Palestinian Christian: Western Christians Don't Understand Gaza/Israeli Conflict

"The Palestinian Christians, they don't live in an isolated area where oh, this is a Christian town. No, they live among the Muslims in Gaza and therefore as much as the Muslims are suffering, the Christians are suffering, not only in the Gaza strip but also in the West Bank."

"The Christians in the west, most of them, they don't know the realities here. They don't know who is occupying who, who is oppressing who, who is confiscating whose land, who is building walls to try and separate people from one another," said Alex Awad, who Pastors East Jerusalem Church.

"In the United States and much of Europe people — they just don't understand the realities on the ground," he added. "The news media doesn't tell [a] comprehensive story where the average person will understand the causes and effects," said Awad.

"The Palestinian Christians in Gaza today, they suffer as much as the Palestinian Muslims in Gaza. They are under bombardment. They have only eight hours of electricity of every 24 hours. They have a hard time getting fresh water," he said.

"The Palestinian Christians, they don't live in an isolated area where oh, this is a Christian town. No, they live among the Muslims in Gaza and therefore as much as the Muslims are suffering, the Christians are suffering, not only in the Gaza strip but also in the West Bank."

"We are part and parcel of the rest of the Palestinian people. We believe in Jesus Christ. We are still Palestinian Arabs. We speak the Arabic language. We consider ourselves Palestinian," he added.

Awad said that despite the shared sense of "being under the same yoke of oppression" that unites him with his fellow Palestinians, his "heart goes out to any Muslim, Christian, Jew, Israeli, whatever their title, who may be affected by this unnecessary war."

The full article is available here

Why Did Israel Provoke This War? - Henry Siegman in Tikkun

Why does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’ continue to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank, and why did he use the tragic kidnapping and killing of three Israelis (which was not conducted by Hamas) as a pretext to bomb, then invade Gaza? 

The political and moral issues raised by these actions include Israel's violation of the cease-fire agreement that was in place since November 2012 and whether Israel’s civilian population could have been protected by nonviolent means that would not have placed Gaza’s civilian population at risk.  They also include Hamas' willingness to respond in kind - only perpetuating the cycle of violence - and their strategic placement of weapons in civilian areas.

Where, exactly, are Israel’s borders? It is precisely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to identify those borders that places Israel’s population at risk. And the reason he has refused to do that is because he had not wanted the world to know that he had no intention of honoring the pledge he made in 2009 to reach a two-state agreement with the Palestinians.

But on July 12, as noted in The Times of Israel by its editor, David Horovitz, Netanyahu made clear that he has no interest in a genuine two-state solution. As Horovitz puts it, “the uncertainties were swept aside … And nobody will ever be able to claim in the future that [Netanyahu] didn’t tell us what he really thinks. He made it explicitly clear that he could never, ever, countenance a fully sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank.”

The Road Map for Middle East peace that was signed by Israel, the PLO and the United States explicitly ruled out any unilateral alterations in the pre-1967 armistice lines that served as a border between the parties. This provision was consistently and blatantly violated by successive Israeli governments with their illegal settlement project. And Netanyahu refused to recognize that border as the starting point for territorial negotiations in the terms of reference proposed by Secretary of State John Kerry.

The full article is available here

7 "Disposable" Items To Steer Clear Of - Kim Corkum at Postlandfill.org

Waste is not something we need to take for granted. It represents a fundamentally broken pattern of consumption.

The way we use and dispose of the Earth’s resources is fundamentally broken. We extract resources at ever-increasing rates to make consumer goods, which soon end up in landfills due to a lack of other solutions.

But our planet’s resources are not infinite, and our trash can be toxic.  If we don’t change course, we face resource depletion and growing toxicity in our air, soil, water, and bodies.

1. Plastic Water Bottles: 50 billion plastic water bottles are used each year. Although they are picked up by curbside recycling programs , only around 23 percent of these bottles are actually recycled. In addition plastic is not a sustainable material because it requires the extraction of more resources to make more water bottles.

2. Plastic Utensils: I know these seem like a quick and easy solution for having guests over or for your lunch at work. But in the long run these items end up in landfills and are detrimental to us. For each plastic fork, think about the petroleum oil that has to be extracted and the chemicals that will ooze out of it when it ends up in a landfill.

3. Ziploc Bags: stop wasting your money on these disposable plastic bags. They are hard to recycle and most curbside recycling programs do not accept them.

4. Batteries: disposable batteries are not only a waste of money but are very toxic when they enter landfills. They contain harmful metals like nickel,cadium, cobalt and they also contain mercury. If these chemicals leach into our environment, they are detrimental to our health and wildlife. Buy rechargeable batteries that can last up to 5,000 recharges.

5. Plastic Shopping Bags: Paper or plastic? How about neither! These bags are making their way into the ocean and are ending up in the bodies of our wildlife. Bring your own reusable bag when shopping at grocery stores, retail stores, etc. Find a smartphone app that will remind you to bring your reusable bags every time you are near a store here!

6. Pens and Ink Cartridges: Every school year we all buy new disposable pens and ink cartridges but where do the old ones go? Most likely they end up in landfills. To avoid this, buy refillable pens and ink cartridges.

7. Styrofoam: Resist accepting this packaging for left overs at a restaurant or for hot beverages at Dunkin Donuts. You cannot easily recycle this material and it breaks up into small toxic pieces in landfills. Bring your own containers to take extra food!

The full article is available here

House Votes to Push Millions Into Deeper Poverty - Bread For The World

Tax credits, like the child tax credit (CTC) and the earned income tax credit (EITC), keep more people – including children – out of poverty each year than any other federal anti-hunger program.

In a disturbing trend that prioritizes the wealthy over the most vulnerable Americans, the House today passed H.R. 4935 by a vote of 237 to 171.  Bread has dubbed it the “reverse Robin Hood” bill, which takes from the poor to give to the rich. The bill could push 12 million people—including 6 million kids--into poverty or deeper poverty while giving a tax break to households making $150,000 to $205,000.
 

In a media statement today, Bread for the World president, Rev. David Beckmann said,  “It is unacceptable that we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world and have one of the highest child poverty rates among developed countries. Our policies should help lower-income working families climb out of poverty - not push them deeper into it.”

We do not expect the Senate to take up the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act of 2014.  Instead, the bill, which does not extend critical improvements to the child tax credit for millions of low-income working families, could be considered as part of a tax extenders bill after the November mid-term elections.  Tax credits, like the child tax credit (CTC) and the earned income tax credit (EITC), keep more people – including children – out of poverty each year than any other federal anti-hunger program.

Bread is calling for any final bill on the child tax credit to include the 2009 improvements, which enable more low-income working families to receive a larger credit. Your advocacy helped build momentum and educate lawmakers that this is an issue the faith community cares about.

The full article is available here

Mr President, The Border Kids Are Refugees - Michelle Goldberg in The Nation

Many of the children — who largely hail from gang-ridden Honduras, the country with the world’s highest murder rate, and neighboring El Salvador and Guatemala — have valid claims to asylum.

The 52,000 unaccompanied children who have shown up at the border are fleeing gang violence and have valid claims to asylum.

The gratuitous cruelty of the U.S. right to these children isn’t much of a surprise.

More shocking is the response of the Obama administration, which is scarcely more hospitable. As the United Nations and others have said, the situation on the border, where 52,000 unaccompanied children have arrived from Mexico and Central America since October, is more a refugee crisis than an immigration one.

But rather than acknowledge this, the White House has suggested that it wants to strip some of these children of rights they have under the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, a 2008 law signed by George W. Bush. According to The New York Times, Obama is considering seeking “flexibility” in the law’s requirements, which gives lone child migrants from countries other than Mexico and Canada the right to an immigration hearing and, in the interim, release into the “least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.”

The administration must acknowledge that many of the children—who largely hail from gang-ridden Honduras, the country with the world’s highest murder rate, and neighboring El Salvador and
Guatemala—have valid claims to asylum. “The UN said that in their judgment, we should call this a refugee matter, and I think they’re right,” Democratic Representative Zoe Lofgren of California. Indeed, she argues, calling the underlying problem gang warfare minimizes it: “These are armed warlords competing for governance of the countries.”

Treating this as a refugee crisis does not mean simply opening the borders, which could empower the smuggling rings that profit by bringing children to the United States. It means providing safety for the kids who are already here and working with the UN to create centers in their home countries where those whose lives are in danger can apply for asylum in the United States or other nations.

“To me, it’s recognizing reality,” Lofgren says. “You can say it’s not a refugee crisis, but it is, and we have tools in our toolbox, including UNHCR, to deal with a refugee crisis.”

The full article is available here

10 Supreme Court Rulings That Turned Corporations Into People - Alex Park in Mother Jones

Last week's decision is the latest in a 200-year-long line of rulings giving businesses the same rights as humans.

Last week's Hobby Lobby ruling charted new legal territory by granting corporations the same religious rights as real people. The rationale behind the decision—that expanding constitutional rights to businesses is necessary to "protect the rights of people associated with the corporation"—is far from novel.

A line of Supreme Court rulings stretching back 200 years has blurred the distinction between flesh-and-blood citizens and the businesses they own, laying the groundwork for Hobby Lobby and the equally contentious Citizens United ruling.

If a corporation has First Amendment rights, could it also claim Second Amendment protections? Amazingly, this is a question some scholars are seriously pondering.

As Darrell A.H. Miller wrote in his 2011 article "Guns, Inc." in the NYU Law Review, "If Citizens United is taken seriously, the Second Amendment, like the First Amendment and like many other provisions of the Bill of Rights, guarantees liberties to natural and corporate persons alike." Bang!

The full article is available here

To Understand Child Migration, Look Beyond the Border - Andrew Wainer

“Few people are elevating social and economic conditions that compel people to take such dangerous risks by crossing the U.S. border or sending their unaccompanied children in search of a better life, but they are conditions that must be addressed if we are serious about fixing this crisis.” - Rev. David Beckmann

The surge of unaccompanied children crossing the U.S. southern border is a humanitarian crisis. The solution to help these children lies in addressing the causes that are driving them to make the perilous journey alone. 

The causes of this surge are familiar. They appear to be an intensified version of the traditional drivers and dynamics of migration from Central America. 

Push factors. Poverty and violence are widespread in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. 

Pull factors. People are often driven by economic opportunity, safe haven, and the hope for potential legalization in the United States.

Transnational immigrant networks. The family, community, and economic links that connect Central Americans with the diaspora in the United States and other nations compel people to make the journey.

Stricter border enforcement and better care for recently arrived child migrants won't make the issue go away. It's not enough. It's a stopgap.

The full article is available here