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Town of Somerville to Vote on Divestment and Right to Return TomorrowThe town of Somerville, Massachusetts, votes on two non-binding referenda Questions tomorrow: #5 for the Right of Return of all refugees, including Palestinians, and #6 for Divestment from Israel. For three months the Somerville Divestment Project (of which I am a member) has been distributing literature to educate people about Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The Israeli consulate for New England sent an email out last week urging New Englanders to descend on Somerville tomorrow to hold signs etc. against us. A local Jewish millionaire has funded a pro-Israel group to wage a campaign against us. Last week the opposition sent, by first class (expensive!) mail, every voter a slick flyer with the photographs of the Democratic and Republican Party's candidate for Governor, and Somerville's Mayor and Congressman, with quotations from each of them, all stating their 100% support for Israel and their strong opposition to Questions 5 and 6. The message was that "Nobody in their right mind takes these anti-Israel nuts seriously, and neither should you." That virtually all our politicians are 100% pro-Israel reflects the fact that the American ruling class considers its pro-Israel foreign policy to be a key strategy of social control, about which it will tolerate no serious objections. It will take a revolution to end America's pro-Israel foreign policy. Somervillians face a choice between two extremes: on the one hand they can oppose Israel and the entire political establishment of the United States, and on the other hand thay can accept the ruling class's Big Lie about Israel being "the only democracy in the Middle East" defending itself against wild-eyed anti-Semitic Arabs. With all the politicians declaring their 100% support for Israel, there is really no middle ground left for the voters of Somerville. The SDP has done a lot of excellent work educating people about the facts of the ethnic cleansing. But we haven't even begun to explain WHY all the politicians support Israel. We haven't dealt with the main argument our opposition chose at the last minute to use against us. Will the voters realize that the politicians serve the rich, and that is why they are pro-Israel? Some will, and some won't. Even within the SDP there are different views about why all the politicians are pro-Israel. Some think it is because the Israel Lobby is so powerful. I disagree. As I wrote in my personal leaflet [pdf, version with background links] (of which I distributed 1000 copies) America's pro-Israel policy is an integral part of the entire ruling class's "War on Terror," which in turn is a strategy of social control to preserve elite power. Special Reports on Killings in |
