How much of this New York Times editorial titled “America Is Complicit in the Carnage in Yemen,” calling for an end of American military aid to Saudi Arabia in the wake of attacks on civilians in its neighbor country sounds familiar?
A hospital associated with Doctors Without Borders. A school. A potato chip factory. Under international law, those facilities in Yemen are not legitimate military targets. Yet all were bombed in recent days by warplanes belonging to a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, killing more than 40 civilians.
The United States is complicit in this carnage…
They also suggest one of two unpleasant possibilities. One is that the Saudis and their coalition of mostly Sunni Arab partners have yet to learn how to identify permissible military targets. The other is that they simply do not care about killing innocent civilians….
Instead, the State Department last week approved the potential sale of $1.15 billion more in tanks and other equipment to Saudi Arabia to replace items destroyed in the war
Given the civilian casualties, further American support for this war is indefensible. As [CT. Sen. Chris] Murphy told CNN on Tuesday: “There’s an American imprint on every civilian life lost in Yemen.”
The parallels are obvious to readers of this site. Israel has repeatedly attacked Gaza on similar political pretexts to the Saudi pretext for its attacks on Yemen. The aggressor nation has shown a similar indifference to whether targets are military or civilian, killing more than 1,400 civilians in its 2014 attack, including 500 children. Countless human rights reports have cited Israel for violations of international law for both indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks.
And the American imprint is all over these civilian deaths– everyone in the Middle East knows we have helped pay for the Gaza slaughters — and yet the United States is increasing military aid to Israel as we speak, hammering out a ten-year-package.
The difference is that the New York Times and U.S. senators don’t call for cutting off aid to Israel, as they to Saudi Arabia. The Times Editorial Board ran two editorials during the 2014 attack on Gaza; neither mentioned U.S. aid to Israel, or even called on the government to intervene to stop the fighting.
This is a glaring double standard, which is evident to average Americans. That is why we see such burgeoning grassroots support for the idea of boycotting Israel and ending military aid to the country.
When are our politicians and mainstream media going to catch up to this understanding? One thing we can be sure of, they won’t get there on their own. Citizens, activists, and internet journalists are going to have to drag them, kicking and screaming.
Notice that when Murphy supported Israel’s slaughter in Gaza in 2014, his own constituents took him on during a public hike. He was asked specifically whether he would end U.S. aid to Israel following the third bombardment of the Gaza strip. Murphy punted:
“We’ll talk about it. Let me say hello to everyone else. We’ll talk about, civilly, on the hike.”
The activists had gathered to express outrage at Murphy’s support for Israel’s ongoing massacre of over 300 Gazans, Dan Fischer wrote at the time. Captured on video, Senator Murphy denied knowledge of the Senate’s recent Resolution 498–a greenlight for Israel’s war–despite the fact that Murphy himself co-sponsored it.
This is true– the NYT has a double standard. But I am glad somebody somewhere in the US is saying something about Yemen, because it is arguably the worst thing the US is doing right now– supporting Saudi Arabia as it commits war crimes and brings millions to the brink of famine.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/yemen-the-worst-humanitarian-crisis-in-the-world/
Larison has been writing about this for a year or so now and virtually no one else says anything about it. Yeah, Murphy and Paul have condemned it and now the NYT, but since this is Obama’s own crime and can’t be blamed on Republicans the Democrats basically say nothing.
This is one of the rare times in its generally worthless existence where the NYT editorial section did something right.
Well said,,Donald.
No double standard at all.
1. “Israel” did not “kill more than 1400 civilians including 500 children.”
Yes. That is what Hamas said.
Hamas AND the IDF combined killed approximately 2000 Gazans, about 1000 of whom were civilians and about 1000 were armed combatants.
We may never know how many Hamas killed on purpose and by accident.
About 20% or more of all rockets fired by Hamas at Israel fall short and land in Gaza, often harming or killing Gazans.
Hamas fired thousands of rockets at Israel.
Hamas also took rockets that they had only ever fired (and which were built for) use at great distances and tried using them within Gaza to fire at nearby IDF troops. They blew up countless buildings by accident.
We do know at least one school that was blown up was actually blown up by Hamas by accident.
And this was a war started by Hamas, escalated by Hamas and in which Hamas deliberately placed civilians in harms way. They also used hospitals and schools for military purposes which makes them legal targets under international law.
@affinity
“Hamas deliberately placed civilians in harms way”
Oh yes I get it you mean like the Jewish Resistance deliberately placed fellow Jewish civilians in harms way in the Warsaw Ghetto. Yup it`s all clear now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising