🇺🇸 Calls for Ceasefires and De-Escalation

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MIDDLE EAST

Calls for Ceasefire and De-Escalation

On Tuesday, Gaza’s health ministry said more than 700 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes, the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began its air strike campaign against Hamas militants.

Reporting from the Left: Not the time for a ceasefire in Gaza, says US, with Hamas still holding hostages (The Guardian)

Reporting from the Right: Israel remains focused on destroying Hamas despite ceasefire calls: 'No other option' (FOX News)

From The Flag: As mounting civilian deaths rise in Gaza, several aid agencies and international leaders are drawing attention to the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. The United Nations urged Israel to allow more aid into Gaza, saying the aid let in so far met a tiny fraction of the needs of the population. Calls for a ceasefire are also growing in the US and around the globe. Here’s how both sides are discussing those calls.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

We Need to Lead With Peace

• Jewish peace activists are calling for a ceasefire in defense of innocent Palestinians, explaining more civilian deaths is not the answer.

• We are currently failing in our test of humanity as we reveal a hierarchy that prioritizes Gazan's lives below those of Israelis.

• “Humanitarian groups propose to stop the killing in Palestine and Israel, but members of Congress who echo their calls are condemned.”

‘Not in our name’: Jewish peace activists across the US call for immediate ceasefire and justice for Palestinians Alaa Elassar, CNN: “Israel says its mission in Gaza is to root out and destroy Hamas, which governs the small territory. But it is the 2.2 million Palestinians living there, unable to escape, who are bearing the brunt of the attacks. It is these lives that Wise and other Jewish American peace activists are mobilizing to save with their calls for an urgent ceasefire – even when doing so puts them at odds with some groups within their own community, including the Anti-Defamation League, who’ve questioned their morals and even accused them of being anti-Israel. … Thousands more Jewish Americans continue to gather in protests across the United States, calling on President Joe Biden and other elected officials to rein in Israel – arguing more civilian deaths is not the answer to Hamas’ deadly attack. … Still, Jewish groups that advocate for Palestinian rights face a lot of criticism, especially from pro-Israel groups who say they’re naive, misled or even antisemitic.”

We Must Not Kill Gazan Children to Try to Protect Israel’s Children Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times: “The crisis in the Middle East is a knotty test of our humanity, asking how to respond to a grotesque provocation for which there is no good remedy. And in this test, we in the West are not doing well. The acceptance of large-scale bombing of Gaza and of a ground invasion likely to begin soon suggests that Palestinian children are lesser victims, devalued by their association with Hamas and its history of terrorism. Consider that more than 1,500 children in Gaza have been killed, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health… The anxiety in Tel Aviv is palpable, peaceful though it seems, while Gaza is an inner ring of hell and probably on a path to something much worse. The United States speaks a good deal about principles, but I fear that President Biden has embedded a hierarchy of human life in official American policy. He expressed outrage at the massacres of Jews by Hamas, as he should have, but he has struggled to be equally clear about valuing Gazan lives.

One more opinion piece from the Left: Blessed Be the Peacemakers, Unless They Raise Their Voices in Washington John Nichols, The Nation

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Mixed: Hamas Can’t Be Reasoned With vs. We Need To Avoid Further Escalation

• No compromise or diplomatic solution can be found with terrorists like Hamas. Israel has no choice but to fight back.

• “The US must consider encouraging a ceasefire before stumbling into another complicated large-scale conflict.”

• “With dangers rising across the Middle East, America needs a two-phase effort to stabilize the conflict in Gaza and resolve core Israeli-Palestinian issues.”

There’s No ‘Political Solution’ with Hamas to Justify a Ceasefire Dan McLaughlin, National Review: “The talking point of the week for opponents of Israel is that it should accept a ceasefire with Hamas in order to pursue a political solution, rather than a military one. … But the whole premise of a political solution is folly. Israel’s current quarrel is with Hamas, the governing authority of Gaza and the perpetrator of October 7. Some would argue that Hamas is only a visible manifestation of a deeper sense of Palestinian grievance due to the absence of a sovereign Palestinian state. Sometimes, this argument is made in defense and justification for the Palestinian sense of grievance. … The avowed goal of Hamas is a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea,” i.e., incorporating all of what is now Israel. It has never offered terms that would leave anything of Israel standing. It did not, as we should recall, make any political demand for negotiation before October 7.”

Avoiding Armageddon Douglas Macgregor, The American Conservative: “Netanyahu is obviously determined to impart a lasting object lesson, one that will crush Hamas in Gaza and probably eliminate any more talk inside the Palestinian population of a “two-state solution.” Having already pulverized Gaza from the air, the stage is now set for a battle of annihilation. The question is: whose annihilation? …how long can the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) wage total war, depriving Gaza’s Arab population of food and water, without creating an enormous humanitarian disaster that will play for years in the news? Can Hamas and its leadership be destroyed without killing large numbers of civilians who may hate the Israelis but have nothing to do with Hamas? Does it not serve Hamas’s purpose for the IDF to become bogged down in an open-ended, full-scale ground invasion of Gaza because the urban conflict will unavoidably entail loss of innocent life? Does it not seem ominous that Hamas is urging the population of Northern Gaza to remain in the ruins of the city? … Americans stand behind Israel, but many are unconvinced that killing more Arabs in Gaza will solve Israel’s security problem.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: The Goal for U.S. Diplomacy With Israel: First Calm, Then Peace Richard Haass, The Wall Street Journal

FLAG THIS

Voters Want US to Push for Ceasefire and De-Escalation

The following statement was posed to American voters in a Data for Progress poll: The US should call for a ceasefire and a de-escalation of violence in Gaza. The US should leverage its close diplomatic relationship with Israel to prevent further violence and civilian deaths.

In response, 66% of voters indicated they “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” with the statement. The majority sentiment remained across party lines, with 80% of Democrats, 57% of Independents, and 56% of Republicans noting agreement (Data for Progress).

FLAG FINDS

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