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veterans for peace
Progressive Senators Tell Rubio to Demand Israel Not Attack Sumud Flotilla, Which is Carrying Americans
The lawmakers told Rubio he has a "critical role to play in ensuring that US foreign policy protects our citizens and promotes international law and humanitarian relief."
Sep 25, 2025
A group of Democratic senators is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to pressure Israel not to attack the Gaza aid flotilla after the activists aboard warned they were facing an imminent threat.
The letter was sent on Wednesday by Democratic Sens. Ed Markey (Mass.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).
The lawmakers stated that "the Global Sumud Flotilla is currently sailing across the Mediterranean Sea to bring vital humanitarian aid to Gaza, but has reportedly faced attacks by drones and other hostile actions."
On Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, the flotilla, which is carrying more than 550 civilian activists in over 50 vessels, was swarmed by drones and hit by flash-bang grenades.
The flotilla's participants alleged that the attack came from Israel, which has portrayed the flotilla as a violent threat in recent days. Both Italy and Spain sent warships on Wednesday to assist and protect the convoy.
In a press release on Thursday, the activists aboard the flotilla said they'd received “credible intelligence” that “Israel is likely to escalate violent attacks on the flotilla within the next 48 hours.”
Also on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), claimed without offering evidence that the flotilla was "planned and funded by Hamas, by Hamas representatives in Europe" and said the Navy was "ready to defend Israel’s borders at sea."
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail at the start of September with 250 tons of critical food and medical aid for the people of Gaza, who are suffering from mass starvation as a result of Israel's near-total blockade of humanitarian aid entering the strip.
Last week, a commission of independent experts at the United Nations released an extensive report concluding that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. This has included its blockade of aid, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 400 people, including at least 145 children, with many dying in recent months.
At least 65,419 Palestinians have also been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023, and at least 167,160 have been wounded.
The lawmakers told Rubio that "US citizens, including residents of Maryland, Massachusetts, and Oregon" are aboard the flotilla's ships, adding that "under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, they warrant protection."
Participants in the flotilla include humanitarians, doctors, journalists, lawyers, and other activists from at least 44 countries worldwide. According to the antiwar activist group CodePink, 22 of the more than 550 people taking part in the flotilla are US citizens.
One of the vessels, Ohwayla, which took damage from a flash-bang grenade in Tuesday's drone attack, is primarily comprised of US veterans. Phil Tottenham, a member of Veterans for Peace and one of the passengers on Ohwayla, told Mondoweiss that despite the threats, "everyone with this flotilla is undeterred in our commitment."
"You have a critical role to play in ensuring that US foreign policy protects our citizens and promotes international law and humanitarian relief," the lawmakers told Rubio. "We urge you to demand that the Netanyahu government refrains from any use of force against peaceful civilian vessels and ensures that humanitarian aid is surged into Gaza so that the desperate conditions that continue to prompt these flotillas no longer persist."
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All Eyes on Gaza! All Hands on Deck!
Veterans call for urgent resistance to genocide!
Sep 18, 2025
The activist organization Veterans For Peace, with chapters in over 100 US cities and several countries, is calling for urgent action to end the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, to defend the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, and to free a disabled veteran kidnapped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Israel’s deliberate and systematic genocide in Gaza is taking a critical turn to even greater death and destruction, with Israel’s full onslaught of Gaza City and the displacement (again) of millions. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been martyred. Children are starving to death while the whole world watches in horror.
Why won’t the United Nations or the countries of the world put a stop to the daily bombing and cruel starvation? In the United States, the Zionist lobby is strong and ensures bipartisan political support for Israel, no matter what it does. The US is a full partner in the genocide, as well as in the Israeli attacks on many neighboring countries. It provides the bombs, the planes, and military “intelligence,” and even joins in the bombing, as in Yemen and Iran. It also provides political cover for Israel in international forums. The US has repeatedly used its veto in the UN Security Council to block any actions to censure Israel and end the genocide. US companies continue to profit from doing “business as usual” with Israel.
In the absence of any meaningful action by the world’s governments, a global citizens’ movement has arisen and is currently gathering steam. The Global Sumud Flotilla, with people from 44 countries, is boldly sailing toward Gaza with the intention of breaking the Israeli naval siege and delivering humanitarian aid. Significantly, this humanitarian armada includes a Veterans’ Boat, with members of Veterans For Peace and About Face onboard.
This Thursday, September 18, is the deadline that the UN General Assembly has given to Israel to end the occupation of Gaza. Thousands of people will gather outside the United Nations in New York to demand concrete steps to isolate Israel and end the genocide.
Veterans For Peace (VFP) chapters and members are actively engaged with many such efforts at the local level–exposing complicit US companies, protesting at military bases, and reaching out to our sisters and brothers in the military, many of whom do not want to be complicit in genocide, or to take part in occupying US cities and terrorizing entire communities.
ICE Kidnaps Disabled Veteran and Denies Him Much Needed Medical Care
Zahid Chaudhry, president of the Rachel Corrie VFP Chapter in Olympia, Washington, has been kidnapped by ICE and is being denied the medical care he urgently needs. Without immediate treatment, he could permanently lose his peripheral vision. Please follow this link for more information and to sign a petition calling for GEO Group and the Northwest Detention Center to provide the necessary medical care immediately.
Veterans For Peace encourages all its members, friends, and allies to join in the urgent activities over the days and weeks ahead. See VFP Action Alert for details.
We ask everybody to go the extra mile at this critical moment. As VFP member Phil Tottenham wrote from the Veterans' Boat on the Gaza flotilla, “This is not a drill. We need all hands on deck!”
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‘We’re Being Lied To’: Veterans Protest Trump’s March to War With Iran
Veterans groups are urging members of Congress to invoke the War Powers Act to stop the president from launching an unauthorized attack on Iran.
Jun 19, 2025
As the Trump administration threatens imminent war with Iran, veterans of other destructive American wars are sounding the alarm.
As protests broke out across American cities on Wednesday, veterans in cities such as Portland, Oregon and San Antonio, Texas have joined a growing chorus of national anger about the prospect of another Middle Eastern war and called on Democratic leaders to act swiftly to invoke the War Powers Act.
The demonstrations have been organized by groups like About Face, which describes itself as "post-9/11 military members and veterans organizing to end a foreign policy of permanent war," and Veterans for Peace, "a global organization of military veterans" that seeks to "inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars."
On Wednesday evening, a group of protesters gathered outside the Portland office of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
One member of the group, who identified himself as Chris, described the parallels to the Iraq War over two decades ago.
"We saw 20 years ago, we were lied to about weapons of mass destruction with Iraq. And we're being lied to about weapons of mass destruction again with Iran," Chris told KATU-TV, an ABC affiliate.
He called on Congress to invoke the War Powers Act.
"Congress is the branch of government that's supposed to be declaring war, not the executive branch unilaterally," he said.
Following Israel's airstrikes against Iran last week, Wyden called for "diplomatic efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program," adding that Americans "do not want U.S. troops to be dragged into another war in the Middle East." However, he stopped short of co-signing Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) No War Against Iran Act, which would ban the use of federal funds to fight Iran without congressional authorization.
Oregon's other senator, Jeff Merkley, has called for Congress to invoke its war powers.
"It's long past time for Congress to reassert its constitutional role and prevent another disastrous conflict," Merkley said in a statement signing onto Sanders' bill.
About Face held another demonstration in San Antonio on Wednesday night alongside the Party for Socialism & Liberation, where the message was much the same.
"These criminal, genocidal lies killed over a million people, ruined countless lives, wrecked the legitimacy of the United States at home and abroad," the group's South Texas chapter wrote in an Instagram post comparing the current conflict to the war in Iraq.
In recent weeks, veterans' groups have been increasingly outspoken against the Trump administration. According to a June 3 poll from Data for Progress, 70 percent said they opposed his use of active-duty troops in this past weekend's military parade. More than 50 veterans were also arrested protesting the spectacle in Washington, D.C.
That same survey also found that just 10% of veterans believed the U.S. should send more troops to the Middle East, compared with 47% who said there should be fewer.
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