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With the first US deaths threatening escalation in the Middle
East, I denounce Biden's war crimes and demand a ceasefire, aid for
Gaza, and full funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA).
Biden’s withdrawal of UNRWA funding
worsens the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the tragic deaths of US
service members in Jordan intensify the international violence
emanating from Israel’s war on Gaza. With Biden’s track record of
supporting endless war, there is a real danger he will escalate
hostilities between Iran and the US that could snowball into
disastrous conflict.
These extremely dangerous
developments underscore the imperative for Biden to support immediate
multinational humanitarian relief and an end to Israel's
assault.
Following the directives of the
International Court of Justice, the U.S. and other nations must
immediately mount a multi-national humanitarian rescue mission for the
millions at death’s doorstep in Gaza, and demand the ceasefire
implicit in the ICJ decision. We must bring aid to these dying people
by land, sea and air. To do less is unconscionable, and would
shamefully enable the ongoing massacre.
Instead of mobilizing to bring
relief, the U.S. and its NATO allies have abruptly withdrawn funding
for the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). The excuse is the
Israeli allegations that 12 members of the agency were involved in the
Oct. 7 atrocities. Those allegations, obtained during interrogations
of Palestinians and not independently verified, should not be used to
justify what is effectively a death sentence for thousands more
Palestinians.
Governments routinely lie when
committing atrocities and Israel has a history not just of distorting
but fabricating evidence out of whole cloth.
Joe Biden is not just on the wrong
side of history. He could also be on the wrong side of a jail cell if
he continues current U.S. policy in the Mideast. According to Francis
Boyle, the U.S. attorney who won the first genocide cases at the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), the U.S. is now entering a stage
of potential criminal complicity under article 3(e)of the Genocide
convention if it continues the current course.
President Biden should not just
look at potential personal criminal liability but also at the
countless lives that hang in the balance– not just in Palestine and
Israel. It does not take a Barbara Tuchman, author of The Guns of
August, to see the similarities between January 2024 and August 1914
where the world slid into WWI due in part to a complete breakdown in
diplomacy. Today, the United States is particularly responsible for
that breakdown in diplomacy and provocative acts, including Biden’s
complete dismissal of the South African case for genocide as
“meritless”.
While our leaders piously claim
they are worried about escalating hostilities, our weapons keep
flowing, our aircraft carriers keep hovering and our missiles keep
slamming into Gaza, Yemen, Iraq and Syria. And the tragic deaths of
three US soldiers in Jordan and the two lost Navy Seals are likely
just the beginning. The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan have not been
learned, and now American troops are losing their lives, all in an
effort to ensure Israel can continue to commit genocide on a helpless
and starving people in Gaza.
President Biden and Secretary of
State Blinken have warned repeatedly that missiles may soon be headed
toward Iran in a far bigger war. They blame Iran for the Yemeni Ansar
Allah’s support for Gaza, for Hezbollah’s support from Lebanon and
even for Gaza’s fight against its own extermination. Ignored, of
course, is the historical criminal conduct of the U.S. in Iran,
including the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of Iran’s democratically
elected president, Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he suggested Iran’s oil
was a national asset, followed by the installation of the brutal
regime of the Shah of Iran.
Currently, violence is begetting
ever greater violence as the tit for tat escalates. And the great
powers will not sit on the sidelines with so much oil at stake. In
that vein, the mutual support treaty between Russia and Iran announced
last week signals the terrifying potential for nuclear powers to
confront one another in the growing conflict, with potentially
unthinkable consequences.
The disdain of the U.S. and Israel
for the nearly unanimous ICJ ruling is stunning. Instead of responding
with shame, they are doubling down to support the ongoing massacre.
The path forward must be a diplomatic one. Our call for immediate
multi-national humanitarian relief following the directives of the ICJ
is a win-win. In one fell swoop, we can put an end to the ongoing
genocide and quell the escalating international violence that
threatens to make the guns of August,1914 look like child’s play,
compared to the looming guns of January, 2024.
Every manner of peaceful pressure
should be brought to bear on members of Congress serving AIPAC and the
war profiteers, from phone calls and lobbying to public naming and
shaming, to demonstrations and civil disobedience.
Up to 68% of voters want an
immediate ceasefire and diplomatic solution. So we have critical mass
to demand a ceasefire and delivery of aid. We urge all voters to
commit now to refuse to vote for any candidate supporting genocide and
occupation, and likewise to actively support only candidates that
advocate for an end to genocide, occupation and apartheid.
By signing the Pledge to Stop Genocide, voters can stand up and be counted now,
without waiting till the November election, to serve warning to all
pro-genocide politicians that their days are numbered.
We are many. We are mobilizing. And
we demand an end to genocide, occupation and apartheid.
Jill Stein
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