There is not doubt I tend to conflate the political economy on the southern shores of Lake Michigan with Israel’s occupation & settlement of Palestinian land. Granted there are significant limits to this comparison. Yet, it is clear the concentration of negative externalities attributable to our nation’s heavy industrial base seriously impairs our fence line communities and is very much a scar on the values of Democracy we hold dear. Simply put, Democracy does not exist here.
Existing Conditions:
Arguably the most polluted waters in the country - the Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal (IHSC): The only waterway to fail all beneficial uses.
Joerse Beach: most contaminated beach in the Great Lakes and third most in the country.
Arguably the most polluted air-shed in the country - Lake county indiana’s air-shed ranks as the 9th most polluted in the country (of 3140 counties) with the sources of pollution attributed to the three big industries concentrated on East Chicago’s lakefront - BP, Mittal Steel, and U.S. Steel.
A Gated Industrial Community with >80% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated to heavy industry - ~50% of these industrial lands are out of productive use and considered contaminated, e.g., brownfields
14% of East Chicago’s land-use is dedicated Residential - ~17% of these residential properties are apart of a superfund site.
When I look at the impact our nation’s heavy industrial base has had on the local populations, culture, land, air, water and biology in my community, I see a misapplication of rights and justice - environmental justice. This prompts me to identify the problems with the fragmented pattern of land use, populations, and the expression of political will seen in the mapping of Palestinian lands.
One of the lessons I took away from the Carter controversy was that the use of the term “apartheid” seems to shut down people’s critical faculties and make them defensive. So I generally prefer to set it aside. The point is that there’s a political system in the West Bank where the Jewish residents have the right to vote, have privileged access to water, have exclusive access to some roadways, have privileged rights to travel, etc., none of which are shared by the non-Jewish residents. You can call it what you like, but it’s not democracy.
via [ NY Times ] “Guantanamo Reunion, by Way of BBC” by Brian Stelter
New to Facebook, Brandon Neely was searching the site for acquaintances in 2008 when he typed in the names of some of the detainees he had guarded during his tenure as a prison guard at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
From what I can gather from Frontline’s documentary is that the Afghanistan War is as much about managing agrarian market forces as it is about battling an insurgency. A problem I see is in this short piece is that America is once again relying solely on forces trained to deliver and manage overwhelming violence. Granted they are trying to put on their best face for the local farmers, but it is not ringing true.
This may sound ridiculous, but it appears to me that America would be more effective if it relied more on cultural agents that were similar to the small Afghan farmers and villagers - a kind of peace corp. I realize America has classified this region as a war zone, but for locals it is home, and to a certain extent life goes on normally, so it ought not to be crazy to suggest using a normalizing force that they can identify with and gain trust in more quickly.
America is a complex culture. It has many people and farmers with similar lifestyles as these people. I suggest sending in a peaceful force of agrarian faiths including Muslims. The Mennonite Central Committee immediately comes to mind, and there are many more organizations doing similar work. Many of these groups have been doing this kind of work for decades throughout the world. I am thinking of the Mennonites because central to their faith is the doctrine of pacifism. In areas of conflict this makes them honest agents of good faith. They are also known to build relationships through concrete hands-on work to address basic human needs such as water and food supply.
Steve Clemen’s article is about the best articulated piece I’ve read today on Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Obama’s ‘unclenched fist’ won the prize
Cynics will say that Oslo was jealous that Copenhagen, Denmark, scored a visit from President Obama, and giving him a Nobel was the only way to get him to Norway.
But the Nobel Committee’s decision to make Obama the only sitting U.S. president since Woodrow Wilson to receive the Nobel Peace Prize shows the committee’s clear-headed assessment that Obama’s “unclenched fist” approach to dealing with the world’s most thuggish leaders has had a constructive, systemic impact on the world’s expectations of itself.
Obama has helped citizens all around the world — including in the United States — to want a world beyond the mess we have today in the Middle East and South Asia. They want a world where America is benign and positive, and where other leaders help in supporting the struggles of their people for better lives rather than securing themselves through crude power.
Ruffled Feathers
I went looking for a media clip that treated Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize as news and not something to spin suspicion, or asked if he deserved it. I had to resort to a foreign news outlet - ITN news out of the UK.
One strategy of an intelligent society to gain territory is to attempt to embed meaning and cultural significance in a particular place. This is what Israel is doing with plans for a Jewish Archaeological Theme Park in Palestinian territory.
On the eve of President Obama’s visit to the Middle East and his speech in Cairo. Max Blumenthal propels himself again into the middle of (it). Like many of his video reports Max places himself in the middle of his opponents power celebrations with a fearful and driven edge in his voice he again struggles for composure on the issues. Some of this composure may come from editing. Regardless he relies on the tradition of a truth to power journalism, a tradition that may not be as well respected in other parts of the world, not that it is so respected here in the U.S.
Video journalist Max Blumenthal talks to many in the Jewish settler movement who put it all out there. Winners of the Moskowitz Prize state frankly that they want to continue the ethnic cleansing of Occupied Territories — and young kids parrot the meme that Palestinians have no right to lands that are Israel’s holy lands.
This cult of land expropriators needs to be rolled back. I understand the realities that there are certain settlements that will remain part of Israel when a Palestinian state is created — but in a fair land swap.
But the expansion of settlements that “bingo tycoon” Irving Moskowitz keeps pushing is undermining the security interests of all parties in the region — particularly Israel’s.
Blumenthal’s work is some of the most vital and creative journalism out there today.
From this mornings (04-10-09) headline “Top US General: We May Have to Ignore Iraq Deadline: at the Huffington Post.
There is no better way to bring some of the reality of this war home to Americans and create the sense of a comfortable domestic setting being pierced by an very violent force than to use familiar visual and graphic cues like the “put your trash in the garbage.”
When asked why that elderly woman was killed, a squad commander was quoted as saying: “What’s great about Gaza — you see a person on a path, he doesn’t have to be armed, you can simply shoot him. In our case it was an old woman on whom I did not see any weapon when I looked. The order was to take down the person, this woman, the minute you see her. There are always warnings, there is always the saying, ‘Maybe he’s a terrorist.’ What I felt was, there was a lot of thirst for blood.”
Amir Marmor, a 33-year-old history graduate student in Jerusalem and a military reservist, said in an interview with The New York Times that he was stunned to discover the way civilian casualties were discussed in training discussions before his tank unit entered Gaza in January. “Shoot and don’t worry about the consequences,” was the message from the top commanders, he said. Speaking of a lieutenant colonel who briefed the troops, Mr. Marmor said, “His whole demeanor was extremely gung ho. This is very, very different from my usual experience. I have been doing reserve duty for 12 years, and it was always an issue how to avoid causing civilian injuries. He said in this operation we are not taking any chances. Morality aside, we have to do our job. We will cry about it later.”
The American Friends Service Committee carries out service, development, social justice, and peace programs throughout the world. Founded by Quakers in 1917 to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian war victims, AFSC’s work attracts the support and partnership of people of many races, religions, and cultures.
AFSC’s work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. The organization’s mission and achievements won worldwide recognition in 1947 when it accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with the British Friends Service Council on behalf of all Quakers.
The AFSC is directed by a Quaker board and staffed by Quakers and other people of faith who share the Friends’ desire for peace and social justice.
“Netanyahu seeks to deny the Palestinians four rights of any sovereign state: control of its airspace; control of its electromagnetic spectrum; the right to maintain an army and to sign military alliances; and, most importantly, control of the border crossings where arms and terrorists could pass. Netanyahu believes Israel must retain all of these. Netanyahu’s model is based on the work of Stanford University political science professor Stephen Krasner, who was director of policy planning in the State Department under Condoleezza Rice. Krasner developed a “restricted sovereignty” model for problematic state structures.”
Do I have to say, if an Arab refuses to concede Israel’s “right to exist” the U.S. government considers them an irrelevant radical promoting terrorism against a sovereign state.
UPDATE: “pursuit of a peace agreement that includes a Palestinian state seems inescapable.”
On Saturday, March 10, 1979, Hampshire College became the first American college to divest from Apartheid South Africa. Although Apartheid wasn’t ended for another 15 years, Hampshire College’s decision was a critical first step. Hampshire was the first of 155 American colleges and universities to eventually divest from South Africa. The divestment movement grew to include individuals, cities, corporations, and even the U.S. Federal Government. As billions of dollars of capital were pulled from the economy, the South African government was forced to engage in negotiations that eventually led to the end of the Apartheid system.
On Saturday, February 7, 2009, Hampshire College became the first American college to divest from companies that benefit from the Israeli Occupation.
The effort to divest from Israel is gaining steam. Click here or here for links to a few of the campaigns that are underway. I find the denominational campaigns to be the most interesting. As a Mennonite, I’m particularly fascinated by what the Mennonite Church is saying. In 2007 a Mennonite delegation visited Palestine and Israel and issued a statement that called for people “to avoid investments which violate international law and promote violence.” As far as I know, the church has not yet made a binding decision on this point. But I do find their words heartening. I pray that the Mennonite Church will have the courage to turn these words into action.
UPDATE (April 3rd, ‘09): Since being visited upon by an agent from Tel Aviv-yafo, Tel Aviv three days ago, this post has been receiving spam every 2:10 from that address.
Netanyahu has vowed to abandon negotiations with the Palestinians, and says he will expand the program of Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank.
Despite today’s faintly ridiculous attempt in the NYT to depict Netanyahu as a born-again pragmantist, in fact he rejects any withdrawal from the Palestinian West Bank by Israeli squatters, despite Israel’s commitment to pull back in the Oslo accords. Since the West Bank looks like Swiss cheese with regard to administration and settlement patterns, there isn’t a Palestinian state to be had there without an extensive Israeli pullback, and Netanyahu has never shown any interest in either pullback or Palestinian state.
Now his people are trying to revive this bizarre idea of giving Jordan some sort of vague authority over the West Bank Palestinians as a way of denying them statehood in their own right. Jordan’s government has been under severe pressure to expel the Israeli ambassador over the brutal Gaza campaign, and any such active collaboration with Israel to repress the West Bankers would risk toppling the Hashemite throne. King Hussein once accused Netanyahu of single-handedly destroying every positive thing the Jordanian monarch had worked for.
Netanyahu is a train wreck for the Middle East. He is willing to ally with Avigdor Lieberman, an open racist who is gunning for the 20 percent of Israel’s citizen population that is Palestinian. Netanyahu wants a war with Iran, and when the Israeli Right wants a war nowadays, they usually want our children to fight and die in it for them. The 1996 “Clean Break” Neoconservative policy paper advocating a war on Iraq was written for Netanyahu. (They are not satisfied with picking our pockets for their weapons and colonization projects). Netanyahu will further oppress and brutalize the Palestinians, which he will keep in a slave-like condition of statelessness, and from whom he will steal what little property they have left. Last time he was in office he went around poisoning his enemies, for all the world like the Bulgarian KGB in the old days.
Netanyahu is the devil’s gift to international terrorism, which his policies will provoke. Fifty years from now, the turn of Israel to the hard right will be looked back upon as the beginning of the end of Israel, the time when the crucial decisions were made that rendered it impossible for the Israelis to stay in the Middle East in the face of the increasing popular anger Netanyahu will have provoked in 1.5 billion Muslims. No, Israel cannot be defeated on the battleground. But the French colons in Algeria were never really defeated on the battleground, either, nor were the thousands of Britons who had ruled India.
More immediately, all Americans will have reason to rue Netanyahu’s return to power, since the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other elements of the powerful Israel lobbies will pull Congress around to support Likudnik policies in the next few years.
“Former Palestinian presidential candidate (and likely future candidate) Mustafa Barghouti stopped by my office today for a short discussion on his impressions of what is possible and what is not in the aftermath of yesterday’s national elections in Israel.
As usual, Barghouti paints a compelling picture of limited options and stark realities.”
A Post-Modern Media Investigation of Events in Gaza During Israeli Media Blockade.
The cynical self-referential use of the media: story-of-story about the master narrative - power
Question of who’s the Author
Story at margin piercing master narrative: by design in gorilla warfare or result of weakness in fabric of master narrative.
There has been very little discussion or debate in the U.S. about the conflict in Gaza. In general the media is preoccupied with Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, AKA Joe - “media should not report on war” - the - Plumber, reporting for Pajama tv from Israel.
Joe-the-Plumber: the right-wing media remnant of the 2008 Presidential Campaign.
And then there are the images of Israeli citizen’s viewing this tragedy from the relaxed distant hilltops:
1) A view from inside Gaza from a foreign media outlet.
Palestinian Girl Attempts to Stop Israeli Soldiers. I just want to compare her Heroic nature to that of the celebrity of Joe-the-Plumber’s epic of the documentarian on the killing fields.
2) Gaza Doctor’s tragedy caught on live Israeli TV. So human and so tragic. This shows how human complexities and emotions can override systems of power.
A Case Study in Urban Planning: The pattern language of the conflict in the built environment
Maps of the territories
Structures and Walls
UN Map “West Bank: Access and Closure, December 2007″ (pdf)
Israeli Settlements Established and Evacuated 1967-2008 (pdf)
What are the impacts on natural resources by humans in this conflict beyond demarcating territory and occupation?
Possible single-state solutions to the conflict
Ethnic Cleansing
Democracy
Apartheid
For an American audience weaned on the rhetoric of Democracy, ethnic cleansing and apartheid are not generally excepted options. Still, we know Israel’s desired solution includes a state with a Jewish majority to ensure the continuation of its identity. A honorable and worthy cause for all peoples.
A Jewish majority and the making of a Democracy?
No, this is not a nuanced discussion on the majority/minority power relationship we are familiar with in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. This is a naive formulation of democracy as Majority Rule. Who could argue against it? O.K. I do and you may also. The only way they can accomplish this in a single-state solution is by means of ethnic cleansing or apartheid. With America as an audience to this conflict they would have to dress their actions in democratic attire. An approach that is just too brutal to imagine. Thus we are back to a two-state solution.
Eye Witness Accounts to This Crippling Reality
Photos of the eviction of the Al Kurd family by Peter Miller of Menonite Central Committee (MCC)
“… half of their home has been taken over by settlers” (Photos)
And the demolition of the Bishara Family Home (Photos)
For more eye-witness accounts of events in this part of the world you can visit Peter Miller’s blog In the Middle or David Hoye’s blog City of…
For more information on these events and more in the Middle East visit Juan Cole’s blog Informed Comment.
