大象传媒

On Sept. 19, 2001, eight days after 9/11, as the leaders of both parties were already pounding a frenzied drumbeat of war, a diverse group of concerned Americans released a warning about the long-term consequences of a military response. Among them were veteran civil rights activists, faith leaders, and public intellectuals, including Rosa Parks, Harry Belafonte, and Palestinian-American Edward Said. Rare public opponents of the drive to war at the time,  with level-headed clarity:

鈥淲e foresee that a military response would not end the terror. Rather, it would spark a cycle of escalating violence, the loss of innocent lives, and new acts of terrorism. 鈥� Our best chance for preventing such devastating acts of terror is to act decisively and cooperatively as part of a community of nations within the framework of international law 鈥� and work for justice at home and abroad.鈥�

Twenty-three years and more than two wars later, this statement reads as a tragic footnote to America鈥檚 Global War on Terror, which left an entire region of the planet immiserated. The war contributed to the direct and indirect deaths of , while costing Americans  and counting.

The situation is certainly different today. Still, over the last few weeks, those prophetic words, now 22 years old, have been haunting me, as the United States war machine kicks into ever higher gear following the horrific Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians and the brutal intensification of the decades-long Israeli siege of civilians in Gaza. Sadly, the words and actions of our nation鈥檚 leaders have revealed a staggering, even willful, historical amnesia about the disastrous repercussions of America鈥檚 21st-century warmongering.

Case in point: Recently, the U.S. was the only nation to  the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for 鈥渉umanitarian pauses鈥� to deliver life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza. Instead, all but a  of Congress are lining up to support billions more in military aid for Israel and the further mobilization of our armed forces in the Middle East. These moves, , may only accelerate wider regional conflict (something we are already seeing glimmers of vis-脿-vis Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen) at a time of increasingly profound global instability. In the last few weeks, the  鈥渁ssembled one of the greatest concentrations of power in the Eastern Mediterranean in 40 years,鈥� while the Department of Defense is  of troops for possible deployment. Meanwhile, college administrators are suggesting student reservists be prepared in case they get called up in the coming weeks.

Amid this frenzy of American bluster and brawn, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees reports that Gaza is 鈥�,鈥� riddled with death, disease, starvation, thirst, and displacement. Hundreds of scholars of international law and conflict studies have warned that the Israeli military may already have launched a 鈥溾�� of Gazans. At the same time, within Israel, citizen militias,  the far-right minister of national security, have escalated violent attacks on Palestinians, only worsened by the acts of armed Israeli settlers on the West Bank protected by that very military.

Finally allowing a tiny amount of aid across the Egypt-Gaza border, after  all food, water, and fuel for Gaza, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant  just how much power the United States wields over this unfolding humanitarian crisis. 鈥淭he Americans insisted,鈥� he reported, 鈥渁nd we are not in a place where we can refuse them. We rely on them for planes and military equipment. What are we supposed to do? Tell them no?鈥�

As Gallant implied, the U.S. could use its influence not only to demand far more aid for Gazans, but to compel quite a different course of action. There should, after all, be no contradiction between condemning Hamas for its heinous slaughter in the south of Israel and denouncing Israel for its decades-old dispossession and oppression of the  and its now-indiscriminate killing and destruction in Gaza. There need be no contradiction between decrying terrorism and demanding diplomacy over violence. In truth, the Biden administration could use every nonmilitary tool at its disposal to pressure both Hamas and Israel to pursue an immediate ceasefire, the full release of all hostages, and whatever humanitarian assistance is now needed.

If only, rather than  the region or questioning the  in Gaza, the Biden administration were to focus on making this most recent and ever more ominous crisis a final turning point, not for yet more , but for a long-term political solution focused on achieving real peace, human rights, and equality for everyone in the region. In this moment of grief and rage, when tensions are at a fever pitch and the wheel of history is turning around us, it鈥檚 time to demand peace above all else.

The Cruel Manipulation of the Poor

While the U.S. government refuses to use its considerable power as leverage for peace, ordinary Americans seem to know better. Unlike the days after 9/11, recent polls suggest that a  oppose sending more weapons to Israel and support delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, including a majority of people under the age of 44, as well as a majority of Democrats and independents and a significant minority of Republicans. While Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, was made a pariah and is in the process of  by some of her colleagues after her  for a ceasefire, she actually represents the popular will of a significant portion of the public.

And that, in turn, represents a generational shift from even a decade or two ago. In the wake of this country鈥檚 disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as dozens of other military conflicts globally, many Americans, especially Millennials and Gen Zers, see the U.S. military less as a defender of democracy than as a purveyor of death and chaos. Nearly second-by-second online coverage of the Israeli bombing campaign is offering Americans an unprecedented view into the collective punishment of more than two million Gazans, . (Now, with limited Internet and , it鈥檚 unclear how word of what鈥檚 happening in Gaza will continue to get out.) Add to that the slow-burning pain that has marked life in the United States over the last 15 years鈥攖he Great Recession, the COVID-19 economic shock, the climate crisis, and the modern movement for racial justice鈥攁nd the reasons for such a relatively widespread urge for peace become clearer.

Today, half of all Americans are  from economic ruin. As younger generations face what often feels like a dead-end future, there鈥檚 a growing sense among those I speak to (as well as older folks) that the government has abandoned them. At a moment when the Republicans (and some Democrats) argue that we can鈥檛 afford universal health care or genuine living wages, the military budget for 2023 is  and the Pentagon still  globally. Last week, without a touch of irony, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who  that student debt relief would hurt the economy,  that the U.S. can 鈥渃ertainly afford two wars.鈥�

Millions of us tuned in to President Biden鈥檚 Oval Office speech on his return from Israel, only the second of his presidency. There, he asked Congress to earmark yet  mainly for American military aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan (a boon to the war-profiteering weapons makers whose CEOs will grow even richer thanks to those new contracts). Just a year after Congress , which had , Biden鈥檚 speech represented a further pivot away from socially beneficial policymaking and toward further strengthening of the ravenous engine of our war economy. After the speech, The Nation鈥檚 Katrina vanden Heuvel  this compelling instant commentary: 鈥淏iden tonight rolled out a version of 21-century military Keynesianism. Let鈥檚 call his policy just that. No more Bidenomics. And it consigns the U.S. to endless militarization of foreign policy.鈥�

A decision to organize our economy yet more around war will also mean the further militarization of domestic policy, with dire consequences for poor and low-income people. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once called such steps the 鈥�,鈥� a phrase he coined as part of his denunciation of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s. King was then thinking about the American soldiers fighting and dying in Vietnam 鈥渙n the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.鈥�

Today, a similar 鈥渃ruel manipulation鈥� is playing out. For years, our leaders have invoked the myth of scarcity to justify inaction when it comes to widespread poverty, growing debt, and rising inequality in the United States. Now, some of them are calling for the spending of billions of dollars to functionally fund the bombardment and occupation of impoverished Gaza and a violent Israeli clampdown in the West Bank, not to speak of the possibility of a wider set of Middle Eastern wars. However, polling numbers suggest that a surprising number of Americans have seen through the fog of war and are perhaps coming to believe that our nation鈥檚 abundance should be used not as a tool of death but as a lifeline for poor and struggling people at home and abroad.

Not in Our Name

In a time of stifling darkness, one bright light over the last weeks has been the eruption of nonviolent, pro-peace protests across the world. In Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe, hundreds of thousands of people have hit the streets to demand a ceasefire, including  in London. Here in the U.S., tens of thousands of Americans have followed suit in dozens of cities, from New York to Washington, D.C., Chicago to San Francisco. No less important, those protest marches have been both multiracial and multigenerational, much like the 2020 uprisings for Breonna Taylor, , and the countless other Black lives lost to police brutality.

Recently, close friends and colleagues sent me photos from a , D.C., where  demanded a ceasefire and held up signs with heartrending slogans like 鈥淣ot in My Name,鈥� 鈥淐easefire Now,鈥� and 鈥淢y Grief Is Not Your Weapon.鈥� Ultimately, close to 400 people, including numerous rabbis,  as they peacefully sang and prayed in a congressional office building, while David Friedman, ambassador to Israel under President Trump, hatefully : 鈥淎ny American Jew attending this rally is not a Jew鈥攜es I said it!鈥� Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia  that the protestors were leading an insurrection.

Two days later, my organization, the  for Religions, Rights, and 大象传媒, co-sponsored a pro-peace march that drew a large crowd of Palestinians and Muslim-American families. At noon, about 500 protesters鈥攁 gorgeous, multicolored sea of humanity鈥� in front of the U.S. Capitol. The following week, folks co-organized a pray-in at New York Representative Hakeem Jeffries鈥檚 office, using the phrase 鈥渃easefire is the moral choice.鈥� Faith and movement leaders offered prayers from their various religious traditions and displayed the names of people killed so far.

On Oct. 27, as Israel expanded its  of Gaza, I joined thousands of people in Grand Central Station to call for a #CeasefireNow, one of the  in New York since this most recent conflict broke out. Protests continued all week. And on , there was a mass rally and march in Washington, D.C., to call for an end to war and to support the rights of Palestinians, with hundreds of organizations bridging a diversity of views and voices to plead for peace.

Those marches were an inspiring indication of the broad coalition of Americans who desperately want to prevent genocide in Gaza and dream of lasting peace and freedom in Israel/Palestine. At the lead are Palestinians and Jews who refuse to be used as pawns and prop-pieces by military hawks. Alongside them are many Americans all too aware that, though they might not be directly affected by the nightmarish events now unfolding in the Middle East, they are still implicated in the growing violence thanks to their tax dollars and the actions of our government. Together, we are collectively crying out: 鈥淣ot in Our Name.鈥�

Such marches undoubtedly represent the largest anti-war mobilization since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and are weaving together diverse communities鈥攜oung and old; Black, Brown, and White; Muslim, Jewish, and Christian; poor and working-class鈥攊n a way that should prove encouraging indeed for a growing peace movement. Right now there are new alliances and relationships being forged that will undoubtedly endure for years to come.

Yes, this remains a small victory in what鈥檚 likely to prove a terrifying global crisis, but it is a victory nonetheless.

Roses Dressed in Black

The last few weeks have resurrected traumatic memories for many Jews and Palestinians globally鈥攐f the Holocaust, the Nakba, and the long history of Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate, anti-Jewish violence, and antisemitism. For many of us who are not Palestinian or Jewish, the recent mass death and violence have also triggered our own painful reckonings with the past.

I鈥檓 a descendant of Armenian genocide survivors. When I was a child growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I heard hushed tales of death marches, hunger, lack of water, barricaded roads, and harrowing escapes. Those stories remain etched into my consciousness, a mournful inheritance my dispossessed ancestors handed down.

My great-grandfather, Charles Ozun Artinian, fled his home in what is now Turkey鈥檚 Seyhan River valley after the 1909 Adana Massacre in which Ottoman militants killed 25,000 Armenian Christians. Part of his family escaped over the Caucasus Mountains into Western Europe. They then traveled halfway across the world to Argentina, because so many other nations, including the United States, had closed their borders to Armenian refugees and would only open them years later.

As he was fleeing Adana, Charles wrote a poem, one of the few surviving long-form poems from the region at the time. It begins:

In the Seyhan valley there rises a smoke

Roses dressed in black, month of April cried

Cries of sadness and mourning were heard everywhere

Broken hearted and sad, everybody cried鈥�

My family taught my siblings and me that although the genocide against our people was carried out by the Ottoman Empire, it was made possible by the complicity and indifference of the international community, including the world鈥檚 richest and most powerful nations. Right now, the smoke rising over Gaza is suffocating, and every additional hour the U.S. enables more bombs to fall and tanks to rumble, more roses will be, as my great-grandfather put it, dressed in black. Not only that, but with the detonation of each new American-made bomb, the conditions for the long-term freedom and safety of both Israelis and Palestinians are blasted evermore into rubble.

Let us honor the memories of our ancestors and finally learn the lesson of their many stolen lives: 鈥淣ot In Our Name!,鈥� 鈥淧eace and Justice for All!鈥� and the pleas from Gaza, including 鈥淐easefire Now!,鈥� 鈥淓nd the Siege,鈥� 鈥淧rotect Medical Facilities,鈥� and 鈥淕aza is Home!鈥�

This article was originally published by . It has been published here with permission. 

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