I'm sending this to pretty much all my lists. This is a copy of a letter that I'll type up shortly and mail to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who represents my district. The same letter will go to Schumer and Kennedy. You can easily get the name and address of your representative by googling. You can also, if you want, send an email. I think a "paper letter" carries more weight - but then take into account my age.
This letter is sent only as a guide (obviously). Pure anger isn't going to help. Outrage is certainly in order, but the intent is to help the people of Gaza, not to gain satisfaction by expressing our personal fury.
The one point which I deeply believe to be true is that the key problem in this situation has been the unwillingness of Israel at any point to make serious efforts at a settlement - and this is a reflection of the internal politics of Israel. And the one thing which would have a deep impact on those politics is the end of US aid. Nothing else will "focus the political mind" of Israel.
Representative Jerrold Nadler
2334 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington DC 20515-3208
Dear Jerrold Nadler,
The news today continues to focus my mind on the tragedy of Gaza. So I take this moment to get this letter off to you.
Nothing is simple in this world. Nowhere is this more true than of the relations between Israel and the Palestinians. I do understand the view of those, such as Marty Peretz of the New Republic, who feels that Israel had to do something to end the continuing rocket attacks from Gaza. I also understand the view of those who feel Israel has turned Gaza into a concentration camp and is now in the process of launching air raids into areas so crowded with civilians that military casualties are almost incidental.
I have followed this conflict for all of my life. In 1948, at UCLA, I was, as a favor to a Jewish friend of mine with whom I'd gone to High School, the co-chair of "Christians and Jews for Israel". I knew very little about the situation then, but as someone who was already "on the left", I supported Israel. Our college group danced the Hora, sang Zum Gali Gali, had friends who were going to Israel to live, and in general were entranced by this new democratic state, emerging in the midst of a backward Arab world.
So much has changed since then. Israel has been attacked, and it has attacked. (I think in particular of the outrageous Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956, in alliance with the imperial powers of France and Britain, in an effort to retain Western control of the Suez Canal. This attack was doubly outrageous because it deflected world opinion from the Hungarian Revolution and made it easier for the Soviet Union to re-establish control over that rebellious state).
I have watched as Israel supplied arms to the dictators of Central America, and, most of all, as it has continued the illegal Occupation of Palestinian territory. As you know, Israel's Mossad helped fund Hamas in an effort to undermine the PLO, as a counterweight to the secular movement of Arafat. In the same way, it was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon which led to the creation of Hezbollah. Israel has created its own enemies.
Clearly I find myself now at right angles to where I was in 1948. Of course the Jewish people – wherever they live - have a right to exist. And of course the vast majority of Jews have rejected the notion that Israel is "their state". (Some of the most ardent supporters of Israel are, like Martin Peretz, residents of the US who have no interest at all in moving to Israel).
I follow events in Israel and in Palestine closely, and am in contact with Israeli Jews who seek to bring peace and justice to the area. I know that the political scene in Israel is dismal, heavily militarized, profoundly corrupt, deeply racist. Yet I also know that the majority of Israelis want to end the conflict. The problem is that within the political landscape of Israel, with the division of parties, no party can take the risk of serious steps toward peace. (The Arab League's offer of several years ago to recognize Israel in exchange for the Israeli acceptance of a Palestinian state was simply ignored by Israel).
The one thing which could change the Israeli political situation is to end the illusion that the United States has any "special relationship" with Israel. We do not. It serves no vital US interests. It has complicated the general US position not only in the Middle East but in relation to the larger Muslim world. Israel is in no danger – it has one of the most powerful military machines in the world. It can defeat any combination of Arab states. It has a large arsenal of nuclear weapons (which somehow is never discussed when the matter of Iranian nuclear policy comes up - where is the idea of a "nuclear free" Middle East that would include both Iran and Israel?).
The US supplies the jets Israel is using today in its attacks on Gaza. Over the past fifty years the US has given billions upon billions of dollars in military and economic aid to the State of Israel. This should end immediately - as should any military aid to any country in the Middle East.
The one thing - the only thing - which can move Israeli policy off its present lethal course is to withhold US support for that policy.
In writing this I am aware that the policies of Hamas or of Hezbollah, are hardly mine. I am for a democratic, secular society - a plural society in which my own rights as a homosexual, and the right of women are recognized. That would hardly be the case under Hamas or Hezbollah.
But the fact I do not support the policies of Hamas does not mean I support the murderous Israeli attacks on the civilian population. I have been told by one Jewish friend that I am far too hard on Israel - that, after all, Israel has a free press, and an active political opposition (even if that is ineffective). The same thing could have been said about South Africa in the old days. It can be said of our own society, which still has troops in Iraq, despite vigorous political opposition. It was true of the US during the Vietnam War, where massive opposition to US policy did not prevent the Democratic and Republican Administrations from conducting a war which cost the lives of three million Vietnamese.
The people of Gaza are dying. Children, the elderly. The missiles Hamas has fired at Israel can't be defended, but the disproportionate violence of Israel breaks the heart of one old enough to remember the fact the world was once silent while another Holocaust occurred.
Sincerely,
David McReynolds