I am writing to address and highlight what was said by one of the leaders of the cease-fire movement Feb. 27 — as it left me feeling quite unsettled and concerned. The leader threatened City Council during her speech.
She said: “We don’t want to keep coming here. Those are our demands, is that we need a response from you. We can keep coming here, but we need something back, or we’re just going to start disrupting and moving into different ways to make our voices heard because we do not feel heard.”
It’s not entirely clear what she meant when she said “moving into different ways”; however, it’s clear that it is something more than simply disrupting. The bottom line is that any threats should be taken extremely seriously by the city.
I must also point out that by allowing this group to speak, the city was, in fact, already allowing their voices to be heard. However, being heard does not entail forcing agreement to their demands for action. Demanding action goes beyond being heard. And clearly, in no way should City Council bend to any group that is making threats.
This brings to mind another thing that the leader said in her speech to City Council. She said: “I’m happy to sit across the table, and I’m sure a lot of us are, with Zionist folks of the community to find where we can align and pass a cease-fire resolution, so let’s do that.” This is clearly a red herring. First of all, they don’t have any intention of talking with anyone with opposing views. Second, their so-called discussion already has a predetermined conclusion. Again, that’s not how compromise works. Her words were just a ruse to make her group seem accommodating and open to discussions, which they are not.
Finally, their call for cease-fire is purely performative and based on hatred and not really based on the care for Palestinian civilian lives. You may ask how I know that? Simple logic. If they truly cared about civilian life, they would be open to the surrender by Hamas and the release of all the hostages. If they are truly concerned about the 2 million Gazan civilians, then the surrender of a few thousand Hamas soldiers would be an inconsequential concession in order to save the millions that they claim are at risk. And yet they are dead set against the surrender by Hamas.
The war will undoubtedly be lost by Hamas, and so by not surrendering now, they are just prolonging the misery of the Gazan people. If Hamas surrendered today and released all the hostages, the danger to the civilians would immediately cease. If this group truly cared about the lives of civilians, they should not care about the details of how the war ends as long as civilian lives are out of danger as soon as possible.
— David Moritz
Asheville
