by Neal Resnikoff, Chicago Antiwar Coalition
There have been huge rallies and street marches in recent days in Chicago, New York City and throughout the world opposing the U.S. government-backed Israeli genocidal bombing attacks and blockade of water, food, and electricity on the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.
The demonstrations, made up of Palestinians and supporters of their opposition to the Israeli attacks, including progressive Jewish people, show the strong opposition to what the U.S. government and its Biden Administration is backing. I urge you, if you have not done so already, to actively join this opposition.
There have also been—
— a demonstration this past Sunday of Palestinians and supporters in Skokie in opposition to a Zionist rally supporting the Israeli attacks on Palestinians,
–a sit-in last week at House of Representatives Jan Schakowsky’s office in Skokie to demand she sign on to a resolution in the House for a cease-fire,
–and a rally, march, and sit-in at Clark and Wells Drive by hundreds in a demonstration yesterday organized by Jewish people. Among their slogans was “Free, Free Palestine.”
Thousands of Jewish people have also demonstrated against the Israeli attacks at the U.S. Capitol and in Israel, and joined in the many demonstrations on college campuses such as at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and elsewhere.
A survey of people along the sidewalk on Michigan Avenue while the Palestinian support march was passing by last Saturday showed many, many thumbs up. The survey showed that while many people were silent when asked what they thought, there was no vocalized opposition. A number were interested in getting clarification on what has been going on and why.
In the face of great opposition, President Biden has been seeking to gain support for his giving a green light to the vicious attacks on the Palestinian people by the Israeli government.
Biden’s remarks on the situation, as in his address from the Oval Office on Thursday, October 19, upon his return from his trip to Israel, expose the war mongering role he is playing for the U.S. capitalist ruling class as it tries to maintain its hegemony in the world for power and profits.
There is further exposure of the U.S. government’s support of Israeli genocidal attacks on Palestinians in the U.S. veto in the United Nations Security Council of a call initiated by Brazil calling for a cease fire in Gaza and for Israel to allow entrance of humanitarian aid.
The Oval Office speech had no constructive proposals for having the government of Israel respond positively to the resistance of Palestinians to the unjust attacks on them and Israel’s continued brutal occupation of their land.
Biden spoke in favor of transfer of the Palestinian population out of Gaza and into Egypt, which would be a violation of international human rights law.
Although Biden proposed that humanitarian aid be allowed into Gaza, little has arrived, and that after much delay.
And Biden’s statements about the need to support enabling a sovereign and independent state for the Palestinians can be taken as empty rhetoric since the U.S. government has taken no serious steps to foster serious negotiations between the government of Israel and Palestinians.
Although Biden claimed he urged restraint by the Israeli government on further attacks on Gaza, he whipped up war mongering in his Oval Office speech by focusing on Hamas being “evil” rather than understandably engaging in resistance to Israeli oppression since the founding of the state in 1948, and British and U.S.-government backed Zionist attacks and killings before that.
There was no talk of cutting billions of dollars in U.S. government aid to the state of Israel and its military. To the contrary, there was talk of increasing that aid.
And, while Biden was talking to millions of people via his TV address, he used the occasion to try to further whip up support for overall U.S. government imperialism, especially its war on Russia using Ukraine as a proxy. He said that the U.S. is an indispensable force in the world.
You can read the speech at Full Transcript: Biden’s Speech on Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine Wars – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
*Featured Image: Great signs, Toronto protester on the left, Edmonton on the right