BY ED FELIEN
1. The U.S. is in the unique position, as Israel’s storehouse of ammunition and weaponry, to demand an immediate end to hostilities.
2. With support from the U.N., the U.S. must commit to the restoration and rebuilding of Gaza.
3. The U.S. and the U.N. must recognize the legitimate nation state of Gaza as Palestine, the ancient capital of the first and most important of the Egyptian colonies. The area contained the five cities (the Pentapolis) of the Philistine confederacy (Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Ekron) and was known as Philistia, or the Land of the Philistines. It was from this designation that the whole of the country was later called Palestine by the Greeks.
4. The Hamas leadership that planned and executed the Oct. 7 raid on Israel, and Netanyahu and his war cabinet must be investigated by a U.N. commission to determine whether either or both sides committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
5. The borders and harbors of Palestine must be free and open to the people of Palestine, and Palestinians everywhere must have the right to return to their homeland.
6. Palestinian and Israeli voters must approve a peace treaty in which they renounce the use of force and violence.
7. The U.N. must set up a commission to hear claims of illegal expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel.
8. A legal fight over damages would go to the World Court. Every country that has trade with Israel would charge a tariff on Israeli goods as a genocide tax to be returned to the Palestinian victims until all claims are settled.
