Israel/Gaza: #NotInMyName Or An American Perspective On The Gazan Massacre

Let me start by establishing my angle. I am not an Israeli, I am not Jewish, and I am not Palestinian. Though I am not directly linked to any of the groups involved in this current war, I am a hardworking American citizen whose tax dollars in part funded the Goliath known as the IDF. With that said I will say here at the outset that I intend to shame Israel for its current slaughter of Palestinian civilians while at the same time calling my own government to account for its unilateral support of this evil. I do not intend on justifying Hamas or their actions, but I would ask you to consider one question no matter who and/or where you are: if your families' livelihood, home, drinkable water, power, and access to food were being systematically demolished by a foreign invader would you too not put up a fight, even if they outmatched your military might a thousand to one? 

One holocaust is not justification for another. 

Let me begin with history. I am not a scholar on mid-twentieth century world politics, but am familiar enough with the general outline of post-WW2 events to understand the main events of the so-called "reconstruction". It was during this time that Israel was established as a state in the middle of a settled land. The victors of the War decided that they would give the Jews this land because it was currently under British occupation anyway. In this way they could guarantee that Israel could defend itself in the event of another major clash of civilizations. What is rarely talked about in the media is that evil already pervaded this region even before Israel was established--it was colonized. Lest we forget the conquering kings did not just lie in Germany. Britain, the US, France and a host of other Anglo descendants. They had been carving out lands, setting up artificial borders (defined by western sensibilities), and propping up marionette warlords for centuries. It was these original foreign invaders who decided that Israel should have a state in that area. The local population was not consulted; they were thrown into exile. 

In the time that followed the new marionette warlords--under the auspice of democracy--built up an empire with American aid. Nowadays Israel is tauted as an oasis in the midst of chaos because it is a "democracy" and capitalist, which is code for America's pet project in the Middle East. The problem is that is was western influence that burned the desert down in the first place. The same thing is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan: tribal peoples existed in relative peace, warring only with each other when necessary, until propped up western-friendly governments came in at gunpoint to demand allegiance to a central oligarchy. Would you not fight back if this happened in your city? If Mexico decided that they were going to take Texas (back, for the record) and started building settlements across the border the full weight of the American military would meet them head on and probably take some of their land for the trouble. Why is it any different in Palestine? 

When the US Federal government came in to enforce laws that had been broken for decades by a man in Nevada, armed militias intimidated Federal officers into backing down. So, self-determination is ok if you are white, wear a cowboy hat, and saunter around in stirrups waving an American flag, but if you are a poor oppressed people who have been kicked out of your home by an invading giant with overwhelming force then you are an infidel deserving of death? This is propaganda at its finest. And if you are reading this with anger and disdain I would ask: where are you getting your news? From pro-Israel funded media conglomerates or from the wails of children and innocent civilians crying out in the night for relief?

And this is all propped up by American might. Israel and the US have such a cozy relationship that they will both turn a blind eye to atrocities committed by each other. Though it really wouldn't matter if Israel disagreed with the US-though it is worth noting that this offensive in Gaza comes shortly after the US sought to make a deal with Israel's mortal enemy Iran on its nuclear program--if the US disagreed with Israel the political fallout would be devastating. Why? Because the pro-Israel lobby provides so much of the funds for election campaigns. It is atrocious how much influence Israel-friendly dollars have on foreign policy. 

No one should support this. Pro-Israel supporters with ties to the region I can understand. I think they are deceived and have been lied to by a corrupt and bloodthirsty government who has linked a national identity to a ethnic heritage, but I can at least understand the deception. Non-Jewish Americans--especially on the conservative side--are even more deceived however. They have zero reason to justify this massacre. They gain nothing by sending their tax dollars to fund machines of death in the Middle East. They have simply been convinced by right wing media and corrupt politicians such as Lindsey Graham, Bob Corker, and John McCain that they have some stake in the conflict. No! They don't! All the United States of America risks is its "influence in the region" which we have no business being in anyway. What right do rich white men from Arizona, South Carolina, and Tennessee have to direct the future of a people who have inhabited a region for thousands of years? None. They don't even have a right to dictate the future of the soil they are occupying, yet they still lord their influence like a divine right here at the site of the old Massacres and now--by proxy--the new. 

Now I would like to address those who argue that such sentiments are "anti-Semitic". Non-sense. And if anyone confuses racial hatred and bigotry with righteous indignation of a war machine on automatic then those same people are going to end up causing an actual rise in anti-Semitism with their ignorance. People like me who accuse Israeli government members, soldiers in the IDF, US gov't officials who prop up these warlords, and their supporters of being criminals and war profiteers are not accusing any person of Jewish heritage as being such. We are accusing those responsible with their hands in their wallets and their fingers on their triggers. However, as Howard Zinn said you cannot be neutral on a moving train. Anyone who supports these war crimes should not only be ashamed of themselves but should look into the eyes of those babies with their heads blown off (literally) whether they be Israeli, Jewish, American, or any other. Bolivia has and they have designated Israel a terrorist state. 

What then shall we do? The massacre must stop. Protests have erupted all over the world and will continue to do so, but they must be escalated, especially here in the US. Recently, in New York City a brave bunch of individuals of Jewish heritage under the name of "IfNotNow" delivered letters to the heads of major Jewish organizations demanding the end of the occupation. The action then resulted in a sit-in after they read the names of the dead. Some of these folks, like most people who take a stand for justice by sitting down, were arrested. However, their action was poignant, self-sacrificial, and to the point. We need more people who can commit themselves to direct action and escalate until our message of dissent resonates through city, corporate, and congressional halls. 

Secondly, we must continue to share the story. Mass media has been covering the story in an incredibly propogandic and one-sided manner. They may have even deceived some of you reading this story. Just yesterday I saw a story out of Israel about an owl who died as a result of Hamas rocket fire while ignoring the more than a thousand deaths of Palestinians most of whom were innocent civilians. Thankfully, we have alternative on-the-ground sources from outlets such as Facebook, twitter, and other social media platforms; we have petitions that can be filed through WhiteHouse.Gov that we can sign and share (one of which is available here); we can blitz the phone lines of our (supposed) representatives and demand that the federal government cease its unilateral support of this massacre (phone lines available here and here); we can occupy offices of Congresspeople (locations available in last two links); and we can chain ourselves to the government fences to symbolize the constrains of living in a walled up warzone. There is no limit to how we can creatively engage those here at home who make the decisions to send our hard earned tax dollars to fund massacre; we just need to commit ourselves to action and hop to it. This slaughter is being done in your name. No more.

#notinmyname

If you are in Philadelphia there is a rally on Friday August 1st @ 4pm at Love Park and there is also a bus leaving Saturday August 2nd to head to DC for a mass protest in support of Gaza. Be silent no more; its time to get involved.

Washington's "Dirty Wars": Do We Care?

I watched a documentary today called Dirty Wars. It is the story of a journalist, Jeremy Scahill, a war reporter whose credentials include coverage of the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and a host of other countries engulfed in US wars. He has been to the battlefield, talked to survivors and perpetrators alike, and has seen firsthand the horrors of war. I would continue with his resume but suffice it to say that this guy is no novice. 

This particular story centers around a trip that Mr. Scahill took to Afghanistan. He goes to one of the areas that is normally left untouched by mainstream journalism due to its volatility. In the film he marks that the road to get there is designated black, that's NATO-speak for "you don't go there." He braves the dangers because he wants to investigate a couple of Afghan civilian deaths. 

I will leave the full account of his journey to the film, but basically what he discovers is that a family was having a gathering with eating and dancing before US soldiers showed up and started firing on their house. They kill two men and two pregnant women. One of the men killed was an Afghan police commander who had been trained in several US run programs. Was he considered an enemy combatant? What about the pregnant women? The official story released by the Pentagon initially said that these deaths were perpetuated by Afghans themselves as "honor killings." However, eyewitness accounts by family members and photo/video evidence prove otherwise. They were killed by bearded Americans. There was clearly a cover up. The questions Mr. Scahill left with was who and why? 

Through a series of investigations his attention is drawn to a military unit that is solely under the direct supervision of the White House called JSOC. JSOC is a joint agency that is responsible for caring out special operations. What is uncovered throughout Mr. Scahill's investigation is that JSOC's operations a) do not have to be in a designated warzone (as demonstrated by another situation covered in the film of a cruise missile being fired on civilians in Yemen) and b) are not under NATO command (even the CIA and local US occupied bases claim to have no knowledge of their soldiers' movements). There are many exhibits in the film that are much more convincing of these points than I can or should offer here, but presently I just want to paint some broad strokes of just how secretive and unaccountable these units are in order to illustrate their clandestine yet ubiquitous nature. Civilians are being killed in non-warzones in secret by American forces (even American citizens without due process in the case of Anwar Al-Awlaki) yet the US government will not even acknowledge that they are happening. 

My purpose here is not to go too far in detail about the specifics of each case. I simply wish to point out to you, the American citizen, what is being done in your name behind closed doors with your tax dollars with no accountability in order to ask you a question-- do you care? 

I am not a scholar of international diplomacy or war. I am not a soldier. I am not a politician. I am simply a tax paying citizen who cares what his country does abroad. I am also a human being who cares about the lives of innocent people. I also live under the presupposition- though I am not so inclined to really believe it these days- that we live in a democracy and I therefore have the right of a voice and the responsibility of action. 

There was a time when the general feeling (and law for that matter) was that the President needed Congress' approval in order to go to war. It is my deduction that if the President needed the authority of Congress then it implicitly needed the approval of the people who politicians are supposed to represent. Since W Bush that mandate has been circumvented at best and blatantly ignored at worst. No longer do Presidents seek the approval of Congress or the people to go to war. Now Commanders-in-chief have kill lists that are subject to no one except their own conscience, which I think we can safely say are beholden more to the corporate interest than to the blind hand of justice these days. 

My question is how long do we let these politicians run amuck drunk on power like this? Not only is the US defense budget more than the next 26 largest other countries in the world combined (all allies) while domestic spending is cut more and more year by year (food stamps just took an $8.7B cut), but wars are not even being fought in the traditional ways that precipitate the need for such a budget. The targeted killings that are being done on the battlefield of planet Earth are carried out (again without transparency or accountability) by a small group of special forces (JSOC, CIA, etc.). We don't go to war with countries anymore. We go to war with ideologies which can and will spring up anywhere, especially when the seeds of dissent are watered with the blood of martyrs. These small elite agencies are carrying out a world war under everyone's noses under the veil of darkness from the shadows and we are paying for it. 

Correct me if I am wrong but in a democracy if we pay taxes then it is my understanding that we get a voice in where that money is spent. Did you ever give your consent for your hard earned money to be used for sniper rifles, apache helicopters, night vision goggles, and the salaries of mercenaries and generals? Did you ever give your consent that billions and trillions of dollars worth of war machines be shipped overseas to kill children at weddings? Did you ever say it was ok to send a drone to fire missiles into fields of unidentified civilians? If your answer is "no" then I would ask you why is continues? Do you approve of such things being done in your name? Do you want to pay for those guns and missiles? Then I would urge you and myself to action.

Maybe I am naive. Maybe things can't change. Maybe the government really is bought off by the corporate interest and my voice is muffled to silence under the mountain of money my concerns are buried under. Maybe the US military will continue taking a majority of our money to kill innocent people and perpetuate a never-ending cycle of bloodshed that not only kills but creates terrorists in the process. Maybe we are doomed to be spied on even in our own homes. Maybe it is  possible that your or my name could be put on a kill list on the President's desk. Or maybe we could do something about it.

Maybe we could call our representatives and demand that they address the blatant abuses of the US military in foreign lands. Maybe we go to Washington D.C. and occupy the offices of those who purport to represent us while being beholden to the corporate interest. Maybe we stage rallies at national monuments to let our fellow citizens know what their government is doing in their name. Maybe we shut down traffic with our limp bodies to give a depiction of the dead lying in fields in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and Palestine. 

I don't know the answer. I am just a man. But I also know that I am sick and tired of being complicit in the murder of hundreds and thousands of innocent people under the guise of a war that will never end and only profit the war machine. I am tired of this being done with my money; I am tired of this being done in my name. 

This post is only about war. I have not even touched upon the domestic issues and systematic oppression that plague hundreds of millions of citizens here are home. It becomes clearer and clearer to me every day that this government and their corporate puppet masters have gone too far. It is definitely time to fight back. The only question I have is-- do we care?