Events on the ground, as they say, have turned my attention again towards the war in Gaza. Today, bombing of Rafah began, along with the closure of the last route whereupon aid flows into the strip. Hamas has offered a plan to cease hostilities and exchange prisoners, but Israel is uninterested, determined to press forward into wrecking the rest of Gaza. Gazan civilians in the south are fleeing again to a “humanitarian zone”, where conditions are already sub-human.
You don’t need me to tell you any of this. Every news agency and rights group on the planet is watching this massive war crime. What I want you all to know is that Democrats don’t give a shit.
In my county Democratic party, I, along with a Palestinian American, worked on drafting a letter to the president regarding how we should proceed considering Israel’s extreme response to Hamas’ horrific attack and what steps could be taken to make sure this conflict never happens again. We stressed the need for a Palestinian homeland as the surest way to achieve this. We decried the Trump administration’s actions in allowing further annexation of territory, the tolerance of illegal settlements, the movement of the Israeli capital to Jerusalem, and the cutoff of aid to Palestine, and called for a rollback of some of these policies. We stressed the dire situation of Gazan civilians with facts about who is really dying in this war, and how Israel is making the strip unlivable. We reminded the president that Israel is suppressing aid purposefully and asked him to demand that all corridors to food, medicine and water be opened and that a ceasefire is of paramount importance to stop the loss of innocent lives. And we wanted an end to continuing military aid until a ceasefire occurs.
In sum, I felt it a good idea to warn the president that internal dissatisfaction with his involvement in the conflict was the best way to get him to change his mind on “ironclad” support of Israel. In my mind, there’s really only two ways this can go right now: annihilation of the Palestinian people, or acceptance of their wish for a state. Israel is already on record as standing against two states in Palestine. That leaves the other option, unfolding in real time.
However, when I presented my edit of the letter to my executive committee, it was met with disapproval by most of them. Some objected but did not provide reasons. I was the only person who wrote anything at all, so I can only conclude that no one else was terribly interested in the subject. When we submitted the draft letter to the membership in attendance at last night’s meeting, we told them that there would be an open discussion about its contents.
Everyone but four people left. One of our committee members, while believing PM Netanyahu is a war criminal for what he is doing, chose to whatabout the letter and brought up things he saw on TV in his seventy years like the Black September killings so it was unclear to me if he’s good with what Israel is doing or not, or whether Palestine deserves to be leveled for past crimes committed by terrorists.
In other Georgia counties, when I brought up the issue, I was told by one that they were “avoiding the issue” and that “we don’t know the truth”. As if you can’t fucking find it in the biggest magazine on the planet right here on the internet. I was told by another to do my research as to why we are friends with Israel and that the “media was dictating the narrative”, which is Republican bullshit garble-speak if I ever heard it.
Basically, Democrats I know are making myriad excuses for not saying anything at all, or they are simply tuned out, conjecturing feverishly instead about Herr Trump ending democracy than being angry about people being bombed to oblivion with Made In The USA stamped on the ordnance. The Biden administration is apparently right in line with the majority of its constituents in doing little to nothing to prevent a preventable disaster. It’s a betrayal of our values as believers in peace and justice. And we as a party are presently good with trampling on those ideals. So, to all of you chickenshit liberals who run from your commitments to them when the pressure is on and reality is grim, now is the time to resurrect Phil Ochs to shame your sorry asses.
The Illogical Seminary 