Madison-Rafah Journal

Brett Lieberman and Nathan Guttman, The Forward, Aug 28, 2008

Denver — Former president Jimmy Carter’s controversial views on Israel cost him a place on the podium at the Democratic Party convention in late August, senior Democratic operatives acknowledged to the Forward.

Breaking with the tradition of giving speech time to living former presidents, convention organizers honored Carter with only a short video clip highlighting his work with Hurricane Katrina victims and a brief walk across the Pepsi Center stage.

The sidelining of Carter was driven by recognition in the Obama camp and among Democratic leaders that giving the former president a prominent convention spot might alienate Jewish voters.

“What more could we do to diss Jimmy Carter?” said a Democratic official who was involved in deliberations on how to handle the former president’s presence at the convention. The treatment Carter received, the official added, “reflects the bare minimum that could be done for a former president.”

Although Carter says limiting his presence at the convention was his idea, denying him a speaking opportunity ends a two-year struggle for the party over how to deal with the controversial former president. Since Carter published a book in November 2006 accusing Israel of practicing apartheid against the Palestinians, Democrats have been trying to distance themselves from the former president and to convince Jewish activists that he does not represent the party line.

(Read on …)

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, August 30th, 2008

Activities during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Denver this week were non-stop and frenetic—and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation was in the thick of it all thanks to your generous support!

US Campaign DNC headquarters at Progressive Central.

On Monday, we set up our DNC headquarters at Progressive Central, a five-day forum sponsored by our friends at Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and The Nation. While we were there, we had hundreds of substantive discussions with Members of Congress, Congressional candidates, leaders of local party committees, and delegates to the convention—exactly the type of people who we need to educate in order to change policy.

Almost everyone with whom we talked responded positively and enthusiastically to our campaign to challenge military aid to Israel, a theme which fits in nicely with PDA’s motto “Healthcare Not Warfare”.

In the evening, we tabled with Friends of Sabeel—Colorado, one of the more than 255 member organizations of the US Campaign, at a panel discussion sponsored by Just Foreign Policy. Check out the nice shout-out we got from Leslie Cagan, National Coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, plugging our work on a future broadcast of Free Speech TV.

(Read on …)

Dear Members and Friends of MRSCP,

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has forwarded this call from the United for Peace and Justice group for an urgent national effort to speak out against a military attack on Iran by the U.S., Israel or both.

They suggest five actions below…but in particular, we want to ask you to please participate in the FIRST one: phone calls to Congress and Senators Feingold and Kohl. On Monday, peace groups in Milwaukee will be raising this issue with a march on the offices of Feingold and Kohl (as well as Rep. Gwen Moore) so this is a GREAT time to reinforce the message!

(Read on …)

Bush is ratcheting up the rhetoric on Iran. He says "All options are on the table." Congress is considering a resolution to blockade Iran – an act of war.

What can we do to stop it?

Join us as we hear from a panel of experts:

• History of US policy – Joe Elder
• US covert operations – Allen Ruff
• Middle East context – Tsela Barr
• The nuclear issue – Jeff Patterson
• Why we shouldn’t go to war – Majid Sarmadi

Discussion and brainstorming on working for a peaceful world will follow. Bonnie Block will moderate.

Tuesday July 15, 2008
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Lowell Hall, Room B1-A/D
610 Langdon St., Madison

Co-sponsored by: Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Madison Pledge of Resistance, United Nations Association-Dane County Chapter, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Health Writers, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and more.

(Read on …)

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, July 2nd, 2008

It’s bad enough that Congress passed the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2008 two weeks ago, spending $165 billion more on our country’s illegal war on and occupation of Iraq well into 2009.

To add insult to injury, after closely reading the bill, we discovered that Congress snuck in a last-minute earmark for $170 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel!

The culprit: Representative David Obey (WI-7), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, who has received nearly $225,000 from “pro-Israel” PAC’s and more than $200,000 from the military-industrial complex since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Yes, the same David Obey who can be seen in this video berating peace activists for wanting to cut off funding for the war in Iraq.

Yesterday, the US Campaign sent Rep. Obey a sharply-worded letter protesting his decision to slip this earmark for Israel into an unrelated bill at the last minute, thereby preventing any public scrutiny or debate. To view a copy of the letter, please click here.

(Read on …)

Austin Greenberg, The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, June 21, 2008

As Dallas, Texas, resident Charles Gelfand, 69, was reading the Dallas Morning News in his home about three months ago, he decided to test his news knowledge by taking a current events quiz he saw in the paper.

“I am the president of the Palestinian National Authority and a leading member of the Fatah political group,” read the first sentence of the “Newsname” section of the quiz under a picture of the smiling Palestinian leader.

Though he was already a lock to earn 15 points for knowing the correct answer (Mahmoud Abbas), Gelfand read on.

“I have often been seen as the Palestinian voice of moderation by Israel and the West. In the past few days, Israeli attacks in Gaza killed more than 110 Palestinians, including 22 children, in the deadliest military assault on Gaza in years.”

(Read on …)

Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom, 07 June 08

Obama's declarations at the AIPAC conference are very, very bad for peace. And what is bad for peace is bad for Israel, bad for the world and bad for the Palestinian people

AFTER MONTHS of a tough and bitter race, a merciless struggle, Barack Obama has defeated his formidable opponent, Hillary Clinton. He has wrought a miracle: for the first time in history a black person has become a credible candidate for the presidency of the most powerful country in the world.

And what was the first thing he did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and made a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning.

That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fact that nobody was shocked.

IT WAS a triumphalist conference. Even this powerful organization had never seen anything like it. 7000 Jewish functionaries from all over the United States came together to accept the obeisance of the entire Washington elite, which came to kowtow at their feet. All the three presidential hopefuls made speeches, trying to outdo each other in flattery. 300 Senators and Members of Congress crowded the hallways. Everybody who wants to be elected or reelected to any office, indeed everybody who has any political ambitions at all, came to see and be seen.

(Read on …)

Obama, Clinton and McCain all address AIPAC — the leading pro-Israel lobbying group — and Jon Stewart scores them

5768 (Hebrew: ה'תשס"ח , abbr.: תשס"ח) is the Hebrew year that started in the evening before September 13, 2007 and will end on September 29, 2008. (Wikipedia)