from the Argus Leader
Several years ago, I was with a tour group that visited Hebron University in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian students were particularly interested to talk with Americans. One comment has stayed with me through the years: "Israel is the United States' 51st state."
In the recent Gaza conflagration, Israel responded to Hamas' evil rocket shelling of its border with three weeks bombardment of Gaza territory. Hamas had rockets from Iran and Syria. Israel had F-16 fighter jets, helicopters, gunboats and missiles produced in the U.S. and paid for with American taxpayer money. When a shaky truce finally was established, 13 Israelis and 1,300 Gaza Palestinians were dead, including 300 children. Are not the lives of Jews and Arabs of equal worth?
The 1.4 million residents, locked in their crowded borders, had no place to flee. Richard Falk, a U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza, states that the Gaza bombardment evokes memories of the horrible 1943 Warsaw Ghetto. Falk, who is Jewish, calls for an independent investigation of the Gaza conflict.
In the six decades since 1948, the U.S. has given billions and billions of aid to Israel, most of it military. We might regard this as a war between Hamas and Israel, but we Americans, too, are involved, and culpable. When Gaza children see F-16 jets overhead, they think American. Will Americans wake up? Will we demand accountability of Israel? Will the U.S. government, with a new administration, finally be a more balanced broker for peace rather than a dominant advocate for one side?
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