Washington D.C. – After nearly two years of carnage, destruction and occupation over Gaza, Israel has announced plans to expand its formal military occupation by taking total control over Gaza City and occupying Gaza indefinitely. Israel has killed over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, displaced over 90% of the population, destroyed the majority of civilian infrastructure and engineered a devastating starvation campaign. This escalation will only deepen the humanitarian crisis of displacement and kill even more people. It is an international atrocity of immeasurable shame, and it has happened only because the U.S. has provided total military and diplomatic support for a campaign of genocide.
Netanyahu hasn’t just spread death and destruction in Gaza, but has expanded it across the region – regularly bombing Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen and waging a 12-day war on Iran. Many believe that the June war on Iran was just a trial run for a much larger and deadlier war that will involve the United States, and President Trump has signaled that he will take the U.S. along for the ride.
Thanks to the total abandonment of U.S. leadership in the face of Netanyahu’s crusade, first by Joe Biden, now by Donald Trump, the world is entering an even darker and deadly moment that promises to entrap the U.S. into a regional forever war.
Members of Congress must forcefully oppose the Netanyahu plan to take over Gaza, redouble efforts to help aid reach the Palestinians devastated by this genocide, withhold support for military funding to Israel amid its ongoing war crimes, and demand that President Trump pursue a diplomatic resolution to the standoff with Iran before its too late.
If not, President Trump, who entered office claiming to seek a diplomatic agreement with Iran and promising to end wars rather than start new ones, will be the president remembered for enshrining the genocide of Palestine and sending another generation of Americans into a devestating Middle East war of choice on behalf of Israel.