For 2024, we need to build a broad critical mass to convince the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support international calls for a ceasefire – as in this moment, right now.

by Nadia Ahmad, LA Progressive

In January, as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we need to know if our elected officials will be hiding in their offices on the Hill, participating in sanctimonious MLK celebrations, or out in the streets calling for peace. In March 1965, King openly expressed his opposition to the war for the first time, stating that while millions of dollars were being spent daily to keep troops in South Vietnam, our government was failing to protect the rights of African Americans in Selma. During an interview on Face the Nation, King stated that as a minister, he had a “prophetic function” and felt a strong concern for global peace and the survival of humanity.

Amid the missiles, bombs, and warships in the Middle East, 2024 brings an unexpected opportunity for peace. The congressional ceasefire resolution, far from being just another political maneuver, offers a shimmer of hope amid the prevailing gloom. Here is the Herculean task of transmuting cold reality into optimism. This resolution is the Democrats’ Hail Mary to rescue their party from impending doom, especially as their current nominee, President Joe Biden, faces a looming threat from an emboldened, insurrectionist Donald Trump.

Palestinian child playing in rubble in Gaza

For 2024, we need to build a broad critical mass to convince the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support international calls for a ceasefire – as in this moment, right now. President Joe Biden’s insolence toward the children of Gaza ruined America’s international standing worse than anything in my lifetime. So, if President Biden does not care about the children of Gaza, he should care at a bare minimum about his reputation abroad as it impacts us in the United States due to international business and trade.

Read More