The Presbyterian church is currently meeting in Birmingham, AL, to decide the fate of its initiative to divest its holdings in companies directly involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. The following was received via e-mail:

Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church
Jews Against the Occupation, 14 June 2006

We are writing to you as deeply committed Jews to ask the Presbyterian Church of the United States to honor its commitment to doing justice and seeking peace, and, in so doing, to act as a true friend to our own people. We hope and pray that you will continue to disavow Christian Zionism, to condemn Israel's continuing effort to extend and consolidate its hold on Palestinian land and water in the Occupied West Bank, and to begin selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations enabling those efforts. These decisions represented an important step forward for peace and justice in Israel and Palestine.

While Human Rights Watch has revealed yet more evidence showing the Israeli army's culpability in shelling an innocent family of Palestinian bathers in Gaza, Israel still officially denies its responsibility. An Israeli parliamentarian is calling for an outside investigation.

The Iraqi "resistance" strikes another heroic blow...against Shi'ite civilians. From Australia's Special Broadcasting Service:

A suspected shoe bomber targeting a Shi'ite imam who criticised Abu Musab al Zarqawi has blown himself up inside one of Baghdad's most prominent Shi'ite mosques, killing at least 13 people and wounding nearly 30.

The New York Daily News (June 16) can make fun of the "pants-less pervert" all it wants. But the fact is that our heroic men and women in uniform are in the killing fields of Iraq to protect the American way of life that allows such behavior. A case can be made that we have a responsibility to act like morons on the streets and highways of America, so that 2,500 servicemen will not have died in vain.

The Brooklyn cab driver killed when a pants-less pervert rammed a van into his taxi had only worked the late shift once before Wednesday night's fatal wreck, his family said yesterday.

Reporters Without Borders is protesting the Pentagon's move to ban journalists from Guantanamo Bay, an ostensibly temporary measure. (Washington Post, June 15) The move comes on the heel of the suicide of three detainees at the prison camp, who the Administration says were "enemy combatants." Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the camp's commander, went so far as to call the suicides an "act of war" against America. Said of Harris: "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed... They have no regard to life, neither ours nor their own. And I believe this was not an act of desperation, rather an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us." (UK Telegraph, June 11) Conservative pundits are echoing the line that the detainees were not driven to suicide through desperation, but were using suicide as a "political weapon" against America—a neat reversal of victims and oppressors. (eg William Buckley, June 16) Now, al-Qaeda training manuals probably do call for using suicide and allegations of torture as a political weapon for captured militants. But it isn't like the Pentagon has not openly admitted to engaging in similar "back propaganda" stunts. (BBC, Feb. 20, 2002) So when the water is this muddy, who ya gonna believe? Meanwhile, one of the fathers of the victims is denying his son killed himself at all—raising the possibility of murder. From al-Jazeera, June 14:

Last year we a noted the public-relations efforts ofthe FBI to reassure Muslims in Brooklyn's immigrant communities that their rights will be respected in the domestic War on Terrorism. This news story indicates just how cheap talk really is. For the FBI, that is. Not for the Muslim community leaders who risk being targeted by speaking out. From the New York Times, June 15:

A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that the government has wide latitude under immigration law to detain noncitizens on the basis of religion, race or national origin, and to hold them indefinitely without explanation.

On May 23, US government officials deported Palestinian native and Tampa resident Sameeh Hammoudeh by taking him to Jordan. Hammoudeh then crossed into the Occupied West Bank to be reunited with his wife and six children, according to his attorney, Stephen Bernstein. "He's home in the West Bank," Bernstein said. "He's in Ramallah." Hammoudeh had been in US federal custody since February 2003. Last Dec. 6, a jury acquitted Hammoudeh of charges that he was involved in raising money in Tampa for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). As part of a June 2005 plea deal in a separate tax fraud case, Hammoudeh and his wife had already agreed to be deported. Hammoudeh's wife was deported in February, but Bernstein had to sue the government in federal court to expedite Hammoudeh's deportation. Bernstein said the Israeli government granted permission on April 20 for Hammoudeh to enter the Occupied West Bank. A federal judge reviewing the lawsuit gave immigration officials until May 24 to deport Hammoudeh or explain why they continued to hold him. (AP, May 25; Washington Post, Dec. 7, 2005)

At about 6:30 AM on June 6, unknown persons in a Chevrolet fired on an armored van carrying Cecilia Gurza, the wife of imprisoned Mexican business magnate Carlos Ahumada Kurtz, near the couple's Mexico City home; their three children and the family's driver were also in the vehicle. There were no injuries, but the van was hit by 10 bullets. Gurza said she was taking the children to school, and later in the day she was planning to make public five videos allegedly showing corruption by officials of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).