Where will it end? The support of the United States for what Israel is doing in Gaza is difficult to witness. How have we become the evil empire? In expanding the war, the US is now bombing Yemen. This is the definition of Empire, using incursions of violence without consent into sovereign nations. This continues the pattern of war-making without Congressional oversight since Vietnam.
The Biden administration has gone further, now bypassing Congressional approval for funding military equipment to Israel.
See this previous post describing a national coalition urging Congress to confront U.S. complicity in civilian harm in Gaza. I appreciate efforts like this, but at the same time, they seem woefully inadequate. The best I can come up with is to “think globally, act locally”. My experience with Mutual Aid is the best peacemaking I’ve found.
The following is just a sampling of news of the expanding violence as well as the increasing protests against it.
The U.S and U.K. have reportedly struck over a dozen sites in Yemen using Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, backed by logistical support from Australia, Canada, Bahrain and the Netherlands.
U.S. President Joe Biden, in a statement, asserts that the strikes against “targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels” are a “direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea.”
What Biden does not mention in his statement about his administration’s “response” to Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea is that those Red Sea attacks are themselves a response to Israeli crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Empire Bombs Yemen to Protect Israel’s Genocide by Caitlin Johnstone, Consortium News, January 13, 2024
In a defiant speech that followed two days of hearings at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, where Israel faces allegations of committing genocide in Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel will not stop fighting until Hamas is eliminated and all hostages are freed.
“We will restore security to both the south and the north. Nobody will stop us — not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else,” he said, in a reference to Iran and its backing of militant groups including the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In defiant speech, Netanyahu marks 100 days of war with vow to continue fight by Niha Masih, The Washington Post, 1/14/2024
Thousands of protesters gathered in downtown D.C. Saturday afternoon at a rally calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and a halt to U.S. aid to Israel.
A sea of black, green, red and white flags floated over the crowd in Freedom Plaza, blocks from the White House, as the protesters chanted “Free Free Palestine” and held picket signs with messages such as “Cease Fire Now” and “End the War in Gaza.” Other signs accused the Israeli government of practicing apartheid and charged President Biden with genocide.
The rally was part of a global day of protests that saw similar pro-Palestinian marches in cities including London, Rome, Paris, Dublin, Johannesburg and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Demonstrators, who arrived by the busload and streamed from Metro stations, expressed outrage over the ongoing war and U.S. support for Israel’s bombing campaign that has displaced much of the population and left more than 23,000 Gazans dead and approximately 60,000 wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
March for Gaza rally draws thousand to D.C. on Saturday by Tom Jackman, Olivia Diaz, Clarence Williams, and Joe Heim, The Washington Post, 1/14/2024
Hundreds of millions of people across the world have been deeply moved by the atrocity of the Israeli war on Palestine. Millions have attended marches and protests, many of them participating in such demonstrations for the first time in their lives. Social media, in almost all the world’s languages, is saturated with memes and posts about this or that terrible action. Some people focus on the Israeli attack on Palestinian children, others on the illegal targeting of Gaza’s health infrastructure, and yet others point to the annihilation of at least four hundred families (more than ten people in each family killed). The focus of attention does not seem to be diminishing. Holidays in December went by, but the intensity of the protests and the posts remained steady. No attempt by social media companies to turn the algorithm against the Palestinians succeeded, no attempt to ban the protests—even the display of the Palestinian flag—worked. Accusations of antisemitism fell flat and demands for the condemnation of Hamas were dismissed. This is a new mood, a new kind of attitude toward the Palestinian struggle.
Never before in the 75 previous years has there been such sustained attention to the cause of the Palestinians and of Israeli brutality.form than any previous violence. The bombardment of Gaza was vicious, with Israeli aircraft hitting residential areas with no concern for civilian life. The number of dead increased day by day at a rate not seen before. Then, when Israeli ground forces entered Gaza, they effected an illegal mass eviction of the Palestinian civilians from their homes and pushed them further and further south toward the border with Egypt.Never before in the 75 previous years has there been such sustained attention to the cause of the Palestinians and of Israeli brutality.
The Israeli armed violence against Gaza since October has been in a qualitatively different form than any previous violence.
Israel’s War on Palestine and the global upsurge against it by Vijay Prashad, People’s Dispatch, January 13, 2024
A decade ago
So long ago, in 2014, members of the Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Peace and Social Concerns Committee participated in protests against the violence in Gaza.
Polycrisis Center 
Again, how easy or rather difficult is it for certain hostages to be released.? Someone knows this helps them retain the sympathies of millions….
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