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Hope Amidst the Horrors [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-29

In the United States there has been a sharp increase in both anti-Semitism and anti-Islamic activity in response to the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli response. Dialogue and protest, freedom of speech, support for Israel’s right to exist and Palestinian rights and nationhood, and calls for a cessation to hostilities, are not advanced by either anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.

On Friday, November 24, Israel and Hamas began a four-day cessation of hostilities negotiated by the Biden administration, Egypt, and Qatar that included an exchange of prisoners that was extended for two additional days. It is unclear whether there is a possibility this can lead to a broader negotiated settlement. The war, precipitated by a savage Hamas attack on Israel, has already resulted in the virtual destruction of Gaza, the main city in the Gaza Strip.

Over the weekend, Israelis and Palestinians greeted women and children released from captivity. For Israelis there was joy and sorry as family members continued to be held hostage and some of the released hostages returned to families in mourning for people who died in the October 7th attack. One Israeli woman who was freed by Hamas reported that while they were initially fed well in captivity, conditions worsened. She, her daughter, and her grandson were kept in a suffocating room where they slept on plastic chairs. Her 78-year-old husband, who has serious health problems, remains in captivity. Most of the hostages released by Hamas were in fairly good physical condition, but one, an 84-year-old woman, had to be hospitalized after not receiving proper care while in captivity. Another freed hostage needed surgery after she was released.

On the West Bank, Palestinians celebrated the returnees as heroes. Many were detained in Israeli prisons without trial after being accused of incitement on social media, stone-throwing, or supporting terrorism. Human rights organizations estimate that over 750,000 Palestinians have been detained in Israeli prisons since 1967 when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem. There are currently over 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons including 2,000 arrested since October 7th. Israel considers them terrorists, but Palestinians claim they are prisoners of war. Hamas, which precipitated the war with its brutal attack on Israel is widely credited by Palestinians on the West Bank for the release of prisoners. Hamas is seen as standing up to Israel, while the governing group on the West Bank is derided as corrupt and an Israel collaborator.

On Sunday November 19, 2023, the New York Times ran a front-page story “Smoldering Gaza Becomes a Graveyard for Children” with a picture of nine-year-old Khaled Joudeh crying over the body of his 8-month-old baby sister. Sixty-eight members of the extended Joudeh family, including both of Khaled’s parents, were killed by an Israeli airstrike on October 22. They were all asleep in the family’s Deir al Balah compound in central Gaza. The only survivors of the attack were Khaled and his seven-year-old brother Tamer. In ten to fifteen years, will Khaled and Tamer seek revenge against Israel and the United States? The danger is they will become a new generation of anti-Israeli extremists and it would be very hard to blame them.

Between the October 7th savage attack by Hamas on Israel, murdering an estimated 1,200 people and kidnapping as hostages over 200 more, and November 1, Israel dropped 25,000 tons of explosives on 12,000 targets in Gaza, a territory the size of Manhattan with over 2.3 million people. The bombs were responsible for the death of between 10,000 and 12,000 people including over 4,000 children.

Euro-Med Monitor claims that Israel also used internationally banned cluster and phosphorus bombs that are illegal because they indiscriminately injure and kill civilians. Euro-Med Monitor accuses Israel of the single greatest threat to civilians in modern armed conflicts. Israel claims the deaths of civilians in the Gaza Strip is an unavoidable because in urban areas fighters are often imbedded amongst civilian populations. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor is a youth-led organization that advocates for the human rights of all people across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, particularly people who live under occupation or have been displaced due to persecution or armed conflict.

The Biden administration is requesting an additional allocation of $14.3 billion for Israel’s war effort against Hamas. The package would also include additional money for humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians displaced in Gaza. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, spokesperson for a group of Senate Democrats responded to the request that “We want the president to secure express assurances from the Netanyahu government regarding a plan to reduce the unacceptable level of civilian casualties, and we want the Netanyahu coalition to commit to full cooperation with our efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”

The United States provides Israel with about 80% of its imported weaponry, including 2,000-pound bombs that can flatten an apartment tower. During recent United States wars in Iraq, the American military used 500-pound bombs, but some military officials believed they were too large to use in urban areas. More women and children have been killed in Gaza by Israeli bombings in less than two months than the 7,700 civilians documented as killed by U.S. forces and their allies in the first year of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Bloomberg News published a leaked Pentagon document that details that the United States has provided Israel with 2,000 Hellfire missiles that can be launched from Apache helicopters, 36,000 rounds of 30mm cannon ammunition, 1,800 M141 bunker-buster munitions, and at least 3,500 night-vision devices. The Israeli government has also requested 24,000 assault rifles from the United States. Some members of Congress and State Department officials are concerned that the assault rifles could be used by settlers and civilian militias that are targeting Palestinians on the West Bank. According to Human Rights Watch, “Providing weapons that knowingly and significantly would contribute to unlawful attacks can make those providing them complicit in war crimes.”

While the United States and Israel have been allies for decades, there is considerable opposition in the United States government to supplying Israel with offensive weapons. More than 500 political appointees and staff from 40 government agencies sent President Biden a letter protesting his support of Israel in its war in Gaza. Josh Paul, former director of the State Department’s political-military affairs bureau that oversees U.S. arms transfers resigned in October because he could not support providing Israel with additional U.S. weapons that were being used to kill thousands of civilians.

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