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We Can’t Just Stand-By and Watch the Slaughter in Gaza [1]

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

Date: 2025-05-31

By Robert Creamer

The headlines from Gaza have become so relentless, that many have become numb to the horror in Gaza:

· Gaza is starving as Israel's aid blockade continues, aid official says, NPR, May 13

· Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill 38 people, including children… PBS, May 25

Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert condemns Gaza war as humanitarian crisis deepens , ABC, May 28

According to a summary of the data in Wikipedia:

“As of 27 May 2025, almost 56,000 people (54,271 Palestinians[3][7] and 1,706 Israelis[c]) have been reported killed in the Gaza war according to the official figures of the Gaza Health Ministry, as well as 180 journalists and media workers,[d] 120 academics,[26] and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, a number that includes 179 employees of UNRWA.[27] Scholars have estimated 80% of Palestinians killed are civilians.[5][4][6][28] A study by OHCHR, which verified fatalities from three independent sources, found that 70% of the Palestinians killed in residential buildings or similar housing were women and children.[29][30]”

In addition, 616 Palestinians have been killed in the Occupied West Bank during the Gaza War by settlers and the Israeli Army, of which 101 were children.

J-Street reports that retired Major General Yair Golan said last week that the war is “not an effort to release hostages, because that was possible long ago in comprehensive deal…It’s also not a campaign to topple Hamas, because that was possible long ago by starting to build a political alternative.”

The war began as a response to the horrific Hamas attack on towns in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. But the Israeli retaliation in Gaza – and Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in the West Bank – have rapidly evolved into a program intended to exterminate or remove all Palestinians from Palestine. It is an exercise in ethnic cleansing and extermination that is a bald violation of the human rights of millions of people and of international law. Donald Trump implicitly endorsed these actions with his outrageous proposal to remove all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and allow U.S. developers – like the Trump organization – to turn Gaza into a resort.

And of course, the continuation of this horrific war has the additional benefit to Benjamin Netanyahu of keeping him out of jail.

The right-wing Israeli government argues that what they are doing is necessary to protect Israeli security. But whenever one group takes actions that violate another’s human rights – or seeks to exterminate or ethnically cleans another ethnic or political group – the rationale is always about “security”.

Putin justifies his invasion of Ukraine by claiming he is defending Russian “security”. Dick Cheney justified his use of torture because he said it was necessary to protect U.S. “security”. Trump justifies the elimination of due process rights because we need to defend our “security”. The Germans claimed they needed to exterminate the Jews to protect the “security” of the German nation.

Israel has a right to exist as a free and independent state, just as Palestinians have a right to a free and independent state of their own. And as a matter of fact, Israel itself will never be able to live in peace and security until it agrees to the creation of a free and independent Palestinian state that shares the land of Palestine.

History will not look kindly on those who stood by silently and did nothing to stop the Israeli government’s slaughter of their fellow human beings in Gaza and the West Bank.

Just as Putin is unlikely to change course in Ukraine because of shaming and political isolation, Netanyahu and Israel’s right-wing government are not likely to be persuaded to change course by shaming and political isolation alone. In both cases serious political and economic sanctions will be necessary.

The United States should immediately end all military aide and shipments of military material to Israel until it ends the carnage. And American companies and individuals should be free to stop doing business with Israel without fear of being sanctioned by state laws that cut off state business or pension fund investments for firms that take these actions.

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