From The HuffPost: More Than 400 Capitol Hill Staffers Call For Cease-Fire In Gaza
Muslim and Jewish congressional staffers signed a letter Thursday urging Congress to back a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in light of “antisemitism, anti-Muslim, and anti-Palestinian sentiment on the rise nationwide.”
The letter, which HuffPost has learned has been signed by 411 staffers, comes as a small handful of members speak out against the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict.
You can read the letter in its entirety here (warning: PDF).
The penultimate paragraph in the letter reads:
We sign this letter anonymously out of concern for our personal safety, risk of violence, and the impact on our professional credibility on Capitol Hill. We are worried that we could lose our jobs — ones we fulfill with unwavering commitment and profound patriotism — for publicly signing on to a plea for a ceasefire in a conflict that has taken more than 5,000 innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives.
People without power who live safely and securely thousands of miles from the actual conflict make an unrealistic and impotent demand so they can soothe their soul and state they are doing something.Report
Still somewhat enraging that Hamas gets these frequent ceasefires even though they only use them to regroup and start planning for the next attack. People in the West need to stop treating them like a normal organization. Although plenty of us all have issues dealing with the local religious fanatical types and don’t know what to do about that either.Report
The whole damn region is shot through with backwards theocracies. Unfortunately, post-WW2 we decided to become hopelessly entangled with them, so now we have to deal with the moral implications of propping up governments with policies firmly rooted in the 12th century.Report
One of which already has The Bomb, and at least one more actively working to acquire it.Report
That’s not any of this works. You don’t invade a country, murder 1400 people, rape women, kill babies, take hundreds of hostages, then go back to your own country and say, “Hey, we need a ceasefire!”Report
It works this way if you are a Jew because Jews don’t count and our lives are cheap. These Hamas bastards. They plan a most vile massacre to mark a perverted observation of the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which coincidentally fell on another Jewish holiday. Then when things go more extreme than they expected, they through the Palestinians under the bus, and ask for ceasefire so they might plan the next massafre. They also turn the destruction of a parking lot caused by another genocidal anti-Semitic faction into a destruction of an entire hospital destroyed by the Israelis. A classic blood libel that nobody apologized for yet. There will be no peace until Muslims give up their Jew-hatred.Report
“There will be no peace until Muslims give up their Jew-hatred.” Don’t hold your breath waiting on that change. This is why I lean towards isolationist. You’re never going to solve these problems in any semblance of time and the “alternatives” are unpalatable to westerners.Report
How do you sign a letter anonymously?Report
I’ll show you once I’ve sent an anonymous letter on behalf of 4,110 people who think the Congressional staffers are doofases.Report
We recently signed a letter over a minor local kerfuffle and were subsequently harassed by an anonymous group who wouldn’t publish their names for, and I quote, fear of being harassed. Ironical.Report
My own er community organizing experience on local matters has been that there are two basic best approaches to take. One is to make a statement that is generalizable to the public at large. The other is to bring some personal insight to bear that might be overlooked. Anonymity lacks personality and any sense that these people will ever do anything consequential if you take an opposing position since they are unwilling to bear the consequences of owning the statement.Report
Anon.Report
I suspect that the faction of the Left really sympathetic to the Palestinians but also aware enough to recognize Hamas for what it is and not willing to say things in support of Hamas are in the toughest spot. For the Pro-Israel side, the answer is easy. Hamas is a genocidal anti-Semitic organization that wants all Jews out the Middle East and needs to go. For the faction of the Left willing to support Hamas, the answer is also easy. Hamas are a brave freedom fighters against colonization. End of story.
If you are more sympathetic to the Palestinian but also recognize Hamas as a vile and genocidal anti-Semitic organization than you are in a tough position. This is because they are in control of Gaza and are an important factor in Palestinian politics, so you can’t exactly exclude them from talks but they are also truly dedicated to their vile goal of Jews out of the Middle East. This means they are very untrustworthy. What is to be done.Report