Israel – South Africa 5-29-2010

29, May 2010             Israel – South Africa

 A dark chapter in Israel’s short history has recently come to light.

The Guardian newspaper of London recently published extracts of top-secret South African documents providing details of a meeting that took place between South Africa’s former defense minister, P.W. Botha, and former Israeli defense minister, Shimon Peres. The secret documents revealed that Israel sold apartheid South Africa weapons and shared know-how helping to convert South Africa’s yellow cake uranium into plutonium for bomb making. This hitherto covert trade greatly assisted in prolonging South Africa’s apartheid policies of black oppression. Details of Israel’s trade with South Africa are meticulously documented by senior editor at Foreign Affairs, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in his new book, The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid Africa. This exposes Israel’s continuous denial of possessing nuclear weapons.

It is high time that the US demands full accountability of Israel’s weaponry. Israel may indeed face a similar fate to former South Africa if it continues its policies of dispossession of Palestinian land and oppression of its people.

Palestine and Israel 5-27-14

Many letter writers have expressed outrage over the Palestinian Authority’s objection to Jews participating in Pat Farmers “peace run”. These writers may not be aware that the Palestinians are living in an extremely repressive military occupation in complete violation of international laws. Israel is a functioning democracy for Jews only but not for non-Jews. Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh of Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities exposes this myth in a recent letter to the Wall Street Journal (April 24, 2014). Qumsiyeh, a US citizen echoes much of what was stated by Professor George Bisharat, at a recent NPR forum broadcast. Both charge Israel with systematically destroying churches, mosques and Palestinian homes to construct illegal Jewish settlements. Israel has over 50 Jim Crow type laws that discriminate over non-Jews and hundreds more in the occupied territories. Nationality rights only apply to Jews; for example, American Jews can immigrate to Israel and are accorded all the rights of citizenship – a right denied to non-Jews. Jews have exclusive use of bypass roads, land, privileged access to private and public employment, special educational loans, home mortgages, preferences for admission to universities, and a host of other privileges. Finally, I urge readers to listen to a speech given by a notable Israeli, Mike Peled, a highly respected son of a former Israeli general -("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixDLpLjCWpA").

Boko Haram 4-10-14

Boko Haram

May 10, 2010

The kidnapping of girls at a boarding school by Boko Haram in Nigeria has stirred the collective outrage of much of the world with the exception of Islamic counties who have remained conspicuously silent. Cries of Allahu Akbar (God is Great) followed by ungodly acts of kidnapping and enslaving girls is an affront to Islam. Is Boko Haram’s (meaning - opposition to western style of education) supported by Islamic religious orthodoxy? I urge local Muslims to clarify this issue. The imposition of Sariah law (favored by Boko Haram), which denigrates women and favors stoning and decapitation of limbs for relatively minor offenses - also needs vigorous debate.

The Nigerian Government and its military have rightly been castigated for their ineptness and incompetence. After a hiatus of 3 weeks of inaction the Nigerian military made the bogus claim that 107 girls had been freed. The news media was largely indifferent to the plight of the girls filling the airwaves with mindless theories on the missing MH370 airliner.

The wife of Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathon, showed great insensitivity to the plight of the missing girls by accusing local Nigerian women activists of adversely impacting her husband’s re-election prospects.

I implore local Muslims to raise your voices in support of girl’s education and revulsion of Boko Haram. The greatest threat to Islamic extremism is girl’s education. Please donate generously to any of the following organizations – Camfed.org, EdnaHospital.org, mothersdaymovement.org.

Arizona’s new law 5-10-2010

10, May 2010                         Arizona’s new law

           

The new Arizona law against illegal immigration is having unintended consequences. It has galvanized the Latino community throughout the nation. The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project (SVREP) is working feverishly to mobilize American Latinos into a political force. Its motto – ‘su voto es su voz’ – ‘your vote is your voice’ is finding considerable traction.

The poorly crafted law imposes an impossible burden on law enforcement. Failure to confront suspected illegal immigrants - predominantly brown skinned people - and demand ‘citizenship’ papers can result in an untenable situation for local law enforcement. Citizens can charge police officers for failure to uphold the law. Thus, they are damned if they uphold the law and damned if they to choose to ignore the law. The backlash against the legislation has already begun.

Hundreds of protestors are wearing T-shirts emblazoned with, ‘Todas somos Arizona, ‘we are all Arizona’, as a symbol of their opposition to Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his anti-Latino firebrands. The new law is reminiscent of Proposition 187 approved by a California ballot but blocked from enactment by the courts. It is likely that many Hispanics will opt out filling census forms out of fear that the information may be passed onto immigration officials. The new law will have little impact on much needed immigration reform but will most certainly sow the seeds of profound resentment.

Goldman Sachs 5-8-2010

8, May 2010                           Goldman Sachs

It is gratifying that the SEC and Congress are holding Goldman Sachs feet to the fire and have effectively downgraded its reputation to junk status. It is equal gratifying that the F-word – fraud - is being leveled at Goldman (and hopefully other financially institutions) for their outrageous behavior. The cesspool of complex sub-prime mortgage investments has sunk our nation and indeed the world into mountains of debt.

However, it is not enough for Congress to skewer Wall Street’s pre-eminent investment house, but to demand criminal indictments of its senior staff for bilking millions of Americans from their retirement funds and homes. Goldman’s own email aptly described one of its underwritten transactions as “one sh…ty  deal”.

It is frightening that the assets of the six largest banks earnings are a whopping 60% of our gross domestic product. Congress shares much of the blame for the free fall in the economy. The democratically led Congressional committees demanded that banks issue liar loans, loans that were unsupported by financial assets to advance their low-income housing objectives.. The rating agencies also deserve a failing grade for  granting AAA ratings for worthless bonds.

It is unsurprising that the approval rating for Congress is at an all-time low. No doubt Wall Street banks will be dolling out huge amounts of money to the outstretched palms of lawmakers to weaken or mute legislation to control their trading activities.

Indian Guest Workers 4-28-2010

28, April  2010                       Indian Guest Workers

Low income guest workers from India continue to be horribly abused by unscrupulous Indian recruiters and American corporations. The victims allege that Indian recruiters demand exorbitant up-front fees up to $20,000 for US jobs falsely promising lucrative US wages and green cards. Once these unsuspecting ‘bonded’ laborers arrive on US soil they become virtual corporate slaves. For example, Signal International, a marine fabrication company, hired 500 welders and pipe fitters from India, predominantly from Kerala. The workers complained of systematic harassment and mistreatment. Their living quarters - tightly packed decrepit trailers - resembled a transplanted ‘black hole of Calcutta.’

These workers often find themselves between a proverbial rock and a hard place, stirring up anger from Union workers who resent their presence and their employers who wish to exploit them for their low wages. They are completely at the mercy of their employers, strictly forbidden to seek employment with any other US employers. Ironically, many US corporations are being hard-hit by the absurdly low H-2B visas allotted. Only a paltry 66,000 a year are allowed – an exceedingly small number given the pent up demand from US corporations. Until recently, the workers remained silent out fear of having their wages garnished or summarily deported. Low wage worker from other nations have suffered similar abuse. Fortunately, there appears to be a glimmer of hope creeping through the dark cloud of corporate abuse. A class action suit has recently been filed to redress workers grievances.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit  civil rights law firm, deserves credit for its work representing H-2B plaintiffs.

The Indian community should vigorously support new legislation being crafted by Senator Bernie Sanders which would provide guest workers access to lawyers and tighten regulation of predatory recruiters.

WikiLeaks videotape shows slaughter of Iraqi civilians 4-9-2010

9, April  2010               WikiLeaks videotape shows slaughter of Iraqi civilians

The credibility of the US military has been severely tarnished by the release of a leaked videotape by the website, WikiLeaks, which showed a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad which resulted in the slaughter of Iraqi civilians. The victims included Reuter’s news agency, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh. Several children were amongst the wounded. The videotape provides conclusive evidence of the culpability of the helicopter pilots who provided false data to the ground crew to justify their attacks. 

The footage, which includes audio of the helicopter pilots, showed the light-hearted banter that accompanied these brutal killings. The recordings are extremely disturbing and clearly show the video game mentality that has developed by many aerial pilots. Saeed, who was badly wounded by the initial attack, was seeking safety when he was fatally gunned down by one of the Apache’s gunners.

Tragically, the mayhem captured on the leaked videotape, was not an isolated incident, but a disturbing pattern of civilian deaths which have been ignored or quashed by the U.S. military. Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional lawyer and blogger for Salon.com, commented that the conduct of the pilots shown in the video was not an aberration but occurs virtually every day in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of conflict.


If the Pentagon continues to provide blanket immunity to the perpetrators of these war crimes, the rage against the US will only intensify.