Ediotr’s Note; We found this analysis of why Western powers got involved in the Syrian war in EcoWatch. We then asked Tikkun contributing editor Stephen Zunes for his response.
Activism
Brexit, Conflict Resolution and Democracy
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Most folks, who voted for Brexit, worried about the costs of globalization, feared open borders bringing mass migration into Britain and agonized about ‘faceless’ bureaucrats in Brussels threatening their national sovereignty. Those who voted to remain in the EU, and others who were appalled at the eventual outcome, reacted predictably. Most blamed manipulative politicians, Britain’s infamous tabloid press, xenophobic Little Englanders or even the ill informed rubes who didn’t know any better. Pundits bemoaned the end of post WW2 internationalism; the downing of protectionist shutters; the resumption of nationalistic passions or even the return to the bad old days of European wars and collective bloodletting. Some political scientists questioned the use of a single referendum and said Cameron should have asked for three, spaced, so people would have time to consider the ramifications. Presumably having faith that after casting one (trial balloon of a) vote, we would reflect and make the second (slightly more deliberate one) after which, we would be in a better position to make the third (and finally intelligent) vote. Phew, third time lucky. Playing rock, paper, scissors for as long as it takes to get the right result. Does the democratic process have to look like a visit to one of Trump’s casinos to make it work for us?
Editorials & Actions
Cherie Brown on Black Lives Matter Platform and Israel
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Black Lives Matter Platform and Israel
By Cherie Brown
In the new Black Lives Matter Platform, there is a section on International issues that focuses on Israel. The platform describes the current oppression of Palestinians and the ongoing occupation by labeling it genocide. The use of this term, ‘genocide’, stirred up enormous upset amongst many Jews, both from the mainstream Jewish community and the progressive Jewish community.
Many Jews alive today had relatives who were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust in the middle of the 20th century and find the use of the term genocide to describe what is happening to Palestinians offensive. Some Jews (like the JCRC of Boston) responded by saying they will now have nothing to do with Black Lives Matter. Other groups, Truah, for example, took offense with the use of the term genocide but called for continued support of Black Lives Matter and ongoing dialogue about the disagreements.
Editorials & Actions
Ethnic Cleansing is NOT Legitimized by the Torah
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Ethnic cleansing is not legitimized by the Torah
by Rabbi Zalman Kastel
“Spikes in your eyes and thorns in your side” (1) is what the Torah predicts the remaining original inhabitants of the land of Canaan will be to the Israelites if the Israelites do not drive them out as God instructed them to do when they conquer the land. One man recently interpreted this verse in the presence of a few Jewish people, as being instructive for our times. When we heard him say that, quite a few eyes turned to me for a response and I knew that I must examine this verse and find its meanings. I promised to share my thoughts at my Saturday afternoon ‘Shiur’- Torah learning discussion. Let me be clear that this post is not about what people should or should not do practically.
Editorials & Actions
Glenn Greenwald on Why the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation
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Why Did the Saudi Regime and Other Gulf Tyrannies Donate Millions to the Clinton Foundation? By Glenn Greenwald [ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/staff/glenn-greenwald/]
Aug. 25 2016, 7:42 a.m.
As the numerous and obvious ethical conflicts surrounding the Clinton Foundation receive more media scrutiny, the tactic of Clinton-loyal journalists is to highlight the charitable work done by the foundation, and then insinuate — or even outright state — that anyone raising these questions is opposed to its charity. James Carville announced [ http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/james-carville-clinton-foundation-attacks-227305 ] that those who criticize the foundation are “going to hell.” Other Clinton loyalists insinuated that Clinton Foundation critics are indifferent to the lives of HIV-positive babies[ https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/768556490202505216 ] or are anti-gay bigots [ https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/768556697120047104 ].
Editorials & Actions
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U.S. MILITARY NOW SAYS ISIS LEADER WAS HELD IN NOTORIOUS ABU GHRAIB PRISON
Joshua Eaton
Aug. 25 2016, 10:56 a.m.
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
IN FEBRUARY 2004, U.S. troops brought a man named Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badry to Abu Ghraib in Iraq and assigned him serial number US9IZ-157911CI. The prison was about to become international news, but the prisoner would remain largely unknown for the next decade. At the time the man was brought in, Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba was finalizing his report on allegations of abuse at Abu Ghraib’s Hard Site — a prison building used to house detainees singled out for their alleged violence or their perceived intelligence value.
Editorials & Actions
Obamacare Undermined By Its Deal To Allow Profits for Insurance Companies While Forcing People to Participate
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Obamacare’s Faltering for One Simple Reason: Profit
Jon Schwarz
Aug. 27 2016, 8:05 a.m.
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
There have been dozens if not hundreds of news articles about Aetna leaving the Affordable Health Care Act’s online marketplaces in eleven states, and whether this signals serious problems for Obamacare down the road. But none of them have truly explained that what’s happening with Aetna is the consequence of a flaw built into Obamacare from the start: It permits insurance companies to make a profit on the basic healthcare package Americans are now legally required to purchase. This makes Obamacare fundamentally different from essentially all systems of universal healthcare on earth. (There is one tiny exception, the Netherlands, but of the four insurance companies that cover 90 percent of Dutch citizens, just one is for profit.)
Why does this matter? The answer is complicated but extremely important if Obamacare is going to avoid collapsing.
Editorials & Actions
The Olympics–reflections from Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff
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The Olympic Games: A Metaphor for a Humanized Humanity
Leonardo Boff
Theologian-Philosopher
Earthcharter Commission
Since this past August 5th, Rio de Janeiro has been home to the 2016 Olympic Games. An immense infrastructure of arenas, stadiums, new avenues and tunnels has been created, that will leave an unforgettable legacy to the Cariocapeople. The opening and closing ceremonies are occasions of great celebration, when the host country attempts to show the best of its art and uniqueness. This time the opening ceremony was of unimaginable splendor, with a great parade of thesamba schools. The effect of the lights and images projected on enormous screens created a magical and almost surrealistic atmosphere, provoking tears of elation in many.
The principal moment was the parade of delegations from 206 countries, more than are represented at the United Nations, of which there are 193.
Editorials & Actions
Jewish Ethnocentrism
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Editor’s note: A perspective worthy of serious debate from Mondoweiss. Interesting though that the people who find Jewish ethnocentrism problematic don’t find other forms of identity politics equally problematic. http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/politics-jewish-ethnocentrism
The politics of Jewish ethnocentrism
How can Bret Stephens, who is so sensitive to any slight he perceives against his own people, use the phrase “disease of the Arab mind” when writing about hundreds of millions of other people? That is what Stephens, the Pulitzer prize winning columnist for the Wall Street Journal, did in his recent article about the Egyptian Olympic athlete who refused to shake hands with with his Israeli opponent. “The disease of the Arab mind”?
Editorials & Actions
US Media Propaganda Paving the Way for Military Escalation In Syria
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editor’s note: War is not the way to peace. Try a Strategy of Generosity worldide (see www.tikkun.org/gmp) and download the full color description of the strategy
“Human rights” propaganda campaign paves way for military escalation in Syria
19 August 2016
Photographs and video of five-year-old Omran Daqneesh have rapidly become ubiquitous in the media in the US and Western Europe after being distributed by a group aligned with the CIA-backed Islamist “rebels” in Syria. The toddler is shown sitting somewhat dazed in the orange seat of a new and well-equipped ambulance, his face covered in dust and tinged with what appears to be dried blood from what was reportedly a cut to his scalp. Video shows him waiting unattended as a number of photographers and videographers record his image to be broadcast around the world. Clearly, those in charge sensed that the boy, with a mop of hair covering his brow and a cartoon t-shirt, provided a marketable image.
Editorials & Actions
The Mess in Syria
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Editor’s Note: the following analysis gives us a perspective on the contradictions in American policy in Syria. Sadly, it remains in the discourse of “Security Through Domination” and hence leaves out of the equation what would happen were the U.S. to launch the Global Marshall Plan within a framework of Tikkun’s proposed “Strategy of Generosity.” To read that alternative path, download the brochure at www.tikkun.org/gmp. –Rabbi Michael Lerner rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com
From: Michael Brenner
mbren@pitt.edu
THE SYRIAN BADLANDS
The Syrian imbroglio is the most complex politico-military conflict of modern times. In terms of number of players, diversity of interests and purposes, intermingling of sectarian and secular ideologies, multiple connections with external parties, and harlequin patterned battlefield, the field of action is unique. Only the Spanish Civil War exhibited a similar mix of elements, although it was simplicity itself by comparison to Syria.
Editorials & Actions
Clinton Picks Advocate for TPP and Fracking to Set Up Her White House
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[ https://theintercept.com/2016/08/16/hillary-clinton-picks-tpp-and-fracking-advocate-to-set-up-her-white-house/ ]
The Intercept_
Unofficial _Sources
IMAGE [ https://prod01-cdn04.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/08/ken-salazar-hillary-ft-3-article-header.jpg ]
Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton Picks TPP and Fracking Advocate To Set Up Her White House
Zaid Jilani [ https://theintercept.com/staff/zaidjilani/ ]
Naomi LaChance [ https://theintercept.com/staff/naomilachance/ ]
Aug. 16 2016, 1:56 p.m
Two big issues dogged Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary: theTrans-Pacific Partnership [ http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/15/politics/45-times-secretary-clinton-pushed-the-trade-bill-she-now-opposes/ ] trade agreement (TPP) and fracking [ https://theintercept.com/2016/05/23/hillary-clinton-fracking/ ]. She had a long history of supporting both. Under fire from Bernie Sanders, she came out against the TPP [http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/07/politics/hillary-clinton-opposes-tpp/ ] and took a more critical position [ http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/03/hillary-clinton-debate-fracking ] on fracking. But critics wondered if this was a sincere conversion or simply campaign rhetoric.
Editorials & Actions
Attempt to Jump Start Israel/Palestine Peace
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Editor’s Note: I do not know the person who wrote to the King of Saudi Arabia or to Chancellor Merkel–he apparently lives in Europe. And I doubt if anything will come of this effort without first a massive funding of what I call “an Empathy Tribe” to work both in Israel and Palestine and break through the fears that both sides have of each other. And at the moment, I’ve seen no openness from any funders to provide that funding. Nevertheless, I believe that little steps like approaching national leaders in the U.S., Israel, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and wherever else they can be reached to begin to challenge the high level of defeatism and pessimism about achieving peace is a good thing, so I commend this particular effort by Abraham van Kampen deserves our praise and support. Please read all that he has sent me, and if you then have any ties to foundations, government officials, or wealthy individuals, ask them if they would be willing to fund the creation of an empathy tribe that could begin the work of undermining the hatred and fear that keeps the Occupation in place.
Editorials & Actions
Soul Searching in Germany by Victor Grossman
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SOULSEARCHING
by Tikkun’s correspondent in Germany, Victor Grossman
BERLIN BULLETIN No. 115August 15 2016
Soul-searching is often on the agenda for people who long for peace, better lives for everyone and for the rescue of our planet. November 8th in the USA is one case in point, but I refrain here from announcing my own decision in my New York, a “safe” state. Germany also demands soul-searching – not only with the refugee question. On the national level, stout, commonly self-assured Sigmar Gabriel, head of the Social Democrats (SPD), is less popular than ever and so is his party, now down to 22 % in the polls.
Editorials & Actions
The Greatest Show on Earth How Billions of Words, Tweets, Insults, and Polls Blot Out Reality in Campaign 2016
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In the last year, untold billions of words have been expended on this “election” and the outsized histories, flaws, and baggage the two personalities now running for president bring with them. Has there ever been this sort of coverage — close to a year of it already — hour after hour, day after day, night after night? Has the New York Times ever featured stories about the same candidate and his cronies, two at a time, on its front page daily the way it’s recently been highlighting the antics of The Donald? Have there ever been so many “experts” of every stripe jawing away about a single subject on cable TV from the crack of dawn to the witching hour?