Steven Berner’s letter (SMN, July 15, 2026) was spot on in reminding us of the toxic impacts of our country’s uncritical support for Israel, and returning our focus to the ongoing U.S.-sponsored mass devastation of Gaza and its people.
During Israel’s two-year, all-out assault on Gaza, a credible 20,000 children were killed. Twenty thousand. That’s the equivalent of an entire classroom of kids (think: Sandy Hook or Uvalde) killed every single day for two solid years — you do the math. That’s not “self-defense,” those are war crimes. And, yes, your tax dollars provided an estimated 60% of the weapons and munitions used to wreak that unholy carnage. It’s a hard truth, but that’s exactly what our country was actively enabling, under both Biden and Trump, even after the horrors unfolding there became clear. That’s where blindly following Israel took us.
