The US stood alone in the UN Security Council when it vetoed a resolution on December 8 that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. That, along with military support for Israel’s campaign, leaves our country open to charges of complicity in genocide.
The assault on Gaza has so far killed almost 20,000 (as of Dec. 20), 40% of them children, destroyed about half of the housing stock and displaced 85% of its 2.3 million residents. Very soon, deaths from bombing will be eclipsed by deaths from hunger, thirst and disease. Thirteen of the 15 Security Council member states voted in favor, while the UK abstained.
US diplomats at the UN said one of the reasons for the veto was that the resolution didn’t also condemn Hamas’s raid into Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and about 240 taken hostage.
I thought it likely that the UN had already condemned the October 7 attack, but when I researched it, I found an Oct. 18 Associated Press article that said, “The U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution Wednesday to condemn all violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and to urge humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying it was too early to craft an appropriate Security Council response to the crisis.” The resolution specifically mentioned “the heinous terrorists attacks by Hamas” against Israel. The vote was again lopsided, with most of the Security Council members voting in favor.
It's impossible to imagine a UN resolution about Israel that would garner support from both the US and the rest of the Security Council. There is no daylight between the US and Israel in the war. President Biden, facing delays in Congress to approve more than $14 billion in additional military aid to Israel, unilaterally just sent $100 million to Israel for tank ammunition. Despite the US appealing to Israel to protect civilians as it seeks to destroy Hamas, the rate of killing has gone on unabated. Israeli officials themselves said the most intense day of the fighting was the day after the weeklong humanitarian pause ended. So, what influence does the US really have over Israel, historically the largest recipient of US military aid at $3.8 million a year and even moreso now?
There is no place in Gaza that is safe. Israel pretends it is taking protection of civilians seriously by dividing up the Gaza Strip into hundreds of tiny squares so residents can know where to go when Israel says it will bomb this or that square. But the map is only available online, and since Israel is preventing fuel to provide electricity from reaching Gaza, many people can’t get online. Israel ordered Gazans in the north to head to a “safe” area in the south, but bombed them along the way and when they arrived. Then it told them to go even further south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and bombed them there, including the professor and writer, Refaat Alareer, well-known and beloved even in the West, which brings the carnage closer for some.
The Gaza health ministry has identified about 5,000 men who have been killed, and Israel has identified about 5,000 “Hamas terrorists” who have been killed, meaning that it considers every male a member of Hamas, which is clearly not the case.
But Israel’s actions will clearly create many more “terrorists” – Palestinians who will fight Israel by any means at their disposal. Israel’s genocidal war has also bolstered Hamas’s standing among Palestinians, including in the West Bank, where Israeli army actions and those of marauding settlers have raised the death toll and the terror level among Palestinians there.
There have been other genocides in the relatively recent past, like in Rwanda and Darfur, but none have rolled out before our eyes from our screens and with our tax dollars. I have the same crazy feeling about what’s going on in Gaza right now that I have about the accelerating climate crisis: part of me just can’t believe this is happening and that people in power won’t stop it.
Hamas continues to state that its goal is to wipe Israel off the map, which provides President Biden with his justification that Israel has the right to defend itself. Biden and “Defense” Secretary Lloyd Austin are now telling Israel in more and more strident terms that it must reduce civilian casualties, but they are still pushing for $14 billion in additional military aid and Israel will continue to kill civilians.
But history shows that all Israel’s past military efforts against the Palestinians have failed to defeat them: against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon in 1982, against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, and in three major wars with Hamas in Gaza since 2008. For one day on October 7, Israel had the world’s sympathy and support, just as the US did after September 11, 2001. Both countries squandered those valuable commodities, and both are now considered villains in much of the world – supporters of a status quo that can’t maintain its status forever. It’s a safe bet that more people around the globe are now actively supporting Palestinians’ fight for freedom than at any time in the past.
I agree with my friends in Jewish Voice for Peace, that Israel’s conduct (over the past 75 years, and especially now) does not make Jews safer, but rather puts them more at risk, all over the world. I agree with my friends in Combatants for Peace, made up of former Israeli soldiers and former imprisoned Palestinian fighters, that this conflict will not be solved through violence. I pray my own country learns that lesson and takes appropriate action. Ceasefire now! (That means both sides.)
The assault on Gaza has so far killed almost 20,000 (as of Dec. 20), 40% of them children, destroyed about half of the housing stock and displaced 85% of its 2.3 million residents. Very soon, deaths from bombing will be eclipsed by deaths from hunger, thirst and disease. Thirteen of the 15 Security Council member states voted in favor, while the UK abstained.
US diplomats at the UN said one of the reasons for the veto was that the resolution didn’t also condemn Hamas’s raid into Israel, in which 1,200 were killed and about 240 taken hostage.
I thought it likely that the UN had already condemned the October 7 attack, but when I researched it, I found an Oct. 18 Associated Press article that said, “The U.S. vetoed a U.N. resolution Wednesday to condemn all violence against civilians in the Israel-Hamas war and to urge humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying it was too early to craft an appropriate Security Council response to the crisis.” The resolution specifically mentioned “the heinous terrorists attacks by Hamas” against Israel. The vote was again lopsided, with most of the Security Council members voting in favor.
It's impossible to imagine a UN resolution about Israel that would garner support from both the US and the rest of the Security Council. There is no daylight between the US and Israel in the war. President Biden, facing delays in Congress to approve more than $14 billion in additional military aid to Israel, unilaterally just sent $100 million to Israel for tank ammunition. Despite the US appealing to Israel to protect civilians as it seeks to destroy Hamas, the rate of killing has gone on unabated. Israeli officials themselves said the most intense day of the fighting was the day after the weeklong humanitarian pause ended. So, what influence does the US really have over Israel, historically the largest recipient of US military aid at $3.8 million a year and even moreso now?
There is no place in Gaza that is safe. Israel pretends it is taking protection of civilians seriously by dividing up the Gaza Strip into hundreds of tiny squares so residents can know where to go when Israel says it will bomb this or that square. But the map is only available online, and since Israel is preventing fuel to provide electricity from reaching Gaza, many people can’t get online. Israel ordered Gazans in the north to head to a “safe” area in the south, but bombed them along the way and when they arrived. Then it told them to go even further south to Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and bombed them there, including the professor and writer, Refaat Alareer, well-known and beloved even in the West, which brings the carnage closer for some.
The Gaza health ministry has identified about 5,000 men who have been killed, and Israel has identified about 5,000 “Hamas terrorists” who have been killed, meaning that it considers every male a member of Hamas, which is clearly not the case.
But Israel’s actions will clearly create many more “terrorists” – Palestinians who will fight Israel by any means at their disposal. Israel’s genocidal war has also bolstered Hamas’s standing among Palestinians, including in the West Bank, where Israeli army actions and those of marauding settlers have raised the death toll and the terror level among Palestinians there.
There have been other genocides in the relatively recent past, like in Rwanda and Darfur, but none have rolled out before our eyes from our screens and with our tax dollars. I have the same crazy feeling about what’s going on in Gaza right now that I have about the accelerating climate crisis: part of me just can’t believe this is happening and that people in power won’t stop it.
Hamas continues to state that its goal is to wipe Israel off the map, which provides President Biden with his justification that Israel has the right to defend itself. Biden and “Defense” Secretary Lloyd Austin are now telling Israel in more and more strident terms that it must reduce civilian casualties, but they are still pushing for $14 billion in additional military aid and Israel will continue to kill civilians.
But history shows that all Israel’s past military efforts against the Palestinians have failed to defeat them: against the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon in 1982, against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, and in three major wars with Hamas in Gaza since 2008. For one day on October 7, Israel had the world’s sympathy and support, just as the US did after September 11, 2001. Both countries squandered those valuable commodities, and both are now considered villains in much of the world – supporters of a status quo that can’t maintain its status forever. It’s a safe bet that more people around the globe are now actively supporting Palestinians’ fight for freedom than at any time in the past.
I agree with my friends in Jewish Voice for Peace, that Israel’s conduct (over the past 75 years, and especially now) does not make Jews safer, but rather puts them more at risk, all over the world. I agree with my friends in Combatants for Peace, made up of former Israeli soldiers and former imprisoned Palestinian fighters, that this conflict will not be solved through violence. I pray my own country learns that lesson and takes appropriate action. Ceasefire now! (That means both sides.)
RSS Feed
