Calls from Washington for a Ceasefire

Clearly, the Biden Administration is the one government in the world (outside of Netanyahu’s) that could move the most decisively to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza and put an end to the carnage. The Administration has repeatedly refused to do so, completely blowing the cover off “Western values” and morality.

In the United States at large, however, opposition to the policy is growing, notably including “non establishment” Jewish-American organizations. They have launched a “Week of Action” using civil disobedience to demand a halt to Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza.

Within the administration as well, there is a lot of disagreement, although senior officials do not admit it openly. As CNN described it on Nov. 8: “Angst, unease and outrage are spreading through corners of the Biden administration as Israeli forces show no signs of letting up their relentless attacks inside Gaza and the civilian death toll in the besieged enclave – already in the thousands – continues to climb”.

This is reflected in an open letter circulating among employees of the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), calling on the government to declare an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, which has gathered over 1,000 signatures. It states: “we believe that further catastrophic loss of human life can only be avoided if the United States government calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages, and the restoration of water, food, fuel, and electricity to the people of Gaza by the State of Israel…. In the longer term, we call on the United States government to join the international community and human rights organizations in holding all parties, including the State of Israel, to international law, which includes ending Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories and settlements on occupied land.”

From Congress, over 100 staffers stopped work on Nov. 8 to hold a vigil for the 10,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, and demand that, as reported by Common Dreams, “their bosses listen to constituents and support an immediate Gaza ceasefire”. Previously, an open letter dated Oct. 19 and signed by hundreds of Muslim and Jewish congressional staffers had urged lawmakers to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.

From among their “bosses”, a resolution with the same demand has been co-sponsored by 17 Democrats in the House of Representatives, and 13 Senators have called for a “cessation of hostilities”. That is a very small percentage, but their number is expected to increase, as pressure from the voters grows.

As for the majority of Congressmen, after Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American Representative, severely criticized Benjamin Netanyahu’s war on Gaza, she was censured for “promoting false narratives”…