Flashpoints June 28: ISM members Chivvas Moore and Brian Wood; 'under God'; G8

KPFA Flashpoints News Radio

The Sad and Sordid Whereabouts of bin Cheney and bin Bush, - A Free Online Chapter addition to "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore, "The bottom line: Anyone who would brazenly steal an election and insert themselves into OUR White House with zero mandate from The People is, frankly – sadly – capable of anything."

Friday, June 28, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: Killing the West Bank slowly; national outrage at Pledge of Allegiance ruling; Flashponts in Espanol: statement of resistance from a young Guatemalan activist at the G8 conference in Calgary
-00:40 Dennis: in Balata a 17 year old killed when soldiers open fire on stone throwers.. in Quaquila a six year killed on curfew break.. now with American teacher at Berzeit University, Chivvis Moore: strangulation.. THINGS HAVE COME TO A HALT.. PEOPLE CAN'T WORK, KIDS CAN'T GO TO SCHOOL, THE MEDICAL SYSTEM IS AT A STANDSTILL.. yet another effort to get as many people to leave ASAP.. Dennis: ISRAEL SEEMS TO HAVE A NEW STRATEGY, THEY ANNOUNCE A BREAK IN THE CURFEW, AND THEN SHOOT DOWN THE CHILDREN WHEN THEY RUN OUT OF THEIR HOMES.. now with American teacher at Berzeit University.. Chivvis Moore: this is not new.. ISRAEL HAS ALWAYS TRIED TO BREAK PEOPLES' SPIRITS BY SAYING ONE THING AND DOING ANOTHER AND OTHER SUCH DISHONESTIES.. in Jenin people were killed on a curfew break, coming with sacks in their hands.. about a man I visited, brain dead, shot in the head on a curfew, in Ramallah.. Dennis: an attempt to destroy a way of life.. now w Brian Wood , of the International Solidarity Movement.. Brian: yeah, the curfew imposed by fear and soldiers going around in tanks shooting at people.. in Jenin, 30% of the camp bulldozed.. the Jenin residents were people who loved life, had very big parties at weddings.. one wedding last year had 10,000 celebrants.. these are people without much money.. now only a few thousand people left in the camp, living among the ruins.. Dennis: about CNN apologizing for being alledgedly *pro-Palestinian*.. Chivis: it is fascinating to me how a suituation can be twisted so that it seems to be what it is not.. THE PALESTINIAN VIOLENCE THAT PEOPLE TALK ABOUT, THAT IS JUST THE THE SYMPTOM.. THE DISEASE IS THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF THE WEST BANK FOR 35 YEARS.. it is hard to hear things twisted around.. 3.4 million people being strangled to death or submission.. the submission will only be temporary.. two men taken from an ambulance, beated by soldiers, taken away.. you can't even get to a hospital anymore.. sometimes for a matter of hours.. I asked what was wrong with the person inside the ambulance.. his appendix burst.. people afraid to come out of their houses.. because of the Israelis shooting at people during curfew breaks.. 27 Internationals trapped inside the hospital.. the US vetoes any international monitors.. a man in the hospital, beaten by the Israelis so bad he has internal injuries.. a long slow torture of a whole people.. refreshing to me that the US adminstration no longer pretending to support peace, more honest.. CIVILIANS ARE UNLAWFULLY BEING HELD, STEPPED ON, KILLED.. WITH US MONEY, GUNS, AND ARMS.. AMERICANS NEED TO HAVE THE COURAGE TO SPEAK OUT.. Brian: the same policy being acted out that the Zionist movement has acted out since 1948.. in the documents of the early Zionists (link2) (Cactus 48) (link4) (Zmag) (Avenery) (more links).. their intent was to remove as many of the native inhabitants as they could.. to 'transfer' them, to resettle them.. very few people seem to be aware that this is a central tenet of Zionist thought.. still trying to remove as many Pals from their ancestral lands as possible.. Dennis: Sharon just called for a million Jews to 'return' to Israel.. Chivas: there is a water problem.. not enough water in Israel for all the millions, so they have to have the West Bank water.. people on the outside what is done over time, rather than suddenly.. millions can be massacred and people will accept.. the Pals did nothing to the Jews, when the Jews came in after WWII.. if the Arabs had been expelled 35 years ago when Israel captured the West Bank.. Dennis: Brian, you write poetry.. Brian: I have a lot of time under curfew.

Brian's Poem: sounds of children screaming cease, replaced by sounds of tank treads.. buying vegetables and bread in the market of Jenin.. open fire on the.. four kids and a mother.. the red bread, no longer edible.. defending.. born of the wrong race, and wearing too dark skin.. (The Israelis) have a state though, so they aren't terrorists.. defending themselves from the stateless.. two million people stuck in their homes.. (You Soldiers,) happy to kill the nameless faceless cockroaches.. (suicide bombings) the result of your boot on their necks.. Palestinians are survivors..

the 9th circuit court ruling against the phrase, under God, stirs reaction across the nation.. the separation of church and state.. now w Professor Cecelia Alari (sp?).. Dennis: surprised?.. Cecelia: no, when it was added in 1954, it was constitutionally suspect.. interesting that it has taken this long to be challenged.. (no further review this segment)..

October 2001, Harper's magazine published the "Gaza Diary" of journalist Chris Hedges. Hedges' entry for June 17, 2001 provides even more shocking evidence of the wanton and deliberate killing of Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers at Gaza's Khan Yunis refugee camp.

Hedges writes:

"I sit in the shade of a palm-roofed hut on the edge of the dunes, momentarily defeated by the heat, the grit, the jostling crowds, the stench of the open sewers and rotting garbage. A friend of Azmi's brings me, on a tray, a cold glass of tart, red carcade juice."

"Barefoot boys, clutching kites made out of scraps of paper and ragged soccer balls, squat a few feet away under scrub trees. Men in flowing white or gray galabias -- homespun robes -- smoke cigarettes in the shade of slim eaves. Two emaciated donkeys, their ribs protruding, are tethered to wooden carts with rubber wheels."

"It is still. The camp waits, as if holding its breath. And then, out of the dry furnace air, a disembodied voice crackles over a loudspeaker."

""Come on, dogs," the voice booms in Arabic. "Where are all the dogs of Khan Younis? Come! Come!""

"I stand up. I walk outside the hut. The invective continues to spew: "Son of a bitch!" "Son of a whore!" "Your mother's cunt!""

"The boys dart in small packs up the sloping dunes to the electric fence that separates the camp from the Jewish settlement. They lob rocks toward two armored jeeps parked on top of the dune and mounted with loudspeakers. Three ambulances line the road below the dunes in anticipation of what is to come."

"A percussion grenade explodes. The boys, most no more than ten or eleven years old, scatter, running clumsily across the heavy sand. They descend out of sight behind a sandbank in front of me. There are no sounds of gunfire. The soldiers shoot with silencers. The bullets from the M-16 rifles tumble end over end through the children's slight bodies. Later, in the hospital, I will see the destruction: the stomachs ripped out, the gaping holes in limbs and torsos."

"Yesterday at this spot the Israelis shot eight young men, six of whom were under the age of eighteen. One was twelve. This afternoon they kill an eleven-year-old boy, Ali Murad, and seriously wound four more, three of whom are under eighteen. Children have been shot in other conflicts I have covered -- death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo -- but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport."

There can be no doubt that Israeli troops have been targeting innocent Palestinian civilians for death from the beginning of the uprising. This understanding was also reflected in UN Security Council Resolution 1322, passed on October 7, 2000, which

"Condemns acts of violence, especially the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life."

In making the moral superiority claim, Israel's apologists are either shamelessly denying the irrefutable evidence cited above and are simply lying, or they are asserting that some forms of murder are morally superior to other forms of murder.

following the lead of Bush and Sharon, CNN apologizes for their so-called 'pro Palestinian' bias.. Sharon's buddy, Uri Dan is the Fox Jerusalem bureau chief.. now w Ali Abunimah of the Arab-American Action Committee and Electronic Intifada.. Ali: like putting David Duke in charge of civil rights coverage in the US.. Israel threatens to boot CNN from Israel cable and replace them with Fox if they don't toe the line.. Israel shooting more kids in phoney curfews.. Israel says they fire tank shells for 'crowd control' (instead of the usual tear gas).. Dennis: NPR's Linda Gradstein not reporting the names of the dead Pal kids.. about CNN's apology, that they are 'a bit biased towards Palestine'.. Ali: Harretz says: Israelis 'rubbing their hands with glee'.. CNN now labeling all Palestinian violence as 'terrorism'.. says 225 innocent Israeli civilians killed by terrorists.. but the number of innocent Palestinian children killed by Israel is more than ALL the Israelis killed of any age.. What about that?.. the Israeli ambassador to US, Pinkas, told Harretz that he has found NO pro-Palestinian bias on CNN.. "Nonsense" he said.. Ali: and CNN head Walter Isaacs asked me for my opinion.. He said: THERE IS NO PRO-PALESTINIAN BIAS ON CNN.. CNN now identifies Jewish only Israeli settlements on illegally occupied Arab land, as simply and dishonestly 'Jewish neighborhoods'.. truly extraordinary.. two weeks ago, CNN owner, Ted Turner, said *anyone* who attacks civilians is using terrorism, be they Palestinian or Israeli.. after those comments, CNN threatened with removal from Israeli cable.. Israel driving the networks into the far right camp.. the scandal is that our media going along with it.. about right wing US Jewish attorney, Nathan Luwin, writing articles urging the killing of suicide bombers' families (link1) (link2) (counterpunch) (link4 ).. a prominent lawyer, has appeared in front of the US Supreme Court 30 times.. in the Jewish journal, Sh’ma.. imagine what would happen if a Palestinian American wrote a similar article in the US about the families of Israeli terrorists?. more info: Electronic Intifada

once again accounting giant, Arthur Anderson, front and center, this time in the WorldCom scandal.. now w Russell Mokhiber, of Corporate Crime Reporter, and author of Corporate Predators (order from Codys).. Russell: WorldCom started by an exbouncer in Mississippi, started a telecom company and started buying up other telecom companies.. 80,000 WorldCom workers facing the axe.. pension funds losing hundreds of millions.. the lesson: we can no live by the the Chicago rule.. make profit at the the expense of the law even.. made regulation, law and order, a dirty word.. we have to change the fundamental structure of hte system.. about the bouncer.. how did he learn to cook the books.. Bernie Evers.. one person can't pull this kind of thing off.. today a house committee subpenaed Evers.. we have a conflicted system right and left.. an analyst recommended WorldCom to the end.. exposed by Martin White.. he looked at ratings by investment banks.. 47 of the 50 investment banks gave a buy or hold rating to these bankrupt companies.. conflicted.. making money selling the company stock.. the cops are pulling punches.. the DOW below 9,000, and justice nowhere to be found.. Dennis: could these guys have done this without AA?.. now w investigative reporter Lucy Komisar.. Lucy: NO, they need experts.. accountants are not surprised when they see this stuff.. try to cover their tracks after.. Senator McCain said put some of these people in jail.. also the people supposed to be regulating these people.. you would thing they would want good accounting.. but no these people are crooked.. Japan says a great deal of lost confidence.. when CEO's are crooks.. when Europe withholds investment, a dangerous spiral.. a frightening effect on this country.. Rubin acted against the interests of this country.. Dennis: how do you hide 3.9B from your accountant?.. Lucy: either you have a really dumb accountant, or a crooked accountant.. Dennis: politicians don't even seem to be upset Russell: the two parties all manuevering for political advantage, not really addressing the issues.. will probably manipulate the terrorism story to cloak the financial.. will take a grass roots movement of citizens.. even Martha Stewart chopping cabbage, said the charges were ridiculous.. Lucy: the Europeans have an accounting standard, if you sign off on a company, you have to back up your accounting.. the US is different.. finangaling.. need to have criminal penalties.. if you rob someone of a hundred dollars in the street, you will go to jail.. but if you rob the public of hundreds of millions of dollars, the lawyers will get you off.. Russell: yes, about 'deferred prosecution agreements'.. to avoid criminal charges.. Lucy: there is supposed to be punishment to deter people from doing the crime.. but just the opposite for financial crimes.. the penalties a tiny percentage of the illegal gains.. such a complex thing you don't find the public outrage.. Russell: Ted Kennedy introduced legislation to restrict the size of companies.. in the Anderson case, the size.. we have to look at fundamental issues.. the state.. corporate charters.. totally perverted.. we need to bring them back under public control.. Lucy: we are headed to monopoly control.. once you get that kind of monopoly, like Microsoft.. Windows is terrible, but they have killed the competition.. that is what happens when you get monopoly.. bad products, but you also get political power.. I don't know what the answer is except a political revolution.. we will learn a lot by what kind of legislation gets passed.. maybe they do really control our govermnent and ordinary people have been rendered powerless.