By Joe Conn, Northwest Indiana Green Party chair

The U.S. role in the slaughter in Gaza is massively worse than you might think.

As two-time Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader has written recently at Naked Capitalism and Common Dreams, the Palestinian death toll in the Gaza strip is likely being under-reported by a factor of ten.

Nader makes the plausible case that more than 300,000 Palestinians – not the widely reported 30,000 -- have been killed in Gaza since fighters from its governing body, Hamas, attacked and killed about 1,160 people, mostly Israeli civilians, during an Oct. 7, 2023 raid inside Israel, triggering massive Israeli retaliation.

To date, 91 Israeli hostages taken in the raid remain captives of Hamas, according to AFP, a respected French news organization similar to our Associated Press.  

Meanwhile, according to Nader, “2.3 million utterly defenseless Palestinians in the tiny crowded Gaza enclave have been on the receiving end of over 65,000 bombs and missiles plus non-stop tank shelling and snipers.”  

Multiple news reports confirm the utter devastation caused by the Israeli bombing campaign, which has included the dropping of multiple, 2,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs – each producing a killing zone the size of an NFL football field -- in one of earth’s most densely populated urban areas.  

The U.S. had sent 100 of these weapons of mass destruction to Israel by early December, according to the Wall Street Journal.  

On Feb. 2, the Washington Post confirmed that: “The United States has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began Oct. 7, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid, U.S. officials told members of Congress in a recent classified briefing.”

These overwhelmingly disproportionate, retaliatory strikes against Gazan civilians – allegedly violations of international law -- would have been impossible without the aforementioned, massive United States military, financial and political support.  

This war, as all wars are, has been a boon to weapons makers, laundering billions of U.S. debt or tax dollars into their pockets, with more likely to come.  

According to the Washington Post, “earlier this year (Congress) introduced legislation to provide an additional $17.6 billion to Israel on top of the $3.3 billion the U.S. provides annually.”

The 100 or so weapons transfers already conducted quietly by the Biden Adminstration – which have come without a single Congressional vote but with bi-partisan acquiescence by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress --  implicate the U.S. in policies and tactics that have been called war crimes in a complaint  filed by the nation of South Africa, a case now before the UN’s International Court of Justice. 

On March 2,  Northwest Indiana Green Party Treasurer and Communications Coordinator, and Indiana Green Party Communications Coordinator, Rev. Michael Cooper, and I attended the Illinois Green Party state meeting in Chicago. 

We heard from two experts on the conflict, Tarek Khalis, education chair of American Muslims for Palestine, and Lesley Williams, chair of Jewish Voices for Peace, Chicago Chapter’s, Network Against Islamophobia.

Both explained in detail the complex history of the current war, which began decades before the Oct. 7 Hamas-led raid.  

If I read the room correctly, a consensus of Illinois Green Party members there supported an immediate cease fire in Gaza, which must be a prelude to substantive peace negotiations and not merely a bargaining chip toward those negotiations. 

The Northwest Indiana Green Party will be meeting this Sunday at The Press coffee shop, 9 Lincolnway, in downtown Valparaiso, at which time I will ask NWIGP members to endorse a resolution calling for just such an immediate cease fire, restoration of U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Aid to Gazan Civilians, and a halt to the supply and use of U.S.-made or funded weapons in the Israeli attacks on Gaza.  

I’ll also ask for a resolution supporting a rally for peace planned for Saturday, March 30, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time in South Bend, outside the corporate headquarters of AM General, manufacturer of the Humvee, and a successor, the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, used by the U.S. military and other nation’s armed forces, including Israel’s. 

As always, the public is welcome to attend.