April 26: Written by 404EthanNotFound
5. American Complicity
“When the Nazis came for the communists,
I kept quiet; I wasn’t a communist.
When they came for the trade unionists, I kept quiet;
I wasn’t a trade unionist.
When they locked up the Social Democrats, I kept quiet;
I wasn’t a social democrat.
When they locked up the Jews, I kept quiet;
I wasn’t a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to protest.”
I was taught to do the right thing, no matter the cost. I was taught that ‘it all evens out in the end’. As I look around me and see good things happen to terrible people, it is difficult to reconcile. As I look around me and see bad things happen to good people, it is even tougher. I feel that everyone in the United States should have the ability to live a life of dignity. This dignity and freedom should be shared with the world, our effective ‘noblesse oblige’. Unfortunately, that is not our present reality. A life of dignity is reserved for the capitalist class who exploit other people for profit and personal gain. Even workers who are lucky enough to make ends meet, such as myself, still have to reconcile being a commodity to a capitalist. Even sadder, the main export of the United States is imperialism and destruction.
This nation was birthed through conquest. The Native Americans who inhabited this land prior to European colonization were continuously pushed westward, making way for a ‘manifest destiny’ that the United States sought to enshrine through the notion of ‘American exceptionalism’. How often does the mythos of the United States require to view this nation as number one. We have the best and brightest people in the world, we are world leaders and innovators, we have the largest GDP in the world, we spend the most on our military, we imprison the most people per capita, we spend the most money per person for healthcare. American exceptionalism is baked into our nations folklore as a way to gain permission. It is acceptable to slaughter the native peoples of this land because we were destined to be here. If Americans (to which I broadly mean of white European descent) are framed as chosen to occupy this land, it paints the native peoples as foolish for even attempting to suggest otherwise. During high school I was fortunate enough to have a great teacher for AP United States History, but in some parts of the country this course is taught very differently. Mention of any wrong doing by the United States is practically taboo in some sectors of the nation. My understanding of the role of conquest and colonialism in the founding of this and many other nations that exist today is squarely possible because of the critical way I was taught to analyze primary and secondary historical sources during high school. Frankly, even the way I was taught in this course about these atrocities and the United States relation to labor was insufficient, but I was at least granted the tools I needed to seek out the remaining information myself.
The foreign policy of the United States has largely revolved around flexing the muscle of the largest military in the world by far.
Military spending for the United States in the top bar. Click on the image to read more.
As the United States passes one trillion dollars in defense budget at this very moment, understand that this is what the government spends the taxpayer dollars on while not providing you free education and healthcare.
Does the endless war around the globe keep us safer? I would argue it does not. The purpose of the United States Military Industrial Complex is not to keep the nation safe or protect civilians, moreover it is designed to protect U.S. capital interests and ensure American hegemony.
In this piece I seek to build the connections between the ethnic cleansing and genocide currently occurring in Gaza with the erosion of civil liberties in the United States.
Two pieces of information are critical for this piece. Firstly, antisemitism and pro-Palestinian sentiment are not the same. The state of Israel, founded after WWII in 1948, is a relatively new development which attempts to conflate itself with the Israel of ancient religious texts. By drawing connections to an ‘imagined past’ and ancient history, that simply is not the case, the Israeli government seeks to gain permission just as the United States did in its slaughter of the native population (Eric Cheyfitz. “Exceptional Citizens: Religion, Genocide, and Land in the United States and Israel/ Palestine.” Fourth World Journal - Center for World Indigenous Studies, vol. 19, no. 2, 2020, pp. 115–22). The permission structure in this case is used to uphold an ethnostate, an apartheid, where only Jewish citizens maintain all rights and anyone else is a second-class citizen, unable to vote and gain representative democracy. This is primarily directed toward the Muslim population and further cemented in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The latter has been reduced to rubble, a never-ending barrage of United States funded armaments rain down on the open-air prison with an uncounted number of civilians caught in the destruction. The carnage is the point, the cruelty is the point. Israel controls the water, the aid, the electricity, every square inch of the Gaza strip. However, the Israeli government does not appreciate the mere existence of the Palestinian people on land they seek to claim, so they are implementing a solution, a final solution that has the backing of the Trump administration here in the United States. More video emerges every day of the atrocities happening before our very eyes. Healthcare workers and journalists targeted, women and children incinerated, death and despair abound. Ghoulish spokespeople for the United States and Israeli governments will pontificate that the events we see with our own eyes are false and that Israel has the most ‘moral army in the world’. They attempt to claim that these war crimes are to be normalized as simply an unavoidable cost. The actions taken by the Israeli state do not reflect Judaism as a whole and this is where the distinction of antisemitism and anti-Zionism is crucial. You do not need to take it from me, simply listen to any member of Jewish Voice for Peace who have recently held a notable demonstration inside Trump Tower right next to the escalator that the President announced his candidacy on all those years ago.
Pro-Palestinian voices are not promoting anti-Jewish sentiment. Instead, they are seeking a path toward non-violence, towards negotiations for peace taken in good faith, and in some instances, divestment of institutions (such as Columbia University) from the nation of Israel. My personal opinion is that the only sustainable pathway forward is a one-state democratic solution, but at this point, my main priority is to stop the killing.
Secondly, endless state-sponsored killing of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government does not ensure Jewish security, moreover it increases antisemitism in the region. This is by design. Netanyahu and his allies know that without the ‘war effort’, they will lose power and potentially have to answer for their crimes against humanity. By increasing tensions with surrounding Arab nations, the Israeli government seeks to provoke in order to draw the United States into broader conflict and provide additional weaponry.
How did we get here? How has the carnage become this widespread. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of former President Joe Biden. He truly was never capable of meeting the moment after the October 7th attack. Israel was a project he was always ideologically aligned with from its inception. This man was alive when the nation state of Israel was founded and a quick dive into his Senate history showcases his fervent support of the state. His support of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people was a source of major voter depression in the 2024 election as the Harris campaign did not attempt to distance themselves from the Biden administration. The fact of the matter is that an inability of the Democratic party to reckon with this topic is going to lead to further election losses even though the Republican position on the ability of the Israeli government to commit atrocity after atrocity is bounds worse. The Biden administration in its bottomless stipulation and support of Israeli bombardment of the Gaza strip firstly gave Trump the platform to appear that he could end the conflict (Trump facilitated the cease fire that occurred at the beginning of 2025 which has since been broken) and secondly tied the Harris campaign to a legacy of slaughter and horror that the party and the Harris campaign refused to reckon with, just another factor on a long list of issues which led us to a second Trump term and into the arms of the authoritarians and the fascists.
Any institution or person that targets civilians is unjust and should be tried for war crimes, period. Unfortunately, the United Nations has a similar problem to the United States judiciary, it has no enforcement mechanism and thus relies on the active participation of those it rules upon. Make no mistake, you or I would have no recourse in ignoring the court systems (national or international), yet Benjamin Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister) can freely step on US soil despite having an ICC (International Criminal Court) warrant out for his arrest. Defying the court system is an authoritarian consolidation of power designed to remove accountability.
The poem this piece begins with is a reminder that doing nothing is giving permission in advance. The author of the poem, Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor who was in support of the German nationalist rise leading up to World War II. However, as he saw the crimes of the state, he spoke out against the fascism and embraced pacifism (Hockenos, Matthew D. “Martin Niemöller, the Cold War, and His Embrace of Pacifism, 1945-1955.” Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte, vol. 27, no. 1, 2014, pp. 87–101). Understanding his sympathies of his earlier political positions is critical in understanding why he ‘kept quiet’ while so many others groups were targeted and why there would remain no voices to protect him when the Nazi movement would inevitably deem him a voice of dissent in need of removal. The parallels to our current moment are far too obvious. Student activists who sought to bring voice to the voiceless and call for a ceasefire and divestment from the state of Israel are constantly targeted, doxed, and in some cases deported. Mahmoud Khalil, student lead negotiator for the Columbia demonstrations is still held without warrant as the State department claims that they should be allowed to deport Khalil, a green card holder, due to his beliefs.
https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-university-trump-c60738368171289ae43177660def8d34
Mohsen Mahdawi, another pro-Palestinian advocate, was kidnapped by ICE agents at his Citizenship hearing. He was interviewed by 60 Minutes a few days prior to his detainment and his clarity on the matter is chilling.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia still remains in the CECOT prison in El Salvador despite the admission of the Trump administration that the man was deported erroneously. While Garcia is not a prominent pro-Palestinian demonstrator, defending those without recourse or power from injustices is the right thing to do. It also showcases the dichotomy of fascism. It projects a veneer of strength, yet is incredibly weak. The Trump administration is so strong and powerful for deporting all of these ‘illegal aliens’ yet now that errors are being brought to light (certainly with many more still obscured and unknown) the administration is powerless to correct the error and Garcia remains in one of the world’s most brutal and infamous detention facilities for the crime of being Salvadoran in America.
I could spend a lifetime studying the erroneously and un-American silencing of pro-Palestinian voices and revocation of due process for migrants. The takeaway I hope to impart is that by not defending these groups, we give express permission to the Trump administration to commit atrocity at home and abroad. When the time comes that they come for you or someone you know, it may be too late.
“When they came for me, there was no one left to protest”
Therein lies the problem, the American complicity. We as a nation put up pretenses of moral superiority yet there is no accountability when this nation’s military commits atrocities or United States munitions are used to do so in the Middle East.
This piece should make your skin crawl. It should make you uncomfortable. I have lived with this discomfort for too long at this point, a feeling of shame and guilt that I fear could never be washed away. My taxpayer dollars are being used at this very moment in order to bomb civilians in Yemen and the Gaza strip. The slaughter and atrocities make me sick to my stomach and I want desperately for that to change. Even writing these words presents risk. Free speech and expression are being eroded in front of our very eyes, and I fear that the vast American population has no idea what the consequences of this are. My thoughts wander to the poem by Martin Niemöller which I began this piece with. Keeping quiet while others are persecuted for their ideas only leads to further empowerment of the fascists. I refuse to give permission in advance. Defending those without power and without recourse strengthens the protections for all of us. A rising tide lifts all ships.
If you have ever stopped to consider how you would have acted in Nazi Germany, I can answer that question for you right now. Whatever you are doing in this exact moment is what you would have done then. If that is unsettling to you after self-reflection, then it is time to read and watch some quality sources on the topic so that you can be an informed advocate for a more moral future where this nation seeks with all its effort to heal the world from the wounds caused by our taxpayer dollars every day. This will never be an easy position to uphold, but it will always be a righteous endeavor. Free Palestine.
A great resource for delving into the lengthy history of the Israel-Palestine conflict.