War Crimes in Gaza 6-28-2015

28, June 2015                         War Crimes in Gaza

In its long awaited report, the UN Human Rights Council’s independent investigation of Israel’s assault on Gaza last summer found evidence of “massive and systematic war crimes”.

Investigators were “able to gather substantial information pointing to serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law by Israel and by Palestinian armed groups.” Investigation chairperson, Justice Mary McGowan Davis, stated that “the extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza was unprecedented and will impact generations to come.”

Despite the “balanced language” language which is invariably used to avoid false accusation of anti-Israel bias, the raw evidence demonstrates in stark terms the scale of Israeli violence dwarfed by the primitive rocket attacks used by Palestinians in their self-defense. The report clearly lays bare the undeniable fact that Israel targeted Palestinian residential buildings, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and even the UN building, ignoring the coordinates that were provided to Israeli authorities. Pipelines, torn up by Israeli tanks and bulldozers severely contaminated the ground water in Beit Hanoun to the north of Gaza City. The report should be used as a basis to hold Israeli leaders fully accountable in International Courts. The report concludes that as the occupying power in Gaza, severely restricting the free flow of goods and services, Israel failed in its legal obligations to protect the civilian population.

Finally, Israel would do well to heed the growing sentiment that ‘Palestinians lives matter’ voiced across many colleges and religious institutions throughout the world.

New Cold War 6-25-2015

25, June 2015                          New Cold War

A new cold war is rapidly emerging with our former, nemesis, Russia. We fired the first shot by encouraging NATO to expand eastwards towards the Russian border. Eagar to demonstrate their military might as a counterbalance to NATO’s aggressive wooing of Ukraine, Russia annexed Crimea and then began an offensive against government forces in Eastern Ukraine. Leaders and nations behave in very predictable ways; if their national ego is bruised they often resort to military maneuvers to gain national pride and popularity. Russia, the US and NATO are no different.   As CEO’s of the planet, we issue red lines - Saddem Hussein, Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi, . .  and like raging Rambo’s invariably plunge the regions into chaos (Iraq, Libya. .) .  We are now arming the Baltic States with battle tanks and other weapons to counterbalance Russian aggression. In what seems like an endless tit-for-tat, Russia is building a new generation of long-range ballistic missiles.  It is time we tried a diplomatic approach to defuse tensions lest we pour more trillions into bottomless sink holes much the same way as we have already done in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Bring Down the Confederate Flag 6-23-2015

23, June 2015                      Bring Down the Confederate Flag

It’s tragic that it took the lives of 9 African-Americans to galvanize the people of South Carolina to confront the dark symbol of oppression, racism and white supremacy – the Confederate flag. A recent poll revealed the majority of the people still support retaining the flag as their state historical symbol by a ratio of 70 – 30%. Let us hope the State Assembly remove this grotesque symbol of false ‘Southern pride’.  

It was used as a symbol after Brown vs. Board of Education to intimidate, harass and demonize African-Aericans. What pride is there in a society who stood for the enslavement of people? What pride is there for a society that makes people drink out of separate fountains, ride in the back of the bus, worship using separate white and black Bibles, swim in separate pools or get lynched! It is time to bring down the flag and relegate it to the local museum as a reminder of their dark divisive history. Finally, let the people of South Carolina erect a monument to honor the nine Africa-Americans who were martyred in pursuit of the right to worship at the Emanuel AME Church

Charges of Anti-Semitism misguided 6-18-2015

18, June 2015             Charges of Anti-Semitism misguided

I was dismayed by Tom Elias’s column (June 16) conflating legitimate concerns over Israeli policies on UC Campuses with anti-Semitism. This makes as much sense as conflating criticism of Russian polices with anti-Christian or conflating criticism of Iran with Islamophobia. Would criticism of Spain or Italy stir the ire of the Pope and lead to charges that we are anti-Catholic?

Students at UC campuses engaged in legitimate criticism of Israeli polices must not be intimidated by charges of anti-Semitism; such tactics have long been used to silence critics of Israeli policies. I was also distressed by Tom Elias’s characterization of the Israeli attacks on Gaza as ‘accidental death of thousands of innocent civilians Palestinians’. The death of 2,104 Palestinian including 1,462 civilians, of whom 495 were children and 253 women can hardly be accidental. Israel has been legitimately criticized for using the so-called "knock on the roof" method - warning people of impending airstrikes by launching a non-explosive missile before the main strike. Some airstrikes have occurred less than a minute later. ‘18,000 homes destroyed in Gaza, tens of thousands lack facilities to go back home – in what Israel described in grotesque terms as ‘mowing the lawn’; our tax dollars continue to fund the Israeli war machine that makes all this possible. Political speech is protected by the US Constitution and must be vigorously upheld at all times especially at our US campuses. 

Cultural genocide 6-13-2015

13, June  2015           Cultural genocide

On June 2, the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its report on church-run residential schools.  For over a century this blatantly racist government sanctioned program engaged in snatching native children from their families and robbing them of their cultural heritage under the guise of providing them an education.

In 120 years, more than 150,000 Aboriginal children were dragged, kicking and screaming into the waiting arms of their ‘Christian’ oppressors. What followed was enormous physical, emotional and sexual abuse; mortality rates at some schools reached a staggering 50%. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the painstaking effort of a long and arduous class-action law suit and not the result of guilt-ridden action by the Canadian government.

It is doubtful if the Commission’s 94 recommendations will ever see the light of day. It will probably suffer the same fate of an earlier report published in 1907 by Dr. Peter Bryce, chief medical officer for Indian Affairs in Canada in which he called the health conditions at residential schools “a national crime.”

Response A.K. Sharma 6-7-2015

7, June 2015               Response to A.K. Sharma (I-W, 5^th June)

A.K. Sharma (I-W July 5) ‘Sikhs Need to Stop living in 1984’ merits a double-barrel response. It was insulting, preachy and patronizing and. clearly betrayed Sharma’s lack of knowledge of the tragic events of 1984. Contrary to Sharma’s assertions the passage of time does not diminish the severity of the crimes or the urgent need for accountability.

It is a searing indictment of India’s broken criminal justice system that the perpetrators of the 1984 Sikhs continue to escape arrest. According to the Times of India, well over 4000 died and 60,000 were rendered homeless in the orgy of state sponsored violence that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi. What made these attacks especially heinous is the active role of leading Congress party leaders who orchestrated the mayhem. Police stood idly by while angry mobs went on a rampage of looting, murder, rape and arson. 

Many courageous Hindus (and Muslims) came to the aid of Sikhs. However, that does not detract from the serious crimes that were committed. All acts of violence must be condemned and vigorously prosecuted – whether they are committed by Hindus, Sikhs or any other ethnic or religious groups. It is time for India to upgrade its ‘Charles Dickens’s’ lackadaisical justice system. It is important to assuage the anger of the Sikh community by bringing the guilty to justice. Justice delayed is justice denied. It is especially important to send a strong message to those who occupy lofty positions of political power that they are not immune from the law. Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister, Ranjanth Singh acknowledged the crimes perpetrated against the Sikhs but have thus far failed to act.

Sharma does acknowledge that “events of 1984 were horrific and inexcusable”. If that is so why not hold those guilty of these grizzly crimes fully accountable?

PATRIOT ACT 6-4-2015

4, June                              PATRIOT ACT


The government’s authority to sweep up millions of Americans’ phone records has mercifully expired, perhaps only to be replaced by the USA FREEDOM ACT, which would require the government to ask phone companies for a user’s data rather than vacuuming up all the records at once. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky deserves credit for blocking an extension of the PATRIOT ACT. It is strange to hear the Obama administration echoing much the same arguments as Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and demanding the renewal of the PATRIOT ACT to “keep America safe” and stop playing "national security Russian roulette." The CIA director’s, claim that these bulk collections of redundant data prevented  terror attacks is completely false and should have been vigorously challenged. Did it prevent the Fort Hood, Boston Marathon or Underwear Bomber attacks? The US Intelligence Oversight Committee excoriated the NSA for its overreach and confirmed that its activities have been unlawful and an abysmal failure. Traditional FBI methods have thwarted several terror attacks where draconian data mining methods - searching for ‘a needle in a haystack’, should be tossed in the dustbin of history. Finally, Edward Snowden, displayed unusual courage exposing such abuses and deserves the profound gratitude of the American people. 

FIFA issued red cards 6-1-2015

1, June 2015                            FIFA issued red cards

In what is aptly described as the World Cup of fraud, fourteen high-ranking soccer officials, including two current vice presidents of soccer’s world governing body, FIFA, were issued red cards - indictments on federal corruption charges by referee, US attorney general, Loretta Lynch. The money bags that were handed out to these FIFA executives is truly mind boggling.


For example, Jack Warner, former vice president of FIFA, is accused of taking a $10 million bribe to cast his ballot for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.  FIFA ‘President for life’, Sepp Blatter, seems to be constantly on the move to avoid subpoenas. The soccer mafia paid millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks to obtain lucrative media and marketing rights to international soccer tournaments. The 47-count indictment includes charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies spanning two decades. Why it take so long to expose this massive fraud and why the FIFA elections were not immediately suspended remains a mystery.  It is a pity that the US attorney general gave a free pass to Wall Street big bank officials who also engaged in massive fraud.