The Irrational Calculus of Criminal Violence

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, was unjustified and monstrous, but the response by Israel has been massive and greatly disproportionate. The slaughter of so many innocent noncombatants, widescale bombing of housing, hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and infrastructure, and resulting starvation and disease spreading among the Palestinians in Gaza, far exceed any validation of the violence waged by Israel pursuant to its necessary defense.

Tragically, this has been largely enabled by our nation’s arming of Israel. I find this complicity in such violence, criminal. Moreover, it seems to be infectious, increasingly in our institutions and society. This is deeply troubling for me.

My struggle with what is happening in Palestine has brought me to protest for an immediate embargo against U.S. military weaponry and munitions being sent to Israel, accompanied by a permanent ceasefire in the region.

Several times I have stood alone at the corner of South Bradley Road and Clark Avenue in Orcutt, holding two signs. One states “stop the genocide” and the other, “stop arming Israel.” This is a busy intersection in a commercial district surrounded by neighborhoods. Orcutt is among the more conservative towns in Santa Barbara County.

My protests at the intersection have been informative.

Among the motorists who respond, about ten to one are supportive, honking and raising thumbs and/or calling out thanks and expressing agreement. Those in opposition typically give me a middle finger. One motorist lowered her window to call me an idiot — and perhaps I do resemble a local lunatic.

All that is free speech and fair game. There was, however, a notable exception.

A motorist who looked like he was in his twenties, was stopped at a red light. He lowered his window and began screaming at me. Several times he stated he was going to “kick my ass” and then declared, before he drove away, that he was returning in 10 minutes and would do so if I was still there.

This man’s behavior clearly constituted a crime, violating California Penal Code 422: a threat to commit bodily injury.

I decided to stay put when he drove away, feeling obligated to uphold free speech and stand, in a small way, with suffering Palestinians.

The man did not come back, at least not in the 20 or 25 minutes I continued to protest. I don’t know what made him so angry, nor how my seeking peace and wanting the killing of innocent people to stop, gave him such passion for violence. But his irrational behavior ably serves as a microcosm of our government’s alignment with Israel and that nation’s treatment of Gaza.

The Biden-Harris Administration, with wide bipartisan support in Congress, has violated national law, trampling over Section 620 I of the American Foreign Assistance Act. The Foreign Assistance Act disallows our government from providing military assistance to a nation that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”  

Israel has limited and at times, stopped the delivery of food and medicine to the residents of Gaza from the very beginning of its offensive against Hamas. On October 28, 2024, Israel’s parliament voted to outright ban the United Nation’s relief agency from operating in Gaza. Meanwhile, the U.S. has continued to send Israel billions of dollars’ worth of military weapons and munitions.

Donald Trump has been convicted for state crimes in New York and indicted for violating federal law in attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

As candidate for president in 2024, Kamala Harris has stalwartly articulated support for arming Israel in its conflict with Hamas, at the Democratic National Convention, town halls, and political rallies. Yet, she knows well the extent of Israel’s slaughter of innocent Gazans and its impediment of the delivery of humanitarian aid they so desperately need.

How did we come to have two incriminated candidates for the highest office of our government?

A plague on both their houses!