Clashing Views of Political Reality: Chomsky versus Dershowitz

By Prof. Richard Falk

http://richardfalk.wordpress.com

            My friend and former collaborator, Howard Friel, has written an intriguing book contrasting the worldviews and polemical styles of two Jewish American intellectuals with world class reputations, Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz (Friel, Chomsky and Dershowitz: On Endless War and the End of Civil Liberties, Olive Branch Press, 2014). The book is much more than a comparison of two influential voices, one critical the other apologetic, with respect to the Israel/Palestine struggle and the subordination of private liberties to the purveyors of state-led security at home and abroad . Friel convincingly favors Chomsky’s approach both with respect to the substance of their fundamental disagreements and in relation to sharply contrasting styles of argument.

            Chomsky is depicted, accurately I believe, as someone consistently dedicated to evidenced based reasoning reinforced by an abiding respect for the relevance and authority of international law and morality. Chomsky has also been a tireless opponent of American imperialism and military intervention, and of oppressive regimes anywhere on the planet. He is also shown by Friel to be strongly supportive of endowing individuals whether citizens or not with maximal freedom from interference by the state. From such perspectives, the behavior of Israel and the United States are assessed by Chomsky to be betrayals of humane values and of the virtues of a constitutional democracy.

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Uri Avnery's 90th birthday

A symposium: "Will Israel exist in 90 years from now?" starts around 28:41 minutes.

Israel's Killer Robots (must watch!!!)

Ali Morgan In Bethlehem.

Please visit Ali's blog and spread the her message.

http://greennumberplate.wordpress.com/

Ali will be available for talks once back. Any interested contacts gratefully received.  

Ali Writes:

About my role with EAPPI:

EAPPI is a World council of Churches Programme, set up in response to an appeal by the Palestinian churches in 2001 to come and see what is happening to the Palestinian population (both Muslim and Christian). EAPPI sends internationals to serve in the West Bank, providing protective presence, monitoring and reporting human rights abuses and supporting Palestinian and Israeli organisations in their non-violent efforts to end the occupation and bring about a just peace based on International law and the implementation of UN resolutions.

see:  www.eappi.org

I am one of five internationals in the Bethlehem team. Our work covers both the urban area of Bethlehem municipality and the surrounding 41 villages - a total population of 194,000 Palestinians. We are one of eight EAPPI teams (a total of 36 EAs) working in various locations around the West Bank.


Latest news:

The situation is very bad in the Bethlehem governorate and across the whole of West Bank at the moment. There has been a significant increase in the number of incidents of aggression by the Israeli military and settlers against the Palestinian civilian population. My team has been submitting incident reports to the UN and others almost every day - mainly related to incidents in the villages surrounding the city. Settlement expansion continues all the time despite the so-called 'Peace talks'. People here believe this is a deliberate and orchestrated strategy by the Israeli government to incite frustration and violence from the Palestinian population so that the talks will be ended and their failure blamed on the Palestinians again.  Last week three Palestinian men were shot dead in the South Hebron Hills. Some of our Palestinian friends here agree with the Israeli view that these men were involved in an violent group, but nevertheless these killings have caused huge anger across the entire Palestinian community because they were basically extra-judicial executions with no attempt at arrest or due process. The general belief here is that the killings were a part of the Israeli propaganda strategy rather than a response to an immediate threat.

There are 41 Palestinian villages in Bethlehem governorate. There are also 22 illegal Israeli settlements with up to 60,000 settlers each and dozens of settlement outposts.  Almost all the villages are severely threatened by loss of land to the settlements and the route of the Segregation Wall. Some like An Nu'man are already a lost cause, totally surrounded and isolated by the Wall and settlements with all access restricted by an Israeli checkpoint.  Much of the Wall has yet to be completed. It seems apparent that the Israeli authorities are waiting to finalise the wall route to allow maximum settlements expansion and land grab.  It is clear that the plan is to join up these settlements with Jerusalem and this will effectively cut the West Bank in two, severing road links between north and south and cantonising the Palestinian population.

last Monday we were called to two incidents where olive trees had been destroyed. The IDF visited one farmer in the village of Al Jubba and grubbed up 93 olive saplings - the man who is the legal registered owner of the land had replanted the field for the fifth time last year. Before we had finished there we were called to Tuqu' village and arrived to find a team of settlers with chainsaws cutting down about 60 mature olive trees. The settlers were protected by a large force of soldiers and border police. We and the farmers could only look on helpless against this show of state sponsored vandalism. Our only weapons were our cameras and our pens. This was the culmination of several weeks of aggression by Israeli settlers from Teqoa settlement and called  a vigilante group Women in Green, led by Nadia Matar. See my next blog for more on this.

Despite everything we continue to be amazed and inspired at the generosity of the many Palestinians we meet every day and their determination to resist non-violent. But the repeated refrain we hear from them is 'why doesn't the world care about us?'

Best wishes

Ali

Alison Morgan
EAPPI Bethlehem Team 50

Ken O'Keefe's Middle East Show Starts Today!

A message from Ken:

Aloha all,

Well my first show on The People's Voice will air on Sunday from 1600-1800 GMT.

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.tv/watchnow

It is a great programme with Gilad Atzmon and I having a conversation about the control of language and Jewish power, politically incorrect through and through.

I am also very happy to debut the series of stories about families in Gaza I met in 2011 when I lived there for 6 months. These are powerful, emotional stories and I must thank brother Ashraf Elwakhery for being the man who finally edited all the raw footage. There are 24 stories about 21 families and we are starting off with the heartbreaking story of Zeinat Samouni, it brings tears to my eyes to watch this story every single time, if you are not moved by what this beautiful woman and her children have been through then you have clearly lost your humanity. And lastly, I am very happy to have sister Noor Harazeen as our TPV Correspondent in Gaza, she will be giving us regular reports and also giving us an update about Zeinat and her children.

Please share this far and wide, please tune in, the show is called 'Ken O'Keefe's Middle East', it will repeat later in the day, prime time in the US and other places throughout the week. We may have call in opportunities, stayed tuned for info for that. TJP