The United States Continues To Support Israel - The Axis Of Evil

Richard S. Dunn – August 23, 2022

When will the civilized and democratic world unequivocally condemn and punish Israel for its continued genocidal and apartheid treatment of Palestinians, within illegally occupied Palestine? The latest act of aggression and repression carried out by Israel was on Thursday August 18, 2022 when Israeli security forces raided, and forcefully closed the offices of seven civil society organizations in Palestine. This came right after Israeli forces killed 19 Palestinian children within the past 10 days,  in occupied Gaza and the West Bank, according to Michelle Bachelet the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights. The program Democracy Now reports that the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that an internal military report has confirmed that one of their airstrikes killed five Palestinian children in Gaza on August 5th; the youngest was just 4 years old.

Where Are The ‘Progressives?’

Except for a small group of protesters outside the office of the  Friends of The Israel Defense Forces, in New York on August 8, where is the public outcry, protest, denunciation, and mass action from the “limping” and lethargic left, both Black and white? During the South African apartheid era these groups were regularly active and vociferous; is it fear of being characterized as “antisemitic” or is it that the Palestinian struggle is not that important? The Black “progressives” suffer from a serious case of benign parochialism and “selectivism:” is it only issues occurring on the Continent of Africa or within the borders of these United States that matters? These groups are noticeably silent and lukewarm to issues in the Caribbean and Latin America, when it comes to defending Palestine they have ‘lockjaw’ and a critical case of political laryngitis. Ignorance is no excuse for their silence and apathy; there are numerous publications from objective, unbiased and progressive sources but sadly, they are again stricken with the malady of “selectivism.”

Where are the elected officials and candidates on this issue? They do not deserve our vote and should not get one vote; they should be castigated and sanctioned for their complacency by silence, inaction, and ineptness.

Israel has used the self-serving claim that the organizations raided were terrorist organizations, and just like their benefactor the United States, have not provided any irrefutable empirical evidence to support the claim. The same charge is made by the United States in its designation of Cuba as a “State sponsor of terrorism.” The organizations raided and closed are Al-Haq a Human Rights organization; the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; The Bisan Center for Research and Development; Defense for Children International-Palestine; the Union of Agricultural Workers Committees and the Union of Palestine Women’s Committees. In keeping with its racist, apartheid ideology of Zionism, the characterization of these civil organizations is meant to demonize, and de-legitimize them, thereby erroneously gaining support for their genocidal occupation of Palestine.

Continued Genocide and Repression in Palestine

In the three-day siege on Gaza which began on August 5, 2022 it is reported that 47 Palestinians were killed including 17 children; ‘lame duck’ hypocritical President Joe Biden said in the aftermath of this crime, which was unprovoked and non-retaliatory that, “my support for Israel’s security is long-standing and unwavering.” This is the same President who unashamedly has the gall to criticize and sanction countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Iran citing “human rights abuses” as the Administration’s reason. Never once in the belligerent and apartheid history of Israel against Palestine, have Israel been reprimanded for their genocidal and disproportionate attacks against Palestine, and their continued government-approved racist Policies. Recently 50 Palestinians in Jerusalem were ordered off a bus that was boarded by three Jewish passengers, who refused to ride with the Palestinians.

Khalid Awawdeh a Palestinian political prisoner currently on hunger strike for over 167 days, was arrested and detained in December 2021 under what Israel illegally calls Administrative Detention. Under this Policy, Palestinians can be indefinitely detained without charge or trial, which is illegal under International Law. The Israeli security forces claims Awawdeh is a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) while at the same time providing no evidence; on Monday August 15, 2022 an Israeli military court rejected Khalid Awawdeh’ s appeal for release.

The following day August 16 another Israeli court rejected ending the solitary confinement of 21-year-old Ahmad Manasra , despite his documented poor physical and mental condition. Manasra was arrested at age 13 for alleged involvement in a stabbing incident in Jerusalem in 2016, in a revised court Ruling he was sentenced to nine years. Manasra was ran over by a vehicle driven by Israeli settlers and suffered a fractured skull.

His cousin was shot and killed also by Israeli settlers, during the incident; albeit both Palestinians were never proven to be involved in the stabbing incident. Amnesty International commented on the Israeli court’s rejection of Ahmad Manasra’s release from solitary confinement: “By approving prolonged solitary confinement, the Israeli court is legitimizing torture. This decision is cruel.” Aren’t these “human rights abuses” by any standard? It would be for all civilized and democratic people except the Biden Administration or, has the ‘standards’ change when it involves people of color, or where the United States has no hegemonic interests?

It appears that the Biden Administration shares the same immoral, inhumane, and racist view about the Palestinians, just like the Israeli military establishment. David Weinberg of the Jerusalem Institute For Strategy and Security writes: “Just like mowing your front lawn, this is constant hard work. If you fail to do so, weeds grow wild, and snakes begin to slither around in the brush.” The constant dehumanization and attacks against the people of Palestine, is to maintain and coerce the Palestinians, in accepting Israel’s genocidal and apartheid occupation of their territory, foment division between the Palestinian Liberation groups, and discourage and eliminate dissention.

 South Africa Led The Way

The Foreign Minister of South Africa Naledi Pandor, whose country knows very well the material support Israel gave to the apartheid regime, during their liberation struggle; made a principled and profound statement during Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s visit to South Africa on August 10, 2022. During a Press Conference with Blinken, the Foreign Minister said in part: “We believe that all principles that are germane to the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law, must be upheld for all countries, not just some. As much as the people of Ukraine deserve their territory and freedom, the people of Palestine deserve their territory and freedom.” This fundamental and objective truth has been ignored and trampled on by all United States’ Administration since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948.

It is obvious in word and deed that the lives and sovereignty of the Palestinian people do not matter to the United States and their European allies. Not once has the air strikes on Palestine, and the arbitrary killing of its citizens been condemned by the United States or their European friends. What is taking place in Palestine are war crimes and should not be seen as anything else. What is abominable is that the United States’ taxpayers who are mainly the working class, are paying for Israel’s State sponsored terrorism against the Palestinian people. According to the Congressional Research Service, the new Agreement between the United States and Israel calls for the sum of $3.8 billion to Israel for ten years. This new Agreement signed in 2016, runs from 2019 through 2028; $3.3 billion of that amount will go to military financing, which in most cases is used to purchase American-made weapons, services, and training, to further Israel’s genocidal and apartheid occupation of Palestine.

Silence and inaction are tantamount to complacency and de facto support for this immoral and inhumane Policy; it lends support to a belligerent and bellicose regime that is racist and evil. The boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) Movement needs to be expanded and ramped up. Innocent people including children, young children, are being killed; people are forcibly driven out of their homes in order to further the settlement goals of the Zionists. It is time for all of us as so-called progressives and activists to put pressure on the elected officials who claim to represent us, and those who aspire to represent us, to take a fearless and principled stand against the human atrocity taking place in Palestine. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr was a preacher, but he was not afraid to take a stand against injustice, anywhere it occurred; he sacrificed his life for that cause. He was not selective in his stand for truth and justice; if you say you love King and shy away from struggle, you are a hypocrite.

 Richard Dunn can be reached at: contact@makingitplain.net