"Justifying today's atrocities by pointing to yesterday's doesn't make it moral," said one critic. "It makes it monstrous."
By Brett Wilkins
Amid growing international condemnation of Israel's annihilation and starvation of Gaza—including from staunch ally Britain—U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday attempted to defend the genocidal assault on Gaza by invoking one of the most notorious Allied atrocities of World War II.
"They never get credit for the things they do to try to prevent civilian loss of life," Huckabee said of Israel, whose 22-month assault and siege of Gaza has left at least 226,600 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing amid loosened rules of engagement effectively allowing an unlimited number of civilians to be killed while targeting a single Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking.
"You have got the Brits out there complaining about humanitarian aid and the fact that they don't like the way Israel is prosecuting the war," Huckabee continued. "I would remind the British to go back and look at their own history. At the end of World War II they weren't dropping food into Germany, they were dropping massive bombs. Just remember Dresden—over 25,000 civilians were killed in that bombing alone."
U.S. and British warplanes indiscriminately bombed Dresden with munitions including 4,000-pound "blockbusters" and incendiary explosives over two days in February 1945. The heat generated by the inferno melted human flesh, turning many victims into piles of goop. Men, women, children; the sick and the elderly; refugees and Allied prisoners of war—even the animals in the city zoo—were incinerated together.
Acclaimed author Kurt Vonnegut—an American POW imprisoned in Dresden at the time, whose seminal novel Slaughterhouse-Five was inspired by the firebombing—later described the attack as "carnage unfathomable." After viewing images of the bombing, then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill asked: "Are we beasts? Are we taking this too far?"
As the old adage posits, "history is written by the victors," and no Allied officials were ever held accountable for atrocities committed against their Axis enemies. However, after the war, the Nuremberg trials, Fourth Geneva Convention, and Genocide Convention sought to ensure that horrors like Nazi and Japanese war crimes and what the British described as the "terror bombing" of Germany never happened again.
Huckabee's comments drew stinging rebuke on social media.
"So Mike Huckabee's defense of mass civilian death is... referencing more mass civilian death?" one U.S. military veteran said on X.
"Justifying today's atrocities by pointing to yesterday's doesn't make it moral. It makes it monstrous," he added. "In fact, the lesson of Dresden should be never again, not 'do it again.' But here we have a U.S. diplomat cosplaying a foreign country's mouthpiece for atrocities."
"We will continue to stand up for our rights, and we will continue to call out the terrorist organization that is ICE," the congresswoman said in a speech at Netroots Nation.
By Stephen Prager
Facing threats from Republicans who have called for her deportation this week, U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez has refused to back down.
The progressive Guatemalan-American congresswoman from Illinois has become a punching bag in right-wing media this week after comments she made in Spanish were apparently mistranslated by The Blaze, which claimed she said: "I'm a proud Guatemalan, before I'm an American."
THE BLAZE
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It was quickly revealed that the Democrat had, in fact, said she was "very proudly Guatemalan," but "First, I am American."
But this did not stop Republican officials—including Reps. Andy Ogles (Tenn.) and Byron Donalds (Fla.); Trump border czar Tom Homan; and even the official social media account for the Department of Homeland Security, from threatening to strip Ramirez—who is a U.S.-born citizen—of her citizenship and throw her out of the country.
In her first public appearance since the attacks began, at the annual progressive gathering Netroots Nation in New Orleans, Ramirez was defiant.
In an interview with Emily Topping for Current Affairs magazine, she called the three men who attacked her "cowards."
Of Ogles, who said Ramirez should be kicked off the House Homeland Security Committee, she said, "This is a man that wants to talk about 'oath of office' but violates it every single day."
"I was born in this country just like he was," she added, "and therefore calling for me to be denaturalized and deported is not constitutional, and it's illegal."
She accused Donalds—who said he "never had a chance to meet Ramirez"—of being too afraid to face her directly: "If you don't know me, why are you talking about me? Why don't you pick up the phone and ask me what I think?"
"Because I show up to Congress," she said. "I show up every single week defending Medicaid, Social Security, education, collective bargaining, and the Constitution, something that perhaps he should think about instead of attacking a colleague on Twitter."
The congresswoman said her other Republican attackers were using her as a distraction from the mounting inquiry into President Donald Trump's involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"They don't want you to think about the Epstein files and how their number one job is to protect the pedophile and not protect the American people," Ramirez said. "But I think this is the moment we are living in."
In a keynote speech at the Netroots conference Thursday evening, Ramirez addressed that moment with ferocity.
She called out Homan, who has complained that the immigrants in Ramirez's hometown of Chicago are "very difficult" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest because they are "educated" about their rights.
"He hopes that we don't know our rights so they can violate them," Ramirez said. "We will continue to stand up for our rights, and we will continue to call out the terrorist organization that is ICE."
Video: Netroots Nation
Attacks on immigrants were just one prong of what she called "the Trump administration's heartless, inhumane, brutal campaign of control all around us."
She said Israel's war on Gaza, which she later described as a "genocide," is also part of this campaign, as are the administration's attacks on transgender people, the homeless, unionized workers, and safety net programs like Medicaid.
"Their campaigns of starvation, displacement, and death, at home and abroad, are meant to break us," she said. "They want our resources. They want our land. They want our freedoms. They want our lives so that they can advance their imperialist authoritarian agendas across the world."
In June, Ramirez led a group of 18 congresspeople who introduced the Block the Bombs Act, which would restrict the transfer of offensive weapons to Israel.
In May, she also introduced the Born in the USA Act, which asserts that the 14th Amendment unequivocally grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States, and declares any attempts to restrict birthright citizenship unconstitutional.
Though neither bill has passed out of the Republican-controlled House and restrictions on weapons sales to Israel have struggled to receive even Democratic support, Ramirez said she still feels cause for optimism—despite what she called "dark times"—by looking at the future she hopes to build.
"It is not enough to simply protect the rights and freedoms we have now," she said. "We will create a future in which working people have every single damn thing they deserve and more."
She spoke of renewing the push for Medicare and housing for all, the Green New Deal, and an increased minimum wage. She also previewed a piece of legislation she plans to introduce in September that would increase taxes on the rich.
"In a time where they attempt to silence us, where they attempt to paralyze us, may we never normalize this moment," she said. "Yes, war is destruction, but we are creation people in a creation movement, and we are building forward."
"Biden was wrong about his support for Israel's war in Gaza. Trump is even worse," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.
By Jake Johnson
The Israeli security cabinet's decision Friday to expand the military assault on Gaza came days after U.S. President Donald Trump gave tacit approval to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's push for full occupation of the Palestinian enclave, saying it was "pretty much up to Israel."
The president's position faced fierce criticism from analysts and Democratic lawmakers as other world leaders—including allies of Israel—decried Israeli officials' approval of a full military takeover of Gaza City.
"Netanyahu's plan to reoccupy Gaza is key to the far-right's goal of taking over Gaza and the West Bank and forcing Palestinians out," said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). "Meanwhile, Trump is making us a subcontractor in this operation. U.S. taxpayers should not be funding what amounts to ethnic cleansing by another name."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called the expansion of Israel's war on Gaza "dangerous and illegal," adding that it is "exactly why the U.S. must stop supporting this Israeli government with military aid."
Earlier this week, Trump and members of his administration effectively shrugged when asked about Netanyahu's stated goal of seizing total military control of the Gaza Strip, which has been obliterated by nearly two years of incessant U.S.-backed Israeli bombing and ground operations.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump claimed that "Israel is going to help us" distribute food to starving Gazans—even as Israeli forces continued to obstruct aid distribution and massacre desperate Palestinians. Netanyahu has claimed that widespread starvation is not occurring in Gaza, a false claim that even Trump has publicly contradicted.
"As far as the rest of it, I really can't say," said Trump, referring to a reporter's question about Netanyahu's push to fully occupy Gaza. "That's gonna be pretty much up to Israel."
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, echoed the president's message in an interview with CBS News, saying that "it's not our job to tell them what they should or should not do."
"Certainly, if they ask for wisdom, counsel advice, I'm sure the president would offer it," said Huckabee. "But ultimately, it's the decision that the Israelis, and only the Israelis, can have."
The U.S. is Israel's top ally and leading supplier of weaponry. Since taking power in January, the Trump administration has declined to use U.S. leverage to secure an end to the bloodshed in Gaza, approving billions of dollars in American military assistance for Israel and lifting Biden-era holds on some particularly destructive weapons—including 2,000-pound bombs.
Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, told Common Dreams on Friday that "U.S. support for an Israeli takeover of Gaza is an admission that Trump, like Biden before him, lacks the will to really pressure Netanyahu to end the war."
"There was a cease-fire agreement that Netanyahu broke in March," Duss added. "The U.S. should be pushing him to return to that agreement rather than trying to secure a different one, which he will inevitably break."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who tried unsuccessfully to block two tranches of U.S. arms sales to Israel last week, wrote on social media Friday that "Biden was wrong about his support for Israel's war in Gaza."
"Trump is even worse," Sanders added. "The American people—Democrats, Republicans, Independents—do not want to continue spending billions of taxpayer dollars to starve children."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is leading a letter urging the Trump administration to recognize a Palestinian state, wrote Friday that "Netanyahu's plan to occupy Gaza is a red line."
"It is urgent for the U.S.—like France, U.K., Canada—to recognize a Palestinian state," Khanna wrote on social media. "This must be the position of the Dem Party. So far 18 have signed our letter. Every Dem should sign."
The United Nations' human rights chief warned the move would "result in more massive forced displacement, more killing, more unbearable suffering, senseless destruction, and atrocity crimes."
By Jake Johnson
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