Sanctions Against Israel and the US—and an International Military Mission to End Israeli Colonization and Warmongering
Published on Aug 2, 2026, filed under politics. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)
You know the facts: In the last two and a half years, Israel has displaced more than 3 million people—mostly in Gaza and southern Lebanon—, killed at least 75,000 people, made the lives of the displaced and many others hell (by destroying literally all their infrastructure and either denying or exploiting them for sustenance)—and still looks on course to expel or kill everyone who lives in Gaza and the West Bank (and maybe still in southern Lebanon).
Think about this fact alone: Israel displaced more than three million people. (Most likely, this is more than it would take to entirely clear out your city, perhaps even region!)
Insanity in Need of Intervention
And yet this is far from all. Israel, financially, militarily, diplomatically, and thus fully supported and aided by the United States, has been attacking several other nations—including the ongoing, unprovoked Israeli–American war of choice against Iran, whose consequences may be massive for the world economy and global food security (i.e., for all of us)—, assassinating people, breaking human rights and international law left and right, then trying to cover everything up, lie about it, and twist all condemnation and criticism of these crimes as “anti-semitism” (the audacity) or other nonsense.
If you read up on what Israel and the United States have been doing, not even throughout their history but in the last couple of years alone, and consider the death and destruction they’ve been handing out without any regard for anyone other than themselves, then it’s hard to call their actions anything other than reckless, criminal, and [your assessment here].
Yet there’s another side to this, as we have allowed them to act like this:
Setting aside civilian initiatives like the Global Sumud Flotilla, then except for the “Axis of Resistance” *, many may be watching the live-streamed crimes—yet most are looking away, doing nothing.
What should everyone have done? What should we still do?
We should embrace the spirit of the UN genocide convention and prevent and punish these crimes. †
What this means is that we should rally support for two things ‡:
Sanctions against Israel and the United States as well as against any other country that has supported or is supporting the Israeli genocide against Palestinian and Lebanese people, and both countries’ wars in the Middle East.
A military mission that, with all force necessary, confines Israel to 1967 borders and that, also with force where needed, protects non-Israelis.
The West Needs Help
Although appearing specific, this proposal is still incredibly vague—and, as is, doomed to fail.
For one, the non-Western world is far less inclined to use force than the West is—and it’s the West that is almost entirely behind Israeli colonization, apartheid, and genocide, even though not all of the European people are.
This includes the second reason—sanctions would need to be imposed not only on Israel and the US, but also on their European supporters, like Germany, France, Italy, and England. Yet the most sanctions-happy countries are exactly these Western countries.
So the task is to petition and urge the non-Western world—sanction Israel, the United States, and their main European supporters, and unite militarily to deter and prevent Israel, the United States, and their European supporters from spreading any more hatred and committing any more atrocities against the people in the Middle East specifically, and against Muslims in general.
We here in the West do not seem able to free ourselves from these countries’ sense of supremacism and obsession for violence: We need the non-Western world to help finally end Israeli colonization and warmongering; to end American colonization and warmongering; to end Western colonization and warmongering.
* Behind the Axis of Resistance may lurk one of mankind’s greatest dramas and ethical failures: The people who have done the most—fought the most—against Israel’s colonization of Palestine and Israel's genocide on Palestinians are labeled “terrorists” and are constantly being smeared and attacked. The more you look behind the curtain of Western propaganda and the more you read up on the history of the Middle East, the better you understand how the Western depiction of who is “evil” in the region is wrong—and wicked.
† The genocide convention is awfully unspecific: It provides signatories with nothing to actually “prevent and punish” genocides. Although fewer countries might sign it, it should: Set specific genocide metrics, then set expectations (sanctions, military missions) and safeguards (e.g., sanctions against non-compliant signatories). The genocide convention today has no teeth—it must be given sharp ones. (That this isn’t going to be addressed by the current Western governments/regimes—and shouldn’t be made a matter of civilian initiatives alone—is one reason for the call made in this post.)
‡ These two steps focus on prevention and some punishment, which will then need to be followed by investigating, charging, and trying everyone involved in committing these crimes. Israel and the United States badmouth and undermine the ICC precisely to avoid this accountability. Yet we need to bring the perpetrators to justice (and protect international institutions like the ICC).
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies, including Google; I’m an open-source developer and a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG); and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback—interpret charitably, keep it friendly, but do be critical.)