U.S. Should Demand End To Bombing Of Women And Children

By John J. Duncan Jr.

duncanj@knoxfocus.com

“Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5: 9

“Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.” Psalm 34: 14

“Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it.” 1 Peter 3: 11

When the Bible says the same thing in both the Old and New Testaments – “seek peace and pursue it” – it seems to me that both Christians and Jews should try as much as humanly possible to do it.

Almost every American, and most people around the world, condemned the horrible things Hamas did on October 7, especially killing and/or kidnapping small children.

Every country has the right to defend itself. But there is a huge difference between defense and needless revenge. Israel has now gone too far.

Thousands of women and children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli bombs. Thousands more have been buried under the rubble of bombed buildings.

I have never been a fan of the United Nations and have always felt the U.S. has paid far more than its share for UN activities. But the UN was right when it voted 120-14 to call for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian War.

Thus, I was disappointed (but not surprised) when the U.S. and Israel both voted no. The other 12 voting no were countries to which the U.S. has given substantial money, such as Ukraine, Iraq, and others.

Voting against this resolution and continuing to support all this bombing of women and children is not seeking or pursuing peace.

When George W. Bush campaigned for president, he said we should not be doing so much nation-building (of other nations) and that we needed a more humble foreign policy. But I was disappointed that his administration was dominated by Israel-First Neocons.

Probably his most ridiculous statement was that other countries hated us for our democracy. What they really hated was that we allowed Israel to control our foreign policy in the Middle East and what this did to world peace.

I have nothing against Israel, and it is not antisemitic in the least to believe that we should treat Israel just like we do all other friendly foreign countries and to believe that no other country should control any aspect of our foreign policy.

The Israel Lobby (and all the money it can produce) has total control of the U.S. Congress. Now though, with world and even U.S. opinion starting to turn in sympathy for the Palestinians, very few members of Congress are running to the TV cameras as they were a couple of weeks ago to proclaim their support for the Israeli bombing campaign.

Even the most hawkish member of Congress, Sen. Lindsey Graham, was squirming all over the place in a CNN interview Tuesday night, still supporting everything Israel was doing, but easing his conscience with calls for more humanitarian aid.

President Biden has said the overwhelming majority of Palestinians are not with Hamas even though they have been horribly mistreated for the last 75 years. Gaza and the West Bank are usually referred to as “open-air prison camps.”

More than 750,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes and became refugees after the 1948 war. Since then, hundreds of thousands more have had their homes demolished or taken.

Now, under prior agreements, the Palestinians have some “control” over only 22% of country, but Israel limits the food, water, and fuel they can receive.

And despite requests from several American presidents to not do so, Israel has built settlements for over 600,000 Jews in the Palestinian 22%.

The only American president who ever stood up to this “ally” was Eisenhower. In 1956, Israel demanded that the U.S. join it in a war with Egypt over the Suez Canal. Eisenhower had the courage to go on national television one week before the 1956 election to say he would cut all aid to Israel if they went to war. Israel backed down.

Now, even many Jews are speaking out against this war. Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs said Israel “is running out of time to save itself” because the videos of the “bloodshed, carnage” and “killing of innocents” is isolating Israel “from the world conscience” and “basic ethics.”

But Netanyahu seems determined to kill and/or destroy the homes of as many Palestinians as possible. A Drudge headline said Israel was bombing Gaza “back to the stone age.” If this was happening in any other country, the U.S. would be demanding an end to this genocide.