The Israeli-Palestinian Horror: We Can’t Just Watch

I’m unable to comprehend the continuum of raw hatred and systematic barbarism that the Israeli government and Hamas terrorists are perpetrating, so I haven’t felt I could add anything to the strong voices worldwide pleading (in plain words): STOP IT!

But saying nothing achieves nothing—so I realized I can at least add my voice to the urgent humanitarian call: (1) An immediate, permanent end to Netanyahu’s slaughter of innocent Palestinians in Gaza (70 percent of the casualties are women and children), as well as in the West Bank; and (2) the immediate release of all Israelis taken hostage by Hamas in their savage invasion of October 7, along with the Palestinians held hostage by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). Only one lesson is clear: Barbarism doesn’t stop barbarity; it breeds a new cycle.

I’ve been asked: Who are you to tell the Israeli government what their moral responsibility is? Obviously, not being Israeli, I have no vote or voice to influence that government’s decisions—BUT, I do have a moral responsibility to tell my own government what it ought to do… and ought NOT to do. Netanyahu’s corrupt, far-right, racist regime could not stand, much less attack, without your and my tax dollars, weaponry and tacit approval of its relentless ravaging of the Palestinian people. Under both Republicans and Democrats, we Americans have been sending $4 billion a year to Netanyahu, with practically no strings attached. Now, Washington wants us to send an extra $14 billion to him this year—with even less oversight on how he spends our money.

There have been five Israel-Hamas bloodlettings in just the past 15 years, with this one being the most horrific yet. Our own international integrity and sense of decency is captured by it. Indeed, the hatred and extremism has come here, with murders of Palestinian Americans and attacks on Jewish people breaking out on our own streets.

Just on humanitarian grounds, we cannot look away.  I hope that others, who like me feel their voice has been missing from the conversation, will at least speak out against the humanitarian aspects of this catastrophe. Dozens of Israeli children were brutally murdered in the Hamas raid, and more than 8,000 Palestinian children have been killed so far by the IDF, with thousands more continuing to die from wounds, starvation, and disease as the territory’s infrastructure has been destroyed.

The indiscriminate, ruthless bombing of Gaza—plus Netanyahu’s immoral sanctioning of violence and blatant thievery against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank—is being perpetrated in our name. In the world’s perception, and in fact, we are complicit.

In thinking this through, consider these two pieces that struck me as level-headed—one by progressive labor leader Mark Dimondstein, and the other by our friend Bernie Sanders.