Is the US about to blindly march into yet another catastrophic war?
I wrote this for The Guardian, arguing that a ceasefire from all sides, along with the immediate and safe return of all the hostages, is what’s necessary now – this is hardly a difficult concept to grasp.
On the morning of 19 October, I received an email circulated by the director of veteran’s affairs at the City University of New York, where I teach. “Due to recent dire events overseas,” the email read, “there is a possibility that the Department of Defense might activate varied servicemembers by or before November 1, 2023.”
Is the United States about to blindly march us into yet another catastrophic war? This type of information didn’t come only from my university, either. NBC News has also reported that about 2,000 US troops have been ordered to prepare to deploy to support Israel. While some get ready for war, shouldn’t the rest of us be pushing for alternatives to violence, especially before we find ourselves in a global conflagration beyond anyone’s control?
This would be the sane choice, but western politicians, governing through cliches, appear resolved to allow Israel to continue pounding Gaza. In the emergency Cairo summit of world leaders assembled to address the violence in Gaza and Israel, the best the British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, could come up with was to call for “discipline and professionalism and restraint from the Israeli military”. Cold comfort, indeed. Meanwhile, the US’s commitment to empty platitudes has been even worse. “American leadership is what holds the world together,” Joe Biden said from the Oval Office on 19 October, as the world falls apart in front of our eyes.
The violence in Gaza continues at a ferocious pace. As of Saturday, 4,385 Palestinians had been killed since Israel began bombing the territory, according to the Palestinian ministry of health, and 13,651 had been injured. The dead include 1,756 children and 967 women. More than a million Palestinians have been displaced in the last 10 days, according to the United Nations, which also voiced concern not only for the welfare of the injured but also for the estimated 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza. With numerous health facilities bombed beyond use throughout the territory, where are these women supposed to turn?
Aside from cutting off supplies of food, water, electricity and medicine to the entire population, Israel has also targeted schools, universities, churches, mosques, hospitals (in addition to the disputed al-Ahli hospital bombing), refugee camps, the Rafah crossing, and even bakeries. Bakeries. Does Israel really think bombing bakeries contributes to its self-defense? I suppose there must now be such a thing as Hamas flour that must be eradicated?
The madness of these actions is matched only by the mad belief that a relentless and merciless bombing of innocent people somehow punishes Hamas and brings Israel peace. In fact, it’s precisely the opposite, but such Alice in Wonderland thinking is repeatedly expressed by Israeli leaders, spokespeople and supporters. And what this position fails to acknowledge is that Palestinians being denied a homeland and a nation of their own has always been at the heart of the issue. The only durable solution to today’s violence is found not in the payload of a US-manufactured bomb, but by squarely addressing this dispossession and by treating the Palestinian people as equals. Eventually, that will require negotiations grounded in justice and ultimately reconciliation. Neither Hamas nor the Israeli government are capable of delivering this…
Read the rest here.