MaryDiane Baker: U.S. arms supply to Israel must stop

A front-end loader from the Israeli forces moves on a street during a military operation on Aug. 29 in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, Tulkarem.

A front-end loader from the Israeli forces moves on a street during a military operation on Aug. 29 in the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, Tulkarem. AP PHOTO/MAJDI MOHAMMED

Published: 09-23-2024 4:37 PM

As yet another U.S.-facilitated war grinds on, recent guest columnist William Lambers decries the ”plight of starving children in Gaza and other war zones.” My thanks to Vermont and Massachusetts legislators calling for an end to atrocities in Gaza. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has pressed on, spurred by Brattleboro activists, committing to introduce a Joint Resolution of Disapproval to President BJoe iden’s latest arms sales plan.

Our president has disparaged Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal actions but not conditioned arms sales; Biden has called for a cease-fire, but continues to provide arms for Israel’s indiscriminate use. The president timed the latest, a $20 billion weapons sale, for Congress’ summer recess, to dodge, as the New York Times put it, ”the anger in the United States over massive civilian casualties in that war.

A U.N. expert and others globally have termed Israel’s actions genocide and/or serious abuses of human rights. So the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Germany and Italy have restricted arms to Israel.

War breeds famine. Palestinians who survive the violence are brutalized by injuries and hunger. Oxfam reports that 83% of food aid to Gaza is blocked, along with medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents, and has been “for almost a year.”

Whether angry U.S. taxpayers are forced to fund Netanyahu’s horrific practices is a decision that needs to happen on the floor of the Senate, not at Biden’s whim. The first article of our Constitution establishes that.

We need to stand with people, not sides; with people, not politics. With people. Pretend they’re close-by starving neighbors.

Sanders will introduce a Joint Resolution Of Disapproval soon, the only tool Congress has to halt an arms sale. Opposition grows to Biden’s ongoing collusion with Netanyahu’s assault on Gaza. Vermonters are grateful for Sanders’ actions to end this calamity in the Middle East.

MaryDiane Baker

Action Corps Vermont organizer, Brattleboro, Vermont