Election 2024: The Conundrum Facing Palestinian-Americans
Mystic, CT
“Autonomy,” “self-determination,” and finally “independence” were used, and mainly abused, as words to describe the best version of an open-air prison model the Israelis could offer the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Pappe 176).
In the United States of America, people have the ability to vote/to practice democracy. The American people, like all free peoples of the world, have the right to decide their own destinies. It is a beautiful thing that some countries don’t have.
It is sad to learn, however, of America’s hand in denying these same rights to the Palestinian people. Truthfully, the United States and Israel are the ones blocking official recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations. Being pro-Israel has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy since 1948.
When studying Hebrew at a kibbutz in Israel, the author of this article and his classmates were told, “America supported the establishment of the state of Israel, because it was a democracy and anti-communist.” This statement has led to some reflection.
A Palestinian-American barber in Boston stated, in regards to the Palestinians,
“Everyone has a friend, or family member: mother, father, sister, brother, killed by Israel.”
This validity of this statement was confirmed by the current author’s former Arabic teacher in Amman: a Jordanian national of Palestinian ancestry.
INARA’s Arwa Damon stated,
“This conflict, if one can even call it that, began with, as we all know, Hamas’ horrific, atrocious cross-border attack, and its killing, and kidnapping of Israeli civilians which in and of itself is very important to make this clear is a war crime. Israel’s response to that attack, Israel’s response to other acts of violence carried out by Hamas, this whole policy of collective punishment is also a war crime.
Hamas, which was elected democratically, murdered 1,400 Israeli civilians. Among these number were foreign nationals in Israel for work, study, or vacation. It was indeed a war crime, and the greatest killing of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust. Israel, has responded by killing approximately 10 Palestinians for every Israeli killed on October 7.
Shelby Foote’s comments came to the present writer’s mind,
“Sherman was really the first modern general to realize that civilians were the backers up of the military, and he quite purposely made war upon civilians.”
The same has held true for both Palestine and Israel. The only difference is that Israel has been more successful.
The 15,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza account for the largest known amount in this author’s lifetime. Perhaps, it is the greatest single period of Palestinian deaths since the “Nakba” or the “Catastrophe” as Palestinians like to refer to it. How many of those 15,000 were killed by American weapons? Probably all of them. By observing the IDF, M16s, M249s, M60s, 9mm Berettas, .50, M113s A2/A3s, M88A1s, and MLRs are all plentiful. At least Palestinian-Americans know where their tax dollars went.
Current events have made it clear to Palestinian Americans that the United States and Israel will not be content until they have killed every Palestinian man, woman, and child. History has shown that this is the case with either a Democrat or a Republican in the White House. President Biden may deny this; Secretary Blinken may deny this, and Prime Minister Netanyahu may deny this. Actions, however, speak louder than words.
Michael Moore said it best,
“Israel has a right to defend itself, but now it has become something else.”
That something else is ethnic cleansing.
When going through Ben-Gurion airport in Tel-Aviv, it helps to take into account the maps on the wall: they show Israel’s borders to include Gaza and the West Bank-as part of Israel. How much more blatant can their intentions be?
Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have the military capabilities to stop the genocide which Israel is committing in Gaza. They have done nothing; however, and they will continue to do nothing. In this respect, they are similar to Israel: puppets of the United States. Intervention would mean destroying the Israeli air force as well as their MLRs, tanks, artillery; sweeping the Mediterranean of their navy, and destroying their 400 warhead strong nuclear stockpile. It would also mean war with the United States.
“For those concerned with the rights of the brutalized Palestinians, there can be no higher priority than working to change US policies, not an ideal dream by any means.”
Noam Chomsky
Unfortunately, three generations have passed since Harry Truman was President, and US policies haven’t changed. They will not change. The Palestinian people are in danger of going the way of the Native Hawaiians. For their country to survive, it will become necessary for them to back another horse.
Democrats and Republicans are both against any aspirations that Palestinian-Americans may have. Like the Native American tribes before them, Washington has decided that the Palestinian people must be wiped from the earth. The only difference is that the IDF and not the US Army is acting as the instrument of that policy, albeit using weapons that are made in America.
There is no “two state solution.” There never was. It was nothing more than a delaying tactic in which Israel was allowed to grab more land. Unlike Russia in Ukraine, however, it has done so with the full blessing of the United States.
As American survival during the Revolution depended on France; as Israeli survival depends upon the United States; Palestinian survival depends upon Iran.
