Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine: FOR allies in the news
Several great news stories from the past few days have FOR connections. No less a media source than The New York Times finally gave the anti-war community its due this weekend, profiling several of FOR's key allies in the movement — including United for Peace & Justice, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and CodePink — in its almost-alliterative piece "American Antiwar Movement Plans an Autumn Campaign Against Policies on Afghanistan."
In regional news, several New York City-area media sources covered the arrival of Iraqi refugee Mustafa Ahmed to the campus of Manhattanville College in Westchester County, including this great four-minute feature on regional television News Channel 12. Ahmed, 20, is one of four young people who have arrived in the New York area this month through the dedicated efforts of the Iraqi Student Project (ISP). The three other ISP undergraduates in our region are attending Bard College, Fairfield University, and the Technical Career Institute in NYC. A fifth will be entering his second year at Union College in Schenectady — 30 U.S. universities are now participating in the initiative, which was modeled on FOR's successful Bosnian Student Project in the 1990s.
A couple hours away, the Ithaca Times profiled Jim Murphy, co-founder of the Hudson Valley FOR, in a feature story about his work with war veterans. Murphy, who also has recently launched an International Veterans FOR chapter, discusses both the physical and psychological issues that his colleagues grapple with upon their return to general society. In short, he says, "Vets need to start talking to each other," in the piece, "Ithaca man forms veterans group to offer information, support."
And much further south along the Appalachian trail, a regional West Virginia newspaper, The Journal, lifted up the recent Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB) delegation to Israel/Palestine. A local W.V. resident and former U.S. Agency for International Development employee, Kristen Loken, discussed her impressions of the Middle East following IFPB's 31st delegation to the region. Advocating a one-state solution to the ongoing conflict, Loken looked forward optimistically, arguing, "The people would live democratically and peacefully," in the article, "Building Peace." IFPB is a former program of FOR, and reports from the delegation may be accessed here.
