Israel’s Death Laboratory
This piece, written by Conn Hallinan, discusses Israel’s use of exotic and new deadly weapons in its recent war in Gaza. There was some mention of these weapons in the media (Democracy Now at least). This article goes into this morbid subject in more depth.
Death of Fran Macy, Peace Corps Tunisia Director 1966-8
“Francis Macy, a dedicated environmentalist, energy activist and citizen diplomat, whose ground-breaking work inspired fresh collaborative ventures with the former Soviet Union, died unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack in Berkeley on January 20th at age 81.” Thus begins an obituary for Francis Underhill Macy. It ends with the following: “He died hours after watching with great joy the inauguration of President Barack Obama, an event he described as a high point in his life.” In between is a sketch of a life of quality and service. (for the full obituary click here).
If I write about Fran Macy it is because our lives and that of his wife, Joanna, crossed in Tunisia 43 years ago where he was the country’s Peace Corps director, a position he held most of the time I was there. Years later – in the early 1980s – I had the good fortune to re-connect with his wife Joanna, who had become a Buddhist, and a kind of spiritual leader in the movement known as the `The Freeze’ – the movement to freeze the production of both US and Soviet nuclear arsenals. She was a keynote speaker at a peace conference at George Washington High School here in Denver and gave a powerful speech that included asking everyone to hold hands. Then she asked the audience to imagine their friend to the left or to the right vaporized by a nuclear blast. I found the whole thing rather hokey actually, but when I turned to Nancy, she was in tears and deeply shaken as were others in the audience. Other than an old cynic like myself, she had touched a deep chord in the audience.
Jody Olsen Named Acting Peace Corps Director
Note: The entry below was written eight years ago. Today, President Trumpty-Dumpty nominated Jody Olsen to become the next Peace Corps director. Her nomination needs to be confirmed by Congress.
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“Jody K. Olsen was named Acting Director of the Peace Corps Sunday, January 25, 2009. Dr. Jody K. Olsen was asked this week by President-elect Obama’s transition team to serve as acting director of the Peace Corps, effective as of noon on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Dr. Olsen will assume the role of acting director until President Obama’s Administration selects an individual to assume the role of director. “I am honored by the trust the transition team has placed in me, and grateful to be representing the Peace Corps, one of America’s finest agencies.” said Dr. Olsen. “From the time I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia up until now in my role as acting director, it has truly been a privilege to serve the agency.” Dr. Olsen has had a long and distinguished career with the Peace Corps, beginning as a Volunteer in Tunisia from 1966 to 1968, teaching English and developing community health programs.”
This news came from an informal national list `Friends of Tunisia’ which mostly consists of return Peace Corps Volunteers like myself. Why put it up on the blog? Because Jody and her then hubbie Bob served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia the same years that I did 1966-1968. Ours was a rather large group, as I recall more than 300 all tolled, and I didn’t know Jodie (or Bob) that well.
We were also a rather wonderfully irreverent group that among other things gave a petition to Vice President Humphrey against the war in Vietnam (written by Bob Stam). Its text said something along the lines that the war in Vietnam complicated our work of trying to `build bridges in Tunisia while the US Air Force was blowing them up’ in Vietnam. A number of demonstrated against the Vietnam War with Tunisian students and peace activists. Peace Corps programs continued in Tunisia until a few years ago when they were terminated. But there is a fair number – in the thousands – of Americans who served in the Peace Corps there as well as in Morocco and for a short time in Libya before Khaddafi came to power when the program was terminated there.
What do I remember of Jody Olsen?
I seem to recall that Jody was the daughter of a Utah congressman, that both Jody and Bob came from a Utal Mormon background and were, it seems, unique in our Peace Corps group in that respect. What is interesting is that so many of us who have served together and that an informal network remains active and vibrant. We have a tendency to search each other our if we find ourselves in the same town. In a few cases, now more than 40 years after leaving the program I am in regular contact with a hand full of them. Pleasant, intelligent exchanges. Very few arch conservatives among them. Every last one I can think of is either liberal or further left than that. Not much endures in this world, but these ties have seemed to.
Jody Olsen is a competent administration. I don’t know that Peace Corps can undo all the damage the Bush Administration wreaked on the world…it will take a lot more than the Peace Corps to right those wrongs – but I still believe it far better to send in the Peace Corps than `the troops’ and hope that the program can survive and flourish…
Article can be found here.
note: The Colorado State Senate might have voted 32-2 in favor of a resolution essentially justifying Israel’s war in Gaza, but outside the United States Israel is losing much of the international support it had garnered these last decades.
UN Resolutions on Israel-Palestine – going way back…
…can be found here.
Thanks to Tom Moore of Boulder, CO.
The Natives Are Restless…The Campaign Against SR09-009
A resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, introduced by Senator Joyce Foster passed the Colorado State Senate on Monday by a vote of 32-2. Based on a similar measure that passed overwhelmingly in the US Congress in early January for which AIPAC lobbied hard and successfully, the Colorado resolution reaffirmed the Rocky Mountain state’s support for Israel, put a great deal of the blame for Israel’s war in Gaza on Hamas which it tries to exclude from any negotiating role.
While it does call for negotiations and regrets the loss of civilian lives on both sides, SR09-009’s ultimate effect is to suggest that Israel’s military response in Gaza was appropriate.
Unofficial Edited Transcript of Debate on Colorado Senate Resolution SR 09-009 Feb 2, 2009 in the Colorado Senate Chamber
For a copy of the resolution itself, please click here.
Thanks to Harvie Branscomb for transcribing this:
Immediately below are excerpts for those who don’t want to read it all. For the entire transcript click here.
Note: Below are the comments of the state senators in support of this resolution essentially supporting Israel for its war in Gaza and blaming the entire crisis on Hamas. I will post the resolution itself later today. What stands out in this resolution (and discussion) is what is NOT in the resolution – 42 years of Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, unrestrained settlement building in the West Bank, Gaza the largest open air prison in the world with a seige that commentators have compared to Leningrad (Uri Avnery) or the Warsaw Ghetto (many).
My Hero Dan Winters…
South Dakota State Legislature Passes a Resolution in Support of Israel’s War On Gaza
You can read the text of this resolution either by clicking here
More than likely, the bill about to be introduced in the Colorado State Legislature by Senator Joyce Foster will resemble this one. See entries below for this date…
Thanks Ron Forthofer for the tip…
Another Lop-sided Resolution Supporting Israel’s War Against Gaza Likely To Be Introduced in the Colorado State Legislature
I started hearing about a resolution generally supporting Israel’s recent war against the Palestinian people in Gaza to be introduced in the Colorado State Senate rather soon. As of this writing, the said resolution has not been put in the hopper, but there is enough concurrence from diverse sources that 1. such a resolution exists 2. that it will soon be introduced…to write about it.
The moving force behind this initiative is newly elected state senator Joyce Foster. Foster is a former Denver city councilwoman and the wife of Rabbi Stephen Foster. A sense of the Foster’s political influence can be seen in the fact that on January 7th of this year, Rabbi Foster was the first person to speak (he gave the benediction) in the state’s new Senate Chamber. Much of the organizing in support of Israel – both behind the scenes and in the open – happens at Foster’s Temple Emmanuel Synagogue near the Cherry Creek area of Southeast Denver. It is no surprise really to anyone that has followed Middle East politics in Denver that Joyce Foster would be spear-heading such an initiative in the State Senate. Read more…
Wallerstein on Israel
note: there is good history here, very concise. I was surprised with his conclusion that the Israeli- Palestinian crisis might be moving in the direction of a one state solution – I don’t know that Wallerstein has ever made such an assertion in the past…but the logic of his argument – the failure of the Israelis to take advantage of peace opportunities in the past (in contrast to the Israel argument that it is the Palestinians that have refused to do so) is both convincing and accurate and the history of Israel’s relationship with great (or maybe now not-so-great) powers is well done and accurate
Article here.
Chomsky on Gaza
Click here.
Michael Bennet: Colorado’s New US Senator: Just The Change Needed To Maintain The Status Quo
There has been much in the news here in Colorado about Governor Ritter’s choice to replace Ken Salazar in the US Senate, Michael Bennet. Salazar was chosen by Barack Obama to be the Secretary of Interior, leaving one of Colorado’s two Senate seats open. In such a situation, the state’s governor appoints someone to complete Salazar’s term.
Ritter’s Surprise
The appointment surprised many and apparently there was much behind-the-scenes maneuvering, lobbying Ritter from different interest groups supporting this or that candidate. Although I thought he never had much of a chance, I did respond to emails about Mike Miles – who ran for the Senate several years ago – and emailed Ritter to consider him. Miles is something of a hero for the state’s liberal Democrats – I certainly respect him – but does not seem to have a political sugar daddy or significant power base from which to work. He burst on the scene suddenly and then, after losing the Democratic nomination for the Senate to Ken Salazar, pretty much receded to the Colorado Springs area from whence he came. But `for one glorious moment’ he really got the different power circles within the Democratic Party rather nervous. In the end he turned out to be something of a useful political barometer for a number of aspiring politicans, Jared Polis among them, to weigh the chances of a reform Dem shaking up the party and actually challenging the old guard hierarchy. Oh yes, and the grassroots movement that supported his candidacy `Be The Change’ remained active for awhile afterwards, but now seems to have lost a good deal of its former `umphh’.
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 