Reflections, interpretations, and observations of living in DC, interning on Capitol Hill, and the glories, mundaneness, challenges and humor in contributing to FCNL's mission.
First up: the Israel/Palestine conflict in Gaza. We talk with Kate Gould, the Program Assistant on Foreign Policy, about what you can do now to push Congress towards taking a stand on the crisis. It's a great 12 minutes of discussion and information from inside Capitol hill. Listen in!
"I’ve just come from the Congressional briefing by representatives of Israeli human rights organizations sponsored by Americans for Peace Now, Churches for Middle East Peace and other groups.
These groups are doing invaluable work to provide a clear picture of what’s happening in Gaza and to preserve human ties between Israelis and Palestinians.
Gaza: at least 700 killed, of them at least 240 children and 100 women. More than half those killed since the ground incursion began (313) are women and children. Over 3,100 injured, of them over 350 severely injured. Israel: 10 killed, of them 1 woman and 7 soldiers. Over 68 civilians injured, of them 4 severely injured, not including those treated for shock, and 60 soldiers injured, of them one in critical condition."
And now organizations that were providing the small amount of humanitarian aid that was being allowed in to the Palestinians are being forced out. UN aid workers were caught in the Israeli attacks. So the UN can't provide aid. The Red Cross is being turned away.
What is the US response to this tragedy? The Senate just unanimously passed (by voice vote) a heavily one-sided resolution in support of Israel (although it does rightly state support for a 2 state solution). The Senate resolution states: "Whereas the ultimate goal of the United States is a sustainable resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." However, the US' refusal to pressure Israel to improve this humanitarian crisis clearly shows that the US' priority is on supporting attacks on Gaza.
"These are historic crimes, and we cannot be silent about them." -Ali Abunimah, author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse in an interview on Democracy Now!
I have trouble believing that Israel's four-day attack on Gaza that has killed 368 Palestinians, including at least 64 civilians, is self-defense, or justice for the rocket attacks that have killed 4 Israelis. For 6 months there has been a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine and the Israelis are blaming Hamas for breaking the ceasefire. Yes; Hamas has fired lots of rockets into Israel, tragically killing 4 people. But does that justify killing 368 Palestinians?
Much of the U.S. response to the current situation is that both sides need to stop the fighting, which is true. However, I am hesitant to place blame equally between Israel and Palestine (or even Hamas). Israel claims that the current attack, with the threat of a ground offensive is to thwart Hamas rocket bombings, but these bombings have only increased since Israel's attack. As a matter of fact, there had been remarkable few rocket attacks before Israel started its offensive.
The past four days has made me seriously wonder how U.S. public opinion can be so pro-Israel. Can't we see that Israel is murdering many more innocent civilians than Hamas is? Obama has said very little about the recent attacks, but his policy in the past has also been very pro-Israel. I am not suggesting that the U.S. should be anti-Israel, but I agree with Abunimah above that we cannot stay silent about Israel's recent actions. The U.S. should condemn Israel's unnecessarily brutal attack on Gaza.
