Israel played its part in causing this conflict

We have heard a chorus of American politicians stating “strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself.” Israel has had ample opportunity to truly defend itself: 23 years of negotiations to make peace with the Palestinians. Israel used the negotiations, an extended opportunity to truly “defend itself,” to seize more land and institute a regime of imprisonment on the Palestinians under its control. For the past 47 years, Israelis have elected one government after another bent on maintaining a murderous occupation and theft of Palestinian lands. Generations of Israelis participated in that occupation.

Those sirens they’re listening to now in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are the ripe sound of their nation’s own stupidity. What Israel does not have a right to do is butcher the people on whose throats they stand. Israel must be boycotted, divested from and sanctioned until it learns that security depends not on a piece of ground, but on peace with their fellow human beings.

President Barack Obama’s alleged concern about the mass murder of Palestinian civilians is belied by the continued financial, logistical and diplomatic support his administration is supplying this rogue state. U.S. taxpayers foot an $8 million-per-day tab for that support. We Americans would do well to remember how we have responded to people who put up the cash to kill our civilians.

TOM HAYES