The Evil That Men (and Women) Do
When I consider Gaza and the ramifications of Israel's U.S.-backed genocide, I see humanity trembling on the edge of a giant sinkhole from which there may be no easy way back.
Did you see the old woman bent over, making her way with both hands on the ground across the wasteland that is Gaza? No one came to help her. She had no choice but to leave whatever shelter she had found before the orders were given, and the people once again gathered their things and fled. Before the planes came as they always do at night when families are huddled in schools, on hospital grounds, in tents as sturdy and bulletproof as cobwebs and thistles.
Can you even begin to fathom how warped a person's humanity must become in order to deliberately target Palestinian families asleep in the fields and meadows of their dreams, perhaps recalling days of peace and simple pleasures while encamped on barren stones and the still-smoldering remains of what had once been homes, shops, hospitals, schools, mosques, and universities? And yet those brave Israeli "warriors" dropping the bombs, manning the drones must believe they're doing God's work as ordained by Scripture and the psychotic, bloodthirsty ministers now in power in Israel.
I bear witness, but that isn't enough. I send letters to my representatives. I speak out when opportunities arise, but that too isn't enough. I write about Gaza, and some of what I've written has been published. Most of it hasn't. It doesn't matter—not really. Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword never witnessed a genocide, even from afar in the comfort of one's own home, thousands of miles from the killing, the deliberate starvation, the sadistic withholding not only of food but of everything people need just to survive. The insanity of what's taking place in Gaza and spreading to the West Bank leaves me wondering into what reality I've been transported. A reality in which basic codes of human behavior have been crumpled up and thrown into a raging inferno. In which moral principles handed down from time immemorial no longer serve as guideposts for how we are supposed to treat each other. Not that there was ever a time when justice reigned and compassion for our fellow humans was the order of the day.
How is it possible to live in a world where wholesale murder is carried out while much of humanity goes about its business as if it were the most natural thing for one supremely armed and lavishly subsidized military to wage a war of annihilation against an impoverished, defenseless people?
But isn't it the case that compassion and justice have held a special place of honor among the virtues of any civilized society. Raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, I was taught to believe the Sermon on the Mount (from the Gospel of Matthew) represented one of the finest expressions of human solidarity and the highest virtues to which a person might aspire. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus instructed his disciples to suffer the little children to come unto him and reminded them that no one shall enter the Kingdom of God who does not receive it as a little child. One thing I think is fairly certain is that those who deliberately target little children in Palestine will never get to that transcendent (or immanent) realm. Not the soldiers who have shot children point blank in the head. Not members of the Israeli government who have ordered the borders sealed and are preventing any form of aid from reaching a besieged, starving population. Not those citizens of Israel who support and cheer on what their government is doing in their name and with their approval. Not officials of the Trump administration nor apparatchiks in both political parties who will not lift a finger or raise a voice to stop the genocide. If there is a God (and I sincerely doubt there is one, at least in the traditional sense of a supernatural being who intervenes in human affairs), I pray that those who have carried out the genocide or did nothing to stop it will pay for their criminality or their silence if only by being tormented, in hindsight, with visions of the pain and suffering their actions or nonactions enabled.
On second thought, I lean more toward The Divine Comedy and Dante Alighieri's prescription for punishing the damned in Hell—by condemning them to suffer the very sins they committed while alive. The Israeli pilots who carry out massive strikes against civilian targets in Gaza might pay for their sins, in a fictitious afterlife, by having their bodies constantly dismembered much as their munitions caused the mutilation and dismemberment of countless Palestinian women and children. As for those who think depriving innocent people of food and water is a surefire way to bring Palestinians to their knees and hasten their long sought-after departure from the Holy Land, let them experience unquenchable thirst and perpetual hunger once they are dead and gone—with mountains of delectable foods and cisterns of cold, sparkling water just out of reach. High-ranking officials in the Israeli government who have not a drop of mercy for the people of Gaza and are quite comfortable with destroying the entire healthcare system, might find themselves eternally strapped to a blood-soaked stretcher or left on a hospital floor, screaming in pain from shrapnel embedded in their flesh, bullets lodged in their brains, first-degree burns from the explosion of a 2,000-pound bomb (courtesy of the U.S.) dropped on their neighborhood, and one or more of their limbs requiring amputation in the absence of anesthesia and with only dull scalpels for the cutting. Such conditions are what the people of Gaza have endured for going on two years. Surely, the perpetrators of genocide deserve nothing less, all else being equal.
Of course, the above is purely the product of my own imagination and will never come to pass, neither in this life nor the next, assuming for the sake of argument "death is not the end." However, it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that the extremist perps running the show in Israel may one day find themselves under arrest and finally brought to justice. Setting aside Dante's lurid depiction of Hell, might there come to pass a 21st century equivalent of the Nuremberg Trials? These were held in Nuremberg Germany between 1945 and 1949 for the senior leaders of Nazi Germany who were charged with war crimes, crimes against the peace, and crimes against humanity. Seated in the front row during the Trials were Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walther Funk, Hjalmar Schacht, and others.
Only this time, the defendants will be the leaders of the Zionist state of Israel and their principal backers and enablers in the U.S., the U.K., and Germany. The front row in the tribunal's dock will be reserved for Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, Major General Ghassan Alian (who called Palestinians in Gaza "human animals"), Ambassador to the U.K. Tzipi Hotovely, and other high-ranking proponents of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Israeli far-right government, including Giora Eiland, a retired major general and the principal architect of the so-called "Generals' Plan," a blueprint for ethnically cleansing northern Gaza, preventing the entrance of all humanitarian aid, and starving to death anyone who remains.
Honorary back-row seats will be filled with the likes of ersatz President Donald Trump; Vice President JD Vance; Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; former U.S. President Joe Biden; former Vice President Kamala Harris; former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken; former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin; current U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his foreign secretary, David Lammy; and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and leading supporters of Israel in the German government, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephuls.
Yes, our world is racked with conflict, with the spreading plague of far-right extremism morphing into full-blown fascism; the growing chasm between rich and poor; the ransacking of our planet by the gluttonous robber barons of today; hunger on a global scale, most tragically in Sudan; devastating civil wars; crisis upon crisis; and no salvation in sight. And then there is Gaza, a strip of coastal land roughly 25 miles long and 4 to 8 miles wide where the inhabitants are being systematically exterminated by military force, the denial of humanitarian aid, the destruction of desalinization plants that would otherwise provide potable water, the weaponization of food—in other words, the creation of "conditions of life calculated to bring about [the] physical destruction in whole or in part" of the Palestinian people. In other words, genocide. Recall what the aforesaid Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian had to say about how his country would respond to the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas:
Kidnapping, abusing and murdering children, women and elderly people is not human. There is no justification for that... Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.
In mid-May, legendary performer Bruce Springsteen (the "Boss") opened his "Land of Hope and Dreams Tour" in Manchester, England with a no-holds-barred, full-body punch aimed at Donald Trump and his administration's subversion of our country's highest ideals and democratic traditions. Right on, Bruce! Only one little thing was missing from his otherwise inspiring, unprecedented (for a rockstar) concert intro—any mention of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and our government's "no-holds-barred" support for Israel. Not a word from the Boss. Not even a gesture recognizing the plight of the Palestinian people and U.S. complicity. Just imagine what a night it would have been if he had not only shined the spotlight on the genocide but called for the end of arms shipments to Israel and the lifting of the blockade. Would the heavens have collapsed if Bruce and his "mighty" E Street Band had called upon the "righteous power" of their music on behalf of the victims of genocide?
Life goes on, as it should. As it must. To paraphrase the words of California Gov. Gavin Newsom in his televised address on June 10, we have to stand firm and hold the line against the bullying tactics of Donald Trump and the violent repression he is threatening to set loose upon the country. But when I consider Gaza and the ramifications of Israel's U.S.-backed genocide, I see humanity trembling on the edge of a giant sinkhole from which there may be no easy way back.
How is it possible to live in a world where wholesale murder is carried out while much of humanity goes about its business as if it were the most natural thing for one supremely armed and lavishly subsidized military to wage a war of annihilation against an impoverished, defenseless people? A war justified on the basis of ancient and patently absurd Biblical claims to the land of Palestine. A war waged as retribution for the killing carried out by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023. I do not support that killing. Nor do I believe Hamas had the moral right to execute Israeli citizens or take dozens of them hostage. What I do believe is that the Israeli response is only the most dramatic and most lethal phase of what Israel has been trying to do since its founding—expel or eliminate the Indigenous population and create a prosperous, expanding nation "from the river to the sea"—a nation that will encompass formerly Arab lands and be done with the Palestine "problem" once and for all.
How can I forget what I have seen during two years of genocide. True, I am not in Gaza. I did not go there to volunteer my service as a nurse or doctor from a first-world country. I am not a Palestinian civilian who has witnessed massacre upon massacre, experienced displacement upon displacement, and now faces the looming threat of mass starvation. I have not carried my wounded son or daughter to an emergency room woefully understaffed with only minimal resources to treat those who have been injured by Israeli weapons. I have not watched my wife, my relatives, my neighbors, my friends mourn the loss of their loved ones wrapped in white sheets marked with their name after another Israeli airstrike on another secret Hamas fortification cleverly concealed in a hospital, school, tent encampment. I have not awakened each morning faced with the task of finding food and water for my children. Even a bag of flour. A bag of lentils. A bag of rice. Only to return empty handed or with a few cans of beans, some discarded food from a pile of trash, or handfuls of flour scraped off the ground.
Lately, under the benign auspices of Israeli soldiers and American mercenaries, the people of Gaza in their desperate attempt to receive a small parcel of food courtesy of the "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation" (GHF) have become targets for the Israelis, who shoot them in the head or the chest—further evidence, if any is needed, of Israel's righteous campaign against Hamas and not the women and children who just happen to be the ones who are slaughtered—always by mistake in Israel's otherwise justified war of "self-defense." And still the world does nothing. Does nothing but hold meetings, discuss the pros and cons of holding Israel accountable for its numerous crimes against humanity, consider whether it would be appropriate in polite diplomatic circles to force the much-maligned perpetrator of genocide to at least open its borders and carry on its war of "self-defense" with greater concern for civilians.
The America so beloved by Bruce Springsteen, that "beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years," to use Bruce's words, is fully behind the policies and actions of a rogue government bringing nothing but sickness and death to the people of Palestine.
On March 2, Israel ended the temporary cease-fire that had been in effect since mid-January and sealed its borders with Gaza. No food, fuel, or medicine was allowed to enter. Before the blockade, thousands of trucks bearing tons of food, according to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) and other sources, were ready to provide balanced meals for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Currently, some of the food supplies, stacked in a large warehouse in Jordan but prevented by Israel from being delivered, are beginning to go bad. Other food supplies, like 200,000 metric tons of flour, will expire in July, while malnutrition rates among children in Gaza can be expected to increase.
In Iraq, during the years of comprehensive economic sanctions (1990-2003) enforced by the U.S. and U.K., I visited public hospitals throughout the country as an anti-sanctions activist. In the pediatric words, without exception, I saw severely malnourished children with mothers who were themselves malnourished—not because Iraq was unable to meet the nutritional needs of its people, but because the embargo had crippled the food production and distribution systems, and the medical system, decimated the economy, and deepened the poverty that already existed. The children I saw were dangerously underweight and susceptible to diseases their compromised immune systems couldn't handle. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi boys and girls died as one of the consequences of the sanctions, which U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Dennis Halliday and his successor Hans von Sponeck did not flinch from calling genocide. (Both men resigned from their posts in Baghdad rather than be instruments of a genocidal policy.)
The world, I fear, has largely forgotten about the U.S.-orchestrated genocide of the Iraqi people, particularly the children, the elderly, and the poor. And now, decades later, something I thought I would never witness again is happening in Gaza. The America so beloved by Bruce Springsteen, that "beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years," to use Bruce's words, is fully behind the policies and actions of a rogue government bringing nothing but sickness and death to the people of Palestine.
Is there hope? If there is, where can we find it? At the U.N. Security Council? I'm not so sure, given the U.S. record of vetoing any resolution calling for a cease-fire or holding Israel accountable for its violations of international laws.
There are always symbolic actions as, for example, the courageous mission undertaken by 12 activists to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver a symbolic amount of aid. The Madleen was seized illegally in international waters by Israeli commandos, who kidnapped the activists onboard, all of whom will likely be deported to their home countries.
So what does that leave us with? The power of the people? Absolutely essential and historically a powerful bulwark against injustice in all its myriad forms. Noted historian Howard Zinn had this to say about people power: "When we organize with one another, when we get involved, when we stand up and speak out together, we can create a power no government can suppress." (from A Power Governments Cannot Suppress published in 2006 by City Lights.)
Unfortunately, movements for social justice don't always leave positive, life-affirming change in their wake. In February of 2003, millions of folks around the world took to the streets to protest the threatened U.S. invasion of Iraq. Despite this massive, global opposition to George Bush Junior's war of aggression, the U.S. launched the invasion on March 20, 2003. Operation Iraqi Freedom, as it was called, led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, some say over a million Iraqis, on top of brutal sectarian violence and the spawning of terrorist networks still active today in parts of the Middle East.
Chris Hedges, journalist, author, ordained minister, and former war correspondent in Central America, foresees the imminent end of the genocide in Gaza. In his June 10 commentary on Consortium News, he writes: "It will be over soon. Weeks. At most."
Palestinians, lured by the promise of food, are crowding into southern Gaza. Hedges predicts that from there, famished, desperate families will eventually breach the border with Egypt and seek refuge in the Egyptian Sinai where they can be deported. Earlier this year, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu embraced Trump's unconscionable and unequivocally illegal plan to "transfer" (in other words, deport) 2 million Palestinians to Libya and other countries in the region. And should that happen, the U.S. will supposedly "take over the Gaza strip." I dread what this ancient, venerated land might become should Trump's vision prevail: a kitschy "Gold Coast" of casinos, hotels, glitzy office buildings, gold lamé sunsets, boulevards lined with lemon trees as an homage to the former inhabitants, and who knows what other gaudy developments raised on stolen land—after the rubble has been hauled away, the crushed bodies removed, the blood stains bleached, the buried cries and prayers of a persecuted people reduced to an ever-present, barely audible lamentation nothing will remove or silence.
I don't know if Chris Hedges is right. What I do know is that people of conscience continue to mobilize and demand an end to the genocide and the blockade Israel has imposed. In Paris, just a few days ago (it is June 13 as of this writing), tens of thousands of people gathered in support of Palestinians and their call for freedom and an end to the occupation. In late May, pro-Palestinian activists poured red dye into the Fountain of the Innocents in Paris to symbolize the bloodbath Israel is carrying out in Gaza. Also in June, large demonstrations in support of Palestine have been held in Turkey, Greece, Brazil, and the Netherlands. An estimated 150,000 pro-Palestine demonstrators took to the streets of The Hague in the Netherlands to demand their government impose sanctions on Israel. This was the second time in a month when large crowds gathered in The Hague and marched toward the International Court of Justice where South Africa, in late December 2023, filed its case accusing Israel of violating the terms of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Organizers of the march in The Hague, including Amnesty International and Oxfam, explained that its purpose was to create a "symbolic red line," something the government, they say, has failed to do when it comes to stopping the genocide.
Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, has emerged as a leading advocate for the human rights of the Palestinian people and an outspoken critic of the Israeli government, which she accuses of the crime of genocide. Despite being defamed as "antisemitic" and receiving death threats for her principled stance, Albanese will not back down from calling for an "immediate and unconditional cease-fire, and for the mobilization of all forms of global pressure upon the Israeli state."
Her courage and strength, like that of countless ordinary individuals standing up for the people of Gaza, give me hope. So too does last year's global movement of students who set up encampments on university property to raise awareness of the genocide and to express solidarity with the people of Palestine. And currently, there are two very important bills in Congress to end U.S. complicity in the genocidal murder of Palestinians. On June 5, nearly two dozen representatives led by Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) introduced the "Block the Bombs Act. The legislation would withhold the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel and demand Israel's compliance with U.S. and international law." The Block the Bombs Act is a "time-sensitive step to assert Congress' oversight authority to protect civilians from starvation, displacement, and death."
On June 4, another congressional cohort introduced a separate resolution aimed at addressing the man-made crisis in Gaza. House Resolution 473, introduced by U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.), and Becca Balint (D-Vt.), calls for the immediate delivery of food and humanitarian aid to Gaza and an end to the "prolonged humanitarian crisis of Palestinians living there."
These lawmakers in Washington, D.C. now take their place in line with Amnesty International, Oxfam, Jewish Voice for Peace, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), and many other nongovernment organizations working for peace and an end to the genocide, along with countless individuals and citizen groups who recognize the illegality and immorality of Israel's actions and are doing whatever is in their power to raise awareness and stop the killing.
Ultimately, it's not about whether I or anyone else is hopeful. What matters is that Palestinians retain the right to own and occupy their own land, be recognized as an independent nation within secure borders, reclaim their dignity in the face of long-standing dehumanization, and perhaps most importantly rebuild and restore what has been destroyed but will never be lost.
