If you are upset about the genocide in Gaza or worried that the massive US naval buildup in the Middle East is a precursor to an attack on Iran or could otherwise trigger nuclear war, please channel your anger and anxiety into productive action, namely writing or calling your Congressional representatives. If you have the time and energy, I would suggest forwarding the same note with a minimal cover message to the White House, to the office of the Vice President, and to the State Department.
With fresh polls showing that Biden’s approval rating among Democrats has fallen 11% in a month, and that more Democrats support Palestine than Israel. Politically-survival-minded Democrats should know the Biden policy is a negative for them when Biden’s poor record was already putting other candidates at risk. In diehard blue New York, Trump is now lagging Biden by only 9 points, as opposed to his former 21 points, despite prosecutions by New York State almost garnering more negative coverage there than in other parts of the US.
But what these polls do not reveal is the intensity of the anti-war, anti-ethnic-cleansing sentiment. This is where voter messages play a critical role.
In a recent broadcast, Scott Ritter stressed the paramount importance of writing your Congressmen to oppose the march to a wider war in the Middle East. He said that when the US was considering escalating in Syria, a flood of opposition, including letters, led Obama to back off. I can’t directly confirm that, but I do recall a long New York Times magazine story, How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk. It depicted Obama as natively cautious in not backing Hillary’s persistent efforts to mix things up militarily. So does a BBC retrospective on Obama’s Middle East policy (amusingly critical when Obama looks like a genius compared to what Biden and his team hath wrought). But Obama would be unlikely to admit that domestic politics played into his thinking and would defend his decision in terms of principles, US stakes, and risks.
Since it was focused on Hillary and clearly written with her cooperation, she and her allies may have chosen to skip over the role of voter outcry in swaying Obama in deciding on a compromise of sorts in Syria of arming those moderate rebels, rather than taking more aggressive action, particularly the no-fly zone in Syria she kept touting in her failed 2016 campaign, which she clearly knew would be tantamount to starting a hot war with Russia.
An e-mail does not have to be long to be effective. Or if you are time-stressed, you can call your Congressional representatives, ideally on their in-state rather than Washington phone number, and voice your opposition. It is critical to convey the notion that you are politically engaged, well informed, and highly motivated, as in if your supposed representative continue to support escalation, you will be a determined and effective opponent of their re-election, even if they support the same bad policies, because your representative was in power and had the opportunity to do the right thing and refused to.
The hook is the upcoming vote on Biden’s $106 billion funding package for Ukraine and Israel. Make clear you oppose any more funding for either cause. For Israel, you could add other issues, like wanting Biden to stop his buildup in the Middle East, or calling on your Congressional rep to advocate for a cease-fire and press Biden to back his verbal support for a two-state solution with action.
If your representatives are Democrats, it sadly will be helpful to make clear (if true) that you are not part of who they stereotype as opponents of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians, as in young and/or Muslim. The Democrats are not much afraid of young voters because older voters are typically more affluent and therefore more prized. If you are a long-standing Democrat and/or donate to political campaigns, point that out. If Biden’s conduct generally or with respect to Israel and Palestine has turned you into a Trump backer, say that too. You can also stress out that Mike Johnson supports cutting Medicare and Social Security, and more pouring money into wars where there is no threat to US security will play into their hands.
If your Congresscritters are Republicans in solid Republican districts, I would make clear you will support anyone who is not them in a re-election if they support Israel’s current conduct and more war spending, including supporting primary opponents.
As for substantive reasons for opposing the war, there are many. You don’t need a laundry list, just a reason or a few that are important to you, such as:
The risk of nuclear war
Objecting to the US supporting ethnic cleansing and not backing a ceasefire
Objecting to more military spending at the expense of pressing domestic needs
Objecting to the US escalating against Iran
How the US is losing soft power, witness the UN General Assembly vote, where 120 countries backed an Arab state resolution and only 14, including the US, voted against it. Turkiye’s Erdogan recently gave a speech in which he defended Hamas and warned of the risk of religious war. What happens if Turkiye, the NATO member with biggest military force in theater, turns away from the West?
How Israel is acting against its interest
Demanding that Congress stop abdicating Constitutional with respect to war
Tropes like the Monroe Doctrine are likely to be slightly better received that pointing out we have been losing wars and do not know how to fight terrorists, unless you can deploy a quote from someone authoritative.
As much as many readers take pride in their analytical and argumentation skills. what matters here is a clear statement of your opposition to the Administration policy of escalation, what you would like to see happen instead, and making clear you will actively oppose any elected official who supports Israel’s reckless and immoral slaughter in Gaza.
Some links to give further ideas and/or framing:
Mondoweiss ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 23: Israel threatens to bomb al-Quds Hospital as hundreds of thousands protest worldwide in solidarity with Gaza: https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-23-israel-threatens-to-bomb-al-quds-hospital-as-hundreds-of-thousands-protest-worldwide-in-solidarity-with-gaza/ and Day 22: Total blackout in Gaza as Israel cuts off all communications, carries out most brutal attacks since October 7: https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/operation-al-aqsa-flood-day-22-total-blackout-in-gaza-as-israel-cuts-off-all-communications-carries-out-most-brutal-attacks-since-october-7/
Haaretz reporting that Palestinians in a West Bank town who just had their olive groves destroyed warned to leave for Jordan: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-america-is-out-of-ammunition
Israel not learning from America’s mistakes in invading Iraq….which Israel warned against at the time, by Israel’s then ambassador to the US, Daniel Kurtzer: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-29/ty-article-opinion/.premium/from-the-gulf-war-to-gaza-israel-must-not-make-americas-mistakes/0000018b-7974-d4a8-a3cf-fdfd4a2a0000
A discussion of international law issues: https://twitter.com/EpshtainItay/status/1718339626266505328
Foreign Affairs warning how difficult it will be for the IDF to clear Gaza: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/how-will-idf-handle-urban-combat
Full speech in the UN by Pakistan UN Envoy Munir Akram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUws5BlOS2Q
The Jewish Voice for Peace (https://twitter.com/jvplive) and the Torah Judaism (https://twitter.com/TorahJudaism twitter feeds as an example of a Jewish group opposed to Zionism and Israel’s campaign against Palestinians
Scott Ritter arguing for Iran, Syria Hezbollah, and Hamas to enter into a collective security agreement based on the danger Israeli military action in Gaza poses to the Palestinians and the Middle East generally to provide the legal foundation for pre-emptive self defense operations against Israel under Article 51: https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1718307232918487505
Text of an interview with Dominique De Villepin: https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1718201487132885246Matt Stoller on why the US has been unable to get its military contractors to increase production: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-america-is-out-of-ammunition
Erdogan’s speech to the Turkish parliament (oddly only a 2 minute clip seem to be on the Innertubes and that via Judge Napoltano, see here for instance at 1:45: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUws5BlOS2Q) and the significance of his “cross and crescent” remark: https://bnn.network/conflict-defence/erdogans-threat-of-cross-and-crescent-war-a-new-chapter-in-east-west-relations/
Contact information:
Find Your Representative | house.gov
How You Can Write or Call the White House (Berkeley Library says that the contact information for Kamala Harris is the same as for Joe Biden)
Yes, writing letters or calling no doubt may seem quixotic. But these events are so horrific that as a matter of conscience, those who object to these crimes being committed in their names by virtue of being US citizens should take whatever steps they can, even if they seem inadequate. to go on record that they do not support war crimes and want US officials to find a path to peace.
And you can never prejudge what effort might make a difference. From Johann Hari in the Independent in 2010:
And protest can have an invisible ripple-effect that lasts for generations. A small group of women from Iowa lost their sons early in the Vietnam war, and they decided to set up an organization of mothers opposing the assault on the country. They called a protest of all mothers of serving soldiers outside the White House – and six turned up in the snow. Even though later in the war they became nationally important voices, they always remembered that protest as an embarrassment and a humiliation.
Until, that is, one day in the 1990s, one of them read the autobiography of Benjamin Spock, the much-loved and trusted celebrity doctor, who was the Oprah of his day. When he came out against the war in 1968, it was a major turning point in American public opinion. And he explained why he did it. One day, he had been called to a meeting at the White House to be told how well the war in Vietnam was going, and he saw six women standing in the snow with placards, alone, chanting. It troubled his conscience and his dreams for years. If these women were brave enough to protest, he asked himself, why aren’t I? It was because of them that he could eventually find the courage to take his stand – and that in turn changed the minds of millions, and ended the war sooner. An event that they thought was a humiliation actually turned the course of history.
While protest may seems like a hopeless cause in the US, the rest of the world is becoming more united against Israel and its shrinking number of allies as the slaughter of civilians in Gaza continues. It may not take as much in the way of internal pressure in the face of increasingly united external opposition for something to break.
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Well … sure. Let’s stop the violence in Gaza. How are you going to do that? Does stopping Israel in Gaza stop attacks on Israel?
Will this mean that the Arab world will recognize Israel? It’s right to exist? Will Egypt accept Hamas cannot stay in Gaza and take them in?
Stop the violence. Let’s do it. All the violence. Including … violence against Israel.
Israel is opposing a ceasefire, or even the more neutral formulation in the UN resolution that got 120 votes for and only 14 against of a truce to allow for humanitarian relief. Please tell me how to justify that given that the 2.2 million in Gaza are nearly all non-combatants.
The right to self defense is recognized in international law and various UN provisions. Collective punishment is not. In fact, I would argue killing children and other civilians (except by accident) decreases Israel’s security.
Hamas has willfully ensured that exercising the right to self defense will necessarily result in the collective punishment of Gazans. Should you let them go free because they hold their own people hostage?
This is the most nonsensical thing I have read in quite a while. No one made Israel do anything.
Hamas is not in the Knesset, or IDF, or Netanyahu, deciding what Israel’s actions will be. In fact experts have pointed out the smartest thing Israel could have done geopolitically to discredit Hamas would be absolutely nothing except negotiate the return of hostages. Instead we now have worldwide pro-Palestinian protests, widespread calls for a two-state solution, and Israel massively losing votes in the General Assembly. It is an insult to intelligence to claim that Hamas is holding Gazans hostage when the fact that Hamas was able to bust out of the Gaza prison walls was widely seen as an impressive military feat.
You also miss that Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and Gaza (see https://www.globalr2p.org/countries/israel-and-the-occupied-palestinian-territory/)O and has for decades been engaging in wholesale violation of international law re occupations (https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/resources/documents/misc/634kfc.htm),
In addition, Gazans and Hamas are not merely defending themselves. They are expelling occupies.
No one made Israel do anything? That seems a bit of a stretch.
Building tunnels and storing weapons under your own people’s schools, hospitals, mosques etc. sounds a lot like using them as “human shields” and preventing them from leaving areas that Israel has targeted for bombing sounds a lot like holding them hostage to me.
Under international law, people who are occupied have the right to expel the occupier. Israel is the occupier. Gazans do not control Gaza, witness the shutoff of power, water, and comms by Israel.
And it is false that Hamas prevented the movement of Gazans. It is Israel that has them in an open air concentration camp in Gaza. Hamas did not do that. It is Israel that prevented and then limited the entry of humanitarian aid.
Hamas recommended against Gazans moving south because the roads were not safe, and indeed Israel was shelling those roads. The Israel government made that bogus charge v. Hamas; Reuters did not substantiate it and Palestinian sources in Israel depicted it as false on Twitter.
Palestinians reported they were (mainly) staying in place because contrary to Israel claims, the south was no safer: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinians-fleeing-fighting-south-find-no-escape-danger-2023-10-15/
But Yves, Israel withdrew from Gaza and dismantled all Jewish settlements there in 2005 (2 years before Hamas came to power). How, exactly, is Gaza “occupied”? Because Israel restricts passage between Gaza and Israel? Gaza is a hostile foreign power run by an organization whose stated objective is the complete annihilation of Israel (that is, after all, what “from the river to the sea” really means) – why should Israel permit free passage across that border?
Egypt also restricts passage across its border with Gaza. Does this constitute an “occupation”? If not, why not? Because Egyptians speak Arabic? Is there some reason why people who speak Arabic are allowed to secure their borders while people who speak Hebrew are not?
I’d love to see a cessation of hostilities in Gaza and an end to the blockade. I don’t want to see a single Gaza civilian killed, injured, or dispossessed. But long experience says that any ceasefire with Hamas will be unilateral. It will be followed by more indiscriminate missile attacks on Israel, just as soon as Hamas can restock. Any prisoner exchanges will be followed by more murders of Israeli civilians. Lest we forget, the putative architect of the Oct. 7 horror was released by Israel in just such a prisoner swap. The Israeli government’s first obligation is to defend the lives of its citizens and they’ve decided that the only way to do that is to eliminate Hamas as a threat to them. So no, I’m not going to write my representative to argue that Israel should acquiesce in its own destruction.
As for DJ’s comment, I don’t know that Hamas has actually prevented anyone from moving south. I don’t think anyone who isn’t actually in Gaza really knows one way or another. I am disinclined to trust either Hamas or Israeli government sources on this and most reports about this have come from one side or the other.
On the other hand, I’ll definitely concede that the West Bank is occupied. The settlements there are patently illegal and should be dismantled. The IDF presence there (which exists primarily to protect those settlements) ought to be removed. I think we can both agree on that. A lot of Israelis would, too.
I’d like to see the Palestinians have a sovereign, defensible, prosperous, and (small-d) democratic nation of their own (something they’ll never get from the wannabe theocrats of Hamas).
I am not prepared to see 40-60% (depending on how one answers the perpetual “who is a Jew?” question) of world Jewry annihilated in the process.
Many articles disagree with your claims. Under international low, Gaza is an occupied territory:
https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/israel-gaza-and-the-laws-of-war/
Similarly, from Cambridge:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-and-comparative-law-quarterly/article/abs/status-of-gaza-as-occupied-territory-under-international-law/654DB8FE844ED96C47AAA3B213D438F0
Note that analysis does not include Israel’s control of electrical and water supplies, which gives it, in combination with the garrisoning of Gaza, the ability to exterminate the population. Per Dune, “He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing.”
Are you saying you don’t support an immediate cease-fire? (I do.) If so, I am curious as to why.
To DJ’s Locker: Can you make a compelling argument why Israel, a small country illegally occupying Gaza, building illegal settlements in the West Bank, and which is deemed an apartheid state, is so crucial to US interests and security that the US has no rational alternative but to continue providing Israel with unconditional military and economic support, and risk a regional or even a global war? In other words, what does Israel do for the US that we can’t do ourselves?
It seems to me all resistance movements have an element which operates within the general population. That doesn’t make the population “hostages”. More likely the old “some make things happen, some watch things happen, some wonder what happened”. So the war is to me really about Palestine and not so much Hamas. Now it is possible to argue that wars of conquest have been always part of the human condition, but it seems hard to square this with a “rules-based international order” we hear so much about.
To add to your point, for many of us parents, our children are our lives.
I can speak from personal experience on this, but often a parent will be compelled to protect their child even if that means killing another person… a threat to your child– especially your child, but to other loved ones as well– can bring out in you a great and very real capacity for extreme violence.
I can’t imagine where you might be if your soul itself cries out in sorrow and rage for vengance, but I am sure that many thousands of parents are finding themselves in this dark place within the walls of Gaza.
How did the Palestinians feel having their children killed for years, most prominently in the 2018-19 Marches of Return? You’ll call them human shields anyway, I suppose.
How did they feel having their children killed in the West Bank, even in the absence of Hamas?
Makes you wonder why the attack happened, and makes you wonder whether succumbing to your rage and killing more of their children today will provoke another attack in future.
I think you misread lawndart, who seems to me to be sympathizing with the Gazans.
Otherwise I agree with your point.
Under international law, occupiers do not have a right of self defense.
It won’t stop until Israel stops taking land. Scott Ritter included this eulogy from 1956 in a recent post. The Israelis at that time were well aware of what they were doing, the hatred it was causing, and the violence that would inevitably and perhaps perpetually ensue.
It needs to start with a cease fire between Hamas and Israel, and that won’t happen until the US supports one at the UN. The US won’t support one until Congressional representatives feel their seats are threatened. Normally I’m not a fan of contacting representatives given the complete lack of any positive response in the past, but maybe this week mine might be a little less prone to supporting state sponsored violence than they normally would, since our state just got shot to hell last week.
What a world.
go LAB!!
and it would be great to see NC commenters’ actual letters posted here.
. . . for one thing, i’ll admit, i’m sure i could copy parts from them, it would make my task a lot easier/quicker.
as i am swamped with a backlog of urgent tasks…
. . . maybe even the difference between doing it or not.
Honorable Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
I am writing to you to inquire about any actions that the Canadian Federal government is taking to oppose the upcoming genocide in Gaza (https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide), unleashed by the Israeli Apartheid government
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/
https://www.btselem.org/topic/apartheid
and to contain the full throated support the Canadian Federal Government is providing to Israel.
It is expected, of course, that a nation borne out of settling another people’s lands and from another cultural and sometimes ethnic genocide to have more empathy to Israel’s policies. However, First Nations Canadians fully understand the right of Palestinians to respond to the occupation, by any means necessary, including armed response. How can the Canadian political class explain to them the absolute support provided to Israel?
Palestinians, being under occupation and having their lands stolen, and not having any rights (with Israeli Palestinians having second class status according to Israeli Law passed in 2018), have all the right to respond, according to the international law, including with armed response. And we see, as with the “Incubator Babies” story from time ago, the “Beheaded Babies” is also a hoax.
Will Canadian UN Ambassador support the upcoming Russian call for fire cessation? Will Canada openly support the negotiations for a political settlement and establishment of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state, and the removal of illegal Israeli settlements (according to the UN) from the West Bank?
Or will it applaud now a full nation committing genocide, and stain the good people of Canada for seven generations to come?
Sincerely yours,
I did get a reply and then I wrote another email:
Dear Mister Vachon,
I would like to thank you for your timely and kind reply but I have to admit that I am disappointed to see Canada being placed in a rather humiliating position at the latest UNGA and having its amendment so easily rebutted by the UN Ambassador from Pakistan.. Indeed, we have not heard a peep from Canada for the past decades concerning the illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank, the forceful imprisonment of Palestinians without any charge, the beatings, killings and dispossessions taking place daily in the West Bank, now being intensified. Nothing, nada, zilc.
As such, I feel compelled to reproduce for our estimmed Prime Minister and his Foreign Minister a recent article by reputable Chris Hedges concerning the situation in Gaza and the position of the West, especially settler countries like the US or Canada (https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/29/chris-hedges-exterminate-all-the-brutes/):
Chris Hedges: Exterminate All the Brutes
by
EDITOR
October 29, 2023
Exterminate All the Brutes
All settler colonial projects, including Israel, reach a point when they embrace wholesale slaughter and genocide to eradicate a native population that refuses to capitulate.
…….
Thank you very much! I really appreciate having this model to work from!
Well said. Unfortunately our UN rep Bob Ray is a yankee puppet.
Excuse me but haven’t we finally seen through the trick questions like “The right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist”? Asking the Palestinian people or their representatives to acknowledge the “right” of a Jewish state that oppresses anyone not Jewish, is a fraud that continues to deceive. Let’s see if we can break out of such language and insist on a state that honors the rights of all the people.
Meanwhile, a couple of years ago an Israeli politician said Israel has to be the state of ALL the people. His flustered backtrack under attack was that he meant LGBTetc people had to be respected, but he had no intention of honoring rights of Palestinians.
Sad to say, anyone who rejects racial supremacy plus oppression for others, is mercilessly tarred as anti-Semitic and in favor of violence against Israel… a state that betrays the will of Jews who honor Rabbi Hillel’s declaration of justice as the entirety of Jewish faith.
Is the question “should a religion have/be a state” a legitimate question?
No justice, no peace. Until Israel changes its intentions and makes an honest effort to reign in its settlers and repudiates ethnic cleansing… well, karma is a *itch.
Hello Arkansas,
At around 3,000 children dead and counting I think you should reconsider your statement.
No country, including the United States, has a “right to exist”. Countries have been going in and out of existence forever. I give you the Soviet Union, to take an example from living memory.
Personally I think that both Israel and the US are on a trajectory to nonexistence, based mainly on their own actions.
SO you are not willing to copy the points made in this piece, the links provided, check your congresscritter name and send him an email? Because it won’t stop the war?
Though not an American, I would also suggest a letter saying they are being watched to see if they are enabling and in favour of genocide. And if they are, that there will be a price to pay at the ballot box. The internet never forgets. And before I forget, I would also send a letter to both Vivek and Trump. Idjuts-
https://www.bitchute.com/video/2i2CGpqCKTyQ/ (1:45 mins)
Where’s that clip from Vivek from? In the same weeks also said:
“The most pro-Israel thing we could do right now is to debate what is actually happening before we get into another Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said. “So that’s where I’m at.”
“Israel is barreling toward a potentially catastrophic ground invasion of Gaza without clear objectives,” Ramaswamy said in a statement shared with The Hill last week. “‘Destroy Hamas’ is not on its own a viable or coherent strategy.”
Also Trump has to say that because of his evangelical support for Israel and the rapture, the same people who thought the Iraq War was a holy war.
That’s a quaint idea. They shall quiver, I am sure.
As an American, resident in the Southwest, I think that you have given me a good opening line to my letters/emails:
“Are you in favor of the genocide of the indigenous people of Palestine?”
Thank you.
Which indigenous people of Palestine?
The clue is in the name.
Genetically Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians go back at least 10,000 years in the area. As do most Jews. It’s not rocket science – they’re all the same people.
You seem to have the wrong link for your item “Haaretz reporting that Palestinians in a West Bank town who just had their olive groves destroyed warned to leave for Jordan”.
Here’s the article I think you are referring to:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-27/ty-article/.premium/wait-for-the-great-nakba-palestinians-find-threatening-leaflets-on-cars-in-west-bank/0000018b-72aa-d1da-a1bb-7fba5a020000
Thanks, fixing now.
Many thanks, Yves Smith.
I couldn’t get your contact info for Blinken to work, but I found this site to work:
https://contactrepresentatives.org/district-of-columbia/antony-blinken
In the past, I have tended to avoid using the electronic contact links, because it is important to inconvenience one’s representatives. It is all too easy of the congresscritters and President Joe to ignore “mountains” of e-mail. Yet I no longer live in the U S of A, so e-mail is the best I can do for now.
(For others not living in the U.S. of A. anymore, you are going to have to plug in your old addresses–the forms tend to block addresses not in the districts.)
For those in the U.S. of A., some ideas:
–As you know, I don’t mind at all going to demonstrations. As someone who writes for the theater, I can assure you that the gesture is worth it. Will the government notice? Maybe: Most likely, the U.S. government is waiting out the citizenry one more time. But going to a demonstration is also good for your own feeling of doing something with a purpose.
–When I lived in the U S of A, I always made a point of being “an inconvenience,” with regard to Schakowsky, Durbin, and the dubious-indeed Duckworth. So: Send letters. A letter is a physical object that becomes an inconvenience. It clogs their mail bin. They don’t know what to do with letters anymore. Their millennial staffers have never even seen a letter! (Keep the letter with the address in a folder on your computer and revise as need be. Add your new complaint, print out, pop into an envelope, and ecco: A new inconvenience for Tammy!)
Best of luck in protest to all of you.
I agree. I suspect emails are easy to electronically file away while a physical piece of paper must be touched and filed – somewhere.
Hi, I’m living in Taiwan but am from Massachusetts. I wrote the male of the two senatorial wafers that rep Mass three times, Pocahauntus three times. I am thinking of phoning today too. Is this obsessive? I also wrote my rep Keating once. Keating, actually all three, are such nobodies I can’t remember their names.
From a friend in the UK:
I’m in [city] and it is a hot topic among the artists and musicians who were over for [name’s] birthday dinner last night.
Speaking up about anything has deep repercussions on their livelihoods… if you’re blackballed you are out of an income for good.
They know it and are careful whereas we have no skin in the game.
It seems like strange times but realistically nothing really changes much, just the details.
I saw a passing Tweet how Eisenhower in 1958 during an Israeli incursion into Gaza told the Israelis to back off which they then did. I have to try some history research about that one. Everybody knows about the English/French/Israeli Suez incident mid-1950s, right?
Also another surprising example, when the Israelis were running one of their special genocide operations in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, early 1980s, he told the then Israeli prime minister to back off who first refused, but the next day the IDF retreated.
So there are precedents with two of the most respected Republican presidents. Use these examples.
Also keep in mind the Oracle of Obama, Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.
The ‘Suez Crisis’ was 1956.
I write to them fairly often, and if I am very lucky, I get a form letter back that suggests that no one read what I wrote. Unfortunately it will take millions of people writing to get any serious reaction out of congress, and it is impossible to get that many people to write or call their reps. Maybe this time will be different as the gynocidal nature of the current conflict is causing lots of anguish. Maybe there will be a bigger reaction from the US public finally.
Thank you for the reminder, Yves. Back when we lived in Colorado and our reps and congresscritters were much more accessible, their staffers remarked that one of their jobs was to tally the pros and cons on issues as expressed in letters, phone calls, and visits. Not that they would necessarily do anything about it, of course. But, it never hurts to try. And, it should go without saying, one should go on record as objecting to mass bombing of civilians.
PS. Yesterday, I started reading David Frumkins’s “A Peace to End All Peace,” thank you, Aurelian, for the recommendation. After a few chapters, I am already appalled as well as enlightened as to the tangled antecedents of this whole mess.
Thank you Eclair, I’ve just put in a library order for Fromkin’s book.
This is one I read quite a while ago (the link is to the first edition):
Palestine and the Palestinians: A Social and Political History 2nd Edition
by Samih K. Farsoun & Naseer Aruri
This is one I’ve just been reading recently:
A Line in the Sand
by James Barr
As Chris Hedges has put it, World War I was the crucible upon which the modern world was forged.
And I would add that we’re still fighting it!
Thank you, Alice X. Aurelian also recommended the James Barr book.
Although I sometimes think life was a lot happier when we simply went along with the crowd. And the NYT. :-)
Fine, fine, fine. I e-mailed the note below to both my Senators, my Representative and the White House (e-mail because apparently they will be voting this week on money to Israel). I don’t believe it will make any difference, but sure–pebble into pond, ripples, who knows. I did know the Dr. Spock story, thanks.
“I am writing to inform you I will not be able to support you, or any Democrat, including the President, who supports the genocide in Gaza. I am opposed to any US aid to Israel for their genocide.
I am 63, white, lifelong Democrat, I have never missed an election.
In addition to voting, I have donated to many Democrats over the years (small amounts, maybe $500 to Obama in 2012 was the highest). I have volunteered, I have phone-banked, door-knocked, gone to many rallies and events, including state conventions.
When a country cuts off food, water, power and medicine to two million civilians, bombs them relentlessly and prevents them from having any safe place to exist, there is nothing more to say. That is mass murder.
Please do not waste tax resources having an Intern reply to me with a bunch of pablum. There is no nuance in mass murder of civilians, no “two-sides”. If we cannot agree on something so basic, obviously I have deluded myself far too long.
I will pray for your immortal soul.”
I wish I had read your missive before I sent mine. Well done.
Yves, thank you for this highly well-considered post. There are reports that public opinion has already induced President Biden to slightly moderate his stance.
I wrote to the President, my Senators and my congresswoman several days ago, mainly because I could not think of what else I could do. I also donated to Ilhan Omar’s reelection, and intend to donate to Rashida Tlaib (links below). Support for these brave women, and others in Congress who have stuck their necks out, is a way you can make a difference.
The links to the Ilhan Omar & Rashida Tlaib election sites were were stripped from my post. I don’t know if that was a technical glitch, or if posting them was in violation of some policy here. Anyway, here they are again, in plain text:
https://ilhanomar.com/
https://rashidaforcongress.com/
Wrote my letters this morning (Congresscritters + President). This is also after my 80 year old mother wrote Biden last week in what was no doubt a very long and sincere email opposing his actions. She’s a hardcore Democrat who almost never goes against him (even in Ukraine), but if she felt compelled to write, then it’s definitely a big problem for him.
Folks, there need to be people in the streets as well. Look for a platform in your area. Local people seeing local people protesting the carnage/militarism in Israel is motivating. As a NC commentor from Myanmar with considerable insight said, “you know your society has failed when it becomes inured to wanton death”.
The US has been supporting wanton death my whole life. (I’m in my 70’s.)
“Yes, writing letters or calling no doubt may seem quixotic…And you can never prejudge what effort might make a difference.”
Journalist Laura Flanders in conversation with Josh Paul, a State Department official who recently resigned in protest over the US’s transfer of arms to Israel during its current military actions in Gaza:
[emphasis added]
Does anyone know if the email forms you are directed to on representatives sites provide you with a copy of the email you sent? I’d like to have a copy of mine.
I’ve done this only occasionally but my experience is not. They whole point of those bloody forms is to deny you a record unless you take the extra steps to create one.
Just do a screen grab of the email text and save it as a .png file. Or you can simply highlight the text and copy/paste it into a word processor (eg., LibreOfficeWriter).
Sent!
Wordless protest: maybe everyone could also buy a Palestinian scarf and pointedly start wearing it everywhere.
They are sold out everywhere, at least actual Palestinian kufiyas are. Hirbawi, the primary producer and an old factory, lists preorder availability for when they can restart shipping.
Thanks for that amplification. Link for Hirbawi:
https://www.kufiya.org
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
A. Killing members of the group;
B. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
C.Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
D. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
E. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
States’ obligations under the Genocide Convention:
•Obligation not to commit genocide (Article I as interpreted by the ICJ)
•Obligation to prevent genocide (Article I) which, according to the ICJ, has an extraterritorial scope;
•Obligation to punish genocide (Article I);
•Obligation to enact the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the Convention (Article V);
•Obligation to ensure that effective penalties are provided for persons found guilty of criminal conduct according to the Convention (Article V);
•Obligation to try persons charged with genocide in a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by an international penal tribunal with accepted jurisdiction (Article VI);
•Obligation to grant extradition when genocide charges are involved, in accordance with laws and treaties in force (Article VII), particularly related to protection granted by international human rights law prohibiting refoulment where there is a real risk of flagrant human rights violations in the receiving State.
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml
Every year on 9 December, the United Nations marks the adoption of the Genocide Convention, which is also the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.
Mark the date.
So by that definition, isn’t Hamas genocidal since they seek to destroy both a national and a religious group by killing its members and/or causing serious bodily harm to them?
The Ha’aretz article is behind a paywall.
Then there is this (out of order. The entire article is worth a look):
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-
1.7010035
archive.ph is your friend!
Lots of quotation marks missing as well as the link for the first block quote – https://www.politybooks.com/blog-detail/a-strong-hamas-netanyahus-design
Everything but the two sentences separating the block quotes is from the links.
Until he was elevated to the position of National Security Minister, Ben Gvir kept a photo of Baruch Goldstein, the mass murderer of 29 Muslim worshipers at prayer & wounder of 125 more, on his living room wall.
Itemar Ben Gvir is so happy now – so, so happy. This is what he’s worked his entire life for. It took Bibi’s criminal situation to get him to where he is now, the sweet spot for him, National Security Minister. He will make sure Netanyahu is buried deep when the war dies down. Ben Gvir’s rise is due to Netanyahu and he will definitely get the thanks he deserves.
Bibi just might be the worst thing to happen to Israel with the possible exception of the bigoted fanatics he’s allied himself with in order to avoid jail time.
Bibi is just like Zelensky. He does not care how many of his fellow citizens he gets killed by his mad cap schemes but only worries about securing his own personal position.
Thank you Yves, points well taken. I am among the most skeptical folks out there, but sending emails and calling is easy, and bottom line: even if in vain, we have nothing to lose by it.
I am fortunate my House rep. is one of a handful to oppose the Israeli slaughter, oppose sending $ to the Kiev regime, oppose sending more $ to Israel, oppose cuts to SS/Medicare etc.
The two Senators are typical two-faced politricksters. I wonder if they signed the AIPAC pledge that Cynthia McKinney referenced years ago?
Thank you for being willing to make this effort. I know it may seem futile but at least you truly can say you took a concrete step to oppose this horrible situation.
A bit of encouraging news, a historian of the era says that the peace movement shortened the Vietnam war, requiring the Nixon administration to enter their sentiments in the calculation of how to end it. Here’s the interview (previously cited in NC?)
…so writing those representatives may not be a complete exercise in futility if the precedent holds.
Letter sent to my House rep.
It has been a while since I have bothered to contact Congress; I largely gave up after the TARP and bailout era.
One thing I noticed is that they harvest a lot more information from you than before. I had to go through 3-4 screens of data capture (phone, email, name, address, etc.) before their web site would allow me to post my message.
One can assume that your personal information will be forwarded to the FBI and added to the dossier they will compile due to you having the audacity to complain to your elected representative.
I wrote to my 3 “representatives”: Fetterman, Casey and DeLuzio and got back the same non-responsive, form letters–which did NOT address any of the points I actually wrote about.
I usually refrain form writing these jackasses, but since this is important, I thought I’d try.
Fortunately, it didn’t take much effort. Unfortunately, it was a waste of time.
I had the same experience, substituting Thompson for Deluzio. The thing that really chaps my ass about this is Thompson knows who I am. We are not friends or acquaintances or anything, but I know he is aware of me professionally. I realize his staffers probably replied to me, but still. I even stuck up for Hamas (If I were to find myself in the Palestinians’ position, I’d take up arms as well) as a direct result of Israeli policies that make Israelis, and Jewish people in general, less safe the world over. I may have also pointed out that Israel has basically blown it, and that Israel should be politically dismantled, and replaced with a state that simply gives everyone equal rights. I don’t buy into the two state stuff- that will not end the conflict. My entire extended family is outraged over what is going on in Israel, from the eldest to the youngest. We tend to be militant and support Palestinian militancy. I wish them success, and I sincerely hope some other nations intervene. I don’t want to see a war, but what kind of species are we if we allow this to continue without physically stopping it, if that is the only means that will work? I am however, gobsmacked that the energy producing nations have not embargoed Israel at this point. What a disgusting mess, and I am stunned at how many people in this country are cheering the Israelis on. We know where they would have stood in a certain country back in the 1930’s, for sure.
At this point, weeks away from Oct. 7th, it seems clear that this has now become a war of opportunity. Who benefits? Reading the comments today of Wall Street participants in the arms industry we see demure discussion of the ‘upsides’ of this conflict. Again, who benefits? Israel gets land. The US gets to flaunt its power – of armaments, the purse, propaganda, “diplomacy”. No state player – anywhere – seems to see a downside here, as Gaza is destroyed. Relationships will only be reshuffled, power jockeyed for. It is horrifying to witness this. I’ve emailed the WH twice already. Will write now.
My Congress Person is Rosa DeLauro, D-Sikorski. I’ve given up wasting the paper/bandwidth on her but perhaps 10/31 may be the only appropriate day of the year to give it another try.
My senior Senator is Chuck Schumer. My rep is Dan Goldman to say that an email to them will fall on deaf ears is an understatement. Although I did waste a phone call on Chuck after his expensive, pointless and deeply insulting trip to Israel to bend his knee. Gillibrand faces a re-election next year so that one may be worth an immediate communication.
I will, however, be writing to Chuck and Dan and yes the disappointing Bernie Sanders snail mail. I do believe it clogs up their systems. I think I may do it often. At least as many times as they have offices.
done.
So i jumped Online to send my Congressman an e-mail ( Tonko- Upstate NY). He doesn’t have a spot on his website where a constituent can contact him. In order to do that you have to fill out a form-fill. The first question is ” what is your zip-code” and they want the four additional digits besides the first 5. That’s just so they can register you and then send you an e-mail back that supposedly you can reply to and provide your input. I’m still waiting for the return e-mail. THEY JUST DON’T CARE what we think. It’s a clown show.
I emailed the office of the president a week or two ago, and today emailed my senators here in CA, and my congressional rep, Barbara Lee. Thank you for the prompt!
I included a link to this piece by a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies. Not sure where I first learned about it, but maybe it was an earlier article here at NC.
https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide
There is scant evidence that protests (of any size and duration) had any impact on shortening the American War in Vietnam. If it weren’t for Watergate Nixon and Kissinger may well have continued prosecuting that war well into the 1970s – at least through Nixon’s second term. American-led wars typically end because of political exhaustion, not via protests or losses of life.
From Kissinger’s memoirs, we have evidence that Nixon was dissuaded from using nuclear weapons on north Vietnam by a large protest in Washington DC. As we know, from the cases of COINTELPRO and the deployment of the War On Drugs, significant resources were used to squelch the antiwar movement, which suggests the movement was being effective enough that they needed to hamstring it. In addition, antiwar conviction were spreading to the troops and veterans, which was regarded as a serious enough problem to end the draft. The war could have been longer without the movement.
Thanks Yves for the prompt and suggestions on what to include. I wrote to my congress rep and both senators.
Thanks very much Yves for a thorough and constructive piece.
Australian here. I wrote to members of the two major parties. Because the incumbent party (Labor) abstained from the UN vote for a motion for a cease-fire.
And straight after, the leader of the Opposition said to the media ‘Australia should have voted No along with US and Israel.’
I said, ‘you are now on the public record in perpetuity for supporting war atrocities. All because, you didn’t get a few extra lines of text in your motion. Do you think the millions of people suffering, are grateful you abstained based on the few lines of text you didn’t get? You don’t represent the people of Australia. Millions of people that would have voted for you, now never will EVER again. And your stance on this issue will return as a reminder, pre-election time. Thank you for your transparency. It makes it so much easier to find candidates that do represent us’
I commenced by saying ‘ We have no nationalist, religious, political or ideological alignment in this situation. We simply require a cease-fire aka peace’
I felt it was essential to be utterly neutral in order to be taken more seriously. So,when I pointed to various things occurring ( war crimes) as things the Australian government was clearly supporting, I did so without naming any side or nation. The high ground is to simply focus on peace as the mission statement, alone.
I later remarked to someone, that it probably doesn’t matter. The last few weeks these pollies will have received more emails than it is humanely possible to process. Rabid, psychotic, foaming at the mouth sort of emails at that..
i am viscerally anti-war, but i have soured on that method of communicating it…i recently wrote to an oil and gas commission in Ohio and what i had to say got drowned out by 4000 emails from automated campaigns, most generated by industry…
***Market Place of Ideas*** meets funded algo spam you say …. did someone say Public Choice Theory …. ????
I cannot abide the hypocrites. It’s completely bonkers to see honest & real reaction like I’m in the twilight zone.
On one side it’s bury head in sand (sorry) for 70 years.
On the other side is MAGA & has already forgotten about Trump moving the ambassador to Jerusalem, no idea of history.
It’s not looking good for USA if nobody gets it.
As a responsible citizen I feel intimately concerned. Maybe a few voices in the wind can become a storm.