Veterans for Peace Demand That Kamala Harris Live by Her Words: Ceasefire Now
Aug. 9—Pressenza International Press Agency on Aug. 7 features a column titled “Veterans to Vice President Harris: Push Now To End the Siege of Gaza,” by Gerry Condon, past president and current board member of Veterans for Peace (V4P), in which he announces the “Veterans for Peace Open Letter to Vice President Kamala Harris,” posted in the Summer Edition of Peace & Planet News. The letter, headlined, “Call for a Permanent Ceasefire and Emergency Food and Medical Aid to Gaza,” begins: “Dear Vice President Harris, we are reaching out to you as military veterans who have fought in multiple U.S. wars, and who continue to uphold the U.S. Constitution and international law, to organize for justice and equality in our home communities, and to advocate for a peaceful foreign policy.”
Given the “unbearable and unacceptable crimes” being committed against the Palestinian people, crimes “that will go down in history books as a terrible genocide—a holocaust,” the V4P Open Letter quotes back to Harris her own words, after her July 25 meeting with Israeli butcher Netanyahu: “What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating—the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent…. It is time for this war to end….”
V4P’s letter applauds Vice President Harris for her call for a ceasefire, and the fact that she did not preside over the “embarrassing spectacle” of Netanyahu’s tirade before Congress. They say that their members in over 100 U.S. cities “were outraged” by his being invited to address the Congress. The letter further reminds Harris that “continued U.S. support for Israel amid the Gaza genocide also risks further regional and global escalation, with potentially irreversible consequences, even the unthinkable horror of nuclear war. We urge you to demonstrate the kind of leadership for which so many people are waiting—for which we are hoping and praying….”
Veterans for Peace tell Harris in emphasis: "Don’t wait until January. Do the right thing NOW, even as you are campaigning for president. Please urge President Biden to change course in Gaza…. Veterans For Peace believes that justice and humanity require an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, the opening of Gaza’s borders for massive humanitarian and medical aid, and the end of U.S. arms shipments to Israel.
Over the signature of Veterans for Peace President Susan Schnall, they close their call: “We believe that the majority of people in the United States and around the world … have seen enough of war, colonization, apartheid and forced starvation. It is