Op Eds

In late March, the liberal Israeli news outlet Haaretz admitted, "Israel is in the era of the forever wars."

"The forever wars are occurring in the West Bank... in Lebanon, where (Israel) continues to occupy a handful of strategic locations in violation of the cease-fire terms... and in Syria, where it occupies former buffer zones." Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations, António Guterres, said, "Gaza is a killing field." Doctors Without Borders wrote, "Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians." The Times of Israel reported the words of the president of the Red Cross as she described "Gaza as 'hell on earth.'"

Despite the US-funded bombing and aid blockade in Gaza, let's shift focus to the forever war in the West Bank. Save the Children said 2022 was "the deadliest year for children living in the West Bank since 2006." Then in 2023, Save the Children wrote this was "the second consecutive year for record numbers of child fatalities in the West Bank." The United Nations agency OCHA "documented about 1,492 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians" in a single year. These 1,492 attacks in the West Bank occurred between October 2023 and October 2024. Doctors Without Borders wrote that the 1,492 attacks were "an average of four [attacks] every day." The Editorial Board of Haaretz reported on a single attack in late March of this year. "At 2 A.M. Saturday morning, 140 soldiers and settlers, in uniform or in their Shabbat attire, raided the small village of... Jinba... The soldier-settlers woke up the occupants of the houses they entered, herded them into one corner and proceeded to destroy the house... There are no words in Hebrew to describe the horror and cruelty of Israel's policy toward the residents of the Masafer Yatta area." That was one example. Now imagine nearly 1,500 more Israeli settler raids.

The daily assaults against Palestinians include US-funded military operations and airstrikes. Save the Children wrote, "During 2024, Israeli forces carried out 152 airstrikes in the West Bank - at least 82 on densely populated areas like Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps - killing civilians, destroying homes, schools, and other vital civilian infrastructure." Two days after the Gaza ceasefire began, Israel launched Operation Iron Wall. Haaretz wrote, "The (Israeli) army invaded the Jenin (refugee) camp, evicted all its inhabitants and began to destroy homes and infrastructure." The Financial Times wrote, "The Jenin (refugee) camp has been almost completely emptied of its residents, with large parts — including main roads, schools, mosques and dozens of buildings — destroyed." It's continued for 94 days. Then the Israeli army invaded the Tul Karm and Nur Shams refugee camps. Oxfam said it's "the largest forced displacement in the West Bank since the Israeli occupation began." The Israeli army displaced over 40,000 people at gunpoint. Haaretz reported that the "40,000 displaced West Bank residents will not be able to return home." 

All the while, Israel seizes Palestinian land. CNN wrote "Israel's government has approved (the biggest) land seizure in the occupied West Bank," since 1993. The Israeli organization Peace Now reported that in the first four months of this year, the Israeli government approved a record "of 15,190 (settlement) housing units" in the West Bank. The International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024, "Israel's occupation is illegal [and]... the continued presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is illegal." The Israeli Minister of Justice Ya'acov Shimshon Shapira and the Israeli judge Theodor Meron reached this conclusion in 1967. The Israeli author Avi Raz wrote that Theodor Meron told "Foreign Minister [Abba] Eban and Premier [Levi] Eshkol," that "Civilian settlement in occupied territories" was illegal.

This concerns every US taxpayer. The Washington Post reported, "All of us who pay U.S. taxes helped subsidize the (Israeli) settlement(s)." US taxpayers don't address the obscene levels of childhood poverty and hunger in America. Instead, US taxpayers fund the longest military occupation in history and forever wars.

-Anton Porcari