BRATTLEBORO — I have not so far heard any of our congressional delegation - Senators Leahy and Sanders, and Rep. Welch - publicly condemn Israel for its war crimes in the ongoing assault on the Palestinian Arabs living both in the West Bank and Gaza.
As they must know, Israelis have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, 90 percent of whom were civilians (including hundreds of children), while experiencing fewer than 60 casualties themselves. These hostilities were commenced on the pretext of the murder crimes against three Israeli settlers, for which no trial had been held when the shooting began.
Israelis continue to attack schools, shelters, hospitals, ambulances, and first responders trying to do their work.
The actual risk of harm is so slight for an Israeli living near Gaza that some have taken couches out on the neighboring hillsides and are lounging there as spectators, viewing the atrocities as entertainment. I have never seen such depravity reported from anywhere in the world before.
These events are very bad for the entire world, and it is more harmful still for us in the United States to tolerate this depraved behavior from our client state. (Or are we the client?)
If the world becomes inured to such events, with no outraged response from our leaders, then it is only that much more likely for such events to be repeated, in Israel or elsewhere.
The world needs to hold Israel accountable for these crimes, and Israel needs to be held accountable, lest such depravity go unchallenged and become integral to their (and our) culture.
For this to happen, our lawmakers need to do the holding.
Please, let them speak out today.