As Americans We Have Blood On Our Hands!

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The Moebius Strip image was inspired by the January 5, 2009 Daily Show by Jon Stewart. http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml?episodeId=213378
This one-sided surface was immortalized in an Escher poster available from: http://www.worldofescher.com/gallery/A29.html

When hundreds of people are killed thousands of miles from our borders, it is difficult for us to feel any responsibility for what happens. Yet, when gifted American F-16s and American sophisticated bombs are used to kill people, it is difficult to see ourselves as innocent bystanders. As American citizens we have swallowed the Israeli Möbius Strip Crowd’s message hook, line and sinker.

Throughout American, we hear most citizens regurgitating the Israeli Möbius Strip Crowd’s message that says if Mexico was lobbing rockets into the United States or if Canada was lobbing rockets into the United States, we would respond with less restraint than the Israeli government has shown in Gaza. Once one adopts this framing of the issue, then we readily accept killing women and children as unfortunate collateral damage. But wait a minute, suppose we refuse to accept this Israeli Möbius Strip Crowd’s message. Suppose we ask a few questions and examine a few inconvenient facts about Gaza.

Gaza is not a sovereign state like Canada or Mexico. According to Wikipedia almost 1.0 million of the 1.4 million Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip are UN-registered refugees. So where did these refugees come from? Who are these refugees? These refugees are the Palestinians and their descendants who “fled their homes” in 1947 and 1948 when Israel was founded. If you want to know more about why these Palestinians “fled their homes”, you should read the works of the Israeli historian Benny Morris.

The Israeli Möbius Strip Crowd talks about the fact that Sharon unilaterally removed over 8,000 Israeli settlers (half by force and half left voluntarily) and stopped the military occupation of Gaza. This crowd likes to gloat about their facts that the Palestinians have made a mess of things since the Palestinian Authority took full control of the Gaza Strip in September of 2005. What this crowd almost never talks about is the fact that the Israeli military constructed a separation barrier around the Gaza strip so that the inhabitants of Gaza were living in an open air prison. The Israeli military controls the entry and exit of all people and goods.

I have some question about whether Mayor Daley could effectively run the city if a separation barrier was constructed at the Chicago borders and an external, military government controlled all that entered and exited through that barrier. It is likely that the residents of Chicago might have some resentment toward the government of that external military force that unilaterally controlled the flow of goods and people. It is reasonable to assume that some of those residents might be downright mad as hell if many of them or their parents or their grandparents or their great grand parents had lived outside that separation barrier before they “fled their homes” over six decades before.

The United States pressed for Palestinians elections in the West Bank and Gaza. In January of 2006, Hamas won a plurality of 42.9% of the total vote and 56% of the total seats. However, President Bush and the Israeli government did not like the decision made by the Palestinian voters. Hamas refused to recognize Israel and they refused to give up the idea of using crude rockets and suicide bombers to kill, maim and terrorize Israeli civilians. To express their displeasure, the U.S. government provided leadership to the rest of the world to punish the government of Hamas by withdrawing financial support from the Palestinian Authority and refusing to negotiate with terrorists. The theory was that by punishing all the people of Gaza they would get angry at Hamas and somehow remove that party that was elected in a free and fair election. The post Christmas 2008 Israeli invasion was the final culmination of this idea. Since Hamas would not shape up, we will kill them off and yes there will be collateral damage of bleeding and dead women and children but that will make the people mad at Hamas because it is Hamas that caused this Israeli military action and the entire government resisted taking this military action until they had to defend themselves. Does this idea make sense to most Americans?

It is also worth pointing out that the Israeli military has prohibited reporters to cover their carnage in the Gaza Strip. Even though the High Court of Israel rendered a decision that reporters should be permitted in Gaza, none were. A country where the decisions of the High Court are ignored by the military does not strike me as a country that we want to support unconditionally.

So the news at 7:40 AM Chicago time says that the French and the Egyptians have negotiated a cease fire for three hours and that humanitarian aid will be permitted to go into the Gaza Strip. Evidently even though the United States and the Israeli government will not negotiate with Hamas, third parties are permitted to do so. It makes me wonder whether it might have been possible for this agreement to have been negotiated without killing several hundred Palestinians and ravaging the structures and infrastructures in Gaza.

Unconditional support and blind acceptance of ideas that seem questionable when examined from a perspective different from the Israeli Möbius Strip Crowd’s message result in blood on our hands as American citizens. We have not lost millions like the people who directly or indirectly invested with Bernie Madoff (who also was unconditionally supported when questions were raised) but as a country and a people our failure to challenge our government’s unconditional support of Israel has lessened our moral authority in the world and has led to the slaughter of people who had nothing to do with rockets or suicide bombs. The destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza will require millions of dollars to restore.

I seriously doubt that the Palestinians who lost mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends, schools and homes have negative feelings toward Hamas. Their negative feelings are directed toward the Israelis who pulled the trigger and the Americans who provided the weapons and planes that wrought destruction on a people that were declared a “humanitarian disaster” as early as January of 2008 by the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

Does it make sense that Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the only American politician who believes that Israel should be held accountable for complying with the U.S. Foreign Assistance and Arms Export Control Acts? Does it make sense that our government blocked the passage of a UN Security Council statement on Sunday urging a ceasefire? When will we the people stop accepting hook, line and sinker the Israeli Möbius Strip Crowd’s messages? When will we the people start demanding that we have a public debate about the kind of support that we ought to provide to Israel? I hope it is sooner rather than later so that our children and grand children do not have to live with the consequences of our silence.