By Ann Menasche
This piece is the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Feminists in Struggle as an organization.
Trump and Netanyahu are two peas in a pod. Both are crooked politicians, narcissists, misogynists and psychopaths who are all about acquiring and protecting wealth, power, and empire, indifferent to the toll measured in innocent civilian lives in other countries and even among their own people. Together as heads of two nuclear armed nations, they have launched a war of choice against Iran, which, though the excuses keep changing, are fundamentally all about maintaining U.S. hegemony in the Middle East and the world, while Israel , after its killing spree in Gaza, is given the green light to carry out ethnic cleansing in Lebanon and the West Bank, in pursuit of its dream of a “greater Israel.”
This war is already causing the whole Middle East to go up in flames, threatens an even wider war, and has begun precipitating worldwide economic crisis, that we will all feel with higher prices for food, fuel, and other necessities. It means more billions for bombs while more Americans face homelessness, hunger and lack of medical
care. The threat of U.S. ground troops being sent into Iran, if carried out, could lead to large numbers ofAmerican soldiers coming back in body bags just like during the Vietnam War.
The war is not making the Israeli population any safer either, as they hide in bomb shelters night after night. normal lives, work, education, disrupted. The violence could spread here inside the U.S. as well.
No question, women suffer from war, often disproportionately, from the increased violence, displacement, poverty, and fanaticism it engenders. It is what patriarchy, at its most naked, looks like. Opposing this war should be a no brainer for feminists.
But what of the authoritarian theocratic government in Iran which oppresses women in draconian fashion, and kills its own people? Opposition to the War does not mean support for the Iranian regime. But liberation does not come through the bombing and murder of schoolchildren, the destruction of homes, hospitals, universities, and civilian infrastructure, or from the heavy boots of imperial armies. The power-over legacy of colonialism is one main source of the problem, not the solution.
The Women, Life, Freedom movement will rise again in Iran, but not under these conditions. And the genuine feminist revolutionary transformation it will engender won’t be to the liking of the patriarchs and warmongers in Washington and Tel Aviv. That we can be sure of.
Besides, regime change begins at home. The thousands of peace protesters in the United States and Israel are a beginning. Feminists should be in the leadership of this movement.
PEACE NOW!