Only Love Should Be Unconditional
If we have friends who are engaging in illegal, immoral, destructive behavior, most of us would probably step in with some tough love.
This isn’t the piece I intended to write this week.
I was going to write something celebrating President Joe Biden’s continued infrastructure streak with the administration’s announcement to start requiring the replacement of the country’s lead water pipes within ten years. I was also going to tout the $16.4 billion the administration plans to invest in safer, faster passenger rail service.
These are accomplishments we need to acknowledge and promote as we enter what is likely to be a contentious presidential cycle that will culminate in our either preserving democracy or descending into fascism.
Instead, though, I am going to spend a few minutes on a subject I find uncomfortable to discuss because of its complexity and history.
For over a month now, the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza has been the focal point of every media outlet and agency concerned with international affairs, with obviously good reason.
I acknowledge the generations-long, complicated machinations that got us here.
I acknowledge I am not even remotely close to being an expert in international diplomacy or have insight into the conversations happening in the State Dept. or the Oval Office.
Fundamentally, though, we all understand morality.
The United States has historically embroiled itself in myriad Faustian bargains. Just this week, in fact, we saw the death of one of arguably the most reviled American foreign policy colonialists responsible for millions of deaths of innocent people in our country’s history.
The American policy of “unconditional support” to Israel seemed like a good idea at one time. After all, as the aspiring exemplar for other nations around the world, we want to promote a reputation for standing behind our allies and protecting democracy.
While our track record hasn’t always been stellar, we helped create the Israeli state 75 years ago and made progress through the decades trying to keep it and its neighbors from destroying each other.
But if we have friends who are engaging in illegal, immoral, destructive behavior, most of us would probably step in with some tough love: “No, I’m not going to allow you to drive in that condition.” “Maybe you two should just be friends since your relationship is so hurtful.” “While I don’t mind lending you money if it’s going to help you, I’m not going to give you anything else until you get some help.”
When our support for the corrupt Netanyahu regime is “unconditional,” what hope can we have of halting Israel’s war crimes against innocent Palestinians?
While he hasn’t called for a cease fire, Vt. Sen. Bernie Sanders is at least standing up to the status quo in demanding Israel change its policies if it expects to continue receiving US military aid.
In statement, Sen. Sanders explained:
While Israel has the right to go after Hamas, Netanyahu’s rightwing extremist government does not have the right to wage almost total warfare against the Palestinian people. That is morally unacceptable and in violation of international law.
He took to the Senate floor this week to express what he later posted on X:
Currently, the U.S. provides $3.8 billion a year to Israel with close to no strings attached. President Biden has asked Congress for $14.3 billion more on top of that and to waive normal, already-limited oversight rules. This blank check approach must end.
Invoking the “Leahy Act,” named after Sanders’ former Vermont senatorial colleague Patrick Leahy, that bars assistance to governments’ security forces whose actions are perceived as tantamount to human rights abuses, members of the Democratic party’s progressive wing criticized the $14.3 billion package the White House pledged after the October 7 Hamas attack.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explained on CNN’s “State of the Union”:
I guess I’m not sure what would be controversial about simply saying that aid we give any country has to be used in compliance with international law. And, yes, of course, I do think that Israel needs to be more careful in the way that it is conducting these operations.
Murphy acknowledged the cycle of violence that will intensify should the current violence continue.
“Ultimately, Hamas will get stronger, not weaker, in the long run, if all of this civilian death allows them to recruit more effectively and ably inside Gaza,” he said.
Terrorists thrive on violence. Their goal is to instill fear and upset the established order. By engaging in acts the international community universally condemns, Israel is playing right in Hamas’ hands and helping to radicalize more jihadists.
Consider that half the population of Gaza is under age 18 and airstrikes, checkpoints, and poverty are all they have ever known.
Just as Osama bin Laden planned for and celebrated the United States’ overreaction to the 9/11/01 terror attacks, Israel may be getting sucked into Hamas’ invitation to further destabilize the Middle East by engaging in its own acts of inhumanity and barbarism.
Just as then-president George W. Bush was warned bin Laden was determined to strike within the United States and decided to ignore it and continue the longest vacation in presidential history because it would ultimately provide the pretext Bush needed to invade Iraq, the Israeli government had been waiting for its own pretext to rid Palestinians from Gaza.
The problem is, Hamas is not Palestine.
It is an extremist group that distorts Islam to exact a political agenda of intimidation and fear.
Yet, in a classic example of punishing the many for the sins of the few, Palestinian citizens are fleeing their homes after being held responsible for the terror group’s horrific act.
Human Rights Watch confirmed reports of Israel using white phosphorus munitions during assaults on Gaza and along its border with Lebanon.
In anticipation of a ground invasion, Israeli soldiers and settlers, in their “complete siege,” have killed dozens of Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Those are conditions rife for radicalization.
Conflating Israel’s right to defend itself with allowing it carte blanche to engage in a scorched Earth campaign against innocent people is a fallacy.
We can support both Israel and Palestine’s right to exist and defend themselves.
Hamas needs to be eradicated and the Palestinian people need a country of their own.
A “two-state solution” is the official policy of the United States. But now, perhaps, there ought to be talks about a “three-state solution”: Israel, Palestine, and Gaza.
First we stanch the bloodshed, then we open dialog about finally turning the tide to reverse decades of carnage.
Turning Gaza into a parking lot, though, isn’t going to benefit anyone — not even Israel.
Only love should be unconditional, not money.