On Saturday, a large-scale surprise attack by Gaza militants on Israel left hundreds of Israelis dead, prompting a lethal volley of retaliatory Israeli airstrikes and a formal declaration of war on Sunday. And to speculate, the United States, by potentially arming and financing both sides, is coordinating this war, and it must cease!

“Citizens of Israel, we are at war – not in an operation, not in rounds – at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message shortly after the militant group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave of Gaza, fired a barrage of rockets and sent gunmen into Israel in a multipronged and unprecedented attack in the long-running conflict.

Thousands have died so far, with numbers increasing by the day.

According to Newsweek, an unnamed senior Israeli military official stated arms left behind in Afghanistan by the US military after Biden’s disastrous pullout from the country in 2021 have reached Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip. According to NBC, U.S. arms left in Afghanistan are turning up in different conflicts, falling into the hands of the Taliban. Some of the weapons have been seized from militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir in what experts say could be just the start of their global journey. Evidence that the weapons left in Afghanistan are winding up in various conflicts. 

By leaving billions of dollars worth of military equipment in Afghanistan, the United States has potentially led to the arming of resistance factions in the Gaza Strip. It’s easy to speculate, have we armed Hamas through ineptitude or intent, while through aid we are financing Israel.

Again, speculating, the United States is playing the coordinator of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, arming one side, and funding the other. Instead of coordinating peace… we are either ineptly or intentionally coordinating chaos and enabling this bloodshed, if so, it must cease. 

Terrorists are not just the ones that shoot the rockets or use their hands to kill innocent people… Terrorists are also those who arm or enable them. 

In addition, because the United States has officially pledged to stand behind Israel, and today the Biden administration announced it's sending a naval carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean as a show of support, we must ensure that our nation is secure, namely by closing our open border, which in its present states could easily allow Hamas operatives into the United States. 

We must not arm nor enable conflict. The Biden administration's disastrous plan to leave billions of dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan, only to turn up in the hands of terrorists was the first part of aggravating this conflict and allowing it to spiral out of control, the second, turning around and financing both sides that are either involved or allied in this conflict. Congress must stop orchestrating wars, secure our nation, coordinate peace, and defend the innocents!