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As
of this writing, more than 200 Palestinians and 10 Israelis have been
killed in the conflict in Gaza. A few days before the conflict
began, the Biden Administration approved a $735 million weapons sale
to Israel. Israel’s scandal-plagued Prime Minister, with this
power waning, is likely to say that Israel needs weapons to defend
themselves against Hamas. But the imbalance in the casualties and
the number of Palestinian civilians who have been killed, suggests
that Israel is more likely to have been the aggressor than the
victim.
Israeli
people will say that Hamas started the conflict, but the conflict has
its roots in the establishment of Israel in 1948, and the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian lands. There will be no peace in the
Middle East until the land question is settled, with Palestinians
getting justice and respect. But Israel has a lock on US foreign
policy, and too many Jewish people say that criticism of Israel makes
you anti-Semitic. There is no anti-Semitism in wanting justice for
Palestinian people, but some, fearful of being called anti-Semitic,
are silent in the face of injustice.
Of
course, there should be a cease-fire, and of course, the United
Nations, President Biden, and our State Department should call for a
cease-fire. That's just a short-term solution, though. There has
been conflict in the Middle East since Israel was established, and
there will likely be conflict until Palestinians feel they have
justice. There seems no interest in justice for Palestinians, no
interest, even in peaceful co-existence. The discrimination against
Palestinian people in Israel is extreme, and even though Israeli
Arabs are a significant portion of Israel’s medical workers,
saving Israeli lives, they still face discrimination. According to
the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, “Israeli
Arab medical workers who were essential for enabling Israel’s
Jewish citizens to survive the coronavirus. According to official
figures … 17 percent of Israel’s physicians, 24 percent
of its nurses and 47 percent of its pharmacists are Arabs.” But
they can’t get justice.
The
previous President didn't help matters at all, sending his rookie
son-in-law to "negotiate" peace and unilaterally deciding
the disposition of Jerusalem. The two-state solution, which many
embrace, has also been rejected. The previous and his administration
were so blatantly pro-Israel that they were adding fuel to any fire
that was burning in the Middle East.
The
arms sale to Israel is the least of the matter. Israel gets more
foreign aid than almost any other country in the world. What could
be done with that money to address domestic ills? And are human
rights violations in the Middle East egregious enough that President
Biden might be tempted to get us involved in some kind of military
action? Will we be trading our presence in Afghanistan for that in
the Middle East? And what do voters think about this?
The
good news is that while the political establishment, including
President Biden, has tended to embrace Israel, younger Democrats are
questioning the ways that our country is so indifferent to
Palestinian rights. On May 13, for example, Massachusetts
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a member of “The Squad”,
“We can’t stand idly by when the United States government
sends $3.8 billion of military aid to Israel that is used to demolish
Palestinian homes, imprison Palestinian children and displace
Palestinian families.” Too bad more members of Congress don’t
share her views. Instead, while Congress can object to the proposed
weapons sale, they won’t. They'd rather sit idly by and
implicitly approve the killing of Palestinian people and Israel’s
gradual annexation of Palestinian lands.
The
United States was founded by the annexation of Native American lands
and built with the exploitation of enslaved people's labor. No
wonder we have not objected forcefully to what is happening in the
Middle East. In some ways, Israel has simply taken a page from the
US playbook in exploiting Palestinians. No wonder so many are silent
in the face of these most recent indignities. There will be no peace
in the Middle East until there is justice for Palestinians.
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