Jeffrey Cohen: End genocide in Palestine and preserve our humanity

About the writer: Jeffrey Cohen spent 37 years in Portland before moving to McMinnville eight years ago. He spent his career as a hospice care social worker, and continues to volunteer with both the Legacy and Providence hospice programs, in addition to Yamhill County’s emergency response team. Having grown up in a Jewish family, he terms the conflict in Gaza “very personal for me.”

Israel and The United States of America are committing genocide. And while Israel continues to kill thousands of Palestinians, and the U.S. continues to provide the weapons of mass destruction that Israel is using to carry out that genocide, the entire planet is sitting on its thumbs giving lip service to recognition of Palestine as a separate nation.

Let’s be clear:

The Palestinians are not your kikes, your wops or any other negative label humans have used to describe a minority. They are fellow human beings.

Israel talks about how the ethnic cleansing it’s engaged in is no different than what we did in wiping out untold numbers of Native Americans, as if that lends justification to its genocidal behavior. And whether we Americans want to admit it or not, this is not our first excursion into committing genocide through the actions of others.

Google Biafra. The Christian Biafrans, a majority in Nigeria, were tired of being treated like second-rate citizens and declared themselves a separate country called Biafra.

The problem was, Biafra was sitting on the largest deposit of oil in the region, and the U.S. wanted access. So “we” supported Nigeria in the civil war, and 3 million Biafrans died.

I became involved in this conflict while a student at the State University of New York at Buffalo during the 1960s. I thought to myself, “How will I respond to my future children asking me what I did to fight against this genocide?” I even lobbied for two days in the U.S. House and Senate for recognition of Biafra’s independence.

Here I am again, again watching my country commit genocide while the world watches. Except this time, I’m 79 years old.

Who and what is Israel? It is much more than a safe haven for persecuted Jews.

Israel is the placeholder for Western interests, foremost among them being Middle Eastern oil. That’s why no American president has dared challenge Israeli aggression, even when it results in the massacre of Israeli neighbors.

Sure, there are Christian sects that promote full defense of Israel. There are also rightwing Jewish sects that use the Bible as justification for taking over Palestine.

But American economic interests form the core element in our support of Israel.

I asked Gemini AI how much money the USA provides to Israel each day. Here is Gemini’s response:

“Based on a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the U.S. committed to providing $38 billion in military aid to Israel over a 10-year period,” through 2028. This amounts to an annual commitment of $3.8 billion.

To calculate the daily amount from this figure, you can divide the annual amount by the number of days in a year. It works out to $10.4 million.

I believe that gives the U.S. a lot of leverage in how Israel behaves — unless, of course, the U.S. has decided the Palestinians are a pain in its long-term economic plans, and is therefore in full support of Israel wiping out all the Palestinians.

So what do I want?

n The world community to stand up to the U.S., to demand it stop the starvation, massacre and genocide of the Palestinians. It’s like other inhabitants of this planet fear the U.S. so much they avoid behaving like human beings capable of feeling compassion and love. That needs to change.

n The United Nations to formulate an irrevocable agreement giving full recognition to a two-state solution. Along with it, an ironclad commitment to protect the existence of both Israel and Palestine, meaning military force will be used against any country threatening the safety of either.

n Netanyahu and his entire cabinet to be tried in the International Court for crimes against humanity. I fully realize the U.S. will do everything in its power to prevent this, though, as it would be implicated in acts of genocide as well.

n Finally, Israel to evacuate all settlements built over the last 10 years, even if this means using force against its own citizens. The structures can be given to the Palestinians as a partial payment for Israeli bombs that killed so many and destroyed so much.

We, as fellow citizens of the planet, share responsibility to help rebuild Palestine. We certainly can’t demand Israel do the job on its own, as money from the U.S. is all that keeps Israel afloat.

My name is Cohen, but I can assure you I am non-denominational, meaning I recognize all beings’ right to communicate with their Higher Power in their own way. Though born into a Jewish family, I never accepted any one religion.

The “born again” experience I had occurred, at around the age of 10, on a trip my class took from Philadelphia to the United Nations in New York. It was a heartfelt epiphany that what I truly believed in was a united planet that looked after the safety of all beings

The separate tribes compromising our planet must lower their force fields long enough to save our planet. In the meantime, we need to stop the genocide being committed by Israel and U.S. against the Palestinians.