Alexander Dolitsky’s letter rebuffing Dixie Belcher’s attempt to humanize the tragedy unfolding in Gaza goes too far. Frankly, I question whether the groundless accusations that perpetuate his black-and-white view should have made it to print.
His unsourced claims about bloodthirsty kindergarteners are little more than the kind of scaremongering propaganda we have seen time and again in campaigns of state violence against vulnerable populations. This cartoonish perspective ignores the fact that in the space of a week near the beginning of this violence, Israel indiscriminately dropped more bombs on a trapped civilian population than the U.S. dropped in Afghanistan in a year.
And speaking of Afghanistan — he seems to propose the idea that because nations have committed atrocities and human rights violations in the past our hands are tied from ever expecting better. I’m at a loss for how to explain that humanity, individually and collectively, has a duty to strive for the moral good. Shrugging and pointing at the needless horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the flattening of Dresden, and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians murdered as they went about their daily lives only underscores the urgency that proponents of a ceasefire feel.
After years of banging the drum for Ukrainian lives, Mr. Dolitsky now apparently feels that all wars are disproportionate and that’s just fine and dandy. It’s interesting that he claims that the IDF’s bombardment and sharpshooters (who have made this the most deadly war for journalists to cover in decades) are necessary to fight global anti-semitism. This, of course, is one of the flimsy pretexts that Putin himself has claimed to justify his attempted annexation of Ukraine. By the way, after citing 9/11 and the War on Terror, one must ask…how’s that working out so far? And what is it they say about the definition of insanity?
We have seen war crimes documented thanks to the brave reporters who continue their work, we have heard the dehumanizing language used to refer to the Palestinian people and the dangerous idea that Gaza is a problem to be “solved,” and we know that there are innocent men, women and children whose only crime is existing that are right now, at this exact moment, clinging to life in the face of famine, disease and mutilation. I refuse to accept that my country is an eager accomplice in this depravity as we send more munitions to perpetuate civilian suffering and genocide. An immediate ceasefire is necessary and I hope others will join me in writing to our national representatives to ask them to actually represent the majority of Americans’ opinion in this matter — 67% of voters in a national poll just last month.
Kirsa Hughes-Skandijs
Douglas