American govt staff voice Gaza anger, to hold strike

US government employees plan to observe a one-day strike tomorrow to protest President Joe Biden’s pro-Israel policies which have kept the Gaza war going for more than 100 days. He and the hawks in his administration have provided Israel with the “smart,” “dumb,” and 900-kilogramme bombs which have devastated Gaza as well as tonnes of other weaponry. The administration vetoed United Nations and global demands for a ceasefire and the entry to and delivery in Gaza of water, food, shelter, and medicine to sustain 1.9 million Gazans made homeless by Israel’s onslaught. Dehydration, famine and disease stalk Gaza’s ruins.

Al-Monitor reported that the group — dubbed Feds United for Peace — is comprised dozens of employees from 22 federal agencies and departments. The organisers expect hundreds to join the strike. According to Al-Monitor, participants will be from the “Executive Office of the President, the National Security Agency, the Departments of State, Defence, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs as well as US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Naval Research Laboratory... the Food and Drug Administration, the National Park Service, the Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.”

The stoppage will amount to an unprecedented physical public expression of opposition to and anger over Biden and his entourage for refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire. So far, only two government officials have resigned over the administration’s actions. The first and most prominent was Josh Paul, who was director of the department for congressional and public affairs and dealt with political and military issues. He said the “blind support for one side” was a cause for his decision to resign his post. Others who might have followed have been deterred by the risk of not only losing their jobs — which many may have held for years — but also their absolutely essential health insurance as the US has no national health insurance scheme.

Al-Monitor was told by a strike organiser, “It’s one thing to write letters from within, but when policy discussions and dissent cables yield no shift in policy — and in some views, a double down on that policy — then people feel they have no other option because they’re not being heard.” The larger the strike the more likely will it attract the attention of Biden and company.

In the absence of US pressure on Israel to declare “victory,” ceasefire and end the war, the Netanyahu government has escalated its offensive. Meanwhile, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have urged regional leaders to avoid escalation by reining in armed groups that mount attacks on Israel and US and Western interests in response to the war.

Eschewing escalation was the theme of Blinken’s fourth, nine-country tour of the region which ended last Thursday. While refusing to demand a ceasefire, the Biden administration has been among the escalators. In Iraq, the US has conducted strikes on pro-Iran militias which have attacked bases hosting 2,500 US troops.

And, as Blinken was flying home the US and Britain staged air raids on Yemen with the aim of halting attempted Houthi rocket and drone strikes on naval and commercial vessels which have disrupted Red Sea shipping in recent weeks.

So far, nearly all the Houthi missiles have been shot down by Western naval ships before the weapons have reached their targets, ships have not been hit, and there have been no casualties. Nevertheless, 20 per cent of companies shipping through the Red Sea have rerouted their vessels to sail the length of Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope rather than risk the Houthis. The US-UK attacks are likely to increase jitters and more rerouting rather than encourage firms to use the Red Sea route.

Blinken’s visits to the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and Egypt achieved no agreement on halting the war, the main demand of regional leaders and citizens. The Washington-based Middle East Institute’s senior fellow Randa Slim told Al-Jazeera, “The region, minus Israel, is not interested in listening to the Americans until the Americans call for a ceasefire.”

While Blinken has raised the issues of post-war governance and reconstruction of Gaza and vowed that the US will secure a pathway leading to the emergence of a Palestinian state. The so-called “two-state solution” has long been seen as the only means for resolving the Arab-Israel/Palestine-Israel dispute.

However, there has been a pathway for achieving a Palestinian state since 1988 when the Palestine Liberation Organisation issued its declaration of independence. The proposed Palestinian entity would have been a mini-state on 22 per cent of Palestine, comprising East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. This was endorsed by the 2002 Beirut Arab summit which adopted the Saudi peace plan which called for full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territory occupied in 1967 in exchange for full normalisation with the Arabs and the creation of a Palestinian state in the evacuated lands.

Due to Israeli opposition and US obstruction there had been no progress on the path to this destination until the Oslo Accord was signed with great fanfare on the White House lawn in September 1993. But, instead of achieving this goal, the Oslo process finished off peacemaking and enabled Israel to continue colonising East Jerusalem and the West Bank until 750,000 Israeli colonists now block the route to a viable Palestinian state. Consequently, the Biden-Blinken promise of a Palestinian state is hollow, for show only, meant to give Biden defuse public anger over his stand on Gaza. This ploy could be a serious mistake.

Hundreds of thousands of voters have taken part in anti-war demonstrations across the US. On Saturday, protesters outside the White House were so angry and abusive that staffers were “relocated” — that is evacuated from the complex.

In his faltering campaign for re-election, due in part, to his stand on Gaza, Biden may very well lose the presidency to his expected rival Donald Trump. If there is anyone who is worse for this region than Biden, he is Trump.