Dispatch #139 White Lesbian Age 71 Considers Biden Continues US Support for Ongoing Israeli Bombing That Cumulatively Exceeded Explosive Force of 3 Atomic Bombs At 100 Days of Genocide

April 12th 2024     1178 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

217 Days Until 2024 Presidential Elections 11/5/2024

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

189 Days Since Israel Began Genocidal Assault on Palestinians in Gaza

By mid-January, Israel had dropped 45,000 bombs, i.e., 65,000 tons of largely American ordnance, on Gaza.  The explosive force of these bombs exceeds the explosive force of three times the US nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. Gaza is the size of Delaware.  

www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/israel-hit-gaza-with-3-times-more-firepower-than-hiroshima-nuke; www.timesnownews.com/world/100-days-65000-tonnes-of-bombs-and-24000-dead-the-numbers-behind-israel-hamas-war-in-gaza-explained-article-106853899  International experts agree that firepower of Israel’s bombing campaign against Gaza is substantially more severe the bombing inflicted on Dresden in WWII. www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-destruction-bombing-israel-aa528542 

A Sea of Misery”: Gaza Is Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Seen, Says NGO Head/Ex CNN Journalist Arwa Damon. Arwa Damon, founder of INARA, the International Network for Aid Relief and Assistance, a nonprofit providing medical and mental healthcare to children, just returned from a 2-week humanitarian trip to Gaza. While she spent 18 years as international correspondent and reported from many war zones, she says it is “extraordinarily difficult to find words” to describe what she witnessed in Gaza. 

She describes two encounters with Palestinian families: 1) 5 year old boy with both hands amputated asks father will his hand grow back as he grows up and 2) mother asks how to help her 7 year old son who cries so violently all night that he convulses – this behavior began when he witnesses his sister’s head being blown off when their home was bombed.  

But you really feel as if you are walking through a population that is — they’re ghosts. And they describe themselves as ghosts. They’re ghosts of their past. They’re the ghosts of who they used to be. And they’re constantly haunted by the ghosts of everything that they have lost. And the trauma doesn’t end. It comes at them from multiple different directions every single day. The mental health impact of this is unlike anything that I personally have ever seen 20 years working in war zones, just the immediacy of the need, the speed with which this all happened. And even people in Gaza, when you talk to them right now, you know, despite having lived through this for six, seven months, they still tell you that they feel as if this can’t be real. Right? Like, this can’t have happened.  www.democracynow.org/2024/4/9/arwa_damon_gaza 

“We’re Responsible for This”: American Surgeons Return from Gaza, Call for End of U.S. Culpability in Genocide.  Two American doctors, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa and Dr. Mark Perlmutter, just returned after two weeks working as orthopedic surgeons at the European Hospital in Gaza, report about their experiences. Together, these doctors participated in 40 surgical missions across 3 continents in total 57 years of volunteering. Excerpts include:

The second thing that really struck me was the degree of violence that was being utilized. The magnitude of injury that’s caused by the bombs that — the U.S. bombs that Israel is using is really dramatic. These weapons are — the blast effect is incredible. They throw the environment itself through these patients. 

There are distinct signs of genocide. First of all, the bombs are cluster bombs. We’ve taken small pieces of shrapnel, dozens of pieces of shrapnel, out of toddlers, infants and teenagers. The country is 50% children, if not more. Overwhelmingly, our victims were children. I would say 70-75% of the people that we operated on were elementary school age or younger. The injuries were devastating. 

Secondly, the bombing was concentrated at the time of evening prayers. It happened all day long, but it was distinctly, purposefully concentrated when the Muslims were gathered together in tight units, shoulder to shoulder, knee to knee, praying to God, while they’re being bombed. And the cluster bombs are infinitely more effective when the intended target is concentrated into a smaller location…. 

I’ve seen more orthopedic injuries in my two weeks there than I have seen in my entire 30-plus years of practicing and the additional 10 years of training before that. If I operated 12 hours a day, seven days a week, it would take me 20 years for me to make a notable dent, a minuscule dent, in the amount of orthopedic-alone pathology that’s there. The extent of damage, of carnage is that widespread. www.democracynow.org/2024/4/11/surgeons_in_gaza 

As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. We urge anyone who reads this to publicly oppose sending weapons to Israel as long as this onslaught continues. By Drs. Sidhwa and Perlmutter April 11th 2024 Common Dreams

As we got to work we were shocked by the violence inflicted on people. Incredibly powerful explosives ripped apart rock, floors, and walls and threw them through human bodies, penetrating skin with waves of dirt and debris. With the environment literally embedded in our patients’ bodies we have found infection control to be impossible. No amount of medical care could ever compensate for the damage being inflicted here.

The United States has heavily funded and overwhelmingly armed what is called “the occupation” of Palestine, but the term is misleading. Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann, declared that the existence of the Palestinians was simply “a matter of no consequence.” Thirty years later, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan told the Israeli cabinet that the Palestinians “would continue to live like dogs…and we will see where this process leads.”  

Now we know: This is where it leads. It leads to Gaza European Hospital, and to two surgeons realizing that the blood on the floor of the trauma bay and the operating room is dripping from our own hands. We Americans provide the crucial funding, weapons, and diplomatic support for a genocidal assault on a helpless population.

www.commondreams.org/opinion/surgeons-cruelty-israel-gaza 

For Israel, the Cruelty Is the Point.  Israel’s goal is to ensure that Gaza will be an unlivable place once they end their merciless military campaign. www.thenation.com/article/world/gaza-unlivable-tunnels-israel/ 

The purpose of such barbaric and savage cruelty is to warn and frighten people about the cost of resistance, that there will be no restraint on the horrors awaiting them if they dare to participate in resisting occupation, colonialization, and apartheid. Such has always been the practice of ruthless empires – accept your fate as subservient subjects, bury your dreams of liberation and freedom, or die terrorized by a thousand cuts.