The moral duplicity in the U.S. political class is breathtaking. Squeezed in between news stories of the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, U.S. \u00a0President Barak Obama announced expanded economic sanctions against Russia for its\u2019 alleged support for what the media calls \u201cpro-Russian separatist forces\u201d in Eastern Ukraine. The U.S. action could not have been a more dramatic illustration of the cognitive dissonance and ethical double standards of the Obama \u00a0administration and the U.S political class.<\/p>\n
This action comes on the heels of unanimous resolutions from the U.S. Congress that placed the blame for the Israeli attack on Gaza on Hamas and defended Israel\u2019s actions as legitimate acts of defense. The U.S. Congress resolutions stand in stark contrast to the United Nation\u2019s Human Rights Committee vote to conduct an investigation into \u00a0war crimes in Gaza, as well as positions by Amnesty International and international law and human rights scholars and activists from around the world who determined that the Israeli military assault on Gaza violated most of the norms of international humanitarian and human rights law.<\/p>\n
Members of the U.S. Congress and most of the corporate media missed what is obvious to many around the world\u2014charges of Russian support for anti-government forces in Eastern Ukraine are still at the level of allegations, while the military support for the state of Israel is a matter of public record. And since it is undeniable that war crimes are being committed in Gaza, applying the same logic that the U.S. applied to the Russians, a logic that asserts that the Russians are morally and politically culpable in Eastern Ukraine, also condemns the U.S. as morally culpable for the war crimes being carried out by Israel. However, being morally and politically culpable becomes irrelevant when imperialist power translates into impunity for crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n
By consigning Palestinian humanity to a lesser category, Democrats, Republicans and still too large a sector of the U.S. population, have once again demonstrated contempt for international law, human rights and a basic tenant of humanitarian principles \u2013 the equal value of all human life.<\/p>\n
While people throughout the world are reacting with justifiable revulsion to the inhumane brutality of the Israeli military machine, U.S. politicians, including the new liberal darlings Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren give moral and political support to Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, positions that further solidify the status of the U.S. as a rogue state. \u00a0A status of illegality that is embraced as a badge of honor for most U.S. politicians when it comes to Israel. As Harry Reid, the top democrat in the U.S. Senate asserts \u2013 defending Israel is not an partisan issue but an \u201cAmerican principle<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Therefore, a permanent solution to the conflict will not come from the U.S. or political forces internal to the Israeli colonial state, and with over 80% of Israeli civil society in support of the current military assault on Gaza, nothing of any value toward justice will come from that sector either. This means that a process that can lead to a just solution of the Palestine\/Israel issue can only be facilitated by the international community (international meaning beyond the U.S. and Europe).<\/p>\n