On Fri., Mar. 20, (NOT Feb. 20, as previously announced!) the 2008-2009 UFPPC Speaker Series will feature Bert Sacks speaking on Iraq, Gaza, U.S. media, and the cause of peace at King's Books in Tacoma (218 St. Helens Ave.).[1]  --  Sacks is "a gentle soul, soft-spoken, an apostle of nonviolence, and, depending on whom you ask, either a defiant criminal or a compassionate hero," Geov Parrish wrote several years ago ("The Compassionate Outlaw," Seattle Weekly, Apr. 2, 2003).[2]  --  A recent video of Bert Sacks can be viewed here.  --  This event is free and will be held at King's Books, 218 St. Helens, Tacoma, at 7:00 p.m....


On Mon., Feb. 2, at 7:00 p.m., UFPPC's study circle, Digging Deeper, will examine Norman G. Finkelstein's Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, 2nd ed. (Verso, 2003).  Book description:  "First published in 1995, this highly acclaimed study scrutinizes popular and scholarly representations of the Israel-Palestine conflict.  It begins with a novel theoretical interpretation of Zionism, and then moves on to critically engage the influential studies of Joan Peters, Benny Morris, and Anita Shapira.  Carefully rehearsing the documentary record, Finkelstein also challenges the dominant images of the June 1967 and October 1973 Arab-Israeli wars.  In a comprehensive new introduction, he provides the most succinct overview available in the English language of the Israel-Palestine conflict, while in several new chapters he juxtaposes Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories against South African apartheid, and demolishes the scholarly pretensions of Michael Oren's recent bestseller on the June 1967 war."  The volume has been praised by Avi Shlaim, Charles Glass, William Quandt, and Noam Chomsky....


On Friday, several members of United for Peace of Pierce County joined others from the south Puget Sound region in lobbying Congress with respect to the recent Gaza War and the U.S. role in it.  --  I participated and offer below a brief report on the meeting, with notes conveying the substance of my own remarks as an addendum....