Monthly Archives: October 2024

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

1967- Six-day War begins


Israel responds to a build-up of Arab forces along its borders by launching a preemptive aerial attack against Egypt. Jordan subsequently entered the fray, but the Arab coalition was no match for Israel’s armed forces. In six days of fighting, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria and the West Bank and Arab sector of East Jerusalem, both previously under Jordanian rule. By the time the United Nations cease-fire took effect on June 11, Israel had more than doubled its size, including claiming the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan. 

The U.N. Security Council called for a withdrawal from all the occupied regions, but Israel declined, permanently annexing East Jerusalem and setting up military administrations in the occupied territories. Israel let it be known that Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and the Sinai would be returned in exchange for Arab recognition of the right of Israel to exist and guarantees against future attack. Arab leaders met in August to discuss the future of the Middle East.

They decided upon a policy of no peace, no negotiations and no recognition of Israel, and made plans to defend the rights of Palestinian Arabs in the occupied territories.

Egypt, however, would eventually negotiate and make peace with Israel, and in 1982 the Sinai Peninsula was returned to Egypt in exchange for full diplomatic recognition of Israel. Egypt and Jordan later gave up their respective claims to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to the Palestinians, who opened “land for peace” talks with Israel beginning in the 1990s. A permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement remains elusive.

Source: history.com

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

1986 – U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne became the fifth federal official to be removed from office through impeachment. The U.S. Senate convicted Claiborne of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” 


Brief History of the Case

In 1984, district judge Harry E. Claiborne was convicted for falsifying his income tax returns and sentenced to two years in prison. In 1986, Claiborne was impeached by the House of Representatives and tried and convicted by the Senate, thereby removing him from office and terminating his judicial salary. This was the first instance in which the Senate tried an impeached official who had already been convicted in a criminal court.

When Claiborne entered prison on March 16, 1986, he did so with the intention of returning to the bench in two years’ time. He did not resign his judiciary post, and continued to receive his salary of $78,700 a year. This placed the U.S. Congress is a difficult position. Clearly, Claiborne was no longer fit for office, and yet the Constitution allowed only one method for removing a federal judge—impeachment.

Whether or not tax fraud rose to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” or whether a convicted felon could be allowed to remain on the federal bench, were not questions discussed at great length. After only a few hours of debate, the House Judiciary Committee reported articles of impeachment. Four articles were passed unanimously by the full House on July 22, 1986. The Senate received those articles on August 6, 1986.

history.com

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

1957 ~ President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to African diplomat


1957

In the conclusion to an extremely embarrassing situation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offers his apologies to Ghanian Finance Minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who had been refused service at a restaurant in Dover, Delaware. It was one of the first of many such incidents in which African diplomats were confronted with racial segregation in the United States.

While the matter might appear rather small relative to other events in the Cold War, the continued racial slights to African (and Asian) diplomats during the 1950s and 1960s were of utmost concern to U.S. officials. During those decades the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for the “hearts and minds” of hundreds of millions of people of color in Asia and Africa.

In the conclusion to an extremely embarrassing situation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower offers his apologies to Ghanian Finance Minister, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, who had been refused service at a restaurant in Dover, Delaware. It was one of the first of many such incidents in which African diplomats were confronted with racial segregation in the United States.

While the matter might appear rather small relative to other events in the Cold War, the continued racial slights to African (and Asian) diplomats during the 1950s and 1960s were of utmost concern to U.S. officials. During those decades the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for the “hearts and minds” of hundreds of millions of people of color in Asia and Africa.

Source: history.com