ISRAEL 3-23-2008

23, March 2008                      ISRAEL (Response to local letter writer) 

         

In his letter of March 22, Desmond Tuck, offers some skewed statistics which demand a response. It is not surprising that the majority of Palestinians support their democratically elected government’s anger over the wanton killing of its innocent civilians. Overwhelming force, with the latest U.S. high-tech weapons, has been used to kill and maim hundreds of Palestinian civilians. In the past two-week Israeli forces invaded Gaza by land and air killing 126 people, mostly civilians including 24 children. Tuck, and other letter writers supporting Israel, are very loose and selective on using the word ‘terrorism’.

Theft of Palestinian land, demolitions of their homes, destruction of hundreds of olive trees, denying Palestinian free access to schools and clinics are all acts of terrorism. The destruction of the basic infrastructure of Gaza was an act of terrorism. Halting food supplies to starving Palestinians, withholding electricity and fuel shipments are acts of terrorism. Aerial arracks killing innocent civilians are acts of terrorism. Arbitrary arrests of innocent civilians, torturing them and tossing them into medieval dungeons are acts of terrorism. 

Hard liners such as Rabbi David Shalem, director of the Institute of Talmud Studies at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem, called for the Ehud Olmert government to attack Palestinians “everywhere, in Gaza, and the north and inside.” 

This yeshiva vigorously opposes any form of Palestinian sovereignty and seeks the theft of Palestinian land by terrorizing or killing its rightful occupants.

Footnotes:

Gideon Levy, columnist of Haaretz wrote a stinging indictment of Mercaz Harav in his March 10 article in Haaretz.  

This yeshiva vigorously opposes any form of Palestinian sovereignty and seeks the theft of Palestinian land by terrorizing or killing its rightful occupants. Thus, a creeping annexation (a term used by Gen. Moshe Dayan) has been an official Israeli policy since its founding.
With complete disdain for international law, Israel announced plans to expand yet another settlement, Givat Ze’ev, five miles from central Jerusalem, which invoked a strong rebuke from Condeleeza Rice. 

IRAQ 3-18-2008

18, March 2008                      IRAQ
         
As we approach the fifth anniversary of our occupation of Iraq (March 19) and close to 4,000 US fatalities, there is an urgent need to beat the drums for an immediate withdrawal. The war has been an unrelenting nightmare for the US and Iraq. Renowned economists, Joseph Stieglitz and Linda Bilmes, have conservatively estimated the war costs to be in excess of three trillion dollars. It has drained our economy and caused a free fall of our currency. The politically well-connected war profiteers such as Halliburton, and Blackwater have enriched themselves at the expense of working class youth, many of whom volunteered to join the army out of economic necessity. Our president and many of our lawmakers have embraced the medieval practice of torture and totally abandoned the teachings of Jesus Christ whom they claim to revere. Our public discourse regarding abortion reeks of hypocrisy. Our oil intoxicated politicians have aborted the lives of thousands of US soldiers and millions of Iraqis and still cling to the grotesque notion of ‘victory’. 


Over 1 million Iraqis have been killed and hundreds of thousands maimed. Sectarian fighting, absent prior to the occupation —makes daily life a living hell. Last week, former and current US soldiers bared their souls and provided testimony of war crimes they committed against innocent Iraqi civilians at the ‘Winter Soldier’ hearings. This important news was ignored by the US media but was widely reported in over 80 countries around the world.  

William Buckley 3-14-2008

14, March 2008                      William Buckley 
         

Contrary to the media’s gushing commentaries on William Buckley as the architect of modern conservatism, he was an unapologetic racial bigot. He likened Dr. Martin Luther King with the Nazi leader, George Lincoln Rockwell. In numerous articles in his National Review he vigorously supported white supremacy arguing in a 1957 editorial, “Why the South Must Prevail.” Unmoved by the lynch mob mentality of the South, Buckley argued there exists, “a median cultural superiority of White over Negro ... that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists.”

He was a vehement supporter of apartheid in South Africa, opposing Mandela’s release from years of incarceration, famously commenting in 1985. “Where Mandela belongs, in his current frame of mind, is precisely where he is: in jail.” He railed on gays during his public exchanges with author, Gore Vidal. In 1986 he advocated tattooing HIV positive men, starkly reminiscent of Hitler’s Third Reich with its pink triangles. He repeated this monstrous proposal in 2005. He displayed monumental disdain for women’s liberation describing the literature as “so stupefying awful.” Buckley was an ardent supporter of the dirty war against Vietnam that killed millions. He described Spanish fascist dictator Franco “a national hero.” Like his nemesis, Henry Kissinger, Buckley supported the merchant of death merchant, Pinochet in Chile and the Argentine generals who tortured and “disappeared” thousands.

Cholesterol Lowering Drugs (Statins) 2-28-2008

28, February 2008                 Cholesterol Lowering Drugs (Statins)             

Our airwaves, print media and medical doctors are constantly bombarding us with the need to aggressively lower blood cholesterol. While there can be no doubt of the wisdom of healthy eating and exercise to achieve these goals what seems to be suspect is the increasing pressure from pharmaceutical companies to establish new lower targets which are virtually impossible to achieve through diet alone. Thus, more and more people are taking cholesterol lowering drugs (CLD’s or statins). It would be interesting to follow the money trail of studies claiming such benefits. Remember how Vioxx was touted as the miracle ‘one pill a day’ arthritis drug? The drug was eventually withdrawn after patients experienced serious adverse events, a fact the company withheld from the public, profits taking precedence over safety concerns. Women, were similarly advised to take estrogen only to learn many years later of serious side effects.

Focus, Harvard’s news bulletin, reported pioneering research conducted on muscle weakness caused by CLD’s. They discovered a gene called atrogen-1 which causes a breakdown of proteins in muscle tissue. The Harvard bulletin reported the personal experience of one of its own doctors, Dr. Ikas Sukhatme, who experienced severe muscle weakness after taking a statin. It took nine months for Dr. Sukhatme to recover. Dr. Jim Wright, director of a British Colombia drug watchdog group commented that CLD’s may be doing more harm than good.

Water Fluoridation 2-27-2008

27, February 2008                  Water Fluoridation              

It seems that we may be over-medicating ourselves in pursuit of nebulous goals rooted in questionable science. Local utilities have deemed it desirable to fluoridate our water to reduce tooth decay, a decision vigorously supported by local dentists. A far more compelling, contrary conclusion was published by the prestigious British Medical Journal in 2000 (more commonly referred to as the York Study) following a long term study of water fluoridation. The results of this study found that only one in six individuals benefited from water fluoridation compared to approximately 50% who suffered from dental fluorosis or mottling and discoloration of the teeth. This alarming statistic offers serious doubt on the overall benefits of water fluoridation. 

Furthermore, fluoride is potentially toxic to our bones, brain and endocrine (hormonal) system. More information can be found in the Fluoride Action Network Web site. Is it not time we demand more a more rigorous scientific study to justify this potentially harmful practice?

Military Commissions Trials Rigged 2-23-2008

23, February 2008 Military Commissions Trials Rigged                    
The long term incarceration of six Guantanamo prisoners charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes has come to haunt the Pentagon. According to the Nation magazine, the trial might be rigged from the start to save the Pentagon the embarrassment of possible acquittals. The Nation reported a revealing comment made by the administration-appointed Pentagon General Counsel, William Haynes, to Colonel Davis, the former chief prosecutor for Guantanamo’s military commissions. Haynes admitted that , “we can’t have acquittals. If we’ve been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can’t have acquittals, we’ve got to have convictions.” 

It speaks volumes that Colonel Davis resigned from the military commissions in October 2007, decrying the system had become “politicized” and ineffective. Davis’s comments cast a pall on military commission’s clear bias and claims of ensuring fair trails. In view of Hayne’s comments, the military commissions have been badly tainted and smacks too much of ‘kangaroo court proceedings’, rather than a system based on fairness and true justice. What is also most troubling is Hayes was an early advocate of using torture techniques and insisted statements made under extreme coercion could be used as evidence of guilt. Is it any surprise that the administration has been so reluctant to denounce the grotesque practice of water-boarding as torture?

Arun Gandhi forced to resign 2-15-2008

 February 15, 2008 Arun Gandhi forced to resign
           
The right wing supporters of apartheid Israel can chalk up another victory. The American Jewish Committee, ADL, in concert with right-wing Indian American groups, such as the Hindu American Foundation, effectively forced the resignation of Arun Gandhi (grandson of Mahatma Gandhi) as the director of the Institute for Nonviolence at the University of Rochester. It is tragic that great humanitarians like Gandhi can be effectively silenced by these radical groups. Gandhi merits vigorous support for his commendable role in promoting non-violence and religious tolerance. 

The American Jewish Lobby has been responsible for tilting US support for Israel which has received hundreds of billions of dollars in military and economic aid. This aid has been used to subjugate the Palestinians who have had their land stolen and thousands of their people killed in a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse them from their ancestral lands. Palestinians refugees are imprisoned in ghettoes and are subjected to daily harassment by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) who make their lives a living hell. A growing number of IDF soldiers have been so appalled by the utter brutality inflicted on the hapless Palestinians that they have gone public to expose the dark deeds of the Israeli military. Google to ‘IDF soldiers breaking the silence’, to learn more about this growing movement. Also, to gain a sense of the terror inflicted on young Palestinians, Google to ‘If Americans Knew’. Arun Gandhi’s ‘crime’ was to urge Israel to make peace with its neighbors and not resort to ‘weapons and bombs’. It is ironic that the US remains silent on Israel’s huge stockpile of WMD’s and continues to fund its war machine. This has fueled much of the rage in the Arab world and compromised the security of both the US and Israel.  

Arun Gandhi is but the latest victim of pro-Israeli right wing groups. Earlier, President Carter encountered viscous attacks in response to the publication of his book ‘Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid’. Carter was accused of anti-Semitism and being a “Jew-hater” because he likened Israel’s polices in the Occupied Territories to South Africa’s apartheid regime. Another recent victim is Professor Finkelstein (son of holocaust survivors) and a vigorous critic of Israel’s apartheid policies. Finkelstein was denied tenure because of his outspoken views. To learn more about the sinister impact of the powerful Israeli lobby, I urge readers to obtain a copy The Israel Lobby, by Stephen Walt (Harvard) and John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago). Finally, the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, had it exactly right when he stated in 1946 that Jewish settlers "have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism.”