The United States Congress and administration agree to allocate over $95 billion for wars around the world.
Originally published in Fighting Words.
While the administration of United States President Joe Biden seeks to avoid any substantive discussion on the genocide taking place in the Gaza Strip, mass demonstrations and other forms of dissent over the White House’s foreign policy is expanding exponentially.
It is not surprising that youth, workers, artists and religious figures, among others, are focused on ending the slaughter of the people in Gaza.
Thousands of tons of weapons including warplanes and bombs are being transferred from Washington and its NATO allies to the State of Israel for the sole purpose of intensifying the repression against the Palestinian people. These are the realities that Biden and his advisors cannot hide from the people of the U.S. and the world.
A recently exposed massacre, one of hundreds of such incidents, involving the siege and destruction of Nassar Hospital, makes an even stronger case for an embargo to be placed on the transfer of arms to Tel Aviv. The official figures for deaths given by the health authorities at this facility in Gaza so far is 283.
The targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers has been a mainstay of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) war against the Palestinians. Undoubtedly, the brutal and repeated attacks on those institutions needed during a war has contributed immensely to the deaths and injuries since October 7.
A Lebanese-based television network, Al Mayadeen, said of the discovery of mass graves at Nassar Hospital:
“Gaza’s Civil Defense announced today that 283 bodies of martyrs were recovered from the Israeli-made mass grave in Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis since the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the area. There is clear evidence of field executions carried out by the IOF [Israeli Occupation Forces] at Nasser Medical Complex, it emphasized in its statement…. The spokesperson of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Nebal Farsakh, condemned the international community’s state of silence on the Israeli war on Gaza. In a press conference, Farsakh said that since the start of the war in Gaza, the international community has not taken any serious action towards the continuous Israeli crimes and violations against the health system, hospitals, humanitarian workers, and civilians in Gaza…. Addressing the Israeli-made recently discovered mass graves in Al-Shifa Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex, and Kamal Adwan Hospital, Farsakh said that so far, there are no accurate or specific numbers on the bodies of Palestinians discovered there or of those missing. All reports on the burying of Palestinian patients and refugees in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital following the Israeli siege of the latter are horrific, Farsakh stressed further confirming that 23 PRCS ambulances are currently out of service.”
By the last full week of April, the Gaza Health Ministry had said that over 34,000 people have been killed in the Strip since October 7. Since the retaliation by the Islamic Republic of Iran against occupation forces in Palestine, the Biden administration has reiterated what it called “ironclad” support for the settler-colonial state. The White House noted that the Pentagon had assisted in protecting military sites targeted by Tehran.
Biden immediately denounced Iran for the attacks which the administration said did minimal damage. Nonetheless, the White House never condemned the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria on April 1 which killed two high-ranking military officials and other personnel. U.S. military forces are still occupying areas in northeast Syria against the will of the government in Damascus. There has been nothing positive to come out of the Pentagon and NATO continuing presence in West Asia. Moreover, the way in which the Biden administration and his cohorts in Western Europe are approaching the crisis will inevitably lead to a wider imperialist war.
Living Conditions in Rafah
Many people living in the northern regions of Gaza have been forced to take shelter in Rafah in the south on the border with Egypt. In fact, the announcement from the IDF since the beginning of the siege in October directed people living in other areas such as Gaza City and Khan Younis to relocate to the south.
However, the increase in the number of people living in Rafah has not ensured its security from the IDF’s incessant bombing and shelling campaigns. Absent adequate housing and healthcare accommodations for the people in Rafah, the conditions will only worsen.
A school teacher and content writer for Electronic Intifada said of the situation in Rafah:
“Our new camp in Rafah, after our third displacement, is located in a graveyard near the Egyptian border. Each day the tents of new arrivals – of those forcibly displaced by Israeli attacks – creep closer to the graves. After every Israeli massacre, both graveyard and camp expand, crawling toward the outer edges of the desert. We’ve been here since December 2023. Nine of us share a tent that is 16 square meters. We are in the desert, but sometimes it does not feel that way because of the density and the near-constant sounds of Israeli explosions and drones. There are so many people in the camp, all of us in tents that do not protect from heat or cold. Winds sometimes uproot tents. There are stray dogs everywhere. Every day we line up for drinking water. Sometimes the water runs out and we return to our tents empty-handed.”
This story provides a glimpse into the everyday lives of Palestinians in Gaza. The destruction by the IDF, which is facilitated by the U.S. and its NATO allies, has done more to destabilize the entire region from Palestine and Lebanon to Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Iran.
In addition to the direct military assaults on the Palestinians and their institutions in Gaza, the Israeli regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is implementing a program of starvation. The next logical outcome of the war is the forced removal of 2.3 Palestinians from Gaza.
Several weeks ago, the Biden White House talked about the airdropping of food to the people impacted by the war. Later they announced the building of a temporary pier to deliver food and other essential supplies to Gaza.
Neither of these talked about initiatives have made a difference in the lives of the people. Through these proclamations by the Biden administration, they attempt to divert attention away from the central questions involving the plight of the Palestinians.
By continuing to fuel war, more people realize the actual aims of the overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The recent spending package for imperialist war garnered bipartisan support.
The U.S. policy has already failed in the attempt to conceal its strategic aims in Palestine. The Israeli regime serves as a major pillar within the hegemonic designs for total western domination of the world. A triumph for the Palestinians and the people of the West Asia region would clearly mean a resounding defeat for Washington and Wall Street.
Historically, successive U.S. administrations have carried out imperialist wars resulting in mass casualties and population displacement. For more than three decades this has been the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine. Today the world is watching in horror the situation in Gaza and demands an end to the genocide.
Mass Pressure Challenges White House Indifference
As the Biden administration seeks reelection for another term of office, the Palestinian question remains a major issue which it cannot readily dispose of. Biden campaign ads champion his purported accomplishments in the economic field and his commitment to restore federal law guaranteeing reproductive rights.
However, the problems of inflation and declining real wages are embedded in the structures of the capitalist system during this historical period. The urban areas of the U.S. face rising homelessness among residents and recent migrants.
An ever-increasing defense budget takes away from the infrastructural and social needs of the workers, oppressed and impoverished. A foreign policy based on permanent warfare has created even more enemies for the U.S. ruling class.
Students have taken the lead at some of the most prestigious universities in the U.S. by denouncing the official complicity with Zionist aggression and demanding a withdrawal of all investments and other forms of collaboration with genocide in Palestine. Consequently, the duplicity and indifference of the ruling interests in the U.S. are a main driving force in the solidarity movement with Palestine.
Abayomi Azikiwe is the Editor of Pan-African News Wire.
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