This is the first two of a series of posts by Rosahill about her second trip to Gaza to witness conditions there. Promoted by carol.

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

Since 1991 the cost of war to people living in the Middle East is estimated to have been $12 trillion.

Costs of Conflict in the Middle East is the title of a report released earlier this year by the Strategic Foresight Institute in Mumbai, India. The report was assembled out of a discussion process in which people from different countries and different professions came together for at least three conference sessions in different parts of the world to conceive and pull together the report.

Unlike Joseph Stiglitz's report on the costs of the Iraqi war to the US which showed that the direct and indirect costs of the war would easily be some 50 times more than the $60 billion Bush, Rumsfield and Wolfowitz told Congress and Americans it would be back in 2003, this report attempts to pull together the costs for the Iraqis, in the context of all the other conflicts wracking that part of the world. The Institute's total estimate of the cost of war and conflict damage since the starting point of 1991 they chose (First Gulf War) is $12 trillion, (about $40,000 per American) and can be compared with US GNP of a bit more than $13 trillion, or US per capita income in 2007 of around $37,000.

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

This Day in History 1891:

"Sockless" Simpson rallies populist farmers

A friend, jeeidunno, has been doing a little bit of part time volunteer radio reporting and has been running a series of interesting interviews. Here is a Noam Chomsky Radio Interview from February 20, 2009, that is about 15 minutes long and in two parts. I think you will enjoy it because he asks great questions and gives the people he talks to plenty of time to answer. Something that you may no longer be used to from our sound bite media. Grab yourself a cup of java and enjoy:

"Noam Chomsky discusses the Israeli Elections, the War on Gaza, Hamas, US Policy, Obama and Activism."

Part I:

Part II is below the fold.

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. 

GRITtv with Laura Flanders

originally posted 2009-02-08 20:30:11 -0500, bumped by carol

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Building consensus within America’s body politic and national security establishment for a new way forward with Muslims worldwide is a formidable challenge. Many Americans still don’t appreciate the complex nuances of Muslim society and remain stubbornly Islamophobic almost seven and half years after 9/11. Equally formidable is earning the goodwill of Muslims worldwide following the Iraq War as well as American atrocities perpetrated upon Islamic detainees at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Hopefully, President Obama’s historic election has finally opened a path for constructive conversation about how America can most effectively engage the Muslim world.

Gaza rebuild 'to cost billions'