Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
The late US President John F. Kennedy is not alive today to voice his opinion on the Israeli war on Gaza, but we know he would stand with the Palestinians, not the Israeli government.
While yet a young senator, Kennedy in July 1957 delivered a famous speech where he voiced his opposition to then President Eisenhower’s military and political support for French colonialism, and called on the US administration to support the fight for freedom and independence in Algeria.
The situation in Gaza, the Occupied West Bank, and Occupied East Jerusalem today is very similar to the events that marked the end of French rule in Algeria.
“The most powerful single force in the world today is neither communism nor capitalism, neither the H-bomb nor the guided missile – it is man’s eternal desire to be free and independent,” Kennedy said. “Thus the single most important test of American foreign policy today is how we meet the challenge of imperialism, what we do to further man’s desire to be free.”
“The time has come for the United States to face the harsh realities of the situation and to fulfill its responsibilities as the leader of the free world – in the UN, in NATO, in the administration of our aid programs and in the exercise of our diplomacy – in shaping a course toward political independence for Algeria”.
On May 7, 1945, Nazi Germany signed the act of military surrender to the Allies. The next day, 5,000 Algerians marched in celebration of the end of WW2. About 134,000 Algerians had fought alongside the US and allied forces to defeat Germany, with 18,000 deaths among the Algerian veterans. They were also carrying banners as they marched calling for an end to French occupation. The French occupation forces opened fire on the marchers, and in retaliation to the deaths, 102 French settlers were killed.
During the next two weeks, the French forces along with French settlers massacred about 45,000 Algerians. The French air force bombed towns and villages thought to be sympathetic to the cause of freedom and an end of French occupation, with French settlers hunting down Algerians and hanging them.
The French authorities and the French settlers had dehumanized the Algerians and referred to them as animals, which morally justified their killing of thousands of human beings. The massacre of 45,000 Algerians in May 1945 secured another nine years of occupation, but it served to strengthen the Algerian’s resolve to fight for an end of French occupation.
On November 1, 1954, the war of liberation began in earnest. It took eight years for Algeria to win its independence over France; in what British historian Alistair Horne dubbed “a savage war of peace”.
The Algerian people paid for their freedom with 1.5 million lives, which was 20% of the population.
As France was seeking to maintain its brutal military occupation of Algeria, then US President John F. Kennedy clearly voiced his belief that French rule over Algeria was not sustainable in the long term, condemned colonialism, and openly rooted for Algeria’s independence. Kennedy was voicing a core American value held dearly today, and one fought for by countless Americans since 1776. The US stance in the 60’s played an important role in the success of Algeria’s liberation struggle.
Israeli military leaders have said it would be impossible to crush the Palestinian desire for freedom and the will to resist occupation in every possible way just by killing Hamas fighters in Gaza. The Israeli right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deluded in thinking the colony of Israel will be secure if the resistance group is degraded.
The Israeli colonial government seeks to strengthen its grip over the occupied Palestinians by showing them there are no legal consequences to the Israeli genocide, apartheid and atrocities carried out against the Palestinians. Because Israel has complete impunity, and the international community is impotent to stop them.
Israel ordered the Gazans to move south to Rafah, which was designated as a safe zone. Then the military said that Hamas is in Rafah and started an aerial and ground assault on the safe zone killing thousands of civilians, mainly women and children.
Experts have said the Israeli plan is to de-populate Gaza, so that the armed resistance can never return. Some feel the ultimate plan is to force any surviving in Gaza into the desert of Egypt, and then turn the Israeli military on the Occupied West Bank and repeat the Gaza operation there. Many analysts feel the Israeli end game is to annex all of the Palestinians lands which would forever close the hopes of the two-State solution.
Israel will make sure to complete this plan unless the US will intervene to make the genocide stop. But, US President Joe Biden has seemingly abdicated the Oval Office, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is operating on auto-pilot. The days of JFK and the moral high ground of America’s commitment to freedom and independence are dead and buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
According to United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, on January 23, 2024, a lasting end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only come through a two-State solution. His statement came in response to Israel’s leaders’ clear and repeated rejection of a two-State solution. The UN meeting was attended by 60 representatives.
Stéphane Séjourné, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, said France would support a new effort on a peace process to result in the two-State solution. He added that Israel is not to decide the future government of Palestine.
Ahmed Attaf, Minister for Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad of Algeria, called for a new international peace conference based on the two-State solution. He warned that Israel is seeking to expand their colonial presence, referring to Israeli plans to annex Gaza and the West Bank, and lamented that Israel’s occupation of Palestine has held the Middle East hostage.
Riyad Al-Maliki, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, said that Israeli leaders “do not see our people as an empirical and political reality to coexist with, but as a demographic threat to get rid of through death, displacement or subjugation”.
He warned that either the Palestinians achieve their freedom, which results in peace and security in the region, or that freedom is denied and the region remains in constant armed conflict. “Israel should no longer entertain the illusion that there is somehow a third path whereby it can choose continued occupation and colonialism and apartheid and somehow still achieve regional peace and security,” said Al-Maliki.
Through the US presidential terms of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barak Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden there were no attempts to pursue two-State solution negotiations. Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received repeated standing ovations when he addressed the US Congress. The US lacks credibility as a peace broker, and there is no leader similar to JFK waiting in the wings.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
