June 29-July 4 2025
Select Facebook Posts, (newest at the top)
Recently learned of the death at age 93 of Israel Charny, the Israeli-American psychology professor and the founder and executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem. We spent time together in Japan in 1992 at two peace-related conferences.
In 1982, he was a principal organizer of the First International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide to be held in Tel Aviv. He invited a number of academics to discuss the Armenian Genocide, but the Israeli Foreign Ministry demanded he remove the Armenian Genocide from the conference’s itinerary and bar Armenian academics from the program.
He refused.
In response, administrators of Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial, announced that it would no longer host the opening ceremony. Elie Wiesel stepped down as president of the conference. Tel Aviv University and Hunter College withdrew their sponsorship.
The conference went ahead but, having lost much of its support, with a much smaller number of participants.
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Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is piling on in the unfair attacks against New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, saying "I don‘t associate myself with what he has said about the Jewish people." Regarding, "the Jewish people," Mamdani has been consistent in condemning antisemitism and reaching out to the Jewish community. What mainstream Democrats like Swalwell want people to believe is that criticism of Israel policies and supporting Palestinian rights is somehow an attack against Jews.
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One of my main memories of Jimmy Swaggart was when, prior to the sex scandals that largely derailed his ministry, he told his millions of viewers/listeners that God had informed him that Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev was the anti-Christ and they should therefore lobby hard against any kind of arms control agreements. In his view, nuclear war would fulfill God's will and the righteous would be raptured.
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A wide-ranging interview of me discussing Iran and the United States broadcast of the Pacifica Radio Network this afternoon. My segments start at the 5:40 mark.
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In the budget passed today, ICE’s budget will explode to become bigger than the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshalls, and the Bureau of Prisons combined. It’s larger than the U.S. Marines and all but fifteen of the world’s militaries.
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The devastating attack on a Gaza cafe which killed dozens of civilians was with a US- supplied 500-pound bomb.
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Paramount/CBS would have easily won in court, but they wanted to support Trump and his efforts to control the media. The executive producer of 60 Minutes has resigned in protest.
Headline with the post: Paramount settles with Trump for $16m over 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris
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I will be giving a talk “Israel/Palestine: What Peace & Human Rights Activists Need to Know” at the Cannon Valley Friends Meeting, 512 Washington St., Northfield, MN on Tuesday evening, July 8, starting at 7:30pm.
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Frans al-Salmi, the renowned Palestinian artist, was among the 39 civilians at a popular Gaza cafe killed in an Israeli attack using U.S.-supplied ordnance and delivery systems two days ago.
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Two days ago, Israeli forces massacred 39 Palestinian civilians at a popular Gaza cafe. According to the 2024 Democratic Party Platform, providing billions of dollars' worth of unconditional military aid annually to the Israeli government is "ironclad."
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When a president gets away with violating international law and Constitutional limits on warmaking, he knows he can get away with lawbreaking and unconstitutional behavior in domestic policy as well.
Congress failed.
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To elaborate on my post from yesterday regarding how the tendency to exaggerate the influence of AIPAC reinforces antisemitism:
I fully acknowledge that AIPAC has created a climate of intimidation on Capitol Hill and that they have influenced some Congressional races. However, I find blaming the failure of leading New York Democrats to endorse a Muslim democratic socialist nominee for NYC mayor on AIPAC (which does not involve itself in local races) rather than acknowledge these politicians' Islamophobia and connection to powerful corporate interests rather problematic.
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Polls show 85% of Americans oppose additional military aid to Netanyahu. In light of certain Israeli violations of international law, U.S. military aid is in fact illegal under U.S. law.
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I’ve never said there was no real difference between the parties. The only area where that is at least partially true is in regard to human rights and international law, such as supporting right wing governments engaging in war crimes and attacking human rights organizations and international legal institutions which seek to uphold those principles. (Though, I’ll grant that since that is the main focus of my academic and activist work, I post about it a fair amount.)
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Despite my strong criticism of positions taken by some Democratic officials, I have *always* encouraged people to vote for them against Republican opponents, at least in close races. I even voted for Harris and strongly encouraged others to do so, despite her supporting unconditional military aid to a far right government that has been slaughtering tens of thousands of civilians. If Sen. Schumer, Rep. Jeffries, Gov. Hochul, and Sen. Gillibrand continue to refuse to endorse the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, however, the deal is off: If they refuse to support democratic socialist, antiwar nominees, I will no longer support pro-corporate, pro-war nominees.
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Repost of a note by Sophie Petzal:
As a Jew I am far, FAR more alarmed by our institutions equating me and other Jews with the IDF, who are responsible for the murder of 80,000 Palestinians, by dint of framing any critique against the IDF as “antisemitism.”
Linking al Jews to the IDF is *actual* fucking antisemitism.
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Why should I continue to back Democratic nominees who support corporate interests and Israel's wars and occupation if Democratic leaders are refusing to endorse Democratic nominees who oppose such policies, as we're seeing in New York?
If we take the position "Vote Blue no matter who" it has to go in both directions. If we are expected to support pro-corporate/pro-war nominees, they should be expected to support democratic socialist/anti-war nominees. Fair is fair.
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House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York City voter, is still refusing to endorse the Democratic nominee for mayor. While he expects Democrats who are socialist and antiwar to vote for pro-capitalist and pro-war party nominees, he sees no reason he should have to support socialist and antiwar Democratic nominees.
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Legislators, college presidents, and K12 school leaders who want to criminalize protests against Israel are like those who tried to criminalize protests against the Vietnam War and other antiwar protests. They are militarists who want to stifle the views of those who disagree.
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Whenever I complain on Facebook about a politician taking a right-wing position on virtually any other issue, I get responses blaming the politician. By contrast, when I complain about a politician taking a right-wing position in relation to the Middle East, I get responses blaming powerful "Zionists."
One of the manifestations of antisemitism is to blame Jews (individually or collectively) for unpopular decisions of non-Jews who really have the power. So, I want to remind people that almost everyone in the Trump administration, a very large majority of Congress, and a very large majority of university administrators/trustees are non-Jewish. They have agency. They are not beholden to anyone. They don't have to do what AIPAC (or the NRA or any other pressure group) says they should do. Yes, it's a drag that rightwing groups like AIPAC and the NRA have influence and we should fight them. If you are assigning blame, however, blame the people who actually make the decisions rather than those who try to influence them.