Editor,

Israel’s bombing of populated areas in Gaza and cutting off 2.2 million residents from food, water, medicine and electricity can’t be dismissed as a vengeful response to the Hamas and killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians.

The truth about the war is revealed in its level of destruction, which, according to the head of the United Nations has occurred, “at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history.” Some 25,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 63,000 injured. They died in schools, hospitals and places of worship from more bomb tonnage than was dropped in the Iraq war. More were killed in the first month of Israel’s bombing than all the Ukrainian civilians killed in the first six months of Russia’s invasion.

The purpose of Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s Palestinian residents is to prevent them from having their own country with the same international rights and recognition as Israel. By destroying Gaza’s infrastructure and turning neighborhoods into rubble, Israel is turning what has been called the world’s largest concentration camp into a place that people can’t or won’t be allowed to rebuild.

The Biden administration has used its influence and our tax dollars to set the stage for Israel to extend its control and boundaries. As for Gaza’s Palestinian refugees, Israel’s prime minister, has proposed having them relocated to the Congo in Africa.

President Biden’s refusal to support a ceasefire, and his reference to civilian deaths in Gaza as, “the price of waging a war,” reveals a detached politician’s lack of concern. This same lack of concern is reflected in his decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs once prohibited because of the civilian casualties they caused. When Biden bypassed Congress to rush hundreds of millions of dollars of arms and ammunition to Israel, he undermined our democratic process and supported a war that will create more “terrorists” than will be killed. The merchants of war will get their profits and politicians like Biden and Netanyahu will get a bump in the polls and support from the blocks of voters they need.

This Democrat won’t vote for Biden but will donate to Palestinian relief, Israel’s growing anti-war movement and news outlets falsely accused of being anti-Semitic. History tells us this conflict will continue and spread until the problems Palestinians have long complained about are addressed. Israel’s conduct gives credence to those complaints.

Rick Abraham

Greenbank