The man you see here has held a sign daily for the past month on Marietta Square. His name is Rev. Jeff Jones, Minister Emeritus, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Marietta, Georgia. I live in Marietta and have seen him on this corner and I’ve always given him a thumbs up. Today, my wife and I stopped and talked with him. We thanked him for what he was doing. He appreciated the affirmation. I found out later that we were both UU Metro Atlanta North Congregation members. It turns out that we were both married at the Church but about 10 years apart.
He also said we know that war does not solve anything. We agreed that the war between Israel and Hamas must stop. Too many people have been killed, and there are more than 100 hostages still in Gaza.
The pressure is on Netanyahu to compromise and move forward with a way to bring the conflict to a halt. But he’s not interested in that. He has committed himself to destroying Hamas. Some would argue that it is impossible.
Dan Ben-David, writing in Haaretz Daily, says that the sole condition for American support is dependent on Israel taking measures to prevent hunger and disease in Gaza. Prof. Dan Ben-David heads the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research and is an economist at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Public Policy. The Americans and others in the region urge Israel to plan for the day after.
What does Netanyahu think about this? Ben-David writes:
All of this collides head-on with Netanyahu’s personal agenda: maintaining power and stopping his criminal trial. This is why he established the most extreme and incompetent government in the nation’s history. Now, instead of taking steps to widen the international window for completing the mission in Gaza, its members are sticking their fingers in the eyes of the Americans and the rest of the developed world.
As if this weren’t enough, Netanyahu and Co. spare no means to incite against large sections of their own population, while creating with their own hands the case to put Israel and our soldiers on trial at The Hague. We will be paying for the unfitness of the person heading Israel today for many years to come.
A prime minister who puts his own political survival before the good of his country is unable to fire delusional ministers during a war that could easily escalate into an existential crisis. Netanyahu consciously chose incapacitation as his personal insurance policy at Israel’s most difficult hour.
To reach the day after, Israel’s army needs a clear and defined objective. Continued avoidance of this not only diminishes international support and legitimacy for Israel, it also prolongs the fighting and reduces chances of bringing the hostages home alive. How many more people need to die before we put an end to this incapacitation, which is accelerating Israel’s downward spiral into the abyss?
While our citizen-soldiers literally put the country before their own lives, we have a prime minister who shamelessly puts himself above the good of the country. There has never been clearer evidence that Netanyahu is violating his oath of office. Day after day, he proves his unfitness to hold Israel’s highest office during the country’s most dangerous period since its birth. This is not the time for niceties and blind hope along the lines of the 11-0 decision.
The time has come for Israel’s attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, to legally confirm what is clear to anyone with eyes in their head. Netanyahu has long been unfit for office. Make this fact official and free us from his rule before Netanyahu takes us all down together with him.
Netanyahu is unfit for office. Make it official before he takes us all down. Dan Ben-David. Haaretz Opinion, Jan. 8, 2024.
The man protesting the war in Gaza is Rev. Jeff Jones, Emeritus minister, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Marietta. His work now is centered on Community Ministry, which is exemplified by his being on Marietta Square holding a placard that informs citizens of his desire for the war to end in Gaza for the sake of Israeli security and Palestinian authority, two crucial concepts for long-lasting peace in the region.