Letter From an American in São Paulo

(Part 1 of 4)

Last August, I was in Brazil. Sickened by the news from the United States, I walked into the large reception room at Folha de São Paulo and asked if I could speak with someone in the editorial department who spoke English. Might their readers be interested in hearing the perspective of an American regarding recent catastrophic events? Not the thoughts of some wonky academic or professional commentator, but just an average Joe Blow. An American nobody, but a nobody who is opinionated and follows current events.

I’m grateful they were willing to take a look at something. They opted not to use what I submitted, but I’m glad I acted on my impulse and walked into their building that day. I found the experience of writing my submission to be cathartic. The piece does run a bit long – especially compared to the average word count for this newspaper’s opinion columns. At least, this is how I’ve tried to console myself regarding the rejection.

I hope people might take the time to read my op-ed here. Sadly, it’s still relevant. Yes, even though Trump maintains he has “ended the war in Gaza, bringing, for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East.”

PART 1 of 4

Dear Readers:

Please allow me to welcome you to the nightmare that is the United States during the Age of Trump. Out of concern for your mental health, we’ll limit this visit to a single aspect of our ordeal – How many of us Americans feel, about ourselves and our country, as a result of the war in Gaza.

If you are a film buff like me, you will find that Trumpism often makes you think about a classic American comedy – the Marx Brothers movie Duck Soup, from 1933. In a famous scene, the character Mrs. Gloria Teasdale (played by Margaret Dumont), referring to something she has just witnessed, exclaims in exasperation to Chicolini (Chico Marx), “But I saw you with my own eyes!” To which Chico replies, “Well, who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes!?”

In the news recently, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took this page out of Donald Trump’s playbook. He said, “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.” Netanyahu was speaking at a religious conference organized by an American evangelical group and hosted by a well-known preacher named Paula White-Cain. (Ms. White-Cain is a “spiritual advisor” to President Trump. She has an office in the West Wing of the White House.)

Well, I choose to believe my own eyes. And the scenes of starvation I have been seeing on television make me feel angry and physically sick. I can’t bear to watch them. I reflexively must avert my gaze.

I’m no scholar or expert, but here’s my understanding of where the never-ending Middle East conflict currently stands. This war in Gaza was precipitated when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. Early on the morning of 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters/terrorists invaded communities bordering the Gaza Strip and brutally massacred almost 1,200 men, women and children, while abducting 251 more as hostages. More than 800 of the Israelis killed that day were civilians, including young people attending an outdoor music festival. The rest were members of the security forces.

The Gaza Strip is the same size as Detroit, Michigan (365 square kilometers vs. 359 km²). Prior to the war, it was home to approximately 2.2 million Palestinians, about 44% of whom were aged 14 or younger. According to Israeli intelligence estimates, the population also included between 25,000 and 30,000 Hamas fighters. Almost two years have now passed since the Israeli military responded to October 7 by bombing and invading Gaza. With U.S. support, funding and arms, Israel has killed a grossly disproportionate number of Palestinians – more than 67,000 people. The great majority of those killed (more than 80 percent) have been innocent civilians, including women and children. There are still many bodies beneath the rubble that have yet to be counted.

As far as the U.S. government is concerned, it doesn’t matter whether these dead people were infants or seasoned Hamas fighters. My country believes that the life of any Palestinian is worth much, much less than the life of an Israeli. Prior to the war in Gaza, Israel would try to avoid killing civilians – for example, by striking militants when they were alone outdoors, away from their apartments and families. Today, however, Israel has relaxed its rules of engagement. When approving military strikes, it is now acceptable to kill as many as 20 civilians in order to target just a single fighter. And whereas Israel used to target commanders, today anybody associated with Hamas is fair game, including the lowest ranking fighters and even money changers on the street.

Actually, the precise calculus Israel uses to measure the low value of Palestinian life is another thing that doesn’t really matter. Over the past 22 months, their military has dropped tens of thousands of 1,000 and 2,000-pound bombs on some of the world’s most densely populated areas, including Gaza City, the Jabalia Refugee Camp, and Beit Lahia. Virtually every one of these bombs has been supplied by the U.S. and paid for by taxpayers like myself. (Since October 7, the U.S. has given Israel $22 billion worth of bombs, weapons and other military aid!) If you target militants by dropping a 2,000-pound bomb on a four-story apartment building, you are going to get a lot of dead civilians. (Or as the military prefers to say, “collateral damage.”)

In mid-January 2025, after 15-months of devastating fighting, Israel and Gaza agreed to a two-phase cease-fire. The first phase focused on a hostage-prisoner exchange and improving the distribution of humanitarian aid. Hamas released 33 hostages, as well as the bodies of eight dead hostages, in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners. (As a result, they now hold 48 hostages, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.) As agreed, the two sides then began to negotiate terms for the second phase of the cease-fire, which entailed releasing all remaining hostages in return for an end to hostilities, the withdrawal of Israeli military forces, and the release of additional Palestinian prisoners.

In light of the cease-fire, tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians began moving north from southern Gaza. They moved because they wanted to return to the homes they had been forced to flee; because food aid convoys were gaining access to Gaza City and nearby districts; and because Israel had pulled most of its ground forces out of northern neighborhoods, creating a perception of relative safety. Gazans believed the cease-fire had created “safe zones.” This proved to be a deadly error.

In the early morning hours of 18 March 2025, Israel broke the cease-fire by launching air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip. No warning or notice was provided. Negotiations for Phase 2 of the cease-fire were still underway. The result was one of the single most deadly days of the war. The slaughter killed at least 404 Palestinians and wounded more than 560. As usual, most of those killed were civilians, including 263 women and children. In Gaza City, many families were killed while sleeping in their apartments. Israel claimed it was targeting “reconstituted Hamas command posts.”

Israel gave the U.S. advance notice that it was going to break the cease-fire, and my government did not raise any objections. The Trump administration used the same lame excuse as Israel – the surprise attack was justified because Israel didn’t like the positions Hamas was taking during negotiations. One sticking point has proved to be especially problematic. Netanyahu refuses to end the war, even if Hamas returns all remaining hostages, and Hamas refuses to return the remaining hostages unless Israel agrees to end the war. Netanyahu wants Hamas to surrender unconditionally, and that’s not going to happen – even if Israeli soldiers trap, and threaten to shoot, the group’s last surviving fighter.

I suspect Netanyahu ordered the massacre because he never intended to negotiate Phase 2. Rather, he agreed to the cease-fire only to help out Donald Trump. This was a gift timed for Inauguration Day in the U.S., so that Trump could preposterously claim he had ended the Gaza war on the same day he assumed the presidency. Trump needed a quick victory. He certainly was not going to end the war between Russia and Ukraine on his first day in office, as he had long been bragging would happen. Trump returned Netanyahu’s favor five months later, on June 22, when he ordered the U.S. to drop its largest “bunker buster” bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel had launched an unprovoked war against Iran, and by getting America to take part in the illegal war, Trump saved Bibi from being out on a limb alone.

So what exactly does Israel gain by refusing to end the war in Gaza? Nobody seriously believes that Hamas now poses a threat to Israel’s security, or will be able to for many, many years to come. Gaza is a post-apocalyptic hellscape, with districts completely flattened, infrastructure destroyed, and 50 million tons of rubble that could take a decade to clear. By this point, it’s obvious that continued fighting will not help get the remaining hostages back. It seems the only reason to keep the war going is to help Bibi remain in power and out of prison in Israel, which is where he belongs due to his corruption and fondness for Cuban cigars. Of course, there is another reason to keep the war going – to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip by killing every single Palestinian, or by forcing them to leave.