Public Comment

Following the last Israeli-Palestinian conflict, America’s “unshakable commitment to Israeli echoed by Biden and all prior US presidents, is beginning to unravel. The images of wholesale destruction of Gaza and the slaughter of so many innocent Palestinians beaned unto our livings rooms has shaken many Americans and citizens world-wide. More and more Americans are asking why their country, rooted in fairness and democratic ideals, is propping up apartheid Israel? Why are we sending economic and military aid to subjugate and terrorize indigenous Palestinians from their homeland, much like the genocide of native American Indians? 

Israel’s rigid occupation is considerably worse than former white South Africa’s apartheid system. Israel is terrorizing Palestinians on a daily basis to fulfill their dream of creating a pure Jewish state. In the recent conflict, 30 Palestinians died for every Israeli fatality. About the same ratio of Palestinians to Israelis were injured. What makes this conflict different is the clashes within Israel, among Israeli Palestinians and Israeli Jews. No longer are Palestinians free to worship or live in their homes without being accosted by police and Israeli settler terrorists. The Biden White House and all prior US administrations have buckled under the relentless political pressures of AIPAC and other powerful Jewish organizations.  

Currently, Israel is the lone super power in the Middle East. In a recent GPS broadcast, Fareed Zakaria shared some startling statistics: “Israel's per capita GDP dwarves that of its neighbors. It is 14 times that of Egypt, eight times that of Iran, six times that of Lebanon and even double that of Saudi Arabia. Israel has built an industrial and information age economy that excels in highly sophisticated areas like artificial intelligence, aviation, computer aided design and bio technology. It spends 5 percent of its GDP on research and development. It has built up foreign exchange reserves of over $180 billion placing it 13th in the world just ahead of the United Kingdom”.  

For a nation of nine million people, it hardly merits annual US handouts. Israel exceeds Iran’s defense budget and has a powerful quantitative edge on most of its regional rivals. It remains the only nuclear power in the Middle East with 100 warheads. There is therefore a compelling case for immediately halting all economic and military aid to Israel and re-directing it to its second-class citizens, the Palestinians. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross toured the Gaza Strip recently, finding neighborhoods devastated by Israel’s 11-day bombardment, including a road where 42 people were slaughtered. This follows the findings of the head of the Norwegian human rights organization who was horrified by the loss of civilian life and severe damage to Gaza’s infrastructure. Determined to scuttle Biden’s efforts to resurrect the Iran-nuclear deal it is highly that Israeli terrorist attacks were behind the recent devastating explosions experienced by Iran.