To the Editor:
I have to say that as much as I despise Trump and would never vote for him, I no longer feel that I can vote for the Biden-Harris ticket and I am hoping with all my heart that the Democratic party finds a candidate who truly does care about human rights for all people.
As a Jewish grandmother, I have been filled with horror for years at the dreadful treatment of Palestinian people by the occupying Israelis.
I’m disgusted that Zionists, both Christian and Jewish, have been weaponizing Jewish grief regarding the Holocaust in order to excuse grave human rights violations of Palestinians by the Occupation, identified by human rights groups globally and in Israel as apartheid.
On October the 8th, when Israel declared that it considered the Palestinian people of Gaza, who have been under siege for 16 years, to be human animals and that Israel would cut off all food, electricity, communication, medical care, and border crossings, I expected that the U.S. and the European Union and Great Britain would demand that Israel drop those racist and murderous plans. This public declaration by members of the Israeli government and military is a declaration of the plan to commit genocide.
What is happening in Gaza is nothing less than genocide. How dare our government hide behind the suggestion that because Hamas might use somebody as a human shield that Israel has a right to destroy every man, woman, and child, and building and farm field.
If there were some Hamas members in Washington, D.C., would we prevent everyone from leaving Washington, D.C., and then proceed to obliterate every building and kill every person? That’s what Israel is doing.
I have absolutely no respect left for Biden and Harris, even though they did some good things domestically. Why? Because of their support of Israel with billions of dollars of weaponry: jets and helicopters and bombs that are never supposed to be used in densely populated areas, their support of Israeli and Zionist propaganda, their blind eye to Israel bombing universities, schools, shelters, churches, mosques, ambulances and hospitals, as well as destroying fertile agricultural lands and factories.
Israel’s targeting of neonatal units in hospitals, families, medical staff, and educators, and the scenes of Israeli soldiers dancing with glee as they bomb apartment buildings fill me with the deepest despair I have ever known. Especially because I’m Jewish, and I truly believe that human rights have to be for all humans. I am utterly ashamed that people who call themselves Jews are committing these horrific war crimes. Not in my name. I have been a member of Jewish Voice for Peace for years and I know that hundreds of rabbis have been demonstrating on behalf of the Palestinian people and an end to the occupation.
If someone wanted to create a situation to cause the most people on Earth to hate Jews and hate Americans, they must be very happy right now.
The only thing that would make me change my mind about Biden and Harris would be if the United States came out 100 percent in support of the South African suit charging genocide at the International Court of Justice to stop the bombing immediately; if the United States would go to the U.N. and insist on an immediate unilateral ceasefire no strings attached; no more fighting, no more bombing; and if the United States would stop funding the Israelis until there are equal rights and human rights for everyone between the river and the sea.
Linda Cohen
West Tisbury
