Two years ago today, on October 7th, 2023, over five thousand fundamentalist fighters belonging to the militant group Hamas crossed the heavily fortified border between the open-air prison, Gaza, and into Israel. Twelve hundred Israelis were murdered; over seven hundred were civilians.
October 7th was a horrible, tragic day defined by the cruel killing of human beings. However, since then, the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) response to the attack has been absolutely disproportionate. It reflects the decades of Israeli oppression on Gaza that no doubt led to the radicalization of the perpetrators of October 7th.
This includes military occupation from 1967 to 2005, as well as multiple incursions in 2006, 2008-9, and 2014. All have been justified by the IDF in one way or another, some more legitimate than others. All resulted in an abnormal civilian casualty rate. None, however, has been as brutal as the one from October 8th to now.
Over 50 times the people killed on October 7th have now been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 8th. Meaning, over 65 thousand people have been murdered. According to the United Nations, 70% have been women and children. No doubt, many more are unaccounted, buried beneath the rubble of Palestinian structures, 92% of which have been damaged or destroyed. through controlled demolitions and bombing strikes.
Two separate U.S. political administrations of opposing parties have greenlit this, supplying indispensable munitions and military tech to Israel, often for free as aid.
What’s been equally as devastating as the systematic bombing has been the total blockade of humanitarian aid into the strip.
A form of blockade has been in effect since 2007, restricting all imports save some humanitarian aid, making it nearly impossible for citizens living there to leave. However, since October 2023, even aid has been severely restricted. Meaning, Israel is weaponizing food to cause manufactured starvation. This is why the term, ‘open air prison’ is used to describe Gaza.
Nick Maynard, a British surgeon who worked in Gaza in 2024, told the BBC of the horrid conditions resulting from the indiscriminate blockade, collapse of healthcare, and deliberate targeting of civilians by the IDF. This very much includes children, where he described a design of violence carried out near aid sites by IDF gunmen.
“My colleagues in the emergency room describe a very clear pattern, where on particular days they’ll see different body parts targeted,” Maynard said. “So, on one day they’ll all be abdominal gunshot wounds and another day, they’ll all be head gunshot wounds or neck gunshot wounds… And last Saturday, there were four young teenage boys all brought in with gunshot wounds to their testicles.”
This type of purposeful targeting of civilians is not a single case either; it is emblematic of the IDF’s disregard for international restrictions on war crimes. That civilian targeting, plus the deliberate blockade of food and healthcare, and the statements from Israeli officials such as now-former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman saying, “there are no innocents in Gaza,” and heritage minister Amihai Eliyahu suggesting the use of a nuclear weapon on Gaza, have led the United Nations commission of inquiry to define what is happening as a genocide.
This implies that Israel is performing a “deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group,” which is the definition of genocide in the Oxford Dictionary.
So, why have both the Trump and Biden administrations unconditionally supported Israel’s genocide? It’s a controversial question that is extremely complicated. If you ask an official U.S. government source, such as the US Congressional Research Service, they’ll cite “domestic US support for Israel” and “a mutual commitment to democratic values.”
However, according to an August Quinnipiac University poll, only 32% of Americans support military aid to Israel. As for the “mutual commitment to democratic values,” that simply isn’t how U.S. International relations work.
One of America’s closest allies in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, an oppressive Monarchy that persecutes dissent and gives zero electoral power to its people. Another is Syria, which is now increasingly aligned with the West despite the new leadership formerly being a part of the terror group Al Qaeda, responsible for 9/11. U.S. foreign policy operates on pragmatism, not on who or who isn’t democratic.
So, if the vast majority of Americans oppose unconditional aid to Israel, and being “democratic” is not a box that needs to be checked in order for a country to be allied with the US, why so much support? After all, Israel has received 298 billion dollars in aid from the US when adjusted for inflation since its founding in 1948, almost all of it coming from tax dollars.
There are two primary reasons. One is that Israel operates as a state-sized military base in a volatile region where the US has a lot of strategic interests. It often acts in the US interests because of the massive military aid and contracts it gets from America. The two countries are also often simply aligned on foreign policy.
The second reason only reinforces the first. Lobbying groups, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Christians United for Israel (CUFI), give massive campaign donations to American congresspeople’s campaigns and their super PACs. They also spend huge amounts on smear campaigns against challenger candidates who might not be so strongly pro-Israel.
To be clear, these organizations do not run things behind the scenes in US politics; a great deal of conspiracy theories take the stance that they do. In no uncertain terms, the US would still be pro-Israel because of the strategic interests the alliance brings; the campaign support from pro-Israel lobbies simply keeps many congresspeople in line for when it comes time to vote on military aid.
That is a simplified explanation for the strength of American-Israeli relations; there are other contributing factors. Still, one thing is certain: military aid to Israel does not benefit the American people nor people abroad.
You should care about the genocide in Gaza not only out of the goodness of your heart, but also out of self-interest as well. Your or your parents’ tax dollars could be used to fund federal education programs. Or that money could expand Medicaid and Medicare to cover more people. That money could be used for cutting taxes or simply pinching federal spending. That money could even be used to bolster US defense or domestic law enforcement if that is what you believe is needed.
Whatever you personally believe the role of government here at home should be, it can absolutely be improved by eliminating handouts to a nation with no regard for international law.
The murder of tens of thousands of men, women, and children abroad absolutely cannot be subsidized by our tax dollars any longer.
The question lies before us: do we want our country to be the world’s patron of genocide, or do we want it to be the beacon of hope, liberty, justice, and equality it has always claimed to be?
Note: Wikimedia Commons