[Salon] Letter to President Biden on Gaza -

From the desk of Ralph Nader PDF version 300 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Suite 900 Washington, D.C. 20001 Phone: 202-465-8728 August 30, 2024 President Joe Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear President Biden, Ever since you withdrew from the presidential race, met with Netanyahu at the White House and witnessed Congress give 52 standing ovations by the GOP (and some Democrats) to this genocidal war criminal, you have gone silent. Your public admonitions to the Israeli government have ceased. The American people and taxpayers have listened in vain to hear you demand the entry into Gaza, under safeguards, of thousands of trucks with food, medicine, water, etc. for the millions of starving, sick, injured civilians. Your silence combined with your continuing shipment unconditionally of weapons to Netanyahu is a green light to expand his death and destruction of the innocent Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Netanyahu hopes to draw you into a larger regional war. You know this very well. So why are you mute? More puzzling, while you constantly talk about no one being above the law, six federal statutes, conditioning deliveries of weapons to foreign countries on various grounds, are being violated. And you are the violator. Then there is the vast undercount of Palestinian fatalities and injuries by both Hamas and Netanyahu, for different reasons, that is well known by the State Department which possesses credible evidence for a casualty toll multiple times the 41,000 figure. Please take a moment to read the enclosed article from the Capitol Hill Citizen titled “Exposing the Gaza death undercount,” which assembles ample proof. Note, in particular, the statements by Abba Eban in the early nineteen eighties and the leading Israeli military analyst about the Israeli government’s policy of targeting civilians. On July 25th, a detailed letter was sent to you by 45 American physicians and nurses detailing the horrors they saw while volunteering in Gaza. These medical professionals believe that “the death toll from this conflict is many times higher than what is reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health.” Aristotle wrote that “Courage is the first virtue because it makes all the other virtues possible.” That recognition should steel your spine. Why aren’t you listening to Dr. Jill Biden who in December, upon seeing pictures of slaughtered Gazan children said to you “Stop it, Stop it now, Joe.” Where is your touted empathy when it comes to hundreds of thousands of innocent defenseless children, mothers and fathers in Gaza, and now expanding into the West Bank, who had nothing to do with October 7th? We look forward to your response. Sincerely, Ralph Nader, Esq. Bruce Fein, Esq. Enclosure: Open letter by 16 Israeli human rights groups in the December 13, 2023 issue of the New York Times titled, “Stop the Humanitarian Catastrophe.” Open letter to Congress by six very prominent Israelis in the New York Times on June 26, 2024, titled, “We Are Israelis calling on Congress to Disinvite Netanyahu.” Open letter to President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Dr. Jill Biden by 45 American physicians and nurses.