THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Peace Signs

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, Jan. 18-24, 2009

Change is coming in unexpected ways. It has been slow and painful. Nearly 30 years ago, Andrew Young, then the ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter, unleashed a firestorm of protest for meeting with Palestinian Liberation Organization representatives. He was forced to resign for the offense. Prior to that meeting, the Palestinian people were not recognized by the U.S. government.

At first glance it would seem that little has changed. As bombs reign down on Gaza, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington indicated uncritical support for Israel. In non-binding resolutions first the Senate and then the House overwhelming expressed their support. The Senate measure affirmed "unwavering commitment" to Israel, recognizing "its right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against acts of terrorism" and, echoing George Bush, emphasized that Hamas needed to cease firing rockets at Israel. The House passed a similar resolution 390 to 5. While noting the horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza, it did not criticize Israel.

Mainstream media in the U.S. has done little better. Max Blumenthal reported in the Huffington Post that "an analysis by Israel's foreign ministry of eight hours of coverage across international broadcast media concluded that Israeli representatives received a whopping 58 minutes of airtime compared to only 19 minutes for Palestinians."

But despite the Washington-media consensus of uncritical support for Israel, there are growing signs that public opinion in the U.S. is now more informed about the realities of the situation in Gaza. On the last day of December a Rasmussen poll found that while Americans remained overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, they were split almost evenly on the question of whether Israel should attack Gaza 44% in favor of the assault and 41% against it. When broken down into Republicans and Democrats, Republicans supported the assault by a wide margin, but only 31% of the Democrats did.

This shifting of opinion happened before the circulation of moving images via the Internet and independent media of the horrific conditions inside Gaza and the condemnation of Israel by major international bodies.

In part, this change is the result of the work of newly-organized progressive groups that are beginning to threaten the rightwing lock on U.S. foreign policy by traditional pro-Israeli organizations like AIPAC. Most notable among the new challengers is J Street, which was founded in early 2008. In the last election J Street's PAC raised more money for liberal, pro-peace candidates than did AIPAC members, contributing nearly $600,000 and claiming nearly 100,000 supporters.

At the same time a growing number of intellectuals, artists and activists are finding new ways to raise a demand for peace. Last week more than 540 Israeli citizens, led by internationally recognized artists, issued a Call in support of the Palestinian Human Rights Community's demand for international action. Citing the siege of Gaza, the overwhelming force of the Israeli assault, the attack on the ship Dignity bringing medical supplies, and the killing of civilians, they said "Israel has returned to openly committing war crimes."

They asked the world community to impose sanctions against Israel, as it did against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Naomi Klein echoed this call last week in The Nation. Referring to a 2005 plan from a coalition of Palestinian groups who called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, " the campaign Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions--BDS for short--was born.

These actions, along with the thousands who are protesting for peace across the globe, are the stirrings of new opportunities to move toward a just and secure future.