Sitting in a foreign jail

Some veterans talk about serving their country by flying the flag and buying a red poppy. Nothing wrong with that approach. 

Others end up sitting in a foreign jail so America's youths don't get chewed up fighting in this country's endless wars for oil. 

Tarak Kauff, local Army veteran and member of Veterans For Peace, is in the second category. Tarak and a Vietnam veteran, Ken Mayers, were holding up a banner at Shannon Airport when they were arrested and later denied bail. They now share a cell in Limerick Jail. 

Their banner reads: "U.S. Veterans say Respect Irish Neutrality. U.S. War Machine out of Shannon Airport - Veterans For Peace." Shannon is a refueling stop for planes flying young GI's to the Middle East. 

After centuries of ruthless British rule, one might think that Ireland would be more sympathetic to the victims of American's endless wars abroad. Why is Ireland helping to send U.S. troops to Iraq and Afghanistan? And why is Ireland locking up U.S. veterans protesting occupation in the Middle East?

Why don't you ask the Irish Embassy why? Call: 202 462 3939 and leave a recorded message.

Fred Nagel

Support of the U.S. - Israel relationship gives us pause

Dear Representative Delgado:

Thanks for your below letter regarding H. Res. 183. We're ok with your position on that and strongly agree that criticism of Israel isn't anti-Semitism.

Your strong general support of the U.S. - Israel relationship gives us pause, however.  Please take a few minutes to peruse this abstract of a Harvard Kennedy School article concerning "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt: 

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/it-love-or-lobby-explaining-americas-special-relationship-israel  

Please note especially the authors' conclusion that "...the special [U.S.] relationship [with Israel] is now harmful to the U.S. and Israel alike..." and that a more normal relationship would be better for both countries.  

In case you're not familiar with it, this book is an excellent introduction to the Israel lobby - especially AIPAC - that all U.S. politicians eventually have to deal with.

With best wishes for your new career,

Gregory and Nancy DeSylva

I support Rep Ilhan Omar 100%

As a strong Jewish Democrat I am outraged that my Party is taking a stand against the only person, a Muslim, who is speaking the truth about Israel's treatment of Palestine and its inordinate power over the US Congress. Rep Ilhan Omar stated that Israel's control of Congress is through money, "the Benjamins". Nothing could be more obvious, and yet she was attacked. Instead of standing up for her the Democratic Party is, once again, eating its own.

Equally egregious is your conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism thus demeaning the real and growing anti-Semitism in this country and beyond. Omar's comments were anti-Zionist, they were not anti-Semitic. The real anti-Semitism in this country is coming from the Right. If you really cared about growing anti-Semitism, you’d be leading the charge against white supremacy that’s publicly fueled by members of Congress like Rep. Jim Jordan, and slamming those who put a poster up linking Rep. Omar to the 9/11 attacks. In a time of the rise of actual anti-Semitism, exploiting anti-Semitism to shut down debate about Israel is infuriating. It serves no one, least of all Jews and Democrats. I am Jewish, pro-Semitic, anti-Zionist (as are MANY others) and I support Rep Ilhan Omar 100%.

Judith Simon 

Combatants for Peace

Renouncing Violence

By Tarak Kauff

It was November 2013, in a quiet restaurant in East Jerusalem, when a small delegation of Veterans For Peace (VFP) met with some  remarkable Israeli and Palestinian activists from Combatants for Peace. We sat at a big table across from each other, four U.S. military veterans and six Israeli and Palestinian former combatants, all who had renounced violence to work together for peace. We heard heart-wrenching stories on both sides of loss, forgiveness and a commitment away from violence. We shared a common goal of working nonviolently for peace and social justice regardless of what hostilities our governments promoted. We witnessed solidarity and brotherly love between these former adversaries that in itself set a vivid example of what we all hoped to see one day. 

Combatants for Peace was founded In 2006 when Israeli and Palestinian former combatants, people who had taken an active role in the conflict, laid down their weapons and joined forces to break the cycle of violence. The organization works to both transform and resolve the conflict by ending the occupation, resisting all forms of violence between the two sides, and building a peaceful future for both peoples.

One of the founding Palestinian members of Combatants for Peace, Bassam Aramin, was at the dinner.  In 2007, a year after Combatants for Peace was formed, he lost his 10-year old daughter, Abir to a rubber bullet fired by an Israeli border policeman as she was carrying her books home from school. She was known as a model student. Bassam, once a militant, was devastated but renounced the desire for revenge to seek a nonviolent justice. 

Three years later he, his grief stricken wife and Abir’s memory were justified when an Israeli judge, after the initial denial by the Israeli Police, declared, "Abir and her friends were walking down a street where there were no rock-throwers, therefore there was no reason to shoot in their direction. It is clear that Abir's death, caused by a rubber bullet shot by border guards, was due to negligence..."

The author, standing, second from left, Bassam Aramin third from left.  Photo: Mike Hastie

On Friday, March 8th at the Woodstock Community Center from 7 to 9:00 pm, and also on Saturday, March 9th, 7 to 9:00 pm at the Episcopal Church of Messiah, 6436 Montgomery St, Rhinebeck, two former combatants, one Israeli and one Palestinian, will share their personal stories of transformation from violence to nonviolence. The program will include a short clip of the award-winning documentary: Disturbing the Peace. 

Palestinian Osama Elewat, one of the speakers says, “I know that we can only heal this situation if we work together. We can only end this conflict, and heal the sorrow and pain of both our nations, if we work together cooperatively and peacefully. Peace cannot come through war. Freedom will only come when we break out of the chains that bind us: the chains of hatred, of violence and of revenge. Love truly is the strongest force on this earth. A revolution of love is the only thing that can save us.”

Michal Hochberg, the other speaker, says after she met Palestinians and heard “their stories and the daily suffering they were experiencing, I could no longer keep my eyes closed.” 

**Update: A few days ago the Palestinian speaker, Osama Elewat, was turned back at JFK airport, after being interrogated for 13 hours. No reason was given for this action by the immigration authorities. 

Organizers are hoping to arrange an audio-visual link to enable Elewat to participate in the panel remotely from the West Bank - but questions are being raised as to why a visitor here to tour the country with a message of peace was turned away. In Woodstock and Rhinebeck, Elik Elhanan, one of the original founders of Combatant for Peace, now a professor at City College will also speak. 

Organizers have decided to continue with the speaking tour.

Tarak Kauff is a paratrooper veteran of the U.S. Army. He served on the Veterans For Peace (VFP) board of directors for six years and is now the managing editor of VFP’s 24-page quarterly newspaper, Peace in Our Times. 

Tarak Kauf

Even mentioning the Palestinian People is antisemitic

Ilhan Omar, one of two Muslim women elected to Congress, has gone over the line in suggesting that politicians are influenced by money they get from the Israel Lobby. It is OK to say that our leaders are paid off by Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Wall Street. But it is antisemitic to imply that the Israel Lobby would do such things.

There should be a law making it illegal to reveal how much Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer get from the Israel Lobby. It is antisemitic to report that the two of them met recently with multibillionaires Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson and promised an extensive list of "pro-Israel lawmakers" be appointed to important committees.

Boycotts, although they have a long history of being used against slave owners, Nazis, Jim Crow racists, and homophobes, are simply antisemitic when used against apartheid Israel and should be illegal. In fact, even mentioning the Palestinian People is an attempt to deny that Israel is a Jewish state. Talking about the occupation is antisemitic as well. Why not talk about human rights abuses in Darfur?

The effort to stop antisemitism has to start with the First Amendment. How dare our Founding Fathers promise freedom of speech and press without some qualifiers! Sure, citizens should be able to criticize politicians and foreign countries, but not a country that claims to be a religion, like Israel. No U.S. citizen should ever have the right to say that Israel has enormous power over our government.

Fred Nagel

An Example to be Followed

An Example to be Followed

Recently, I was excited to learn that members of Combatants for Peace (CfP) would be in the area, along with a clip from the award-winning movie, Disturbing the Peace.  Combatant for Peace, composed of former Israeli soldiers and former Palestinian fighters, had a message of peace that could resonate across lines usually not crossed. They have set an example to be followed – former enemies, laying down their weapons and their hostility, to work together as comrades  – for peace. 

My work in Veterans For Peace (VFP) had occasioned meeting with members of CfP numbers of times, both in East Jerusalem, and in the U.S. and I was always impressed with their commitment to end the occupation and achieve a just peace, but also, beyond that, the obvious friendship and even love that had developed between Palestinians and Israelis, both sharing the same mission, both caring deeply for the other. 

Here in our small town of Woodstock, known for peace and music, we’ll have yet another opportunity to hear about and witness real peace-making with two members of  Combatants for Peace, one Palestinian and one Israeli, on Friday, 7:00 PM,  March 8th, at the Community Center. They will also show a clip from the movie. I expect it to be a very interesting and inspiring evening.

VFP is honored to be a sponsor of the event. My old pal, Jay Wenk, would have been delighted. 

Tarak Kauff
Veterans For Peace

Not the Monster I thought You Were

Letter to the Editor February 20, 2019

In 2013, I completed a 10-year art project that offered a hypothetical world in which people would put themselves in the shoes of their so-called enemies and would learn to see from inside the “other’s” story - thereby opening space for a world without war. During the making of this project I received the Dutchess County Executive Arts Award to an Individual Artist, and was happy for the recognition this brought to an idea I strongly believe in.

My hypothetical, it turns out, was a reality somewhere on the planet. In Israel/Palestine there is a young, small, strong and committed organization composed of former enemies who put down their weapons, renounced the violence that permeated their lives, and now work very much together toward making peace in a land that has seen little of it. Combatants for Peace was founded by Israeli and Palestinian fighters who each made the huge mental and emotional journey out of their own life story, enabling them to listen to the “other.” Now they work together in nonviolent resistance to the complicated forces that preclude peace on their land. They stand against home demolitions, they protect Bedouin shepherds grazing their flocks, they bring solar power and playgrounds to villages living on the verge. They bring together Palestinian and Israeli families who grieve for all those they lost. This alone is moving beyond belief. They put up their hands against the growing crack in the dam, behind which is a future of war.

I love these people. Come hear them speak. March 8 Woodstock. March 9 Rhinebeck. http://afcfp.org/press-release-woodstock/ 

Madeleine Segall-Marx, sculptor Hyde Park, NY and New York CIty