Dear Neighbor,
Yesterday I joined a group including Massachusetts Peace Action, Veterans for Peace, If Not Now Boston, and Jewish Voice for Peace Boston to deliver a letter to Minority Whip Katherine Clark, asking her to support the Block the Bombs Act, which would prohibit the President from selling, or exporting certain defense articles like bunker busting bombs and 155m artillery ammunition (2 feet long, 100 pounds) without Congressional authorization and Israeli assurances that the weapons would not be used in violation of international human rights laws. Ayanna Pressley, who represents Somerville and part of Cambridge, is a co-sponsor of Block the Bombs.
Here's what I said (footnotes below):
Starving people is wrong. Shooting starving people who are trying to get food is wrong.
There is no justification for starving people. It's not self-defense.
I’m amazed and profoundly disturbed that we have to say that to the leadership of our own Democratic Party.
Anybody who doesn’t think those things are happening today in Gaza is not paying attention. (1)
Israel’s war against Hamas stopped being about self-defense a long time ago.
It is wrong for our country to continue supporting that war, both verbally and with dollars and bombs and guns.
We could stop it.
I was happy most Democratic senators supported Bernie Sanders’ motion to stop sending offensive weapons to Israel.(2) That includes both of our senators, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren. I was disappointed that Sen. Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, voted the other way.
I am asking my party and our leaders to take a stand against starving people to death — a very low bar. I'm asking my party to take a stand against bombing hospitals, schools, and tent cities.
I'm asking our representatives to stand with their constituents, 60% of whom disapprove of Israel's conduct of the war. I'm asking my party to stand with its members, only 8% of whom approve. (3)
Supporting this war is bad for the future survival of Israel, it’s bad for the future of the United States.
Our constituents don't support this. And it’s just wrong.
The group has been unable to make an appointment to meet with Congresswoman Clark, but we delivered a letter to her staff, who were very courteous.
Here are some of the sources that made me want to speak up.
(1) Anthony Aguilar, a career Army veteran and former Green Beret who resigned as a "contractor" for the Global Humanitarian Foundation aid organization that the United States and Israeli governments support, told about Amir, a 10-year-old boy, who kissed his hand to thank him for food and soon after was shot. Here's his shocking MSNBC interview with a lot more on the Global Humanitarian Foundation's distribution centers, which have been called death traps where more than 1000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid. And here's his short video including an American contractor saying "woo hoo" after shooting an aid-seeker.
Meanwhile, the US is the only UN member withholding funds for UNRWA, which previously provided aid, which Aguilar says was effective. Previously, we were second only to Japan iin support for UNRWA.
(2) On July 30, for the first time, a majority of Democratic senators voted for Sen. Bernie Sanders' resolution to block the sale of assault rifles to Israel. This link includes those who also voted to block $675 million in sales of heavy duty bombs. And this report includes those who changed their votes since April.
(3) This July 29 Gallup poll showed support for the war in Gaza at its lowest point yet.
Today's Globe pubished this op ed by Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, headlined: "A massacre in slow motion: Israel is responsible for mass starvation in Gaza."
Here's a conversation of John Stewart and Peter Beinart on "Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza."
Killing civilians by anyone - which certainly includes Hamas' horrific attack on October 7 - is a war crime.
As always, I'm glad to hear your thoughts, including ways that we can act to stop what many people (including Israeli Human Rights Groups, this Holocaust survivor, and the head of J Street) see as genocide.
Pat Jehlen