Drone Whistleblowers Step Out of the Shadows

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Pratap Chatterjee, Inside the Devastation of America’s Drone Wars
Posted by Pratap Chatterjee on Tikkun’s media ally: TomDispatch.com

A note from Tom Engelhardt:   In our part of the world, it’s not often that potential “collateral damage” speaks, but it happened last week.  A Pakistani tribal leader, Malik Jalal, flew to England to plead in anewspaper piece he wrote and in media interviews to be taken off the Obama White House’s “kill list.”  (“I am in England this week because I decided that if Westerners wanted to kill me without bothering to come to speak with me first, perhaps I should come to speak to them instead.”)  Jalal, who lives in Pakistan’s tribal borderlands, is a local leader and part of a peace committee sanctioned by the Pakistani government that is trying to tamp down the violence in the region.  He believes that he’s been targeted for assassination by Washington.  (Four drone missiles, he claims, have just missed him or his car.)  His family, he says, is traumatized by the drones.  “I don’t want to end up a ‘Bugsplat’ — the ugly word that is used for what remains of a human being after being blown up by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone,” he writes. “More importantly, I don’t want my family to become victims, or even to live with the droning engines overhead, knowing that at any moment they could be vaporized.” 

Normally, what “they” do to us, or our European counterparts (think: Brussels, Paris, or San Bernardino), preoccupies us 24/7.  What we do to “them” — and them turns out to be far more than groups of terrorists — seldom touches our world at all.  As TomDispatch readers know, this website has paid careful attention to the almost 300 wedding celebrants killed by U.S. air power between late 2001 and the end of 2013 — eight wedding parties eviscerated in three countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen).  These are deaths that, unlike the 14 Americans murdered in San Bernardino, the 32 Belgians and others killed in Brussels, and the 130 French and others slaughtered in Paris, have caused not even a ripple here (though imagine for a second the reaction if even a single wedding, no less eight of them and hundreds of revelers, had been wiped out by a terror attack in the U.S. in these years).

Editorials & Actions

Pro Hillary vs. Pro Bernie

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Tikkun magazine is a 501-c3 and hence prohibited from taking stands in support of or opposition to any candidate or political party. But we can and do present analyses of positions taken by political candidates and also allow our writers and readers to explain why they’ve decided to support candidate x or y. Below we present a pro-Hillary position by Tom Hayden and a pro-Bernie position by Art Pena. Since Pena is less well known, he gets to go first. Why I Support Bernie by Art Pena

Many people prefer Bernie, and don’t like Hillary, but are planning to vote for Hillary anyway because, in spite of what the polls say, they think she has a better chance of beating Trump in a general election.  They fear a Trump presidency so much that they are willing to support Hillary, the establishment candidate, as the “lesser of two evils”.

Editorials & Actions

Bernie Sanders Speech to the Vatican and Hillary Clinton’s Speech to National Action Network

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Tikkun magazine does not endorse candidates for public office nor does it support any political party. Bernie Sanders Speech to the Vatican  April 16
I am honored to be with you today and was pleased to receive your
invitation to speak to this conference of The Pontifical Academy of
Social Sciences. Today we celebrate the encyclical Centesimus Annus
and reflect on its meaning for our world a quarter-century after it
was presented by Pope John Paul II. With the fall of Communism, Pope
John Paul II gave a clarion call for human freedom in its truest
sense: freedom that defends the dignity of every person and that is
always oriented towards the common good. The Church’s social teachings, stretching back to the first modern
encyclical about the industrial economy, Rerum Novarum in 1891, to
Centesimus Annus, to Pope Francis’s inspiring encyclical Laudato Si’
this past year, have grappled with the challenges of the market
economy.

Editorials & Actions

My Democracy Spring–a report from a Tikkunista at the D.C. Demonstrations for Money Out of Politics

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My Democracy Spring
by Michael Kramer, a member of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue-Without-Walls

It started with an email many months ago about protesting the fact that what the people want has no influence in legislation, while money very much does.  If we could get 1000 people willing to risk arrest for a protest of this sad state of affairs, then let’s do it!  We got well over 1000 within 2 weeks, and 3000, ultimately. I arrived at the required preparatory meeting (for people intending to risk arrest) a few minutes early, and there was a group of about 30 people on the street waiting for the doors to open.  Many had participated in the march from Philadelphia with a crowd that, reportedly, started at about 150.  The crowd had grown and shrunk along the way, swelling to about 250 on the last day.  There was great praise for the logistics: sometimes there was enough money to put everyone up at a motel, other times on church floors.  The food was far better than expected – at least as good as at home. Marchers were joined by hundreds of others who arrived to participate in the protests at the Capitol this week, and the time of action at the Capitol would start the next day.  Chatting with people waiting to enter the preparatory meeting, I met some from Washington (state), North Carolina, Michigan, New York, California, and Florida, converging here to be arrested for the sake of promoting a change from the existing plutocracy to the representative democracy that our constitution defines.  I’d be surprised if any state was not represented.  The attendance at this meeting was over capacity, so after about the first ~200, people had to be turned away for another meeting that was hastily set up. Other meetings would run twice daily for those who arrived later in the week.  Presentations, discussions, and activities covered the history and effectiveness of civil disobedience, body language and tactics for dealing with the police, the legal implications and consequences of the coming action, and connection with each other, sharing why we had (individually) come.  I was choking back tears a lot of the time, just over the inspiration of seeing so many who care about the miserable state of affairs in which we find ourselves – that big money donors have continued to increase their power in government at the expense of the vast majority of citizens.  Bribery of our representatives has been legalized and given pretty names. Lobbyist.

Editorials & Actions

Right and Left in Germany by our correspondent Victor Grossman

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RIGHT AND LEFT IN GERMANY
    by Victor Grossman

Yes, Bernie won in Wisconsin. He also won in Berlin, Germany! 556 US citizens here, a record number, participated in the Democratic primary, and a full 79.5% voted for Sanders. In all such primaries in Germany Bernie won by 69%, in fact he won them in countries all over the world, for example with ex-pats in Israel by 249 to 160 or in Japan with 1190 to 176. I spotted two exceptions: Clinton won out in a small vote in Singapore and scored a sweeping victory in Nigeria: 4 votes to 1!

Editorials & Actions

Destroying the Remaining Decency in the Israeli Army by Uri Avnerygues

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                                                                                                                                                                                       Uri Avnery

April 9, 2015

 

                                                The Case of Soldier A

 
IT SEEMS that everything possible has already been said, written, proclaimed, asserted and denied about the incident that is rocking Israel.  
Everything except the main point.  
 
THE INCIDENT revolves around “the Soldier of Hebron”. Military censorship does not allow him to be called by his name. He may be called “Soldier A”.

Editorials & Actions

Uri Avnery on the Shifting Alliances in the Middle East

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Editor’s Note: Once again Avnery gives us the larger view of the conflicts in the MidEast

and helps us understand how distorted the framework that the Western media presents

about what is actually happening and the impact of the West in that area. Is the idea

that the U.S. should stop trying to be the policeman of the world really so crazy, given the actual realities of what we’ve been doing and how destructive our impact has been? –Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor Tikkun   rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com

 
Uri Avnery on The New Alliances in the Mideast as the US Shifts Sides (Maybe)
April 2, 2016

 

                                                Under the Lime Trees

 

ONE OF the most famous lines in German poetry is “Don’t greet me under the lime trees.”  

The Jewish-German poet Heinrich Heine asks his sweetheart not to embarass him in public by greeting him in the main street of Berlin, which is called “Unter den Linden” (“Under the Lime Trees”).  

Israel is in the position of this illicit sweetheart.

Editorials & Actions

Israeli Products from the West Bank

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Products from West Bank Settlers or non-Palestinian Companies Operating from the West Bank

Note from the Network of Spiritual Progressives: People who do not wish to boycott Israel itself, but do wish to avoid purchasing goods and services from the Israeli settlers in the Occupied West Bank and those who are supporting the Occupation, have often been told that it is hard to tell which companies are involved. The Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom, whose leader Uri Avnery often appears on the Tikkun website www.tikkun.org, has prepared the detailed information on what companies are in fact operating is or through the settlements. Tikkun wishes to see a strong and thriving Israel, and the best way to achieve that is engage in nonviolent protests and activities aimed at ending the Occupation of the West Bank and creating a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. The terms of creating such a state that would work for both Israelis and Palestinians is described in Rabbi Michael Lerner’s book Embracing Israel/Palestine, which you can purchase from Amazon for Kindle, or in print version from Tikkun: www.tikkun.org/eip.  Please circulate this information as widely as possible on your websites and social media.  

Settlement Products Wiki – a systematic informational research about businesses in the settlements and their products; businesses that have left the settlements and relocated to within the Green Line; and the misleading tactics with which businesses attempt to cover up and conceal their location in the settlements.http://settlement-products.wikia.com/

“In recent years the settlers have been portraying themselves as the patrons of the Palestinian workers.

Editorials & Actions

Are We In a New World? Tom Engelhardt on American politics 2016

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Entering Uncharted Territory in Washington 
Are We in a New American World? 
By Tom Engelhardt
The other week, feeling sick, I spent a day on my couch with the TV on and was reminded of an odd fact of American life. More than seven months before Election Day, you can watch the 2016 campaign for the presidency at any moment of your choosing, and that’s been true since at least late last year. There is essentially never a time when some network or news channel isn’t reporting on, discussing, debating, analyzing, speculating about, or simply drooling over some aspect of the primary campaign, of Hillary, Bernie, Ted, and above all — a million times above all — The Donald (from the violence at his rallies to the size of hishands). In case you’re young and think this is more or less the American norm, it isn’t. Or wasn’t.

Editorials & Actions

Clinton, Sanders, Trump and Cruz on Israel and US Foreign Policy

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Editor’s Note:  It’s important for us to know what the foreign policy of the next President is likely to be. Since the wars we in Western countries  helped create or finance in the Middle East, our interventions in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine,etc for the past fifty years, and the fallout from those wars and interventions,  will inevitably play a significant role both in foreign policy and in domestic policies  concerning “homeland security,” it’s worth our time to study carefully what the leading candidates are saying on these issues. The talks below given on March 21, 2016,  are worth reading and re-reading to get the feell and direction you can expect should one of these people be the next president of the U.S.

For a Tikkun Network of Spiritual Progressives approach to foreign policy, please read our proposed Global Marshall Plan at www.tikkun.org/gmp and for our specifc plan for how to bring peace to the Middle East, please order our book Embracing Israel and Palestine at www.tikkun.org/eip. Hillary Clinton

It is wonderful to be here and see so many friends. I’ve spoken at a lot of AIPAC conferences in the past, but this has to be one of the biggest yet, and there are so many young people here, thousands of college students…

(APPLAUSE) … from hundreds of campuses around the country.

Editorials & Actions

Rabbi Dev Noily and others on the Book of Esther

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A note from Rabbi Lerner: We have been struggling internally about how to deal with the Jewish violence and revenge that is part of the Purim story. Should we boycott this holiday entirely? Is there a way to challenge its hurtful parts without discrediting the legitimate joy our people feels when it is saved from the intended violence against us? These are some of the issues raised in the articles below.  They were dealt with beautifully at the Purim celebration held at Urban Adamah March 23, 2016,  in Berkeley, in an intro to the last chapters of the Megillah of Esther where the acts of mass killings by Jews against our supposed enemies is recounted with nary a word of regret or sadness that we have at the Passover seder when we dip from the cup of joy when naming the plagues visited on the Egyptians–a symbolic way of saying that we cannot be fully happy when our own liberation comes at the expense of the suffering of others (in that case, including the death of the first born children of Egypt, few of whom had anything to do with the oppression of Israelite slaves).

Editorials & Actions

What Can We Learn from the Presidential Race?

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What Can We Learn from The Presidential Race? Michael N. Nagler

I have never voted Republican, but I stand with those Republicans today who are aghast at what Donald Trump has done to the level of political discourse in this country and the future of their party.  I also stand with the smaller number – but I will have more to say on this in a second – who realize that Mr. Trump did not spring from nowhere but is in fact the logical extension of the direction in which this party has been going for some time.  After all, as Rosalyn Carter said astutely of then-Governor Reagan when her husband was running against him, “The trouble with that man is that he makes us feel good about our prejudices.”  Is this not exactly what Mr. Trump is doing?  The only thing different now is the greater openness of the appeal to egotism and prejudice.  And therein lies its value as a teaching moment.  A number of people, most recently the President of Mexico (of whom I’m not otherwise an admirer) have compared Mr. Trump to Hitler.  Well, to use an important term in the field of peace studies and nonviolence, Hitler inadvertently did one useful thing: he delegitimized racism by carrying it out on such a scale that the world was shocked.  To delegitimize is not necessarily to eliminate – that takes a bit more work; but the possibility here, if we would only make use of it, is that this year’s campaign could delegitimize prejudice, vulgarity, and incivility (they’re closely connected).  As conservative columnist E.R. Dionne writes (March 7, 2016), “the crudest, most vulgar, and most thoroughly disgusting campaign in our nation’s history.”  It has therefore created an opportunity for us to restore some dignity to our political culture.  

To do that, however, we have to get deeper into what is driving this race to the bottom that has made this year’s campaign a national disgrace.

Editorials & Actions

Juan Cole: Hillary goes full Neocon at AIPAC– suggesting Trump isn’t militaristic enough

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Hillary Clinton goes full Neocon at AIPAC, Demonizes Iran, Palestinians

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | March 22, 2016
I once heard Hillary Clinton give her AIPAC speech at a university. It doesn’t change much, just as US policy toward the Mideast doesn’t change much. She was still a senator then. Much of the audience was Middle East experts, who could barely keep themselves from gagging. Clinton used her speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee meeting, the gathering of some of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, to lambaste Donald Trump for saying he’d try to be neutral in heading up negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Editorials & Actions

Gideon Levy on Israel’s Influence on America

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In his keynote address to the March 18 “Israel’s Influence: Good or Bad for America?” conference, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy described where he would take, and what he would say to, a U.S. congressional delegation to Israel. He would take them, Levy said, to meet the Abu Khoussa family in Gaza, whose 6-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were killed in an Israeli missile strike on their home. He would tell them about 16-year-old American Mahmoud Saalan of Tampa, Florida, who had been shot dead at a military checkpoint by Israeli soldiers, allegedly for carrying a knife. And, Levy said, he would also take the American legislators to Hebron, because “I never met an honest human being who had been to Hebron and didn’t come back after a few hours in shock.”

Days later and blocks away, members of Congress and three of the four remaining presidential candidates were professing their undying allegiance to Israel at the yearly policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Israel’s Washington, DC lobby. Aware of this annual parade of elected U.S. officials, Levy knew that, in his remarks at the National Press Club, he was describing a “virtual tour of those congressmen who would never come to listen to me and will never let me take them around.”

Levy’s presentation at the 2015 conference “The Israel Lobby: Is It Good for the U.S.?

Editorials & Actions

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Duty to Warn
by Dr. Gary Kohls
The Execution of Berta Caceres, the United Fruit Company and the US Military: A Historical Timeline Identifying Some of the Perpetrators

By Gary G. Kohls, MD

THE FOLLOWING QUOTES (EXCEPT AS NOTED) ARE FROM:HTTPS://NEWREPUBLIC.COM/ARTICLE/120559/HONDURAS-CHARTER-CITIES-SPEARHEADED-US-CONSERVATIVES-LIBERTARIANS

“In the early 1950s the United Fruit Company hired legendary public relations expert Edward Bernays to carry out an intense misinformation campaign portraying then-Guatamalan president Jacobo Arbenz as a communist threat.” — Scott Price, IC Magazine

“Between the time of the (Honduran) coup (June 2009) and February 2012, there were at least 59 politically motivated assassinations of civilians associated with the resistance movement. This is a low estimate, as intimidation and fear of reprisal prevents communities and family members from reporting many such deaths. There were at least 250 violations of human rights in the military junta’s first three months alone.” — Committee of Family Members of the Disappeared of Honduras (COFADEH), respected human rights organization. “I’ve seen all sorts of horrific things in my time. but none as detrimental to the country as this.”