U.S. ranks high in world opinion as threatening democracy

Of all the nations in the world, the U.S. should be leading opposition to the twin humanitarian crises going on against Yemenis and Palestinians.

Founded on the principle of freedom from oppression, the U.S. turns its back on those monstrously oppressed by their neighbor, Saudi Arabia, in the case of Yemen; and by their ruler. Israel, concerning the citizen-less Palestinians.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen is largely out of sight. Hundreds of thousands dead, millions fled or facing starvation from Saudi bombing and blockade, rarely make the news. The U.S. has supported the Saudi onslaught since it started 6 years ago, paying lip service to ending it.

U.S. enabling of the Apartheid and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is measured in decades, not years.

Unlike Yemen, we see the results of Israeli violence against Palestinians seeking to worship at a sacred shrine in East Jerusalem. When they fought back against hundreds injured at a Palestinian holy site amid continuing evictions of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, Israeli bombers killed 20, including 9 children in Gaza.

The U.S. response is always to say Israel has a right to defend itself without ever tackling the issue of Israeli Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and endless dehumanization of Palestinians captive to their subjugation. Palestinians, at least to Uncle Sam, simply don’t exist.

No wonder a poll of 50,000 people in 53 countries by the Alliance for Democracies Foundation found that the U.S. is considered a bigger threat to democracy in their country than either China or Russia.

But it should not take of poll to prod the U.S. to do the right thing by millions oppressed, dehumanized; indeed, bombed and blockaded into oblivion. It merely requires a conscience.