Za "Time" from New York
While rallies in support of Palestine or Israel were held across America in recent days, in a post office across from Manhattan, residents of the New York suburbs patiently waited in line for the clerk to negotiate with the citizen who came to deliver the package. Not uncommonly, a huge number of people in this country share language barriers, only in this case a customer of the United States Postal Service in his native English struggled to explain what he wanted, while on the other side of the bulletproof glass he was looked at in bewilderment by an employee of this federal institution pounding , rather indistinct, a few words concerning his shipment. It is irrelevant where the employee of the state post office is from, anyway, everyone who lives in this country has a different origin, which is why, at a distance of only a few blocks - this is how Americans measure distances in cities - there are gatherings of Palestinians and Jews with their flags, symbols and messages that are often directed against these others.
A column of participants in a recent Palestinian protest in Washington stretched for blocks along the sprawling Freedom Plaza, meaning it was attended by tens of thousands of people demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while warning President Joseph Biden that they would be short more than a million votes. of Muslim voters in the presidential elections if he does not stop Israel from retaliating against Palestinian civilians. Democratic Party MP Rashida Tlaib openly called Biden's policy support for "the Israeli genocidal campaign in Palestine."
At the same time, no one in America questions Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism, nor does anyone question the nature of the criminal attack by Hamas, which was declared a terrorist organization almost three decades ago. The Jewish and Palestinian communities in the US are sharply divided over the way the Israel Defense Forces is conducting its campaign against terrorists. What for the former is legitimate military action and self-defense, for the latter is collective punishment of civilians and violation of international law. Regardless of these irreconcilable differences, they both have something in common: fear and a sense of insecurity, as the number of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents continues to rise across America.
FRUSTRATIONS IN MELTING POT
Israel Palestinians New York…and the Israelites
Attorney General Merrick Garland was among the first to warn of increasingly frequent threats against Jews, Muslims and Arab Americans. Soon after, the international non-governmental organization Anti-Defamation League (Anti-Defamation League) recorded a drastic jump in anti-Semitic incidents after the terrorist attack by Hamas. In just two weeks, 312 cases of hatred against Jews were registered, which is five times more than in the same period of the previous year. Not only did white supremacists hang anti-Semitic billboards above Los Angeles freeways with the message "Kanye is right," synagogues and kosher stores received threatening messages, and those who pointed out Israeli symbols suffered insults on the streets or fled from oncoming cars. them, but there were calls to "kill the Jews" on social networks, which is why, for example, the student of the prestigious Cornell University, Patrick Daiji, is currently awaiting trial.
On the other hand, after the death of a six-year-old Palestinian boy, Wadee Al Fayoum, after twenty-six stabbings in a Chicago suburb, which was officially characterized as a hate crime, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Council on American-Islamic Relations) noted for two weeks as many as 774 complaints, which is three times more compared to the same period last year, with the fact that it should not be forgotten that the outpourings of hostility towards Muslims were on the rise ever since former President Donald Trump restricted the entry of citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen into America.
All this is all the more unnatural because this country is founded on national, cultural, social, religious and linguistic differences. That people have trouble getting along in the Vihoken post office is not much different from the discord of the Buddhist mantra meditated to by Hindus in Central Park with the traditional melos listened to by Mongolians on the grass not far away. The state of New York itself, where supporters of Israel or Palestine protest almost every day, is perhaps the most vivid example of all this. From the giant, cosmopolitan city of New York on the East Coast, through whose streets members of all races, colors and nationalities are rapidly moving, it runs through a narrow land passage between New Jersey and Connecticut all the way to Canada, where in small towns along the border there is an exclusively white population that doesn't understand the English accent of those not born in America, because they've never heard a pronunciation other than the one in Champlain where, by the way, your cell phone provider Verizon keeps warning you that you're in Canada roaming. Canada is just to the right of the local road traveled by New Yorkers who have gone kayaking in the Adirondack Park, wanting to walk through the wilds of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont along the way, where road signs warn of elk munching on frozen roadside vegetation. As trite as it sounds, America is melting pot, so that the one-dimensional state course in international conflicts, as it is currently being conducted towards the war raging in Gaza, inevitably gives rise to the frustration of some of the ethnic communities that live here.
WHO ARE THE LEGITIMATE TARGETS?
Not only because of that, but also because of the internal pressures of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, the unconditional American support for Israel to deal with "pure evil" became more balanced after President Joseph Biden's messages to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that civilians in Gaza must be protected in the defense action against terrorism. with increasingly frequent insistences to enable the continuous flow of humanitarian aid for the inhabitants of the enclave.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the Israeli Defense Forces must distinguish between Hamas terrorists "who are legitimate military targets and civilians who are not", while US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said during his visit to the Middle East that the scenes the killed or wounded children in Gaza "affect everyone" and that the Biden administration is putting constant pressure on the Israeli government to respect international law during the actions against Hamas. At the same time, Defense Minister Lloyd Austin repeated the message that Israel has every right to defend itself, but that civilians must be protected and humanitarian aid delivered, so it is more than obvious that the US is focused on two goals: that Israel, as a key ally in that part of the world, stop the use of disproportionate force against the civilian population of Gaza, as it provokes the condemnation of the international public, and to prevent the spillover of the conflict to neighboring countries, as it would drag the US into the war.
It is clear that America is increasingly asking Israel to protect Palestinian civilians, but it is also clear that Washington is not questioning whether these demands are being implemented. For every attempt to hear the position of the American side on attacks on civilians, schools, refugee camps or hospitals, which also raises the question of the responsibility of whoever sends military aid that leads to casualties and severe destruction of Gaza, the White House replies that the US does not bring any what kind of decisions about targets, but that it is a matter for the Israeli Ministry of Defense, which is given the means to defend itself. Therefore, the real efforts of the American side are currently focused on the establishment of humanitarian ceasefires that would have a clear purpose, purpose and duration. No one in Washington is seriously considering a permanent cease-fire because there is complete agreement with the Israeli government that it would only help Hamas consolidate and attack again.
A NEW DIMENSION OF TRAGEDY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
However, American plans in the Middle East require additional military aid to Israel, which is not available without the allocation of new funds from the budget, which is opposed by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The White House's request to approve $106 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, countering China and protecting the border with Mexico is currently gathering dust in the desk drawer of new House Speaker Mike Johnson. To make things even more uncertain, Republicans in that body themselves voted in a bill for military aid to Israel in the amount of $14,5 billion, roughly what President Biden requested as part of the overall package, but it will not receive support in the Senate. Thus, the tragedy in the Middle East is increasingly turning into a political weapon in the confrontation between Republicans and Democrats ahead of the presidential elections, which gained a new dimension after the "New York Times" announced that Donald Trump is currently ahead in key states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan , Nevada and Arizona. It is not a matter of Trump's strength, but of the weakness of the Biden administration, which was only further burdened by the conflict in the Middle East. But regardless of all the differences, Democrats and Republicans continue to compete in support of Israel, which leads to division in their own backyard.
Those yards, however, are not the same here. Those in front of the shiny penthouses of Manhattan are significantly different, from the entrance to the muddy farms in upstate New York, to leave aside for a moment Minnesota where there is a huge, visible Muslim community around Minneapolis, or the fact that in some parts of Miami Beach they are completely different procedures for renting apartments in buildings owned by the Jewish community.
But regardless of all the differences, over time one thing will become obvious to everyone: terrorist organizations like Hamas reach for violence, but terror cannot be the strategy of the state. Perhaps the conflict in the Middle East is too early to be immediately understood, but America already knows a lot about it based on other experiences. The state crime committed by the Milosevic regime against the Kosovo Albanians after they rebelled against apartheid clearly shows where that path leads.
