Weapons for one side, Band-Aids for the other: How can the United States be trusted on human rights and peace-building when it is giving more money for bombs than for cease-fire solutions?
As I wrote on X (formerly Twitter), it should not be controversial to assert that Palestinian lives matter as much as Israeli lives. The equality and value of human lives should not be up for debate.
Many readers have written to me with thought-provoking remarks on the conflict. Here’s what some of you have said. (Comments have been edited for length and clarity.)
Karen, the Israelis are in an incredibly tough spot, and my heartfelt sympathies are with them. No one and no nation should EVER be subject to the barbaric, Middle Ages-level atrocities they have suffered, but your column nailed it. I’m not sure the U.S. can stop the military juggernaut preparing to obliterate Gaza, but slaughtering more innocents and upping the casualty-of-war death toll is definitely not the solution. Thanks for the thoughtful insight. — Tim, California
Thanks. Too bad the United States does not seem to know how to avoid military-juggernaut activities. Consider the resignation letter by Josh Paul, a State Department official who quit his job this week after seeing the direction the administration was going. He wrote:
“The response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people. … I fear we are repeating the same mistakes we have made these past decades, and I decline to be a part of it.”
If the same type of attack had occurred on American soil by our enemies, we would be justified in declaring war. It’s not as though we have not usurped the land and territory of multitudes of people and relegated them to the level of second-class citizens. When we recognize the racist, classist and illegal acts that we as a nation commit every day, then we can judge others for their response to violence against their internationally recognized hegemony. Until then, we need to keep our mouths shut and do our best to support nonviolence by BOTH parties and offer humanitarian aid to BOTH sides as much as is logistically and fiscally possible. — Stacey, Wailuku, Hawaii
Interesting. I was 15 when 9/11 happened. I considered myself a pretty aware kid at the time, but I did not grow up hearing that America had enemies. The opposite, actually: that we were world leaders, a democracy that people such as my parents wanted to come to. Then 9/11 happened. I was angry — and I remember the feeling of wanting to go after the people who had done this to us. Every facet of society seemed united and tribalistic at that moment. Everything from the sermons at church to the politicians’ grandstanding on TV told us how to react, and that was to go after the terrorists. So we went into Afghanistan. We surveilled domestic Muslims. We went into Iraq under false pretenses. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were killed, and we lost thousands of U.S. troops. Was our response understandable? Maybe. Was it justified and proportionate? With the gift of hindsight — no, it wasn’t.
But you bring up a good point. The United States does not have a lot of moral ground to stand on. Given that America has basically committed itself to being Israel’s security benefactor, we aren’t exactly supporting nonviolence, no matter how much aid we give.
My dad fled Iraq as a child and came to Israel in 1951, a newly formed state. He was one of many escaping Arab countries — around 1 million were forcibly removed in waves of ethnic cleansing. It was either Israel or concentration camps. He and my two uncles, one born in Israel, later served in the Israel Defense Forces. It’s particularly brutal to see comments online saying, “Hey, go back to where you came from, colonizers.” There are indeed Israelis from Arab countries, and especially for those of us from Iraq, that would mean execution. I am fully for humane treatment of Palestinian people and appalled by what I see — and my Israeli relatives also want to see Palestinian people kept safe. It seems like the people who don’t understand subtlety are on Twitter. When you ignore the past — and make statements like those in your article, like people in Israel aren’t Arabs — you erase a lot of Israel’s population. You erase history. If we forget how we got here, it’s harder to fix. — Cheryl, Fairfax Station, Va.
I think you are referring to the line where I wrote: “If Israel proceeds to make good on its threats to turn Gaza into flattened pavement, it’s all the more clear that ‘never again’ does not apply to Arab or Muslim lives.” My intention wasn’t to imply that Israelis cannot be Arabs, and as you wrote, a substantial number of Israelis are from Arab countries. I think it is important that we remember the diversity of this region and the origin stories of its inhabitants. That said, the angry discourse in response to the Oct. 7 attack has undeniably been anti-Arab and Islamophobic in nature, and utterly dehumanizing. There’s also a longer discussion to be had about colonization, and what colonialism does or doesn’t mean in the Middle East. Stay tuned.
Karen, I understand, and generally agree with the points you are making, especially as regards the killing of noncombatants in Gaza. Where we diverge in our thinking is in describing the admittedly horrific bombing of Gaza as being collective punishment. What is Israel to do if Hamas uses Gazans as shields? Hamas has never been a willing party to any peace negotiations. Barring evidence to the contrary, though it makes no difference to the terrified Gazans, I do not believe collective punishment is Israel’s goal. Certainly there are bloodthirsty Israelis who would dance in the streets if Gaza were completely demolished and its inhabitants scattered, but a majority of Israelis would gladly offer Palestinians land, water rights and freedom of movement in exchange for an end to the carnage on both sides. — Sam, Mayne Island, British Columbia
What makes me uncomfortable about the human-shields argument is that it means any Palestinian is a possible vector for violence, an unwitting Trojan horse for terrorism. You know the thing about shields and armor? Shields are allowed to be penetrated and broken, so long as the enemy is vanquished. Is this how we should be talking about people, human beings? Plus, considering that Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth, would the inverse mean that Israel sees these people as justifiable targets?
As for the majority of Israelis who see the humanity in Palestinians, I sure do hope they are able to make their voices and power heard. Many of us would be in solidarity with them.
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