Dispatch #130 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers Bearing Witness to US-Sponsored Brutal Terrorism and Relentless Genocide on Palestinians in Gaza & West Bank

February 11th 2024   1117 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

268 Days Until 2024 Presidential Elections 11/5/2024

597 Days Since SCOTUS Ruled American Women Don’t Have Human Rights

128 Days Since Israel Began Genocidal Assault on Palestinians in Gaza

Across Gaza, Israeli snipers and rockets shoot and blast -- aka murder -- anything that moves – a 14-year-old girl getting water, a 40-year-old mother just out side a hospital getting water for her injured son, a Red Cresent ambulance with two medics going to rescue a 6-year-old girl having gotten permission from the IDF for the rescue, a nurse working inside a besieged hospital, families camping outside besieged hospitals, medics with wounded Palestinians trying to get to a hospital. 

World Health Organization reports that more than 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza are dead, wounded, or missing and presumed dead. Israeli attacks continue to kill and wound more than 300 Palestinians every 24 hours. A 20-day-old infant recently froze to death in a tent. Deaths due to starvation, disease, deprivation, and untreated illness are not being counted. 

Growing international alarm over Israeli plans to invade Rafah.

Israel has announced its intention to push ahead with its plans to invade Rafah in the southernmost Gaza Strip, where 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering. Rafah's mayor, Ahmed al-Sufi, warns any military action there would result in a “massacre”.  https://mondoweiss.net/2024/02/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-127-growing-international-alarm-over-israeli-plans-to-invade-rafah/ 

UNICEF Warns Israeli Escalation in Rafah Attack Will Cause Hunger and Disease to Skyrocket. Over half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have taken refuge in Rafah after Israel claimed it was a “safe” zone. There are more than 600,000 children in the area. Gaza is already experiencing the worst levels of child malnutrition in the world.  www.democracynow.org/2024/2/9/headlines/unicef_warns_israeli_escalation_in_rafah_attack_will_cause_hunger_and_disease_to_skyrocket  www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-displaced-palestinians-rafah-nowhere-to-go-israel-invasion 

A Palestinian Aid Worker Describes A Harrowing 18-Day Siege Inside a Gaza Hospital.

Israeli forces have surrounded Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis for more than two weeks, deepening an already dire humanitarian crisis.  Last month, the World Health Organization reported that more than 600 people had been killed inside health care facilities since Israel launched a retaliatory war.  https://theintercept.com/2024/02/08/gaza-hospital-seige-red-crescent/ 

War on Gaza: Unrwa and the West's sickening hypocrisy.

That the West did nothing after the ICJ ruling on Israeli genocide and yet defunded aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza after unproved Israeli accusations tells you everything you need to know. www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-unrwa-west-sickening-hypocrisy 

The New York Times continues to show undeniable bias toward Israel with this above-the-fold Sunday February 11^th headline: Hamas Presence in UN Gaza Unit is Longtime Issue. Yeah, from Netanyahu’s mouth to NYT’s ears.  For a more accurate assessment go to Ex-UNRWA Official: Funding Cuts Make Donor Countries Complicit in Starvation of Gaza. 

Chris Gunness, former chief spokesperson for UNRWA, notes Israel’s dodgy dossier. He slams donors who have pulled their funding as “doing Israel’s political bidding” in its “scheme to dismantle UNRWA” and further dispossess Palestinians in Gaza. www.democracynow.org/2024/2/8/unrwa_gaza_chris_gunness 

Palestinians abused, forced to chant anti-Hamas slogans in ‘safe corridor.’

Tens of thousands of people — including one of this article’s authors — have fled the city of Khan Younis in recent days. Their testimonies reveal the harrowing ordeal of crossing Israel’s checkpoints in Gaza. Many had their belongings confiscated; men were separated from their families, stripped, and subjected to hours of physical abuse and deprivation; families subjected to vicious verbal abuse and demands to chant anti-Hamas and pro-Israel slogans.   https://www.972mag.com/khan-younis-safe-corridor-abuse/ 

IDF soldiers clearly have the mandate to terrorize, torture, and kill Palestinians at will.  Despite these reprehensible Israeli policies, the US continues to give unconditional support and protection, and is promoting another bill in Congress to send Israel $14B.

Former Israeli Negotiator Daniel Levy: Only U.S. Pressure on Israel Can End Gaza Assault, Lead to Truce.

A successful ceasefire and wider regional stability depend on U.S. actions “to create circumstances in which Israel has hard choices to make,” says Levy. “America is apparently willing to risk being further entangled yet again in Middle East wars because it is unwilling to stare down an Israeli leader … What we do not have is an American secretary of state empowered to use leverage, to put on the table a disincentive, a cost structure for Israel to continue this, and therefore, I think we’re stuck. www.democracynow.org/2024/2/7/israel_hamas_negotiations_daniel_levy 

The US chooses instead to carry out daily bombing campaigns in Yemen, targeting the Houthis who are protesting the genocide in Gaza by blocking Israeli-related commerce in the Red Sea. In response to the deaths of 3 American soldiers in a drone attack on a secret US base in Jordan/Syria, the Administration launched 85 bombings across the region with promises of more to come. 

Biden’s Middle East Policy “Leading Us into a War Whose Aims We Have Not Defined” In his appearance on Democracy Now, Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, warns that “continued warfare in Gaza by the Israelis is a direct threat to U.S. national interests.” Parsi points out that the US has about 30 bases with more than 50K troops in the Middle East; local militias target these bases regularly, e.g., 60 attacks by militias against US troops occurred between Jan 2021 and March 2023. However, since the Gaza war 160 attacks occurred, except during the 6-day ceasefire.  Parsi notes that the soldiers “didn’t die defending US interests, they died defending Biden’s refusal to press Israel for a ceasefire. It is unquestionable that the attacks by these militias are linked to Biden’s blocking of a ceasefire.  Their lives were put at risk by Biden’s decision to defend Israel’s ability to continue its carnage in Gaza.” www.democracynow.org/2024/1/31/trita_parsi_gaza_middle_east_conflict 

For the time being, Biden supports genocide and escalation over diplomacy and ceasefire – at this moment clearly against his own interests vis-à-vis running for President – and against the country’s interests vis-à-vis Trump running again.

BTW, if you were surprised to learn that US has 30 bases with 50K soldiers in the Middle East (many with questionable authorization), then stay tuned for the next Dispatch.