It has now been nearly 11 weeks since the deadly rocket attack on Israel that began the Israel-Hamas war. Most of the military destruction has occurred in Gaza, and most deaths have been of Palestinians who were not directly a part of Hamas, an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, its official name.
The destruction and death toll in Gaza has
been horrendous. Make
no mistake about it: the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel was an evil event. Wantonly
killing more than 1,200 people, most of whom were civilians, cannot be characterized
differently.
But I also see Israel’s revengeful attacks
on Gaza as even more evil, for far more innocent lives have been taken. The
latest figures indicate that around 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been
killed by the Israeli Defense Forces military. How much greater that is than “an
eye for an eye”!
A large percentage of Palestinian deaths
are of women and children, and as children (and others) dying of starvation and
disease will increase in the days/weeks ahead, Palestinian casualties will
continue to rise to ever more distressing numbers.
The U.S. government has clearly
supported Israel from
its beginning in 1948, and this support is even more distressing to me now.
As a U.S. citizen,
I am highly displeased with the stance of the federal government. The U.S. has given
Israel more than $260 billion of aid since World War II, more than to any other
nation. In October, the Administration asked Congress to provide $14.3 billion of
emergency aid to Israel.
I have been quite disappointed in
President Biden’s public stance on support for Israel—but not as much as
Thinking Friend Mike Greer, who on Dec. 15 posted his strong views on this blogsite:
Biden's role in the creation of a hell on earth in Gaza leaves me with little hope for the Democratic party here. I am wondering if he does not have a case of moral dementia . . . .
But I don’t think Biden’s position is
any different from what any other President’s would be, including Hillary
Clinton (who could well have been nearing the end of her seventh year as
President if it had not been for her inexplicable loss in 2016).
Near Election Day in 2016 when I thought
Clinton’s election was assured, I wrote “an open letter to Madame President.”
Among other things, I implored her to ease up on her support for Israel in
order to lessen the injustice being done to the Palestinians.
There are, though, voices for non-violence
and peace, even among Palestinians.
Despite all the violence that has been unleashed on Gaza by Israel since
October 7, I am heartened by those who are still advocating peaceful responses.
Just last week, I learned about Ali Abu Awwad,
a prominent Palestinian peace activist and proponent of nonviolence.*
Awwad (b. 1972) took part in the First Intifada as a
teenager and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison. During the four
years before he was released, he read the writings of Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK Jr.
and embraced their commitment to non-violence.
In 2016 he co-founded Taghyeer (the Arabic
word for change), a Palestinian national movement promoting nonviolence
to achieve and guarantee a nonviolent solution to the conflict between Israel
and the Palestinians.
On the other side,
there is Jewish Voice for Peace in the U.S. Since its founding in 1996, it has
been working for “a world where all people—from the U.S. to Palestine—live in
freedom, justice, equality, and dignity.” (see here).
Also, Amanda
Gelender, a Jewish American anti-Zionist writer, has also recently stressed (here) that “Israel’s massacre of Palestine is an
assault on the Jewish faith.”**
So, in this war of Israel’s Defense
Force against Hamas which, broadly speaking, is seen as a Jewish war against Palestinians,
which side am I on? Without hesitation, I am on the side of those standing
for peace and justice.
*****
Merry Christmas to all as people around the world celebrate the birth of one
prophesied to be the Prince
of Peace.
_____
* The theme of the January 2024 issue
of Sojourners is “Nonviolence in a Time of War.” Their interview with Awwad
is titled “Nonviolence in the Face of War.”
**
Amanda Gelender is now based in the Netherlands. She has been a part of the
Palestinian solidarity movement since 2006. Her Dec. 7 article begins, “I am a Jewish
person who opposes the settler colonial state of Israel. This is not despite my
Judaism, but because of it.”
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