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I urge you to reset your moral and political bearings and use the leverage of being POTUS and a staunch supporter of Israel to negotiate a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
Dear President Biden:
Do you not have a conscience when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
I have read countless anecdotes of your genuine empathy for human suffering during your decades of public service. Does the slaughter of more than 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza—primarily children and women—not stir your conscience? More than 50,000 injured, hundreds of thousands without access to medical care, thousands buried under the rubble, millions of displaced and starving Palestinians cowering from the terror unleashed by the IDF and its patron the United States of America. Does it not awaken a glimmer of mercy or compassion in your hardened soul? Does it not create even a minute breach in your “unwavering” support of Israel?
Do you not have a moral compass when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
I recently read a profile that described how your father educated you and your siblings about the Holocaust over the dinner table:
“My dad taught us about the horror of the Shoah,” Biden explained last month at a Hanukkah celebration, repeating a well-worn tale. “It awakened in me and my brothers and sisters and our children a sense... that this can happen again.”
Sadly, Mr. President, “It”—another holocaust of Palestinians—is not only happening before our very eyes, you, Sir, are one of the two key perpetrators of this genocide. As U.S. citizens and taxpayers, we also share the guilt of being complicit in this atrocity. But for your unwavering military, diplomatic, monetary, and moral support to Israel, the genocide would cease immediately. Mr. President, the culpability lies squarely on your shoulders and those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was emboldened by your unquestioning “embrace” of the horrors visited upon the Palestinians. You have failed to call for a permanent cease-fire.
Do you not have any personal sense of dignity or for the office of President of the United States?
Netanyahu publicly and defiantly disparages your suggested solutions and efforts to put an end to the genocide in Gaza. A human with any sense of self respect and dignity would interpret that as a grave insult, especially given the decades of your personal friendship and support demonstrated for the State of Israel. Despite Netanyahu spitting in your face, you publicly refuse to condemn the virulent hate and violence perpetrated by the politicians and military of the State of Israel. Personal dignity aside, Israel’s actions are demeaning to the office of the President of the United States. The United States ensures the very existence of Israel in the region with billions if not trillions in taxpayer-funded military and other aid since its founding in 1948. When pro-Palestine protesters use the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” it is deemed genocidal by Zionists. However, when Netanyahu states that “the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea” in direct contravention of your proposed two-state solution, why do you not take umbrage at this willful flouting of your guidance as POTUS?
It would be tragic if your commendable political legacy is marred by your inability to bring about an immediate cessation of the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Let Gaza not be akin to LBJ’s Vietnam.
Have you lost your political acumen, or do you genuinely not care to be reelected?
I am a lifelong Democrat. Yet, I actively support the #AbandonBiden movement in the 2024 presidential election and will continue to support it and not cast my vote for you in November 2024 unless you call for a cease-fire now! As one of the longest-serving politicians in public service, how have you lost sight of the political peril that awaits you in November? Polling suggests that a majority of Americans, especially Democrats, support a cease-fire now. I am just a layperson. I am certain your staffers in the executive branch and your reelection campaign have apprised you of the risks associated with not standing on the right side of history. Billions across the globe now get information about this unfolding genocide directly on their digital devices. The days of rationing government-controlled messaging through mainstream media to the public about major world events is over.
You have become as reviled a figure as Netanyahu in the eyes of billions across the globe for butchering innocent Palestinian civilians. I urge you to reset your moral and political bearings and use the leverage of being POTUS and a staunch supporter of Israel to negotiate a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. I joined the hundreds of thousands of protesters in Washington D.C. on Nov 4 demanding a cease-fire now. I marched with them to the gates of the White House to convey our horror and opposition to this unfolding genocide. Sadly, the killing of innocent civilians has continued over three more months. History repeats itself incessantly. It would be tragic if your commendable political legacy is marred by your inability to bring about an immediate cessation of the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Let Gaza not be akin to LBJ’s Vietnam.
I trust your inherent goodness and compassion will prevail. I trust the conviction and courage you have so ably demonstrated in championing for the public good will compel you to take affirmative and immediate action to stop the genocide in Gaza. One does not have to share a faith to have empathy for the dying and the suffering Palestinians. Our shared humanity must make us champions for Peace.
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Dear President Biden:
Do you not have a conscience when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
I have read countless anecdotes of your genuine empathy for human suffering during your decades of public service. Does the slaughter of more than 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza—primarily children and women—not stir your conscience? More than 50,000 injured, hundreds of thousands without access to medical care, thousands buried under the rubble, millions of displaced and starving Palestinians cowering from the terror unleashed by the IDF and its patron the United States of America. Does it not awaken a glimmer of mercy or compassion in your hardened soul? Does it not create even a minute breach in your “unwavering” support of Israel?
Do you not have a moral compass when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
I recently read a profile that described how your father educated you and your siblings about the Holocaust over the dinner table:
“My dad taught us about the horror of the Shoah,” Biden explained last month at a Hanukkah celebration, repeating a well-worn tale. “It awakened in me and my brothers and sisters and our children a sense... that this can happen again.”
Sadly, Mr. President, “It”—another holocaust of Palestinians—is not only happening before our very eyes, you, Sir, are one of the two key perpetrators of this genocide. As U.S. citizens and taxpayers, we also share the guilt of being complicit in this atrocity. But for your unwavering military, diplomatic, monetary, and moral support to Israel, the genocide would cease immediately. Mr. President, the culpability lies squarely on your shoulders and those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was emboldened by your unquestioning “embrace” of the horrors visited upon the Palestinians. You have failed to call for a permanent cease-fire.
Do you not have any personal sense of dignity or for the office of President of the United States?
Netanyahu publicly and defiantly disparages your suggested solutions and efforts to put an end to the genocide in Gaza. A human with any sense of self respect and dignity would interpret that as a grave insult, especially given the decades of your personal friendship and support demonstrated for the State of Israel. Despite Netanyahu spitting in your face, you publicly refuse to condemn the virulent hate and violence perpetrated by the politicians and military of the State of Israel. Personal dignity aside, Israel’s actions are demeaning to the office of the President of the United States. The United States ensures the very existence of Israel in the region with billions if not trillions in taxpayer-funded military and other aid since its founding in 1948. When pro-Palestine protesters use the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” it is deemed genocidal by Zionists. However, when Netanyahu states that “the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea” in direct contravention of your proposed two-state solution, why do you not take umbrage at this willful flouting of your guidance as POTUS?
It would be tragic if your commendable political legacy is marred by your inability to bring about an immediate cessation of the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Let Gaza not be akin to LBJ’s Vietnam.
Have you lost your political acumen, or do you genuinely not care to be reelected?
I am a lifelong Democrat. Yet, I actively support the #AbandonBiden movement in the 2024 presidential election and will continue to support it and not cast my vote for you in November 2024 unless you call for a cease-fire now! As one of the longest-serving politicians in public service, how have you lost sight of the political peril that awaits you in November? Polling suggests that a majority of Americans, especially Democrats, support a cease-fire now. I am just a layperson. I am certain your staffers in the executive branch and your reelection campaign have apprised you of the risks associated with not standing on the right side of history. Billions across the globe now get information about this unfolding genocide directly on their digital devices. The days of rationing government-controlled messaging through mainstream media to the public about major world events is over.
You have become as reviled a figure as Netanyahu in the eyes of billions across the globe for butchering innocent Palestinian civilians. I urge you to reset your moral and political bearings and use the leverage of being POTUS and a staunch supporter of Israel to negotiate a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. I joined the hundreds of thousands of protesters in Washington D.C. on Nov 4 demanding a cease-fire now. I marched with them to the gates of the White House to convey our horror and opposition to this unfolding genocide. Sadly, the killing of innocent civilians has continued over three more months. History repeats itself incessantly. It would be tragic if your commendable political legacy is marred by your inability to bring about an immediate cessation of the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Let Gaza not be akin to LBJ’s Vietnam.
I trust your inherent goodness and compassion will prevail. I trust the conviction and courage you have so ably demonstrated in championing for the public good will compel you to take affirmative and immediate action to stop the genocide in Gaza. One does not have to share a faith to have empathy for the dying and the suffering Palestinians. Our shared humanity must make us champions for Peace.
Dear President Biden:
Do you not have a conscience when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
I have read countless anecdotes of your genuine empathy for human suffering during your decades of public service. Does the slaughter of more than 28,000 Palestinians in Gaza—primarily children and women—not stir your conscience? More than 50,000 injured, hundreds of thousands without access to medical care, thousands buried under the rubble, millions of displaced and starving Palestinians cowering from the terror unleashed by the IDF and its patron the United States of America. Does it not awaken a glimmer of mercy or compassion in your hardened soul? Does it not create even a minute breach in your “unwavering” support of Israel?
Do you not have a moral compass when it comes to the genocide in Gaza?
I recently read a profile that described how your father educated you and your siblings about the Holocaust over the dinner table:
“My dad taught us about the horror of the Shoah,” Biden explained last month at a Hanukkah celebration, repeating a well-worn tale. “It awakened in me and my brothers and sisters and our children a sense... that this can happen again.”
Sadly, Mr. President, “It”—another holocaust of Palestinians—is not only happening before our very eyes, you, Sir, are one of the two key perpetrators of this genocide. As U.S. citizens and taxpayers, we also share the guilt of being complicit in this atrocity. But for your unwavering military, diplomatic, monetary, and moral support to Israel, the genocide would cease immediately. Mr. President, the culpability lies squarely on your shoulders and those of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was emboldened by your unquestioning “embrace” of the horrors visited upon the Palestinians. You have failed to call for a permanent cease-fire.
Do you not have any personal sense of dignity or for the office of President of the United States?
Netanyahu publicly and defiantly disparages your suggested solutions and efforts to put an end to the genocide in Gaza. A human with any sense of self respect and dignity would interpret that as a grave insult, especially given the decades of your personal friendship and support demonstrated for the State of Israel. Despite Netanyahu spitting in your face, you publicly refuse to condemn the virulent hate and violence perpetrated by the politicians and military of the State of Israel. Personal dignity aside, Israel’s actions are demeaning to the office of the President of the United States. The United States ensures the very existence of Israel in the region with billions if not trillions in taxpayer-funded military and other aid since its founding in 1948. When pro-Palestine protesters use the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” it is deemed genocidal by Zionists. However, when Netanyahu states that “the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea” in direct contravention of your proposed two-state solution, why do you not take umbrage at this willful flouting of your guidance as POTUS?
It would be tragic if your commendable political legacy is marred by your inability to bring about an immediate cessation of the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Let Gaza not be akin to LBJ’s Vietnam.
Have you lost your political acumen, or do you genuinely not care to be reelected?
I am a lifelong Democrat. Yet, I actively support the #AbandonBiden movement in the 2024 presidential election and will continue to support it and not cast my vote for you in November 2024 unless you call for a cease-fire now! As one of the longest-serving politicians in public service, how have you lost sight of the political peril that awaits you in November? Polling suggests that a majority of Americans, especially Democrats, support a cease-fire now. I am just a layperson. I am certain your staffers in the executive branch and your reelection campaign have apprised you of the risks associated with not standing on the right side of history. Billions across the globe now get information about this unfolding genocide directly on their digital devices. The days of rationing government-controlled messaging through mainstream media to the public about major world events is over.
You have become as reviled a figure as Netanyahu in the eyes of billions across the globe for butchering innocent Palestinian civilians. I urge you to reset your moral and political bearings and use the leverage of being POTUS and a staunch supporter of Israel to negotiate a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. I joined the hundreds of thousands of protesters in Washington D.C. on Nov 4 demanding a cease-fire now. I marched with them to the gates of the White House to convey our horror and opposition to this unfolding genocide. Sadly, the killing of innocent civilians has continued over three more months. History repeats itself incessantly. It would be tragic if your commendable political legacy is marred by your inability to bring about an immediate cessation of the suffering of innocent Palestinians and the war in Gaza. Let Gaza not be akin to LBJ’s Vietnam.
I trust your inherent goodness and compassion will prevail. I trust the conviction and courage you have so ably demonstrated in championing for the public good will compel you to take affirmative and immediate action to stop the genocide in Gaza. One does not have to share a faith to have empathy for the dying and the suffering Palestinians. Our shared humanity must make us champions for Peace.
"When comparing natural gas and renewables for energy security, renewables generally offer greater long-term energy security due to their local availability, reduced dependence on imports, and lower vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions."
As Republican President-elect Donald Trump prepares to further accelerate already near-record liquefied natural gas exports after taking office next week, a report published Friday details how soaring U.S. foreign LNG sales are "causing price volatility and environmental and safety risks for American families in addition to granting geopolitical advantages to the Chinese government."
The report, Strategic Implications of U.S. LNG Exports, was published by the American Security Project, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and offers a "comprehensive analysis of the impact of the natural gas export boom from the advent of fracking through the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and provides insight into how the tidal wave of U.S. exports in the global market is altering regional and domestic security environments."
According to a summary of the publication:
The United States is the world's leading producer of natural gas and largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Over the past decade, affordable U.S. LNG exports have facilitated a global shift from coal and mitigated the geopolitical risks of fossil fuel imports from Russia and the Middle East. Today, U.S. LNG plays a critical role in diversifying global energy supplies and reducing reliance on adversarial energy suppliers. However, rising global dependence on natural gas is creating new vulnerabilities, including pricing fluctuations, shipping route bottlenecks, and inherent health, safety, and environmental hazards. The U.S. also faces geopolitical challenges related to the LNG trade, including China's stockpiling and resale of cheap U.S. LNG exports to advance its renewable energy industry and expand its global influence.
"When comparing natural gas and renewables for energy security, renewables generally offer greater long-term energy security due to their local availability, reduced dependence on imports, and lower vulnerability to geopolitical disruptions," the report states.
American Security Project CEO Matthew Wallin said in a statement that "action needs to be taken to ensure Americans are insulated from global price shocks, the impacts of climate change, and new health and safety risks."
"Our country must also do more to protect its interests from geopolitical rivals like China that subsidize their growth and influence by reselling cheap U.S. LNG at higher spot prices," Wallin asserted. "U.S. LNG has often been depicted as a transition fuel, and our country must ensure that it continues working towards that transition to clean sources instead of becoming dependent on yet another vulnerable fuel source."
Critics have
warned that LNG actually hampers the transition to a green economy. LNG is mostly composed of methane, which has more than 80 times the planetary heating power of carbon dioxide during its first two decades in the atmosphere.
Despite President Joe Biden's 2024 pause on LNG export permit applications, his administration has presided over what climate campaigners have called a "staggering" LNG expansion, including Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass 2 export terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana and more than a dozen other projects. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy acknowledged that approving more LNG exports would raise domestic energy prices, increase pollution, and exacerbate the climate crisis.
In addition to promising to roll back Biden's recent ban on offshore oil and gas drilling across more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal territory, Trump—who has nominated a bevy of fossil fuel proponents for his Cabinet—is expected to further increase LNG production and exports.
A separate report published Friday by Friends of the Earth and Public Citizen examined 14 proposed LNG export terminals that the Trump administration is expected to fast-track, creating 510 million metric tons of climate pollution–"equivalent to the annual emissions of 135 new coal plants."
While campaigning for president, Trump vowed to "frack, frack, frack; and drill, baby, drill." This, as fossil fuel interests poured $75 million into his campaign coffers, according to The New York Times.
"This research reveals the disturbing reality of an LNG export boom under a second Trump term," Friends of the Earth senior energy campaigner Raena Garcia said in a statement referring to her group's new report. "This reality will cement higher energy prices for Americans and push the world into even more devastating climate disasters. The incoming administration is poised to haphazardly greenlight LNG exports that are clearly intended to put profit over people."
"Academics will make careers out of writing about past atrocities while ignoring the ones happening in real time," said one critic.
In what one observer decried as an "absolutely shameful" rebuff of American Historical Association members' overwhelming approval of a resolution condemning Israel's annihilation of education infrastructure in Gaza, the elected council of the nation's oldest learned society on Thursday vetoed the measure over a claimed technicality.
AHA members voted 428-88 earlier this month in favor of a resolution opposing Israeli scholasticide—defined by United Nations experts as the "systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention, or killing of teachers, students, and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure"—during the 15-month assault on the Gaza Strip.
However, the AHA's 16-member elected council voted 11-4 with one abstention to reject the measure, according to Inside Higher Ed, which noted that the panel "could have accepted the resolution or sent it to the organization's roughly 10,450 members for a vote."
While the council said in a statement that it "deplores any intentional destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, libraries, universities, and archives in Gaza," it determined that the resolution does not comply with the AHA's constitution and bylaws "because it lies outside the scope of the association's mission and purpose."
Council member and University of Oklahoma history professor Anne Hyde told Inside Higher Ed that she voted to veto the resolution "to protect the AHA's reputation as an unbiased historical actor," adding that the Gaza war "is not settled history, so we're not clear what happened or who to blame or when it began even, so it isn't something that a professional organization should be commenting on yet."
However, Van Gosse, a co-chair and founder of Historians for Peace and Democracy—the resolution's author—told the outlet that "we are extremely shocked by this decision," which "overturns the democratic decision" of members' "landslide vote."
Lake Forest College history professor Rudi Batzell said on social media: "Shame on the AHA leadership for vetoing the scholasticide in Gaza resolution. Members voted overwhelmingly to support, and the resolution was written so narrowly and so carefully to meet exactly this kind of procedural objection. Craven."
The AHA council's veto follows last week's move by the Modern Language Association executive council, as Common Dreams reported, to block members of the preeminent U.S. professional group for scholars of language and literature from voting on a resolution supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement for Palestinian rights.
"Israel chose not to go to war simply against Hamas, but has instead waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people," Sanders wrote.
With a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel set to go into effect as soon as Sunday, Senator Bernie Sanders released a statement Friday saying that he's please the Israeli security cabinet has signed off on the agreement, but highlighted the approved deal "is essentially the same agreement that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his extremist government rejected in May of last year."
"More than 10,000 people have died since that proposal was presented, and the suffering of the hostages and innocent people in Gaza only deepened," he wrote.
On Wednesday, President Biden announced the breakthrough, saying “this is the ceasefire agreement I introduced last spring."
What's more, the independent senator from Vermont said that Americans must "grapple with our role in this dark chapter." The U.S. government, he said, "allowed this mass atrocity to continue by providing an endless supply of weapons to Netanyahu and failing to exert meaningful leverage."
The U.S. has provided Israel with at least $17.9 billion in military aid to its ally in the Middle East since October 2023, when Israel's military campaign in Gaza commenced following an attack by Hamas on Israel. In early January the State Department informed Congress of a planned $8 billion arms sale.
Local health officials in Gaza say the death toll in the enclave stands at over 46,000. However, a recently published peer-reviewed analysis estimates that Israel's assault on Gaza had actually killed 64,260 people—mostly civilian men, women, and children—have been killed between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024—a figure significantly higher than the official one reported by the enclave's health ministry.
Multiple human rights organizations have said that Israel's conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide or acts of genocide, and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense chief Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The body has also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity,
In his Friday remarks, Sanders called Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel "barbaric" and stated that Israel "clearly had the right to defend itself against Hamas."
However, he said, "Israel chose not to go to war simply against Hamas, but has instead waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people."