The writer adds: "I'd like it to be known that in submitting this letter for publication consideration, I appended 12 references to it."
I want to make it clear at the outset that war and violence of any sort horrify me. For the U.S., I believe war is merely everyday business. We have a voracious and rapacious military-industrial complex (MIC) that requires constant care and feeding.
I don't think our government in Washington cares where death and destruction take place, as long as MIC lobbyists are ever-present on Capitol Hill, kicking back much of the money that pours into their coffers from Washington.
And, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin have said point blank, weapons manufacturing and sales equal jobs for American workers.
So, now to Gaza and Israel: By all accounts, Gaza, for decades, has been the equivalent of an open-air concentration camp. Israel, we now know, had very ample warning of what was being planned by Hamas, and yet, when it finally happened, Israeli security forces did not respond for hours, and when they did, they fired indiscriminately, killing both Hamas militants and Israelis.
As quoted in The Intercept, Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious affairs official who worked in Gaza for more than two decades asserted in a Wall Street Journal interview that "Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation." A creation that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has supported, because it furthered his own political agenda to do so.
What is going on in Gaza right now can only be described as genocide. It is an entirely disproportionate response to the events of Oct. 7, no matter how you look at it. It is utterly sad that to be anti-genocide right now is to be labeled antisemitic.
Our president and most of our Congress and Senate and presidential candidates support this genocide. Made-in-America weapons and bullets and bombs, as well as our tax dollars (making most Americans complicit), are being used to devastate the civilian population and infrastructure of Gaza.
No matter how many weak and half-mumbled admonishments Antony Blinken makes towards Israel with regards to the country's military response, our support is a gigantic green light for Israel to do whatever it pleases.
Additionally, it's my understanding that our current support for Israel violates U.S. law - the so-called Leahy laws. And it's the Constitutional duty of the President to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed."
So, to watch our Congress, which is actively supporting genocide, call to account university presidents for allowing free speech on their campuses, no matter how ugly it may be, was beyond the pale. Our government should stop supporting this genocide - which is being committed by the Jewish state of Israel. A genocide that we are all bearing witness to, every time we turn on the news.
In 2002, when she interviewed former Israeli Knesset member Shulamit Aloni. reporter Amy Goodman asked: "Often when there is dissent expressed in the United States against policies of the Israeli government, people here are called antisemitic. What is your response to that as an Israeli Jew?"
The Israeli politician replied candidly: "Well, it's a trick, we always use it."
Jacqueline Brook
Putney
The writer adds: "I'd like it to be known that in submitting this letter for publication consideration, I appended 12 references to it."
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.