I have not posted anything for nine days. Like many of you, we were busy
with the big rally and march in Washington DC which was followed by
teach-ins on Sunday and then a lobby day on Monday. Due to my own job
growing demand, I actually spent three nights in the laboratory, two nights
on the road and two nights in DC. Anyway, many readers suggested that it
would be helpful to have a summary up front with links to items if readers
want more details. So here goes starting with brief comments on the rally
and march. While newspapers and TV pundits ducked their responsibility and
as usual underestimated attendance ("tens of thousands"), privately DC
police estimated 100,000 and organizers estimated 500,000 (so a good
guestimate is 200,000). We had several buses and many cars and vans from
various parts of CT alone (a small state).

As in most such events, people come with varied agendas and try their best
to push their plans and ideas. Religious leaders, code pink, communists,
various stripes of socialists, various stripes of capitalists, veterans,
students, anarchists, and on and on. Arab community participation was
notably low. International ANSWER coalition had a few but highly visible
people to publicize the March 17 rally on the Pentagon (they had tables, big
signs and bullhorns). The US Campaign to End the Occupation
(endtheoccupation.org) had a table and did some publicity for the June 11-12
national rally commemorating 40 years of the occupation of the Palestinian
West Bank and Gaza (i.e. the second stage of the colonization of Palestine).
A feeder march for Palestine was small at 150 people (not very well
publicized) but was very visible and loud thanks especially to the work of
activists from NY. It had large Palestinian flags and signs on Israeli
apartheid and connections between Iraq and Palestine. Two bullhorns and
hundreds of flyers passed made sure people noticed the group and the
Palestine issue. Not participating in that march but doing their own thing
was nearly 80 International Socialist Organization marchers who also did not
shy away from highlighting the struggle for Palestinian freedom. Others
speaking for Palestine included two people from IfAmericansKnew.org who
handed out tons of material. I did not hear some of the speeches at the
main rally but of the ones I heard, I think the best was by Palestinian
American Noura Erekat who explained IMHO the meaning of true solidarity with
oppressed people. After the talks, people marched around the Capitol.
Media coverage was far more positive than in past similar events (thanks to
activists' persistence in speaking truth to power and a growing anti-war
movement).

On Sunday and starting at 9:30 there were a number of parallel workshops at
a high school in Bethesda. Over 800 people attended. One workshop
facilitated by Josh Ruebner dealt with preparations for the June march and
rally. Another was addressing whether Jimmy Carter was right in his
assessment (Is there apartheid?). The latter was facilitated by Noura
Erekat was standing room only. Two self-proclaimed peace Zionists tried to
derail the conversation and even challenge basic human rights (right of
refugees to return to their homes and lands). A general meeting was also
held to prepare the contingents for the lobby day. Later in the day, the
various state contingents met separately to plan for the following day. We
had 14 people from CT. David Amdur of the American Friends Service
Committee office in Hartford had arranged meetings with 5 congressional
offices and the office of Senator Dodd. We decided to give one final call to
Senator Lieberman's office and if they did not want to see us, we were going
to go there anyway :-).

Monday morning, David called and Lieberman's office agreed to meet with us
(his foreign policy fellow). We then went on to meet with others (total of
seven meetings for CT Congressional delegation). Capitol hill offices were
swarming with peace activists (800 in total from 47 states). The message
was clear and unambiguous at least for the delegations who let us know what
they were talking to the congress about): No war on Iran, bring troops from
Iraq home now, no military bases in Iraq, no to violations of Civil
Liberties, need for a new US foreign policy in West Asia (one rooted in
International law and human rights not gun diplomacy and war profiteering),
we demanded they excercise the power of the purse, and need for
investigations of abuse of powers. Some of us were also not shy about
bringing up the issue of Palestine-Israel. We also agreed to meet with the
representatives themselves in our home states in 2-4 weeks to follow-up. We
are afterall, the majority in America.

In bad news from Iraq, Iraqi Oil law will be the real "victory" Bush does
not speak about as it intends to steal most of the Iraqi oil revenue to
profit US and British mega-corporations
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010807A.shtml). In bad news from
Apartheid Israel, colonization regime now putting the final touches on the
Bantustan system. According to Israeli paper Haaretz article titled
"Impossible Travel: How Israel implements an apartheid system in the
occupied territories"
(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/815559.html ). Yet, several
presidential hopefuls already made the obligatory trips to Tel Aviv to suck
up to the Israeli lobby and its money. Mitt Romney said in Herzlia "any
years ago, the Arab-Israeli conflict was looked at as a regional conflict
that dragged on, but it was not looked at as part of a global threat.
September 11th should have changed that. Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict
will not mollify the Jihadists. It has been the oldest most radical front of
the Islamic jihad in the world. This has not been about borders. This is
about the failure for them to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist…", peace
candidate John Edwards stated "Iran is serious about its threats...The
challenges in your own backyard -- represent an unprecedented threat to the
world and Israel... in order to ensure Iran never gets nuclear weapons, all
options must remain on table", and Hillary says "We know that a nuclear Iran
poses a direct threat to its neighbors in the region, with Israel as its
chief target. It also poses a significant threat to the United States by
combining access to nuclear materials and technology with support for
terrorists whose aim is to attack and kill Americans."

In good news, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are joining
forces in "an effort to forge dozens of small and medium-size, black and
white Baptist organizations into a robust coalition that would serve as a
counterweight to the conservative Southern Baptist Convention"
(http://www.jewsonfirst.org/07a/back037.html). BTW, when I was in North
Carolina, we worked with a progressive Baptist Church that was really
following the teachings of Jesus rather than the lunatic (Zionist) ravings
of Falwell and Robertson (modern day Pharisees). In other good news, a
German prosecutor ordered the arrest of nearly two dozen CIA and other US
agents involved in kidnapping a German citizen and flying him to Afghanistan
for interrogation. In other good news, it seems there is hardly any visible
support for Israel other than from fanatical Jewish Zionists. According to
the article "Israel’s Increased Isolation by MJ Rosenberg, it seems that
most letters to editor and other attacks on people like Jimmy Carter and
other human rights advocates come from the same tired and shrinking corner
(http://www.ipforum.org/display.cfm?id=6&Sub=15 ). Speaking of attacks, it
seems the Zionist rag called frontpage has decided to up their defamation
and attack on me. The latest is an "interview" they conducted with paid
Zionist agent and imposter by the name of "Walid Shoebat"
(http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=26655 ). In it he
claims that I participated with him in riots. The interviewer is a protégé
and employee of the racist David Horowitz. For more on these persistent
attacks, see http://www.qumsiyeh.org/assaultontruth/ (some day when I have
more time, I will sue these guys). While at it, you may want to read this
excellent editorial by Prof. George Bisharat: "From personal experience:
Some of Israel's supporters occasionally cross the line into suppression of
speech. When they do, U.S. policy is the loser."
(http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4504931.html )

In follow-up news, Amazon.com petition garnered over 17,000 signatures and
Amazon received so many letters. While they did not back down fully, at
least they put an interview with Carter and otherwise also made effort to
make his Apartheid book page more positive. They also fixed the incredibly
malicious skipping of his book in the top 10n sellers (list went from number
4 to number 6 skipping his number 5 for several days before pressure built
up). Anyway, this shows that actions are important. Keep writing and
engaging.

In other follow-up news, the World Economic Forum this year was a subdued
affair with limited US participation (no video conference with Condoleeza
Rice this year ;-). They also met for the first time without their official
magazine Global Agenda which was closed after the controversy involving my
article on Boycotting Israel last year (see
http://www.qumsiyeh.org/theworldeconomicsforumcontroversy/ ). For those
interested about what the world really thinks about the US as published in
articles and ion broadcast (many translated from world press), See
http://www.watchingamerica.com

Finally, the Journal of Computer Science and Engineering is a new Journal
published in Arabic and encourages scholarly submission:
http://www.phillips-publishing.com/jcsea

Mazin
http://qumsiyeh.org

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