“Israel MUST open the borders and allow the United Nations to deliver supplies in sufficient quantities.”
“The United States, which has helped fund the Israeli military for years, cannot sit back and allow hundreds of thousands of innocent children to starve to death,” Sanders (Vt.) said in a statement. “As a result of Israeli bombing and restrictions on humanitarian aid, the people of Gaza are facing an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”
Israeli forces have killed more than 30,200 Palestinians in Gaza—most of them women and children—while wounding over 71,300 others and displacing around 90% of the besieged enclave’s 2.3 million people. Children are now starving to death, and experts say adults, especially elders and other vulnerable people, will soon follow absent urgent intervention.
And the US is required to do all of that ourselves? This isn’t a “tax dollars” thing, it’s just that it seems a little insane to here zero criticism of countries sending in zero supplies while the US is the great Satan for bringing in what it can while negotiating to bring in more by other methods.
Yes, ground is best, but that has serious risks. Those convoys would need to be protected by soldiers. Should they be IDF? We know why that’s not a great idea. Should they be US? What happens if they clash with Hamas? Is the US going to be pulled into the conflict? It sounds like bringing is supplies by sea is coming soon, and I know it’s not soon enough.
I totally get how bad things are, and it makes me sick. However, I also know that it’s totally possible to make things worse. This still has the ability to spread outside Gaza to a regional conflict.
Just in case it needs to be said, fuck Israel and Netanyaho. Also, in any conversation, “Bernie is right” is almost being redundant as far as I’m concerned. We absolutely need to do more, but the realities of the situation have to be navigated carefully.
The US is the single strongest supporter and protector of Israel. The US is sending billions of weapons to Israel and has continued to do so. The US continues to veto resolutions against the genocide in the UN security council.
The responsibility is by no means exclusive to the US, but given the share of responsibility of the US for enabling this genocide, their share in resolving it, must be equally high. There used to be an effective means of providing aid to Gaza. The UNRWA. But the US and other Israel supporters like Germany decided to sabotage it, the day after the ICJ ruled that Gaza needs more humanitarian aid to prevent a genocide. The sabotage remains on unproven accusations of Israel against a laughably small number of UNRWA employees.
Aid convoys don’t need to be protected by soldiers, if enough aid enters Gaza. The people are not “animals” or “plundering” or “rioting” or whatever terminology is used by pro Israeli propaganda. They are starving people desperate for food. Provide enough food and there is no fighting about it.