Dear White House: What the Holy F*ck

Shame on us for thinking that the Biden administration meant it when they talked about international law and an order based on something other than might-makes-right.

US policy is actively abetting Israeli bloodlust.

I’m not surprised that politicians like Marco Rubio would effectively call for Palestinian genocide. Or that Lindsey Graham—who famously wanted to fight a nuclear war with North Korea in 2017—would declare:

We are in a religious war, and I am with Israel...Level the place [Gaza].

But now we have Brett McGurk (White House Middle East Coordinator) saying proudly and without caveats that “we stand with Israel” on the same day that the Israeli defense minister said they were going to impose a siege on Gaza and that more than a million innocents would need to flee (to where???).

And we have Biden’s “beheading children” gaffe, which the administration had to walk back, though the damage is done now that mainstream media types simply take it as a given.

In an Orwellian move, an internal State Department e-mail revealed guidance to its diplomats to avoid three phrases:

• De-escalation/ceasefire

• End to violence/bloodshed

• Restoring calm

Worst of all, we have White House spokesperson Jean-Pierre condemning Democratic politicians calling for de-escalation:

There are not two sides here. There are not two sides…I’ve seen some of those statements this weekend. We're going to continue to be very clear. We believe they're wrong. We believe they're repugnant, and we believe they're disgraceful.

Calls for a ceasefire are…repugnant and disgraceful? Could you be more neoconservative?

Here are the most radical things I’ve seen progressive legislators saying, which the White House spokesperson finds so repugnant:

Ilhan Omar:

Just as we honor the humanity of the hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians and 9 Americans who were killed this weekend, we must honor the humanity of the innocent Palestinian civilians who have been killed and whose lives are upended.

Summer Lee:

I strongly condemn Hamas’ horrifying attack on children and innocent civilians…My heart breaks because of today’s violence, but also because I know there is more to come…we need urgent de-escalation.

Rashida Tlaib:

I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day. I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance. The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer.

The White House is putting its power on the side of vengeful ethnonationalist bloodlust and enforcing censoriousness on behalf of war derangement, once again. This is the kind of thing that 9/11 unleashed, as David Klion warned.

Meanwhile, as

Bill Astore

writes, Israel has dropped 6,000 munitions on Gaza in six days. That many bombs in that condensed of a time frame is beyond the ability of even the US military to do with precision. And that means it’s collective punishment, which is a war crime, violating international law.

I believe in Israeli liberation as much as I do Palestinian liberation. But if this still-escalating blood bath is what it means to stand with Israel, then no we better fucking not.

There are some reports that the White House has asked Israel to delay its siege of Gaza until civilians can evacuate, but 1) where the hell will they go, 2) that’s not de-escalation or a ceasefire, and 3) that does not address the ongoing bombings.

We have to get past rhetoric and selective grievance. The focus must be on US policy and its support for real-time escalating violence.

There are scenarios here where Israel either actually proceeds to engage in ethnic cleansing, or else uses nuclear weapons, which may well have the same effect. We’ve got to do what we can to foreclose on that. And so far, we’re quite simply not.

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If you feel sufficiently moved to do something and not just punch left while people are dying, Win Without War is organizing a petition to halt further violence. It costs you nothing but your click and your name.