Month: August 2009

Back in the U.S.

Published August 20, 2009

We were only allowed to spend 24 hours in Gaza prison – an intense experience filled with images of destroyed buildings and devastated lives… A giant ghetto filled with invisible starvation… I haven’t had much time to do any personal writing, but immediately began some short speaking tours and have…

I am part of a wonderfully diverse movement of people of all ages, ethnicities, races, faiths, and political backgrounds.

We are secular and religious; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and many other; of all ages, economic classes, and political backgrounds; we are united by a commitment to justice and truth, opposition to bigotry, and determination to end the violence and oppression against Palestinians and others that generates war and profound tragedy throughout the Middle East and far beyond.

Please note:

For my main articles and the most important information, please go to the If Americans Knew website. Also, we post a great deal of information on our Facebook page. In addition to those, however, now and then I like to tell people about behind-the-scenes happenings, random information that I've stumbled across but not written an article about, etc. and so I place these on this blog.

I am NOT the British historian

As I write above, I am not the author of books about British history. That Alison Weir, who is English, tells me that she is receiving harrassment and threats because some people mix her up with me. These are causing her extreme concern and forcing her to end her book tours in the U.S. PLEASE, ISRAEL PARTISANS, LEAVE HER ALONE. If you must threaten to kill someone because you wish facts about Israel-Palestine to remain hidden, I'm the one you mean.

Wikipeda distortions

Everyone should be aware that Wikipedia can be edited by anonymous individuals who may or may not have a political agenda. Since Israel partisans work to dominate Wikipedia entries regarding Israel, the information on Wikipedia may be skewed. Please see "A pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia" for more on this type of thing.

My Book...

I hope people will order my quickly read book, AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGEMENT: The hidden history of how the U.S. was used to create Israel

Of Particular Note...

Why?
Daily news, commentary, and analysis
History
Attack on the USS Liberty
Rachel Corrie
Nonviolence Movement of Palestinians and Israelis
My articles (Go to this link and scroll down to see all my articles on Israel-Palestine)
Falsehoods about me: Please read my reply here to falsehoods about me by the "Anti-Defamation" League, and a discussion here about similar attacks by others, which are periodically repeated (and frequently exaggerated) by other groups and individuals. Obviously, the best way to evaluate claims about what I've written is to read my articles for yourself.

Why?

As I mention above, this is where I write about less important, more tangential aspects of my work. For my main articles and the most important news please go to the If Americans Knew and Council for the National Interest websites.

Previous blogs

We used to have daily news site featuring a diverse compendium of reports on Israel-palestine, focusing largely on news that is unreported or under-reported by US media. Now, however, this information is on the If Americans Knew website. We also had a site containing daily commentary and analysis, and another blog that periodically deconstructs AP coverage on Israel-Palestine. However, we haven't had the time to update these in recent years.

History

The best short but thorough history I've seen on this issue is the Origin of the Palestine-Israeli Conflict. You can order copies of this booklet and others to give out in your community (or you can just print them out yourself -- they're all available as PDFs). (We also have a one-page synopsis that sketches the outlines of the conflict and a short but I think excellent brochure on "How Palestine Became Israel ".)

Attack on The USS Liberty

Because so few people know about Israel's extremely ruthless attack on the US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, I'd like to alert you to that as well. This is a profoundly important topic. The crew members, who are still waiting for justice, have waged a heroic (but to date unsuccessful) campaign to bring this attack before the American people.

One of the most important articles is the report by the independent commission chaired by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer (among its illustrious panel members was Marine General Ray Davis, the nation's highest-ranking Medal of Honor recipient at the time). This report provides evidence that the facts on this attack were covered up at the order of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Normally, such evidence -- from such a distinguished body -- would result in Congressional hearings.

In this case, the media buried it -- even the Washington Post failed to report on this historic event on Capitol Hill. While AP had an excellent news report on the panel's briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building, this highly newsworthy story, which should have been headlined around the country, was buried in its wire offerings of the day and very few news media picked it up or gave it the prominence it deserved.

The crew has supplied a detailed legal brief on the this incident to the Secretary of the Army, the agency required by law to investigate war crimes against American citizens. Again, this has not been reported to the American public.

Such neglect by the American media is unconscionable.

Rachel Corrie

While growing numbers of people are deeply saddened at Rachel Corrie's death, numerous people throughout the US know little or nothing about it. In addition, as with the USS Liberty, there has been a concerted effort to falsify the circumstances and to blame the victim. We have done our best to supply thorough information on this tragedy.

Nonviolence Movement of Palestinians and Israelis

In addition to a vigorous Palestinian nonviolence movement, there are growing numbers of Israeli groups also working toward peace. These Palestinian and Israeli peace workers and human rights advocates deserve to have their principled and often courageous activities reported to Americans, yet this rarely occurs. (See our AP report for evidence.) We report on these in our list of the wide variety of groups working toward peace and justice.

Israeli forces have shot and viciously beaten some of these Israelis; killed and injured a number of international peace activists (for example, Tom Hurndall, James Miller, Brian Avery, Tristan Anderson, Tove Johansson , Chris Brown and Kim Lamberty; and killed, maimed and tortured a multitude of Palestinians engaged in nonviolent activities.

Swedish 19-year-old Tove Johansson was attacked while the Israeli military stood by. Chanting "We killed Jesus, we'll kill you too," members of the mob broke her cheekbone and spat on her.

Media Omissions:

We have an entire section about this on the If Americans Knew website, including our statistical studies on US media coverage of deaths among both populations.