ANTISEMITISM CHARGES ARE USED TO CRUSH DEBATE

 Harry Targ

Today the corporate media and lobby groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are seeking to squash debate concerning Israel’s war on Gaza and the US three billion dollars a year perpetual military aid to Israel. Criticism of Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza is defined as threatening to Jewish students and more generally is defined as antisemitism. Using charges of antisemitism as the excuse for repressing dissenting views and protest on campuses all across the United States has become common. Charges of antisemitism have become the McCarthyite “threat of communism” of our own day.

Last week the Congress, the media, politicians everywhere have reignited claims about the threat of antisemitism.  The House Committee on Education and the Workforce reassembled to interrogate th President of Columbia University for four hours. And, in response, university authorities arrested 100 students protesting Columbia’s complicity with the state of Israel.

A Congress, a media, politicians who historically ignore the sensitivities of those who are not Christian, and at various points in time in US history have refused to admit Jews fleeing oppression and threats of massacre, wax eloquent about how Jews are being made ‘uncomfortable.” USA Today reported on the dramatic increase in antisemitism in all states of the US. Their “proof” included someone punched in the nose, or a person feeling that she must cover up the mezuzah on her door. Of course, no one should be made to feel uncomfortable in their daily lives but paradoxically that discomfort is being fueled by this nefarious campaign of warnings of antisemitism.

https://www.usatoday.com/.../antisemitism.../73165421007/

And who is making the claims of antisemitism? The Anti-Defamation League is one such publicist. The ADL in recent years has become an organization pursuing antisemitism and defending Israel. Other groups, whose task is primarily to defend the state of Israel, such as The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), have been fueling the nationwide hysteria.

And why the hysterical campaign now? First, the charges are designed to cover up and distort criticisms of the state of Israel’s genocidal bombings and starving of the people of Gaza and the growing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Second, while there is no necessary connection to antisemitism at home, it is claimed, that to combat antisemitism in the United States greater military support of Israel is necessary (incidentally military aid to Israel leads to their purchase of guns, bombs, tanks, and drones, from US military contractors such as Lockhead Martin and Raytheon).

Third, control of the Middle East and Eastern Europe has been central to the geopolitical thinking of British and then US policymakers. Western militarists and diplomats have theorized that the imperial country (or its proxy) that controls the Middle East and Eastern Europe (the gateways to Asia) can control the international system. Both Israel and Ukraine are key US proxies in the worldwide struggle of the West to maintain global hegemony.

Finally, U,S, electoral politics has always been ethnic and racial. Raising the specter of antisemitism trumps (the pun intended) the vicious attacks on emigres from Latin America, Muslims, and Asians. The outrage against antisemitism shows the world that politicians are not racists.

In sum, those of us from the Jewish community who speak out against the genocidal policy of Israel are outraged when we, as others, are criticized as being “antisemitic.” For us, the historic pain and suffering of our ancestors is being used to justify global imperialism, racism, and militarism.

 

IN TIMES LIKE THESE (a repost)

Harry Targ 

 

 

(Thinking about 2024 and the year ahead, I remembered Arlo Guthrie’s poignant song and what I previously had written about it.)

-- Arlo Guthrie, “In Times Like These.”
http://youtu.be/nk3Iqgv56Hk

In times like these when night surrounds me

And I am weary and my heart is worn
When the songs they’re singing don’t mean nothing
Just cheap refrains play on and on...

When leaders profit from deep divisions
When the tears of friends remain unsung
In times like these it’s good to remember
These times will go in times to come

I see the storm clouds rise above me
The sky is dark and the night has come
I walk alone along this highway
Where friends have gathered one by one

I know the storm will soon be over
The howling winds will cease to be
I walk with friends from every nation
On freedom’s highway in times like these.

All year (originally written in 2012) we have been celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie. “This Land is Your Land” has become the new national anthem, particularly for the 98 per cent of the population, mostly the American working class.

Singers now sing the forbidden verses challenging the rights of private property and choruses of cheering people, young and old, black and white, straight and gay, join in. It is a song of struggle, pride, and recognition that this world belongs to everybody.

Although the song has inspired us all as we sing it, sometimes we forget that the trajectory toward progressive change is not smooth. Guthrie’s friend and voice of our times, Pete Seeger, reminds us that “it is darkest before the dawn.”

Perhaps the anthem of these times, after hundreds of domestic instances of violence from Columbine to Newtown, from Trayvon Martin to Jordan Davis, to the streets of Chicago, is most poignantly articulated by Arlo Guthrie. And it is an anthem that activists should sing as we struggle against bombings, drones, economic blockades, covert interventions, assassination lists, killer teams, police violence, wars on drugs, huge appropriations of human resources to kill, violent video games, war toys, endless television shows and films that portray and normalize killings, as well as the tragedies such as at Newtown (and New York, Ferguson, Chicago, Charleston, San Bernardino and on and on).

Major targets of violence and murder are educational institutions and particularly young people, Black and white, men and women, and gay and straight, often students. It is ironic that it is in these institutions and among young people in general that some of the most creative debates ensue around direct physical violence and structural violence, economic, sexual, and racial.

Therefore, in the midst of our deep sorrow, we remember Arlo Guthrie’s words. “In times like these,” despite the emotional energy and time spent achieving some electoral, labor and Occupy victories (and now in opposition to wars in Ukraine and the Middle East), we get weary and our “heart is worn.” While we see the “storm clouds rise above,” we should remember that “the storm will soon be over.” Why?  Because “I walk with friends from every nation, on freedom’s highway in times like these.”

 

RACISM, CORRUPTION, MASS INCARCERATIONS, SUPER PROFITS FOR A SHRINKING BUT MORE POWERFUL ECONOMIC RULING CLASS, MILITARY SPENDING, AND MASS MURDER AND STARVATION ALL ACROSS THE GLOBE

AND WE ARE TALKING ABOUT ALLEGED ANTISEMITISM   

 

HARRY TARG

There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

                 –Mario Savio December 2, 1964, University of California, Berkeley

In early December, 2023 three university presidents, all women, were called before the House of Representative Committee on Education and the Workforce to explain their defense of academic freedom and the first amendment on their campuses. President Claudine Gay, Harvard, when asked about whether claims of calling for “the genocide of Jews” on her campus violated Harvard’s rules, she said “it depends on the context.” Of course, the claims about the calls on campus were never verified, and the politicians ignored the fact that President Gay was merely defending academic freedom.  

While President Gay was defending the hallowed right of free speech and the university as a haven for the “marketplace of ideas.” she correctly implied about the campus and free speech in general that there were limits (the “context”).

As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes suggested about the question of the first amendment to the constitution, freedom of speech is not absolute. As he wrote in the famous Schenck versus the United States case in 1919, speech may be restricted when “shouting fire in a crowded theater,” where there was a “clear and present danger" that such speech could cause harm. In short, paralleling the doctrine of academic freedom, if words are contentious and stimulate debate on campuses they should be protected. If, however, they have the potential to incitement to action endangering people they can be restricted.

Now, in April, 2024, the corporate media and lobby groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are seeking to squash debate concerning Israel’s war on Gaza and the US three billion dollars a year perpetual military aid to Israel. Criticism of Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza is defined as threatening to Jewish students and more generally is defined as antisemitism. Using charges of antisemitism as the excuse for repressing dissenting views and protest on campuses all across the United States has become common. Charges of antisemitism have become the McCarthyite “threat of communism” of our own day.

And this week the Congress, the media, politicians everywhere have reignited claims about the threat of antisemitism.  The  House Committee on Education and the Workforce reassembled to interrogate the President of Columbia University for four hours. And, in response, university authorities arrested 100 students protesting Columbia’s complicity with the state of Israel.

A Congress, a media, politicians who historically ignore the sensitivities of those who are not Christian, and at various points in time in US history have refused to admit Jews fleeing oppression and threats of massacre, wax eloquent about how Jews are being made ‘uncomfortable.” USA Today reported on the dramatic increase in antisemitism in all states of the US. Their “proof” included someone punched in the nose, or a person feeling that she must cover up the mezuzah on her door. Of course, no one should be made to feel uncomfortable in their daily lives but paradoxically that discomfort is being fueled by this nefarious campaign of warnings of antisemitism.

https://www.usatoday.com/.../antisemitism.../73165421007/

And who is making the claims of antisemitism? The Anti-Defamation League is one such publicist. The ADL in recent years has become an organization pursuing antisemitism and defending Israel. Other groups, whose task is primarily to defend the state of Israel, such as The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), have been fueling the nationwide hysteria.

And why the hysterical campaign now? First, the charges are designed to cover up and distort criticisms of the state of Israel’s genocidal bombings and starving of the people of Gaza and the growing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Second, while there is no necessary connection to antisemitism at home, it is claimed, that to combat antisemitism in the United States greater military support of Israel is necessary (incidentally military aid to Israel leads to their purchase of  guns, bombs, tanks, and drones, from US military contractors such as Lockhead Martin and Raytheon).

Third, control of the Middle East and Eastern Europe has been central to the geopolitical thinking of British and then US policymakers. Western militarists and diplomats have theorized that the imperial country (or its proxy) that controls the Middle East and Eastern Europe (the gateways to Asia) can control the international system. Both   Israel and Ukraine are key US proxies in the worldwide struggle of the West to maintain global hegemony.

Finally, U,S, electoral politics has always been ethnic and racial. Raising the specter of antisemitism trumps (the pun intended) the vicious attacks on emigres from Latin America, Muslims, and Asians. The outrage against antisemitism shows the world that politicians are not racists.

In sum, those of us from the Jewish community who speak out against the genocidal policy of Israel are outraged when we, as others, are criticized as being “antisemitic.” For us, the historic pain and suffering of our ancestors is being used to justify global imperialism, racism, and militarism.

The danger of war with Iran

Harry Targ

Given the troubled history of U.S./Iranian relations spanning at least 60 years, the current threats of war expressed by both Israel and the United States are not surprising. As the influential Council of Foreign Relations put it in January: A drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan killed three U.S. troops (Reuters) and wounded at least thirty-four, U.S. President Joe Biden said yesterday. He said that Iran-backed militant groups carried out the attack in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border.…CFR expert Steven A. Cook writes for the Wall Street Journal. “No one is going to lend a hand to the U.S. unless Washington takes decisive action to reform the [Palestinian Authority], confront Iran’s ‘axis of resistance’ and isolate the region’s arsonists, notably Qatar and Turkey.”) Subsequent to the ignoble history of U.S. support for the Shah of Iran’s dictatorship starting at the end of World War II, the U.S. militarization of the country , the overthrow of the progressive Prime Minister  Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, the embarrassment of the hostage taking in 1979, funding Iraq in the brutal Gulf war of the 1980s, the United States has maintained hostility to Iran despite occasional signals from the latter of a desire to establish better relations. During the Obama administration in 2015 a nuclear treaty was negotiated between Iran, the US, and other countries, but it was abrogated by President Trump. U.S./Iranian hostilities have increased ever since, particularly since October 7, 2023. U.S. policy has included an economic embargo, efforts to create region-wide opposition to the regime, expressions of support for a large (and justifiable) internal movement for democracy and secularization in the country, and encouragement, more or less, for growing Israeli threats against Iran. Given this troubled history of U.S./Iranian relations spanning at least 60 years, the current threats of war expressed by both Israel and the United States are not surprising. And now, (April, 2024) the threat of escalating war in the region, the Middle East and the Persian Gulf, has increased dramatically. As Dr. King said about earlier war-making: “This madness must cease.”

 

SOME ARTICLES ON NEW REALITIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (Inspired by DISCUSSIONS IN CCDS)

 

Harry Targ

Diary of a Heartland Radical: The Struggle Between the Old Imperial Model and New Realities in International Relations

Diary of a Heartland Radical: International Relations Today a pp.

https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-realities-of-imperialism-and.html

Diary of a Heartland Radical: The Struggle Between the Old Imperial Model and New Realities in International Relations

Diary of a Heartland Radical: HOW THE WORLD IS FRAMED: SPOKESPERSONS FROM THE HEGEMONIC POWER AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH

https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-non-aligned-movement-meets-in-havana.html

Diary of a Heartland Radical: NATO: THE HISTORIC INSTRUMENT OF US IMPERIALISM

https://heartlandradical.blogspot.com/2024/02/understanding-contemporary-world-order.html

Diary of a Heartland Radical: 21st century techniques of empire

Diary of a Heartland Radical: OLD IDEAS STILL HEGEMONIC AS WE GREET THE NEW YEAR (a repost)

Diary of a Heartland Radical: THE WAR SYSTEM AND ITS VICTIMS

Diary of a Heartland Radical: New Realities in International Relations: Recording of a Webinar and Power Point Presentation

Diary of a Heartland Radical: A Power point History of Imperialism and Dependency in Latin America

Diary of a Heartland Radical: THE EMPIRE IN DISARRAY: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Here Come Raytheon, Rolls-Royce, and Military Studies in Liberal Arts to Purdue University

Harry Targ

(an updated post from December 15, 2023)

The Raytheon Technologies Corporation reported that “Raytheon Technologies is working with the University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, Purdue University, the U.S. Air Force Academy and other academic institutions on hypersonic research and testing, to include the use of wind tunnels to emulate flight conditions and accelerate development.”

Raytheon, one of the five largest defense contractors in the world, sold more than $64 billion in military hardware in 2021. Raytheon profits will be higher in 2022 because of the war in Eastern Europe. Recently, Gregory Hayes, the CEO of Raytheon and a Purdue University graduate who was given an honorary doctorate by Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, predicted that the war in Ukraine will be good for his company’s business.

[Source: twitter.com]

As researchers William Hartung and Julia Gledhill put it: “The war in Ukraine will indeed be a bonanza for the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. First of all, there will be the contracts to resupply weapons like Raytheon’s Stinger anti-aircraft missile and the Raytheon/Lockheed Martin–produced Javelin anti-tank missile that Washington has already provided to Ukraine by the thousands. The bigger stream of profits, however, will come from assured post-conflict increases in national-security spending here and in Europe justified, at least in part, by the Russian invasion and the disaster that’s followed.” https://tomdispatch.com/the-new-gold-rush/

Another military contractor with ties to Purdue University is the Rolls-Royce Corporation which, according to “Purdue Partnerships at Purdue,” signed a research and development program in 2016 “to create the next generation aircraft agreement with Purdue University.” The partnership resulted in a $33 million jet-engine research and development program to create next-generation aircraft propulsion systems.”

Unraveling an electronic engine controller for the Rolls-Royce AE 3007H jet engine during an announcement of a new engine controls facility in Discovery Park District are, from left, Brian Edelman, president of Purdue Research Foundation; Tom Bell, president of Defense and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America; Mitch Daniels, Purdue University president, and Candice Bineyard, director of defense programs for Rolls-Royce North America. [Source: purdue.edu]

In addition, on April 20, 2022, the company announced a $204 million project to expand one building and two test facilities in the Purdue Discovery Park. Shortly thereafter the West Lafayette government granted the Rolls-Royce Corporation a five-year tax abatement for the construction of facilities in Purdue’s Discovery Park.

·                 

[Source: purdue.edu]

Also, the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University has established a “Forces Initiative: Strategy, Security, and Social Systems” which is designed to help “shape long-range and global military, political, and organizational decision-making for a just, stable, and secure world.” Faculty affiliates include a member of the ROTC program,  a military historian, a political scientist, a “peace researcher,” and a Library Science professor who has published on the F-35, and in military studies journals. https://www.cla.purdue.edu/research/forces-initiative/index.html

 

Andrew Bacevich, the Quincy Institute, has referred to a “permanent war economy” which was established in 1945 and still exists today. Presumably, it has been revitalized since the book first appeared in 2010 by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the stagnating U.S. economy and the leadership in institutions of higher education who seek greater resources from the Department of Defense and military contractors. Bacevich in Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, “forcefully denounces the militarization that he says has already become a routine, unremarked-upon part of our daily lives … He rips into what he calls a postwar American dogma ‘so deeply embedded in the American collective consciousness to have all but disappeared from view.”

In the past, liberal arts programs, described and explained what was and is American history, culture, politics, and philosophy. Now it seems,  the Liberal Arts will serve the “postwar American dogma” for which Bacevich refers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/books/review/Bass-t.html

 

 

 

 

THE LEGACY OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING: a power point

 https://purdue0-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/personal/targ_purdue_edu/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B6AFEB237-E51F-4A1F-9064-0F0A144203F4%7D&file=Dr.%20King%20legacy%203.pptx&openShare=true&fromShare=true&action=edit&mobileredirect=true