Israel’s week-long cease-fire with Hamas has ended, but the suffering of innocents has not.
As soon as the cease-fire ended, Israel continued its bombing of Gaza, killing nearly 200 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more in the first day of resumed fighting. Gazans had to flee their homes and rush their dead, wounded, and dying to hospitals as the bombs resumed their devastation.
The Gaza health ministry calculated that in the seven weeks of fighting, sparked by the October 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people (including the taking of hostages), the death toll has topped over 15,200. In its report, 70% of the dead were women and children.
Since October the number of displaced people in Gaza has reached 1.4 million, with more than one-half million seeking safe refuge. Children and families have limited access to water, electricity, food, and medical care.
US officials have urged Israel to take “every possible precaution” not to harm civilians, but such calls have fallen on deaf ears as Netanyahu pushes forth with his scorched-earth approach to “destroy” Hamas. Not a surprise for an authoritarian leader who is a member of the right-wing, ultra-nationalist Likud party, which strives for a Jewish-only state dominating both sides of the Jordan River.
The current PM of Israel has been nicknamed the “father of modern Israeli fascism,” and in pure Jabotinsky form, believes that Zionism must use military force to “persuade” Palestinian Muslims to give up their rights to their homeland and leave. Netanyahu and his band of far-right supporters believe in a nation ordained by divine right, fueled by a superiority complex built upon the disdain of Palestinians whom they view as invaders in the promised land.
Despite protests all over the world, and the horrific loss of civilian lives, the U.S. response has been phlegmatic at best, and we all know why.
Since World War II, the U.S. has offered unconditional aid (including military) to Israel totaling $158 billion, well-exceeding aid to any other nation on earth. The U.S. has historically supported the Israeli military, including sending guided-missile carriers and F-35 fighters that are currently being used against Palestinian civilians. Our nation’s special relationship with Israel has a long history based on the Cold War notion that Israel would be a strong ally against those Middle Eastern countries that may be influenced by Russia. U.S. officials have also admitted that our relationship with Israel is of national interest in that Israel is seen as a stabilizing force concerning oil supplies in the Middle East.
What is happening now in Gaza is genocide, clear and simple: Over 15,000 people, including innocent children and toddlers, cannot possibly all be members of Hamas.
The U.S. must ask itself, at what cost? Do we as a nation continue to support Netanyahu’s far-right-fueled extermination of Palestinians in the interests of oil and Cold War ideology, thereby fueling anti-U.S. sentiment around the globe? Or, do the right thing and cut off Israel unless it pulls out of Gaza and discontinues its apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians?
Last April, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced legislation calling for a halt of U.S. aid to Israel, asking for an inquiry into its possible conflict with U.S. laws that ban US military aid to any country that commits human rights violations.
It’s time for U.S. lawmakers to reconsider Bernie’s legislation: If we don’t, then we are complicit in the deaths of thousands of innocents.