The Gaza Throughline

On January 3, the United States invaded the sovereign nation of Venezuela and kidnapped its President and First Lady, killing an estimated 80 Venezuelans. An unprovoked, flagrant violation of international law. The Trump administration has taken it all in stride. They did it because they could. No country, no international institutions, can stop them. There are vast reserves of oil in Venezuela, which Trump covets, and we possess the largest, most highly-skilled military in the world, so we seize them. Now, we are commandeering their natural resources, and claiming to be “running Venezuela.” Building on these brazen violations, the Trump administration has threatened Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, Canada, and Iceland with similar military strikes and seizures of their land and resources.

On January 7, in Minneapolis, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-yr. old poet, American citizen, neighborhood protector, and mother of three. A completely unjustified use of lethal force. Numerous citizen videos from many different angles clearly show that Renee Good was turning away from the ICE agent to drive her car away. Yet the Trump administration has lied repeatedly, stating that Ms. Good was a “domestic terrorist” who used her vehicle as a weapon against the ICE agent. They praised the agent for “defending himself,” and have refused to investigate the incident, stating there is no basis for an investigation. Building on this lawlessness, the Trump administration has surged over 1,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents into Minneapolis, and ramped up the brutality.

Having followed the genocide in Gaza for the past 27 months, these events, horrifying as they are, don’t shock me. The Gaza genocide ripped the mask off the so-called “rules-based international order.” Israel has openly flouted the Geneva Connections and blew through all the supposed “guardrails” the international community put in place after WWII. Yes, South Africa brought a courageous case against Israel, and the world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, ruled the case was “plausible” and ordered Israel to reverse course immediately. Dozens of nations have joined S. Africa. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes. And yet, the United States has protected Israel, which continues to ignore international law. In fact, along with the United States, they have sanctioned individual judges and officials on the ICJ and the ICC, and shamelessly bullied the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese. To date, Israel has conducted its genocide with impunity. In fact, they have broken the October 2025 “ceasefire” over 1,000 times, continued their bombing, destroying 2,500 buildings in Gaza during the “ceasefire,” and killing over 400 Palestinians, including over 100 children. Top government officials openly declare that international law does not apply to them. They have escaped accountability, and fully expect never to pay a price for their actions.

My point is that there is a throughline from the Gaza genocide straight through to the invasion of Venezuela and the murder of Renee Good. The Gaza genocide revealed how brutal and inhumane a country could be when it was unrestrained. People of conscience in this country ferociously criticized the “blank check” the US gave Israel, the unceasing flow of military weapons and bombs to Israel throughout the slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinians, over 75% of whom were women and children. Neither ferocious criticism, nor passionate advocacy, nor civil disobedience proved sufficient to restrain Israel, and still hasn’t.

The Gaza genocide, the invasion of Venezuela, and the murder of Renee Good are three separate events, each with their own distinctive dynamics – and certainly there have been other genocides, other invasions, and other law enforcement murders of citizens. But what stands out to me in these recent events is the enduring truth that “Palestine is the compass.” What Israel and the Western Empire have done, and continue to do, to the Palestinian people, is not confined to Gaza and the West Bank. There is depraved hubris at work in the Zionist project. Israel and its American and European allies are guilty of grave crimes against humanity, and yet arrogantly insist they are guiltless. That same depravity and hubris is at work in the “might is right” imperialism and gunboat diplomacy of the invasion of Venezuela. The Trump administration is guilty of flouting international law, upsetting historic alliances, norms for security and mutual respect, and yet they breezily insist it doesn’t matter. I see that same depravity and in-your-face belligerence in the ICE raids and deportations that are terrorizing our communities and running roughshod over human rights and the rule of law. They are unrestrained by the law, and will do as they see fit.

The spirit of depravity and hubris evident in these three events brought to mind a telling moment in the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Christian theologian who agonized about his moral responsibility given that millions of his German neighbors were being slaughtered by the Nazis. As is well known, he joined the resistance and plotted to assassinate Hitler. He was executed by the Gestapo in April 1945. He confided to his closest friend that he was not afraid to die, but he never wanted to see the faces of his torturers again….”So much depravity….I have seen the face of the devil, and I cannot forget it.”