On Friday, Reuters reported that the United States has sent Israel 14,000 2,000-pound bombs since October for use in the Gaza genocide. These massive bombs, among the largest in the US arsenal, are capable of destroying entire city blocks and can kill people up to 1,200 feet away.
The Reuters report, which for the first time revealed the exact breakdown of US arms shipments to Israel, showed that the Biden administration sent Israel more 2,000-pound bombs than all other types of bombs and missiles combined.
There is only one explanation for why the US has sent so many of this vastly destructive weapon for use in a densely packed urban area: The Biden administration is consciously and deliberately seeking the complete destruction of Gaza and the massacre of as many Palestinians as possible.
Israel’s “war” in Gaza was, in fact, conceived by its architects in Washington as a war of annihilation. The systematic destruction of civilian homes, schools and hospitals is not an accidental byproduct but the deliberate aim of US policy. The goal is not to minimize, but to maximize, the civilian body count.
It is a genocide by design, planned and organized in Washington.
On July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will come to Washington D.C. to give a progress report on the extermination of the Palestinian people to a joint session of Congress and receive further instructions on the next phase of the genocide.
The World Socialist Web Site calls on workers and young people throughout the United States to come to Washington D.C. on July 24 to demonstrate against this public glorification of genocide in the capital of world imperialism.
While the entire ruling class has backed the genocide, the working class—the social force that creates all the wealth of society—must oppose the barbaric massacre of the Palestinians and fight to protect them.
There is no time to lose. With every passing day, the population of Gaza is being systematically starved, deprived of medical care and killed by the hundreds.
By all indications, the official death toll in Gaza, which stands at 37,765, is a major undercount. Nearly four months ago, political activist Ralph Nader estimated that “at least 200,000 Palestinians must have perished by now and the toll is accelerating by the hour.” Since then, the deliberate starvation of the population has only deepened.
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported the existence of a plan to relocate the population of Gaza in a series of concentration camps, in which they will be permanently displaced and imprisoned.
In an article titled, “The Postwar Vision That Sees Gaza Sliced Into Security Zones,” the Wall Street Journal reported a US-Israeli plan to create “temporary shelter” in the form of “fenced-off geographic islands located next to their neighborhoods and guarded by the Israeli military.”
The entire population of the Gaza Strip will either be killed or permanently imprisoned, in Washington’s “final solution of the Palestinian problem.”
Around the world, millions of people have been shocked by the brutality of the US-Israeli genocide. Why, they ask, does a government that calls itself a “democracy” wish to see an entire population of 2 million exterminated or imprisoned?
The answer is to be found in the global policy of US imperialism. Facing the decline of its economic hegemony, the American ruling class sees its relative military advantage as the only way to maintain geopolitical dominance. American imperialism has effectively instigated a war with Russia in Ukraine. At the same time, it is actively preparing for war with China. The Biden administration has proclaimed a “decisive decade” in which the US will seek to establish a “new world order” through the use of overwhelming military force and violence.
In seeking to create its “new world order,” US imperialism is making clear that it will be absolutely ruthless, and that there are no limits on the number of people it is willing to kill.
In a panel discussion in May, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley openly defended and legitimized the mass murder of civilians, proudly declaring that “the United States killed a lot of innocent people.” His fellow panelist, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, declared, “[y]ou have to be willing to be fierce,” and “You have to scare your adversary.”
Whether consciously or not, the general and the CEO were echoing the words of Adolf Hitler to his general staff: “Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality.”
American imperialism, which is rotting on its feet, sees the only way out of its historic crisis through the eruption of violence and brutality. The Third World War which it is plotting will see the effectively unlimited use of violence on a massive scale.
Two essential conclusions follow from this reality:
First, it is impossible to oppose the Gaza genocide outside of building a mass movement, based in the working class, against the global eruption of imperialist war.
Figures such as Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have combined verbal criticisms of the Netanyahu government with open support for the escalating US war against Russia and war plans against China. In reality, the Biden administration has made clear that it is waging a single, globe-spanning conflict, of which the support for the Gaza genocide is a critical component.
Second, it is pointless to appeal to Biden or any faction of the political establishment to stop the genocide. Up until now, numerous protests against the genocide have sought to appeal to or pressure Biden and the Democrats to change course. But Biden’s public criticism of the “indiscriminate bombing” by the Israeli regime is nothing more than a cover for his total support for killing as many Gazans as possible. He is, in fact, the architect and author of the genocide, with Netanyahu as his hired thug. As Biden has repeated ceaselessly during his political career, “If Israel didn’t exist, we would have to create it.”
For these reasons, the July 24 demonstration and meeting organized by the World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party will be a protest against “Genocide Joe” Biden and the government he heads, not an appeal to it. The rally and meeting will provide a forum for workers and youth to strategize on the way forward in the fight against the genocide in Gaza and the broader eruption of imperialist war.
After nine months of mass murder in Gaza, definite lessons must be drawn. The struggle against the Gaza genocide is the struggle against the global eruption of imperialist barbarism, which itself expresses the most essential characteristics of the capitalist system. Therefore, the fight against the Gaza genocide is necessarily a fight of the international working class against capitalism.
We urge all workers and young people who agree with these principles to join us in Washington on July 24.
