Thursday, December 28, 2006

Jimmy Carter's Book

http://pdamerica.org/articles/news/2006-12-28-08-49-03-news.php
Jimmy Carter's Sin Against Israel
By Charles Lenchner clenchner01@yahoo.com, PDA Israel/Palestine Working Group CoordinatorDecember 28, 2006.We all knew Jimmy Carter was in for it. Before anyone had read a single paragraph of his book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” well known heavy hitters in the media were taking pot shots at the ex-president. Jennifer Siegel of the Forward got it right in saying that “critics of the former president probably will be most offended by his use of the word ‘apartheid.’”(1) In so doing, Carter departed from a particular script that leaders of the pro-Israel community were willing to tolerate from U.S. critics of Israel. The Israel lobby – Jews and non-Jews -- has devoted enormous resources and political capital to supporting Israel. They’ve done a great job, strategically speaking, by funding think tanks, newsletters, endowed chairs, academic centers and media activism shops. These resources are deployed in part to secure short-term victories around policy issues. The larger and ultimately more important role is setting the limits of allowable debate. The terms of debate in the U.S. are: Israeli actions and policy may be criticized, as long as everyone affirms Israel’s motives of only wanting peace and security. However, in Israel proper, other motives are debated constantly. These include a racist desire to subjugate Arabs to Western and Jewish control, greed for land, profit from a captive market, the wish to serve U.S. interests in the Middle East, and of course, classic stupidity, of the kind detailed in Barbara Tuchman’s “The March of Folly.” In choosing to use the word “apartheid,” Carter violates the terms of U.S. debate. True, he does not actually accuse Israel proper of being an apartheid state. Also, he does not consider Israel’s motives to be racist. The term does however, connote moral obtuseness, a suggestion that some part of Israeli policy is wrong in the sense of ”evil,” not just wrong in the sense of “misguided.” We should remember that to its dying days, the white South African regime that gave us the word “apartheid” claimed that it was only acting in its role as a bulwark against communism and anarchy, and not on behalf of the white race. Gandhi famously said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” When John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt wrote an academic paper about the Israeli Lobby, they were ridiculed for appearing to support the myth of Jewish control of Congress and the media. But they did succeed in getting widespread notice. Carter follows the path they cleared, with the powerful footsteps of an ex-president known for ensuring fair elections and housing the homeless. Where Mearsheimer and Walt evoked learned essays, Carter has provoked hysterical gnashing of teeth. (Just look at poor Alan Dershowitz jumping up and down in Cambridge, virtually screaming, “Listen to me, not Carter!”) Carter has succeeded, because he gave an emotional narrative of particular appeal to this country’s Christians – still a large majority . He not only explains the facts, he includes the story of how he learned them, as a former president and elder statesmen with extensive Middle East experience. Carter’s view – that Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, along with its apartheid policies, violation of UN resolutions, and well documented human rights violations, constitute the driving force of the conflict -- support my own conclusions, and those of most Europeans and our own State Department, although they clash with the self image of Jewish supporters of Israel who wish to preserve their own status as peace- and freedom-loving victims, angry at the Arabs because they “force us to kill their sons.”(2) End the Occuption with the creation of a viable Palestinian state and the conflict will end. This is Carter’s position and one PDA enthusiastically supports. I grew up in Israel and served in her army(3). I live and work in the Jewish community in New York. And of course, I recognize that Israel faces real dilemmas about how to achieve peace and security. Nonetheless, the occupation (in the West Bank) and imprisonment (in Gaza) of Palestinians cannot be described as primarily “misguided.” Occupation is an ongoing and brutalizing evil, carried out by people with limited moral vision and overwhelming military might. It is not in the long-term interests of peace in the region for supporters of Israel gloss over this fact. Nothing can justify what is being done by Israel to the Palestinian people, not even Palestinian terror, extremism and incompetence. The refusal to end the occupation over the last 39 years is most of all a failure of will, not some unfortunate result of Palestinian intransigence. Carter's book will persuade more Americans to point a finger at Israel, and even consider applying serious, option-closing consequences (sanctions) to Israeli actions. If we care about Israel’s survival, we must care enough to apply U.S. political power and will to end the occupation. 1 Carter Book Slaps Israel With ‘Apartheid’ Tag, Provides Ammo to GOP 10/17/06 2 “We can forgive you for killing our sons. But we will never forgive you for making us kill yours.” Golda Meir to Anwar Sadat. 3 I was a refusenik in 1987-1988, preferring to go to prison rather than enter the West Bank as a soldier.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A Nation Founded On Illegals

Thanks again to Bob T. for this one.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------December 27, 2006 Op-Ed Contributor, NYT Our Founding Illegals By WILLIAM HOGELAND.EVERY nation is a nation of immigrants. Go back far enough and you'll find us all, millions of potential lives, tucked in the DNA of our African mother, Lucy. But the immigrant experience in the United States is justly celebrated, and perhaps no aspect of that experience is more quintessentially American than our long heritage of illegal immigration. You wouldn't know it from the immigration debate going on all year (the bipartisan immigration bill-in-progress, announced this week, is unlikely to mention it), but America's pioneer values developed in a distinctly illegal context. In 1763, George III drew a line on a map stretching from modern-day Maine to modern-day Georgia, along the crest of the Appalachians. He declared it illegal to claim or settle land west of the line, all of which he reserved for Native Americans.George Washington, a young colonel in the Virginia militia, instructed his land-buying agents in the many ways of getting around the law. Although Washington was not alone in acquiring forbidden tracts, few were as energetic in the illegal acquisition of western land. And Washington was a model of decorum compared to Ethan Allen, a rowdy from Connecticut who settled with his brothers in a part of the Green Mountains known as the Hampshire Grants (later known as "Vermont"). The province of New York held title to the land, but Allen asserted his own kind of claim: He threw New Yorkers out, Tony Soprano style, then offered to sell their lots to what he hoped would be a flood of fellow illegals from Connecticut.Meanwhile, illegal pioneers began moving across the Alleghenies and into the upper Ohio Valley, violating the king's 1763 proclamation and a few more besides. (George would today be accused of softness on immigration; he kept shifting the line westward.) Immigrants from such déclassé spots as Germany and Ireland violated the laws and settled where they pleased. The upper Ohio was rife with illegal immigrants, ancestors of people who, in country clubs today, are implying a Mayflower ancestry.Parallels to today's illegal immigration are striking. Then as now, it was potentially deadly to bring a family across the line. But once across, illegals had a good chance of avoiding arrest and settling in. Border patrols, in the forms of the British Army and provincial militias, were stretched thin. The 18th-century forest primeval, like a modern city, offered ample opportunities for getting lost. Complex economies thrived in the virgin backwoods, unfettered by legitimate property titles. When conflicts developed between the first and second waves of illegals, some salient social ironies arose, too. By the early 1770's, George Washington had amassed vast tracts to which his titles were flatly invalid. The Revolution rectified that. With British law void, Washington emerged from the war with his titles legal by default. But he acquired another problem: low-class illegals were squatting on his newly authenticated, highly valuable property.Washington harbored no fond feeling for breakers of laws that he too had recently flouted. "It is hard upon me," he lamented without irony, "to have property which has been fairly obtained disputed and withheld." He went to court to have the squatters evicted, complaining that they had "not taken those necessary steps pointed out by the law." He was appealing to righteousness from atop a high but wobbly horse. Descendants of the great immigration experiences of the 19th and 20th centuries visit the Ellis Island Immigration Museum to learn of the tribulations of ancestors who risked much to become Americans. Those of us whose ancestors risked everything as illegal immigrants, and in the process helped found a nation, owe our forebears a debt of gratitude, too. Without their daring disregard of immigration laws, we might not be here today.William Hogeland is the author of "The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty."

Friday, December 22, 2006

Music Videos From YouTube

I’m sending out this group of songs that I found on YouTube. If you haven’t checked it out , be prepared to spend a lot of time there. There’s great old clips and more that gets added all the time. Happy everything and anything you celebrate. If you find something you like, send it to me.
Peace and justice,
Gerry


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLresN6yZEY Spoon Guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMMluFiMiQ Uncle Pen Bill Monroe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-C9BqADIWE Peggy Lee Why Don’t You Do Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4Qtqw9Eec0 Milton Nascimento – Uakti – Lagrima do Sul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9qqTI3YrHk Grapevine Antonio Forcione

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxYV1jGuj5U Caravan Van Morrison and The Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXEWzq0UANA Jamaican Jewish Wedding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pXgVzFHcSs Just Over In The Glory Land Stanley Brothers and Reno and Smiley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U-_gMpdXBI Caravan Duke Ellington
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GG2v8LBcBU Koko Little Walter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbM7oAz3bS8 John Coltrane Naima
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ8jAafAkrM Chava Alberstein Klezmatics Mayn Schvester Chaya

Saturday, December 16, 2006

The Fairness of Capitalism

INCOME SCORECARD 1979-2004 BOTTOM 60% OF AMERICANS: DOWN 5%60TH-80TH PERCENTILE: UP 2% TOP 5% OF AMERICANS: UP 53% TOP 1% OF AMERICANS: UP 248% DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, NY TIMES - Despite significant gains in 2004, the total income Americans reported to the tax collector that year,adjusted for inflation, was still below its peak in 2000, new government data shows. Reported income totaled $7.044 trillion in2004, the latest year for which data is available, down from more than$7.143 trillion in 2000, new Internal Revenue Service data shows. . .The overall income declines . . . came despite a series of tax cutsthat President Bush and Congressional Republicans promoted as the bestway to stimulate both short and long-term growth after the Internetbubble burst on Wall Street in 2000 and the economy fell into a briefrecession in 2001. . .Very top households, which include about 300,000 Americans, reported significantly more pretax income combined than the poorest 120 million Americans earned in 2004, the data show. This was a sharp change from 1979, the oldest year examined by the I.R.S., when the thin slice at the top received about one-third of the total income of the big group at the bottom.Over all, average incomes rose 27 percent in real terms over thequarter-century from 1979 through 2004. But the gains were narrowlyconcentrated at the top and offset by losses for the bottom 60 percentof Americans, those making less than $38,761 in 2004.The bottom 60 percent of Americans, on average, made less than 95cents in 2004 for each dollar they reported in 1979, analysis of the I.R.S. data shows.The next best-off group, the fifth of Americans on the 60th to 80 thrungs of the income ladder, averaged 2 cents more income in 2004 foreach dollar they earned in 1979.Only those in the top 5 percent had significant gains. The average income of those on the 95th to 99th rungs of the income ladder rose by 53 percent, almost twice the average rate.A third of the entire national increase in reported income went to thetop 1 percent and more than half of that went to the top tenth of 1 percent, whose average incomes soared so much that for each dollar,adjusted for inflation, that they had in 1979 they had $3.48 in 2004.http://tinyurl.com/yaxw9g

Friday, December 08, 2006

Monday, December 04, 2006

Andy Statmen Live

I saw him and his trio play at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center last night. The man is simply amazing. He started out on clarinet , ended the first set playing mandolin and played mandolin for the whole second set.His band is really outstanding as well.He and they are tuned into some relationship with sound that one rarely hears. Toping the night off was an appearence by David Grisman, and the evening ended with great duets. Don't miss this show if it comes to your neck of the woods. Most of what happens is spur of the moment so although the recordings are great , what happens on stage is always fresh and wonderful. Andy pulled some great sounds from his well worn snakehead, which he struggled with to get in tune( it happens to the best of us) and won. David played his Giacomel, which I got to play backstage. It's a fantastic instrument in every way, great sound and easy to play.
An added bonus for me was that when I practiced this morning , I felt I was playing better just because of being at the concert and absorbing some of the musicality , fluidity and most of all soulfulness .
Andy's website http://www.andystatman.org/index.htmlCheck out Andy's concerts.