By World BEYOND War, December 15, 2023
World BEYOND War Madison is continuing to urge Senator Tammy Baldwin to support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Here’s a television news report:
Activists who met with Senator Baldwin in her office and spoke at a press conference included
- Tsela Barr, Jewish Voice for Peace
- Rowan Atalla, Madison Rafah Sister City Project
- Madison Alder Marsha Rummel, co-sponsor of the Madison ceasefire resolution that passed unanimously at city council on Dec 5
The group is asking Baldwin to:
- Call for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine now.
- Work to cut military aid to Israel and demand that the Israeli government abides by international law and begins sincere negotiations with Palestinians to end the occupation.
- Call for a reversal of the U.S. veto of Article 99 in the UN.
- Call on Israel to lift the siege on Gaza, allow unlimited humanitarian aid, oppose involuntary forced removal of residents from their land and homes, and in the West Bank, halt settler attacks and expansion, military and police raids, and child detention.
Over 60 members of Congress have spoken up for ceasefire, including five U.S. Senators – Dick Durbin, Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. The workers in 71 congressional offices have recorded a total more than 690,000 calls for a cease-fire, but most are “unnoticed and unheard,” an open letter this week from congressional interns said.
Thousands of Wisconsin ceasefire activists marched in Madison on Saturday. Madison for a World BEYOND War has been vigiling from 9 am – 5 pm daily inside and outside of Tammy’s Madison office since the bombing of Gaza began again on Dec 1.
The press conference was hosted by Madison for a World BEYOND War, Madison Rafah Sister City Project, Jewish Voice for Peace – Madison, Madison Veterans for Peace, Chapter 25, and Building Unity.
The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to demand a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza in a strong demonstration of global support for ending the Israel-Hamas war. The vote also showed the growing isolation of the United States and Israel. The vote in the 193-member world body was 153 in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions.
Last week, the United Nations invoked Article 99 to call for a ceasefire. Thirteen of the 15 member nations of the Security Council voted yes. The U.S. voted no. Amnesty International said the U.S. vote displayed “callous disregard for civilian suffering in face of a staggering death toll.” Refusal to support a ceasefire is aiding and abetting genocide under international law.
“As an Israeli-American, I am appalled and disturbed by the massacre of Palestinian innocents by Israel, the military aid Israel is receiving through American citizens’ tax money, and the support offered by my Senator, Tammy Baldwin. I wholeheartedly agree with actions to force Baldwin to listen to her constituents and change her current stance.” – Esty Dinur, member of Jewish Voice for Peace-Madison
Nicholas Kristof wrote last week in the New York Times, in an editorial entitled, “So Many Child Deaths in Gaza and for What?,” “… 16,248 people have been killed in the enclave so far, about 70 percent of them women and children. … The pace of killing of civilians has been much greater than in most other recent conflicts; the only one that I know of that compares is perhaps the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Far more women and children appear to have been killed in Gaza than in the entire first year of the Iraq war, for example.”
Under the UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and Article 6 of the Rome Statute, the crime of genocide occurs when a nation deliberately inflicts on the group “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Under these terms, Israel commits U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza when it bombs civilian targets-hospitals, schools, UN refugee centers, journalists, UN workers, mosques, apartments and escape routes– while denying an imprisoned population water, food, medicine and fuel. Since October 7th, Israel’s assault with U.S. weapons has resulted in tens of thousands of Gazans killed or wounded and 1.7 million people displaced, including almost a million in 154 UNRWA shelters, some of which Israel has bombed. In the words of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, “Gaza has become a graveyard for children.”
World BEYOND War is a global movement to end all wars. World BEYOND War is participating in the Merchants of Death war crimes tribunals that are now taking place to hold war profiteers accountable. Learn more here: https://merchantsofdeath.org/
##
2 Responses
stop old men sending young men to die and to kill!!!!!
Let there Be Peace on Earth Chillicothe Gazette column 12/22 by Jack Burgess
Supporters of President Biden are right to point out that no President since FDR picked up a seat in the Senate in the first “off-year” election after winning the White House. Considering Covid, an American-supported war abroad, inflation—declining, but still headlining the media—and Biden being our oldest President, winning the Senatorial elections was a real achievement for the Democrats.
But, as they used to say, “Don’t rest on your laurels.” And speaking of laurels, Democrats need to earn some peace laurels. Biden was right to get our troops out of Afghanistan—finally. His predecessors had promised to remove them but didn’t. But he got almost nothing but criticism from an electronic media obsessed with controversy. He should be given a peace credit for that.
He also should be aware of our history and how Democrats of modern times have often lost control of the White House or Congress with policies that seemed too warlike. World War II was a “popular” war because Japan and Germany declared war on us with the “sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor. And we were winning in Europe and Asia when FDR was re-elected to a 4th term in ’44. But President Truman and the Democrats, having elected to defend South Korea in a bloody war from1950 to ’53, became unpopular with millions, so Eisenhower and his Republicans captured the White House and Congress in ’52. There were other issues, but the Korean War—added to Democrats being in during World Wars I and II–got the Dems the nickname, The War Party.
Ike clinched the election of ’52 when he proclaimed, “If elected, I shall go to Korea,” and end the war. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Joe McCarthy and others—including Nixon, as senator—had branded the Dems as “soft on communism.” The net effect of Republican propaganda was to blame the Democrats for the war, but also get them labeled as socialists or communists. That strategy created a trap from which Democrats of today still struggle to get free.
Then came Vietnam. President Truman had provided funding for France in their war to hold that area against communism. In ’54, with Ike in the White House, French troops were surrounded at Dien Bien Phu and asked for American assistance. But Ike—a wise general—had proclaimed the US would “not be bogged down in a ground war in Asia.” When Kennedy replaced Ike in the White House he provided American assistance and 16,000 “advisors,” who were supposed to train and assist in the war of capitalist South Viet Nam, our ally, against communist North Viet Nam.
Lyndon Johnson replaced the assassinated Kennedy and embarked on the ambitious and successful Great Society, helping ordinary Americans with Medicare, Medicaid, and civil rights legislation. But, upon being re-elected in a landslide in ’64, he proceeded to send 500,000 American soldiers to South Vietnam. The Great Society benefits have been a huge success, but the war cost America and Viet Nam over a million lives. And it ensured the election of Republican Richard Nixon in ’68, who ran promising to “win the peace.”
But, in ’72, Democrats ran peace candidate Sen. George McGovern, who promised to “bring the boys home.” Nixon won a huge victory. Democrats have been shy about running a peace candidate ever since, although Presidents are typically re-elected and McGovern’s campaign was struggling and underfunded, while Nixon’s was plush and not encumbered by scruples—think Watergate, where Nixon sent burglars to sabotage the Democratic headquarters.
There’s been a lot of warring since then, as Bush I sought to restore America’s military reputation—and secure our business interests in Asia. Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again—with hundreds of thousands of lives lost on their sides and ours totals—and don’t all humans count? Then there are the proxy wars we’ve fought in Yemen, Libya, Syria, and now Ukraine. Our spending on all these wars have not made the world safe, but they’ve made huge profits of the military industrial complex, of which Ike warned us. All this spending could have sent every American youth who wished it to college tuition free. It could have provided national healthcare for all Americans.
It still could, so let’s work and pray for peace. What can we individually do? Speak up for peace with your friends and relatives. Support the candidates that support peace. Trade in your camouflage outfits for holiday colors, or at least something less warlike. Remember the words to the old song, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me!” Remember Jesus’ words, “Put away your sword,” and work for peace with our neighbors—next door and around the world.