(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . "Mischief, Thou Art Afoot" [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-19 Fellow Concerned Citizens, We have witnessed: Hamas butchery that killed people from the entire globe, Jews and non-Jews alike. The Israeli government’s collective punishment against innocent Palestinians. The Israeli government’s complicity in enabling the Hamas monster (evidenced by the PM’s own declarations to party faithful) to obviate the need for a two-state solution with Palestinian moderates, who recognize Israel’s right to exist. The Israeli government’s refusal to end the illegal annexation of Palestinian areas and allow fascist settlers to kill and harass Palestinians who reside there. Our own government’s unsupportable decision to provide $10 billion of more military aid (courtesy of the US taxpayer) to overfill the ammunition depot of the already well-funded Israeli war machine, that reigns death from the sky on the innocent in Gaza. The increase in enmity among key Arab allies in the region for what they perceive as the President’s biased, one-sided policy that has needlessly contributed to mass death and suffering in Gaza by failing to obtain a temporary cease-fire within the first 24 hours of the siege to facilitate humanitarian aid. The undermining of our strategic interests in the region, which will lead to debilitating economic shocks here at home given untenable oil price hikes and more inflation. It is against this backdrop that I exhort you to read the following. Mr. Josh Paul, an eleven year veteran of the State Department as the Director of Congressional and Public Affairs of the Foreign Arms Transfers Bureau, has resigned in protest. Read his resignation letter in Linked in, for it will send a chill up your spine. It is evident that our government has been hijacked by hawkish, neo-conservatives who are determined to enable the extreme right-wing Likud coalition in Israel carry out its unconscionable plan to prevent co-existence with Palestinians in peace and security. The atmosphere at the State Department is such that any voice that calls for greater circumspection with respect to arming the fascist, Likud coalition is stifled. Group think has set in. This does not augur well should we get pulled into a war against Iran, Bibi’s fondest hope. 2000 American soldiers have been deployed to the region and we stand on the precipice of engaging in another forever war, with consequences too profound to contemplate. The Executive Branch and the Congress have fallen into their default position of arming a state to the teeth despite that state’s penchant for committing war crimes against civilians. It should be noted here, that survivors of the Kibbutz massacres of October 7th have trained their ire on the PM of Israel as well, for many of the reasons listed above including the fact that their family members are held hostage. Understandably, they feel betrayed by him and the policies of his rabid, right-wing coalition. I titled this post, Mischief, Thou Art Afoot, to refer to the bureaucratic capture of our foreign-policy making apparatus by narrow special interests in the weapons manufacturing industry and lobbying groups, who advocate for the one-sided policies adopted by the President and Congress. Mr. Josh Paul is no longer in the room to lend his wisdom because the others in the room had shut their ears and eyes. As such, we must hold our government to account. Don’t give your stamp of approval to the government’s decision to transfer $10 billion worth of arms to a state whose Defense Minister Gallant imposed a siege on all Palestinians because he believes they are “sub-human animals.” We must “avoid amnesia”. For too long, during the Cold War, we enabled and propped up right-wing regimes and insurgency movements with abysmal human rights records. The Frankenstein we created, like Osama Bin Laden, was first our friend, then he was not and then the towers fell. The Frankenstein (Hamas), enabled by the Israeli government, was managed by periodic bombing raids in which innocent Gazans paid the price with loss of life and limb. As we have seen, Hamas was poorly managed by the Israeli government and the massacre happened. Why fuel this unending cycle of violence with our tax money? Surely there are more productive uses. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/19/2200424/--Mischief-Thou-Art-Afoot?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/