DAVID SWANSON, davidcnswanson@gmail.com, @davidcnswanson Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is the director of World BEYOND War, a global nonviolent movement to end war and establish a just and sustainable peace. His books include War is a Lie.
He recently wrote the piece “20 Things You’re Not Supposed to Know About the War on Gaza.” Just a few of his points:
“The ideal war for the U.S. government and the weapons dealers that have such control over it is a war fought with U.S. weapons by non-U.S. fighters. The war in Ukraine, the Saudi war on Yemen, the current war on Gaza — these risk few U.S. lives directly but enrich U.S. oligarchs substantially. …”He notes recent U.S. vetoes at the UN for a ceasefire and adds that in “the preceding years, the U.S. has vetoed 46 resolutions on Israel, 34 of them related to its crimes in Palestine and the need for peace. …
“It goes on mattering, decade after decade, that most U.S. students never encounter the word Nakba. It matters that Israel was created in 1948 through war/terrorism, through massacring families, driving some 750,000 people out of their homes, demolishing over 400 villages. …
“The notion that you can commit mass-murder on an enormous scale but make it alright by sending in enough food to feed a fraction of the people still at risk of murder is as useful as New York City’s notion that in the event of a nuclear bomb falling on New York you should go indoors.”
He highlights Israeli government lies: “Telling tales about beheaded babies, exaggerating Israeli body counts … pretending there’s a military headquarters under a hospital, and so on.”
