Dispatch #109 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers US Abetting and Funding War Crimes & Genocide

Oct. 15th 2023  

967 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

128 Days Until the 2024 Presidential Primaries Begin 

478 Days Since Supreme Court Ruled Women Don’t Have Human Rights

For 8 days and nights, Netanyahu has ordered the carpet bombing of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.2 million Palestinians, 50% of whom are children. Israel has targeted hospitals, mosques, UNRWA schools (whose blue flags mark these schools as safe havens from Israel’s 16 years of intermittent rocket attacks on Gaza), ambulances and medical workers, the Islamic University of Gaza, municipal buildings, and infrastructure for water, fuel, and communication.  

Given the green light by Western powers, Israel weaponized its paroxysm of outrage and grief at the shocking and horrific attack by Hamas into an unquenchable thirst for revenge.  As Netanyahu’s fascist collaborators/cabinet ministers declare that the “Palestinian animals” must be eradicated, and that the Gaza Strip be reduced to rubble – e.g., 6000 bombing raids over 5 days -- Israel has cut-off the Gaza Strip from all power, fuel, food, water, and humanitarian aid.  

The US is complicit in Israel’s commission of war crimes, genocide, and violations of international law.  US officials are rushing millions of new arms to Israel and have dispatched two sophisticated air craft carriers and 100 attack planes to the eastern Mediterranean to “deter hostile actions.” 

Apparently raining death and destruction on more than 2 million human beings trapped in Gaza doesn’t qualify as hostile actions. At this moment, more than 2600 Palestinians are killed and 9600 are injured, with at least 1000 more missing under the rubble of neighborhoods.  Israel has ordered the evacuation of 1 million people from the northern part of Gaza even as the carpet bombing continues. Northern Gaza has 22 hospitals, including Al Shifa Hospital the largest medical complex in Gaza, overflowing with wounded Palestinians.  World Health Organization condemned Israel’s calls for these hospitals to be evacuated and called it a “death sentence” for the sick and wounded.

Many Gazans chose not to heed the evacuation order, saying the south was no safer than the north, and they would rather die at home. They also feared that those who left their homes would not be allowed back, a repeat of the 1948 mass displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians who were either expelled or fled their homes in present-day Israel and were never allowed to return. Those who did flee found fear, chaos and confusion on the two main highways leading south as Israel intermittently bombed these “safe” exits.

No Western government has called on Israel to stop these atrocities. Headlines in Western media report on Israeli casualties, Israel’s need to defend itself, US concern about a wider conflict, where can the 2 million Gazans go, and the need for humanitarian corridors so that citizens of other countries can escape from Gaza. Netanyahu publicly declares revenge on Hamas, calls them bloodthirsty monsters, and readies a ground invasion of Gaza with the one of the most highly-weaponized high-tech military in the world.

Gazans are enduring unrelenting hell on earth with nary a peep, much less concern, much less any outrage by US and Western allies. I am outraged and anguished by the one-sided US media coverage, appalled at the condemnations heaped on anyone who speaks on behalf of the Gazans as well as the Israelis, horrified by the actions of US leaders condoning the ongoing genocide of Palestinian Gazans. Clearly these people are being relegated to the less than human category, at least as far as the Western powers are concerned.

By fanning the flames of grief, fear and rage to justify a campaign of vengeance, Netanyahu has debased Israel’s humanity and moral core. Israel is conducting its declared war on Hamas with egregious violations of international humanitarian law.  The complicity of the US and Western powers similarly debases their humanity and moral core.

In his Financial Times article “Rules of war: international law and the Israel-Hamas conflict” Michael Peel reports:

“A country has the right to defend itself if it comes under armed attack, according to the UN charter and customary international law.    But a fundamental principle is that even if one party in the conflict has committed crimes, it does not justify the other to do the same in retaliation. Whatever the provocation, a combatant must comply with the laws of war.  The response to an attack must be proportionate. It should be focused on militarily defeating its armed opponents, rather than collective punishment of a wider group of people for casualties inflicted. Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said on Friday about the evacuation ultimatum to northern Gaza’s residents: “The collective punishment of countless civilians is illegal under international law.”

“The Geneva Convention’s 1977 additional protocols prohibit the use of starvation as a weapon of war. It is forbidden to “attack, destroy, remove or render useless . . . objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”. These include “foodstuffs, agricultural areas . . . drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works….A group of UN independent experts condemned “the withholding of essential supplies such as food, water, electricity and medicines” from Gaza. “Such actions will precipitate a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where its population is now at inescapable risk of starvation,” said the experts, who also deplored the “horrific crimes committed by Hamas”. www.ft.com/content/0f7886df-e70e-4b7d-a4b2-03d7553949d1 

Several articles/commentaries on the ‘War on Hamas’ drawn from non-mainstream media are listed below. We have a moral responsibility to reject “the fog of war” and to not be cowed by those condemning and vilifying those who speak against Israel’s actions. We have an ethical responsibility to recognize/reject one-sided coverage whose purpose is to instigate support for genocide and war crimes, and to present Israeli lives as more valuable than Palestinian lives.  Our shared humanity requires that we consider why the term “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE” must circumscribe the path to achieve peace and human rights for Israelis and Palestinians. 

Why the history of the densely populated Gaza strip is key to understanding the current conflict - Ohio Capital Journal https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/10/13/the-gaza-strip-%E2%88%92-why-the-history-of-the-densely-populated-enclave-is-key-to-understanding-the-current-conflict/  

Noura Erakat: Western Leaders & Media Are Justifying Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” against Palestinians www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/noura_erakat_palestine_gaza_israel  

Omar and Tlaib Are Condemned in the US for Saying What Prominent Israelis Are Saying www.thenation.com/article/politics/omar-and-tlaib-israel-gaza-statements/

Golda Meir: Israel in Search of Lasting Peace April 1973 www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/israel/israel-search-lasting-peace-golda-meir

The War on Gaza Must Not Be Waged in Our Name www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-israel-palestine-solidarity/   

The Catastrophe of October 7. Why Did It Happen? www.thenation.com/article/world/israel-gaza-hamas-war-netanyahu/  

Israeli Journalist Gideon Levy: Israel Should Lift Siege & Call Off Plans for Ground Invasion of Gaza www.democracynow.org/2023/10/11/gideon_levy_gaza_war_israel_hamas

Mustafa Barghouti on CNN: “Do we have the right to struggle for freedom?” MadisonRafah.org http://madisonrafah.org/mustafa-barghouti-with-cnns-fareed-zakaria/

Jewish Grief Must Not Be Used as a Weapon of War www.thenation.com/article/world/jews-gaza-response/

It’s lonely being a Jewish critic of Israel’ – Nathan Thrall on his book about a Palestinian father’s tragedy www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/15/its-lonely-being-a-jewish-critic-of-israel-nathan-thrall-on-his-book-about-a-palestinian-fathers-tragedy 

A Reminder to the Media: Palestinian Lives Matter Too  www.thenation.com/article/world/us-media-treats-palestinian-lives-as-expendable 

Gaza Is a Nightmare Today, but We Will Not Stop Dreaming of Freedom  www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-israel-war-dispatch/ 

Neither Palestinians nor Israelis Will Be Safe Unless All Are Safe www.thenation.com/article/world/palestinians-and-israelis-will-not-be-safe-unless-all-are-safe/   

The Tangled Grief of Israel’s Anti-Occupation Activists www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-tangled-grief-of-israels-anti-occupation-activists

Blowback: How Israel Went From Helping Create Hamas to Bombing It https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/  

Before They Vowed to Annihilate Hamas, Israeli Officials Considered It an Asset https://theintercept.com/2023/10/14/hamas-israel-palestinian-authority/