Hey, all.
Sorry I havenāt sent out a post recentlyāIāve been scrambling to keep up with domestic news. Itās been a heck of a week. I hope youāre all holding up OKāespecially my Jewish and Muslim-American readers. I can only imagine how painful the last many days have been.
Anyway. Iāve got a couple of things for you all to do if you want.
First, I stumbled across a post on Threads yesterday thatās the best thing Iāve read yet on the current situation. Itās a long thread by a Palestinian-American man named Mohuāit covers the Israel/Palestine conflict, our governmentās role in it, and the student protests. Itās absolutely brilliant, and encapsulates my own thinking better than anything I could write. I suspect it encapsulates MANY peopleās thinking. If you get a chance, give it a read. Itās here on Threads, here on Medium, and hereās a PDF of it.
Thereās a reason I donāt talk about this subject on social media. Itās too nuanced. It requires knowing history, providing context, and taking time to explain complexities. It requires understanding political realities. It necessitates seeing grey areas. And it absolutely mandates humanizing all parties concerned. This canāt be done in a one, two, or even five-minute post. If it can I have yet to see it. The above-mentioned post succeeds because itās long. Read it! So worth your time.
Anyway. The situation is fluid right now, and things are happening so fast that I donāt even know if what Iām going to write will still be relevant in a couple of days. But Iām going to write it, and Iām going to send it, and Iām going to keep calling and saying it in an abbreviated form until I donāt have to anymore. Join me if you please.
Hereās my latest Resistbot letter (if you want to change it just copy, paste, edit, and paste again into your lawmakersā email forms on their websites.) You can send it as is to all 3 of your reps and President Biden by texting SIGN PEDQDG to 50409.
I understand that the Israeli government may be moving ahead with a Rafah operation. This would be catastrophic on all fronts. As an American citizen, a voter, and a taxpayer I want the U.S to do everything in its power to stop it.
Relief workers tell us that an invasion of Rafah would be devastating to relief efforts in the territory. Famine, which has already started to set in, would increase exponentially. Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi has said a ground offensive would have ācatastrophic consequencesā both for the humanitarian situation in war-ravaged Gaza and for broader āregional peace and security.ā
Worse, these sorts of blanket attacks are not working. Hamas is not defeated. The hostages are no closer to being freed. Israel is hemorrhaging support and so is the Biden administration. Itās a mess.
I donāt know how to say this any more clearly. We MUST stop all arms shipments to the Israeli governmentāat least all offensive armsāuntil this conflict is over. Benjamin Netanyahu is acting in pure self interest and pursuing an agenda that is antithetical to peace or true democracy. All U.S. support for him and his government must cease, or be predicated on the strongest possible conditions. Just as we abhor Hamas and refuse to enable it, so must we abhor Netanyahu and his far-right government. They have left us no choice.
The American people are losing patience. We want this to end. We donāt want our tax dollars funding war crimes. We want the Israeli and Palestinian people to live in safety, peace, and self-determination. And we will not tolerate lawmakers who enable further bloodshed. The U.S. must use its considerable leverage, bring all parties back to the negotiating table, and stop the carnage, now. Thanks.
The phone script Iāll be using is:
Hi my name is _____ and Iām a constituent from [zip.]
I understand that the Israeli government is likely moving ahead with a Rafah operation this week. Iām really upset about it. As a voter and a taxpayer I want the U.S to do everything in its power to stop more civilian deaths. This includes conditioning all aid to the Israeli government and ceasing all offensive weaponry shipments. I donāt want my tax dollars funding war crimes. The U.S. government should use its leverage to demand a ceasefire and a release of the hostages, bring all parties back to the negotiating table, and stop the carnage now. Thanks.
OK. I hope you find this all helpful. If not, feel free, as always, to ignore. Iām just sharing what Iām doing.
Talk soon!
Jess
I am 100% on board with Mohu. Great summary and analysis.
Resistbot signer 29. Jess, I appreciate so much all that you do to help make our voices heard, and that you enable us to amplify your voice in contacting our legislators.