Yesterday, the United States Senate unnecessarily launched itself in the middle of a purely foreign war – the armed conflict between Israel and Gaza. The Senate unanimously passed a resolution (S. Res. 10) recognizing what it called Israel’s “right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens”. The resolution also recognized the negative actions of Gaza’s Hamas government, including rocket attacks against Israel and the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier.

What was missing from the resolution: A recognition of the right of Gaza to act in self-defense to protect its citizens. What kind of cockamamie war is this, where one government is granted the right to act in self-defense, but the other is not?

Also missing: The grave misdeeds of Israel, including attacks against the Red Cross, United Nations relief workers and United Nations schools. Israel claims to be targeting Hamas fighters, but about one third of the people killed by Israel in Gaza have been children.

The point is not that Israel is evil, while Gaza is good. The point is that both sides have rights and needs, and both sides are acting in the wrong. The Senate resolution passed yesterday ignored this reality, and in doing so, placed the United States within this cruel fight, on the side of Israel against Gaza.

At this time when our military is already working beyond its capacity, and when our economy has fallen apart, the last thing we need Congress to do is to pick sides for us in somebody else’s war.

Senator Patrick Leahy had it right when he commented,

“the right response is one that will, over the long term, make Israel more secure, and that will be achieved only when Israel is accepted by its neighbors. Those of us who have long worked to support Israel should not lose sight of this crucial goal and this bigger picture. This escalation will, I fear, have the opposite effect. The widening use of force has implications for Israel’s long-term security that should concern each of us. This approach may increase support among Palestinians for Hamas as well as anger and resentment toward Israel and the United States within Arab countries and around the world.

Israel seeks to deal a fatal blow to Hamas militants, to bomb them into submission and moderation. If our country were attacked in a similar way by one of our neighbors we might respond the same way. But there is little if any reason to believe these tactics can work. This latest escalation, with bombs falling and tank artillery striking in heavily populated areas where civilians–more than half of whom are children–have no means of escape, obviously and tangibly is providing ammunition to extremists, inside and outside of Gaza. And in doing so it increases the dangers to both soldiers and civilians–Israeli and Palestinian–and of miring Israel in an open-ended mission in Gaza resulting in far more destruction and loss of innocent life than we have seen so far. Ultimately, extremism is what has hindered a political resolution that ends this conflict with two secure states living side by side.”