 President Biden, not all of America is with you on this one. And you need to wake up, man, to genocide. Journey just like this. And we still stand by and say nothing. We will remember this. But all of you, you need to know, I swear to God, you are on the right side of history. You just heard a snippet from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's heartfelt speech where she calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Now we're going to see more of that speech in a moment. But first, she's making this call as organizations like Human Rights Watch warn that Israel's total seizure of the Gaza Strip has put more than a million children at grave risk depriving them of access to basic necessities and leaving hospitals without sufficient fuel to treat scores of Israeli airstrike victims. But despite that warning and other warnings, the bombing has not stopped, resulting in protests in D.C. organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, who is reporting that 500 Jewish peace activists were arrested at the Capitol on Wednesday for civil disobedience and also 10,000 in total took to the streets to also call for an immediate ceasefire, along with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and others. Now in the speech from the Congresswoman, she basically echoed the same sentiment as the peace activists. Now her and just a few other members of Congress, including Corey Bush, Iona Presley and others, have had the courage to call for a ceasefire publicly. And in doing so, they've been labeled as terrorist sympathizers and they've been smeared and attacked relentlessly. Images like this are being shared under her tweets, calling her part of the Hamas Squad. Marjorie Taylor Greene is now ironically accusing her of organizing an insurrection claiming that she coordinated a global intifada and is demanding that she be held accountable on top of that. Greene is announcing plans to censure Rashida Tlaib over the protest, but to be clear, it's not just Republicans going after Tlaib. It's also Democrats as well. In the politics subreddit dominated mostly by liberals, many self-identified Democrats condemned Tlaib as well with one writing, I'm embarrassed by her as a Democrat. Hamas told you who they are and if you don't clean them out, it's a guarantee that their murdering will happen again. Another person chimed in saying, as a liberal, she is an embarrassment to Basal, and this just really goes to show you that history always repeats itself and there are so many parallels between now and the post 9-11 days. So let's go back to September 14th of 2001 when Congress voted on whether or not to give George W. Bush authorization for military force. Now at the time, there was only one member of Congress who was against it and that individual was Barbara Lee. The Washington Post explains, Representative Barbara Lee agonized over her vote. She said later, until that morning when the California Democrat listened to the prayer of one of the country's most prominent clergymen. It was three days after the September 11 terrorist attacks and like nearly every other member of Congress, she was attending a memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. In his opening invocation, the Dean of the Cathedral, the Reverend Nathan Baxter said, let us also pray for divine wisdom as our leaders consider the necessary actions for national security, wisdom of the grace of God, that as we act, we not become the evil we deplore. When she quoted him on the House floor later that day to explain her vote against giving the president a broad open-ended authorization for military force, she was called a terrorist, a traitor, and close to treasonous. The House vote was 420 to 1. The Senate vote was 98 to 0. And fast forward to today and spectator index reports that the U.S. Senate voted 97 to 0 to pass a resolution in support of Israel. Now I'm going to repeat some of the smears used against Barbara Lee. She was called a terrorist, a traitor, close to treasonous. Sound familiar? Hamas Squad, terrorist, terrorist, sympathizer, and embarrassment to Democrats. History repeats itself. Now at the time, giving Bush authorization for war was not controversial, even if you were a progressive, even if you were anti-war generally speaking. In fact, it was more controversial to not give him that authorization because September 11th just happened. And so to not give the president broad authorization to conduct war, well it was implied that you sympathized with the terrorists. So some of the people in Congress who we now recognize as the most vocal critics of Bush's war on terror like Bernie Sanders, even he voted to give Bush authorization for military force. And at the time he didn't know that he was in the wrong, none of them did. But Barbara Lee did. And she was crucified for it. But 20 years later, she's been thoroughly vindicated. But unfortunately, her worst fears have come to fruition. 3,000 people tragically died on 9-11. And in response, more than 1 million Iraqis who had nothing to do with that tragedy also perished. That is happening in Gaza right now. History is repeating itself. Innocent civilians who had nothing to do with Hamas' attack are dying. More than 1,000 children have died. And even though I believe that Rashida Tlaib, like Barbara Lee, will also be vindicated in 20 years, that doesn't negate from how difficult it is right now to be the voice of reason in a moment when nobody wants to listen to reason, when everyone is out for vengeance and everybody is just thinking emotionally. But even though it's difficult, being courageous and defiant in the face of persecution is needed now more than ever when human lives are literally on the line. So to be clear, Rashida Tlaib is not calling for a ceasefire because she's sympathetic towards Hamas. She is calling for a ceasefire because as the sole Palestinian American in Congress, she knows that her people are not responsible for the crimes of Hamas. And violence against innocent Palestinians is not going to stop Hamas. So let's listen to her and the few other lawmakers explain why a ceasefire is so necessary right now. We have doctors in Gaza treating babies. They say we can't evacuate the South. It will be a death sentence for these babies. They said 50,000 pregnant women are unable to obtain basic health services right now. Entire families are being wiped out. All while President Biden and Secretary Blinken and the majority of Congress fail to even hint to the need to de-escalate or facilitate a ceasefire, and that to me is a failure. If we affirm that all lives have dignity and value as people of faith, we cannot stand by while civilians are indiscriminately murdered. Vengeance should not be a foreign policy doctrine. Our shared humanity is at stake, and we must move with urgency. With a full-scale invasion of Gaza likely imminent, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives, hang in the balance. And it's not only happening right before our eyes. It's happening with the support and the power of the United States government, and it is shameful. In addition to sharing my grief and sorrow, I want to affirm my strong belief that all, meaning all, all human life is equally precious. A belief that above all else, we must save lives. We must lead with love and solidarity. We must fight against violence and human suffering. As a pastor, I'm reminded in this moment of Matthew 5 and 9, which says, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. This biblical call to facilitate reconciliation, not violence, could not be any clearer to me. If you take those words and you apply them to any other conflict, it's completely uncontroversial. But because Americans have been conditioned to view Palestinians as inferior to all other human beings and less than human, that call for ceasefire has been met with fierce, fierce pushback. Not just by Republicans, not just by Democrats, but by progressives as well. Take John Federman, for example. A typically progressive member of the Senate took to Twitter to effectively call for a genocide with his full chest, writing, Now is not the time to talk about a ceasefire. We must support Israel in efforts to eliminate the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered innocent men, women and children. Hamas does not want peace. They want to destroy Israel. We can talk about a ceasefire after Hamas is neutralized. Now, for a moment, let's just put aside the fact that Israel's far right fascist, ultra nationalist government funds Hamas in order to undermine and divide Palestinians. Put that aside for a moment. But I just want you to fully comprehend that this is what he's calling for. Fathers and mothers burying their innocent children who are now dead because Israel is bombing Gaza. They are bombarding them with bombs and there is nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape. So they sit there and they take it. They wait and they wonder if they're next. It's estimated that more than 1000 children have already been killed. And bloodthirsty politicians like John Federman don't think that that's enough. So my question to John Federman is, how many dead children will it take to get you to say enough is enough? 2000? 10,000? 100,000? How many children have to die for you to think it's time to talk about a ceasefire, you fucking piece of shit? How many? I mean, you're a father for fuck's sake. Imagine if your kids were in danger. Where's your humanity? But the answer is that there's no humanity. There is no humanity. We're already to the point where liberal celebrities are defending collective punishment openly. And they're saying that it's perfectly fine if Israel denies food and water to Palestinians who had nothing to do with Hamas's attack. Take Sarah Silverman, for example, who wrote this on Instagram. PSA, there is a very strange thing happening. Many are saying that it's inhumane that Israel is cutting off water and electricity to Gaza. Israel made it pretty simple. Release the hostages and we will turn it back on. Instead of pleading with Hamas to release civilian hostages, which include babies and toddlers, there are politicians cough cough AOC calling Israel inhumane. If that isn't enough for you, Israel does not need to supply Gaza with these resources, which they do for free. If Hamas didn't spend billions of dollars on terrorism, they would be able to build infrastructure to support themselves. So this is what people mean when they say scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds. Here you have a liberal defending the war crimes of a far right Trumpian government and unironically defending collective punishment, which is a war crime. If you don't believe that's a war crime, don't take my word for it. Look up international law. Now, first and foremost, building infrastructure is not an option. As Stimson explains in 1967, Israeli authorities issued military order 158, which states that Palestinians are not allowed to construct any new water infrastructure without obtaining a permit from the Israeli army. Such permits are nearly impossible to obtain, and Palestinians are also denied access to the Jordan River and freshwater springs. But putting aside the practicality for a moment, imagine if Mexico, for example, controlled access to the water of all Americans and the electricity of all Americans and the US government decided to kidnap Mexican hostages and then Mexico shut off our water and response. As a US citizen, even if you wanted to, you would not be able to negotiate on behalf of our government and you could demand that they release the hostages, but our government would not listen to what we had to say. We'd be completely powerless in that situation, we know because our government never listens to what we have to say. So ask yourself this question. In that hypothetical, is it really moral for you to be punished for something that you have no control over, to be punished for the actions of your government? The answer is of course not, because we're Americans and thus we are fully human. Whereas if you are a Palestinian, you are not fully human. You are less than human. You are inferior according to these liberals. That's what Sarah Silverman is effectively saying. She does not view Palestinians as human beings, which is why she can't comprehend why it's bad to punish all of them. 2.2 million people, 50% of which are children for the crimes of Hamas, but as egregious as this rhetoric sounds right now, even from liberals, it's permissible and people aren't going to see how genocidal they sound until years pass and public opinion turns against it, right? The same happened with the Iraq war. Everyone was out for blood until it became not popular and then people were like, oh, okay, since it's not popular now, it's easy for me to understand why maybe just killing Muslims indiscriminately who had nothing to do with the crimes against us isn't the best idea. So the people who are going against the grain right now, they deserve a lot of credit. And there are a lot of them. There are White House staffers who are challenging the United States' disregard for human life. And on top of that, you have state department officials like Josh Paul, resigning in protest of the Biden administration's transfer of weapons to Israel, which we all know they will use to slaughter innocents. You also have Adam Raymer, the political director for so-called Progressive Congressman Ro Khanna, resigning over his refusal to sign onto the squad's resolution that calls for a ceasefire. So I mean, even though it's rare, you do see people within positions of power doing the right thing right now. And they absolutely deserve our respect and support and appreciation. And decades from now, we are going to look back at this very moment and be shocked at how inhumane so many people were in this moment, including many so-called progressives, the lack of humanity they are expressing. But thankfully, we actually have people in Congress right now who are being courageous and defiant even in the face of persecution and even death threats. Take Cory Bush, for example, another brave voice who is not afraid to call out the crimes that her government is complicit in. Less than a week ago, only a handful of members of Congress dared to utter the word ceasefire. We were called by our administration repugnant. That's disgraceful for pushing peace. But I tell you what, there is nothing repugnant and nothing disgraceful about saving lives. War disgraceful. Members joined us in the introduction of the ceasefire now resolution. So the momentum push for peace is working. You being on the street over the last 11 days is working. It's to more violence. And so together, you all, we must be bold. We must stand. We must stand on the side of humanity. We must stand on the side of justice. We must stand on the side of equality. We must stand on the side of self-determination. We must stand on the side and we must stand on the side of peace. And we must be willing to speak out against war and violence. Beautifully put, and she mentioned the ceasefire resolution. And these are the members of Congress at the time that I record this video currently that are brave enough to go on the record and explicitly call for peace. Note that four additional members added their names. Now, if your representative is not here, I would highly encourage you to call them and urge them to join Court Bush's call for a ceasefire. And I understand to viewers how depressing it is to see only a handful of names there, but think about how much worse it was before. September 14, 2001, there was just one voice of reason calling for peace. Now in 2023, we have 16, 16 Barbaralees, including Barbaralee herself calling for a ceasefire. Even though most Americans have not learned anything from the Iraq war and the death and destruction that that caused, some have learned and they're using what they've learned and that experience to try to do better in the future. And I think that's really important. And those who have learned, I think they are making a difference. It might be a small difference. It might be marginal, but it is a difference. Unlike the early 2000s, we have Democrats in Congress who are actually calling out their own party's complicity in war. That's important. That matters. So I want to go back to Rashida Thalib's speech, because I want to play a different portion for you. Because what she says here is very important. These types of voices were not in Congress previously, but to now have somebody in Congress saying this, I think that is cause for optimism. So we have to speak the truth. We can't stop allowing people to police our words, to target what we say. At the end, Maya and Shama should be alive. And if we don't get back to our shared humanity, I don't think we're ever, ever going to be able to come back from this. And to my president, to our president, yes, he's still, well, hold on. I know I ain't, I want him to know as a Palestinian American is also somebody of Muslim faith. I'm not going to forget this. And I think a lot of people are not going to forget this. And it's not, it's not, it's not a threat. It isn't. They think we're joking. I mean, I think the White House and everyone thinks that we're just going to sit back and let this just continue to happen. No. The fact of the matter is our lives are not safe with you or the oppression of indigenous communities. When are we going to say enough? It makes me so angry to have to say, but like me, he literally, literally believed in this party that was supposed to be inclusive of all of our opinions and our, and our views and our political stance and, and all of these things. But what is starting to get really, really, really clear and very loud is that somehow many of us in this room, because of our political opinions, because maybe our faith is a certain faith, maybe because our ethnicity is certain ethnicity, that somehow we're subhuman. That was great. Seeing thousands of Jewish activists and the only Palestinian American in Congress stand in solidarity on this issue and call for peace, that is poetic. That is a genuinely beautiful thing to see, especially considering how difficult it is to speak up and open yourself up to Islamophobic vitriol from conservatives and liberals, right? And to all of these Jewish peace activists, I absolutely commend them because they're also being smeared, right? If you speak out against the government of Israel, you're oftentimes labeled anti-Semitic, but if you're Jewish and you condemn the government of Israel, you're often labeled as a self-hating Jew. It's just despicable and anti-Semitic, but this is what we've seen. But as Rashida Tlaib said in the first clip that we played at the beginning of this video, all of the people who are speaking up right now, they're on the right side of history and it doesn't always pay to be right, but in my opinion, the cost of being wrong is much, much higher. So don't be like most people in power currently, be like Rashida Tlaib, be like Cory Bush, who are learning from the mistakes of the Iraq War, who are learning from the mistakes that our government and all other Western governments made. September 11th changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States. Some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, let's step back for a moment, let's just pause just for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control.