Weekend Quotables
Dr. King's march in Chicago OTD in 1967. Dem strategist warns Biden the 'Gaza stuff' could cost him the election.
On this day in 1967…
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. led a march of 5,000 antiwar demonstrators in Chicago. In an address to the demonstrators, King declared that the Vietnam War was “a blasphemy against all that America stands for.” King first began speaking out against American involvement in Vietnam in the summer of 1965.
Peace marchers, black and white, as individuals or as members of peace, student and civil rights groups, wound their way down State Street carrying signs urging “No More War” and “Education, Not Escalation.”
* * *
Dr. King charged that “we often arrogantly feel that we have some divine messianic mission to police the whole world. Our arrogance can be our doom…
“We are left standing before the world glutted by our own barbarity. We are engaged in a war that seeks to turn the clock of history back and perpetuate white colonialism…
“The bombs in Vietnam explode at home — they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America.
UN finally passes Ceasefire Resolution. US abstains.
The United Nations Security Council on Monday approved a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, the first time it has made such a demand since the war began.
Fourteen of 15 countries voted in favor of the ceasefire resolution, which called for a halt to fighting in Gaza for the month of Ramadan and did not make any preconditions such as the release of hostages. The United States abstained from voting.
Ahead of Monday’s vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that if the U.S. did not veto the resolution, he would cancel the scheduled departure of an Israeli delegation to Washington, D.C., this week.
The trip was canceled shortly after Monday’s vote.
U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said after the vote that “this resolution must be implemented.” “Failure would be unforgivable,” he wrote on X.
MORE QUOTABLES
Carville warns Biden — ‘Don’t let Israel bring you down’
This guy is such a creep, I hate mentioning him here. But, he has a point.
Democrat strategist James Carville warned, during an interview last weekend, that if Democrats lose in the upcoming November elections “Israel will be to blame.”
I think Carville has things backward, as usual. But he does have a point. Israel’s genocidal assault on the people (especially children) of Gaza, is an albatross around the neck of Biden and the Democrats leading up to the Democratic Convention in August and heading into the November elections.
Carville makes it seem as if Biden is a victim, rather than a perpetrator and underwriter of the genocide. But a phone call from him to his pal Bibi, threatening a cut-off of US military aid would likely put at least a temporary halt to the killing.
Here’s where Carville’s warning may have some leverage with party leaders.
“This Gaza stuff, this is not just a problem with some snot-nosed Ivy League people,” he said. “This is a problem all across the country. And I hope the president and Blinken can get this thing calmed down because if it doesn’t get calmed down before the Democratic convention, it’s going to be a very ugly time in Chicago. I promise you that.
He adds,
But we already know. You and I know that this is a problem in the party. And I think the president knows that, really knows that, he’s being told that. And they’re gonna have to tell Bibi Netanyahu, ‘Hey, dude, we are not going to lose our election because you stand to go to jail. You have to think of something else.'”
Calm it down? I doubt it.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
“If you want to know what an unfolding genocide looks like, open your eyes,” she said. “It looks like the forced famine of 1.1 million innocents. It looks like thousands of children eating grass as their bodies consume themselves, while trucks of food are slowed and halted just miles away…Blocking assistance from one’s closest allies to starve a million people is not unintentional…This is not just about Israel or Gaza. This is about us.” — Speech on the House floor
Rep. Katie Porter
The Leahy Laws prevent our military assistance from funding human rights abuses. But under current guidelines, not every country is vetted the same. And there’s only one country where aid wouldn’t be cut off immediately—Israel. — X
Peter Beinart, editor of Jewish Currents
In many prominent liberal institutions — most significantly, the Democratic Party — supporters of Israel remain not only welcome but also dominant. But the leaders of those institutions no longer represent much of their base. The Democratic majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, acknowledged this divide in a speech on Israel on the Senate floor last week. — New York Times Op-Ed.
Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays
After the US vetoed three previous UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions, the language of the failed US resolution was too ambiguous.
A copy of the text obtained by the network says: “The Security Council determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering.” In the use of the word “imperative,” Bays said, the resolution is saying “it is important that there is a ceasefire. It is not really demanding one now.” — Semafor
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Reporter
I lost count of how many renowned journalists interviewed me on the alleged mistreatment of/sexual abuse against Palestinian women by Israeli forces, and never published any article on this. — FranceskAlbs
I attended that march in 1967 as a high school student. Unforgettable! I journaled about it and was more impressed with Sidney Poitier than King - I was a teenybopper!
Change one word - Vietnam to Gaza and it fits. Amazing the impact with only 5,000 people - today the crowd would likely be 20,000. Only one judge like Douglas, now we have 3 and could have 3 more. Where we are is Not acceptable but we should also recognize how the movement has grown.