Israel and Palestine

War powers and spending are Congress’s most solemn duty and one we have abdicated.

We have witnessed the people of Gaza and the West Bank systematically driven from their land, bombed, and starved before our eyes. The targets are not militants, but mothers and children, families and the infirmed.

We have seen this type of cruelty before, we named it holocaust and promised never again. Yet now we see the country that rose out of the ashes not as the victim but the perpetrator.

So many of the Israeli people in country and abroad have been the brave voices against these crimes. However, the Netanyahu administration shows no sign that it will ever heed the calls to cease the genocide of the Palestinian people.

We must stop all military aid to the country of Israel until they have stopped this campaign and begun to make restitution. This must be after a change from Netanyahu and his extremist governing partners.

To continue providing military aid with knowledge of the war crimes the Netanyahu administration is committing is against both our own law as well as international law.

We must take seriously the corrupting influence Israel and their American lobbying group AIPAC has had on our own and military decisions in the region as well as our politics at home.

Recognizing that the governing administration of Israel is guilty of heinous crimes should by no means result in harassment of the Jewish members of our community. Antisemitism and hate are not the solution. We must begin embracing every life with the dignity that life deserves.