JUST WHAT IS WRONG WITH COOK COUNTY PROSECUTOR ANITA ALVAREZ

WELL, SOME MORE THAN OTHRS

Three years ago the Illinois News Broadcasters Association reported that it had written  Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez Monday that it “strongly protests” efforts by Alvarez to force Northwestern University’s Innocence Project to give up notes, off-the-record interviews, grades and even e-mails related to the project.

“The students are working as investigative journalists,” said INBA President Melissa Hahn at the time, who added they clearly should be covered under the Illinois Reporter’s Privilege Act, which offers a broad definition of reporters, news mediums and sources.

“Journalism is too important to our society to be invaded and inspected by law enforcement and prosecutors,” she wrote in the letter to Alvarez. “So the act should apply to these students.”

Three months ago Rachael Perrotta, a member of the Campaign to Free the NATO 5, asked. "Why has Alvarez re-indicted economic justice activists, such as Danny Johnson, on trumped up charges while the police officer who killed Rekia Boyd is still free?  Why is Alvarez blowing so much public money on NATO-related court cases, when she has yet to pursue internal prosecutions related to the Jon Burge torture cases?" 

Another member of the group, Pat Hunt, added, "According to official statics cited by the People's Hearing on Police Violence, from 2009 to 2011, there have been 55 deaths committed by the Chicago Police Department. 94% of these deaths are non-white.  It's easy for Alvarez and the CPD to pat themselves on the back for brutalizing peaceful protestors, but when it comes to confronting the structural racism of Chicago law enforcement they are silent and useless." 

Or why did Ms. Alvarez push for the conviction of Sebastian Senakiewicz, who is now in boot camp for a crime that didn't really happen.  Senakiewicz, as Freedom Watch reports, "... never made a bomb. He was never found with any explosive-making materials; authorities thoroughly searched his house. The Polish immigrant did, however, tell a boastful lie that has landed him a stint at boot camp. Just days before the Chicago NATO summit last May, Senakiewicz drunkenly told undercover agents that he had two homemade explosives hidden in his Chicago residence in a hollowed-out Harry Potter book. A search of his home found the bombs to be as fictitious as the boy wizard — there weren’t even any Harry Potter books at the address.  However, did I mention the twenty four year old is a described as an anarchist. 

One of Senakiewicz’ attorneys, Jeff Frank, criticized Cook County’s treatment of his client (known to friends as “Sabi”). “Honestly, how serious was this case? Does this rise to the level of what this statute was designed for? No. Sabi is guilty of imprudent language. That’s hardly grounds to extract a guilty plea for a serious felony, but that’s how Ms. Alvarez has chosen to spend the taxpayers resources,” he said.

In November,  African-American elected officials launched a short-lived effort to derail Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’ re-election.  The Sun Times reported Ald. Howard Brookins was "...unhappy with Alvarez for targeting Northwestern University journalism students; for failing to convict a police officer for drunk driving in a crash that killed two people; and for handing off an investigation of how her office handled a case involving former Mayor Richard Daley’s nephew. And he accused her of being unresponsive to African-American elected officials."

 Other committeemen joining him echoed those complaints.

You get the drift. I could go on, but it would get old and it is getting late.

Fast forward to today and the Prosecutor is still busy persecuting everyone but the police.

The following is from ENews Park Forest.

Victims Of Police Crimes Demand That Alvarez Either Make Radical Changes In Her Department Or Resign

CHICAGO--(ENEWSPF)--December 12, 2012. Victims of crimes committed by Chicago Police, and their family members, 27 in all, have demanded that Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez either adopt major reforms to her department of resign.  In an open letter to Alvarez they cite 15 instances of cases of police crimes, including murder, torture, and the refusal of Alvarez to acknowledge serious problems in her office. 

They will deliver an “an open letter charging State's Attorney Anita Alvarez with being a persecutor of the people instead of a prosecutor for the people” to her office at 69 W. Washington, Suite 3200, today at 3:00 pm.

The measures urged by the letter’s signers include that her office investigate and prosecute the police officers who murdered Flint Farmer, Rekia Boyd, Dakota Bright, and many other people and that she drop all opposition to evidentiary hearings for all people who were convicted on the basis of confessions or testimony extracted by police through torture. 

“If you are unwilling to implement these proposals, we urge you to resign and call for a special election for a new State's Attorney,” the signers say.

The letter was put together by the Organizing Committee to Stop Police Crimes of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.  The complete letter is follows. 

 Anita Alvarez

Cook County State’s Attorney

69 W. Washington Suite 3200

Chicago IL 60602-3174

December 12, 2012

We, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and our task force, designated the Organizing Committee to Stop Police Crimes, in this open letter and/or communiqué to the Cook County State's Attorney do hereby make the following charges and demands:

We Charge That:

1. You were elected to be the peoples prosecutor but you have earned a reputation as "prosecutor and persecutor of the people," instead of doing the job you are sworn to perform as the prosecutor on behalf of the people. You have zealously harassed, persecuted and prosecuted African American and Latino men and women and innocent peace activists. Yet you have done nothing to bring to justice the Chicago Police executioners of innocent Black men and women and have rebuffed their families.

2. You appeared on national television (“60 Minutes,” December 9, 2012, http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50136707n) and proclaimed that men who have been exonerated of heinous crimes are still guilty in your opinion, even though you personally admit your office did not examine the evidence. You have spun most outrageous theories of how “it could happen” that those proven innocent could still be guilty.

3. You have done nothing to bring to justice the murderer of Rekia Boyd, an off-duty police officer Dante Servin. Boyd was an innocent bystander and was killed on March 22, 2012 when Servin shot at Antonio Cross, who was also unarmed and innocent of any wrongdoing.

4. You have done nothing to bring to justice Police Officer Gildardo Sierra, the murderer of Flint Farmer. Sierra was video recorded shooting the unarmed Farmer three times in the back as he lay face down and wounded on the ground. You have told news media the FBI is looking into the case; why aren’t you? Murder is a state crime.  

5. You have done nothing to prosecute the police who killed Dakota Bright, Marquise Sampson, and countless other young African Americans.

6. You twice prosecuted and then imprisoned former police officer Howard Morgan, whom police tried to kill shooting him 28 times, for attempted murder, when the only material non-police evidence clearly established he was a victim of attempted murder by the police and a jury found that he had not fired a gun at anyone.

7. You have done nothing to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the Area Two Lockup "suicides" of Develt Bradford and Melvin Woods shortly after midnight, when the constant video surveillance cameras were mysteriously turned off.

8. You resisted prosecuting Richard J. Vanecko in the 2004 murder of David Koschman and participated in the cover-up of the crime because Vanecko was a nephew of your former boss, Richard M. Daley.

9. You have done nothing to prosecute the detectives who brutally beat Greg Malandrucco and Matthew Clark almost three years ago and the other officers who attempted to cover up the assault. You have refused to release the names of these officers or their duty status.

10. You have tolerated and encouraged the use of police agents provocateur who fomented violence and sought to entrap 5 innocent activists protesting the NATO military organization in Chicago last summer.

11. You have tolerated and even cooperated with reckless endangerment of youth when police have colluded with known criminal elements. Police car videos have documented that police pick up and drop off young Black men in neighborhoods of rival gangs, deliberately placing their lives in danger. You have not investigated these links between some police officers and organized criminal elements that terrorize Black and Latino communities.

12. You have done nothing to begin to unwind the convictions of over 100 men who were tortured by Chicago Police into making false confessions, seeking their release from prison and their exoneration.

13. You have prosecuted Chris Drew and Tiawanda Moore for recording public activities of police officers, and when the law was declared unconstitutional by the U. S. District Court you appealed all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court, which repudiated you.

14. You have unquestioningly prosecuted and defended the conviction of Black and Latino men and women arrested and framed up by corrupt police for serious crimes using perjured testimony and confessions you knew to be false and at variance with known facts and material evidence,

15. You continue a decades long tradition of cover-up of racism, sexism, and corruption in your office going back to the tenure of Richard M. Daley as State's Attorney starting in 1981.

We Demand That You:

1. Investigate and prosecute the police officers who murdered Flint Farmer, Rekia Boyd, Dakota Bright, and many other people.

2. Release Brian Jacob Church, Jared Chase, Brent Betterly, and Mark Neiweem on Personal recognizance bonds and drop their prosecution. Immediately vacate the sentence on Sebastian 'Sabi' Senakiewicz and release him. The terrorism charges against these men, the NATO 5, are absurd and are part of an FBI-local police conspiracy to suppress legal protests against U. S. foreign and military policy.

3. Drop all opposition to evidentiary hearings for all people who were convicted on the basis of confessions or testimony repudiated at trial claiming they were made only in response to tortured and coercion.

4. Create an independent "conviction integrity unit" to re-open all cases in which police officers associated with convicted torture ring leader Jon Burge were involved.

5. Put your political influence and weight behind the demand that the State Legislature restore and expand funding for the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission.

If you are unwilling to implement these proposals, we urge you to resign and call for a special election for a new State's Attorney.

We look forward to hearing your response.

Sincerely yours,

• Cecelia Anderson, grandmother of Antwan Holiday, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau and John Halloran.   
• Genita Anderson, daughter of George Anderson, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau and James O’Brien working under Job Burge, convicted of murder, and sentenced to Natural Life in Prison   
• Rosemary Cade, mother of Antonio Porter, tortured by Chicago Police, sentenced to 74 yrs.   
• James & Gladys Daniel, father and mother of Erwin Daniel, tortured by Chicago Police Lt. Jon Burge, confessed to murder and sentenced to natural life plus35 years in prison.   
• Curdestine Deloney, mother of Javan Deloney, tortured by Chicago Police Officers James O'Brien, William Foley, and Daniel McWeeny, confessed and sentenced to Natural Life in prison.   
• Nick Escamilla, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau, John Halloran and Michael Kill, and told that his wife would be arrested and his children taken from them if he did not confess.  Sentenced to 29 years in prison.   
• Bertha Escamilla, mother of Nick Escamilla.   
• Bianca Escamilla, daughter of police torture victim Nick Escamilla   
• Emmett Farmer, father of Flint Farmer, murdered by Chicago Police June 6, 2011   
• Maxine Franklin, mother of Jerry Gillespie, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau and John Halloran working under Jon Burge, confessed to murder, and sentenced to 40 years in prison.   
• Gertrude Fulton, grandmother of Macellous Pittman, tortured by Chicago Police Officers James O'Brien, and John Halloran, confessed to murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.   
• Mildred Henry, mother of Kilroy Watkins, tortured by Kenneth Boudreau working under Lt. Jon Burge, sentenced to 55 years in prison.   
• Carolyn Johnson, Mother of Marcus Wiggins, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau, James O'Brien, and Michael Kill working  under Jon Burge  
• Mary L. Johnson, mother of Michael Johnson, tortured by Chicago Police Commader Jon Burge and sentenced to Natural Life in prison.   
• Elecia Montgomery, mother of Marquise Sampson, 19, shot in the back and killed by Chicago Police July 8, 2012.   
• Aidali Oquendo, mother of Carlos Santos, tortured by Chicago Police Officer Kenneth Bouidreau, convicted of murder, and sentenced to 55 years in prison.   
• Irma Perez, Fiancée of police torture victim Nick Escamilla   
• Jeanette Plummer, mother of Johnny Plummer, tortured by Chicago Police James O’Brien, John Halloran, and Michael Kill under Lt. Jon Burge and former Chicago Police Sgt. Johm Byrne and sentenced to Natural Life in prison.  
• Wilma Preyar, mother of Antonio Triplett, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Officer James O' Brien and William Moser.   
• Kenyatta M. Rosemond, sister of Rekia Boyd, 22, murdered March 22, 2012 by Police Officer Dante Sevrin.   
• Rosa Sanchez, mother of Rudy Davila, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Keneth Boudreau, James O'Brien, and John Halloran. Confessed and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.   
• Cynthia Segura, sister of police torture victim Nick Escamilla   
• Amanda Shackelford, mother of police torture victim Gerald Reed   
• Denise Spencer, mother of police torture victim Michael Carter   
• Martinez Sutton, brother of Rekia Boyd, 22, murdered March 22, 2012 by Police Officer Dante Sevrin.   
• Enrique Valdez, tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau and Tony Maslanka, confessed and sentenced to 30 years in prison.   
• Mary Wilson, mother of police torture victim William Ephraim who was tortured by Chicago Police Officers Kenneth Boudreau, Kohn Halloran and Michael Kill working under Job Burge. Ephraim did not confess, but Boudreau. Halloran and Kill testified that he confessed verbally and he was convicted of murder and sentenced to 52 years in prison.  
• David Wonkpah, father of police torture victim David Evans

OUR BODIES AS TOXIC WASTE DUMPS, WHO WILL BE LEFT TO CLEAN THEM UP

CAPITALISM HAS AN ANSWER
A NEW LINE OF OUTER WEAR

There was a time somewhere back in history when our bodies were not yet toxic waste dumps, but it has long passed.  The post below talks about pregnant women (but if pregnant women are full of this stuff, so is everyone else). It talks about doctors who don't get it.  It talks about class, too.

Some forget that the environment includes US.  Some forget that environmental degradation includes our bodies.

What kind of a world do we live in where such things are accepted as just part of life?  What species other than ours doesn't have the intelligence to protect itself when it can?   What kind of people have no compunction about not only poisoning those they don't even know, but their own families and children as well?

And then there are all the rest of the animals and the plants who simply have no way to fight back or to defend themselves against this evil.

The interesting thing is this article is not some radical manifesto.  I doubt the author really even gets the significance of what she is reporting.  

Nowhere in the article is capitalism mentioned.

Let me mention it here and now.

CAPITALISM KILLS.

The following is from Environmental Health News.

Most doctors don't warn pregnant patients about environmental risks When Dr. Darragh Flynn sits down with her pregnant patients at her San Francisco office,  she preaches healthy habits: Don’t smoke or drink, eat nutritious foods and take vitamins.  She also advises them to avoid gasoline fumes, pesticides, certain types of fish and some  household cleaners and cosmetics. “It's only for nine months,” she tells them. “Let someone  else put gas in the car.” But Flynn is in the minority. A new nationwide survey of 2,600  obstetricians and gynecologists found that most do not warn their pregnant patients about  chemicals in food, consumer products or the environment that could endanger their fetuses.  More than half said they don’t warn about mercury, and hardly any of them give advice about  lead, pesticides, air pollution or chemicals in plastics or cosmetics. Many doctors say their  priority is to protect pregnant women from more immediate dangers, and that warning  them about environmental risks may create undue anxiety. Some say they don't feel  confident in their ability to discuss the topics. “As a society, we have a lot of work to  do in terms of informing women of dangers,” said Dr. Naomi Stotland, lead investigator  for the survey. Damien Cansse/flickr By Jane Kay Environmental Health News Dec. 10, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO – When Dr. Darragh Flynn sits down with her pregnant patients, she preaches healthy habits: Don’t smoke or drink, eat nutritious foods and take vitamins. . She also  advises them to avoid gasoline fumes, pesticides, certain types of fish and some household cleaners and cosmetics. “It's only for nine months,” she tells them. “Let someone else put gas in the car.” But Flynn is in the minority. A new nationwide survey of 2,600 obstetricians and gynecologists found that most do not warn their pregnant patients about chemicals in food, consumer products or the environment that could endanger their fetuses. More than half said they don’t warn about mercury, and hardly any of them give advice about lead, pesticides, air pollution or chemicals in plastics or cosmetics. Many doctors say their priority is to protect pregnant women from more immediate dangers, and that warning them about environmental risks may create undue anxiety. Some say they don't feel confident in their ability to discuss the topics. “We're worrying about pre-term labor, obesity and hypertension,” said Dr. Jeanne A. Conry, an ob/gyn at Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, Calif., and incoming president of a national medical society. “Obesity trumps almost everything. We put our time and energy there, and don't dwell on some of the other things we should be aware of.” More than 100 chemicals Virtually all pregnant women have chemicals in their bodies that might harm fetal development. Monitoring of pregnant women found about 100 different chemicals, with 43 of them in all women tested. Lead, mercury, toluene, perchlorate, bisphenol A, flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds, organochlorine pesticides and phthalates are among the chemicals, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's nationwide testing program.  Studies suggest that for many these compounds, low-level exposures in the womb seem to disrupt development of the brain or reproductive systems. Others may raise the risk of birth defects, or lead to cancer, immune problems, asthma, fertility problems or other disorders later in life. Yet that information is not reaching most women who are pregnant or may become pregnant. . Almost all of the doctors in the new, nationwide survey, conducted by University of California, San Francisco researchers, said they routinely discussed smoking, alcohol, diet and weight gain. Eighty-six percent also said they discuss workplace hazards, and 68 percent warn about second-hand smoke. “We're worrying about pre-term labor, obesity and hypertension. Obesity trumps almost everything. We put our time and energy there, and don't dwell on some of the other things we should be aware of.” -Dr. Jeanne A. Conry, Kaiser Permanente  But only 19 percent said they talk to their pregnant patients about pesticides and only 12 percent discuss air pollution. Forty-four percent said they routinely discussed mercury with pregnant women. Eleven percent said they mention volatile organic compounds, which are fumes emitted by gasoline, paints and solvents. Even fewer physicians warned their patients about two chemicals in consumer products that are often in the news: bisphenol A (BPA) at 8 percent and phthalates at 5 percent. Nine percent of the doctors told their patients about polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), industrial compounds often found in fish. The results show a disconnect between environmental health research and what the physicians do – and do not – tell their patients, said Patrice Sutton, a research scientist at University of California, San Francisco's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment who helped design the survey. The goal of the study, which was discussed at a recent conference but is not yet published, was to try to break down obstacles that keep health messages from pregnant women. For instance, even though the dangers of mercury are well established, only four out of every 10 doctors said they discuss the contamination with pregnant women. Since 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration have warned pregnant women to avoid eating high-mercury fish such as swordfish and shark and to limit consumption of albacore tuna. In addition, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issues statements to its members on the importance of patients avoiding mercury in fish. Yet an estimated 300,000 newborns each year – one out of every 14 – are exposed to levels of methylmercury that exceed the guidelines that the EPA set to avoid neurological effects in fetuses. Mercury in the womb has been tied to reduced IQs and other effects on developing brains. Dr. Naomi Stotland said warnings over mercury could result in women eating less fish, which is a low-calorie protein rich in omega-3 fatty acids critical for a baby’s brain development. “Mercury in fish is a tricky one,” said Stotland, who practices at San Francisco General Hospital and was lead investigator on the survey. “Fish is such a good protein source for women, and they're probably not eating enough of it. I give out printed materials that direct them to fish with lower levels of mercury,” such as sardines, herring, pollock, shrimp and scallops. “Most of my patients don't even read food labels. Are they carrying around the fish list? I worry, and I know other colleagues worry, that women will replace fish with processed hamburger. I don't think it's such a simple message.” Dr. Jane Hightower, who practices internal medicine in San Francisco, agreed that the warnings are confusing but said ob/gyns should take more time to learn about food and contaminants. “Most of my patients don't ask me about environmental exposures. They don't ask about cosmetic products, bisphenol A or organic foods. Most don't have high-speed Internet access, and don't read articles and get alerts.” -Dr. Naomi Stotland, San Francisco General Hospital  “To make ends meet, there are too many patients crammed into the schedule. Food science literature and environmental toxicant literature are difficult to sort out, and the doctors are not being taught about nutrition or contaminants in school,” said Hightower, who has authored a book and several scientific journals reports about unhealthful levels of mercury in fish. Despite evidence that environmental factors contribute to many health problems, medical students report fewer than six hours of environmental health training, according to University of Texas School of Medicine researchers. “The whole medical establishment needs to look at themselves and start evaluating old practices that might not be so safe for the patient in the long run," Hightower said. Class differences Flynn holds pre-pregnancy counseling sessions with her patients, who are mostly middle-to-upper class women living in San Francisco. She gets a lot of questions about environmental chemicals, sometimes from prospective mothers and sometimes from the mothers of young patients. She said the role of the ob/gyn is changing as environmental chemicals are gaining more attention as agents of defects and disease. Despite evidence that environmental factors contribute to many health problems, medical students report fewer than six hours of environmental health training, according to University of Texas School of Medicine researchers.Twenty-five years ago, “people were not quite as cognizant. Now they ask for the resource, or a reputable web site. Before the internet that was not an option,” she said. Flynn goes further than most by telling women they can reduce BPA exposure by not buying canned foods and beverages with resin liners, and that they can avoid cosmetics and plastics containing chemicals called phthalates. In contrast, at San Francisco General Hospital, Stotland sees low-income patients on California's Medicaid program. Stotland doesn't get the questions that Flynn often encounters. “Most of my patients don't ask me about environmental exposures. They don't ask about cosmetic products, bisphenol A or organic foods. Most don't have high-speed Internet access, and don't read articles and get alerts.” Many of her patients clean buildings and houses or work in nail salons, and struggle with staying away from harmful chemicals. She encourages individual solutions such as cooking at home and avoiding processed foods packaged in plastic. She's trying to push baking soda and vinegar instead of toxic cleaning products. Even though Stotland's patients are low income and probably at higher risk, she said she wasn't talking to them about environmental health until recently. Many doctors in the response comments of the survey said they were concerned about making patients feel overly anxious. “The social circumstances are so burdensome. Some colleagues think the patients are already worried about paying rent, getting deported or their partner being incarcerated,” Stotland said. Some doctors urge stronger role There are many scientific uncertainties about the dangers to fetuses, so clinicians can only proceed with caution. For example, Conry said there is a lot of research on the effects of BPA, particularly in lab animals, but doctors don’t know how to interpret the results. “So, it hasn't resulted in a change in practice patterns.” Research on environmental chemicals is difficult for clinicians to understand because it differs from what they are used to with pharmaceuticals, she said. Almost every obstetrician and gynecologist has a desk reference for pharmaceuticals, she said, but “it doesn't have any sections on environmental toxicants. There isn't an easy resource for physicians to use.” “In the case of pharmaceuticals, the onus is on the pharmaceutical company to do the research with toxicity testing, randomized control trials and post-exposure observational studies," Conry said. "With environmental chemicals, the manufacturer puts out a product, and the onus is on the regulatory bodies, environmental groups and lay public to find problems and study the effects.” Conry, who will become president of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists in May, urges a stronger role for physicians. She is co-author of apaper with Stotland, Sutton and four others concluding that physicians should intervene as early as possible to help women prevent harmful exposures. For the first time a year ago, the ob/gyn society stepped into a policy-influencing role in environmental health issues. Its president, James N. Martin, wrote a letter to the EPA urging the agency to consider links between prenatal exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos and birth defects before deciding whether to ban agricultural uses.  In the new survey, 89 percent of the doctors said guidelines from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists would be the most helpful in gaining information on environmental health. “As a society, we have a lot of work to do both in terms of informing women of dangers and helping them find alternative jobs when they're pregnant,” Stotland said. “This is society's job. Clinicians can't fix the problems in their offices.” To read advice for pregnant women, try these websites: http://www.gotmercury.org http://www.ewg.org/tunacalculator http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/sfw_health.aspx

AND REMEMBER, THE KNESSET ELECTIONS SHOULD REMIND "US" OF OUR WONDERING IN THE DESERT...

LOST

Israeli politics, internal politics, are bizarre and very confusing for the uninitiated.  There are often dozens of parties of various stripes coming and going.  Strange combinations, bedfellows, alliances and odd lists.  The system is "strictly proportional" which means the party of kosher vegans might get a seat if things work out right, but what really matters are the big power blocs...or bloc...or...

To try and sort it all out and to give you a program where you can tell the players from the has beens, the future from the past, the good, the bad, and the ugly...or the bad, the very bad, the ugly, and the very ugly I give you this   free analysis from Uri Avnery.  Do with it what you will.  

Remember it can always get worse, and it usually does.

While you are at it,  think carefully the next time you shout, "Power to the People."

And pity poor Moses, the Law Giver...if you get my drift...

Cold Revenge

08/12/12 “Revenge is a dish that is best eaten cold,” is a saying attributed to Stalin. I don’t know if he really said that. All the possible witnesses were executed long ago. Anyhow, a taste for delayed revenge is not an Israeli trait. Israelis are more impulsive. More immediate. They don’t plan. They improvise. In this respect, too, Avigdor Lieberman is not Israeli. He is Russian.

WHEN “IVET”, as he is called in Russian, selected his Knesset faction four years ago, he acted, as always, according to his mood of the moment. No nonsense about democracy, primaries and such. There is a leader, and the leader decides.

There was this very beautiful young woman from St. Petersburg, Anastassia Michaeli. Not very bright, perhaps, but good to look at during boring Knesset sessions.

Then there was this nice man with the very Russian name, Stas Misezhnikov, which no Israeli can pronounce. He is popular among the Russian immigrants. Davay, let’s take him.

And this Israeli diplomat, Danny Ayalon, may be useful if I become Foreign Secretary.

But moods pass, and people elected stay elected for four years.

The beauty turned out to be a bully, in addition to being stupid. In a public Knesset committee meeting, she stood up and poured a glass of water over an Arab member. On another occasion, she physically attacked a female Arab member on the Knesset rostrum.

The nice Russian man was rather too nice. He regularly got drunk and organized parties for his mistress abroad, expenses paid by his ministry. Even his bodyguards complained.

And the diplomat trumped the lot, when he invited journalists to witness his humiliation of the Turkish ambassador, putting him on a very low seat during a meeting. This led on to the famous Turkish Flotilla incident and did – is still doing - incalculable damage to Israel’s strategic interests. Also, Ayalon was a compulsive leaker.

Lieberman did not react to all this. He defended his people and criticized their critics, who were anyhow leftist trash.

But now has come the time to appoint Lieberman’s faction to the next Knesset, again without democratic nonsense. To their utter consternation, the three were dismissed with five minutes’ notice. All without any display of emotion. Cold. Cold.

Don’t mess with the likes of Lieberman. Any more than with Vladimir Putin and Co.

IF I were Binyamin Netanyahu, I would not worry about Abbas, Ahmadinejad, Obama, Morsi and the combined opposition in the Knesset. All I would worry about would be Lieberman, somewhere behind my back. I would worry very, very much. Every minute, every second.

Two weeks ago, two fateful things happened that may hasten the political demise of “King Bibi”. One was not of his making, the other was.

In the Likud primaries, dominated by ugly deal-making and manipulations, a new Knesset faction was selected that was almost exclusively composed of extreme rightists, including outright fascists, many of them settlers and their appointees. Against Netanyahu’s wishes, all the moderate rightists were unceremoniously booted out.

Netanyahu is, of course, an extreme rightist himself. But he likes to pose as a moderate, responsible, mature statesman. The moderates served as his alibi.

The new Likud has nothing to do with the original “revisionist” party that was its forerunner. The founder of the party some 85 years ago, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, an Odessa-born and Italian-educated journalist and poet, was an extreme nationalist and very liberal democrat. He invented a special Hebrew word (“Hadar”) for the ideal Jew he envisioned: just, honest, decent, a hard fighter for his ideals but also magnanimous and generous towards his adversaries.

If Jabotinsky could view his latest heirs, he would be revolted. (He once advised Menachem Begin, one of his pupils, to jump into the river Vistula if he did not believe in the conscience of mankind.)

JUST BEFORE the Likud primaries, Netanyahu did something incredible: he made an agreement with Lieberman to combine their two election lists.

Why? His election victory already seemed assured. But Netanyahu is a compulsive tactician without a strategy. He is also a coward. He wants to play safe. With Lieberman, his majority is as sound as Fort Knox.

But what is going to happen within the fortress?

Lieberman, now No. 2, will pick for himself the most important and powerful ministry: defense. He will wait patiently, like a hunter for his prey. The joint faction will be much closer in spirit to Lieberman than to Netanyahu. Lieberman, the cold calculator, will wait until Netanyahu is compelled by international pressure to make some concessions to the Palestinians. Then he will pounce.

This week we saw the prelude. After the UN overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a state, Netanyahu “retaliated” by announcing his plan to build 3000 new homes in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, the inevitable future capital of Palestine.

He emphasized his determination to fill up the area called E1, the still empty space between West Jerusalem and the giant settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim (which alone has a municipal area larger than Tel Aviv). This would in effect cut off the northern West Bank from the southern part, apart from a narrow bottleneck near Jericho.

World reaction was stronger than ever before. Undoubtedly encouraged behind the scenes by President Obama, the European countries summoned Lieberman’s ambassadors to protest the move. (Obama himself is far too cowardly to do so himself.) Angela Merkel, usually a mat under Netanyahu’s feet, warned him that Israel risked being totally isolated.

If Merkel thinks that this would intimidate Netanyahu or the Israelis at large, she is vastly mistaken. Israelis actually welcome isolation. Not because it is “splendid”, as the British used to think, but because it confirms again that the entire world is anti-Semitic, and not to be trusted. So, to hell with them.

WHAT ABOUT the other parties? I almost asked: what parties?

In Israeli politics, with their dozens of parties, what really count are the two blocs: the rightist-religious and the…well, the other one.

There is no “leftist” bloc in Israel. Leftism is now, like Oscar Wilde’s homosexuality, “the love that dares not speak its name”. Instead, everybody claims now to be “in the center”.

A seemingly small matter aroused much attention this week. Shelly Yachimovich’s Labor party has terminated its long-standing “spare votes” agreement with Meretz, and made a new one with Ya’ir Lapid’s “There is a Future”.

In the Israeli electoral system, which is strictly proportional, great care is taken that no vote is wasted. Therefore, two election lists can make a deal in advance to combine the leftover votes that remain to them after the allocation of the seats, so that one of them can obtain another. In certain situations, this additional seat can be decisive in the final division between the two major blocs.

Labor and Meretz had a natural alliance. Both were socialist. You could vote for Labor and still be satisfied that your vote may end up helping another Meretz member to get elected. Displacing this arrangement with one with another party is meaningful – especially if the other is a hollow list, devoid of serious ideas, eager to join Netanyahu’s government.

By representing nothing but the personal charm of Lapid, this party may garner some eight seats. The same goes for Tzipi Livni’s brand-new “the Movement”, cobbled together at the last moment.

Meretz is a loyal old party, saying all the right things, unblemished by corruption. Unfortunately it has the lackluster charisma of an old kettle. No exciting new faces, in an age where faces count more than ideas.

The communists are considered an “Arab” party, though they do have a Jewish candidate. Like the other two “Arab” parties, they have little clout, especially since about half the Arab citizens don’t vote at all, out of indifference or disgust.

That leaves Labor. Yachimovich has succeeded in raising her party from the half-dead and imbued it with new life. Fresh new faces enliven the election list, though some of the candidates don’t speak with each other. In the last few hours, Amir Peretz, the former Minister of Defense, left Shelly for Tzipi.

But is this the new opposition? Not if it concerns little matters like peace (a word not to be mentioned), the huge military budget (ditto), the occupation, the settlers ( Shelly likes them), the Orthodox ( Shelly likes them, too). Under pressure, Shelly concedes that she is “for the two-state solution”, but in today’s Israel that means next to nothing. More importantly, she categorically refuses to undertake not to join a Netanyahu-Lieberman coalition.

It may well turn out that the victor of the elections, six weeks from now, will be Avigdor Lieberman, the man of the cold revenge. And that will be the beginning of a new chapter altogether.