BY MIKE MADDEN
Veterans for Peace Chapter 27 joins Southside Pride in its call for a cease-fire and an end to the war on Gaza. Like Editor Ed 
Felien, we recognize that the United States, functioning as Israel’s arsenal, is in a unique position to accomplish this goal by simply denying Israel any further military assistance. It is not just the humanitarian thing to do, it is required under the Foreign Assistance Act which prohibits the provision of security aid to any government engaged in flagrant human rights abuses. There is no need for an investigation into whether or not these abuses have occurred. They can be witnessed on any given day by turning on your television. Numerous Israeli officials have openly declared their genocidal intentions, and a document produced by the Intelligence Ministry lays out a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
The phrase “Israel has a right to defend itself” is repeated incessantly in Western media. And, under Article 51 of the United
Nations Charter, it is undeniably true. However, no nation has the right to respond to an attack in the way Israel has in Gaza. It lacks any sense of proportionality, and it fails to distinguish between civilian and military targets, both requirements of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). It has resulted in the deaths of 20,000 Palestinians, 70% of whom are women and children, and displacement of 85% of the population of Gaza. Even President Biden, a self-declared Zionist, has now called Israel’s assault “indiscriminate.”
What is rarely told is that Palestinians, under Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, have a right to resist occupation and apartheid, up to and
including armed resistance. Like Israel, Hamas must abide by IHL when it chooses to engage in armed struggle.
Israel’s official death toll from the Oct. 7 attack now stands at 695 Israeli civilians, 373 security personnel, and 71 foreigners, for a total of 1,139 dead. Israel does not distinguish between those killed by Hamas fighters, and those killed by Israeli “friendly fire.”
To the extent that Hamas targeted Israeli military installations and other armed security personnel, the Oct. 7 attack was a lawful military operation. To the extent it was directed against civilians, it was terrorism. The same must be said for Israel’s operation in Gaza. By that measure, Israel has committed acts of terrorism far more deadly than Hamas.
While there is evidence that some Palestinian fighters committed heinous offenses on Oct. 7, it is not clear that those crimes were systematic. Nor is it clear that Hamas is responsible for a majority of the killing, especially when one considers that Israel estimates 1,500 Palestinians were killed that day. Hamas has said that 1,200 of its fighters participated in the operation.
Many of the initial claims of atrocity promulgated by Israeli officials, and repeated in Western media, have been discredited. Even President Biden, to his shame, claimed to have seen photographs of 40 babies beheaded by Hamas. Though such atrocity propaganda was incredulous on its face, it had the desired effect of softening public opinion toward Israel’s unjustifiable response.
Likewise, alleged incidents of rape and sexual assault committed by Palestinian fighters remain unverified. Israel has not named a single victim, nor has it produced any forensic evidence. Israel held a closed briefing for journalists on Nov. 13 that promised to reveal new evidence of sexual violence. According to the news website Mondoweiss, new information and clear evidence were absent in the briefing, and it grew tense and heated as the police chief refused to answer questions. The police media officer, Merit Ben Meir, made clear the purpose of the briefing with his statement, “Based on the circumstances of the bodies, rape occurred, and there’s no room for questioning these events.”
Some Israeli survivors of the attack have contradicted the narrative of Hamas conducting a murderous rampage. In an interview with Israeli state radio, Yasmin Porat told of her experience when she was taken hostage and held for several hours in a house in Kibbutz Be’eri. She said she was treated “humanely,” and the intention was to “kidnap us to Gaza, not to murder us.” She said that after she fled the house with her captor, those remaining inside, hostages and abductors alike, were killed when Israeli security forces initiated a firefight that culminated with two tank shells being fired into the house. When asked in the interview if Israeli forces may have killed the hostages, she replied, “Undoubtedly. They eliminated everyone because there was very, very heavy crossfire.”
A member of Israel’s Air Force, Col. Nof Erez, described Israel’s response on Oct. 7 as a “mass Hannibal.” He was referring to the Hannibal Directive, which instructs Israeli commanders to kill their own soldiers rather than allow them to be taken captive.
Bolstering the observations of Col. Erez, a report from the Tel Aviv-based Ynet news described how a fleet of 28 Israeli attack helicopters responded that day. It said, “The Apache pilots had no way of distinguishing between Hamas fighters, Palestinians, and Israelis, and therefore opened fire on all cars and people on the Gaza border without distinction.” It described the rate of fire as “tremendous, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets.” A four-minute compilation of Apache gunsight videos is contained in the report, and it must be seen to fully comprehend the ferocity and indiscriminate nature of the attacks.
On Nov. 11, more than a month after the attack, Israel reduced its estimated death toll from 1,400 to approximately 1,200. According to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat, the number was revised “due to the fact that there were a lot of corpses that were not identified, and now we think those belong to terrorists … not Israeli casualties.” This further indicates that Israel did not know who it had killed on Oct. 7. It also calls into question Israel’s definition of “terrorist,” because many Palestinians who entered Israel after Hamas breached the border fence were young, unarmed curiosity seekers. Apparently, the word “terrorist” is synonymous with “Palestinian” in Haiat’s mind.
It is not an academic exercise to determine what exactly happened, and who killed who on Oct. 7. We must understand the tactics and motivations of the belligerents, and reject dehumanizing rhetoric.
We must also recognize that Middle East history did not begin on Oct. 7. It is but one more bloody date in a vicious cycle of violence that began in 1948 when the newly established Jewish state of Israel violently drove more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homeland.
First and foremost, Veterans for Peace calls for an immediate and permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
Understanding that Palestinians are the originally aggrieved party, Israel must respect the internationally recognized right of Palestinians to return to their homeland. Israel must also dismantle all West Bank settlements, end its occupation, and retreat to its 1967 borders in accordance with existing U.N. resolutions. These are not conditions to be negotiated – they are already on the books.
The United States has never been an honest broker for peace in the Middle East. It is an unrepentant ally of Israel to the extent that it is now aiding and abetting the genocide of Palestinians. It must stop providing weapons to Israel, stop vetoing United Nations resolutions regarding Israel, stop being an obstacle to peace, and make way for a neutral third party to broker a lasting agreement.
Whether that final agreement is a one-state solution, or the increasingly distant two-state solution, all who reside in the Holy Land must be equal under the law, and Israel’s era of apartheid must end.
Never again means never again for anyone.
Mike Madden is the vice president of Veterans for Peace Chapter 27.
