Gaza: The Death of an American Airman

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Written by Gilbert Schramm Gilbert Schramm

Published: 31 March 2024 31 March 2024

On Feb. 26 Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell, 25, a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron reportedly died from injuries sustained in a brutal and unusual way. Most Americans mourn the death of any service member. I hope he is mourned as well. He made a tragic sacrifice for a higher ideal. Bushnell set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC to protest the continuing atrocious assault of Israeli forces on Gaza. As an experienced airman and defense expert, he probably had a pretty clear insight into what the current Israeli bombing would do on the ground. Reuters reports him as saying in a final statement, "I will no longer be complicit in genocide."

In 1963, Buddhist monks in Vietnam chose to sacrifice themselves in the same way. Their self immolations helped focus the world on the tragedy then occurring in Vietnam. Their acts helped change the trajectory of that conflict. I sincerely hope that the death of Aaron Bushnell will do the same for the ongoing carnage in Gaza. 

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State department official’s resignation highlights rifts over US Gaza policy

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Written by Julian Borger | The Guardian Julian Borger | The Guardian

Published: 28 March 2024 28 March 2024

A human rights official has resigned from the US state department over Gazasaying the Biden administration is flouting US law by continuing to arm Israel, and is hushing up evidence that the US had seen on Israeli human rights abuses.

Annelle Sheline, said she had hoped to have an influence on policy by staying at her post in the Near Eastern section of the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor, taking part in discussions, signing dissent cables and raising her concerns with her supervisor. But she had lost confidence she could do anything that would affect the flow of US arms to Israel.

“The fundamental reason was – I no longer wanted to be affiliated with this administration,” Sheline told the Guardian. “I have a young daughter. She’s not yet two, but if some day in the future, she is learning about this and knows that I was at the state department and she asked me [about it] – I want to be able to tell her that I did what I could.”

Sheline is only the second state department official to resign over US policy on the Gaza war (another official left the education department over the issue), but she said that many of her colleagues had told her they would resign if they could afford to lose their job, and had urged her to speak out about her reasons for quitting, rather than to leave quietly.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/27/state-department-resignation-gaza-biden-policy

Message from Craig Corrie Marking 21 Years

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Written by Craig Corrie Craig Corrie

Published: 17 March 2024 17 March 2024

From Craig Corrie - 21 Years Later

Gaza Crushed With Our Tax Dollars

On March 16, 2003, our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed as she stood to protect the home of a Palestinian family in Rafah in Gaza. Rachel was crushed to death by the Israeli military under a militarized, Caterpillar, Inc. D9R bulldozer, supplied by our United States government, paid for by our tax dollars. Now, twenty-one years later, we are witnessing the entire Gaza population being crushed by the Israeli military, using planes, bombs, shells, tanks and, yes, even bulldozers supplied by the United States. Genocide. Paid for by our tax dollars.

In some ways you could see this coming: soldiers never held accountable for their war crimes, human rights violations by the army of a country feeling entitled to the land of another people. We know this story, and we have seen this genocide. Ask any native American.

Our family worked for almost two decades to secure accountability in Rachel’s case, first through diplomatic means, and when that failed, through a civil lawsuit in Israeli courts. Some of the court testimony is particularly telling. An IDF Colonel responsible for training stated that there are no civilians in war zones, and the officer responsible for the military police investigation into Rachel’s killing testified that he thought Israel was at war with everyone in Gaza, including the peace activists. And all the time, the Israeli defense team referred to the people of Gaza – Rachel’s friends, our friends – as “the terrorists.” Even the Israeli high court said that international law did not apply to the actions of Israel in Gaza. How telling.

Repeatedly, the U.S. supplies weapons to Israel that are used in ways giving probable cause of human rights violations. But when the U.S. asks for investigation, Israel replies with reports that are far from the result of the thorough, credible, and transparent investigation required of, or in Rachel’s case promised by, Israel. Citing that violations cannot be proven, the U.S. continues military aid – rather than withholding more funding until our questions are properly answered, as allowed by U.S. law and dictated by common sense. The U.S. routinely rewards IDF war crimes with increased military aid, rather than sanctions. When that aid is abetting genocide, as it has since October 7, 2023, the aid itself is a war crime.

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Biden’s passivity about mass death in Gaza is a moral stain on his presidency

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Written by Mohamad Bazzi Mohamad Bazzi

Published: 10 March 2024 10 March 2024

Apparently he can rush thousands of bombs to Israel, but can’t get Israel to unblock a US shipment of flour to Gazans

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As Biden continues supplying Israel with weapons, the US is culpable for the slaughter and catastrophe in Gaza. Even as UN and humanitarian officials sound the alarm about the risk of widespread famine, Israel continues to block large portions of the food and other aid mobilized by the international community from reaching Gaza. In the most blatant example of Biden’s inability or refusal to force Israeli officials to allow more aid, Israel’s extremist finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has blocked a large US shipment of flour from leaving the Israeli port of Ashdod for nearly a month. UN officials say the flour is enough to feed 1.1 million Gazans for a month.

Apparently, Biden can rush tens of thousands of bombs and missiles to Israel, but he can’t convince an Israeli minister to release a shipment of US flour – one which Netanyahu promised to facilitate during a call with Biden on 19 January. It’s the latest example of how Netanyahu and his hardline government have consistently humiliated Biden since the start of the Gaza war.

 Read more on The Guardian