As human rights groups continue to call out war crimes committed by the Israeli military, we speak to the only U.S. diplomat to publicly resign from the Biden administration over its policy on Israel.
We first spoke to Hala Rharrit when she resigned from the State Department in April, citing the illegal and deceptive nature of U.S. policy in the Middle East. “We continue to willfully violate laws so that we surge U.S. military assistance to Israel,” she says after more than a year of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Rharrit says she found the Biden administration unmovable in its “counterproductive policy,” which she believes has gravely harmed U.S. interests in the Middle East. “We are going to feel the repercussions of that for years, decades, generations.”
Nur Masalha appears to be a well-regarded Palestinian expert in Palestinian history, very good. Ilan Pappe is a post-modernist though, there’s a little too much narrative massaging without evidence in that philosophy. In most fields this is fine, but history is a dangerous one due to its common use for propaganda purposes.
You’ll note, I’m trying very hard to avoid spreading any propaganda myself, pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. I’m very leery of the stuff, and it is very common unfortunately due to how it can be used to justify violence that people may wish to commit for any number of reasons. Opposing viewpoints should always be viewed together, with appropriate attention given to all available evidence.
This is a genocide. I wouldn’t ‘both sides’ this conflict anymore than the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Zionism is a fascist ideology. I won’t equate that to an anti-colonialist resistance.
Advocating for the humanity of Palestinians, a permanent ceasefire, and a One-State Solution with equal rights for all is the right way to approach this issue.
I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification, and comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany, while very common on here, miss some very key distinctions. Primarily that Netanyahu and his right wingers have nothing even close to the rigid regimentation and control in Israeli society that the Nazis had on Germany.
Another would be that Hitler needed to manufacture his casus belli on Poland, while pushing a unifying narrative to his people based on conspiracy. Israel’s casus belli was obvious to all, faced with not just Oct 7th, but frequent wars of Jihad in their more distant past.
A third would be the thoroughness of Nazi crimes against the Jews, to the point of gassing. Closest Netanyahu has come is the current artificial famine he’s being prohibited from finishing off, so far.
Regarding
I fully agree, except on the One-State Solution. While I would appreciate that enacted in an ideal world, in our world I think Palestinians would have “equal rights” but suffer under systemic discrimination as POC and women do here in America. I also think it’s the least likely solution to actually be enacted. Thus I personally advocate for a Two-State Solution in line with the Oslo Accords, which the Israelis already demonstrated a willingness to work towards before Rabin’s assassination. While this may be less “right”, I don’t think “right” should be pursued when this impractical, where we’re dealing with an over century long blood feud driven heavily by illogical emotions.
edit: Note, I don’t dispute that it is an attempted genocide. The famine is a very clear indication of that.