No Comment. . .

From the US State Department files, unedited:

Joint Statement of the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and The Office of the Secretary of State of The United States

Media Note
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC

November 11, 2010

Begin Text

‪‪Prime Minister Netanyahu and Secretary Clinton had a good discussion today, with a friendly and productive exchange of views on both sides. Secretary Clinton reiterated the United States' unshakable commitment to Israel's security and to peace in the region.

‪‪The Prime Minister and the Secretary agreed on the importance of continuing direct negotiations to achieve our goals. The Secretary reiterated that "the United States believes that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state, based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements." Those requirements will be fully taken into account in any future peace agreement.

‪‪‪The discussions between the Prime Minister and the Secretary focused on creating the conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations aimed at producing a two-state solution. Their teams will work closely together in the coming days toward that end.

PRN: 2010/1624

Makes one wonder what the Likud and Right-Wing/Fox News outrage was really about last week.

Continuity

Pundits have been arguing the past few weeks about who should "get credit" for the death of bin Laden and which borders to use in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.  The neo-cons try to claim everything for Bush 43, as if there were no Presidents before him.  If Obama says or does anything that is similar to Bush, then Obama must have accepted the "Bush Doctrine."  (Of course, if they don't like what Obama recommends, he's a socialist-who-hates-America or worse.)  This is all childish, schoolyard stuff – again. 

Obama is not as "radical" as his opponents wish to claim.  He is well within the mainstream of American principles and political thought.  He is generally continuing some Executive Branch policies with which the Left disagrees (surveillance and secrecy for instance) and clearly stopping and disavowing some practices which the far-Right support (such as torture, including waterboarding.) 

Last night, as I was drifting off, words came to me from over fifty years ago.  They could have been said in Obama's speech at the State Department last Thursday. 

 [Whether] you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

They are the almost-forgotten words that conclude John F. Kennedy's inaugural address.  While most of us remember the clear call to action which echoed through most of the text, this reference to history's judgment reminds us that even in this moment of celebration we humans have no way of knowing the results of what we sow. 

In that spirit, I will assume that Bush did not realize his escapades would lead to a multi-trillion dollar debt and global economic melt-down.  Accepting that it is not my place to judge his intentions, I extend to his beleaguered successor a great deal of faith in his ability to begin to turn us back toward energy, stability and community. . . which we have  not experienced as a nation for almost fifty years. 

Photo Information:

Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. Washington, D. C., 20 January 1961.  (CWO Donald Mingfield, USA, U. S. Army Signal Corps photograph in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)

Yes. We. Can.

On the death of Osama bin Laden.

All I can say is:

·    I'm relieved – my body issued a long, great sigh of relief.  Yes, there will always be terrorists.  But this decades-long manhunt is finally over.  And I'm glad.

·    I take heart from the way the President led the team – of advisors and operatives – to achieve this result in a measured and appropriate manner.

·    I find it bewildering that there are some who begrudge Obama's visits to Ground Zero, to the troops, and to the CIA – calling this process a "victory dance."  These same voices were only too happy to praise Bush's swaggering display declaring mission accomplished on the Abraham Lincoln's flight deck – when there was nothing yet to celebrate.

Congratulations. . . and thank you.

Photo Information:

President Barack Obama listens during one in a series of meetings discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

United We Stand. . . .

Thoughts on watching the PBS-American Experience documentary, Soundtrack for a Revolution (2009):

Once there was a link between the civil rights movement and the union movement.  It's seems so long ago that people made the connections that mattered in a stable, middle class community.  They knew when  you denied one person a decent job, you could anyone a job. When you denied someone the right to vote, you could deny anyone the right to vote. When you denied someone a basic education, you denied everyone the right to hear their voice as an equal.

Nixon came along and made a deal with the devil.  In exchange for political power his partisans drove a wedge between young people and unions and black Americans and unions. The GOP made us believe the pie wasn't big enough for everyone . . .  that we had to fight over one cookie, while their friends and donors hogged the other 11 (see below).

Wisconsin gives me hope that those days of community may be coming back.  Union members are sticking together on this one.  Perhaps they remember that if you can privatize public education, you can create a world where the powerful take even more and productive workers have no hope of a better life for their children. . . where we all become second class citizens unless we're among the lucky 1 percent who grab a third of the income each year.  There are greedy people in the world – and greedy people are trying to take everything from people who have almost nothing left.

Jobs – job security, safe jobs, well-paying jobs with good benefits – these are still possible for this country to provide.  As long as the greedy don't get a free ride and are required to pay for the services this country provides them – safe neighborhoods, trained workers, stable infrastructure (power grids, highways, bridges, etc.)  These things are not free and those who benefit most from them have an obligation to pay their fair share.

In the early days of our Republic, we understood the importance of standing together.  We took on many symbols of earlier attempts at self-governance and union.  On the wall behind the Speaker's podium in the US House of Representatives is a pair of fasces – bundles of sticks which represent the power found in unity.  If one loosened the bundle, each twig could easily be snapped and discarded.  Bound together, they become unbreakable. 

 


 That is what our nation once represented – unity out of diversity; community over greed.

Photo Information:

Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., Leaders marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963.

In the front row, from left are: Whitney M. Young, Jr., Executive Director of the National Urban League; Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, American Federation of Labor (AFL), and a former vice president of the AFL-CIO; Walter P. Reuther, President, United Auto Workers Union; and Arnold Aronson, Secretary of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.  (National Archives; ARC Identifier: 542010)

US House Chamber

From left: Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-PA., Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood applaud as President Barack Obama enters the House Chamber to deliver his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Fasces:  The bronze fasces, representing a classical Roman symbol of civic authority, are located on both sides of the U.S. Flag.  (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)