Dear Friends,
(01:02) Gaza in the context of other Middle East hot spots;
(18:32) Driving home Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with Jeffrey Grubler;
(38:01) A physician’s perspective on the war, with Yazeed Ibrahim;
(54:50) March garden Q & A, with Kathy Byrnes Fallon.
This week, Jeffrey Weiss and I do a deep dive into the Middle East. We’re joined by activist Jeffrey Grubler and Dr. Yazeed Ibrahim with Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Ed and Kathy at the New England Holocaust Memorial.
On a trip last week to visit family, Kathy and I walked through the New England Holocaust Memorial — a poignant reminder of the horrors committed against Jews during WW II.
What astounds and saddens me deeply is that descendants of a people who were the victims of perhaps the most heinous attempted genocide in human history are now engaged in genocide against the Palestinians.
I do not use the word “genocide” lightly, and it is increasingly clear that Israel’s destruction of Gaza qualifies as such.
From a February 27 story in The Guardian: “Israel is intentionally starving Palestinians and should be held accountable for war crimes – and genocide, according to the UN’s leading expert on the right to food.
“Hunger and severe malnutrition are widespread in the Gaza Strip, where about 2.2 million Palestinians are facing severe shortages resulting from Israel destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian supplies. Aid trucks and Palestinians waiting for humanitarian relief have come under Israeli fire.
“’There is no reason to intentionally block the passage of humanitarian aid or intentionally obliterate small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza – other than to deny people access to food,’ Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, told the Guardian.”
It is past time for the US to join the rest of the world in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Perhaps if morality won’t motivate the Biden administration to do what’s right, political fallout in advance of the 2024 election will.
If the US government is truly opposed to a wider Middle East war, it needs to do its part to end the genocide in Gaza, where Israel’s stated mission of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages is clearly a failure.
While Gaza is of greatest concern, any one of a number of Middle East skirmishes — with Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinians in the West Bank, and more — could provide the deadly spark that ignites a broader Middle East war.
As Comfort Ero and Richard Atwood write in an International Crisis Group story, “While neither side wants war, much could go wrong, especially while Israel’s Gaza campaign grinds on. Any attack – whether on the Lebanese border, in Iraq or Syria, or the Red Sea or Persian Gulf – that kills large numbers of civilians or U.S. personnel would risk setting off a spiral of tit-for-tat strikes.”
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action.
Ed Fallon
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