A new year, 2026, has dawned. Most of us know what that means โ New Yearโs Resolutions! They are made with good intentions: Go on a diet, break a bad habit, repair a broken relationship, start saving for retirement, work harder, study harder, commit to more family time. As laudable as these pledges are, they are also subject to being laughably over ambitious and short lived. It is part of the tradition of New Yearโs resolutions that they are easily made and fated to fail. But many of us keep trying year after year.
This year, 2026 invites the possibility of a resolution that is both realistic and impactful. The situation begging for change is Israeli government action increasing restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank and banning UNRWA, the United Nations agency that cares for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
There has also been a recent week-long Israeli military operation across several West Bank cities. It has โdisplaced roughly 40,000 Palestinians from their homes, in what historians and researchers say is the biggest displacement of civilians in the territory since the Arab-Israeli war of 1967,โ according to the New York Times. In addition, it reported the United Nations has revealed that โwater and sanitation systems had been destroyed in four dense urban neighborhoods, known as refugee camps because they house people displaced in 1948 and their descendants. It added that some water infrastructure had been contaminated with sewage.โ All of these actions have mostly taken place unnoticed by outsiders, while most of the attention has been focused on the Israeli Gaza war.
While this is going on, the United States has agreed via a memorandum of understanding to provide Israel with $3.8 billion per year through 2028, including $500 million per year for missile defense. In addition, โSince the start of Israelโs war with Hamasย on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $16.3 billion in direct military aid to Israel,โ according to the Council of Foreign Relations. It continued to report that โIsrael has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving over $300 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.โ Given this financial entanglement, it is evident that the U.S. is complicit in the unjust and illegal actions of the Israeli military in the occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The final straw for me was the Monitorโs article on the addition of 19 illegal West Bank Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. It seems logical and necessary to advocate for a New Yearโs resolution by our U.S. Congress, without the imbedded assumption of failure. Resolved: In the year 2026, The U.S. will withhold all military aid to the government of Israel in order to end its complicity with Israelโs unjust and illegal actions against the Palestinian people.
It should be noted that this resolve concerns a response only to the political and military actions of the Israeli government. The resolution suggests no criticism or action against the Jewish faith or the Jewish community. It would not even jeopardize the existence of Israel. โIn recent years, some U.S. and Israeli analysts have said that U.S. aid to Israel should be reevaluated because Israel is now a wealthy countryโthe fourteenth richest per capitaโwith one of the most advanced militaries in the world,โ the Council reported.
The resolution would only limit the United States from financially helping to facilitate Israelโs aggression against the Palestinian people. However, it could be a step toward justice for Palestinians and free the United States from a burdensome financial commitment to military aid for Israel. In addition, the saved money could contribute significantly toward health care for all people in the U.S.
Now that would be a New Yearโs Resolution that could shed traditional disappointment and assure success into the future.
John Buttrick has served as a long-term Volunteer for Kairos Palestine and a volunteer in the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel. He writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.