Where’s the US in the Gaza Horror?

 

Where’s the US in the Gaza Horror?

Innocents Murdered in Gaza and DC: Hate Begets Hate

At least 53,475 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7th,

including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's health ministry.

"I thoroughly condemn the antisemitic attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC… Antisemitism is an evil we must stamp out wherever it appears. My thoughts are with their colleagues, family and loved ones, and, as always, I stand in solidarity with the Jewish community." 

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a social media post.

"As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand by hand, and you cannot achieve one without the other... There is, of course, no place for antisemitism. What we are witnessing is anti-Palestinian sentiment that's taking different forms, and antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism [are] some of these forms." 

Columbia University Grad Student Mahmoud Khalil.

Look at the above couple, a pair of Israeli embassy staffers, about to announce their engagement, gunned down outside the Capitol Jewish Museum allegedly by Chicago born 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez. The purported shooter shouted “Free, Free, Palestine” as he was taken into custody. Anti-Zionism, antisemitism or both? Are they the same? But there is one thing of which you can be certain: That beautiful couple killed as their life together was about to begin would be used mercilessly as political pawns… justification by all sides to the Gaza conflict to justify their respective positions, no matter the violence. But at this juncture, there can be no further justification for the killing of innocents on either side. Here, this sad event was seized upon by the Trump administration to further justify its misuse of “antisemitism” to attack opponents. The DC murder was wrong no matter how you look at it. But now what?

When Donald Trump is not blaming prostate impaired Joe Biden for most of his own failed policies, he is remarkably uniform in his use of “antisemitism” as his excuse have people criminally investigated and even to take down truly prestigious universities, often with vastly larger contingents of Jewish students than ethnically Arab or Muslim groups… even where the relevant president of the targeted university is Jewish. That masses of Jewish students at Columbia University in NYC booed at the university president at her purported complicity in the green card cancellation for Mahmoud Khalil by our Department of State says it all. Khalil’s warrantless detention was the first publicly known deportation effort related to pro-Palestine activism under President Donald Trump, who has threatened to punish students and others who he says have engaged in activities "aligned to Hamas". It’s time to stop allowing the cry of “antisemitism” to justify autocracy and repression here in the United States… to stop killing or blaming innocents.

A proponent of peaceful protests, Khalil opposed the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel’s pounding attacks. His Arab ethnicity plus his activism, however peaceful, were sufficient for Rubio’s Raders to see this peaceful grad student as a threat. Immediately deportable. His actions were declared incompatible with American values (you mean like peaceful protests and free speech?!) … but after his detention to a facility in Louisiana and resultant legal actions against the government, Khalil was released… and instantly secured his degree.

Were those Jewish students, protesting against Israel’s perceived military excesses, antisemitic? Could Jews be truly faithful if they castigated Israel? Could Judaism be somehow viewed as separate from Israeli political and military actions? Yet there are rabbis who maintain you can’t be truly Jewish without supporting Israel, good or bad. A killing of Israeli embassy staffers, at a Jewish museum, truly complicates the issue. How many more innocents, on both sides, must die?

How could Donald Trump turn a cold shoulder to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and instead visit three Arab monarchies, each of which cried for Israel to stop bombing and starving out innocent Palestinians in Gaza? Wasn’t that visit effectively “antisemitic”? But inconsistency, hypocrisy and two-faced policies where lots money is involved are hardly a recent signature Trump move. Already alienated from Trump’s Amerika, our purported Western allies were no longer reticent about pressuring Israel (even after they decried the DC murders), now politically more isolated than North Korea… even as our allies universally condemned the DC attack, ironically after that Jewish museum event was focused on opening the lines of communication… searching for hope.

Before the above killings, “The United Kingdom followed through on its threat to take ‘concrete actions’ if Israel doesn’t stop its military offensive in Gaza and continues to block humanitarian aid from entering the enclave. On Tuesday [5/20], the UK paused trade negotiations with Israel and sanctioned West Bank settlers. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that while the UK backed Israel’s right to defend itself after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, the conflict in Gaza was ‘entering a dark new phase.’ With the European Union’s foreign policy chief describing the situation in Gaza as ‘catastrophic,’ the EU also announced plans to review its relationship with Israel. According to the UN, on top of the military offensive, Israel’s monthslong blockade of aid has left one in five people in Gaza facing starvation.” CNN, May 21st.

But even as Israel finally agreed to allow very limited shipments into Gaza, where children were very literally dying from starvation, her military actions increased to such a level stopped the influx of food. “Israel pressed ahead Tuesday [5/20] with its new military offensive in the Gaza Strip despite mounting international criticism, launching airstrikes that health officials said killed at least 85 Palestinians. Israeli officials said they also allowed in dozens more trucks carrying aid.

“Two days after aid began entering the territory, the desperately needed new supplies have not yet reached people in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza’s 2 million residents are at high risk of famine.

“Under pressure, Israel agreed this week to allow a ‘minimal’ amount of aid into the Gaza Strip after preventing the entry of food, medicine and fuel in an attempt to pressure the militant group Hamas. U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that although the aid had entered Gaza, workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.

“COGAT, the Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Monday [5/19]and 93 trucks entered Tuesday [5/20]. But Dujarric said the U.N. confirmed only a few dozen trucks [actually] entered Gaza on Tuesday…

“The aid included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The U.N. humanitarian agency said it is prioritizing baby formula in the first shipments… But none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the U.N. Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as ‘long, complex, complicated and dangerous.’ He said Israeli military requirements for aid workers to unload and reload the trucks are hindering efforts to distribute the aid. COGAT did not immediately comment on the new procedures.

“The United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said, far fewer than the 600 that entered daily during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said dozens are expected to enter each day.” Associated Press, May 21st. Misusing a single word for crass political reasons kills people.

In the end, the United States supplies the bulk of Israeli weapons; the world thus associates Israeli excess to blind support by the United State, which alone vetoes UN Security Council resolutions intended to rein in Israeli excesses against innocent civilians. The same United States which, until very, very recently, seemed to be a Putin propaganda arm in his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine… and has pulled back almost entirely in support of Ukraine’s fight for freedom and to restore the nationhood that has existed since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Listen to those young Jewish voices, joining in harmony with so many of their Muslim counterparts! 

I’m Peter Dekom, and I sure wish our government would read our Constitution again and support our core values everywhere, aiding those tired and poor “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as inscribed on the Statue of Liberty… but that isn’t transactional “me, me, me” Trumpism.