Israel’s War in Gaza

Pro-Palestinian activists protested Israel’s war in Gaza at the end of the Kansas City Pride Parade. 

The protestors accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The protest took place in Kansas City on Saturday, June 8. 

 

 

 

 

I broadly agree with the message of the protest.

I particularly liked the chant, “Biden, Biden, we’re your line — No more bombs in Palestine.”

 

This was the first Pro-Palestinian protest I’ve seen in person.

Protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have taken place across the United States.

There was a Pro-Palestinian protest in Manhattan, Kansas, but I didn’t see it myself.

 

It has been a while since I’ve covered world news and foreign policy on this blog.

From 2011 to 2013, I covered developments in Bahrain, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria.

More recently, I’ve been focused on other topics, including LGBT Statistics and domestic US Politics.

 

Even though I don’t plan to devote ongoing coverage to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I do want to provide some context about its current iteration.

 

 

 

A Cycle of Retribution

 

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict stretches back decades.

The conflict appears to be a never-ending retribution spiral.

One side commits an atrocity against the other side, and the other side retaliates, causing the first to retaliate, and so on, and so forth, forever. 

 

I don’t have the patience or motivation to try to parse every atrocity committed, or alleged to have been committed, stretching back indefinitely into the past.

Instead, I intend to provide an overview of the current iteration of the conflict, fully aware that any full accounting of the deadly dispute would require far greater detail. 

 

I encourage you to use this article as a starting point for your own research into the war, but be careful not to put too much trust in any source that appears to portray one side of the conflict as purely good and the other as purely evil. 

This conflict just isn’t that simple.

 

 

 

Hamas Attacks

 

The current phase of the conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people, most of which were civilians.

The attack began when Hamas fighters broke through the militarized border between Israel and Gaza. 

Under the cover of rockets fired from Gaza, the fighters indiscriminately killed people in streets, homes, and at a music festival.

When the attack took place, Hamas governed the Gaza Strip. 

Hamas is regarded as a terrorist organization by several governments, including the United States.

Hamas took about 250 people hostage during the attack, including civilians and soldiers.

Exact numbers are sometimes difficult to determine due to the nature of armed conflict. This is often referred to as the “fog of war.”

 

 

In terms of casualties and national trauma, the Oct. 7 attack against Israel is similar to the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, where Al Qaeda killed almost 3,000 people in 2001.

After the 9/11 attacks, the US responded at times in unwise or immoral ways, including by torturing suspected enemy combatants, and invading Iraq, a country with no connection to the 9/11 attacks.

It should come as no surprise that Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attacks with atrocities of its own.

 

 

 

Israel Responds

 

Israel responded with retaliatory attacks on Gaza.

Days after the Hamas attack, Israel cut off the supply of water, food, electricity, and fuel to the Gaza Strip, creating a humanitarian crisis for the civilians who live there.  

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced the “complete siege” with a declaration that, “we are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”

Israel advised residents of northern Gaza to leave for southern Gaza in preparation for an Israeli ground invasion.

Israel began a ground invasion of the Gaza strip in northern Gaza, before invading southern Gaza, where Israel had told Palestinian civilians to seek refuge.

 

 

In late October, during remarks on the war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked a passage from the Old Testament that has long been used by far-right Israelis to justify killing Palestinians.

Netanyahu told Israelis to, “remember what Amalek has done to you.”

In the Old Testament, God tells King Saul to, “attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

 

 

Israel’s war in Gaza has been ongoing for the past nine months.

In March, the United Nations Satellite Center estimated 35% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, severely damaged, or moderately damaged in the war.

On July 5, The Lancet, a medical journal, estimated 186,000 people had died from Israel’s war in Gaza, which is about 7-9% of Gaza's population.

 

 

 

International Law

 

Proceedings are underway in international courts regarding the conduct of Israel and Hamas.

 

In December, South Africa brought a case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in its war in Gaza.

In January, the ICJ instructed Israel to prevent its military from committing acts which might be considered genocidal, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to enable humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

It may take several years for the court to reach a final verdict in the case.

 

 

In May, Karim Khan, A prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, filed applications for arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli leaders.

Khan has accused three senior Hamas leaders of criminal responsibility for the following crimes against humanity: extermination, murder, rape, torture, and other inhumane acts.

Khan has also accused them of the following war crimes: taking hostages, cruel treatment, and outrages upon personal dignity.

 

 

Khan has accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of the following war crimes: starvation of civilians as a method of war, willfully causing great suffering, murder, and intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population.  

Khan accused Netanyahu and Gallant of the following crimes against humanity: persecution, other inhumane acts, and extermination and/or murder - including in the context of deaths caused by starvation.

 

 

 

US Complicity

 

The Biden Administration has repeatedly aided Israel’s aggressive war in Gaza.

 

In December, the Biden administration bypassed Congress to approve weapons sales to Israel, on an emergency basis.

The emergency determination allowed the administration to bypass congressional review for the foreign military sales.

Such determinations are rare, but not unprecedented.

The Biden administration bypassed Congressional review for two separate military sales to Israel in December.

 

Biden advocated for Congress to pass a bill that would include military aid to Israel.

In April, Congress passed a foreign aid bill, which included billions of dollars in military aid to Israel.

Biden signed the bill into law.

 

 

 

Powerful Editorial

 

In December, MSNBC Host Chris Hayes called on Israel to end its war in Gaza and for the US to stop enabling Israel’s war.

It’s a powerful, careful, and nuanced take on a difficult and sensitive topic, and it’s one I recommend watching.

 

 

 

 

 

The US Presidential Election

 

I disapprove of Biden’s enabling of Israel’s War in Gaza.

That’s why I voted for Marianne Williamson in the Kansas Democratic Presidential Primary in March.

Biden had already secured enough delegates to win the Democratic Party’s nomination, but I wanted to express my disapproval with Biden’s response to the War in Gaza, nonetheless.

 

I plan to vote for Biden in the general election in November.

Biden will be running against Donald Trump, who engaged in a sprawling attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election, a free and fair election that Trump lost fair and square.

Trump’s illegal schemes included using fake electors to forge documents that claimed he won states that he had lost, pressuring his vice president to refuse to accept legitimate electoral college votes, and riling up a mob to attack Congress to prevent the certification of Trump’s electoral defeat.

Trump repeatedly praises dictators and still refuses to accept the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

I dislike Biden’s support for Israel’s aggressive war, which I believe can be fairly described as a genocide.

But Trump is a threat to the American republic. 

There are many, many other reasons to oppose Trump.

 

Other than his handling of Israel’s War in Gaza, I believe Biden has been a good president.

To me, the choice in November is clear.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t call out Biden for his complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza, which is a criticism I believe he has earned.

 

 

For anyone wanting to follow the developments in the War in Gaza, I’d recommend Human Rights Watch, which has been fair in its commentary since the beginning of the war.