Arizona Democrats write a preposterous letter calling for a ceasefire in Israel
Before we unspool the letter that 16 Arizona Democratic lawmakers wrote to Joe Biden on Tuesday, let’s give credit where credit is due.
At least they worked up a modicum of sympathy for the 1,400 mostly Jewish civilians whose bodies were left mutilated, burned and bullet-ridden across southern Israel.
They didn’t mention their 31 fellow Americans who were also slaughtered that day, Oct. 7, but perhaps they’ve implied it in their few sentences of afterthought — the roughly 45 words they mustered for the people killed in one of history’s worst crimes against humanity.
Let’s at least appreciate that.
Because this wasn’t a letter about the 1,400.
Pay attention to the letter's structure
This was a letter to stop the Israeli soldiers who now risk their lives to try to prevent the next terror mega-strike on the Jewish state, a mega-strike Hamas has already promised will happen again and again, until “Israel is annihilated.”
To understand the Arizona Democrats, it’s worth noting how their letter is structured.
If you are going to call for the same policy prescription as the terrorists — a ceasefire — you’ll first want to cloak yourself in the shawl of international organizations that are hostile toward Israel and want the same — the United Nations, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and today’s Vatican.
You’ll want to do that before you ever mention the 1,400 people whose cold-blooded murder made any of this an issue.
Once that is done, you, the letter-writing minority of the Arizona Democratic caucus, will want to quickly follow with a dash of disapproval:
“On October 7, Hamas carried out a horrific attack on Israel killing more than 1,400 people and injuring over 5,000, which we all condemn and we continue to call for the release of all hostages.”
So, Israel is supposed to help its enemy?
The rest of the letter is an indictment of Israel, a nation that only weeks ago endured an unspeakable bloodletting.
The next sentence in the Democrats' letter begins with a two-word pivot dipped in acid - "Since then."
“Since then, the Israeli government cut off access to food, border crossings out of Gaza, and electricity, as well as the indiscriminate bombing of civilian neighborhoods.”
You’ll note here that Israel is the first nation, when viciously attacked, that is expected to manage the food, water and power needs of its enemy.
Its enemy, Palestinian Hamas, is a terror army that controls Gaza and promises not only to conquer the Israelis, but to murder every last one of them.
Hamas uses Israeli electricity to hurt Israel
Today, Hamas holds some 220 people hostage, including about a dozen Americans. And the utilities are one of the few bargaining chips Israel has for the release of those hostages.
If any of our North American nations, such as the United States, Mexico or Canada, had been similarly attacked and told to maintain the utilities of their enemy, they would have responded as Israel has:
“Shove off.”
“Israel is not required to fund or assist Hamas war efforts as it attempts to butcher Jews,” said one of the BBC’s go-to international law specialists, Natasha Hausdorff, a barrister and strong defender of Israel’s prosecution of the war.
Maintaining Gaza’s fuel, electricity, water and medical care “isn’t viable in a military campaign in which Hamas exploits these transfers, stealing supplies and penetrating humanitarian organizations to mask its terror operations,” she said.
Besides that, she explained, Hamas uses the electric grid to launch missiles at Israel.
As for the “indiscriminate bombing,” well, that’s one side of the story. Here’s the other from Hausdorff:
“In compliance with its obligations under international law to minimize civilian casualties, Israel is issuing warnings of where it will be striking Hamas terrorist infrastructure.”
But who killed those Palestinian civilians?
Untroubled by the counter facts, the Democrats’ press on with their letter.
“In a month, the Israeli government killed over 10,000 Palestinian civilians, including 4,104 children, while another 25,408 people have been injured, with reports of 2,000 missing people — 1,300 of them children presumed injured or dead under the rubble of entire city blocks.”
Oh, the Israelis killed those civilians.
Let the reader be the judge of that.
Hamas, the terror organization that controls Gaza, launched an attack on Israel of such barbarity it knew it would provoke an Israeli counterattack.
As Hamas returned to Gaza with its hostages, it made sure Palestinian civilians would be caught in the crossfire:
It had only built bomb shelters — tunnels — for its fighters, not the civilian population it manages.
It did not allow Palestinian civilians to evacuate the areas that would come under fire, instead using them as human shields.
It admits it is sacrificing its civilians for the greater good of defeating Israel.
Do you believe Gaza's casualty figures?
Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh, who watches the war from Turkey when he’s not at his luxury villa in Qatar, has said, “We need the blood of women, children, and the elderly of Gaza ... so as to awaken our revolutionary spirit.”
Now Haniyeh accuses Israel of “barbaric massacres” and is demanding a ceasefire.
Like the Arizona Democrats, Haniyeh is pointing to the same large numbers of Palestinian civilians killed or injured.
But where do those numbers come from?
Arizona Democrats don’t cite their source.
UA president: Becomes the voice of moral clarity on Israel
The source is the Gaza Ministry of Health. And who runs the Gaza Ministry of Health?
Hamas.
That would be the same people who a month ago were slicing the Achilles tendons of young Israeli women so they could not easily escape.
These are monsters capable of anything, the least of which is lying.
Assume they are.
What Arizona Democrats fail to note
Not finished with their letter, the Arizona Democrats accuse the Israelis of violating international law, even providing citations: “Common Article 33 of the Geneva Conventions and Article 6 of the Additional Protocol II.”
Michael Meier, law professor at Emory University and a former U.S. government expert in the law of armed conflict, told the Wall Street Journal that Israel isn’t breaking the law “as long as the target was considered important enough militarily to justify the risk of civilian casualties and steps were taken to minimize the harm to noncombatants.”
He added, “International law also applies to Hamas, which isn’t supposed to position legitimate military targets in civilian areas.”
Something Arizona Democrats failed to note. Nor did they provide any helpful citations.
The truth is that the greatest enemies of the Palestinian people are Hamas and their puppet masters in Iran who fund them.
Those two bear the responsibility for Palestinian civilian deaths today. And they have not made any secret that they welcome the deaths of Palestinian innocents.
The question they should be asking
At this moment both Iran and Hamas are publicly saying they want something.
A ceasefire.
That should give Arizona Democrats pause.
And in that moment, they should ask themselves ...
Who are we serving?
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Democrats make an absurd call for ceasefire in Israel
