Peace and Justice Post

 By Jeffrey Sachs* and Sybil Fares* – Article sent to Other News by the authors

Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes.

Israel, with US complicity, is committing genocide in Gaza through the mass starvation of the population as well as direct mass murders and the physical destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure. Israel does the dirty work.  The US Government funds it and provides diplomatic cover through its UN veto.  Palantir, through “Lavendar,” provides the AI for efficient mass murder. Microsoft, through Azure cloud services, and Google and Amazon  through the “Nimbus” initiative, supply core tech infrastructure for the Israeli army. 

This marks 21^st-century war crimes as an Israel-US public-private partnership.  Israel’s mass starvation of the people of Gaza has been confirmed by the United Nations, Amnesty International, Red Cross, Save the Children and many others. The Norwegian Refugee Council, along with 100 organizations, have been calling for an end to Israel’s weaponization of food relief.  This is the first time that mass starvation has been officially confirmed in the Middle East.

The scale of the starvation is staggering. Israel is systematically depriving food to more than 2 million people. Over half a million Palestinians face catastrophic hunger and at least 132,000 children aged under five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition. The scale of the horror is thoroughly documented by Haaretz in a recent article entitled “Starvation is Everywhere.” Those who are able to somehow access food distribution sites are routinely fired on by the Israeli army.

As a former US ambassador to Israel has recently explained, the intention to starve the population has been present from the start.  Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu recently declared, “there is no nation that feeds its enemies.”  Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently stated, “whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity; they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want.”

Yet despite these glaring declarations of genocide, US representatives at the UN repeatedly deny the facts and cover for Israel’s war crimes. The US alone vetoed Palestine’s admission to the UN in 2024.  The US now denies visas to Palestinian leaders to come to the UN in September, yet another violation of international law. 

The US has used its power and especially its veto in the UN Security Council to abet Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians and to block even the most basic humanitarian responses.  The world is aghast but seems paralyzed before the the Israel-US murder machine.  Yet the world can act, even in the face of US intransigence.  The US will stand naked and alone in its criminal complicity with Israel. 

Let’s be clear.  The overwhelming voice of humanity is on the side of the people of Palestine.  Last December, 172 countries, with more than 90 percent of the world population, voted to support Palestine’s right to self-determination.  Israel and the US were essentially isolated in their opposition.  Similar overwhelming majorities are repeatedly expressed on behalf of Palestine and against the actions of Israel. 
Israel’s thuggish government now counts solely on US support, but even that may not be there for long.  Despite Trump’s intransigence and US government attempts to stifle pro-Palestinian voices, 58% of Americans want the UN to recognize the State of Palestine, compared to only 33% who do not. Moreover, 60% of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Here are practical steps that the world can take.

First, Türkiye has set the correct course by ending all economic, trade, shipping, and air links with Israel. Israel is currently a rogue state, and Türkiye is right to treat it as such until Israeli-created mass starvation ends, and a State of Palestine is admitted to the UN as the 194th member, with the borders of June 4, 1967.  Other states should immediately follow Türkiye’s lead. 

Second, all UN member states that have not yet done so should recognize the State of Palestine.  So far, 147 countries recognize Palestine.  Dozens more should do so at the UN Summit on Palestine on September 22, even over the vociferous objections of the US. 

Third, the Arab signatories to the Abraham Accords, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the UAE, should suspend their diplomatic relations with Israel until the Gaza siege ends and the State of Palestine is admitted to the UN.

Fourth, the UN General Assembly, by a vote of two-thirds present and voting, should suspend Israel from the UN General Assembly until it lifts its murderous siege on Gaza, based on the precedent of suspending South Africa during its Apartheid regime.  The US has no veto in the UN General Assembly.

Fifth, UN member states should stop the export of all technology services that support the war, until the siege of Gaza ends and Palestine’s membership in the UN is adopted by the UN Security Council.  Consumer companies such as Amazon and Microsoft that persist in aiding the Israel Defence Forces in the context of a genocide should face the wrath of consumers worldwide.   

Seventh, the UN General Assembly should dispatch a UN Protection Force to Gaza and the West Bank. Typically, it would be the UN Security Council that mandates a protection force, but in this case, the US will block the Security Council with its veto.  There is another way. 

Under the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism, when the Security Council is deadlocked, the authority to act passes to the General Assembly. After a Security Council session and the almost inevitable US veto, the issue would be brought before the UNGA in a resumed 10th emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine conflict.  There, the General Assembly can, by a two-thirds majority not subject to US veto, authorize a protection force in response to an urgent request from the State of Palestine.  There is a precedent: in 1956, the General Assembly authorized the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) to enter Egypt and protect it from the ongoing invasion by Israel, France, and the United Kingdom.

At the invitation of Palestine, the protection force would enter Gaza to secure emergency humanitarian aid for the starving population. If Israel were to attack the UN protection force, the force would be authorized to defend itself and the Gazans. Whether Israel and the US would dare to fight a UNGA-mandated force protecting the starving Gazans remains to be seen.

Israel has crossed the clear line into the darkest crimes — starving civilians to death and shooting them as they line up, emaciated, for food. There is no further line to cross, nor time to lose. The family of nations is being tested and summoned to action as it has not been in decades.

*Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. 

*Sybil Fares, Senior Advisor on the Middle East and Africa for UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

 This is the most lethal war for the media in recent times. A generation of journalists is being wiped out

Sun 31 Aug 2025 18.30 CEST

Day by day, the death toll rises, the war crimes mount, and the outrage grows. Last Wednesday, the pope demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of Gaza’s population. A day later, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, warned that “the levels of death and destruction … are without parallel in recent times”. More than 500 UN staff have pressed the human rights chief, Volker Türk, to call it genocide. Half of registered voters in the US have already concluded that that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.

The agony is deepening. On Friday, the Israeli military declared famine-hit Gaza City to be a combat zone, intensifying its assault and ending “tactical pauses” that allowed limited – if utterly inadequate – food delivery. Many inhabitants are physically incapable of fleeing again, and fear that they would be no safer elsewhere. Israel has attacked parts of areas that it has labelled as “humanitarian zones”.

Israel could end the international condemnation by stopping its campaign of annihilation. Instead, it tries to stop us learning about it, by silencing those who bear witness. It is determined to control the narrative of the war – though even its own figures at times offer a bleak view of conditions – and will go to shocking lengths. This has become the most lethal war for the media in recent history. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), at least 189 Palestinian journalists are dead in Gaza; others put the toll still higher. Five were killed in a single strike last week.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and Avaaz, a non-profit organisation promoting global activism, are calling on Israel to abide by its international obligations to protect journalists as civilians, and open Gaza’s borders so that international journalists can report freely.

The Guardian is printing the names of all of those whom the CPJ has listed as killed: women and men such as Fatma Hassona, Hamza al-Dahdouh and Anas al-Sharif, admired for their work and, of course, dearly loved as daughters, fathers, sisters and friends. These are deeply personal losses. But they also represent a generation of journalists that is being wiped out and cannot be replaced.

“At the rate journalists are being killed in Gaza by the Israeli army, there will soon be no one left to keep you informed,” warned Thibaut Bruttin, RSF’s director general.

The civilian death toll in Gaza is staggering, and journalists are put at particular risk when they run to danger to report as others try to escape. But the killing of so many who have been clearly identified as members of the media, in some cases after they were threatened over their work or smeared, leaves no doubt that they have been targeted. This is “the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented”, the organisation has said. “Palestinian journalists are being threatened, directly targeted and murdered by Israeli forces, and are arbitrarily detained and tortured in retaliation for their work.”

Journalists in Gaza work in unbearable conditions – hungry and exhausted, breaking off reporting to find food for their families, help carry bodies from rubble or assist wounded relatives in finding shelter. Many are separated from those they love; many have buried loved ones. All know that in bearing witness, they increase the danger that they face. They carry on to defend the truth against Israel’s attempts to extinguish it. They must be defended themselves.

August 31, 2025

By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

Genoa’s dockworkers, engaged in collecting and shipping aid for Gaza, vow to block Europe if the Sumud Flotilla faces attacks or intimidation.

The Port of Genoa has turned into a symbol of resistance and international solidarity.

Italian media reported that for weeks, Genoese dockworkers have been collecting aid for the people of Gaza, and on Saturday evening they renewed their clear and determined message: if the Global Sumud Flotilla, which set sail today loaded with food supplies, were to find itself in danger, an unprecedented response will follow.

“If we lose contact with our boats even for just 20 minutes, we will block all of Europe. From the Port of Genoa nothing will leave anymore,” declared representatives of the Autonomous Collective of Dockworkers (Calp).

Their words, spoken before 40,000 people, expressed the unbreakable bond between the Ligurian city and the international mission to break Israel’s siege on Gaza.

The collective’s spokesperson explained that the most delicate stage will begin “around mid-September, when these boats will arrive near the coast of Gaza, in the critical zone.”

He then added: “If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades, even for just 20 minutes, we will block all of Europe. Together with our Usb union, together with all dockworkers, together with the entire city of Genoa.”

During the torchlight vigil, the dockworkers reaffirmed their commitment: “Our girls and boys must return without a scratch, and all our goods, which belong to the people, down to the very last box, must reach their destination.”

They also reminded that every year 13-14,000 containers leave the Genoa port for Israel, issuing a stern warning: “We will not let a single nail leave anymore. We will launch an international strike, we will block the roads. We will block everything.”

Words were matched with actions. Over 280 tons of foodstuffs have been collected and shipped thanks to the joint efforts of the dockworkers and the association Music for Peace.

“We want to show that the Port of Genoa is a civilian port and not a port of war. We want to send the signal that not only do we block weapons, but we also physically deliver aid to the Palestinian population,” explained the dockworkers.

The historic “Sala della Compagnia Unica” has been transformed into a warehouse of resistance, where teams of volunteer dockworkers organized, packed, and loaded the aid. Not only their labor, but also their vehicles and resources, were put at the service of a cause they consider not abstract solidarity but a duty of class and humanity.

The Sumud Flotilla therefore sets out from Genoa not only as a humanitarian mission, but as a direct challenge to an inhuman siege. 

And the dockworkers, long at the forefront of struggles for dignity and justice, have made it clear they will not stand by: if anyone tries to stop the boats, “we will block all of Europe.”

(PC, Italian Media)

Consortium News, August 27, 2025

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A U.N. Security Council vote to grant Palestine permanent U.N. membership would end Israel’s zealous delusions of permanent control over Palestine, write Jeffrey Sachs and Sybil Fares. But the U.S. stands in the way.

U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking on, February 2025 (The White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

By Jeffrey D. Sachs and Sybil Fares

Common Dreams

President Donald Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize, and his efforts toward peace in Ukraine, if successful, could possibly help him earn one—but only if he also ends U.S. complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Under Trump, as under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. has served as Israel’s partner in mass murder, annexation, starvation, and the escalating torment of millions of Palestinians. The genocide can, and will, stop if Trump wills it. So far he has not.

Israel is committing genocide—everyone knows it, even its staunchest defenders. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has recently made a poignant acknowledgment of “Our Genocide.” In Foreign Affairs, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew recently admitted that extremist parties in Netanyahu’s government openly aim to starve Palestinians in Gaza.

Lew frames his piece as praise for the former Biden administration (and for himself) for their supposedly valiant efforts to prevent mass starvation by pressuring Israel to allow minimal food entry, while blaming Trump for easing that pressure.

Yet the actual importance of the piece is that an ardent Zionist insider certifies the genocidal agenda sustaining Netanyahu’s rule. Lew recounts that in the aftermath of Oct. 7, Israelis frequently pledged that “not a drop of water, not a drop of milk, and not a drop of fuel will go from Israel to Gaza,” a stance that still shapes Israel’s cabinet policy. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) can use Lew’s article as confirmation of Israel’s genocidal intent.

“The U.S. aids and protects Israel every day in these horrific crimes against the Palestinian people.”

The genocide in Gaza, coupled with the annexation in the West Bank, aims to fulfill the Likud vision of a Greater Israel that exercises territorial control between the Sea and Jordan. This will destroy any possibility of a Palestinian state, and any possibility of peace.

Indeed, Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist minister of finance and minister in the ministry of defense, recently vowed to “permanently bury the idea of a Palestinian state” while the Knesset has recently called for annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich celebrating election victory in March 2021. (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

The U.S. aids and protects Israel every day in these horrific crimes against the Palestinian people. The U.S. provides billions of dollars in military support, goes to war alongside Israel, and offers diplomatic cover for Israel’s crimes against humanity. The vacuous mantra that “Israel has the right to defend itself” is the U.S. pat excuse for Israel’s mass murder and starvation of innocent civilians.

Generations of historians, psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and inquiring minds will ask how the descendants and coreligionists of the Jews murdered by Hitler’s genocidal regime came to become genocidaires. Two factors, deeply intertwined, come to the fore.

First, the Nazi Holocaust lent credence among Jews to the Zionist claim that only a state with overwhelming military power and ready to use it can protect the Jewish people. For these militarists, every Arab country opposed to Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine became a dire foe to be crushed by war.

This is Netanyahu’s doctrine of violence, which was first unveiled in the Clean Break strategy, and which has produced nonstop Israeli mobilization and war, and a society now gripped by implacable hatred even of innocent women and children in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Netanyahu has dragged the U.S. into countless devastating and futile wars out of Netanyahu’s blindness to the reality that only diplomacy, not war, can achieve Israel’s security.

Second, this non-stop resort to violence reignited a dormant strain of Biblical Judaism, notably based on the Book of Joshua, which presents God’s covenant with Abraham as justification for genocides committed in conquering the Promised Land. Ancient zealotry of this kind, and the belief that God would redeem his chosen people through violence, fueled suicidal revolts against the Roman Empire between 66 and 135 AD. Whether the genocides in the Book of Joshua ever occurred (probably not) is beside the point. For today’s zealots, the license to commit genocide is vivid, immediate, and biblically ordained.

Netanyahu has dragged the U.S. into countless devastating and futile wars out of Netanyahu’s blindness to the reality that only diplomacy, not war, can achieve Israel’s security.

Aware of the danger of self-destructive zealotry, the rabbis who shaped the Babylonian Talmud proscribed Jews from attempting to return en masse to the promised land (Ketubot 111a). They taught that Jews should live in their own communities and fulfill God’s commandments where they are, rather than seeking to recapture a land from which they had been exiled following decades of suicidal revolt.

“Netanyahu has dragged the U.S. into countless devastating and futile wars out of Netanyahu’s blindness to the reality that only diplomacy, not war, can achieve Israel’s security.”

Whatever the fundamental reasons for Israel’s murderous turn, Israel’s survival among nations is at risk today as it has become a pariah state. For the first time in history, Israel’s Western allies have repudiated Israel’s violent ways.

France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have each pledged to formally recognize the State of Palestine at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in September. These countries will finally join the will of the overwhelming global majority in recognizing that the two-state solution, enshrined in international law, is the true guarantor of peace.

The majority of the American people are rightly revulsed by Israel’s brutality and are also turning their support massively to the Palestinian cause. In a Reuters poll released Aug. 20, 58 percent of Americans now believe that the U.N. should recognize the State of Palestine, against just 32 percent who oppose that.

American politicians will surely note the change, at Israel’s peril, unless the two-state solution is rapidly implemented. (Logical arguments can also be given for a peaceful one-state, bi-national solution, but this alternative has essentially no backing among U.N. member states and no basis in the international law regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict that has developed over more than seven decades.)

This Israeli government will not change course on its own. Only the Trump administration can end the genocide through a comprehensive settlement agreed by the world’s nations at the U.N. Security Council and U.N. General Assembly. The solution is to stop the genocide, make peace, and salvage Israel’s standing in the world by creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the June 4, 1967 borders.

Trump must force Israel to see reality: that Israel cannot continue to rule over the Palestinian people, murder them, starve them, and ethnically cleanse them.

United Nations General Assembly emergency special session meeting on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, June 2025 (UN Photo/Evan Schneider)

For decades, the entire Arab and Islamic world has supported the two-state solution and advocated to normalize relations with Israel and guarantee security for the entire region. This solution is in full accordance with international law, and was again espoused clearly by the U.N. General Assembly in the New York Declaration last month at the conclusion of the United Nations High-Level International Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution (July 29, 2025).

Trump has come to understand that to save Ukraine, he must force it to see reality: that NATO cannot expand to Ukraine as that would directly threaten Russia’s own security. In the same way, Trump must force Israel to see reality: that Israel cannot continue to rule over the Palestinian people, murder them, starve them, and ethnically cleanse them. The two-state solution thereby saves both Palestine and Israel.

An immediate U.N. Security Council vote to grant Palestine permanent membership in the U.N. next month would put an end to Israel’s zealous delusions of permanent control over Palestine, as well as its reckless territorial ambitions in Lebanon and Syria.

The focus of the crisis would then shift to immediate and practical issues: how to disarm non-state actors within the framework of the new state and regional peace, how to enable mutual security for Israel and Palestine, how to empower the Palestinians to govern effectively, how to finance the reconstruction, and how to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to a starving population.

Trump can make this happen at the U.N. in September. The U.S., and only the U.S., has vetoed the permanent membership of Palestine in the UN. The other members of the U.N. Security Council have already signaled their support.

Peace in the Middle East is possible now — and there is no time to lose.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a university professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he directed The Earth Institute from 2002 until 2016. He is also president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a commissioner of the U.N. Broadband Commission for Development.

Sybil Fares is a specialist and adviser in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN.

This article is from Common Dreams