Congress is taking up dangerous legislation which appears to be designed to pave the way for war by taking the unprecedented step of effectively preventing any kind of U.S. diplomatic contact with Iran. The Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011 (H.R. 1905), sponsored by the right-wing chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, contains a provision (Section 601, subsection (c)) which would put into law a restriction whereby

“No person employed with the United States Government may contact in an official or unofficial capacity any person that. . . is an agent, instrumentality, or official of, is affiliated with, or is serving as a representative of the Government of Iran;”

Never in the history of this country has Congress ever restricted the right of the White House or State Department to meet with representatives of a foreign state, even in wartime. If this measure passes, it will establish a dangerous precedent whereby Congress would likely follow with similar legislation effectively forbidding any contact with Palestinians, Cubans and others.

A Palestinian child in Gaza City sits beside the wreckage of a building destroyed in Israel's 2008/2009 assault on Gaza. / Photo Courtesy of Andreas Lunde

Former Judge Richard Goldstone has recently published in the New York Times a very disappointing apology to the Israeli regime titled “Israel and the Apartheid Slander.” His famous report on the Gaza events made him a genuine hero in the eyes of many Jews including myself. His devotion to truth and justice and his courage to confront power resonated with all the values that I believe are the spirit of Judaism. In his article my Jewish hero vanished: no truth, no justice, and reverence to those in power.

I must begin with a clear statement. I don’t think the Israeli regime is Apartheid, and I strongly believe that the comparison to Apartheid is a factual and political mistake. However, in his apologetic article, Goldstone not only states that Israel is not like the South African Apartheid regime, but presents Israel as a democracy and neglects the military occupation. Goldstone makes an appropriate distinction between the Palestinian citizens of Israel and those living in the “West Bank and Gaza areas,” but the words “military” and “occupation” are not part of his vocabulary.

Artist Ray Voide -- a former Marine who has been with Occupy DC, living in the park for 11 days -- displays his portrait of the park.

In the aftermath of the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zucotti Park in New York, the OWS protesters at Occupy DC in McPherson Square on K Street in Washington DC remain committed even more resolutely than before.

Rose, a protester who lived at OWS-NYC for a month before moving to Occupy DC three weeks ago, is confident that that evicted Occupations will re-occupy, and that they will continue efforts to model the building of self-sufficient horizontal communities. She finds Occupy DC more suited to that community building because the space is larger, the occupiers fewer, with more grass and less wind. She said a greenhouse is planned and dental care is now available three days a week.

Another more recent occupier, artist Ray Voide who has lived in the DC area for more than 20 years, has been camped at McPherson Square for 11 days. As a former U. S. Marine he says that if any occupation has the right to exist, it is the one here in Washington DC. To break up Occupy DC would send a message to all Americans that their rights don’t mean anything, he added. He believes that the protesters have already accomplished a lot by getting people to talk about issues of inequality and the role oversized corporations play in politics — putting those issues in the public eye and letting people come to their own conclusions.

Well, that was fun. Powerful. And #Occupytastic.

Last night, I was out on Sproul Plaza at UC-Berkeley, with over 10,000 people reclaiming the space for OccupyCal. I was there to receive the Mario Savio Young Activist Award, which had been scheduled for the same night across the plaza inside Pauley Ballroom. But with thousands of people outside demanding free speech and equal education on the very same steps that Mario Savio had once stood himself, the two events were beautifully combined, and I was able to give my poem outside with the people, right where it belonged.

Here’s some very rough video of the piece, along with the full text below. Long live Occupy!

I recently came across this musical tribute to the Occupy Movement by Makana, an artist from Hawaii. I hope you’ll feel similarly inspired as you watch this!

Amidst the contrasting tones and strikingly honest symbols in Bonner’s sculpture series called Exploring the Perpetrator, Bonner confronts the powerful forces that have threatened her spirit and health.

By exploring domination, as she calls it, Bonner has been able to find ways to survive her abusive past. She has found profound intersections between her own exploitation and that of our society. Like many before her, she has connected the personal with the political. Bonner invites us to not only recognize the perpetrator that controls our own well being, but also those forces that control our system.

Grass by Lorraine Bonner. Click on the image above to see more of her art.

To see more of Bonner’s work, visit the Tikkun Daily Art Gallery and visit the artist’s website.

Photos by Hillel Schenker

The following is an eyewitness report by Hillel Schenker, an Israeli journalist and veteran peace activist who combines both of these pursuits in his current role as co-editor of The Palestine-Israel Journal:

50,000 rally to remember Rabin

No matter what, I planned to go to the 16^th annual memorial rally in memory of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Just as I have for the past 15 years. Just as I did on that fateful Saturday night, November 4^th, 1995, when I went to the mass rally For Peace and Against Violence that was organized to counteract the slander campaign being carried out against the Prime Minister. It was at the end of that rally that Rabin was shot three times by Jewish terrorist Yigal Amir.

….

What is happening between Iran and the West? And what is going to happen. Clearly we see increased sabre-rattling, warnings of war, mutual bellicosity. But why now? Who gets served by this? Is it likely that there actually will be some further military action? There’s already been a surprising amount. What does this look like from the points of view of Iran, the US, and Israel? And if push comes to fire, who wins?

There has been a huge push in Western media to demonize Iran. First we had last months farcical false flag fiasco, which claimed that Iranian secret service had hired an almost blind alcoholic and lover of prostitutes in Texas to hire a Mexican drug cartel to kill a Saudi Ambassador in Washington. As Stephen Walt correctly questioned, “If you are going to attack a target in the United States, wouldn’t you send your A Team, instead of Mr. Magoo?” It does continue, as Glen Greenwald noted “the FBI’s record-settingundefeated streak of heroically saving us from the plots they enable.” That issue seems to have gotten dropped quickly, but it’s worth noting that it came just before the publication of a UN report on Iranian progress towards nuclear weapon.

Early morning on Monday, November 14^th, the Oakland Police once again evacuated the OccupyOakland camp. That was the day I was planning to attend the facilitation committee meeting. Being unsure about whether or not a meeting would take place, and knowing how long it would be before I could attend a meeting again, I decide to take a chance and go.

The plaza is barricaded on all sides, with only employees being allowed to enter. Some restaurants are openly displaying their menus in an empty plaza full of sanitation workers. Who would be buying food when no one can enter, I wonder. Later I see police allowing some people – I imagine only those looking “respectable” – to walk into the plaza to order food out. Something ironic about closing off the entire plaza when one of the reasons for evacuating it was to support local businesses. I ask the policeman how he feels about the whole thing. He shrugs his shoulders and says he’s just doing his job, doesn’t have an opinion. I offer my reflection that it’s tough to be there and do what he does. He says that being a cop is tough, period.

At the 14^th and Broadway intersection, which has become identified with the movement, a small crowd has gathered. More police are standing in a line behind the barricades, some of them in riot gear, others more loosely guarding the place. Their faces are generally blank, except when no one is standing in front of them and they talk with each other, rather casually. What is it like on the inside to be each person I see? This question haunts me always, especially on a day like today, when I look at people, the police, and imagine them to be doing things that are difficult for at least some of them to do.

What now appeals to a niche market and has decreased in popularity over the last few generations, even with what used to be its core fans? If you guessed baseball and Judaism you win.

And Judaism loses if it continues to mirror baseball’s path.

A fast paced world no longer enjoys baseball’s slow and slower paced game, at least to the same extent it once did. And its players and fans, now largely devoid of African Americans,no longer mirror America’s demographics.

We call for young Jews and allies nationwide to join in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and with our Palestinian siblings living under their own form of occupation. Let us stand up to the 1% in our own community – the powerful institutions that support Israel’s corporate-backed military control of the Palestinian people and act as the gatekeepers for our community.

Throughout history, Jews have been persecuted as the scapegoats for powerful financiers, thus bearing the brunt of economic hardship on multiple fronts. This collective memory instills us with the responsibility to speak out against corporate exploitation and human rights violations, such as the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, which has politically and economically disenfranchised over nine million people in the name of Jewish statehood.

(Crossposted from Reclaim UC)

I’ll be posting updates from UC Berkeley throughout the day about the open university and higher education strike. Here‘s the schedule for the open university, and here‘s one for the day more generally.

7:36 a.m.: Just woke up after a long, tense night at the encampment. The cops were staging all around us, from midnight until 6 a.m. Following reports of a likely raid, we actually decided in an emergency GA to take down some tents in order to give ourselves the ability to surround the tents and link arms in the event of police intervention. So exhausted — yet exhilerated — after the events of the last week (my shoulder is only getting worse…). Please, if you are in the area, we’re going to need people on Sproul Plaza all day — it’s only a matter of time before they try, once again, to take our tents.

Creative Commons / Amanda Farah

Why in the middle of the night? Why with so much police power? Why did they think they had to shove people out? The good news is that this action, so unnecessary, will build the movement even more. Yes, the people in the park had become tired, irritable, a little vague. They had even considered exit strategies but were unable to execute any, due to a serious allegiance to the kind of democracy most people gave up on long ago. Some sexual violence was happening, likewise drugs, as the park was open to the world and the world moved in with it. But the larger story is one of extraordinary discipline, inner development, non-violence. The larger story is the way some folk out of Canada, with great symbols and slogans, camped out and changed the conversation in the United States. I call Occupy my zanex, my anti-depressant, my ability to sit with peers over dinner or coffee and not become morbid. I had a spiritual and political depression. I don’t have it any more. The cops don’t have a chance of taking it away from me.

My hope had been that the earliest spark and spirit would have prevailed and some humor would have announced an orderly departure to a winter home in various congregations and union halls. That was partly in the works. But the police made all the decisions, the way force often does. So unnecessary, so sad. There is some relief that there is an ending. But truthfully, this is just the beginning. The fact that New York’s finest — and a decent Mayor — made a choice to go stealth instead of steady is embarassing. New York is better than that. The mayor won’t care, because he is in his third term. But New Yorkers will.

As the global economic downturn continues into its fifth year, growing dissatisfaction among the public with our malfunctioning economic system has changed the tone and agenda of American political discourse. A number of economists and commentators are asking questions about the future of that economic system and are considering rather unorthodox approaches to address its current failings. NYU economist Nouriel Roubini recently wrote a piece, “Is Capitalism Doomed?,” in which he claims that Karl Marx was “right in arguing that globalization, financial intermediation run amok, and redistribution of income and wealth from labor to capital could lead capitalism to self-destruct.” Roubini recommends investment in “human capital, skills and social safety nets” to prevent economic catastrophe, including “unending stagnation, depression … and massive social and political instability.” Writing for Bloomberg financial news service, George Magnus, a senior economic adviser at UBS Investment Bank, says we ought to “give Karl Marx a chance to save the world economy.” He approvingly cites the “paradox of over-production and under-consumption” which roots economic crises in the “poverty and restricted consumption of the masses.”

Magnus agrees with Marx that an economic crisis will erupt when capitalists are unable to sell their goods at their original values because the low wages on the part of workers restrict the volume of commodities they can buy. Every capitalist has an incentive to lower wages because this both increases his individual profit and permits him to invest in additional capital. But, if capitalists as a whole succeed in reducing the wages of workers, then they will be unable to sell the goods that their firms produce. This is the “paradox”: capitalists have an incentive to lower workers’ wages, but in the long run lowering wages undermines the position of capitalists. What secures their conditions of existence has a tendency to also undermine them.

I have led mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations at Occupy Boston. Meditation is, of course, valuable as a refuge from stress. Participating in an occupation, which may involve living outdoors under threat of possible arrest and police brutality, can certainly be stressful (I myself am only a day visitor to the Occupy Boston encampment). But I believe mindfulness can actually address the core problem that the Occupy movement confronts, i.e. the greed of the wealthiest 1 percent.

The thesis of my eBook, Occupy the Moment, is that greed is literally an addiction, a distortion of the brain systems that govern habits and rewards. The way to overcome greed is to “be in the moment” or to practice mindfulness.

In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha identified inordinate desire as the fundamental source of human suffering. To overcome suffering, he identified a path that included mindfulness, the practice of focusing on the present moment with a friendly, nonjudgmental attitude.

Recent findings in neuroscience validate the Buddha’s claims. When we want something, the brain transmits a chemical called dopamine. When we get what we desire, internal opioids are released. The latter are substances chemically similar to morphine and heroin. So you can start to see how desires become literally addictive.

Man who… has a monopoly on the symbolic, has given no thought to his body or his flesh… –Luce Irrigary

One fortunate result of the San Francisco bill attempting to ban circumcision is the resurgence of dialogue about this tradition and its meaning in contemporary society. Arguments have been put forward that this practice should be abandoned by Jews; a writer in Tikkun argued that Maimonides’ posited explanation for the practice, that it may weaken sexual desire, is itself adequate reason to cease inflicting circumcision on infants, and some maintain that the male nature of this custom is a sign of the patriarchal nature of Jewish society. But can we view circumcision in fact, as an act of protest against Western gender roles and preconceptions?

It is well known that “brit milah,” the “covenant of circumcision,” is a defining characteristic of “being Jewish.” Martyrdom in defense of this commandment is something all Jewish day school students learn from childhood; the holiday of Hanukkah is a commemoration of the resistance to Hellenistic edicts which included a ban on circumcision. The Talmud compares the value of keeping this commandment as being equal to all the other commandments in the Torah, and in fact, legally, the need to perform circumcision outweighs the Sabbath. While Maimonides did suggest one “rational” explanation for milah as being a means to curb sexual desire, consistent with the medieval worldview of holiness as achieving asceticism, his alternative explanation, which he himself deems “equal to or more important than the first” is that it is a sign, a bond which connects those who carry that inscription on their bodies. It is certainly that latter reasoning which resonated with Jews through the centuries.

Soup & Bread at the Hideout

Sometimes even an atheist needs a community soup kitchen.

This winter, I will probably need one, and so will many many of my fellow Americans. This winter, when the thin veil of November leaves has finally come down in Chicago, the sand is banked on the beaches against the lake shore wind and the dark comes early, I will be happy for a bowl of soup and a place to eat it where I feel welcome.

Like so many this year, for me the recession is grinding down hard, and the things that held me together are beginning to fray, just a little and at the edges, but still, the possibility of coming unraveled hangs over all endeavors while the nights get colder.

Like the people occupying parks the whole country over, I am running out of faith in governments and institutions to provide a little grace and shelter while we all wait out the economic troubles we’ve got to endure.

Videos of UC Berkeley police battering students with batons and dragging them by the hair to prevent them from setting up an Occupy Wall Street-style encampment have risen to national attention over the last few days, provoking statements of concern from the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild, and prompting comedian Stephen Colbert to call out the AP for its wildly euphemistic description of police officers “nudging” protesters with batons.

I’m glad that these disturbing videos have been distributed so widely. With all hope the public outrage over these scenes will open conversations about the excessive police force used not only against protesters on the Berkley campus but also in Oakland and beyond. But as is so often the case, these sensational images of pain and violence seem largely to have eclipsed another deeply important story of the day — a story of solidarity, hope, community, and political galvanization.

UC Berkeley students vote for a strike during a late-night general assembly on November 9.

The police violence that occurred during the afternoon on November 9 is only half the story. The other half took place later that night, when hundreds of students, community members, and professors poured into Sproul Plaza to hold a general assembly to discuss the subject of the students’ earlier protest: the extreme fee hikes that are making California’s public universities increasingly inaccessible to working-class students and saddling many students with a heavy burden of debt.

At 1 a.m., the general assembly voted to call for “a strike and day of action on Tuesday, November 15, in all sectors of higher education … We also call for simultaneous solidarity actions in workplaces and k-12 schools.” See the full proposal here.