Author: RustyPipes

In coming weeks, many Pacific Coast Progressive Christians will gather to contemplate what justice requires of US in Israel and Palestine.  Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) is hosting conferences in the Pacific Northwest, Hawai’i and Northern California for the next few weekends.  

Friends of Sabeel regional conferences are an effective tool for broadening awareness among western Christians on the issues relevant to the peoples of the Holy Land.  Drawing on a rich pool of expertise in the fields of theology, biblical scholarship, church social justice teaching, regional history, international law, foreign policy and political currents, these educational events are able to attract wide participation from an ecumenical audience.  Our speakers are individuals who represent the Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities as well as the Israeli Jewish community–religious leaders, scholars, writers and activists.  American presenters come from all three religious traditions and from secular strands within the Sabeel movement.

FOSNA is an American affiliate of Sabeel, the Palestinian Liberation Theology organization founded by Anglican Canon, the Rev. Naim Ateek. Among the speakers headlining all of the conferences are Mohammad Alatar, Naim Ateek, Anna Baltzer, Mark Braverman and Jeff Halper:

Mohammed Alatar – Filmmaker and human rights activist from town of Jenin in the West Bank. Nominated for the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Humanity in 2002 for his work campaigning for human rights. Films include The Iron Wall and Jerusalem: The East Side Story.

The Rev Naim Ateek The Rev. Naim Ateek is an Arab Israeli citizen, founder and leader of Sabeel, (Arabic for ‘the way’), and a former canon pastor of the Episcopal Cathedral of Jerusalem. He is the author of many books and articles including Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation and, most recently, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation. He has been called the Bishop Tutu of Palestine.

Anna Baltzer – Jewish-American granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Fulbright scholar and volunteer with International Women’s Peace Service, where she documented human rights abuses. Author of Witness in Palestine: Journal of a Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories.

Mark Braverman is a Jewish American clinical psychologist, founder of Crisis Management Group Associates in Maryland, and activist for justice. Mark focuses on the role of religious beliefs and theology in the current discourse on Israel/Palestine and the future of interfaith relations. He has recently published Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land.

Jeff Halper is coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and an Israeli-American peace activist.  He is also a professor of anthropology, an acclaimed speaker and a 2006 Nobel Prize nominee. He is the author of Obstacles to Peace: A Re-framing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and An Israeli In Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel.

The first conference is this weekend in Seattle, WA February 19 and 20.  Additional speakers include Neve Gordon, Kathleen and Bill Christison and Cindy and Craig Corrie:

Neve Gordon is a senior lecturer on Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University, the author of Israel’s Occupation, and editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights.

Kathleen and Bill Christison: Kathleen is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 35 years. She is the author of Perceptions of Palestine and The Wound of Dispossession. Bill is also formerly with the CIA.  Kathleen and Bill have just published Palestine in Pieces: Graphic Perspectives on the Israeli Occupation.

Cindy and Craig Corrie are the parents of Rachel Corrie and founders of the Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice

Among the weekend’s workshops is one offered by blogger, Richard Silverstein:

… media panel on Saturday, February 20th at 3:15 PM:

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Media

Richard Silverstein, author of Tikun Olam, Israeli-Palestinian peace blog
Bruce Ramsey, Seattle Times editorial writer
Larry Johnson former foreign editor, Seattle Post Intelligencer and author, Looking for Trouble, foreign affairs blog

The panel will examine the nature and quality of reporting on the conflict in both the U.S.:

Getting more & better coverage into the media
Making coverage more accessible to the average American
the collapse of print media: how does it alter the landscape for coverage
Where do people get their coverage of the conflict?
Critique of media coverage of I-P conflict: why is so much, so bad?
Political issues that should be covered and aren’t?
Improving communications between Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. media and peace activists
Role of digital media, social networking in expanding access to news about the conflict

The next conference is in Honolulu, HI February 26 and 27:

What Does Justice Require of US?
Peace with Justice in the Holy Land

a conference presented by Friends of Sabeel Hawai’i

Conference Goals: Educate others about the conflict in Palestine/israel; Provide a venue for discussion and dialogue; Empower U.S. citizens to become effectivde advocates of a just and peaceful solution.

Cathedral of Saint Andrew
Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii
229 Queen Emma Square
Honolulu, HI  96813

The last conference is in Marin County, March 4 and 5:

A Time for Truth, A Time for Action:
Palestine/Israel & the U.S. at the Crossroads

First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo

Additional workshops are offered by guests such as Omar Barghouti, Mads Gilbert, Paul Larudee, Barbara Lubin, Edward Peck and Stephen Zunes:

Omar Barghouti – Independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist committed to upholding international law and universal human rights. Founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and of the Palestinian Civil Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. Holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY.
…
Dr. Mads Gilbert – Norwegian doctor specializing in anesthesiology and emergency medicine. Solidarity worker with a range of international experience, including in Lebanon and Palestine. Provided emergency medical support in Gaza during Israeli attacks in December 2008 and January 2009. Has written and lectured about this experience.
…
Dr. Paul Larudee – Human rights advocate for peace and justice in Palestine. Active in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement dedicated to nonviolent resistance to the occupation. Was wounded in 2002 by Israeli gunfire in an attempt by ISM volunteers to help Palestinian families. Cofounder of Free Gaza Movement, whose boats became the first in 41 years to enter Gaza by sea, breaking the Israeli naval blockade. Founder of the Free Palestine Movement. Holds a PhD in linguistics from Georgetown University.

Barbara Lubin – Life-long peace, justice and disability rights activist and leader. Cofounder of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), which has delivered more than $17 million in food and medical aid to children in Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon and provided support for hundreds of community projects in the West Bank and Gaza. Has led nearly .20 delegations of North Americans to the Middle East.
…
Ambassador Edward Peck – Career Foreign Service officer who has held senior posts in Washington and abroad, including service in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. Was ambassador in Mauritania, chief of mission in Iraq, deputy director of Covert Intelligence Programs, director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs and special assistant to the under secretary for political affairs. Served as deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan
Administration. Currently president of Foreign Services International, a consulting firm working with governments, businesses and educational institutions.
…
Dr. Stephen Zunes – Professor of politics and international studies and chair of the program of Middle East Studies at the University of San Francisco. Author of numerous articles on U.S. policy, the Middle East, nonviolence and human rights. Has received several awards for his work. Author of Tinderbox: U.S Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.

The conferences last for two days, but it is possible to attend just one day or the other.  So if you missed today’s session in Seattle, it is still possible to make tomorrow’s.  Sabeel conferences are great opportunities not only to learn, but to meet other activists.  A few of us in the Bay Area are planning a get together for I/P bloggers after the Marin Sabeel Conference (contact me, rustdotypipesatyahoodotcom, for details).

Sabeel is an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians.  Inspired by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, this liberation theology seeks to deepen the faith of Palestinian Christians, to promote unity among them toward social action.  Sabeel strives to develop a spirituality based on love, justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation and reconciliation for the different national and faith communities.  The word “Sabeel” is Arabic for `the way` and also a `channel` or `spring` of life-giving water.

Sabeel also works to promote a more accurate international awareness regarding the identity, presence and witness of Palestinian Christians as well as their contemporary concerns.  It encourages individuals and groups from around the world to work for a just, comprehensive and enduring peace informed by truth and empowered by prayer and action.

The Message of the Manger

This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom God favors!’  
Luke 2:12-14

In the Christmas story, the sign for finding the Christ-child was this:  He would be wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. There are three important messages that emanate from the manger:

1.God in Christ has become accessible. Jesus Christ was born in a manger making God approachable, reachable, and available to all people. This is the great sign of God’s love.  

2.The manger stands for a different kind of a Messiah. The seemingly contradictory sign that the Christ is lying in a manger does not bode well for the birth of a great leader who was supposed to come from the line and lineage of his great ancestor David. The manger is the way of meekness and humility, the way of sacrificial love, the way of nonviolence.

3.The Christ of the manger brings peace through justice and not through violence.  Luke takes the titles that people attributed to Caesar – liberator, savior, lord, and god – and gives them to Jesus Christ. The contrast between the two figures, in the eyes of the world, was huge. For the early Christian community, and for us, Jesus Christ is the authentic Savior and Lord. Caesar brought peace through military means that were tremendously costly in terms of human life and property, and such peace is always shaky.  Christ can bring peace through justice and love that, when applied and practiced, is more stable and permanent. This is what Christ teaches and that is why, from Christ to this day, we dare to defy the Caesars.    

Reading the Christmas story through Palestinian eyes, and in light of our daily experience, is revealing. We live in the shadow of empire, of which the modern state of Israel is part. It is easy for Palestinians to contrast their oppressive situation under the Israeli occupation with people of Jesus’ day who lived under the brutal occupation of the Romans with its daily oppression and humiliation.  

Empire always talks about peace but its peace is false and temporary. Its peace is imposed and, therefore, an extension of its oppressive military power. It can never last because it is built on injustice. Israel’s peace rhetoric is a mirage that quickly disappears and people are hit with the glaring reality of injustice, violence, and humiliation. Such peace cannot be trusted.    

Christ’s peace is built on justice and is acquired through nonviolence and love. It can be trusted. Therefore, the unjust and illegal Israeli occupation must come to an end. Doing justice to the Palestinians ensures the achievement of peace through justice. At this Christmas season we need to re-commit ourselves to the liberation that Christ brings; and to continue to walk the way of peace through justice and nonviolence.

Sabeel wishes all its friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  
May the message of the manger inspire our activities throughout the coming year!

Reprinted with permission from Friends of Sabeel, North America

Advent Reflections are reprinted with permission from Churches for Middle East Peace

A record of the genealogy of
Jesus Christ the son of David,
the son of Abraham: Abraham
was the father of Isaac, Isaac
the father of Jacob, Jacob the
father of Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez and
Zerah, whose mother was
Tamar, Perez the father of
Hezron, Hezron the father of
Ram, Ram the father of
Amminadab, Amminadab the
father of Nahshon, Nahshon the
father of Salmon,Salmon the
father of Boaz, whose mother
was Rahab, Boaz the father of
Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse, and
Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of
Solomon, whose mother had
been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the
father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam
the father of Abijah, Abijah the
father of Asa, Asa the father of
Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the
father of Jehoram, Jehoram the
father of Uzziah, Uzziah the
father of Jotham, Jotham the
father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father
of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father
of Manasseh, Manasseh the
father of Amon, Amon the father
of Josiah, and Josiah the father
of Jeconiah and his brothers at
the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of
Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of
Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the
father of Abiud, Abiud the father
of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of
Azor, Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim, Akim
the father of Eliud, Eliud the
father of Eleazar, Eleazar the
father of Matthan, Matthan the
father of Jacob, and Jacob the
father of Joseph, the husband of
Mary, of whom was born Jesus,
who is called Christ.
-Matthew 1:1-16 (NIV)

Forefeast of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
In this scripture reading describing Christ’s birth, Matthew first gives Christ’s genealogy. This listing of names reminds us of the importance of connections, especially the deep connections we have with both the Jewish people and the Christians who live in the Holy Land today.

Abraham was the father of the Hebrews, and David was Israel’s greatest king.  Christ was descended from them through his mother Mary. Today Christians in the Holy Land live among the Jewish people in Israel and in the West Bank under the Israeli occupation. These verses remind us of the original connection between our two faiths and the importance of maintaining that bond from both religious and practical standpoints. Our Christian heritage includes Jewish people, and the fate of Christianity in the Holy Land greatly depends on their government. Our prayer for peace should include healing the frayed connection between our two peoples.  

We must also pray for the strength and patience of the Christians in the Holy Land today who represent our connection to the land where Christ was born and are the living witness of our faith there. Because of the difficulties caused by living under occupation, many Christians are leaving. We pray for peace so that they may stay in their homes and jobs and continue to be the living stones in the land of Christ’s birth.

-Marilyn Rouvelas, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Prayer
Holy God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever faithful to your promises and ever close to your Church: the earth rejoices in hope of the Savior’s coming and looks forward with longing to his return at the end of time. Prepare our hearts and remove the sin that hinders us from feeling the joy and hope that his presence will bestow. May we rediscover Your image within our hearts and live in its peace for all days. Unto to You be all honor and glory now and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

-Greek Orthodox Prayer of Preparation for the Nativity

Crossposted at Street Prophets

Advent Reflections are reprinted with permission from Churches for Middle East Peace.

Rejoice in the Lord always.
I will say it again: Rejoice!
Let your gentleness be
evident to all. The Lord is
near. Do not be anxious
about anything, but in
everything, by prayer and
petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to
God. And the peace of God,
which transcends all
understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:4-7 (NIV)

Something to Be Joyful For

The news I hear always seems to be bad …job losses, increasing hunger, more settlements in Palestine, flooding. I could fill this entire page with the weight of sorrows and lists of reasons that do not justify rejoicing.

Many times I turn to a prayer of Julian of Norwich, which in part is “All shall be well and shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” This brings me comfort and becomes an active reminder that I am a servant of Christ.

It is through the sincere acknowledgement of the sorrow and pain I see in our world that I more fully recognize the truly great gifts God gives. The love I have for my neighbors both close and far, the ministry that God has given to do good, do no harm and to deepen our relationship with God, and the awareness of God’s love present and active in our lives…these are reasons to rejoice in the Lord.

In the letter to the Philippians, and in many places in Scripture, we are told to rejoice, but not in just anything, rejoice in the Lord. As we count the days until Christmas some people may feel the pressures of holiday expectations, but at the core of these days is the anticipation of salvation. Like a race car preparing for the start of a race the engine roars as we look for a sign that God is with us always and we are ready to go, to act on God’s call. These are reasons to rejoice in the Lord.

And regardless of the success or failure of our efforts, we can act with the calm and gentleness of the Spirit and rejoice for Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again. These are reasons to rejoice in the Lord.

-Rev. Doris E. Warrell, Deacon, Dumbarton United Methodist Church

Prayer
When I am tired of doing what
God has called me to do,
When my efforts seem in
vain,
When I feel I am the only one
trying,
I will have a glad heart and
rejoice in the Lord.
For You, oh God,
have called me by name,
given me the gift of thought
and action, and
have blessed me with a
community, the Church, that
is the body of Christ.
Indeed, You are great and
wonderful, and I will rejoice!
Amen.

Advent Reflections are reprinted with permission from Churches for Middle East Peace:

First Week of Advent: The Peace of Jerusalem

The days are coming,’
declares the LORD, ‘when I
will fulfill the gracious
promise I made to the
house of Israel and to the
house of Judah.
In those days and at that
time I will make a righteous
Branch sprout from David’s
line; he will do what is just
and right in the land.
In those days Judah will
be saved and Jerusalem will
live in safety. This is the
name by which it will be
called:
The LORD Our
Righteousness.’
-Jeremiah 33:14-16 (NIV)

At the risk of his life, Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would be overrun by the Babylonians. Yet God did not leave the people without hope. Jeremiah foresaw the coming of a ruler in the line of David – a “righteous Branch” – who would bring peace to a rebuilt and glorious Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s prophesy helped form the developing belief in the coming of the Messiah.

Christians believe that this Messiah is Jesus. The promise of a renewed Jerusalem becomes the hope of a perfected people of God, described as “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from God.” (Revelations 21:2). And God’s chosen community is expanded to encompass “a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelations 7:9).

But what, then, is in store for temporal Jerusalem? Is it also promised peace?  

The great work of the Messiah is to remove the barriers between humankind and God and among people. It is a work of reconciliation and of the righting of relationships which we call justice.

In Jerusalem, Israel, and the Palestinian territories today, we find three faith communities – Jews, Muslims and Christians – and two nationalities – Israelis and Palestinians. Tragically, they are not at peace and they are not in right relationship with each other.

The Messiah is at work to bring these diverse, divided and often hostile peoples together – in peace, justice and security. When we allow ourselves to be instruments in God’s hands to advance this work of reconciliation and justice, we are participating in the fulfillment of “the gracious promise” of God to Israel, Judah, the Palestinian people and all the peoples of the earth.

-Martin Shupack, Church World Service

Prayer
Show me the way God,
for at times the path is full of
barriers and challenges.
Show me the way Jesus,
for this was also your road
that you prepare me to travel.
Show me the way Spirit,
because with a true heart I
want to call all people
Children of God.
Amen.

For Meditation
What are the fruits of right relationships? Where can they be found? What do
people do to have such wonderful rewards? Seeing and knowing this how
can we individually and together incorporate one more action, attitude or
learning into our lives that will bear such fruit?

Crossposted at Beyond Bethlehem and Street Prophets

Elias Chacour has faced many obstacles over the years in his efforts to create opportunities for Jewish, Christian and Muslim children to grow and learn together equally and peacefully in Israel. In his books, Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land, Bishop Chacour tells of how he started the project of educating children of the village of Ibillin in kindergartens and summer camps and struggles along the way as the Mar Elias Educational Institutes grew. At one point, the only way that he was able to receive the permits from the Israeli government for a high school building was through the intervention of then Secretary of State, James Baker.

Mar Elias’ latest challenge is that a related school in Dabourieh has been denied state funding for teachers’ salaries since June. Israel’s unique system for funding schools was part of Chacour’s impulse for building his first high school in Ibillin, as he writes in We Belong to the Land:
   

Elementary schools in Israel are provided by the government. However, secondary schools, grades nine through twelve, are all private, belonging to local municipalities, synagogues, rabbis or churches. Financial support comes from private donations and from a complicated “quota system” through the Israeli Ministry of Education. Teachers’ salaries can usually be paid from government money if a school qualifies for a good quota rating. The school building, furnishings, textbooks, and any extra supplies must be financed privately. By law, students pay no tuition in a secondary school, although there can be fees for special books and tools.

    The whole political and social situation of the Jews vis-a-vis the Palestinians is mirrored in Israel’s secondary school system. Jewish youngsters have ready access to secondary schools that often are financed through worldwide Jewish support, a municipality or religious organizations. In contrast, Arab Israeli young people, especially those living in the villages, have limited access to secondary schools because there is little outside support.

    Certainly no Jewish towns with nine thousand inhabitants would be without secondary schools for long, but no outcry is heard in Israel when Arab Israeli villages have none. In general, Arab villages do not receive the kind of help from the Israeli government that Jewish towns and villages receive, so their municipal resources to provide secondary schools are limited. Furthermore, a Jewish town would be granted a building permit for a secondary school immediately; an Arab village is denied a permit. (pp 130-31).

The United Methodist liason, Janet Lahr Lewis, has sent out this request concerning the teacher salaries which the Israeli government cut off this past June:

   Friday, October 30, 2009

    Dear Friends,

    Please read the letter below to the Ministry of Education and fax a copy of it to them immediately. A recent Volunteer in Mission team heard about this on a recent visit to Mar Elias Educational Institutions, one of our Advance project. They were upset enough to want to go and protest. I felt that a protest by 13 people would not even be noticed by the government offices so I suggested starting a protest campaign that might have more affect.

    After several calls to Bp Chacour to get all the details I composed this letter, had it approved by the team and the bishop, and made it available to the director of the school so that the many international groups who visit could also sign it and send to the Ministry of Education. These fax campaigns usually have more success than others.

    As of this writing no funds have been received. The officials continue to lie to the bishop saying “You will have the money tomorrow.” Meanwhile families go without, teachers continue to teach without pay and the amount due has increased to over 9 million shekels (around 3 million dollars!)

    I urge you to sign the following letter and fax it immediately to the office of the Minister of Education. The one thing Israeli officials must try to avoid is negative publicity. Knowing that this information has now gone out to the world may prompt them to action.

    Thank you for your support.

    Janet Lahr Lewis

    UM Liaison in Israel and Palestine
    Mr. Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Education

    Ministry of Education

    34, Shivtei Yisrael Street

    Jerusalem 91911

    Fax: 972 2 560 2223

    Dear Mr. Sa’ar,

    Recently it has come to our attention by way of supporters of Mar Elias Educational Institutions that a grave injustice is being committed with regards to the suspension of student subsidies used to pay teachers’ salaries at one of the educational facilities inside Israel.

    Archbishop Elias Chacour, whose life-long goal has been to provide a good education for children regardless of race or religion, in an atmosphere of peace, respect, and love for one another, has built one of the most successful educational institutions in Israel. These facilities are held up by the international community as an example of how peace and reconciliation is possible in the Middle East. Because of the success of Mar Elias Educational Institutions’ academic and social achievements, the archbishop was approached by a number of people from the village or Dabourieh, including the local authorities, the parents of many students, and a large number of teachers, to help them improve the quality of education for their children.

    The archbishop agreed to open a new high school, but not before complying with the government’s requirement of applying for a permit from the Ministry of Education. Applications were submitted repeatedly to which there was no reply whatsoever from the Ministry office. In the meantime, a list of new students was sent to the Ministry of Education. One month before the school was scheduled to open they received the subsidies for the students in order to pay the salaries of the teachers. This action of the payment of subsidies by the Ministry of Education was a concrete step connoting their approval to open the school. Since the Ministry of Education continued to pay all the subsidies for the students of Dabourieh it was then registered as a branch of Mar Elias Educational Institutions (MEEI) with the expectation and understanding that the school in Dabourieh would eventually operate independently.

    The second year the school was in operation the Ministry of Education continued to pay the subsidies until June, 2009. Suddenly without any prior notice, the Ministry office froze all the payments for all of Mar Elias Educational Institutions, a situation which continues to this day. The Ministry of Education office thence ordered that MEEI disassociate itself from the school in Dabourieh. The Ministry office also ordered MEEI to stop registering students from Dabourieh as a condition for the Ministry office to reinstate the payment of subsidies for the other Mar Elias institutions. MEEI immediately complied and yet, to this date, the Ministry of Education office has continued, against the advice of its own legal department to illegally withhold funds due to MEEI which currently amount to an excess of 9 million shekels.

    This non-payment of subsidies by the Ministry of Education has resulted in over 200 teachers and their families being forced to suffer without income since that date in June, 2009.

    As internationals we find this intentional withholding of funds and non-action on the part of the Ministry of Education to be a serious and blatant misuse of power, causing undue suffering of hundreds of people who hold Israeli citizenship. For a country that prides itself on being a democracy, this type of action is considered to be not only discriminatory, but a violation of the internationally recognized Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26 which states: ” (1)Everyone has the right to an education. (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups…” MEEI has proven to be and is internationally famous for being a successful example of this statement.

    Therefore, we strongly request that the Ministry of Education immediately comply with the law and provide all overdue payments of the student subsidies to MEEI and reinstate the regular payments of such, so that the teachers can receive the salaries which they so rightly deserve and to ensure that their families will no longer be forced to suffer from this injustice.

    Respectfully submitted,

    (Signature)_________________________

    (Country)__________________________

Crossposted at Beyond Bethlehem, Daily Kos and Street Prophets.

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an international organization which supports teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. These teams work to lower the levels of violence through nonviolent direct action, human rights documentation, and nonviolence training. CPT’s commitment to reducing violence by “getting in the way ” is both an expression of Christian commitment to be followers of “The Way” of Jesus and to intervene non-violently in areas of conflict.

CPT has teams in the Occupied Palestinian territories in Hebron and At-Tuwani. Part of their daily routines includes escorting children to school, and monitoring settler violence and soldier home invasions. The teams also work against the demolition of Palestinian property, such as homes, barns, clinics, and mosques.

In recent weeks, a half dozen homes and a cistern built on Palestinian-owned property near At-Tuwani have been destroyed. The IDF has demolished a road that was paved without permits and obstructed watertanks that have sought to access Palestinian villages even over unpaved roads. Even while the construction of houses at the illegal (even by Israeli standards) settlement of Ma’on have continued unobstructed.

Whatever the words of various Israeli leaders over the decades of occupation, through the Government of Israel’s actions, it has been slowly squeezing the Palestinian population, making their everyday existence on the land more and more difficult. A recent posting from CPT testifies to how this works out in the community surrounding At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills:

REFLECTION
At-Tuwani: Ethnic Cleansing
by Jan Benvie
September 2009

“We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border” (Theodor Herzl, one of the founders of Zionism, from ‘Righteous Victims’
by Benny Morris, p21-22)

From its inception there have been those within the Zionist movement who supported the expulsion of the indigenous Arab population of Palestine in order to create a Jewish state. This ethnic cleansing has been supported overtly and covertly by successive Israeli governments from the first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, to the present incumbent, Benjamin Netanyahu.

“In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the [Palestinian] Arab fellahin.. . . Jewish power … will also increase our possibilities to carry out the transfer on a large scale.” (Ben Gurion,1937, from ‘Righteous Victims’ Benny Morris, p143)

These words echo daily in my mind as I live and work in the South Hebron Hills. Here the Palestinian farmers (fellahin) have resiliently defied attempts to ‘spirit’ or ‘transfer’ them from their land.

Sometimes the ‘transfer’ is manifest, as in November 1999, when the
Israeli army forcibly expelled around 700 residents of this area, loading their belongings onto trucks, sealing their cave homes, destroying their cisterns and scattering their flocks. (‘Means of Expulsion’)
More often the ‘transfer’ is furtive. Since the establishment of the
settlements in this area in 1981, Palestinians have faced a constant
struggle to remain on their land. The nearby settlements and outposts
control large swathes of land, far in excess of their built up area*.
Almost daily, armed Israeli settlers, soldiers and police collude to expel Palestinian shepherds from their grazing lands.

“This is Israel,” the soldiers frequently say, gesturing to indicate all the land in sight.

Recently a Palestinian shepherd told me, “Today they tell me I can’t graze here, tomorrow it will be over there.” pointing to the next valley, nearer his village. “After a while we will be forbidden to leave our homes.”
Before the arrival of the Israeli settlers the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills were self-sufficient. As Herzl and others proposed, settlers have expropriated much of the valuable land. Denied the ability to grow crops or access their grazing land, the Palestinians of the area have been rendered ‘penniless’, with many dependent on food aid. Some villages have been abandoned because of settler violence, their populations forcibly ‘transferred’. Nevertheless, despite economic hardships and Israeli settler and military violence, many villagers remain, a testament to their continuing non-violent resistance.

*See 2008 report ‘Access Denied, Israeli measures to deny Palestinians access to land around settlements’, by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Also 2006 report by Israeli group Peace Now, ‘Breaking the Law in the West Bank’,  which reports that nearly 40% of the land on which Israeli settlements have been built is private Palestinian land.
Further information on how the Israeli state has taken control of
Palestinian land see B’Tselem.

Reprinted with Permission from Christian Peacemaker Teams

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Street Prophets

Recent commentaries by both Glenn Greenwald and Phil Weiss have highlighted a recent quote by Leslie Gelb, a leader of the Foreign Policy establishment who cheerled the war on Iraq:

My initial support for the war [in Iraq] was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives to support wars to retain political and professional credibility. We `experts’ have a lot to fix about ourselves, even as we `perfect’ the media. We must redouble our commitment to independent thought, and embrace, rather than cast aside, opinions and facts that blow the common–often wrong–wisdom apart. Our democracy requires nothing less.

Greenwald highlights the quote to emphasize how much the foreign policy establishment exists to hype war.  Weiss sees the quote as a confession from someone who helped to aid in a past venture and seeks to change his ways.  Weiss even brings in a quote from Gelb’s brutal NYT review of Mearsheimer and Walt’s book, The Israel Lobby, as an example of how widely the press was deceived in the lead-up to the Iraq War:

Their vitriol about the Iraq war — about being so right while others were so wrong — is so overwhelming that they minimize two key facts. First, America’s foreign policy community, including many Democrats as well as Republicans, supported the war for the very same reasons that Wolfowitz and the lobby did — namely, the fact that Hussein seemed to pose a present or future threat to American national interests. Second, the real play-callers behind the war were President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Weiss rightly highlights Gelb’s statement from the M&W review:

the fact that Hussein seemed to pose a present or future threat to American national interests.

but there is even more context to his statement than Weiss’ brief quote indicates.  That statement, which we soon found out to be a lie, was conventional wisdom not only because it was promoted by the Bush Administration, but in large part because it had been propounded by neo-conservatives and the Israel Lobby for years.  

The quote from Gelb, which Weiss takes to be a confession, is from the conclusion of a 15-page report by the Council on Foreign Relations, Mission Unaccomplished which examines why the media got it wrong on Iraq.  On page 3 of that report, he gave a more detailed explanation for his cheerleading:

… the critics were right.

Unfortunately, I was not one of them. On subjects as sensitive and important as war and peace, people in glass houses should be careful how they throw stones. I was a strong supporter of the Iraq War. I was sure Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons because he had used them against Iran and Iraqi Kurds.
He had also attacked Iran and Kuwait. And I believed that he either had or was close to achieving nuclear weapons capability, and I favored getting rid of him before that day. I would have waited for more help from our friends and allies, as President George H.W. Bush did in the first Gulf war. And I would have limited the attack to the southern Shiite portion of Iraq, while we held onto the already protected Kurdish region in the North. This would have cut Hussein off from his oil supplies and, I believe, led to his ouster by the Iraqi military.

But for all the ands, ifs, buts, and maybes, the fact was I didn’t look hard enough at the country, its history and culture, the WMD facts, and above all, whether the Administration had thought through what to do with Iraq after defeating Hussein’s army. What’s more, I knew at the time that I wasn’t taking a hard enough look at these matters. To remedy this, I started two Council on Foreign Relations task forces on our policy toward Iraq, just before and after the outbreak of war.

I started seriously questioning the war within months of the fall of Baghdad, when it became obvious the Bush Administration had no idea what to do after its swift victory. My questioning soon hardened into opposition when it was clear that Hussein did not have WMD. But that was too little, too late. …

This “confession” about being misled and about not examining the facts more critically is interesting when compared with his distorted NYT review of M&W’s book.  Among many misrepresentations in Gelb’s review, he claims that M&W’s book is about the “Jewish Lobby.”  In fact, M&W make a special point of saying that the book is not about the “Jewish Lobby” but about the “Israel Lobby” and give very clear reasons for the distinction:

Yet the Israel lobby is not synonymous with American Jewry, and “Jewish lobby” is not an appropriate term for describing the various individuals and groups that work to foster U.S. support for Israel.  For one thing, there is significant variation among American Jews in their depth of commitment to  Israel. … Finally, some of the individuals and groups that are especially vocal on Israel’s behalf, such as the Christian Zionists, are not Jewish.  So while American Jews are the lobby’s predominant constituency, it is more accurate to refer to this loose coalition as the Israel lobby.  It is the specific political agenda that defines the lobby, not the religious or ethnic identity of those pushing it. (p. 115)

All of these references to the Jewish Lobby, while initially appearing to be a dog whistle that M&W are anti-Semites, also help to shift the blame entirely to Bush and Cheney in Gelb’s conclusion:

Their vitriol about the Iraq war — about being so right while others were so wrong — is so overwhelming that they minimize two key facts.  First, America’s foreign policy community, including many Democrats as well as Republicans, supported the war for the very same reasons that Wolfowitz and the lobby did — namely, the fact that Hussein seemed to pose a present of future threat to American national interests.  Second, the real play-callers behind the war were President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.  They hardly have a history of being in the pockets of the Jewish lobby (more like the oil lobby’s), and the aren’t remotely neoconservatives.  The more we know, the clearer it is that the White House went to war primarily to erase the “blunder” of the elder Bush in not finishing off Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf war of 1991.

Now, Mearsheimer and Walt fear that Israel and the lobby will shove the United States into a new war with Iran: “They are the central forces today behind all the talk … about using military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities. Unfortunately, such rhetoric makes it harder, not easier, to stop Iran from going nuclear.”

They are right again about why the United States should not be making counterproductive threats about war against Iran, let alone fighting another war.  But they are wrong again about the prime movers behind the bombast.  Wolfowitz and Perle and company surely favor another nice little war, but they are temporarily discredited.  Meanwhile, plenty of foreign policy experts and politicians now call for “getting Iran.”  And by the way, so do the two most powerful men in America, who neither need nor heed lobbying — George Bush and Dick Cheney.

There is not one mention of Christian Zionists in Gelb’s review of M&W’s book.  By leaving them out of the equation, Gelb conveniently accomplishes the tasks of smearing M&W as, at best, unwitting accomplices to anti-Semites who obsess about the Jewish lobby and ignoring the major branch of the Israel Lobby that sways Republicans, like Bush and Cheney, with their votes.  

Gelb also laughably downplays the role of neo-cons in the Bush administration.  For while it may be reasonably questioned whether Bush and Cheney actually believed any of the ideology they spouted, they certainly were willing to accomodate many of the policy goals of the Neo-cons and Christian Zionists, even as they occasionally differed (as Bush did in his final months by resisting pressure to attack Iran).  

As the pressure ramps up on Obama to attack Iran or give Israel clearance to do the same, the Foreign Policy establishment which Gelb represents seems no more willing to question the possibility that much of the “common wisdom” that informs their views on the Middle East has been influenced by years of disinformation from Israel’s Foreign Ministry and “analysis” from think tanks affiliated with the Israel Lobby .

If the foreign policy establishment and the press want to avoid being cheerleaders for future warmongering, they need to question not only pronouncements from political leaders.  “Opinions and facts that blow the common-often wrong-wisdom apart” can be found in unexpected, and sometimes inacccessible places, like Gaza.  Our Democracy requires nothing less.

“From 1972 through 1999, James M. Wall served as editor and publisher of The Christian Century magazine. Since 1999, he has served as the Century’s Senior Contributing Editor. Since 1973 Wall has traveled as a journalist to the Middle East and to other overseas assignments. He frequently writes on the issues of peace and justice, with a special concern for the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.”  Originally posted at his blog, Wall Writings, this piece is reprinted with permission.

MLK: “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly:” Time to Embrace BDS

By James M. Wall

This is not the time for U.S. denominations to keep debating inadequate, diluted, compromised resolutions on “peace in the Holy Land”.

It is rather, kairos time, the moment to move against Israel’s apartheid dominance over four million Palestinians by embracing the non-violent strategy of BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
Christian denominations have spent far too many years trapped in dreary hotel conference rooms working to “get along” with one another by approving meaningless resolutions that fooled few and excited none.

Resolution time has far outlived its expiration date. It is time to join a growing number of justice-oriented communities and take direct action against Israel’s oppressive actions against an oppressed people.

I can hear all those denomination legislative purists out there reminding me that church legislative procedures are as cumbersome as the U.S. Congress, which has mastered the art of delay, delay, delay.

I also know that BDS cannot be implemented into action projects until deliberative  bodies bless the action through legislation.

I was in grade school at the time, but I remember December 7, 1941, when Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the Congress to declare that a “state of war has existed” against Japan.

The Congress did not delay. There were no long speeches nor haggling over details.  They just did it. We must understand BDS as a declaration of  non violent action against a major injustice. No more speeches, no more haggling.

And no more listening to those who claim they oppose BDS because they do not wish to harm “fragile” relations with their Jewish neighbors. No more singing Cum Ba Ya instead of fighting injustice.

The BDS train is leaving the station while United Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, UCCs and the rest of the NCCC crowd, sit huddled back in their conference hotel rooms, thinking they will catch a later train, “when our people are ready”.

Not all of them, of course, remained huddled in their rooms. Some found soul mates, and started groups like the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, which was created to work on projects that would “help Presbyterians understand the facts on the ground” in Palestine and Israel.

This network focused on the gospel and justice. Most recently, its members  have produced a remarkable four-color, illustrated, study publication, Steadfast Hope: The Palestinian Quest for Just Peace, complete with a DVD which may be used in church classes along with Steadfast Hope.

Walt Davis, a Presbyterian clergyman who teaches at San Francisco Theological Seminary,  is the Project Coordinator. He has worked with a staff of talented writers, designers, and photographers to create a book that will start a congregation down the straight path of hope, steadfast hope.

This study project  reaches far beyond the Presbyterian tradition to embrace all who want to shake their faith communities out of their “go slow” lethargy. It is a project that prepares the way for action like BDS.

This book confronts the stultifying grip the fear of offending our fellow Jewish religionists has over mainline Christians. The book uses “facts on the ground” to attack the “go slow” strategy which blocks actions against injustice.

Martin Luther King, Jr., confronted this “go slow until our people are ready” religious mindset when he sat in a Birmingham, Alabama, jail cell, writing a letter on April, 16, 1963, to Protestant, Catholic and Jewish leaders in the city.

He addressed them as “My Dear Fellow Clergymen” since they were all duly recognized as clergy leaders (five of them were bishops) and they were all male. In his letter, he wrote:

I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. . . .

I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. . .

You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.

“Go slow; our people are not ready”. The church mantra of the 1960s was immoral then; it is immoral in 2009.

King used demonstrations. They put him in jail. Later he would be killed, shot down by an assassin while the man of peace stood on a hotel balcony. Fifty years later, some church members, joined by allies who are Jews, Muslims, and non-believers, have also used demonstrations.

They don’t go to jail; they are just ignored. Now they have begun to act in harmony on BDS.

Divestment draws the greatest cry of “go slow” because it works. To withdraw investment funds from corporations that are supporting the Israeli Occupation is painful to the Occupiers and their supporters, because it is a reminder of the effectiveness of the same tactic once used in South Africa. It carries with it the awful tag of “apartheid”.

The Occupiers have spent enormous sums convincing the media and members of Congress of the truth of their narrative that must include a Benign Occupation if it is to survive the scrutiny of history.

A Benign Occupation is an oxymoron of such magnitude that for anyone to accept it as a Truth is to guarantee a visit to the Penalty Box for anyone guilty of committing the foul of Believing False Oxymorons That Do Bodily Harm to God’s Children.

Divestment confronts the lie of the Benign Occupation, with its bulldozers tearing down family homes and building prison walls that run for hundreds of miles. Are you listening Caterpillar, down there in your Peoria, Illinois headquarter?

Divestment confronts the anguish and death of a young woman named Rachel Corrie, crushed to death by a bulldozer destroying a family home in Gaza, a death reluctantly “investigated” by Israeli authorities and dismissed as an accident, a death ignored by the U.S. Congress which is normally agitated into swift action by the death of an American citizen in a foreign land.

It is time for American churches to act against Occupation by boycott, divestment and sanctions.  That means no buying of products made on Occupied soil, no more church investment in corporations guilty of supporting Occupation, and sanctions against the Israeli economy if the lighter penalties of boycott and divestment fail to end the Occupation.

Look outside the church windows, fellow believers. Pay attention to the recent essay in the Los Angeles Times, by Neve Gordon, a young Israeli scholar who is the author of Israel’s Occupation. He teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, Israel.

Gordon includes “faith based organizations” in his direct call for boycott action. He writes:

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv. . . . Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

In a clear indication that economic pressure is an effective tactic often used to defend Israel, Ha’aretz, a Jerusalem newspaper, reported:

Members of the Los Angeles Jewish community have threatened to withhold donations to an Israeli university in protest of an op-ed published by a prominent Israeli academic in the Los Angeles Times on Friday, in which he called to boycott Israel economically, culturally and politically.

Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University in Be’er Sheva, a veteran peace activist, branded Israel as an apartheid state and said that a boycott was “the only way to save it from itself.”

Gordon, a political scientist, said that “apartheid state” is the most accurate way to describe Israel today.

No official word on what impact the Los Angeles threat had on Ben Gurion University, but the President of  the university,  Rivka Carmi, told the Jerusalem Post that the “university may no longer be interested in his [Gordon’s] services.”  She added that “Academics who feel this way about their country, are welcome to search for a personal and professional home elsewhere.”

In a letter he is circulating to supporters of BDS, Sydney Levy, of Jewish Voice for Peace, called for support for Gordon through letters to President Carmi:

Is Prof. Carmi really calling on Professor Gordon to leave his country?  Several [Israeli] Knesset members from the right called upon Carmi and the Minister of Education to sack Neve Gordon, while Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar called the article “repugnant and deplorable.

Jewish author and activist Naomi Klein posted on her blog, January 8. 2009, her case for “Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction”:

On July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups . . . called on “people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.” The campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions–BDS for short–was born.

Klein confronts a typical stalling tactic to the use of BDS with a sharp rebuttal to the argument that “punitive measures will alienate rather than persuade Israelis”.

“The world has tried what used to be called “constructive engagement.” It has failed utterly. Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its criminality: expanding settlements, launching an outrageous war against Lebanon and imposing collective punishment on Gaza through the brutal blockade. Despite this escalation, Israel has not faced punitive measures–quite the opposite. The weapons and $3 billion in annual aid that the US sends to Israel is only the beginning. Throughout this key period, Israel has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its diplomatic, cultural and trade relations with a variety of other allies.

A carefully researched case for BDS has been made in the Americans for Middle East Understanding (AMEU) publication, The Link, in its September-October 2009 issue. The essay, “Ending Israel’s Occupation”, was written by Link editor, John Mahoney.

At one point in his essay, Mahoney describes the death of Rachel Corrie, (referenced above), and then follows the Corrie family’s journey through the U.S. legal system:

Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, filed a lawsuit against the American company, Caterpillar, the manufacturer of the armored bulldozer that crushed their daughter. In it they alleged that Caterpillar sold the D9 bulldozers to Israel knowing full well that they would be used to unlawfully demolish homes and endanger civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The case was dismissed in November 2005.

The Corries appealed and, in July 2007, they argued before a judge in a Seattle, WA court that corporations must be held accountable for their corporate behavior. Lawyers for Caterpillar argued that Israel’s home demolitions were legal and that American judges do not have the jurisdiction to pass judgment on the state of Israel.

Lawyers for the Corries countered that the U.S. Government has publicly condemned Israel’s policy of building settlements, and that their case was not about the U.S. Government. Instead, they said, the suit was about a corporation’s selling equipment to a foreign country that was known to use that equipment in human rights abuses.

In August 2007, the federal appeals court rejected the Corrie’s appeal.

Meanwhile, Caterpillar has continued to sell armored bulldozers to Israel, and Israel continues to use them to demolish Palestinian homes, to destroy ancient olive gardens and to build Jewish-only roads, Jewish-only settlements, and an apartheid wall, all on confiscated Palestinian land.

The U.S. court system refused to  move against Caterpillar. The Israeli army and the Israeli court system blocked attempts by Cindy and Craig Corrie, to secure justice in the death of their 23-year-old daughter.

This leaves the task to groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, courageous scholars like Neve Gordon, and writers like Naomi Klein, to fight for justice from within the Jewish tradition. And from the Christian side of the aisle? There are strong voices, to be sure. But at the higher official levels?

The church leaders who received the Letter from the Birmingham Jail from Martin Luther King, Jr., were victims of the blindness of their own past, a blindness that plagued them to the end.

What then, may we expect from the Christian community today? More lukewarm resolutions, more stalling, more Cum Ba Ya? More waiting for President Obama to persuade the Israelis to “freeze” settlement building?  Or will there be a stirring of the Christian spirit, rising up in anger against an oppressive Occupation?

If that stirring fails to emerge soon, then we face a replay of that overwhelming sense of shame that burdened those church leaders and church members, who ignored Dr. King’s message in the 1960s that “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”.

Crossposted at Street Prophets and Daily Kos

Now that the cases have been dropped against AIPAC leaders, Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, former Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin has recently begun giving interviews.  In interviews with the Forward and the Congressional Quarterly, Franklin presents himself as a naive analyst who felt that his boss, Douglas Feith, wasn’t conveying his important information to the White House, so he tried to deliver it by another channel — contacts at AIPAC.  In the process, he was betrayed both by the contacts at AIPAC and by the FBI.  But even though he feels betrayed by the AIPAC leaders for not only not getting the information where they had promised to deliver it (the White House) and for delivering it to a foreign government (Israel), his greater blame is reserved for the FBI’s anti-Semitism and Conspiracy Theories for conducting investigations into how Israel is accessing classified American information.
According to the Forward:

For Franklin, ties with Rosen and Weissman were instrumental. He had grown frustrated with decisions made by his Pentagon bosses on Iraq and Iran, believing that regime change in Iran was the course America should pursue.

Franklin warned that Americans “would return in body bags” from Iraq because of Iranian intervention, and called for a preliminary show of force against Iran before invading Iraq, but got no response. Viewing the AIPAC lobbyists as well connected, Franklin bypassed his superiors and asked Rosen to convey his concerns on Iran to officials at the National Security Council, to whom he believed the influential lobbyist had access.

“I wanted to kind of shock people at the NSC,” he said, “to shock them into pausing and giving another consideration into why regime change needed to be the policy.” Franklin’s attempt to reach out over the heads of his bosses was unsuccessful and eventually got him in trouble.

Franklin’s attempt was worse than unsuccessful, according to the CQ,

Rosen assured him he would get his Iran information to Abrams, Franklin said.

“But he didn’t do that. He went to The Washington Post and the political officer at the Israeli embassy.” (Rosen’s indictment spelled out those acts.)

The Forward article details how the FBI then set Franklin up with false classified information for Weissman, which he took to Rosen who gave it to the Israelis:

Though Weissman didn’t take the document, he read its content, which was allegedly classified, and the sting operation succeeded. Weissman hurried back to AIPAC headquarters with the supposedly classified information disclosed it to Rosen, who subsequently relayed it to an Israeli diplomat. Even without Weissman taking the actual paper, prosecutors, who were wiretapping all the players, felt they had enough of a case to press charges against both Rosen and Weissman for communicating national defense information.

For the CQ, even though Rosen had bragged about all of his contacts in the NSC and State Department, Franklin doesn’t blame Rosen for the first incident:

“He was duped — he was duped real, real good,” said a senior law enforcement official involved in the case. Another said, “My feeling was that they took advantage of him.”

Franklin shook his head.

“No…this was my initiative. I was not directed by him,” he said.

But to the Forward, Franklin does place some blame on Rosen and Weissman for the second incident:

Franklin said he felt betrayed by the two former AIPAC staffers. He believed that he was sharing information with them so that they could pass it to other government officials, and was disappointed to learn they conveyed it to Israeli diplomats and to the press. “I do think they crossed a line when they went to a foreign official with what they knew was classified information,” Franklin said.

Franklin reserves the bulk of his criticism for the FBI.  He appears to have good reason for that in several regards, especially about his right to legal representation.  While it certainly is possible that some FBI agents are anti-Semitic, is it fair to characterize their investigation of Rosen and Weissman as motivated largely by anti-Semitism?

“I was asked about every Jew I knew in OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense], and that bothered me,” Franklin said. His superiors at the time were both Jewish: Paul Wolfowitz, deputy secretary of defense, and Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, whom Franklin believes was a target of the investigation. “One agent asked me, `How can a Bronx Irish Catholic get mixed up with…’ and I finished the phrase for him: `with these Jews.'” Franklin answered, “Christ was Jewish, too, and all the apostles.” “Later I felt dirty,” he added.

Some in the government, he believes, “had some fantasy of a conspiracy” that had continued, unabated, after the 1985 arrest and 1987 conviction of Pentagon intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard on charges of spying for Israel.

According to Franklin, the investigators he dealt with believed “that Pollard had a secret partner, a mole, probably in the OSD.” This quest to expose the mole, Franklin said, was, in part, “energized by a more malevolent emotion — antisemitism.”

In part, it was also fed by a deep suspicion toward Israel. “In the intelligence community,” he said, “you refer to Israelis as `Izzis’ and it doesn’t have a pleasant connotation. They can’t get away with kikes, so they say Izzis.” This suspicion became clear to Franklin as he learned of the way investigators viewed activists of the pro-Israel lobby.

Calling Israelis, “Izzis” is more akin to calling Palestinians, “Pals” than what Franklin contends.  Certainly, it is discriminatory to assume that every Jew in the Defense Department is a potential spy for Israel (especially considering that some Christian Zionists might volunteer).  However, Franklin is ill-informed if he thinks that the FBI has no basis to believe that the US has been spied on by Israel lately.

As Christopher’s Ketcham’s article, An Israeli Trojan Horse makes clear, the record of Israel’s spying on the US didn’t end when Pollard went to prison:

Since the late 1990s, federal agents have reported systemic communications security breaches at the Department of Justice, FBI, DEA, the State Department, and the White House. Several of the alleged breaches, these agents say, can be traced to two hi-tech communications companies, Verint Inc. (formerly Comverse Infosys), and Amdocs Ltd., that respectively provide major wiretap and phone billing/record-keeping software contracts for the U.S. government. Together, Verint and Amdocs form part of the backbone of the government’s domestic intelligence surveillance technology. Both companies are based in Israel – having arisen to prominence from that country’s cornering of the information technology market – and are heavily funded by the Israeli government, with connections to the Israeli military and Israeli intelligence (both companies have a long history of board memberships dominated by current and former Israeli military and intelligence officers).

Over the last decade, Amdocs has been the target of several investigations looking into whether individuals within the company shared sensitive U.S. government data with organized crime elements and Israeli intelligence services. Beginning in 1997, the FBI conducted a far-flung inquiry into alleged spying by an Israeli employee of Amdocs, who worked on a telephone billing program purchased by the CIA. According to Paul Rodriguez and J. Michael Waller, of Insight Magazine, which broke the story in May of 2000, the targeted Israeli had apparently also facilitated the tapping of telephone lines at the Clinton White House (recall Monica Lewinsky’s testimony before Ken Starr: the president, she claimed, had warned her that “a foreign embassy” was listening to their phone sex, though Clinton under oath later denied saying this). More than two dozen intelligence, counterintelligence, law-enforcement and other officials told Insight that a “daring operation,” run by Israeli intelligence, had “intercepted telephone and modem communications on some of the most sensitive lines of the U.S. government on an ongoing basis.” Insight’s chief investigative reporter, Paul Rodriguez, told me in an e-mail that the May 2000 spy probe story “was (and is) one of the strangest I’ve ever worked on, considering the state of alert, concern and puzzlement” among federal agents. According to the Insight report, FBI investigators were particularly unnerved over discovering the targeted Israeli subcontractor had somehow gotten his hands on the FBI’s “most sensitive telephone numbers, including the Bureau’s ‘black’ lines used for wiretapping.” “Some of the listed numbers,” the Insight article added, “were lines that FBI counterintelligence used to keep track of the suspected Israeli spy operation. The hunted were tracking the hunters.” Rodriguez confirmed the panic this caused in American intel. “It’s a huge security nightmare,” one senior U.S. official told him. “The implications are severe,” said a second official. “All I can tell you is that we think we know how it was done,” a third intelligence executive told Rodriguez. “That alone is serious enough, but it’s the unknown that has such deep consequences.” No charges, however, were made public in the case. (What happened behind the scenes depends on who you talk to in law enforcement: When FBI counterintelligence sought a warrant for the Israeli subcontractor, the Justice Department strangely refused to cooperate, and in the end no warrant was issued. FBI investigators were baffled.)

In 1997, detectives with the Los Angeles Police Department, working in tandem with the Secret Service, FBI, and DEA, found themselves suffering a similar inexplicable collapse in communications security. LAPD was investigating Israeli organized crime: drug runners and credit card thieves based in Israel and L.A., with tentacles in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, and Egypt. The name of the crime group and its members remains classified in “threat assessment” papers this reporter obtained from LAPD, but the documents list in some detail the colorful scope of the group’s operations: $1.4 million stolen from Fidelity Investments in Boston through sophisticated computer fraud; extortion and kidnapping of Israelis in L.A. and New York; cocaine distribution in connection with Italian, Russian, Armenian and Mexican organized crime; money laundering; and murder. The group also had access to extremely sophisticated counter-surveillance technology and data, which was a disaster for LAPD. According to LAPD internal documents, the Israeli crime group obtained the unlisted home phone, cell phone, and pager numbers of some 500 of LAPD’s narcotics investigators, as well as the contact information for scores of federal agents – black info, numbers unknown even to the investigators’ kin. The Israelis even set up wiretaps of LAPD investigators, grabbing from cell-phones and landlines conversations with other agents – FBI and DEA, mostly – whose names and phone numbers were also traced and grabbed.
LAPD was horrified, and as the word got out of the seeming total breakdown in security, the shock spread to agents at DEA, FBI and even CIA, who together spearheaded an investigation. It turned out that the source of much of this black intel could be traced to a company called J&J Beepers, which was getting its phone numbers from a billing service that happened to be a subsidiary of Amdocs.

What possible reason could anyone in the FBI have to be concerned about Israeli spying since Pollard went to prison in the 80s?  They must be a bunch of Conspiracy Theorists.