Last Friday, the Concord Monitor carried an Associated Press report that Israel will be authorizing an additional 22 more settlements in the West Bank occupied Palestinian territory, some of them existing outposts.
There are already 500,000 Israeli settlers living in 100 settlements across the territory that is home to 3 million Palestinians. The presence of these settlements has been ruled by the United Nations as illegal.
Military aid and weapons from the United States contribute to the power of the Israeli military to enforce the presence of the illegal Israeli settlements among Palestinian villages. An Israeli soldier at a checkpoint in Palestine once proudly showed me his rifle, made in the United States. Also, U.S. military aid significantly supports Israel’s capability to inflict devastation upon the people of Gaza in the war with Hamas.
Enough is enough!
It is imperative that the United States end military aid to its friend, Israel, as an act of tough love.
An article from the Associated Press explained, “From blast fragments found on site and analyses of strike footage, experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave (of Gaza) are U.S.-made. They say the weapons include 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) ‘bunker-busters’ that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas. They turn the earth to liquid and pancake entire buildings… Lethal fragments can extend up to 1200 feet.”
It must be made clear to the Israeli government that the United States will not be complicit, even one more day, in the massive destruction of Gaza infrastructure and the unconscionable killing and injuring of children and civilians. Israel’s continued ruthlessness in its actions in the West Bank and in the war in Gaza is immoral, against humanitarian law, and just wrong.
Palestinians are worth more than fodder in the war against Hamas.
Also, these actions besmirch Israel’s good character. America’s revocation of military aid can be the tough love that rescues Israel from being the perpetrator of destruction and death of the civilian population in Gaza.
The land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea has been a land suffering conflict for centuries. The war in Gaza has become “one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” said Robert Pape, U.S. military historian. “It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever.”
There is no excuse for this record-breaking massacre in a world of instant communications and established international humanitarian law.
For example, the UK, France and Canada have warned Israel they will take “concrete actions” if it continues an “egregious” expansion of military operations in Gaza. Leaders call on the Israeli government to “stop its military operations” and “immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza,” according to the BBC. Should the United States call for anything less?
Nearly 2 million people, about 90% of Gaza’s population, have been “displaced and live in overcrowded, unsafe conditions… With limited access to basic needs such as clean water, food and sanitation, health conditions are rapidly deteriorating. Vulnerable groups, including infants, the elderly and pregnant women, are facing heightened risks of disease, malnutrition and preventable deaths.”
About 40% of Gaza’s population is 14 years old or younger and the territory’s median age was just 18 in 2020, making Gaza home to one of the world’s 20 youngest populations, based on figures from the CIA’s World Factbook. This is one of the world’s worst crises unfolding in real time.
Also, a doctor in Gaza reports that, according to the War Child Alliance, nearly half of the children in Gaza are suicidal, living with unbearable grief over the death of family members and friends.
Most children expect to die before they become adults. In addition to the physical and mental suffering, the Israeli/Hamas war is instilling hate and aggression into this young generation.
The World Health Organization reports that “the entire region is on the edge of a precipice. An immediate cessation of hostilities and a sustained, unconditional ceasefire are long overdue.” Israel and the United States have the power to relate in non-combatant ways. Ending the war is a matter of will and conscience as well as a relief for young people who are despairing, grieving and suicidal.
Every citizen of the United States needs the will to become a conscience for the country, speaking the truth to power. A single voice alone will have the effect of shouting down a rain barrel, as my grandparents used to say. But, together with the World Health Organization, American citizens can be the voice of conscience in the ears of U.S. and Israeli leaders.
Listen, President Trump, listen senators, representatives, the Judiciary. Hear the voices of your people.
No more weapons. No more rationalizations. No more blaming. No more false motivations. No more stipulations. No more fear of ante- Semitic accusations. No more suicidal children. End the war.
Free the Palestinians and the Israelis.
John Buttrick lived for 3 months in Palestine as an ecumenical accompanier in Palestine and Israel for the World Council of Churches. Also, for two years, he was a United Church of Christ volunteer, working from his Concord home, developing media coordination and communication strategy for Kairos Palestine in Bethlehem.