Sister Cities Issue Non-Ceasefire Proclamation
It’s better than a swift kick in the ass. Or is it?
The mayors of sister cities Fargo, N.D. and Moorhead, Minn., issued a proclamation yesterday “…in urgent support of enduring peace in Palestine and Israel,” calling for “…a negotiated settlement (including the release of hostages and captives) and the building of a foundation for an enduring peace.”
Methinks they doth endeavor to tiptoe the innocuousness tightroap too much.
Gazans are facing imminent starvation, and if they survive that, then annihilation by the Israeli military. They need a ceasefire. Right now.
Instead of this play-it-safe proclamation, the cities of Fargo and Moorhead should issue immediate ceasefire resolutions.
The mayors and people who agree with their handling of this likely would protest that, no matter what they do, somebody’s going to be unhappy. Angry even.
Brings to mind the old cliché, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
The full quote from Medieval English monk and poet John Lydgate is, “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.”
There’s a reason his insight has achieved cliché status; it is an absolute truth of human nature.
However, it’s also particularly appropriate in this context, given that the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank are positively medieval in another sense of the word – primitive, morally perverse, evil.
As the English Language Learners Stock Exchange points out, “The medieval period of European history is also known to have been one of intense violence, lack of sanitation, and cruelty.”
Intense violence. Lack of sanitation. Cruelty.
To lazily employ yet another cliché, that “fits to a T.”
Lazy seems appropriate here, too: by issuing this perfectly inoffensive, milquetoast, middle-of-the-road proclamation, the mayors and their supporters can avoid the challenge of working through the ethical and moral implications of what Israeli forces are doing to innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and have been doing since 1948.
If we let them, that is.
They might even argue the proclamation does, in fact, call for a ceasefire; “negotiated settlement” is simply another way to say it.
Yeaahhhh… No.
To quote Jim Hightower, “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.”
And, now, innocent Palestinians.
The unavoidable fact is the 1.5 million Palestinian refugees pressed up against Egypt in Rafah don’t have time to wait for negotiators; no one will be able to breathe life back into a single Palestinian killed between now and adoption of a negotiated settlement. Israel’s aggression must be stopped now.
Clichés and bland statements simply do not cut it.
If you’re from Fargo-Moorhead, please continue to push our elected officials to adopt an unambiguous and forceful resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. If you’re somewhere else in the world, please urge your leaders to do the same.
Israel’s genocidal actions against Palestinians must end immediately.