Israel Against the World – With US Aid

by Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr.

 Posted on January 27, 2025

https://original.antiwar.com/rep-john-j-duncan-jr./2025/01/26/israel-against-the-world-with-us-aid/

I once represented a man charged with first-degree murder.  At the preliminary hearing, the courtroom was filled with the family and friends of the victim.

When my client was led out of the holding cell, the officer who brought him out leaned over and whispered to me: “Boy, it’s you against the world – you against the world.”

Today it’s Israel against the world, aided and abetted by the US due to mega millions in campaign contributions.

On Nov. 20, the US cast the only “No” vote in the U.N. Security Council against a call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The rest of the world has never been so united as it is now against what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people.

Some American Christians are afraid to criticize Israel because it says in the Bible that those who bless Israel will be blessed.

But it also says in both the Old Testament and the New Testament that God wants us to “seek peace and pursue it.” And one of the strongest of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt not kill.”

My own Christian beliefs lead me to believe that God will punish those who have killed – and are still killing – thousands of little children in Gaza.

Matthew 18 says Jesus called a little child to him and said, “ … whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me.”

Israel killed another 28 people in Gaza on New Year’s Day, and Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Jan. 2 that he was going to increase the number of bombing raids. Then 65 more were killed on Jan. 4.

It really saddens me, and at times angers me, to know that all this killing is being done with American-supplied bombs

Longtime University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer has been one of the most respected foreign policy experts in this country.

He has also been one of the leading critics of the horribly cruel way that Israel has bombed, killed and starved to death many thousands of women and children in Gaza over the last 15 months.

On December 31, Mearsheimer wrote on Substack about the 179-page report Human Rights Watch issued a few days earlier detailing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Also in December, Amnesty International published a 296-page report about Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

A few days before the Amnesty report, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his defense minister for what the court, after a lengthy investigation, said were “crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

These very recent actions followed a finding early last year by the International Court of Justice that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Mearsheimer wrote that he wonders what people “who have supported Israel’s genocide or remained silent tell themselves to justify their behavior and sleep at night. History will not treat them kindly.”

Genocide is defined as “violence that targets individuals because of their membership in a group and aims at the destruction of a people.”

The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948, established genocide as an international crime. The US was one of the signers to this agreement.

This was done primarily in response to what had happened to the Jews in Europe during World War II. In fact, because of what happened then, you would think that the Jewish people would be the strongest opponents to genocide anyplace.

I think everyone realizes that the United States would be the first to act and would lead the campaign against this genocide if it was being done by any other country than Israel.

Another world-renowned foreign policy expert, Jeffrey Sachs, has also been one of Israel’s strongest critics during this war. (Actually, it is more of a slaughter than a war since it is so one-sided.)

Sachs, a longtime professor at Columbia and a Jew himself, said Netanyahu is “one of the most violent and dangerous people in the world.” He also said, “Netanyahu is leading Israel into the greatest insecurity of its modern history – complete diplomatic isolation.”

Reprinted with author’s permission from the Knoxville Focus.

John James Duncan Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 2nd congressional district from 1988 to 2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party.