by Kathryn Shihadah
The immortal words of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in November, 2022: “Heat, water, electricity for children, for the elderly, for the sick – these are President Putin’s new targets. He’s hitting them hard. This brutalization of Ukraine’s people is barbaric.”
Secretary of State Blinken, you are absolutely right. There is no scenario in which it’s okay to withhold these basic necessities from a population.
Such actions are indeed barbaric.
…That includes when Israel carries them out on the people of Gaza – right, Mr. Blinken?
Israel, the state that America holds so dear, that “shares our values,” has cut off Gaza’s access to heat, water, and electricity – exactly like Putin has done to the Ukraine. Secretary Blinken, this is barbaric, isn’t it?
Israel has gone further than that, cutting off food – blocking food from entering Gaza, bombing food aid warehouses, bakeries, crowded markets. Barbaric.
Israel has gone further than Putin, cutting off medical supplies – blocking basic medicines, equipment, and necessities for years (and denying medical exit from Gaza for the critically ill), bombing hospitals and ambulances, killing doctors and patients, demanding the evacuation of medical centers. Barbaric, isn’t it, Mr. Blinken?
(After many days, Israel has begun to allow a trickle of humanitarian aid into Gaza, but it is “a drop in the ocean of need,” according to the World Health Organization.)
Israel has gone further than Putin, cutting off fuel – forcing many hospitals and medical centers to shut down. Barbaric.
Israel told one million Gazans to flee south, and then bombed them as they fled, and bombed the south when they got there. Barbaric.
Israel has relentlessly bombed residential neighborhoods, schools, and places of worship, killing over 6,500 in 19 days – 70% of them women and children.
Israeli leaders called Gazans “animals,” and treated them worse than animals should ever be treated.
Some Palestinian resistance groups are holding 220 hostages (by some accounts, treating them well). Israel is holding 2.2 million hostages, and its treatment of them might be considered…barbaric?
Secretary Blinken, you must call out Israel as you called out Russia, name Prime Minister Netanyahu as you named President Putin, announce to the world that Israel’s brutalization of Gaza’s people is barbaric—and say that the US will no longer fund it.
Kathryn Shihadah is an editor and staff writer for If Americans Knew. She also blogs occasionally at Palestine Home.
FURTHER READING ON PALESTINE AND UKRAINE:
- Ukraine, Palestine and the propaganda of war
- The crisis in Ukraine exposes the hypocrisy of Israel and its Zionist allies
- The Israel Factor in Neocons’ Anti-Russia Warmongering over Ukraine
- Giraldi on Ukraine, Israeli murders, David Brog, USS Liberty, Iran, etc
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