Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Few would doubt that the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza represents one of the worst atrocities in human history. It is shocking for the drawn-out, almost casual nature of its bloody cruelty, its anaconda-like suffocation of life and hope. Most people agree it is a genocide that must be stopped, if only someone would act.
Trump is not most people. Instead of a genocide, he sees a roadmap for disposing of his own unwanted people. Although he doesn’t have enough institutional or popular support for simply lining up immigrants before firing squads, he’s building up to that goal, and so far, the Supreme Court has been accommodating.
In the meantime, he will try a milder version of the Israeli model. For example, the Israeli-controlled Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sets food out for starving Palestinians, only for them to be gunned down pitilessly when they approach it. The Trump version is to set a slyer trap, nabbing immigrants as they leave a legally required court hearing.
No, it’s not like they are in Gaza being hunted like animals, or are being lynched as Jim Crow-era Blacks were; pray that it never becomes like those assaults on humanity. But the depraved deviousness with which immigrants are being treated will leave a dark and indelible stain on our nation.
JEFFREY HOBBS, Springfield, Ill.
