The U.S. and Israel have escalated war in the region destroying Gaza, large parts of the West Bank and Lebanon, with new strikes on Yemen. The news continues to shock the conscience. Doctors who wrote in The New York Times reported from their own observations while treating casualties in Gaza, “Israel Is Routinely Shooting Children in the Head in Gaza.”
Two remarkable actions by the Biden administration guarantee disaster:
- The U.S. sent THAAD missile defense battery — the highest level system to combat incoming missiles, including above earth’s atmosphere — to Israel. 100 U.S. soldiers go with the system, prompting some to worry that U.S. forces could be put “at risk.”
- Biden “warned” Israel that if that government doesn’t loosen up humanitarian aid to Gaza in 30 days, the U.S. “could” enforce existing U.S. laws governing foreign military assistance.
Briefly: there are already 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, on land, sea, and in the air, backed up by nuclear arms putting the whole globe at risk. Dozens of U.S. State Department staff have already resigned over the issue that current U.S. laws regarding the human rights of targeted peoples have not been applied to Israel. And Biden says Israel “might” face consequences if they don’t conform with the relatively mild human rights protections in the legislation in 30 days.
Some people think a Harris victory would bring a just resolution. As she spoke in Wisconsin Thursday, a student at the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse told the Associated Press “that he wasn’t optimistic about prospects for resolving the conflict in the Middle East regardless of the election results. He deemed the loss of life in Gaza ‘straight up genocide’ and predicted ‘neither party will do anything about it.’”
Much appreciation goes to campus protesters and others who continue to demand an end to the (spreading) genocide, and withdrawal of U.S. military/financial support of Israel’s war.
On Monday Jewish Voice for Peace and friends, including some of us at World Can’t Wait, in a total group of 500, gathered in front of the NY Stock Exchange on Wall Street, rejecting the myth that the U.S. support of Israel is for the sake of Jewish safety. As Elena Stein points out in this interview, the true interests of the U.S. government are its own imperial interests, its financial interests.
Only the protest and resistance of people in these countries can stop this war.
Responding to our request for reports and photos of what is happening in your areas, a Seattle supporter sent this:
There was a powerful protest by about 2000 people in Seattle on October 5. Speakers included native women from this area speaking on links between what has happened to indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Gaza. A Muslim student who has had several relatives killed in Gaza exposed the “educide” aspect of the genocide by Israel-bombing of schools, killing of students, teachers and staff, destroying ability to attend schools, and also the destruction of cultural works, art and the culture in general. Speeches and signs brought out the role of the U.S. in backing and supporting the genocide, called for the U.S. to stop funding Israel and to keep hands off the Middle East.
