An Open Letter to Senator Jeff Merkley

July 22, 2014
By Gilbert Schramm

Senator Merkley,

As a former supporter of yours, I was angered and saddened to see your response to my concerns about the Gaza conflict. Your position is simply not good enough. It is cowardly and enables pointless Israeli violence. In view of the fact that you voted for S Res 498, I cannot view you as worthy of the distinguished leadership position that Oregonians have conferred on you. 

Like many progressives, I worked hard for your election. I will now suspend my work and contributions on your behalf—you clearly don’t have the good of our nation in focus.

Your statement decries the deaths on both sides, but the resolution you signed (S Res 498) is a one sided travesty that places a US seal of approval on the ongoing Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian territories and the ongoing war crimes that are the direct result of that occupation.

The truth is that Israel is the guilty party here. This is a war of choice by Israel. Your statement misinforms your constituents by blurring that reality.

To this date, Israel has not supplied a shred of evidence that Hamas was in any way involved with the kidnap/murder of the three Israeli teens which your letter mentions. They were taken in the West Bank, in an area where the Palestinian authority is not allowed to exercise full security control. Without even having located the crime scene, Netanyahu’s government laid the blame on Hamas. The Netanyahu government then engaged in verbal incitement that probably led directly to the horrific hate killing of a Palestinian teenager. He was burned alive after being tortured by a group of Israelis. For some time, Israeli officials claimed that there was ‘no evidence that this was a hate crime.’

And then Israel unilaterally broke the longstanding ceasefire in Gaza by engaging in massive roundups of (alleged) Hamas members across the West Bank and proceeded with the current operation in Gaza, turning what should have remained a police matter into a major humanitarian catastrophe.

You say in your letter that “all people – Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and others around the world – should condemn the extremists who target civilians and put the security and prosperity of both Israelis and Palestinians at risk.” 

The truth is, Senator, that the Israelis are the extremists who place both sides at risk. Hamas rockets have so far killed two civilians. 27 Israeli troops have been killed on the ground (all of them after Gaza came under Israeli attack). At the same time, over 560 Palestinians, about 72% of them civilians have been killed. It is clear who is targeting civilians. Your support for S Res 498 merely mimics Netanyahu’s lie that he really loves Palestinians and really isn’t trying to hurt them. The numbers don’t lie.

In the broader picture, as has been the case since 1948, the Israelis are killing to take Palestinian land and the Palestinians are fighting to defend it. The former is an act of war and a crime, the latter is an act of justified self defense. S Res 498 ignores this reality.

Statistics show that between 2004 and 2013 (almost ten years) only 24 Israeli civilians were killed by rocket fire from Gaza. During the same time period Israel launched the following offensives into Gaza (Operation Rainbow(2004), Operation Day of Penitence, (2004) Operation Summer Rains (2006), Operation Autumn Clouds (2006), Operation Hot Winter (2008), Operation Cast Lead (2008) Operation Returning Echo (2012) Operation  Pillar of Defense (2012). These operations caused thousands of Palestinian deaths, many more thousands of wounded, and usually only involved a small handful of Israeli deaths—in total, as we have noted, about 24 civilian deaths and another 20 or so military casualties. Most Israeli casualties took place DURING these operations—not before. Now we can add Operation Protective Edge to this tragic list of pompously named, and totally ineffective acts of genocide.

The key lessons we can learn from this history are that the ideas that these operations prevent Israeli civilian or military casualties, or that such operations can actually stop Palestine resistance, are both pathetically false.

Wake up! Every time Israel has taken this kind of action, Hamas has emerged stronger, more moderate Palestinians have lost support, the rockets and tunnels have remained.

The Israeli argument that this operation is about stopping rocket fire or protecting civilians is pure nonsense. There had been ZERO Israeli casualties from rocket fire in 2013 prior to Israel’s latest violation of the ceasefire. There are now 27 Israeli dead. Only 2 are civilians.

Some biased commentators are praising Israel for its “humane” attempts to “avoid” civilian casualties. The fact is, in the tragic and much criticized Syrian Civil War only about 33% of casualties have been civilians. The UN now estimates that of the some 560 Palestinian deaths in Gaza in the last weeks some 72% of them have been civilians. One can only conclude that Netanyahu is far, far worse than Assad.

Of the causalities you write, “For all of them, including Tarek Abu Khdeir, and for all of the children scarred by air raid sirens and explosions in Sderot and Tel Aviv and Gaza, I continue to hope for peace.”

Your bland expression of “hope” isn’t really very endearing. It is certainly not leadership. It is the pale dithering of a man on the wrong side of the argument who doesn’t really know what excuse to make next. 

You mention Tarek Abu Khdeir, a US citizen who was brutally beaten by Israeli police. He is under house arrest and his family has been detained without charges. The police who beat him are free. That is the Israeli “justice” that S Res 498 endorses. You also make it sound as if the Israeli children who occasionally hear an air raid siren are suffering in the same way that the dead, the maimed, the permanently crippled children of Gaza are. What a travesty!

It would be good if you could remember that most Israelis live in Israel by choice—the Palestinian refugees who live in Gaza were not given a choice. Their country was taken from them (with US help). They have no bomb shelters to run to.

Finally, your letter embodies and reinforces the notion that YOU and the US are simply powerless to stop this. That is a cruel farce. The bombs that rain on Gaza nightly now were made and/or paid for in the US. An immediate suspension of all US aid (some $4 billion a year), and diplomatic support to Israel would change the equation in a heartbeat.

Instead, by coddling the Israeli extremists led by Netanyahu through acts like passing S Res 498, you have virtually guaranteed that this horrific and useless bloodshed will continue.

So unless you find something new to say, something that makes sense and leads towards real peace, something that for once is honest and relevant and not a lot of mindless pap drafted by an ignorant staffer, don’t ask me for any more money, for any more volunteer work, or for my vote. Not for yourself or for your party. We are done.

Wayne Morse must be spinning in his grave.

Sincerely,

Gilbert Schramm

 

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