Statement

    #Link2Gaza   Rev. Don Wagner conjures the corollary of 1982: most Link readers will know the significance of that date, when four decades ago Ariel Sharon invaded Lebanon and thousands of encircled Palestinian refugees were massacred, in the most unspeakable ways, under the Israeli cordon. Given the circumstances today, the parallels could not be more harrowing.   Rafah, the “possible [forced] expulsion” point mentioned by the author, is tonight the lone prospect for evacuating several hundred Palestinian-Americans out of Gaza. The Rafah crossing leads straight into the Egyptian corner of north Sinai and is an area already hit by multiple Israeli airstrikes. It seems a precarious option for such a large number of stranded Americans. That it comes right on the heels of a much-ballyhooed Visa Waiver Program negotiation, which had as a principal aim achieving reciprocal rights for Palestinian Americans, is ironic, to say the least. Can Washington be so busy resupplying Israeli artillery that it is unable to better protect the lives and safety of hundreds of its own citizens?   Link2Gaza is a daily series published by AMEU during this crisis, offering small reflections by women and men who have written for The Link over the years. The ideas presented here do not necessarily represent the views of AMEU, whose official statement can be found online at www.ameu.org.   As I read daily accounts from Gaza this week and listen to the extreme genocidal rhetoric of Israeli leaders and the BIden Administration, I´m taken back to an event I wrote about in my memoir, Glory to God in the Lowest. In brief, the day after I left Beirut and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June, 1982, I was interviewed by the Chicago NBC affiliate with an Israeli General who was defending Israel. The local Israeli Counsel insisted I could not be in the studio with the General. In the course of the interview General Shromi said: ¨This is Israel’s final solution of the Palestinian problem.” I challenged his outrageous remark noting this was the rhetoric of the Nazi regime  about Jews in preparation for the holocaust.    I fear we are headed for a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, which in reality has never ended. There must be an intervention, a cease fire and time for the hostages to be freed, the wounded to leave for treatment, the illegal blockade of Gaza to be lifted for food, medicine, fuel for generators in hospitals, medical and relief workers to enter. Short of this, we could be facing an apocalyptic scenario of genocidal dimensions with hundreds of thousands of dead Palestinians from starvation and murder. This could also be time for a possible expulsion through the Rafah border.     Can the Biden Administration break through the fog of war and stop this insanity? As the saying goes, ¨insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.¨” The US and European union are still stuck in failed narratives of violence. We at the grass roots must elevate our efforts to demand a ceasefire and begin to rectify Palestinian suffering and eventually move to an international conference, ending the vicious Apartheid occupation and settler colonial theft of land. We hope and pray there will be courageous nations at the global level who will support a ceasefire and steps taken to get to the roots of this crisis. These cycles of violence must be transformed with steps toward justice, security, equality in all of historic Palestine. If the insanity continues, the region could explode in a disastrous war that will have global implications.    May God help us but may we get busy demanding a ceasefire and move toward new narratives of healing, equality, security for all, and justice for Palestinians.     — Rev. Don Wagner / Oct 14, 2023 Retired Presbyterian clergy, Professor, and human rights activist Author, Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land (2023)  
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