Stop War over the West Bank of the Jordan

The US quickly recognized Israel, over State Department objections, with much American, including Jewish support. I was in elementary school at the time but I believe that a future friend of mine ran guns here in New York for the State of Israel in 1948. I would have cheered. Later he ran an office in Mississippi in what was known as Freedom Summer – two actions that obviously took lots of guts. My friend, who has now passed away, also took a major part in the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.

Our support for the state of Israel was never unconditional. It always assumed a just state with the values of the free world. A state which dispossesses people from their homes or encourages squatters to do the dirty work can’t be described that way. The Israeli Supreme Court often objected to the treatment of the Palestinians, for which it was justly famous, and Israel repeatedly promised it would stop. Some Palestinians did commit or attempt murder, and mass mayhem. But Israel’s frequent collective punishment regardless of behavior is self-defeating and unacceptable.

Most international conflicts and civil wars are very difficult to stop. Usually the smartest policy is to stand back and watch the killing through our tears. But the war over the West Bank of the Jordan is different. Israel has been very dependent on American aid and arms. If we stopped and blocked it, Israel would have to reassess its policies and fast.

Some think the Chinese might intervene but on whose side? Our support of an aggressive Middle Eastern state has been a mixed blessing for us and the Chinese would face the same problems. Better they reap the whirlwind. Israel has pursued other trade and supply options, but those connections have historically been fragile. An American pullout would make them unsustainable for many of Israel’s partners. So I think Israel is the rare case where America policy could drive justice.

The problem that does concern me is that American withdrawal of support could have dangerous implications in an America already convulsed by hate groups.

To make American action conditional and effective, America would have to define the deal it’s willing to endorse. But we’ve been describing that for years and our so-called ally has been sticking its fingers in our eyes and flouting our wishes, confident that American support for Israel is one of the third rails of American politics.

Though most don’t realize it, America’s unconditional support for Israel isn’t because of general American Jewish support. Many of us are furious and tortured by Israel’s attempt to kill or push the Palestinians out, repeating there the treatment of Native American tribes here in America.

Instead, Christian fundamentalists made Israel the third rail of American politics, believing the temporary survival of the state of Israel is crucial for the Second Coming of Christ, the full sovereignty of God, or what is known, particularly to fundamentalists, as the Rapture – after which, according to their theology, Jews will collectively be sent to Hell, as if being Jewish is sufficient reason for eternal damnation, which has never sounded particularly Christian to me. But those who subscribe to those views have been so politicized that they’ll never support a Democrat. So I’m not sure there is a political downside to Biden or the Democrats.

America must be willing to make temporary compromises for our national security. But in the long run, America must stand for justice. And as Pete Seeger famously sang, Pacem in Terris, Mir, Shanti, Salaam, Hey Wa and Sholom too.

— If you think I’m on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on June 27, 2023.

Iran – The Women’s Revolt

We just spent an evening with several Persian friends discussing Iran’s brutal response to the demonstrations there for the lives and freedom of Iranian women. We were brought together by Mahmood Karimi Hakak at his Café Dialogue. Mahmood is a long-time Persian-American member of the Siena faculty, who worked as a producer and director in Iran until forced to leave.

Artist Cheryl De Ciantis came in from Arizona. She’d gathered photographs of the women in the demonstrations who were murdered or had been disfigured by destruction of an eye. The women wanted their disfigured faces to be seen. Those who could, took selfies and proudly showed their destroyed eye sockets or added a patch to call attention to what had been taken. Others sent pictures of the murdered women. Almost all of the women were smiling. Cheryl built paintings around the photographs, so we could see how lovely these women were, or are, and added roses to the pictures of the dead.

The word for an eye in farsi, the language of Iran, is chashm. Socially, chashm sort of means “I will,” but I avoided using the term in that context because the fuller meaning is “I promise to do that on my eyes,” or, more completely, “If I don’t fulfill my promise you may take my eyes out.” The expression turns my stomach. It’s a way that the cruelty of Nader Shah, famous for removing people’s eyes centuries ago, is preserved in everyday speech. Every Persian knows that history.

When Persian soldiers and Revolutionary Guards kill or shoot the eyes out of women who demonstrate for the life and freedom of women in Iran, even beyond the horror that Americans feel, every Persian understands the symbolism.

At dinner I pushed back – how, I asked, will the bravery and sacrifice of these women make any difference? Mahmood responded that society will condemn the cruelty. I pushed back. When Martin Luther King brought the nonviolent philosophy and strategy of the great Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi, to the Civil Rights Movement, he was counting on the support, and the vote, of horrified citizens from the states that had not been segregated by law. But Iranians don’t have the power of the ballot – whatever good things he did, President Eisenhower deposed a democratically selected Iranian Prime Minister in 1953. Iran has not been able to choose their leaders since. Americans may not remember – it’s not our history – but I never met a Persian who didn’t. We’re still paying the price.

So how is the self-sacrifice of these brave women going to make any difference? Mahmood responded, accurately, that dictatorships and theocracies are brought down either by conquest or by collapse from within. But the price of opposition from the inside is death. Dictators hold on to their power with cruelty, murder and fear, major hurdles to any kind of overthrow.  Mahmood shot back that there is growing opposition from within the regime.

I’m convinced that the people of Iran do not want an invasion. Don’t be taken in by military solutions – Iranians don’t want us with guns and uniforms. They’ve had too much of that; it would slaughter too many of the people of Iran; and it would end up putting the wrong people in power. They want to own their own future and make it happen their way. And they are convinced that enough sacrifice, horrible as it is, will curdle enough minds, hearts and stomachs even inside the ruling regime that internal dissent will make the dictatorship crumble. That leaves me praying for the wonderful, kind and thoughtful people I knew there. Salaam Aleykom سلام علیکم – peace be with you.

— If you think I’m on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on June 20, 2023.

The Nightmare in a Story Poem

We know a young woman who got a prize from her high school for a story poem. Valuing her, we asked to see it. Her story began happily, but turned into a nightmare or horror story, putting her home in America into a war zone and destroying her family. I read it in tears. Tears because they’re such painful thoughts for a girl of her age. Tears for what such a discouraging view of reality might do to her. Tears because so many are experiencing just such tragedies around the world.

Her story has her grandparents come to comfort and care for her. That’s cold comfort in a devastated world, but her story tracks many survivors’ lives. There’s no end or closure to grief for the loss of loved ones. The anguish and depression are inescapable, and for many, also, survivors’ guilt. No words can make the pain of war go away, as so many of our returning soldiers know. Some bury their pain behind productive activity until it erupts again, but, for others, the scars of war stay dominant. Wartorn countries also need to rebuild, replace the contributions and blessings of those lost, rebuild their landscape and economic engines where possible.

We could complement the young writer, urge her to keep writing and tell her we look forward to talking about it. We could tell her that good people are working hard to keep her, her family and friends safe. What we cannot do is to tell her not to worry because it won’t happen. The brutality in this world make that confident prediction impossible. Steven Pinker says violent deaths are decreasing. But far too many are still killed, too many groups focus on making trouble and getting the guns and weapons to make it happen.

Pinker focused only on violent deaths, but environmental changes make earthly hells on all continents and force migration and emigration which themselves seed violent conflict. Our country isn’t immune: floods devastate communities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, fires devastate the west and Canada, poisoned air spreads from the blazes, rising heat chokes our food crops, and threatens heat stroke to people all over.

It may seem like my weekly commentary addresses unrelated problems. But they all fit together. Our petty arguments about whether Africans and African-Americans, Hispanics and Hispanic-Americans, Asians, Muslims, Jews, and Native American citizens and immigrants deserve equal concern and respect, whether it’s OK to house and feed each other, or essential that we do, and our increasing purchase of armaments, all point toward disaster. None of us will survive if we’re too focused on fighting each other instead of joining forces to solve our common problems, fighting each other instead of climate change, jealously worrying about who else might also benefit by efforts to deal with our changing climate.

Nothing is more important for all of us than team work. There was a time when we prided ourselves on teamwork, imagining we learned it playing sports, but our politics doesn’t reflect that lesson. The grave is egalitarian. I can’t imagine God rewarding our petty behavior. God has been telling us to honor our neighbors and obey the Golden Rule in many languages and in many religious faiths, but humans show their overwhelming selfishness, ignoring God’s universal prescription.

— If you think I’m on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on June 13, 2023.

PCIA National Meeting

My wife and I met years ago when we both served in the United States Peace Corps in Iran. There have been no American Peace Corps Volunteers in Iran since 1976. Peace Corps Volunteers got to know a wide segment of the Iranian population, as we do everywhere, realized trouble was brewing and Peace Corps officials pulled them out. Here in Albany we’ve been part of a group of former Peace Corps Volunteers who’ve served in all parts of the world. We meet monthly, share a pot luck dinner, provide a forum for newly returned Volunteers, and listen intently to news about goings on in the many countries where we used to serve and the many organizations who work with people there and with immigrants from those countries here.

A few years ago my wife was asked to become president of the Peace Corps Iran Association (PCIA). It’s been a very interesting and active organization. They’ve identified the vast majority of former volunteers, developed a history of the Peace Corps in Iran, published an anthology of stories by former Volunteers about their Peace Corps service, have a book group that discusses literature about Iran, a current events group that meets to discuss developments involving Iran, and they have newsletters about relevant current events and activities of former Volunteers. Even while constantly studying and discussing current events, PCIA avoids taking positions about policy choices other than pointing out to all who will listen that most of the Iranian people, as opposed to its clerical leadership, have long had very warm feelings toward the U.S., alongside considerable national pride.

PCIA just held a national meeting. At all our meetings we’ve shared memories and stories about our experiences. But the depth of the relationships between Volunteers and our Persian hosts was a theme of this meeting. Some of the Persians who trained us to serve in Iran spoke at the meeting and we talked about the effects we had on the Persians and they on us. I discovered that another Volunteer who worked in the same city held weekly discussions with an Iranian cleric; they’d agreed to teach each other Eastern and Western philosophy. I wished I’d been a fly on their wall.

Discussions at their meetings have been consistently level-headed and enlightening. One of the speakers was John Limbert, a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran and American diplomat who eventually headed the Iran desk for the Obama Administration. Unfortunately, he was in the embassy when it was seized during the Revolution and spent 444 days as a hostage, but yet manages to focus on the future, not the past, on how we might have a more productive relationship going forward, and has written a  marvelous and very perceptive study of the Iran nuclear deal that I highly recommend. So I feel very grateful for the ability to keep up my interest in and concern for the people of Iran and follow the international politics through the Peace Corps Iran Association.

I know no society where everybody’s an angel or devil. Too many in this country have been immersed in a bath of prejudice – Iranians are this, immigrants are that, rich people are worthy, poor people are not. Level-headed people in the Iranian diaspora have been attacked from various sources with threats and false information to prevent their opposing war, supporting negotiations or the women’s life and freedom campaign. Violence and intimidation make progress and reasonable discussion difficult if not impossible. We can all do better. I know there are better ways.

— If you think I’m on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on June 6, 2023.