To the editor,
Planning on not voting for Biden because “he” continues to fund Israel? Think again:
Yes, the U.S. complicity in Israel's genocidal attacks on Gaza is immoral. The bigger picture is that if Trump is elected and his right-wing minions in Congress retain power, our democracy will devolve to an unregulated predatory corporatocracy with theocratic and oligarchic oversight.
Many rights and freedoms could be lost, including freedom of speech and the press, civil rights and protections, and worker’s rights and protections—all could be completely eliminated. Peaceful protests could be met with long prison sentences. Climate change will be unrecognized, while NOAA and EPA are dismantled. Women's rights will be further nullified.
And Trump will likely turn a blind eye to Netanyahu and Putin; possibly even support them.
Biden and Blinken's substantial efforts, ongoing since October 2023, to stop Israel's attacks on Gaza [1-6], generally underreported by corporate media, have been ignored by Netanyahu. Regardless of constant, long-term effort to at least achieve a ceasefire, Netanyahu, the prime minister of a sovereign nation, seems determined to inflict maximum damage, regardless of U.S. and international efforts to convince him to stop [ 7].
Yes, the Biden administration could have responded much earlier and faster with aid to Gaza. And yes, military aid to Israel should be limited to defensive weapons only.
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) tried to limit Israel's funding for aid and defensive weapons only. Sanders (Jewish) was then accused by Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL, Jewish) to be antisemitic. Moreover, AIPAC, Israel's lobby, has a powerful influence on Congress by targeting congress members who are critical of Israeli actions against Palestine in general and, recently, Gaza. The outcome was that Congress approved funding for both defensive and offensive weapons. Nonetheless, Biden has made clear to Netanyahu that U.S. offensive munitions shipments will be discontinued until Israel meets certain conditions. Netanyahu’s response is that Israel will continue without U.S. support!
So, why protest by not voting for Biden?
Congress controls the budget and funding for all federal programs—Biden as POTUS has virtually no Constitutional authority over Congress, except veto power. Biden has been to-date blocked by right-wing Republican members of Congress. But Republicans are successful at shifting blame for their incompetence to Biden and Democrats and making Americans believe their false blame.
It's amusing that many protestor's seem to think that if the U.S. doesn’t fund Israel's offensive weapons, attacks on Gaza will stop immediately. No doubt, Israel has stock-piled enough munitions to continue their attacks on Gaza for a long time, perhaps for years. If not, with a GDP of over USD500B (13th largest world economy), Israel can buy weapons directly from arms dealers, and because Israel is a sovereign nation, there's little the U.S. can do to stop them.
Possibly, the best way to end the Israeli-Hamas conflict is for the Israeli people to oust Netanyahu. Perhaps when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declares Netanyahu and his complicit thugs to be war criminals, Israeli's can then place him under arrest. Netanyahu's political opposition could then be elected and end the attacks on Gaza.
Meanwhile, Americans can protest by:
-- Exposing and voting out members of the U.S. Congress who support funding for offensive weapons for Israel and/or block funding for Gaza aid.
-- Exposing members of AIPAC and demanding that the AIPAC lobby cease interfering with Congressional decisions regarding Gaza and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
-- Boycotting Israeli products
If you protest by not voting for Biden, you just vote against your own best interests. And if enough of you do this, we will lose our democratic republic to a wannabe dictator.
If you don’t vote for Biden, that's about not voting to save our democracy!
[ 1] — Blinken Calls for Protecting Civilians as Israel Readies an Expected Assault on
Gaza, VOA News, October, 2023
[ 2] — Blinken urges Israel to comply with international law and spare civilians in war
against Hamas, November, 2023
[ 3] — Blinken Urges Israel to Protect Gaza’s Civilians if Truce Ends, NYTimes,
December, 2023
[ 4] — Blinken: If US doesn't see changes to protect civilians in Gaza, "there'll be
changes in our own policy", CNN, April 4, 2024
[ 5] — Blinken: US is "coordinating a diplomatic response to seek to prevent
escalation" after Iran strike on Israel, CNN, April 15, 2024
[ 6] — Blinken Pushes Hamas to Agree on Gaza Cease-Fire Deal, U.S. News, May, 2024
[ 7] — Hamas Agrees to a Cease-Fire Plan; Israel Says It Doesn’t Meet Terms,
NYTimes, May 6, 2024
[10] —Key economic indicators of Israel - statistics & facts, Statista, December, 2023
-Steve Heitmann