Greetings, 2024! Here we are. In these times of confusion and distress, may we all have moments of clarity and a sense of direction. Onward we go!
On Friday, December 8, I could barely muster a “Shabbat? Shalom?” to family and friends on FB on the eve of the weekly, Jewish day of rest. Offering wishes of “Peace” felt undeserved if Israel was going to continue to rain terror on the people of Gaza–and Palestinians globally. I was surprised at the hostile response an old friend gave another friend’s heartfelt, sympathetic response which led to a longer, at times ruder thread than usual. I had to hide or delete a comment or two. I usually respond instead of covering or erasing. Now, since I have friends under active, military siege and assault, I have less acceptance of ignorant, condescending comments from Israel supporters. They shame themselves and besmirch our faith when they act superior to my Palestinian friends and treat them as one dimensional beings, if that.
On Friday, December 22, I awoke with these thoughts. Actually, these were edited so that I could post them to the Kehilla Facebook group. I had to tone rephrase something that was more of a curse at first. I was grateful for the feedback:
The Jewish world is about to enter another Shabbat as Israel is on the brink of starving, thirsting and bleeding to death at least half a million Palestinians in Gaza. [On January 9, the news media reported the estimate to be upwards of a million souls.]
At the same time, freshly outfitted Jewish supremacists in the West Bank (with the full support of the United States government and private “charitable” groups like Regavim, Ateret Kohanim, CUFI, AIPAC, the SF JCRC and Friends of the IDF) are stealing from my Palestinian friends, holding them bound and gagged as they outlaw makeshift Palestinian abodes and villages, ransack their humble homes, steal or destroy property and torture and kill people.
Getting in touch with the nightmare that our people are making of Gaza feels more in order than does enjoying a day of rest.
I pray for a collective nightmare that stirs our consciences like Ebenezer Scrooge had, and may it fill our hearts with sense and mercy. If you still find yourself excusing the repressive, genocidal, ECOCIDAL, United States, British, Israeli bombardment of Gaza and Palestine, I pray it turns your perspective around 180°.
That’s the only way a Shabbat of peace could possibly exist at this time and be worthy of our prayers. Having a peaceful undisturbed Shabbat otherwise, I think, will be missing the mark. May our spirits be enlivened, sensitized and activated!
Israel wants to believe that its thumb is the thumb of god and living under it is to feel the pressure of G’d given mercy.
On Friday, December 29, my morning thought was briefer: Another questionable Shabbat descends on Palestine. Israel denies a day of rest to Muslims on Friday and Christians on Sunday. Let Israel honor the Jewish Sabbath by ceasing its genocidal blood-letting. May the G-d of Israel bestir our consciences and snap our people out of their merciless, self-aggrandizing blood lust.
I didn’t have any grand thoughts to share on January 5 leading into the first Shabbat of the new year. As I read this now, I feel a lament of an evil but common idea growing: that of the righteousness of revenge. I long ago renounced vengeance as a motivation. Punishment, as such, should be about safety, not retribution. Punitive damages against greedy extractive industries are okay though, as curtailing their operations would be corrective.
Festive? Futile? Forward!
I went to DC in December again, wanting to agitate a little closer to the seat of power, feeling a little remote and removed on the left coast. There is plenty of work to do here to combat backwardness and political indifference. We need to focus in our communities (Yay, San Francisco!), but it was rewarding to be visible in the halls of Congress. One day I was with a large group, and it was fascinating to see and learn the rules of engagement from the likes of Medea Benjamin, Ann Wright and Tighe Berry of CODEPINK and other familiar faces like Michael Beer of Nonviolence International and Carol Gilbert of the Catholic Worker and Plowshares movements. I would like to be more in contact with JVP DC when I am there.
I enjoyed the different ways that senate staffers interacted with us and the public in general. There were a lot of touching moments as well as disturbing sights. We sometimes were received by foreign policy advisers in conference rooms, and sometimes we stood in the office foyer and people took turns offering public testimony to the reception staff and whoever came out or walked by. There was plenty of disdain and indifference, but I could see us connecting sometimes too. Capitol police took their cue from the staff people about clearing us out or not. There was a pretty standard rule of no photos and videos INSIDE the offices, but in from the hallway was okay.
Seeing Israeli flags outside of some offices was shocking to see, but then I did appreciate that Rashida Tlaib has a Palestinian flag outside of her office. The Israeli flag, to remind people, is a symbol of Israel. It is not a Jewish symbol although it does purposely center around a Jewish symbol. What loyalty to foreign countries does displaying these flags signify? Maybe I should frame them as “issue” flags rather than “loyalty” symbols. I shouldn’t think of the Israeli flags treasonous. I wouldn’t say that of Rashida or Palestine. But I felt it with the Israeli flag. Israel is betraying my faith.
I enjoyed the creativity that members display outside their offices. Members of the squad all had colorful post-its for people to leave messages on their walls and doors. AOC’s was especially colorful. Only a few messages were nasty. Rashida’s staff were very nice. I felt like a little kid, interrupting them to sit and write out a card to give the congresswoman. The thrill of the day was being greeted warmly by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). I thought about saying something as I walked past a party in the office of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who I consider to be a particularly harmful public figure, but I decided it would be neither productive nor cathartic, so I just walked on by.
Shut Down Travis!
I am glad that I came out for an early morning action at Travis Air Force Base on December 28. Our cries were directed at a base that is proud to be sending weapons to Israel despite illegally using them on Palestinians and others. CODEPINK Bay Area and my friends with the Shut Down Beale coalition from some Sierra foothill communities organized a day of action at Travis which is near Fairfield, California about two-thirds of the way from San Francisco to Sacramento. The Beale folks demonstrate against the weaponized drones that are controlled from that nearby base. Beale is similar to Creech AFB north of Las Vegas where I helped organize protests from 2009 to 2013. (Shout out to prescient “Ground the Drones Lest We Reap the Whirlwind” statement and the Creech 14! I can hardly believe that it has been over ten years since I lived there, and almost seventeen since I left the Martin de Porres Community in San Francisco.)
Credit should go to labor journalist and activist Steve Zeltzer for outstanding reporting and organizing. The press conference he motivated us to hold at 1 pm in Fairfield as we were waiting to find out what was going to happen to our arrested comrades. It got 100% results: The Vallejo Sun ran a good article.
Here is a round up of media from the action, then some images from yours truly followed by the letter to the base commander that I wrote (with group input).
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/travis-air-force-base-gaza-protest-arrests-18578712.php
Check out more of Steve’s and other base protest videos at www.labormedia.net
Jailed Travis 14 Get Out Of Jail. Video Also By Anastasia Rogers Music By Jeffrey Gottesman https://youtu.be/Y30ycvCH-aI
Travis AFB Protest To Stop US Arms To Israel STOP The Genocidal War Crimes https://youtu.be/OJoBPDusdh0
Shut Down The War Machine-Rally At Travis AFB https://youtu.be/0ne9ENnkE3k
Hundreds of cars were backed up for hours leading to North Gate. (Top photo) As we approached the main gate at 5:45 am, signage warned of closed entrances ahead. Sure enough, the base had erected a blockade for us. Two down, and two to go! 150 people or more showed up by 6:30 am. Youth for Palestine from Sacramento held down a rally outside the main gate where car after car turned around to be rerouted to the North Gate. We headed that way, but when I saw this line of cars, I pulled off. It seemed that we had achieve our goal of mucking up base traffic there. We headed to the Commercial/Truck entrance. We had heard from friends there that they needed more people.
As I leafleted the line of vehicles, a couple of women who work at the base were sobbing and upset, not at us, but because they knew that what we were saying was true. They were grateful that we were there. Drivers were backed up until the police came to make us move since the base police wouldn’t come out from behind their fence and blue line on the ground.
[I didn’t plug into the organizing of Shut Down Travis! until the final week. I ended up leading the collaboration on the handout and the following letter to the base commander which some people hope to deliver at or before arrest. I saw at least one line quoted in the media: “Sending more armaments to Israel violates law and conscience.”]
Date: December 28, 2023
To: Brig. General Derek Salmi, Commander, 60th Air Mobility Wing,
Travis Air Force Base, California
Dear General Salmi,
Congratulations on your promotion to general. We want you to consider that:
WEAPONS ARE BEING SHIPPED FROM TRAVIS TO ISRAEL IN VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL AND U.S. LAW.
- Israel uses weapons sent from Travis to bomb and flatten Gaza, murdering civilians on an unprecedented, historic scale. 70% of Gazan casualties are children and women, plus people who are elderly or disabled.
- Israel’s goal of wiping out Hamas doesn’t permit it to commit war crimes with US weapons. Israeli hostages and Palestinian Americans are undoubtedly also endangered by US weapons.
- Racist Israeli Settlers are using newly supplied, US weapons to assault Palestinian civilians outside of Gaza too, in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
- There is mass starvation now in Gaza. Food and water are needed desperately, but Israel is blocking 100s of aid trucks from entering Gaza. Instead of sending weapons, Travis should be sending food and medical supplies.
- We can’t stand by silently and watch this slaughter, especially since Congress is poised to quadruple our $3.8billion/year military aid to Israel.
- 70% of Americans want an immediate ceasefire. This regional action is in response to a national and international call by Palestinians for a prolonged ceasefire, and an end to military aid to Israel, an apartheid state.
Sending more armaments to Israel violates law and conscience. Weapons from this base are being used in the commission of the crime of genocide. Be aware that you and those under your command are possibly abetting war crimes!
Please, be a warrior of conscience and let the manifest truth of the matter lead you to stand with the law in working to stop more weapons from going to Israel from Travis Air Force Base.
Sincerely,
David Mandel for Congress!
Gotta plug a righteous friend rising to the call. David Mandel has been a stalwart voice as a Jewish supporter of Palestinian rights going back to the 1970 when he was part of delegations with my late friend Allan Solomonow when citizen diplomacy was relatively new and talking to Palestinians, especially the PLO, was forbidden for some. David is an outstanding attorney and labor and civil rights advocate. He is challenging longtime Democratic incumbent Doris Matsui who is a moderate Democrat who tows the anti-Palestinian line. Mandel will faithfully represent the people of Sacramento and California’s 7th District. To be on the November ballot, given California’s open primary, he needs to finish first or second in the primary. He has a good chance of beating out the Republican in June, if not Matsui in November. Show David some love! https://secure.actblue.com/donate/david-mandel-for-congress-2024-1
Stop Paying for this F***ed up Shit!
The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) is active like it hasn’t been in years. Catch up with this informative January 6 post from NWTRCC. Locally, I am part of Northern Californian War Tax Resisters/People’s Life Fund which is a part of NWTRCC. Last Missive I reported about increased interest in wtr (war tax resistance) both locally and across the country. On February 17, NWTRCC is planning to hold a training for trainers, and other “WTR 101” sessions are being planned. There are already a lot of useful resources and answers to questions at nwtrcc.org.
A new group, We the People, is taking up wtr, initiating a campaign for widespread, symbolic tax resistance to start with people’s 2023 tax liability which is due in April. As Krissy Kirchoffer wrote in the NWTRCC newsletter about the newbies, “There are quite a few 101 sessions planned for 2024 as well as Town Hall Meetings hosted by We the People that are calling for a #Tax Blackout, calling for strikes and other strategic actions to mobilize people. “Our goal is to persuade 50 million Americans to participate in a Tax Blackout this April 2024 by refusing to pay at least 5% of their income taxes and donating that money to community-building organizations and emergency relief for Gaza.”
Let’s Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birth and Life: Nothin’ new here. I am still so moved by the sermons and speeches of the Reverend Doctor King that I consider him a prophet. As we lift up King’s radical legacy, let us “Go out into a sometimes hostile world and declare our eternal resistance to racism, economic exploitation and militarism.” My three favorites of his teachings for the past couple of years have been the sermon
“Love and Forgiveness” (May 20, 1964, transcript),
“The Three Evils of Society” (August 31, 1967, audio) and
“The Drum Major Instinct” (February 4, 1968, audio)
Odds and Ends (but interesting)
My article about the Oakland Federal Building action on November 13, 2023 was published in Community Connection, the online magazine of Kehilla Community Synagogue: https://connection.kehillasynagogue.org/jews-occupy-federal-building-for-gaza/. I want to thank Chris Carlsson for also sharing it on Shaping San Francisco, along with other recent reflections of mine.
I think a lot is attributed to Hamas blindly, some in bad faith. I believe that they have committed atrocities and war crimes for years, but they aren’t “animals” and they aren’t particularly unreasonable or bloodthirsty when compared to other actors on the world stage, especially next to Israel and the United States (or China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Isil, or Boko Haram, for that matter). The United States has a terrible track record of ignoring requests to negotiate and even surrender, preferring to push on with planned military onslaughts (as against Japan and Vietnam for example). According to a 1/1/2024 Richard Silverstein article in Al-Monitor and reprinted in Tikkun Olam, “US Rejected Palestinian Deal that Would Have Avoided 10/7. Hamas-Fatah Unity Plan would have recognized Israel, ended armed resistance, Biden turned it down.” It is worth exploring a bit more about Hamas since they aren’t really going to be wiped out…although Israel and the United States seem hell bent on killing all 2 million people in Gaza, so I shouldn’t sound so sure. The Delphi Institute and their Defend Democracy Press has reposted some relevant quotes from Hamas leaders recently too.
January 11 is the anniversary of the opening of the prison/torture camp at Guantanamo Bay by the United States. There are still a few captives there. More harm caused by US. (sigh)
I continue to be impressed by the journalism of +972 Magazine and their Hebrew edition Local Call. https://www.972mag.com/hamas-fatah-elections-israel-arrogance/ In my last Missive, I implored people to read this piece by them. I must note that the estimated number of Palestinians in Gaza who are on the brink of starvation has doubled to one million in the last two weeks. Civilian casualties are not an accident! This is a moral shame and a legal crime. https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/
I learn a lot from James Dorsey, as I have said before even though I am more an activist ,and he’s a more conservative academic in Singapore. He has dropped the cute but confusing “of Soccer” in his Substack Feed, “The Turbulent World.” I recommend this piece for sure to understand more of the international players of the larger Muslim world, threatening and otherwise: https://jamesmdorsey.substack.com/p/the-gaza-war-is-set-to-spill-onto
Major frown: Shame on the UK’s chief rabbi! (Thank you, Jonathan Cook) Also, Shame on India’s ruler and ruling party, but right on, international worker solidarity!
Where’s Jim? There’s Jim!
(clockwise from upper left: With Junsun, a “famous” Buddhist who drums and chants for peace all over the world was in San Francisco outside the Israeli consulate for a week in early December. Outside Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s office. Outside the Fairfield government center, waiting for the 14 arrestees to be released after the Travis AFB action. With Marian Doub and Brad McClanahan on New Years Day. With Aidan Thawley who visited (far too briefly) from their life in London.
Eamon is a Five-Year-Old Now!
We lobbied together with CODEPINK the day that I arrived. We dropped in on several senator’s offices. We were sometimes met outside by a staffer. Sometimes we were allowed to occupy their outer offices and “testify” for the aides and interns. We tried to insist on being heard by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee as they arrived for a closed door meeting. Eamon was outstanding giving out handouts. He was pretty irresistible. Here is Eamon in an outstanding back-of-the-head shot.
There were a prodigious amount of leaves, and a storm was coming, and we were hosting Eamon’s fifth birthday party. Backyard. Garage. Driveway (big and steep). Taking them all down and across the street for a city crew to come and vacuum them all up. Eamon helped some too!
Peekaboo!
Eamon showed great growth from when I just saw him in October. I don’t think he would have had the stick-to-it-iveness to stay interested in the jigsaw puzzle to see it through then, but in December, YES! And he had fun mugging with me for the camera! We probably won’t see each other live and in person again before the next Missive or two. We say, “See you then!”
Jim's Approximately Monthly Missives 