On July 17, NBC News televised portions of a lengthy investigation proving that Israeli military forces had attacked medics at least 116 times in South Lebanon over the last several months.
On that same day, Reuters reported that eight people were killed and 20 others were wounded when Israeli planes carried out an air strike against mourners attending a funeral in Gaza.
Most of the military equipment, guns, bullets, planes and tanks used to kill defenseless people over the last several years have been paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
According to AI, Israel has killed over 4,200 people in Lebanon and over 1,100 in Gaza since the last so-called ceasefire began last October.
Of course, Israeli Defense Forces killed at least 72,000 Palestinians in the two years beginning on Oct. 7, 2023 with about one-third being children ages 14 and under. Many were killed by forced starvation or amputations being done without anesthesia or in filthy conditions.
If this genocide had been carried out by any country other than Israel, both parties in Congress would have rushed to pass a resolution of condemnation and would have stopped sending American tax funds to support it.
However, silence has been bought and paid for in Congress by the Israel Lobby and members of Congress in gratitude for huge contributions in their favor or fear of contributions against them.
Also, many Christians have remained silent, even though horrified by all the killing and starvation, because the Bible says to bless Israel. But it does not say to bless everything the politicians of Israel do.
Almost every American Christian is grateful to live in this Country and sometimes has asked God to bless this Nation either in song or prayer or both. But you certainly can ask God to bless this Country (or Israel) while still opposing some of what the U.S. Congress (or Israel Knesset) is doing or has done.
Also, some are afraid to criticize Israel for fear of being called anti-Semitic although Palestinians are Semitic, too. And, according to AI, God Himself “frequently and severely criticized Israel for turning away from Him, engaging in idolatry, and mistreating the vulnerable.”
Although while still a minority, a few million Jews around the world have criticized Netanyahu and/or all the bombing and killing his government has done in Gaza and surrounding countries.
Thomas Friedman, the longtime Jewish columnist, wrote last year that “Netanyahu is not our friend” and added: “This Israeli government is behaving in ways that threaten hard-core U.S. interests in the region.”
Now, Israel has dragged us into another war in the Middle East to which about 70% of Americans were opposed.
John Mearsheimer, a West Point graduate and longtime highly-respected University of Chicago professor, said this about the unpopular war in Iran:
Israel wants to continue the war. They want us to continue hammering away at Iran, to beat them into submission. And if we can’t beat them into submission, we’ll, we’ll just destroy them and do what we did in Gaza to Iran.
Many years ago, David Halberstam wrote in Harper’s Magazine words about Vietnam that I think we should apply to the Middle East today:
I do not think we are winning in any true sense, nor do I see any signs that we are about to win. That is why this is such a sad story to write.
He added:
I do not think our Vietnamese can win their part of the war, nor do I think we can win it for them. I think we will finally end up lowering our sights, encouraging our Vietnamese to talk to their Vietnamese, hoping that somehow they can settle what we cannot.
No matter how many bombs we drop or how many billions we spend, there will never be peace in the Middle East unless and until we get out of the way and force the people there to talk to each other and work things out themselves. We cannot do it for them.
Reprinted with permission form The Duncan Dispatch.
John James Duncan Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 2nd congressional district from 1988 to 2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party.
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