Last week, Netanyahu, the prime war-maker of Israel, was feted by the U.S. Congress, treated as an honored head of state, receiving many standing ovations. Mike Johnson and other Christian fascists fell all over themselves with praise. (Yes, there were impressive and important protests in the Capitol and outside which included people whose family members have been killed in the Israeli slaughter, all demanding an end to the genocide of Palestinians).
This week, Israel escalated dramatically by assassinating leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah, one inside Iran, and the other inside Lebanon. These actions dangerously raise the threat of wider war, instigated by the one nuclear power in the region: Israel.
And all Anthony Blinken, the Secretary of Imperialist State can go on about is the need for a ceasefire, as if Israel hadn’t killed the chief negotiator of its opponent. It’s PAST TIME for all honest people to join in the international demand to end U.S. support of these Israeli actions.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian scientist and author, founder and director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History and the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability at Bethlehem University, wrote:
This is very important and no country can claim these are “disputed territories” or that there is a “conflict” any more. In a stunning and highly researched opinion, the International Court of Justice (highest global legal authority) concluded that all activities carried out by Israel (the occupying power) in the occupied areas (Golan, Gaza, West Bank including Jerusalem) are illegal (violate international law) and must be dismantled and reparations made. Illegal activities include Jewish settlement building, home demolitions, walls, economic deprivation, ethnic cleansing, etc. The court ruled per international law that the decades long occupation must end and that Palestinian must have self-determination.
An example of a fundamental need of which the Zionist state of Israel deprives Palestinians from M. Reza Behnam in Counterpunch: The Politics of Water Under Occupation: Israel in Palestine. Now due to the Israeli destruction in Gaza, polio is detected in Gaza sewage water.
…As the occupying power, Israel has defined responsibilities under international human rights law to respect Palestinians’ right to safe, sufficient and accessible water. Israel has never ended its illegal occupation or lived up to its obligations. Israelis consume ten times the amount of water than West Bank Palestinians. Israel and its colonies (settlements) consume 87 percent of the water from West Bank aquifers, while Palestinians are allocated just 13 percent. And while they do not have enough water to bathe their children, Jewish children splash about in community pools…
The inability to dispose of garbage, treat sewage and deliver uncontaminated water, in sweltering 90 degree (Fahrenheit) heat, has produced disastrous health consequences, including Hepatitis A, cholera, typhoid, diarrheal and skin diseases, and a stench that has made Gazans ill.
Stop the genocide in Gaza and allow Palestinians full rights.