Two U.S. Senators from Colorado, pledging (the usual) support for Israel, still, join other members of Congress calling for a ceasefire.

Front Range Jewish Voice for Peace demonstration in October 2023 in front of the office of Diana DeGette. the Congresswoman was the first Colorado member of Congress to publicly call for a ceasefire

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Although Bennet and Hickenlooper, finally, and seemingly reluctantly, call for a ceasefire – a welcome position – that call is drowned out by the outright bigoted framework in which the ceasefire statement is made. The exact wording of the ceasefire call was embedded – almost in passing – in a statement that otherwise could have been written by AIPAC or the Netanyahu government.

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At the same moment that the United States is once again threatening to veto a new Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council, this one introduced by Algeria (whose experience with French colonialism in some ways mirrors the U.S.-Israeli relationship) two U.S. Senators from Colorado, gingerly join others in Congress calling on the Biden Administration to support a ceasefire.

The Bennet-Hickenlooper statement comes after 41 Colorado organizations urged the Senators to do so, in an effort organized by the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Every pro-Palestinian organization and coalition that has taken to the streets and city councils demanding an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign against Gaza has called for a ceasefire as well, among them the Colorado Palestine Coalition, Colorado Palestine Club, Front Range Jewish Voice for Peace, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.

In a statement issued on February 14, 2024, Valentine’s Day of all days, Colorado U.S. Senators join 23 other members of the U.S. Senate and 66 members of the House of Representatives in calling for a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. U.S. Congresswoman from Colorado – Diana DeGette had earlier issued such a call although the rest of the Colorado Congressional delegation, all the Republicans and remaining Democrats have not. The latter, including so-called liberal members of the delegation, Jason Crow, Joe Neguse, Brittany Petterson and Yadira Caraveo, M.D, despite making a few, frankly pathetic comments about civilian casualties in Gaza, have instead followed the Biden-Netanyahu position of near total support of Israel including the recent $17.6 billion more in military equipment to the Netanyahu government.

Meanwhile Israel’s slaughter of Gazans  continues unabated in an effort to expel Palestinians from the strip and swallow Gaza into “Greater Israel.” While shedding crocodile tears from civilian casualties, the Biden Administration stands firmly with Netanyahu’s ethnic cleansing campaign.

On February 14, 2024 – that is more than 130 days into Israel’s murderous war of ethnic cleansing and genocide – two members of the United States Senate from Colorado, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, called on the Biden Administration to work for “a restored mutual ceasefire” in Gaza.

Although Bennet and Hickenlooper, finally, and seemingly reluctantly, call for a ceasefire – a welcome position – that call is drowned out by the outright bigoted framework in which the ceasefire statement is made. The exact wording of the ceasefire call was embedded – almost in passing – in a statement that otherwise could have been written by AIPAC or the Netanyahu government. Who knows? Maybe it was!

As such it almost loses whatever positive aspects it might include.

The paragraphs that mention ceasefire stated:

“We therefore write to express our urgent support for your Administration’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages in tandem with a restored ceasefire in Gaza.

We recognize that such a diplomatic achievement will require the agreement of the warring parties, and that its terms remain under negotiation. In our judgement, it is in our urgent national interest – and the urgent humanitarian interest of millions of innocent civilians – that these negotiations succeed.”

The statement is a response to the growing isolation of both the United States and Israel as the world looks with horror and disgust, at what is not a war, but, as the International Court of Justice noted in a recent decision, an “exercise” in genocide. It is a tepid response to worldwide demand for a ceasefire including unprecedented global support and solidarity for the Palestinian situation in Gaza, in the West Bank, in refugee camps all over the Middle East region.

Most revealing, nowhere in the statement is the word “Palestinian” found. Nor is there any call for an end to Israel’s military offensive against Gaza, its intensified repression of Palestinians in the West Bank or working to establish an international framework for peace.

The suggestion that the Biden Administration has been engaged in “on-going” diplomatic efforts to end the fighting flies in the face of reality: the Administration’s overwhelming, one-sided unlimited support for Israeli aggression as exemplified in:

– the continued arming of Israel to the teeth (the new $17.6 billion in military aid Congress just appropriated)
– the political cover which Washington has provided Israel in international organizations
– the frenzied media campaign to vilify the Palestinian struggle for their right to self determination.

Yes to a ceasefire and international humanitarian aid to Gaza!
End the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza! Open the entry points!
Cut U.S. military aid toIsrael!
Yes, to a Palestinian state!