News Releases

Rabbi ALISSA WISE, alissa at jewishvoiceforpeace.org, @jvplive, AlissaShira
Deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, Rabbi Alissa Wise said today: “On MSNBC on Monday, in a discussion of the killing of 11 Jewish people in a synagogue in Pittsburgh by a white supremacist, Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer defended U.S. President Trump’s widely criticized response to the shooting. Echoing Trump in 2017 when he said there were ‘a lot of fine people’ on ‘both sides’ of a white supremacist demonstration in Charlottesville that left one counter-protester dead, Dermer stated: ‘I see a lot of bad people on both sides who attack Jews.’ He added: ‘Antisemites are usually not neo-Nazis, on college campuses. They’re coming from the radical left. We have to stand against antisemitism whether it comes from the right or whether it comes from the left.’

“For an Israeli diplomat to compare college students defending Palestinian human rights to a mass murderer is reprehensible, insulting and frankly dangerous. Criticising Israeli policy or defending Palestinian human rights is not in any way antisemitic. However, employing white supremacists, as Trump and other politicians have done, is indeed antisemitic. Moreover, making false claims of antisemitism is dangerous, as the events this week have show, because these false claims distract from the dangers of real antisemitism.

“The Israeli ambassador’s false allegation that students on the ‘radical left’ are as dangerous as white supremacists betrays Israel’s true lack of concern for Jewish safety. Even in the wake of the deadliest attack on American Jews in history, Israel has shown how it is yet again willing to jeopardize the safety of the American Jewish community in order to maintain its close relationship with Trump, all in pursuit of the goal of Israeli domination of Palestinian lives and land.”

See recent statements form Jewish Voice for Peace: “First Ever: 40+ Jewish Groups Worldwide Oppose Equating Antisemitism With Criticism of Israel“; “JVP Is Deeply Concerned as Controversial Kenneth Marcus Confirmed to Office of Civil Rights“; “Antisemitism Bill Is a Cynical Attempt to Silence Human Rights on College Campuses.”

SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI, aladeimi at msu.edu, @shireen818
Originally from Yemen, Al-Adeimi is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University.

CNN is reporting Wednesday: “Mattis and Pompeo call for Yemen ceasefire ‘within 30 days.’”

She tweeted in response to the news: “The United States has been actively at war in Yemen since 2015, yet [Sec. Pompeo and the State Department] are acting like concerned, neutral observers by urging ‘all parties’ to end the war. Why not announce an end to the U.S. role in the war instead?”

Bernie Sanders recently wrote in the New York Times: “Next month, I intend to bring that resolution [calling on the president to withdraw from the Saudi-led war in Yemen] back to the floor. We will be adding more co-sponsors, and colleagues in the House have offered a similar measure.”

Al-Adeimi writes in her recent piece “Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s Disappearance has Accomplished What 50,000 Yemeni Deaths Could Not” for NBC News: “The [Saudi] crown prince’s actions in Yemen have not drawn nearly as much attention from his U.S. allies. Quite the opposite in fact. The administrations of President Barack Obama and Trump have both been quick to support bin Salman’s military via billions of dollars in weapon sales, logistical support and training reportedly totaling around $120 million per month and facilitating midair refueling for Saudi jets in Yemeni skies. And until the brutal killing of 40 Yemeni children on a school bus, the U.S. mainstream media remained largely uncritical of its government’s role in the war on Yemen.”

The Grayzone Project reported on Friday: “Saudi Arabia Kills Yemeni Civilians with Another U.S.-Made Raytheon Bomb.”

CNN reports: “Local, national officials decline to appear with Trump in Pittsburgh.”

RU EMMONS, R.emmonsapt@gmail.com, @IfNotNowOrg

Ru Emmons is a member of If Not Now, an organization of young Jews. They are participating in numerous events today in Pittsburgh. The group released a statement: “Eleven American Jews were killed because their synagogue embodied the Jewish values of supporting refugees and immigrants. Eleven American Jews were killed after a week of conservative leaders pushing the antisemitic lie that paints Jews like [George] Soros as responsible for the Honduran migrant caravan  —  and paints immigrants and asylum seekers as a danger to the country. This is just one example how antisemitism sits at the root of white nationalism.”

See from Eric K. Ward at Political Research Associates: “Skin in the Game: How Antisemitism Animates White Nationalism.”

MARY GRANT, via Darcey Rakestraw, drakestraw at fwwatch.org, @foodandwater
Grant is director of Food & Water Watch’s Public Water for All campaign. She is author of the new, first-of-its-kind nationwide assessment report “America’s Secret Water Crisis.” Top findings include:
   “The average water utility shut off 5 percent of households for nonpayment in 2016.

    “Among responding utilities, more than half a million households lost water service for nonpayment, affecting an estimated 1.4 million people in 2016.

    “An estimated 15 million people in the United States experienced a water shutoff in 2016.”

Grant just co-wrote the New York Times op-ed with the group’s executive director, Wenonah Hauter: “Dear Customer: We’re Shutting Off Your Water,” which states: “In several communities, water has become unaffordable, forcing families to choose between it and other essentials, like food, medicine and transportation. Detroit and New Orleans stood out in our survey. A typical water bill in those cities exceeds $1,000 a year, putting this critical service beyond the budgets of low-income households. For the poorest fifth of households in those cities, typical water bills amounted to more than 9 percent of their income. Most shut-offs happen in the South, particularly in Arkansas, Louisiana and Florida, and in Oklahoma, according to our results.
“This problem is a result of decades of federal underinvestment in water infrastructure, and the inequities that have driven widening wealth and income inequality across the country.”

Also see recent AP article: “Report: More than 500,000 US households had water cut off.”

STEVEN GARDINER, s.gardiner at politicalresearch.org, @vetanthropology; also via Greeley O’Connor, g.oconnor at politicalresearch.org, @PRAEyesRight
Gardiner is senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, which monitors rightwing movements.

Last week, he wrote the piece “The Violent Consequences Of Antisemitic Bigotry,” which states: “The damage done by conspiracy and vigilante violence alters the fabric of democracy, and our collective capacity to understand what is going on in our world, to trust each other. The degradation of politics and attacks on the vulnerable, now proliferating, did not start with Donald Trump, but he rides its wave. The backlash and spillover injuries do not affect only high profile-individuals. As always, it is people are vulnerable who will be targeted. It is transgender people, as the bigotry amplification machine that is the current administration seeks more scapegoats. It is those involved in the liberation movement for black lives, and for just and compassionate immigration. It is the migrants seeking to cross the border and the refugees from the wars the U.S. has done so much to spread around the globe. It is not for the plutocrats that we are called to resist, but to for the sake of a world where a just, multi-racial democracy is even remotely possible.”

Huffington Post reports: “Brazil Elects Far-Right Authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro As President.”

MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA, marialuisam222 at gmail.com
Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of the Network for Social Justice and Human Rights in Brazil said today: “We will have very difficult times ahead in Brazil with increasing intolerance, violence, racism, sexism, homophobia and repression against progressive movements, universities and indigenous communities, stimulated by a discourse of hate that characterizes Bolsonaro and his supporters. At the same time, we saw a new wave of hope for progressive politics in the campaign of Fernando Haddad and Manuela D’Ávila, which was built by the mobilization of millions of people. We saw a great deal of diversity in Haddad’s campaign, who received support from artists and intellectuals in Brazil and abroad. We need international solidarity to protect democracy and basic rights in our country.” See the piece in Ms. Magazine: “What’s at Stake for Women in Brazil.”

ALEXANDER MAIN, main at cepr.net
Director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Main was recently on an Institute for Public Accuracy news release: “Is Brazil Slipping Back into Fascism?“

STEVEN GARDINER, s.gardiner@politicalresearch.org, @vetanthropology; also via Greeley O’Connor, g.oconnor@politicalresearch.org, @PRAEyesRight
Gardiner is senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, which monitors rightwing movements. He has been following the bomber case closely.

Gardiner started researching and writing in opposition to the politics of bigotry, violence, and authoritarianism in the early 1990s. Working for the Portland, Oregon-based Coalition for Human Dignity (CHD), he did some of the first analyses of the Religious Right in the Northwest and his work supported the years-long fight against anti-LGBTQ ballot measures of the Oregon Citizens Alliance. As editor of CHD’s newsletter, The Dignity Report, and principal writer and analyst on a series of articles and reports, he helped to shape understanding and arm the resistance to antisemitism, Holocaust denial, the Patriot and militia movements, anti-immigrant xenophobia and anti-LGBTQ politics. In 2004 Gardiner received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Cornell University for his work on military masculinity and conscientious objection in the German military. Since earning his doctorate, he has taught more than 20 different courses at eight universities in the United States, Pakistan, and the UAE.

Selected articles include “In the Shadow of Service: Veteran Masculinity and Civil-Military Disjuncture in the United States” (North American Dialogue, 2013), “Behold the Man: Heroic Masochism, Militant Christianity, and Mel Gibson’s Passion” (Cultural Analysis, 2013), and “White Nationalism Revisited: Demographic Dystopia and White Identity Politics” (Journal of Hate Studies, 2006).

The New York Times scrutinizes recent rightwing claims in “‘False Flag’ Theory on Pipe Bombs Zooms From Right-Wing Fringe to Mainstream.” Meanwhile, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd said Thursday, without citing evidence, that he “has this fear” that the bombs shipped through the mail to prominent Democrats “could be some Russian operation.” [See video.]

GRAEME MACQUEEN, gmacqueen at cogeco.ca
MacQueen is author of the book The 2001 Anthrax Deception and founder of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University in Ontario.

He said today: “The closest parallel to the recent suspicious packages are the anthrax letter attacks that occurred in the fall of 2001. There was wildly inaccurate reporting immediately after that case, and for this reason we should reflect on what we have learned about the anthrax attacks.

“The attacks were initially blamed by most people on Al Qaeda, not surprisingly given the written letters that accompanied the anthrax (‘Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great’) and given that the letters came so soon after the 9/11 attacks. As the fall went on politicians and members of the media went further and suggested that Iraq was Al Qaeda’s sponsor. The attacks were then used to support invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq.

“The anthrax attacks were also used to ensure passage of the Patriot Act and to silence its critics. Two of its leading critics, both of whom were Democratic senators, received anthrax letters.

“By the end of 2001 this entire Al Qaeda-Iraq scenario had collapsed, and it was increasingly recognized, by the FBI, Homeland Security, and the White House that the attacks had been deceptive. Muslims now appeared to have had nothing to do with the attacks. The anthrax spores had evidently come from one of three highly secure labs in the U.S. at the heart of the military-industrial complex. This was, therefore, not only a domestic operation but an operation launched from within the U.S. security apparatus. It had evidently been mounted to frame Muslims and promote the War on Terror.

“Controversy remains today over who the perpetrators were. The FBI claims to have solved the case and identified an unstable ‘lone wolf’ scientist (Dr. Bruce Ivins) working at the the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Maryland. But there are very strong reasons to believe Ivins was not the culprit and that the team of perpetrator-insiders is still at large.

“Therefore: No blame should be cast on any party until the incidents have been thoroughly researched, not only by the FBI but also by civilian researchers. Only evidence, made publicly available, can solve this mystery and lead to the apprehension of the perpetrator or perpetrators.”

Also see: “Anthrax Mystery: Questions Raised over Whether Government Is Framing Dead Army Scientist for 2001 Attacks” on “Democracy Now!” in 2008 with Glenn Greenwald and Dr. Meryl Nass, expert on anthrax and editor of the blog AnthraxVaccine.blogspot.com. Also see Greenwald’s piece “Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News,” which examines how major media outlets protected anonymous sources who disinformed the public.

Trump and many other political figures are decrying violence since suspicious packages have been sent to several prominent Democrats and others.

AP is reporting Thursday morning: “A Saudi-led coalition airstrike at a fruit and vegetable market near Yemen’s flashpoint Red Sea port of Hodeida killed at least 21 civilians, including children, the U.N. humanitarian aid agency said Thursday.”

KATHY KELLY,  kathy at vcnv.org, @voiceinwild

Kelly is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has been repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

She said today: “President Trump insists on selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis have repeatedly used U.S. missiles to kill innocent Yemeni civilians. Prolonging the war in Yemen has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in a country where 14 million people are now on the verge of famine. Is President Trump prepared to denounce the maiming and killing of innocent civilians in Yemen?”

Kelly has regularly written about the consequences of the U.S.-supported war in Yemen over the past two years. See her recent piece “U.S. Is Complicit in Child Slaughter in Yemen.”

Kelly and others will be holding protests from Nov. 6 to 8, across from the U.N, “calling for an end to U.S. support for and participation in the Saudi-led coalition’s war against Yemen and calling on all of the warring parties to stop the war and help address the dire near-famine conditions sparked by continued attacks.”

AP reported Tuesday that the U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock is warning of an enormous famine in Yemen. He told the Security Council that this famine would be “much bigger than anything any professional in this field has seen during their working lives.”

SUYAPA PORTILLO, Suyapa_Portillo at pitzer.edu, @SuyapaPV
Portillo is an assistant professor at Pitzer College and observed last year’s election in Honduras. She is in contact with people in Honduras who would also be available for interviews.

She just wrote the piece “An Illegitimate, U.S.-Backed Regime is Fueling the Honduran Refugee Crisis,” which states: “Honduran and other Central American immigrants are refugees and therefore should be treated as such by U.S. immigration law, border patrol and ICE as well as the Mexican government. Many are escaping weak neoliberal and militaristic governments, such as the one in Honduras, where narcotrafficking and narcomenudeo have thrived under the U.S.-backed Juan Orlando Hernandez regime and his military police.

“Juan Orlando Hernandez and the Nationalist party have stolen millions from public service agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, to run their campaigns against the opposition and now people are suffering. His presidency cannot provide jobs, healthcare, safety in their neighborhoods or food. Eating in Honduras is a luxury. For instance, minimum wage is under $400 dollars a month, but electricity, water and food, costs well over $500 a month for a household. Maquiladoras and agro-export companies are benefiting from free trade laws which maintain the minimum wage below the government’s minimum wage laws and do not allow unions to organize and protect workers.

“Since Juan Orlando Hernandez took office in 2013 and since his fraudulent elections in 2017, the country has witnessed a decline in security, becoming one of the most dangerous countries in the world, where children, women and transgender people are killed at the rate of a country in an active war.”