On vacation this past summer in the Ozarks, I visited a Native American museum. The Native Americans were here first in the U.S., before any “whites.” Thus, their name.
During this visit, I saw an Iroguois saying on a painting. I was impressed so much that I took a picture of it. It read:
In every deliberation and decision, we must consider the impact on the next seven generations that follow us.
I believe that! That is why I write these blogs. I want my children, grandchildren, and the next seven genrations to know about these important topics.
The Problem
The United States supports Israel and sells bombs and other weapons to them. Since 2008, the U.S. has had to evaluate all arms sales to Israel and other countries in the region against the requirement that Israel maintains a “qualitative military edge” against all enemies, both state and non-state actors.
Now the specifics: U.S. has supplied weapons to Israel that have been used by Israel in serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and in a manner that is inconsistent with U.S. law and policy. Do you care? You should!
History of Israel and Palestine
By more than 1,000 years, the nation of Israel predates Palestine. Then the land became home primarily to an Arab population, again for more than a millennium. Both Jews and Arabs have a legitimate claim to the land. One land, two names. Those on each side claim the land as theirs, under their chosen name. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen a myriad of wrongs and brutalities on both sides.
Therefore, the long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is rooted in competing claims to the Holy Land, and includes disputes over borders, Jerusalem, security, Israeli settlers, and Palestinian refugees.
History Between the U.S. and Israel
In 1945, the United States mililitary helped to liberate the Jews in WW II who were held in Nazi “extermination camps.” With tears in their eyes, my Jewish friends tell me of their fathers and grandfathers who helped liberate the Jews.
The U.S. was also the first country to recognize the provisional government of the state of Israel upon its founding in 1948, and it has for many decades been a strong and steady supporter of the Jewish state.
Israel has received hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid in the post–World War II era, a level of support that reflects many factors, including a U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and the countries’ shared foreign policy interests in a volatile and strategically important part of the world. Even, Jesus Christ was a Jew!
The U.S. Should Not Blindly Support Any Nation That Kills Innocents
However, the U.S. should not blindly support a nation that kills innocent civilians! From the Palestinian view, which must be considered, for the better part of the 20th century, Israel established and expanded its state on the foundation of occupation and settler colonialism, while Palestinians attempted to resist within their limited resources and space. Put simply, many Israelis acted as if the Palestinians were not even there.
Some progress was made towards peace in the 1990s, with the mutual signing of the Oslo Accord which provided Palestinians with partial autonomy and promised a withdrawal of forces from occupied territories. It appeared that perhaps the Palestinian people would finally achieve some semblance of freedom.
However, Israel continued to violate the sovereignty and rights of Palestinians. They began construction of a wall in the occupied West Bank that was deemed illegal by the International Criminal Court of Justice in 2004. Israel did not care what the International Criminal Court said. The wall was built and still stands today.
In 2005, the Gaza withdrawal of settlers and soldiers by Israel was also conducted in bad faith as Israel continued to control Palestinian sovereignty and blockaded the Gaza Strip from air, land, and sea.
The inhumane conditions of this 2005 blockade have been categorized as an apartheid against Palestinians by investigations conducted by neutral, advocacy organizations such as Amnesty International.
After 19 years of being blockaded, the global community seemed unfazed by the unlivable conditions in the Gaza strip or the fact that an entire generation has grown up isolated from the world – save for its contact with advanced weapons technologies raining down on them from Israel.
The Attack of October 7, 2023
On October 7, 2023, Palestinians from Gaza, members of HAMAS, carried out attacks in Israel that killed at least 1,200 Israelis, injured thousands more, and took an estimated 240 hostages. Any loss of life or injuries to innocents is wrong.
HAMAS has been the de facto governing body in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it ousted the Palestinian Authority from power. In 2017, HAMAS amended its charter to remove a call for Israel’s destruction.
Israel immediately retaliated for the October 7, 2023 attack by lauching attacks on Gaza. As of August 2024, more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza were killed, including many women and children.
Israel also placed Gaza under tight closure—blocking access to food, water, fuel, electricity, medical supplies, and other goods, thus creating a man-made humanitarian crisis. Gaza is now facing a genocide and unprecedented humanitarian crisis that grows worse by the day. Hundreds of thousand Palestians have been displaced from their homes and are facing starvation. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/un-experts-declare-famine-has-spread-throughout-gaza-strip.
The Widening War
In September and October of 2024, Israel extended the war to a regional war by bombing Lebanon saying that it was targeting Hezbollah.
On the evening of October 7, Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip targeted a mosque and a school turned shelter, the Israel military said. Israel pressed on with bombing campaigns in northern Gaza and southern Lebanon in a widening war with Iranian-backed proxies.
The Israel military said it had struck the buildings in the central Gaza city of Deir al Balah early on Sunday, describing the two locations as Hamas “command and control centers” nestled among civilians, without providing evidence of its claims.
The Gaza health ministry, a Palenstian group, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, said 26 Palestinians had been killed and dozens more were wounded.
On October 1, 2024, Iran retaliated against Israel by launching almost 200 ballistic missiles towards Israel, The Israeli military said most of the missiles were intercepted, but that a small number struck central and southern Israel. The only person reported to have been killed was a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.
It was Iran’s second such attack on Israel this year, after it launched about 300 missiles and drones in April.
Israel vowed revenge and retaliation against Iran. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir urged Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to launch a military campaign against Iran, similar to what it did in Lebanon. “What we did to Lebanon must also be done to Iran… no political arrangements, no diplomacy – crush, crush, crush,” he said.
The U.S. Has Supported Israel
Israel’s repeatedly genocidal attitude towards Palestinians over the past century has not occurred in a vacuum but with the proud support of the United States’ fiscal and military power. In fact, the U.S. has given more aid to Israel than any other country since World War II, a staggering $260 billion.
Previous presidents like Republican Donald Trump have publicly stumped for Israel by legitimizing their illegal occupations in the West Bank, essentially giving their state a green light for continuing the illegal occupation of Palestinians.
Even current president Democrat Joe Biden continued Trump’s legacy of recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite the UN voting against it. Thus, both political parties find common ground in their support of Israel’s occupation against Palestintians.
The Biden Administration
Amnesty International is a respected, non-profit organization. Their mission is to “undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.”
Amanda Klasing, National Director for Government Relations with Amnesty International USA says that, “It’s shocking that the Biden administration continues to hold that the government of Israel is not violating international humanitarian law with U.S.-provided weapons when our research shows otherwise and international law experts disagree with Biden.”
In a new research briefing submitted to the U.S. government in late April 2024, Amnesty International USA details civilian deaths and injuries with U.S. made weapons, as well as other cases that highlight an overall pattern of unlawful attacks by Israeli forces. The document also details practices by Israeli forces inconsistent with best practices for preventing civilian harm and provides clear examples of the misuse of defense articles, the commission of torture, and the use of unlawful lethal force. Lastly, the briefing also details the denial of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza.
I believe President Biden’s response to Israel is very confusing. Our munitions sold to Israel are being used to kill the very people we are trying to help. Make sense to you?
Biden has said publicly that Israel has the right to defend its citizens while protecting innocent civilians in Gaza who are victims of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Is Israel doing that?
He has said that Israel has to do everything in its power, as difficult as it is, to protect innocent civilians and that the region must prepare for the end of the Israeli-Hamas conflict. Or is Israel expanding the war? I do not see any inclination for a cease fire.
Rather than the President Biden demanding that Israel allow aid trucks to reach starving Palestinians, we air-dropped food and killed people as the packages crushed them from the sky. The U.S. attempted to create a by-sea route for humanitarian supplies — building a floating aid pier. However, it was a $230 million failure that was shut down after being in operation only 25 days.
The International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court (ICC) investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
Recently the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Isralei Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Defense Minister, Youv Gallant, and the Leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar. The U.S. needs to pay more attention to the ICC!
My Mind Was Changed About Israel
I formerly followed the U.S. (and Christian) line about Israel. I blindly supported them. Now, I read everything, including newspapers and magazines from the Middle East. You only hear the “company line” from most U.S. news outlets. You have to dig for the truth! I dig.
Several Palestinian fathers told American newscasters that their families cannot face another wave of displacement, as Israeli forces launched renewed aerial and ground attacks in northern Gaza very recently.
Video footage from Nothern Palenstine showed boys riding bicycles and vendors manning thinly stocked market stalls. Echoes of young children filled the area, as women walked wearily along the dusty pathway.
The Israeli military told people to evacuate Gaza’s north to the Israeli-designated “humanitarian area” of Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis. However, residents say they are wary of attempting to flee the besieged neighborhood in search of refuge, citing numerous Israeli attacks targeting Hamas militants in Israeli-designated “safe zones.”
“I don’t know where to go,” one man with grey stubble told an American news reporter on a video. “What did we do? We have children, we have women, we have the elderly. Where should we all go? What should we do? Should we kill ourselves?
“I will die here and not go to the south,” he said, adding that he was trying to protect 20 other relatives from Israel’s bombardment. “We are resisting and will not leave the north, even if I die here.”
What Changed My Mind
What really changed by mind was a Palestinian graduate student at UToledo who is now an attorney and the tragic deaths of three, innocent young women who were the nieces of a teammate of mine on the 1795 Group. These innocent young women were recently killed by Israeli bombs (perhaps from the U.S.) in southern Lebanon.
I have another friend in Beirut whose innocent cousin died.
My teammate’s nuclear family here in the U.S. and her husband’s family and her family in Beirut, Lebanon are now grieving these innocent deaths. At least three young children will now grow up without a mom. Fair? Did you hear about these deaths?
Solutions
The appropriate solution to the man-made humanitarian crisis in Gaza is clear: A lasting cease-fire and unconditional access into and out of Gaza for aid and aid workers. Then Israel should help rebuild everything that its mililtary destroyed: apartment buildings, homes. schools, and hospitals. Don’t hold your breath!
However, President Biden is a lame duck President with the genral election coming up in a matter of weeks. Israel is not going to listen to him.
In my opinion, the Biden administration has refused to apply the necessary pressure, such as ending arms transfers or sanctioning ultra-nationalist Israeli Cabinet members over settler violence in the West Bank. Now it is too late.
The U.S. needs to immediately suspend the transfer of arms to the government of Israel.
The next President has a choice. Continue to blindly support Israel or apply the pressure necessary for change. However, this will not happen without you and me calling, writing letters, and sending emails to our Senators and Congressmen and Congresswomen. Are you willing?
Our next President must end U.S. complicity with the government of Israel’s grave violations of international law and immediately suspend the transfer of weapons to the government of Israel. If not, then we are hypocrites.
The 1795 Group Can Help
The 1795 Group is trying to leave this little blue planet a better place for all who live on it. We have a moral obligation to those that follow in our footsteps to inform them, warn them, and to educate them. The 1795 Group believes in being part of solutions. Let’s work together at the grass roots level to help solve this problem!
Perhaps you would like a guest speaker or a presentation on this topic. Perhaps you would like to have your students, learners, or employees enjoy an in-person or virtual professional development workshop in this topical area. Perhaps you need a course to be written for your learners. Whatever your need, the 1795 Group can help. Call us and let’s brainstorm ways to work together.
Resources:
- Podcast, Episode 22: “The Palestinian Issue. Should I Care? An Interview with Maha Zeidan.” https://1795group.com/episode/episode-22-the-palestinian-issue-should-i-care-an-interview-with-maha-zeidan/
- ProPublica Article: (September 2024). Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Anthony Blinken Rejected Them. https://www.propublica.org/article/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken
Contact me today:
Phone: (440) 296-9709 (text first)
Email: tjordan@1795group.com
Website: www.1795group.com
Blogs: https://1795group.com/blog/
Podcasts: https://1795group.com/podcast/
