Friday, July 25, 2014

Stop Sending Military Aid to Israel! (My letter to Congress)

We must stop sending military aid to Israel until it honors its obligations under international law, including not attacking hospitals, UN refugee centers, and civilians in Gaza.  Israel must  lift the blockade on Gaza--itself a brutal act of war, and remove all settlements, walls, checkpoints, water theft projects, and all other structures past the internationally recognized border in the West Bank.

Until Israel honors its obligations, it must be considered a military aggressor, and all puny rockets and other violent actions by Palestinians should be considered justifiable self-defense.

From 1948 when Harry Truman mistakenly made the USA the first country to recognize the State of Israel without seeking Arab approval as FDR had committed himself to, Israel has continued to block fair negotiations over final status with Palestine, and when it has negotiated, it has negotiated in bad faith, continuing to expand settlements in Palestine and brutalize the Palestinians under its control.  I have spoken with Zionists, and have heard Netanyahu, and it is clear that the end they seek is Greater Israel all the way to the Jordan River and the dispersion if not annihilation of what once was a majority arab population in the original area.

This is not a project that the USA should ever have been a part of.  The brutality and bad faith of Israel has become our brutality and bad faith, and as Israel's military and political backer, and it will continue to make US citizens and lands targets for the justifiable asymmetric warfare frequently called terrorism.

Long overdue, the USA should recognize the state of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza.  Whatever illegal actions they have taken pale in comparison with what Israel has done and continues doing.

No comments:

Post a Comment