Together with the complete withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from that Palestinian territory and the immediate resumption of all international humanitarian aid programs there
Many years ago, I spent time in Palestine during a major societal upheaval aimed at freeing the West Bank and Gaza from Israeli rule. While staying with Palestinian families in both territories, I often had occasion to compliment them on a nice meal. And more than once my hosts said it was the least they could do for a guest, but then added various versions of a saying I never forgot, basically, “We eat, but we do not live.”
In recent months, it has become glaringly obvious, even to President Donald Trump this week, that the Palestinians of Gaza increasingly neither eat nor live.
And the reason for this isn’t some natural disaster. No, it’s because of a policy of collective punishment against the entire population of Gaza that is now widely seen as genocidal—perpetrated by Israel … enabled, funded, supplied, and advised by the governments of the United States (under both Democratic and Republican administrations), the United Kingdom, Germany, and a short list of other nations around the world.
Focusing on Massachusetts and sometimes national topics as I have long done in this column, I don’t often write about foreign policy. But this time out, I’d like to just add my voice to growing chorus of outrage aimed at the Israeli, US, and other governments in question to call for the following:
- An immediate, total, and open-ended ceasefire between Israel and whatever remains of the government of Gaza, including the IDF and all irregular military forces in Israeli employ and the militias of Hamas and its allies.
- The immediate withdrawal of all Israeli military forces in Gaza to the Israeli side of the Gaza-Israel border.
- The immediate opening of the Gaza-Israel and Gaza-Egypt borders to all international humanitarian aid organizations, most especially the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, and the full and complete resumption of all international aid to Gaza.
That will do for now.
I encourage all Americans of good conscience to push your Congresspeople to get the US government behind the above call or any of the many similar calls at speed—and work with any political, civic, or religious advocacy group that strikes you as decent toward that goal.
Apparent Horizon—an award-winning political column—is syndicated by the MassWire news service of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
