“I am grieving for every Palestinian, Israeli, and American life lost to this violence, and my heart breaks for all those who will be forever traumatized because of it. War and retaliatory violence doesn’t achieve accountability or justice; it only leads to more death and human suffering.Today I am introducing the Ceasefire Now Resolution, vital legislation that calls for de-escalation and an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Occupied Palestine, and for humanitarian assistance to urgently be delivered to the 2.2 million people under siege and trapped in Gaza. The United States bears a unique responsibility to exhaust every diplomatic tool at our disposal to prevent mass atrocities and save lives. We can’t bomb our way to peace, equality, and freedom. With thousands of lives lost and millions more at stake, we need a ceasefire now.”
—Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), idiot.
To be fair, I could have found equally fatuous and ethically inert quotes from any of the anti-Semitic, intellectually vapid and ethically-challenged “Squad” members, but all indications have been that Bush is the most afflicted by the Dunning-Krueger Effect of them all, even more than Rep. Bowman of “I thought that pulling a fire alarm would open the door. Who wouldn’t? What’s the big deal?” fame, and the ridiculous AOC. Moreover, the offensive, dishonest and irresponsible statement by Bush came as she introduced an offensive, dishonest and irresponsible resolution urging the Biden Administration to push for a “ceasefire” because the October 7 Hamas sneak attack on Israel civilians was just “armed violence” (not terrorism), ‘American hostages? What American hostages?’, and “the targeting of civilians, no matter their faith or ethnicity, is a violation of international humanitarian law.”
Of course, Israel is not targeting civilians; Hamas, like the evil terrorist organization it is, is using civilians as human shields and hoping for mass civilian casualties to wield as a propaganda tool against Israel. Like so, so many on the Left for too many decades to tote up, Bush, “The Squad” and their ilk don’t get that “war” thingy.
When a state justly declares war on another state because of just provocation, what follows isn’t “murder,” and citizens of a state who elect terrorists to run their government are wholly complicit in the consequences. They cannot be called “innocent”.”” or relieved of their accountability. Votes have consequences; supporting terrorism has consequences. The idea behind a war like the one Israel is pursuing against Hamas is to teach crucial and permanent lessons that, if learned, will save the lives of Israelis and Palestinians in the future. Bush would have called for a “cease fire” after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. (America had no members of Congress quite that stupid in 1941. Anti-Semitic, yes. Plenty of those.)
Back to Bush’s nauseating Unethical Quote of the Month. Her heart breaks—aww, that’s nice. What flagrant virtue signaling. Gaza is not “Occupied Palestine;” this is part of the Big Lie that Israel is an oppressor; another is that Israel is “apartheid,” though Arabs have full rights in the country. Bush apparently can’t read or won’t read history: we have bombed our way to peace, as in World War II, though boots on the ground also helped. The threat of a bomb kept the USSR at bay until it finally fell apart. “War and retaliatory violence” has often achieved accountability and justice; the moldy cliche that “it only leads to more death and human suffering” has been the mantra of reality-challenged pacifists for eons. Yup, it would be wonderful if we didn’t have to have wars, disease and poverty. And if it rained diamonds and marzipan.
As for those poor Palestinians “trapped” in the Gaza strip, they reaped what they sowed. The false equivalency being argued by Bush, “The Squad,” other radical progressives and the campus fools is factually and ethically indefensible.
Cori Bush is as appropriate a symbol of its heinousness as any.
Ethics Alarms 
Didn’t the Germans bomb Pearl Harbor?
How did so many people who are essentially foreigners and have loyalties elsewhere get into the lawmaking body of the United States? Why is Somalia represented in Congress? Palestine?
Gaza has the same choices Japan did on August 5, 1945.
How are they ‘trapped’? There is just a wall there and I’m sure Cori Bush knows that walls don’t stop people. Of course Egypt won’t accept Palestinians entering their country. They consider it too high a security risk. So, now we know who is responsible for the Gazans being trapped, and we know why.
Ah, so if it’s not entirely Israel’s fault that the people in Gaza can’t leave Gaza, then the people in Gaza don’t need humanitarian assistance. That’s good to know.
Were we obligated to provide humanitarian assistance to the Germans and the Japanese in World War Two?
Asymmetrical warfare means the weaker combatant gets to kill randomly but must also be taken care of by the more powerful combatant? That’s really brilliant. It really is a tremendous intellectual slight of hand. It’s like black people burning down their neighborhoods and then insisting someone else rebuild them.
Biden just promised Gaza and the West Bank a hundred million in aid???? What the fuck? So they can build more missiles? What a bunch of morons the Biden regime are. Why don’t they give some aid to Hezbollah and Iran as well?
That’s a fake headline, Bill—I was initially fooled myself. The facts are that Biden includes aid to Ukraine and Gaza and Israel as part of a 100 million dollar package with all sorts of other stuff.
A quote from his speech: ‘But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States.
‘While we sought justice and got justice we also made mistakes.’
Wonderful. Lead with your chin. This really is just four more years of the Obama administration. What a jerk.
Then the announcement of the aid is unforgivably clumsy.
I take it back! You were right, it appears. I was referring to a different false report.
Related: two “Squad” members quickly leaped on false accounts that Israel had bombed a hospital and as I write this, still haven’t retracted their claims. They are essentially Hamas propaganda agents at this point. They should all be registered as foreign agents.
Not obligated, no, but the United States did it anyway, after the war ended. It seems to have been an excellent decision. The United States even airlifted supplies to West Berlin when it was blockaded by the Soviets.
After the war ended.
EC,
Of course the context there is AFTER Germany and Japan surrendered, the US engaged in aiding these devastated nations in rebuilding, but not during the war, not prior to the US entering the war when the war was in full swing. Part of the reason Japan struck at Pearl Harbor was because the US kept embargoing oil that Japan really needed, and the Japan hoped that a swift strike and rapid truce with the US would resume oil shipments. But there was a much more pressing and self-motivated reason for rebuilding Germany and Japan. If they were left devastated, they would be easy conquests for the Communists. Given the Communist sympathies in Europe, had West Germany been abandoned to its own devices, hostility against the Allies would practically drive the remaining Germans into the Soviet bloc. And Japan as an ally would help a great deal in countering the USSR and a China where communism seemed to be on the cusp of victory.
The analogy with Israel and Gaza really breaks down when we consider that Israel, given a UN mandate to exist, was immediately attacked by its neighbors in 1949, and then again in 1967 and in 1973. That doesn’t include the years of military activity, terrorist attacks, and skirmishes across the Israeli border. The Palestinians in Gaza have made their bed with Hamas, and have proved themselves too dangerous for Israel to do other than keep them out. Humanitarian aid to Gaza is less like rebuilding a broken, devastated Germany, and more like handing cash to a drug addict.
Losing a war to the United States is a ticket to success for any country. Vietnam and Cuba would be much better off if they hadn’t defeated the U.S. The aid would have begun immediately. Cuba chose the Soviet Union. Dumb mistake. Same with Venezuela. And Afghanistan.
Am I correct in understanding Israel has given lots of aid to Gaza and the West Bank over the years?
You can’t negotiate with someone who wants to kill you (Iran and all Muslim terrorist organizations).
After the war ended, not before.
That was the Marshall Plan, ¿no?
jvb
Very great point!
We felt a moral obligation to prevent mass starvation in Europe and Japan after World War II. It worked, and there were innumerable side benefits from our not abandoning them to their fate.
I feel certain that we would have extended the same sort of helping hand to Eastern Europe and the USSR had they not reverted to being our opponents and refusing such aid. If memory serves the Marshall Plan was not originally limited to Western Europe.
And, we did similar things after World War I. The Central Powers and Vienna especially faced starvation after the war, which we helped to avert. That was how Herbert Hoover made his name after the war — he was one of the primary organizers of the aid effort.
In fact, I believe we also operated relief efforts and facilities in the Soviet Union after World War I. I’d have to look it up again, but I am pretty sure there was an American agency that ran quite extensive relief efforts.
This sort of thing has typically been something that distinguished the United States from other countries.
Well, it is not reasonable to expect Israel to set up refugee camps for them at this time. You would have to be an idiot to think that evacuating the population of Gaza, that just attacked Israel TO Israel so the civilians don’t get hurt is a great idea. So, the only reasonable place to go is across the border into Egypt. It is close enough that everyone can make the trip in an afternoon by walking. If Egypt is blocking them, then is it Israel’s fault alone? When people say it is Israel’s fault that the people in Gaza are trapped there, they are suggesting it is Israel’s fault and Israel’s fault alone and that is not true.
Now, why doesn’t Egypt want to let any of them into its country?
As is the case with Jordan and Lebanon. They don’t want no stinkin’ Palestinian refugees. Never have.
“America had no members of Congress quite that stupid in 1941”
Though Jeanette Rankin did vote against the declaration of war due to her pacifism just as she had in 1917. And it cost her her seat in the Senate just as it did after 1917.
Still, Rankin was smarter than Bush, so your comment still stands.
Sorry, cost her her seat in the House, not Senate. Too early for me to type, I guess.
As it should have.
Bush may be an ethics dunce but our local morning paper, The Herald Mail -Hagerstown MD -(published by USA Today), had an above the fold headline stating that Israel bombed the hospital even though that the Hamas propaganda was debunked yesterday afternoon long before the paper would have gone to print because other stories that emerged after it was found that it was a jihadist rocket had malfunctioned.
If you evaluate the images of the explosion at the hospital it was massive. It appeared as if a cache of munitions had exploded. Yesterday’s paper was all about the plight of the Palestinian refugees fleeing from the attacking Israelis. It is no wonder that people in the United States are taking sides with the troglodytes. It is interesting that so many will accept without question the word of Hamas but claim the stories of raped Israeli women and beheaded Jewish babies are AI generated images.
USA Today has been buying up local papers and creating the illusion that the stories are independently vetted by multiple sources. You cannot trust USA Today for any information.
What Biden should have said today is that Israel is an ally of the United States. The United States supports Israel’s right to exist and any group or nation attacking it will be considered an act of war against the United States. We will not stand in the way of Israel taking all necessary steps to permanently eliminate threats to its existence. While it is our preference that all nations and peoples of the middle east live in peaceful coexistence some actors have chosen to attack a group of people who have resided in these lands for thousands of years. Furthermore, while we also know that some innocents are too often harmed by decision of their leadership, it is not anyone’s responsibility other than the leadership of the nations who initiated the attacks on our ally for any harm that may befall them and that includes the loss of geography. It was the people of the attacking nations who support the leadership that put them on this path. The road to peace requires that all peoples in the region acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and that all sanctioned violence against its people must stop immediately.
Other Bill,
After reading these words from Rep. Bush, do you still hold to your statement from the previous thread that President Biden traveling to Israel in the middle of a war with Hamas is the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard of?
While I know nothing about whether President Biden was invited or just decided to “show up”, the timing of the visit looks like show boating to me.
It also seemed to be an unethical imposition on the Israeli leadership’s time and security resources while they were certainly very busy with their war in the south and the threat fron the north.
One of the Secret Service team members accompanying William Jefferson Clinton on his December 12 to 15th of December 98 stayed at my house on several occasions was professionally closed mouth nearly always. He did describe how complex and expensive intercontinental travel was for such a visit. What surprised him was that the Israelis had assigned a peer level counterpart to meet with each member of the SS team. More surprising was that my friend’s counterpart had a complete folder of documents about my friend’s entire life whereas the US Secret Service was completely in the dark about the home team’s dugout.
The IDF are not known to be faint of heart. It is hard to believe that the photo op and distraction of his visit would be much of a deterent to hostile neighbors, or much additional comfort to the boots on the ground.