Remember on this day, We as a Nation are Directly Responsible for the plight of millions of recent refugee's through our failed foreign policies of Wars/Occupations of Choice in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and now in Pakistan. We have many, supporters of our occupations mostly, who rail against any illegal immigrants crossing our borders for the jobs companies will give them, while at the same time forcing millions to flee to their neighbors countries, leaving those countries to absorb and support them. We Are Directly Responsible! HM Queen Noor honors World Refugee Day

For 35 years, my home has been one of the world's major conflict regions, home also to over 10 million refugees and displaced inhabitants. World Refugee Day is a time to honor and support these individuals and families who persevere through devastating tragedies.............

Angelina Jolie calls for greater understanding of the plight of refugees

WASHINGTON, DC, United States, June 18 (UNHCR) – At an event marking the launch of activities in the United States for World Refugee Day, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie appeared alongside UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres to call on the world to recognize millions of victims of conflict around the world not as a burden but as a potential gift............ Snip "The refugees I have met and spent time with have profoundly changed my life," Jolie added. "Today . . . I want to thank them for letting me into their lives."..........

I would like to share two articles which I came across this morning. One of them, published in the latest edition of the Nation by Roane Corey is about the efforts of a group of Israelis and Palestinians who have come together to try and find ways to overcome the bloody abyss which separates the two peoples and cultures. The article is called Cultivating Peace in Palestine, and can be found here at Commondreams.org.

Rachel – a film documentary directed by Simone Bitton, shown at the Tribeca Film Festival

 This is a somber movie indeed, and timely as the United    Nations attempts an  investigation of the Israeli attack on  Gaza.  Rachel re-examines the death of Rachel Corrie,  crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza in 2003.  The    director, Simone Bitton, describes it as “the examination of    an examination”,  with much of the film focusing on re-  visualizing what happened, interviewing  witnesses, and on  the Israeli investigation of Rachel’s death.  The counterpoint  is Rachel’s fellow International Solidarity Movement activists  reading  excerpts from her diary.

 I hate to say "There you go again," but AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) concluded its annual conference in Washington DC with 508 meetings with Congressional representatives.  Their message?  Their representatives should sign a letter to President Obama demanding he allow Israel to set the pace of negotiations with Palestinians, substituting vague offers of economic development and institution building for substantive negotiations to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza.  Here is a quote from the letter, sponsored by Representative Steny Hoyer, " "the best way to achieve future success between Israelis and Palestinians will be by adhering to basic principles that have undergirded our policy..."  These include "acceptance that the parties themselves must negotiate the details of any agreement" as well as demanding that the Palestinians first "build the institutions necessary for a viable state" before gaining independence. 

Here is a link to an article in the UK Guardian for more information: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/06/us-israel-palestinians-middle-east.

Rorschach "Rachel"

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Simone Bitton's documentary "Rachel," which premiered this week at the Tribeca Film Festival, is what's not in it. Bitton, a Moroccan-born Jewish filmmaker who spent many years in Israel and now lives in France, conducts a philosophical and cinematic inquiry into the death of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American activist who was killed under ambiguous circumstances in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip in March 2003. But the political firestorm that followed Corrie's death, which saw her beatified as a martyr for peace by some on the left and demonized as a terrorist enabler by some on the right, is virtually absent from the film....>>>>>Much More Here

This is a report by Felice Gelman of a trip that she took to Gaza last month that was organized by Code Pink. She was part of a delegation from the Wespac Middle East Committee. It is posted with her permission. More reports and pictures can be  foundon her site.

The Destruction

Rabbi Michael Lerner, the founder/editor of Tikkun Magazine and The Network of Spiritual Progressives learned in late January that he is suffering from a rare form of lung cancer. (No, he does not smoke!)

Rabbi Lerner, who emerged as an early and leading figure in the Jewish-American movement for peace in the middle-east, will undergo surgery today.

He is asking for our support and help. 

On January 12th 2009 President bush gave his final Press Conference to the Nation.

In it he made a number of statements that have been analyzed by many, my take on his answers and spin was his showing how little a man, who is in total denial and lacking any compassion or moral feelings, of how big a failure as a person, and especially as the President, he has been!

In one of his answers he said this:

Michael Scheuer has an interesting series of articles at the Asian Times from the The Jamestown Foundation. A window in the coming Blowback, that has already reared it's ugly head in many places and is stoked by throwing intense flames onto the already started fire?

The latest report is called MUJAHIDEEN BLEED-THROUGH, Part 4 with a subtitle "Palestine and Israel: The ring of terror tightens"

by Jeff Huber

Last week, at a meeting of his country's ruling party, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Iran of "trying to devour the Arab states." Don't worry, Hosni. Iran won't eat you. It can't. It can't sit on you either. It's too far away.

What led Mubarak to say such a mean thing about Iran? Well, it seems that a bunch of Iranian students shouted a bunch of mean things at the Egyptian embassy in Tehran, including their apparently genuine wish that someone would hang Mubarak. The Iranian students shouted mean things about Mubarak because Egypt wouldn't let the Iranian Red Crescent sneak around Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip and deliver food and supplies to Palestinians, who have been reduced to eating grass.

So Iran wasn't trying to eat Arabs; it was trying to feed them. Gee, how did Mubarak get that story all backwards?