President Joseph R. Biden
The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC, 20500
 
Dear Mr. President,
 
I write to you as an American citizen, a regular voter, and a person who has traveled almost annually to Israel/Palestine over the past quarter century+.  Since January 1996, I have witnessed, up close and personal and over and over again, the profound challenges posed by the now 56-year-and-counting brutal military occupation of the Palestinian people by the Israeli Defense Forces. 
 
Now—after 56 years of Israeli military occupation, supported massively by the US government, and after 16 years of an inhumane siege of the entire civilian population of Gaza, trapped as they are in an open-air prison with virtually no means of “escape”—an almost unthinkably vicious and violent act has taken place.  Palestinian fighters from Gaza have now turned the tables on the Israeli occupiers, taken events into their own hands, invaded Israel by multiple means, and brutally massacred hundreds of Israelis.
 
In response to this vicious attack, the full power of the Israeli military is now trained directly on Gaza and its two million Palestinian civilians, trapped there in circumstances widely recognized as unlivable, without means of escape, without bomb shelters or an “iron dome” to protect them from Israeli bombing, and, as per the notice of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, without food, water, or electricity.
 
Mr. President, in no way and by no means do I support the vicious acts of Hamas in murdering citizens of Israel.  As a follower of Jesus, I do not support violence of any kind by humans against other humans.  
 
But it does not take a degree in international affairs to recognize that the present circumstances are the recipe for a large-scale human catastrophe and, what is even more culpable, massive human rights abuses enacted collectively against an entire population.  But vis-à-vis this looming human and human rights catastrophe, you, Mr. President, have seen fit only to add “more fuel to the fire” and to send even more weapons and military capability to the State of Israel to attack the besieged people of Gaza.
 
Mr. President, have you completely lost your moral compass?  Are you truly willing to make the United States complicit in the massive human rights abuses even now being perpetrated on the civilian population of Gaza, let alone in the wider human catastrophe to come?
 
This is the time, not for making more war, but rather for taking the courageous steps needed to finally and completely dismantle the 56-year-and-counting military occupation of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel and to use the considerable power and influence of the United States to work at establishing a sturdy basis for justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike. 
 
Sincerely,
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Published by Mennonite Palestine Israel Network (MennoPIN)

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