Lieberman Commits War Crime


Joe Lieberman has proposed that the United States attack Iran. This is incitement of aggression. Aggression is considered the most serious of war crime and its incitement is also against international law. Just as someone who falsely cries, "Fire" in a crowded theater, or urges a mob to committ a lynching, Lieberman's remarks on "Face the Nation" on Sunday are solicitations to grisly crime.

Lieberman takes pain to emphasize he's not calling for a massive ground invasion, saying "you could probably do a lot from the air". We know what "a lot" means. Bush and the Pentagon and the Israelis are threatening to wipe out Iranian nuclear facilities and important military targets. If nuclear bombs are used Doctor Helen Caldicot who founded the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War estimates the number of Iranian casualties would be in the millions.

There needs to be an international campaign of outrage against the comments of this brutal Connecticut Senator. The people are on our side. The latest CNN poll shows that Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to military action against Iran.

At mimimum peace groups should send out press releases denouncing Lieberman's comments. MECC sent this one.
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Students Sit-In to Protest Axing of Finkelstein



Upset over DePaul University's denial of tenure to Professors Norman Finkelstein, and Mehrene Larudee [the sister of the Paul Larudee of the International Solidarity Movement], and after a meeting between 30 student leaders and DePaul President Fr. Dennis Holtschneider at his office, students have taken action to defend academic freedom which is under attack at the nation's largest Catholic institution. After an unsuccessful meeting where their demands were ignored by the administration, DePaul students are continuing their sit-in overnight and through this week at the President's office and plan to escalate action among the student body. Student leaders called for Fr. Holtschneider to grant the professors tenure.

Finkelstein, a staunch supporter of Palestinian human rights, was denied tenure after an unprecendented campaign of slander by Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz.

Arrest Robert McNamara


In this article published on Counterpunch MECC chairperson Stanley Heller urges that the old war criminal Robert McNamara be arrested for betraying the sailors of the USS Liberty..

Ex-Chief Rabbi Uses "Honor Killing" Story to Justify Carpet Bombing of Gaza



The ex-Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu has written a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Olmert stating that all civilians living in Gaza are collectively guilty for Kassam attacks on Sderot. He ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings. This was reported in the Jerusalem Post on May 30.

He is sending copies of letter to Israeli synagogues nationwide. He bases this depraved ruling on a chapter 34 in Genesis which describes how sons of the biblical patriarch Jacob massacred all the males in a tribe because their chief "defiled" their sister Dinah. Shechem the Prince of the Hivite tribe wanted to marry Dinah and was willing to pay any dowry price. Dinah's brothers proposed that all the Hivite males be circumsised and that Jacob's tribe and the Hivite's become one. When the Hivites complied and were weak from their injuries Dinah's brothers killed them all, enslaved their wives and took their property.

This hideous story of treachery and terrorism was approved of by the important medieval comentator Maimonodes and the Israeli Rabbi mentioned that in his letter. It should be pointed out the the patriarch Jacob was appalled at his sons' cruelty. Tradition has him saying "You have sullied me and cause me to stink among the inhabitants of the land' To his dying day he refused to reconcile with one of the guilty son's Simon for his cruelty. This Rabbi Eliyahu, however, prefers to be inspired by mass killer Simon. Though this story is usually called the "rape of Dinah" it's not at all clear there was a rape. It may have been a consenual act, and the "defilement" more in the minds of Bronze Age tribalists (that we still see today in Middle Eastern "honor killings")

Rabbi Eliyahu son, who is the Chief Rabbi of Safed, went into detail about what should be done to Gaza Palestinians. "If they don't stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand," said Shmuel Eliyahu. "And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop."

In January 2005, Mordechai Eliyahu was criticized for stating that the 2004 Tsunami was (pre-emptive) "divine punishment" for Asian governments supporting Israel's unilateral disengagement plan plan. At another time has also implied the Holocaust was divine punishment for those German Jews who left Orthodoxy and set up Reform Judaism. He was a vehement opponent of the pullout of settlers from Gaza.

Reform Jewish leaders were furious with Eliyahu for his comments about the Holocaust and even filed a criminal complaint. We're waiting to see which rabbis and Jewish leaders will publicly denounce Eliyahu for his call for mass murder.



strip (4K)

Revolting accounts of humiliation and abuse in the new report by "If Americans Knew" about the decades old Israeli practice of strip searching Palestinians and dissidents. They do it to Israeli Palestinians, to American citizens, to children younger than 7. Read here and watch the video by clicking here.