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Levantine misery
Oct. 19th, 2023 12:20 amBack on the 7th, over a thousand soldiers from the Hamas terror group staged a surprise breakout from the Gaza Strip concentration camp and proceeded to attack a number of Israeli military bases... and also towns. They gunned down over 1,300 mostly unarmed people, many of children, in an indiscriminate rampage. Pretty much everyone in the world who hasn't sided with Hamas in its war with Israel has rightly condemned the attack.
In response to this pogrom, the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu lost its mind and started bombing Gaza with abandon while cutting off all outside food, water, and electricity. The 2 million people there (half of whom are kids) are facing incredible misery and danger.
I don't want to take a side this fight; I don't want to join the fight at all. I want us to use our vast wealth to help people in need. I sent the president a letter about this on Monday. I wrote:
Since then, the courtyard of the Ahi Arab hospital in Gaza was hit by a huge explosion, killing hundreds of people displaced by the bombing who took shelter there because they had nowhere else to go. (It was also where the hospital was storing the bodies of those who had already died, since they were already using every available space to treat the living inside.) I don't know who fired the missile( or whatever) that killed all those people. The IDF is the obvious candidate, but the Israelis and the USA both insist that it wasn't Israel, it was another terrorist group shooting a rocket that misfired and crashed near its launching point. Since this is what Israel would say regardless of whether or not it's true (all governments lie, after all), I withhold judgement.
Outside the narrow context of who should be facing murder charges however, it hardly matters. War is cruelty, and we're getting lots of new demonstrations of that ghastly truth.
The people of Gaza are a poor, tired, hungry, huddled mass yearning to breath free. I think the USA should offer immediate refugee status with a special path to citizenship to anyone there who wants to leave. It won't solve the problems faced by the Palestinians or the Israelis, but it would help thousands of people directly (and thousands of eager young folks looking to start a new life will be good for us, too) and relieve many of the serious points of tension between the two peoples.
In response to this pogrom, the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu lost its mind and started bombing Gaza with abandon while cutting off all outside food, water, and electricity. The 2 million people there (half of whom are kids) are facing incredible misery and danger.
I don't want to take a side this fight; I don't want to join the fight at all. I want us to use our vast wealth to help people in need. I sent the president a letter about this on Monday. I wrote:
I am alarmed by Israel’s response to the pogrom conducted by Hamas on October 7th. The sickening brutality of terrorism cannot be an excuse for war crimes in response, and the total blockade, the extensive bombing, and planned invasion & displacement of a million people all qualify. The truth of General Sherman’s observation that war is unrefinable cruelty is on display for all to see.
The central insight of America’s founders is that everyone matters; it’s the basis for all of our rights as citizens and our raison d’être as a nation. We are–or should be–the place no one is disposable. Too often, to our shame, we haven’t been, but it is never too late to make better choices, and now is a moment for living up to our own standards.
You understand as well as anyone the pain of losing a child; please don’t use my tax dollars to inflict that agony on families in Gaza. In this moment of conflicting passions, let us heed the wisdom of John Adams, and prioritize protecting the innocent over punishing the guilty. Let us be truly American and support the life, liberty, and happiness of all the people of Israel and Palestine.
The central insight of America’s founders is that everyone matters; it’s the basis for all of our rights as citizens and our raison d’être as a nation. We are–or should be–the place no one is disposable. Too often, to our shame, we haven’t been, but it is never too late to make better choices, and now is a moment for living up to our own standards.
You understand as well as anyone the pain of losing a child; please don’t use my tax dollars to inflict that agony on families in Gaza. In this moment of conflicting passions, let us heed the wisdom of John Adams, and prioritize protecting the innocent over punishing the guilty. Let us be truly American and support the life, liberty, and happiness of all the people of Israel and Palestine.
Since then, the courtyard of the Ahi Arab hospital in Gaza was hit by a huge explosion, killing hundreds of people displaced by the bombing who took shelter there because they had nowhere else to go. (It was also where the hospital was storing the bodies of those who had already died, since they were already using every available space to treat the living inside.) I don't know who fired the missile( or whatever) that killed all those people. The IDF is the obvious candidate, but the Israelis and the USA both insist that it wasn't Israel, it was another terrorist group shooting a rocket that misfired and crashed near its launching point. Since this is what Israel would say regardless of whether or not it's true (all governments lie, after all), I withhold judgement.
Outside the narrow context of who should be facing murder charges however, it hardly matters. War is cruelty, and we're getting lots of new demonstrations of that ghastly truth.
The people of Gaza are a poor, tired, hungry, huddled mass yearning to breath free. I think the USA should offer immediate refugee status with a special path to citizenship to anyone there who wants to leave. It won't solve the problems faced by the Palestinians or the Israelis, but it would help thousands of people directly (and thousands of eager young folks looking to start a new life will be good for us, too) and relieve many of the serious points of tension between the two peoples.
