HAPPY JULY 4th—MEDIACHANNEL OFFICE CLOSED–DECLARE YOUR INDEPENDENCE
http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/
See statement below by Frederick Douglass (7.4.1852)

AN ISRAELI PERSPECTIVE
REMEMBER SREBRENICIA
DISSSECTING A MEDIA EVENT

Blog for July 3 and 4th 2006:

I have been up in the country, and have not been totally in touch with the news. My email account is acting up as well. On Friday I spoke at a great panel discussion on media issues (see below) and on Sunday afternoon I hosted a sneak preview of my new film In Debt We Trust at the great old movie theater in Rosendale NY. I am happy to report that the theater was packed, nearly every seat full, and we had a great response. That was very gratifying.

Not so gratifying was hearing sporadic reports about the war on Palestine that seems to be underway in the name of freeing an Israeli soldier, a pretext if there ever was one.

I was sent this article written by an Israeli who fought in Israel’s war for independence with great distinction and has been a stalwart of the peace camp ever since. Since most of the coverage I have seen in US press ranges between official US views, Israeli government positions and comments from the Arab press, I thought I would share an Israeli view that gets almost no attention but seems totally on target. This particular piece offers a historical perspective of a kind not at all visible in our media. Here’s the view of Uri Avnery whose work often appears in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.

Agatha In The Rain

“ISRAEL HAS declared war on the Palestinian people! The Palestinian people will answer in kind! The Palestinian rebellion will go on! The Palestinian fighters are steadfast in the service of the nation! Down with the Nazi-Zionist occupation! Out with the unclean infidels from the Holy Land! Destroyed Rafah -we shall build you anew! Long live the Palestinian revolution! Long live the State of Palestine!”

A Hamas leaflet of last week? Not exactly. With appropriate changes, this leaflet was published on July 2, 1946 - sixty years ago almost to the day - by the Haganah, after “Black Saturday”.

Then, in the wake of a daring commando action by the Palmakh (”shock troops” of the Haganah), which blew up a number of bridges, the British government of Palestine decided to carry out a plan prepared well in advance. It was code-named “Agatha”. On June 29, 1946, 17 thousand British soldiers fanned out all over the Jewish towns and kibbutzim to confiscate arms and documents and arrest the leaders of the Jewish community. The British government affirmed its determination to stamp out terrorism. In Jerusalem, the soldiers occupied the headquarters of the Jewish Agency, the de facto government of the Jewish “state within the state”, and onfiscated many documents that clearly established its close connections with the “terrorist headquarters” - the joint command of the Haganah, the Irgun and the Stern Group, which worked closely together at the time.

The soldiers broke into the homes of the political leaders of the Jewish community and arrested most of the Jewish Agency “ministers”. The leaders were detained in Latrun. But the commanders of the underground rganizations decided to continue fighting, in order to prove to the British that the arrest of the leaders had not silenced them.

“Black Saturday” was a milestone in the fight against the British. Within a year, they decided to leave the country.

The similarity between the British “Agatha” and the Israeli “Summer Rains” is striking. This shows that every occupation regime is condemned to repeat the actions of its predecessors, even when they have been proved hopeless. This does not mean that all occupiers are fools - only that the logic of occupation itself condemns them to do foolish things.

THE AIM of the present operation is, ostensibly, to free the soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by the Palestinian underground (consisting of several organizations), in an attack that even an Israeli military expert called “a daring commando action”.

If our army had kept its high military standard, it would immediately have replaced all the commanders responsible for the debacle. 50 years ago this would have been done . But we have a different army now. Nobody was removed. The failed commanders just called the attack “a terrorist act”, the fighters “terrorists” and the captured soldier “kidnapped”.

The action proves, of course, an old military maxim: for every means of defense a means of attack can be found, and vice versa. The “security” fence that surrounds the Gaza Strip on all sides (except the sea), the like of which is now being built inside the West Bank, can stop thieves and people looking for work in Israel, but not determined fighters who will always find ways to cross it, whether from below or above.

The “kidnapped” soldier served as a pretext for an operation which must have been prepared a long time ago. The Israeli and international public has been told that the aim is to set him free, but in practice it has put his life in greater jeopardy. If the soldiers come near to where he is hidden, he could be killed in the cross-fire - as happened some years ago to the soldier Nakhshon Waksman, who was captured by Hamas. He was killed in the exchange of fire between the soldiers and the Palestinians. Waksman would probably be alive today, if there had been an exchange of prisoners instead.

The connection between the “kidnapped soldier” and the operation exists only in the realm of propaganda. The same goes for the second pretext: that the aim is to put an end to the launching of Qassam rockets at the town of Sderot.

True, this is indeed an intolerable situation. The Qassam, a simple and inexpensive weapon, causes more panic than real damage, like the German V-rockets fired on London in World War II. It terrorizes the population, and that is its aim. Its purpose is to break the devastating blockade that the Israeli government has been maintaining against the Gaza strip since the “disengagement”. Until now, the army has not come up with a means to put a stop to the rockets.

But the Qassams, too, are not the real cause of the “Summer Rains” operation. Its character shows that it has a much wider aim: to destroy the elected Palestinian government (Israeli propaganda’s “Hamas Government”) and bring the Palestinian population to its knees. This is supposed to make it possible for the Israeli government to carry out the “Convergence” plan, annexing major parts of the West Bank to Israel and preventing the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

A clear aim, which the operation is designed to attain by simple means: breaking the Palestinian population by the liquidation of its leadership, destruction of its infrastructure and cutting off of food supplies, medicines, electricity, water and sanitary services - not to mention employment. The message to the Palestinians: if you want to put an end to your suffering, remove the government you have elected.

CAN THIS succeed? Exactly like the the success of the British operation. “Agatha” achieved the very opposite.

Like all the failures of our army over the years, from the battle of Karameh in 1968, through the Egyptian crossing of the canal at the beginning of the Yom Kippur war, to the two intifadas, the reason lies with the abysmal contempt that the army commanders hold for the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular. The Shin Bet meets the Palestinians in the form of interrogated prisoners, who are ready to say anything at all under torture, and the despicable collaborators, who are ready to sell their cousins for drugs or money. The occupation commanders cannot imagine that the Palestinians could react like any other people, even - God forbid! - as we did in a similar situation. What, these pitiful Arabs are like us?

True, the British never behaved towards us as we do now towards the Palestinians. But on the other hand, t he Palestinians’ ability to suffer oppression is much greater than ours. It is based on the family structure that makes for much more effective mutual help, and on the experience of living for years in dire straits.

On “Black Saturday”‘ the Jewish community stood together behind its besieged leadership. The opposition from right and left rallied behind Ben-Gurion (who was abroad) and Sharett (imprisoned in Latrun). Experience shows that every people behaves like this when a foreign enemy attacks its leadership. Hamas is almost certain to emerge much strengthened from this test. The arrests prove to the Palestinian public that its is a fighting, loyal leadership, not corrupted by the amenities of power - contrary to their predecessors, some of whom were tainted by corruption.

The pretext for the operation - the release of the captured soldier - will only harden the attitude of the Palestinians. No issue is more important for them than the release of Palestinian prisoners - a matter that directly concerns 10 thousand Palestinian extended families, in every town, quarter and village. These families are prepared to suffer anything to secure their release.

THE SECOND victim of the operation is the “Convergence Plan”, which has become ridiculous. In the eyes of the ordinary Israeli, it looks like this: We have left Gaza, and now we are returning. We dismantled the settlements there, and got the Qassams on Sderot in return. Sharon has failed, so Olmert will fail doubly.

That is true, but not for the obvious reasons. The withdrawal from Gaza has not brought security, because it was carried out without any dialogue or agreement with the Palestinians. It has not brought peace nearer, because it was coupled with an open intention to annex large parts of the West Bank. And, no less importantly, we did indeed leave the Gaza Strip entirely, but have blockaded it and cut it off from the world. All this is even more true for the “convergence” of Olmert. The “Summer Rains” may have washed it off the map.

ANNIVERSARY OF HORROR

July 1 was the anniversary of the massacre at Serbenicia. May we never forget.

Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave

The companion Website for the documentary film Srebrenica: A Cry from the Grave, presented by Thirteen/WNET New York, features eyewitness accounts,
www.pbs.org/cryfromthegrave

Correction.

I read about a commemoration of the massacre slated for July first which said that was the date of the massacre. I should have checked. I was wrong as Shebar Windstone explains:

“The Srebrenica massacre took place on July 11th, not July 1st.”

This gives us more time to mark the event.

http://www.srebrenica.ba/index.en.php

HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY:
Lessons from a June 30th Panel in New York State

The best speech, the one with the most surprises, was not on the program.

Andi Novick, a lawyer by trade and media reform organizer by desire, was capping a night devoted to discussing the media and the war in the beautiful (and now water-soaked) Hudson Valley of New York State. She had formed Northeast Citizens for Responsible Media in her living room across the river and was now going public with a big time event. The symbol she chose for her literature was Independence day-oriented, not Lenin or Lennon, but Paul Revere galloping to sound the alarm in the night.

Andi was closing out the discussion she had put together at the Ulster County Community College built in a cow pasture in rural Stone Ridge, New York. When you looked around the college auditorium, it was packed, on a Friday night no less, and, of all things, on a holiday weekend! There were hundreds of people there, not just grunge kids or hard core, button-wearing, leftist-looking drop-outs but real citizens, grown-ups, voters. The place was jammed. All the seats were taken with scores of people watching from the lobby. There were nearly 600 people. Not bad.

And when they all looked around, they must have been amazed, to see so many people like themselves who shared their disgust with the media, and they way it sold us this war, to see them all in one room.

Suddenly, they were not alone, and just knowing that feels good.

The anger with a media system that’s become a propaganda system has gone from an “I thing” to a “we thing.”

They had turned out for a panel featuring the big draw of the evening, Amy Goodman of Pacifica’s Democracy news hour along with Alan Chartock, who runs, and is on the air on the Albany-based WAMC, the public radio powerhouse in these parts; Maurice Hinchy, the articulate local Congressmember and national champion of media reform from the 22nd Congressional District that’s stretches from the Hudson River all the way to the finger lakes and Ithaca New York; Jeff Cohen, who lives in the area and is best known as the founder of FAIR, the media watch group and was a former cable news pundit; and batting cleanup, your news dissector. there to add my own perspective to the media war debate based on my books and film on the subject.

While the discussion was informative, charged and passionate, the more interesting question to me was how did this extraordinary event even happen at a time when so many people share its mission but so few actually take part in the emerging media and democracy movement?

How do you turn seething anger with the media into mobilization and political action? That’s a question many of us in the media criticism/activism business have been wrestling with for a long time.

Andi seems to have a one-word answer: persistence.

And add to that a “don’t take no for an answer” attitude, and an ability to rustle up volunteers, and even get her eleven year old super-son Taylor to sell merchandise (ie. books and T shirts) with a motor mouth spiel and the dedication of a Sam Walton. (This may have something to do with the fact that the two of us share a birthday!)

So in the coda to the evening, Andi was doing the obligatory thank yous to all of the friends and neighbors who helped, only to deviate and start telling us why and how she got involved, as a “nobody,” someone who had on her own come to the conclusion that the media was harming our democracy and that had to stop.

She explained that she was not an expert, not an experienced organizer but just one pissed off person. She even stopped having the NY Times delivered to her home because of its mostly pull all punches coverage.

She expected truth from media and wasn’t getting it, and she assumed her neighbors agreed.

Her first campaign was a failure. So far. She launched a petition drive to get WAMC to pick up Amy Goodman’s program. She found Alan Chartock to be just as resolute in his conviction that most of their airtime should be devoted to local hosts and shows. Andi’s army had besieged the station, threatened a boycott and alienated Chartock who even complained on air that some in this Amy brigade had dissed his mother.

Oy!

This was getting personal and getting nowhere. So Andi decided to try to talk to the station which, as you can understand, was not really interested in talking with people yelling at them.

She came up with an idea—she would donate $100 during the fundraising drive if Alan would meet her. At first he balked, but then decided, as the great fundraiser he is, what the hell, money was money, and meanwhile was probably wondering who was this unstoppable Andi Novick who had become like a piece of gum on his shoe that couldn’t be dislodged?

Soon the fundraiser would meet the hellraiser.

It was a start. Democracy Now is still not on the air in Albany (But is heard in the area). Andi found Chartock genuinely concerned about media issues. (I know that’s true because I was on the air with him on a innovative youth media literacy show earlier in the year. He cares about media as do many in public radio.)

Andi decided then to engage rather than enrage—and invited Chartock to moderate the evening. She realized they could still disagree without being disagreeable. He did, and to his credit, did a good job. He will even broadcast the discussion to his large listening audience, That took guts! (And that means his listeners will not, at least for an hour, no longer be Amy-free!)

Soon, Andi was not just graciously thanking her guests but reminding them and us that many of the “Stars” on the stage had refused to take her calls for months even as they told her to call them. (“Andi is so sincere,” says one friend, “even to the point of naivete. She doesn’t know what she is up against which is probably a good thing.”)

Andi couldn’t accept that some one would invite her—a mother of three and member of the bar—to call them but then not call back. She chided them with a smile on her face and respect in her voice. Everyone knew she was right!

Andi was funny in saying that they must have considered her one crazy woman, even a witch, to be patronized but not responded to. But her relentlessness broke down their busyness. Her “broomstick” swept them in.

In the end, they all showed up and an amazing time was had by all, even if there was not enough time for the panelists to debate, or for a proper audience discussion.

Even the Amy-lovers and Chartock-haters had to admit that the evening was worthwhile. Most of them picked up copies of Andi’s FIVE PAGE single-spaced “Actions you can take to make a difference” flyer (which, among other things, urged joining Mediachannel.org.) Yea.

The point in all this is that every community has an Andi (and friends) who can get the ball rolling on a campaign for media responsibility. It is clearly a popular issue. We should take forums like this on the road.

For more on Andi & Co’s efforts, visit their site www.re-media.org and then make one of your own.

The lesson: Don’t take no for an answer.

As Amy Goodman shouts at the end of her speeches with fist on high, “Democracy Now!” It’s time to make that a battle cry, not just a program.

AND HERE’S BLAST FROM THE PAST FOR JULY 4

”
The Hypocrisy of America: This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.

By: Frederick Douglass: July 4, 1852

In 1852, , invited to give a speech in Rochester, Douglass delivered the following indictment of a a nation celebrating freedom and independence, while keeping slaves.

Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation’s sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation’s jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the “lame man leap as an hart.”

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?..

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?

I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy‹a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”

Thanks to Liz Bubank for circulating this historic and all too timely document.