Stop the Genocide in Gaza!

Get the Point...

Since Hamas launched a surprise terror attack last month, one that killed over 1,400 Israeli and Americans before being roundly condemned by the U.S. and her Western allies, the Israeli military counter-attacks in the weeks since —ones that have received the blessing of Western allies— have led to over 10,000 dead Palestinians to date, 89 dead United Nations relief workers, and a world that seems to grow more indifferent to the human suffering in Gaza each day.

In this “us” vs. “them” era, one in which nuance and a grasp of history are shunned in favor of “feelings” stirred up by religious dogma and/or media sound-bytes, I find it absolutely astounding that words from leaders of organizations that are designed for world peace, or words from the brave few leaders of nation-states who see the humanity of Palestinians as equal to Israelis, are falling largely upon deaf ears.

Words like:

"Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children & women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed & bombed out of their homes; this must stop...Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children..." United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres (above)

"The death and suffering (in Gaza) are 'hard to fathom...Women, children and newborns in Gaza are disproportionately bearing the burden of the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, both as casualties and in reduced access to health services, warn the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

As of 3 November, according to Ministry of Health data, 2326 women and 3760 children have been killed in the Gaza strip, representing 67% of all casualties, while thousands more have been injured. This means that 420 children are killed or injured every day, some of them only a few months old." The World Health Organization, November 3, 2023

“We are seeing, for the first time, a war in which the majority of those killed are children. Stop! For the love of God, stop!”—Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (above).

So, where does Ol’ Hobbs stand on this quagmire?

To be blunt, as an active journalist and historian; as one whose senior seminar thesis at the University of Florida College of Law focused on the laws of war per the Geneva Conventions, and as one who spent half a month in 2014 as a legal observer of the U.S. military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba relating to the 9/11 attacks, I have done my level best in this column space over this past month to summarize the history of the Palestine/Israel conflicts—while striving to provide nuance and balance to the recent hostilities.

But as the Palestinian death toll grows more catastrophic by the day, I would be remiss if I didn't go on record condemning the genocide and calling for Israel to cease fire immediately, so as to allow UN mediators to not just work for a stable peace—but for the release of the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas.

Anything short of the above call would not just be rank cowardice, but it would also signify a tacit complicity for the Hobbservation Point with those Western media outlets and politicians who, by their words and deeds, have shown that from their perspectives, Palestinian life is not equal to Israeli and American lives when in my humanist estimation, they most certainly are equal AND deserving to be saved!

Cease fire, now! Free Gaza, now! Establish a New Palestine, now!