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How can movement best Socialist Action Forums: defend the Palestinians?

A vital tool for anti-Zionist struggle 2 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1988 Donald Regan, former cabinet member and President Reagan's chief of staff and close friend, shocked the world when he revealed in his book, "For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington," that President and Nancy Reagan ran the government by astrology.

According to Regan, "Virtually every major move or decision the Reagans made during my time as White House chief of staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in favorabie alignment for the enterprise.

We were to learn later-after the news media tracked her down-that the White House astrologist is really a wealthy On June 4, a "National Day of Protest to End Israeli Occupation" of the West Bank and Gaza is being organized in major cities across the United States. Tens of thousands are expected to turn out to show their repudiation of the Israeli state's criminal policies, as well as their support to the legitimate demands for self-determination of the Palestinian people.

The Day of Protest is demanding an end to the killing, beating, imprisonment, and expulsion of Palestinians; an end to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza; and an end to the U.S. funding of the occupation. It is being coordinated nationwide by the Palestine Solidarity Committee.

The national leaflet announcing the action correctly points to the $4 billion a year the United States sends to Israel to sustain its barbarism against the Palestinian people. But then the leaflet points to a dangerously incorrect "answer" to the Palestinian question when it states:

be RallphSchoeman San Francisco "socialite," Joan Quigley, who claims that she uses "science" and computers to prepare the star charts for Ronald and Nancy.

Is it a "science?"

Scientists and scholars are outraged by this information.

They are particularly angry that the news media lets Joan Quigley get away with her "scientific" pretensions without rebuttal.

They fear, and rightly so, that this reflects a dangerous drift into supernatural and other absurdly illogical thinking. A 1986 study by the National Science Foundation found that two-thirds of Americans read astrology reports periodically, and nearly 40 percent think horoscopes have some scientific credibility.

Andrew Franknoi, instructor in astronomy at San Francisco State, compares astrology to "jetology." Jetology is a word he made up for a "belief" that one's fate is influenced by the positions of jumbo jets flying over the United States at the moment of birth.

Franknoi says that "jetology" is just as logical as belief that the positions of the stars, planets, sun, and moon at birth create direct influences over our lives.

Another scientist points out in The Washington Post that the "Recognizing the Palestinian people's right to self-determination is the key to achieving lasting peace with justice. The United Nations International Peace Conference at which all parties to the conflict are represented, including the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, is the only means of obtaining a comprehensive settlement, guaranteeing such a peace. The fundamental aspiration of the Palestinian people is to establish their own independent Palestinian state."

An unacceptable precondition What the call fails to state is that a precondition established by Israel, the United States, the Arab regimes-and the Soviet Union-for holding a U.N. peace conference is that the Palestinians, namely the P.L.O., accept Israel's right to exist in its pre-1967 borders. They all demand that the P.L.O. accept U.N. Resolution 242. Calling for an independent Palestinian This pamphlet by Ralph Schoenman, former executive director of the Bertrand Russel Peace Foundation and author of the U.N. report 'Prisoners of Israel, discusses the origins and sordid history of Zionism. With thorough documentation, it shatters the myths that color the consciousness of most people in this society about Zionism.

'The Hidden History of Zionism 104 pages. Price: $3.00. Send $1.00 for postage. Order today.

JUST SAY ambiguous references to gravitational forces exerted by the planets on people at their time of birth-defies even "commonsense analysis." He explains that the gravitational pull exerted by the obstetrician standing by the delivery table is six times greater than that of all of the planets combined.

Rasputin and the Tsarina Actually, the most apt commentary on this affair comes from David Kaiser, associate professor of history at Carnegie al -1.11.+ Mellon University. He compares the Reagans and their astrologer, Joan Quigley, to Nicholas and Alexandra (the Russian Tsar and Tsarina) and their spiritual adviser, the mad monk Rasputin.

In The New York Times of Friday, May 13, Kaiser says: "This analogy does not suggest that the United States is on the verge of revolution, or that astrologers seriously menace the Republic. Instead, it simply suggests that we, like the citizenry of imperial Russia, should look closely at the imperfections of our political system, the kinds of 'Revolt in Palestine' Speaker: Ralph Schoenman, author, "Hidden History of Zionism" Cleveland: Chicago:

June 17, 7:30 p.m. June 18, 7:30 p.m.

Cleveland State U., For 615 Wellington, For more info: (216) 429-2167 info: (312) 327-5752 state on the West Bank and Gaza within the framework of such a U.N. peace conference is to call for the recognition of the illegal occupation of Palestine by the Zionists in 1948. It is to call for amnesty for the Zionist state.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who were polled in 1986 were not so willing to recognize or legitimize the Zionist state.

Of 1024 surveyed by the pro-P.L.O. newspaper Al Fajr and the Australian Broadcasting Corp., only 16.9 percent accepted the objective of a two-state solution, that is, the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. A full 77.9 percent prefered the establishment of a Palestinian state in "all of Palestine," essentially calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Sixty percent of those polled did say that a Palestinian state on the West Bank could offer an interim solution toward a state in all of Palestine-though 40 percent dismissed this idea out of hand, opting instead to "continue the struggle for ... a state in all of Palestine."

But the poll never asked those 60 percent if they would go along with this "interim" solution if it meant recognizing Zionist Israel's right to exist. It stands to reason that the overwhelming answer would be The Al-Fajr poll is not the only indication of the Palestinian people's deepseated aspiration for a unitary Palestine. Throughout the recent upsurge, the "Intifadeh," Palestinians have continuously expressed their unwillingness to come to any terms with the Zionist occupiers of their homeland.

There can be no answer to the plight the Palestinian people until the state people it occasionally allows to rise to the top, and the precautions that might help us avoid further episodes that can only erode our confidence in our leaders and institutions."

David Kaiser goes on to urge that we be more careful about whom we choose to be our elected head of government. What Kaiser doesn't seem to understand is that "we" do not pick the Reagans, the Fords, the Carters, the Nixons—or the Dukakises. These "leaders" are chosen by the capitalist class to do their dirty work.

Both political parties, owned and controlled by the corporate giants of this country, choose the least offensive of the smiling dummies-the ones who are reliable and electable-and then tell them what to do and to whom they are to do it to.

I am not surprised at Nancy Reagan's astrology or anything else she and Ronald might come up with. Like the Tsar and the Tsarina, they are rich, spoiled, and arrogant people. And like the last Russian monarch and his wife, millionaires Ronald and Nancy have used their office for personal gain-as well as contributing to increasing the misery of the working people of this country for the benefit of their class.

San Francisco:

Socialist Election Campaign Kick-off With Joe Ryan, Sylvia Weinstein, and others.

June 17, 8 p.m. 3435 Army St., Rm 308, For more info: (415) 821-0458 Israel is dismantled and a democratic and secular Palestine-in which Jews, Christians, and Arabs would live as equals—is established in all Palestinian territory.

The task of the movement in this country is to demand an end to all U.S. aid to the state of Israel.-The editors Closing date: May 30, 1988 Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editors: MICHAEL SCHREIBER JOE RYAN Staff: Paul Colvin, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

Business Manager: DON MAHONEY Socialist Action (ISSN 0747-4237) is published monthly for $8 per year by Socialist Action Publishing Association, 3435 Army St., No. 308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Second-class postage is paid at San Francisco, Calif.

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