Dear Mr. President,
I am writing you as a U.S. citizen and a cardiologist. My practice is not far from the White House. Every night, I go to sleep grateful to have been given the opportunity of an excellent education. I sleep well because, just about every day, I have the opportunity to save someone's life. These are gifts I do not take for granted.
When I took an oath to save lives, my belief was and still is that ALL LIVES MATTER AND ARE EQUAL. I know you're not a physician, but I would have thought that, since you took an oath of office, you would believe the same thing. Especially having lost your first wife and child — innocent people in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am sure the doctors who attended to them did everything in their power to save them, not because they were related to a senator-elect, but because they were human beings.
No one I know treats patients differently depending on where they were born, where they live, or what language they speak. Certainly not because of who they may have voted for. Can you imagine being judged by these things? It goes against humanity, not to mention that it is against the law. If I witnessed such a thing, it would be my duty as a physician — and as a human being — to report it.
People in the USA and the entire world are witnessing these heinous Israeli crimes right now in Gaza. My very hard-earned tax dollars are paying for weapons that are killing innocent Palestinians in Gaza. If I am quiet about it and do not report it, I am complicit in the killing of over 5,000 Gazan children (the equivalent of 600,000 American children) who had their skulls crushed, bones shattered, spleens, livers and hearts minced by the killing machines that I paid for, and you are gifting to Netanyahu. I am not talking about numbers. I am talking about children, families, teachers, nurses, doctors, journalists, aid workers, artists, cats, dogs, mules, horses, olive trees, date trees, schools, makeshift tents, hospitals, nursing homes, churches, and mosques…
Being the son of a Gazan physician who was rendered a refugee after the Israelis occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, I grew up in Lebanon and witnessed the devastation of war and its ongoing effects. But as wretched as it was, hospitals were not being bombed as they are now, and certainly never with the sort of perverse rationalizations being used to justify these atrocities. These crimes are being legitimized by the most powerful seat in the world; yours.
You are being judged right now by billions of people here and around the world, not only for funding this genocide but also for knowing that you have the power to stop it and choosing to do nothing. This will be remembered a year from now when it is time to vote. It will be remembered forever.
So, I have to ask: How can you sleep at night knowing you have the ultimate power to stop the killing of thousands of innocent people by saying just one word? Ceasefire.
Now that Thanksgiving is around the corner, it feels strange at this time of horror that you will go on TV and pardon a pair of turkeys. What kind of world are we living in?
I beg you to do the right thing for humanity. Your grandchildren and history will judge you. I hope you will decide to be on the right side of this…you still have about 2.2 million reasons to make that choice, fewer and fewer with each passing day.
Sincerely,
Walid Alami MD
