“Somebody better investigate soon.”
That’s a lyric in Bob Dylan’s “Oxford Town,” a 1962 song deploring the relentless murdering of Black people and civil rights activists in the Deep South. The line mocks the refusal of racist officials to punish the White murderers, instead cynically covering up atrocities by promising do-nothing “investigations.”
Six decades later, the depraved ethic of Oxford Town is allowing Israel’s indiscriminate carpet-bombing of Gaza, wreaking horror at a genocidal pace on the Palestinian people. So far, some 33,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered, with another 75,000 horribly injured – and two-thirds of these victims are children and women. Hundreds of thousands more face imminent starvation because their homes, cities, and entire economy have been blown to smithereens. Adding to the depravity, Israel’s fanatical ruler, Benjamin Netanyahu, restricts humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinian people.
Yet our government is Netanyahu’s biggest international apologist and enabler! Oh, for sure our officials condemn each of his atrocities, loudly demanding “a full investigation.” But even when investigations happen, they produce no punishment… and no change in our shameful open-ended policy of annually supplying the billions of US dollars and mega-weapons he’s now using to exterminate the innocent men, women, and children of Gaza. Thus, the horrendous 2,000-pound bombs he’s dropping on Palestinians bear our US flag.
President Biden said last week that he’s heartbroken by the relentless killing of innocent Palestinians, calling it “unacceptable.” Then he accepted it! Even as he expressed anguish, Biden authorized a shipment of another $18 billion-worth of US bombs and jets to Netanyahu.
Washington keeps sending killer weapons to – then, when they’re fired at innocents, we piously demand useless investigations and request (pretty please) that Netanyahu “bomb responsibly.” Gosh, why isn’t that working?
