below by Leonardo Boff (explicating the teachings of Pope Francis) to join with us as members of the interfaith and secualr-humanist-welcoming Network of Spiritual Progressives (read the Spiritual Covenant atwww.spiritualprogressives.org/covenant and then join the Network as full members at www.spiritualprogressives.org/join). Together we can amplify this message of love and compassion and build support for those in every sphere who want to build economic, political, social, religious and spiritual practices and ways of life that embody this way of being!

Editorials & Actions

BDS Boycotts, Divestment, Sanctions by Uri Avnery

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Uri Avnery

March 12, 2016

 

                                    The Great BDS Debate

 

HELP! I am walking into a minefield. I can’t help myself.  

The minefield has a name: BDS – boycott, divestment, sanctions.  

I am often asked about my attitude towards this international movement, which was started by Palestinian activists and has spread like wildfire throughout the world.

Can A Rational Progressive Jew Still Maintain Hope For Israel?

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My answer is yes, even in the face of despair by many who deeply love and care about Israel. The question arises because a short time ago one of Israel’s passionate defenders in the U.S., Rabbi David Gordis, finally gave up hope. Rabbi Gordis served as vice-president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles (now American Jewish University). He also served as Executive Vice President of the American Jewish Committee and was the founding director of the Foundation for Masorti Judaism in Israel. He founded and directed the Wilstein Institute for Jewish Policy Studies which became the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies.

Editorials & Actions

Notes on Spirituality

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Cultivating a Spiritual Life
By Dave Hood

A man strolls through the woods, listening to the birds chirping, the rustling of the leaves, the river flowing in the background. A middle-aged woman takes photographs of her urban setting, and then creates expressive paintings. A young man takes up Buddhism, meditates, and strives to live a compassionate life. A young woman studying to become a social worker fights for social justice, attending a peace march. What does each of these people have in common?

Activism

Indigenous Activist Assassinated in Honduras

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Indigenous Activist Berta Cáceres Assassinated in Honduras
Human Rights Organizations Demand an Investigation of the Circumstances Surrounding the Assassination of Berta Cáceres, the General Coordinator of COPINH

HONDURAS – At approximately 11:45pm last night, the General Coordinator of COPINH, Berta Caceres was assassinated in her hometown of La Esperanza, Intibuca. At least two individuals broke down the door of the house where Berta was staying for the evening in the Residencial La Líbano, shot and killed her. COPINH is urgently responding to this tragic situation. Berta Cáceres is one of the leading indigenous activists in Honduras. She spent her life fighting in defense of indigenous rights, particularly to land and natural resources.

Editorials & Actions

A Solidarity with American Muslims Rally

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Here’s the story of one of the many “solidarity with American Muslims” events that the NSP has been supporting around the country. It appeared today, Monday Feb 29th,  in the San Jose Mercury. I thought you might want to see it to know that your voice is being heard–because it is your support of Tikkun and the NSP that makes alot of these kinds of events to happen. The story is not bad for mainstream media–about half right which ismore than most mainstream media stories in my experience. At the bottom, I’ll tell you what I really said in the 3 minutes that I got to speak.

Editorials & Actions

Jeffrey Sacks on How to End the Syrian War and Human Tragedy

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 Editor’s Note: Whenever we paste articles on our home site, we do so because the perspective is one that is rarely discussed in the mainstrean media–NOT because we necessarily agree with it. This particular perspective is given little attention because to do so would be to weaken one of HIllary Clinton’s claims to the presidency–that she has the experience in foreign affairs that Bernie Sanders does not and strengthen Sanders claim that having the experience does not equate with having the wisdom, since it was during her time as Secretary of State that this huge mess developed in large part because of US policy (or at least that it the allegation by Sacks). But there is a problem that the Sacks perspective needs to address. The nonviolent demonstrations against Assad were met with violence and repression. What exactly are people around the world supposed to do in such circumstances?

Editorials & Actions

Dr. Shaikh Ubaid: Irony–The Rise of Trump Can Be Good For American Pluralism

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Dr. Shaik Ubaid:
The irony that the Rise of Trump Can Be Good for American Pluralism

I dislike Donald Trump. Yet I am grateful to him. No not because I believe in his particular philosophy of making America great again but because he can save America from people like him. Islamophobia has been on the rise for many years and it had become politically acceptable.  But before the bombastic and narcissistic Mr. Trump joined the race to lead this nation, the media and the political leaders including Mr. Obama, were  not paying much attention to it.  Like an insidious cancer, this poison was spreading in the body of our great nation.  Mr. Trump was a symptom that finally led the physicians to take notice. Trump is not the pain of hemorrhoids but of the deadly and insidious pancreatic cancer.Before Mr. Trump, Congressman Tancredo of Colorado had suggested that America should bomb the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

Editorials & Actions

Israel’s New Police Chief and Kippot by Uri Avnery

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Uri Avnery
February 27, 2016
Holy Water
HE APPEARED out of nowhere. Literally. The Israeli Police needed a new commander. The last one had come to the end of his term of office, several senior officers had been accused of molesting their female subordinates, one had committed suicide after being accused of corruption.  So somebody from outside was indicated. When Binyamin Netanyahu announced his choice, everybody was amazed.