The human catastrophe in Gaza cannot continue. The heinous October 7 Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel have been followed by a brutal Israeli assault on Gaza, with bombing intensity unprecedented in this century. Twelve hundred Israelis were killed with another 240 taken hostage. The number of Palestinians slain now exceeds 18,000, including an estimated 10,000 women and children.
Nearly 2 million residents have been forced to leave their homes to seek refuge in the south, and now the bombing has started in the south. UN representatives warn of a spiraling humanitarian crisis with thousands of children now at risk of dying from starvation. This nightmare must end.
This weekend, the Rainbow Push Coalition and other concerned organizations will convene an emergency summit in Chicago to call on Congress and the Biden administration to demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to Israeli bombing in Gaza, the safe return of all hostages, and immediate and sustained relief to the almost 2 million displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
The unimaginable destruction and death in Gaza are a human catastrophe for the civilians there. It also represents, as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin suggested, a “strategic defeat” for Israel, which is surely generating more terrorists than it is killing.
The Biden administration’s opposition to a ceasefire has isolated the United States in the region and in the world, as demonstrated when it was left to vote alone to block a UN Security Council Resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. It risks a wider war in the Middle East, as skirmishes have increased on the Lebanon border, with Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis increasingly active. It has generated more and more division at home, raising fears and risking rising antisemitism and anti-Arab American hostility. It also isolates the administration from the majority of Americans, with recent polls by Data Progress showing over 60 percent of likely voters in favor of a “permanent ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza.”
This horror must end.
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