December 1, 2023
A
letter to President Joe Biden, dated October 24, 2023, on the Israel-Hamas war
by international law specialist, Bruce Fein and me, prompted this form letterBiden response.
Apart
from the usual saying one thing and doing the opposite (e.g., standing for the
protection of civilians and a two-state solution while fully arming and backing
Israel’s genocidal destruction of everything in Gaza—children make up nearly
half the population of Gaza) — Biden’s letter completely ignores key issues in
our letter.
We
asked why he wants Congress to make U.S. taxpayers pay another $14.3 billion
for a prosperous country’s colossal military and intelligence operations,
especially since Israel’s leadership failed to protect its people on October
7th.
We
cited David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, who said: “If I were an
Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have
taken their country.’ … Why would they accept that?”
In
response to Biden’s repeated urging that Israel comply with the “laws of
war” we described how Benjamin Netanyahu
and his regime are doing just the opposite with its brutal terror campaign
against defenseless Palestinian civilians and their critical public support
structures.
Biden
knows that the Israeli government is implementing what its ministers ordered on
October 8th – a total siege with no food, no water, no electricity, no fuel,
and no medicine which meets the definition of the crime of genocide under the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israeli
videos provide the grisly evidence of over 20,000 bombs and missiles striking
homes, apartment buildings, schools, markets, water mains, bread bakeries,
hospitals, clinics, ambulances and places of worship. After many days, the
terror-stricken civilians, fleeing from one place to another in Gaza while
being attacked, are also dying of disease, hunger, thirst, and a lack of
critical medicines, such as insulin, with the bodies of infants and children
still under the rubble in numbers too many to be counted.
Israel’s
extremist right-wing politicians use words such as “human animals,”
“annihilation” and “extermination” as declared objectives of their mass
terrorism. (See, Amy Goodman’s interview with Yuval Abraham today on DemocracyNow!).
Biden
can get more humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza simply by enveloping them with
the American flag and daring Israel to delay, obstruct or destroy these
carriers of live-saving food, water, fuel and medicine. But he is too weak and
too cowardly to put strong U.S. leverage behind his sugarcoating wishes for
saving the civilian mothers, fathers and children of Gaza.
He
has made the U.S. a co-belligerent by unconditionally supplying abundant weapons, military intelligence and
political cover, including vetoes of United Nations resolutions.
Biden
has another apprehension – the near total control of Congress by the “Israel’s
government can do no wrong” lobby. The indentured rubber-stamping Senators and
Representatives have no problem supporting Israel’s violent repression and land
dispossession in what is left of the original Palestine and its five million
encircled Palestinians. Would these politicians deploy such eagerness in
helping poor American children and their families in our country?
These
callous legislators know little of this history, and little of Prime Minister
Netanyahu’s long support for funding of Hamas to break up any two-state
solution with the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, they and their predecessors
have blocked any Congressional public hearings featuring prominent Israeli and
Palestinian peace advocates. Congress is importing censorship of those who wish
to wage peace. (For the full list of our letters to Joe Biden, see nader.org).
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