WASHINGTON — The White House is considering options for how to respond if Israel defies President Joe Biden’s repeated warnings against launching a military invasion of Rafah without a credible plan to protect Palestinian civilians, according to one former and three current U.S. officials.
The discussions are taking place amid growing concern in the administration and frustration among congressional Democrats that the president’s pleas will simply be ignored. Israel this week inched closer to initiating an incursion into the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
“Time and again, President Biden calls upon the Netanyahu government to take certain actions, and for the most part, time and again, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu ignores the president of the United States. And so I think that makes the United States look ineffective,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in an interview.
US Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has called for new elections in Israel, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prioritising his “political survival” above the country.
Mr Schumer, a Democrat and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the US, said Mr Netanyahu had “lost his way”.
He warned that huge civilian casualties in Gaza risked alienating allies and turning Israel into a global “pariah”.
It is a sharp escalation in US criticism of Mr Netanyahu’s government.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians began fasting for Ramadan on Monday as the Muslim holy month arrived with cease-fire talks at a standstill, hunger worsening across the Gaza Strip and no end in sight to the five-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.
[…]
Hamas is demanding guarantees that any such agreement will lead to an end to the war, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until “total victory” against the militant group and the release of all the remaining hostages.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Hamas is still believed to be holding around 100 captives and the remains of 30 others following an exchange last year.
[…]
The United States and other countries have begun airdropping aid in recent days, but humanitarian groups say such efforts are costly and insufficient. The U.S. military has also begun transporting equipment to build a sea bridge to deliver aid, but it will likely be several weeks before it is operational.
A ship belonging to Spanish aid group Open Arms carrying 200 tons of food aid was expected to make a pilot voyage to Gaza from nearby Cyprus, though it was not clear when it would depart. Israel says it welcomes the sea deliveries and will inspect Gaza-bound cargo before it leaves Cyprus.
The ship in Cyprus is expected to take two to three days to arrive at an undisclosed location in Gaza. The food is being supplied by the World Central Kitchen, a U.S. charity founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, which said contruction work on a jetty in Gaza began Sunday. Once the ship reaches Gaza, aid will be offloaded by a crane, placed on trucks and driven north.
And do you notice that, once again, it is the Americans and the Europeans extending their money and their hearts with humanitarian aid? Where are the lorries and air drops full of aid from Egypt? Saudi? UAE? Iraq? JORDAN!? Syria? Lebanon? Libya? Algeria? Pakistan? Qatar? Kuwait? Turkey? Indonesia?
Are all of those countries willing to watch their Palestinian brothers die for the cause? Yes. Yes, they are.
Vice President Kamala Harris has broken with President Joe Biden to call for ‘an immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza.
[…]
‘Before I begin I must address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,’ Harris said. ‘What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating.’
Citing the ‘immense scale of suffering’ in the war-torn nation, she stressed ‘there must be an immediate ceasefire for at least the next six weeks’.
‘This will get the hostages out and get a significant amount of aid in. This will allow us to build something more enduring to ensure Israel is secure and to respect the right of Palestinian people to dignity, freedom and self-determination,’ Harris said.
Her comments mark a departure from the more cautious approach so far favored by Biden, as he struggles to strike a balance between the US’ role as an ally to Israel, with growing international outrage over its bombing of Gaza.
I highly doubt that this is a break with Biden. This is a strategy for the Biden Administration to try to appease two conflicting Democratic constituencies.
Of course the timing is intentional. Biden had three years to change this policy and chose this moment because his is bleeding Islamist support in the battleground states of Michigan and Minnesota. Biden doesn’t mind dead Jews in the Holy Land if it means him retaining power.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday restored a U.S. legal finding dating back nearly 50 years that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are “illegitimate” under international law.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. believes settlements are inconsistent with Israel’s obligations, reversing a determination made by his predecessor, Mike Pompeo, in the Biden administration’s latest shift away from the pro-Israel policies pursued by former President Donald Trump.
Blinken’s comments came in response to a reporter’s question about an announcement that Israel would build more than 3,300 new homes in West Bank settlements as a riposte to a fatal Palestinian shooting attack.
It wasn’t clear why Blinken chose this moment, more than three years into his tenure, to reverse Pompeo’s decision. But it came at a time of growing U.S.-Israeli tensions over the war in Gaza, with the latest settlement announcement only adding to the strain. It also came as the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, is holding hearings into the legality of the Israeli occupation.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court ordered Israel on Friday to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in its military offensive in Gaza, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire.
South Africa alleged that Israel’s campaign in the tiny coastal enclave amounted to genocide in the case, which goes to the core of one of the world’s most intractable conflicts, and had asked the court to order Israel to halt the operation.
While the ruling stopped short of that, it nonetheless constituted an overwhelming rebuke of Israel’s wartime conduct and adds to mounting international pressure to halt the offensive that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians, decimated vast swaths Gaza, and driven nearly 85% of its 2.3 million people from their homes.
The UN is a defunct organization rife with antisemites and tyrants. It lacks the moral authority to levy judgment. As an example, the nation that brought this case, South Africa, is currently in the process of committing a slow genocide on their white population. Nobody cares.
I truly pray that this is, or becomes, the prevailing view of Gazans. I fear, however, that it is a tiny minority.
“We are displaced here in Rafah and before that [we were] in Khan Younis. We have no money and no home, the unstoppable wars between Hamas and Israel have destroyed our lives.”
A businessman called Mohammed agreed.
“We have lived under unjust rule for more than 16 years. Hamas imposed heavy taxes on us and now they have dragged us into a devastating war in which we lost our property, money and homes,” he told the BBC.
“I used to live in a good house and work in trade. Now what will we do? The crossings are closed, the company has been destroyed, and the house is not fit for habitation due to the destruction.
“The worst thing that could happen to us is that we return under Hamas rule when the war ends.”
He’s right. For all practical purposes, the Palestinians had their own state in Gaza. They were self-governing and left alone by Israel except on their borders. And look what happened… The Palestinians have demonstrated that they will never be satisfied until all of the Jews are dead and Israel doesn’t exist. That will not change if they are given a patch of land from which to launch attacks.
Israel’s allies, including the US – and many of its foes – have urged a revival of the long-dormant “two-state solution”, in which a future Palestinian state would sit side-by-side with an Israeli one.
The hope in many circles is that the current crisis could force the warring parties back to diplomacy, as the only viable alternative to endless cycles of violence. But from Mr Netanyahu’s comments, his intention appears quite the opposite.
During Thursday’s news conference, he said Israel must have security control over all land west of the River Jordan, which would include the territory of any future Palestinian state.
“This is a necessary condition, and it conflicts with the idea of (Palestinian) sovereignty. What to do? I tell this truth to our American friends, and I also stopped the attempt to impose a reality on us that would harm Israel’s security,” he said.
Note that support for Israel has wide support in Congress. If Biden asked Congress to approve this aid through normal procedure, it would easily pass. Biden is choosing to usurp Congress’ authority for two reasons. First, Biden has tied support for Ukraine to support for Israel because Americans have grown weary of supporting Ukraine. Biden refuses to decouple the asks. Second, if there was a standalone vote to support Israel, the antisemites in the Democratic Party in Congress would vote against it and spend hours spewing their anti-Jewish hate. Biden doesn’t want that cancer in his party exposed any more than it already is during an election year.
The fact that Biden thought that ignoring the Constitutional separation of powers was the least problematic path speaks volumes for how far we have fallen as a Constitutional Republic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time this month the Biden administration is bypassing Congress to approve an emergency weapons sale to Israel as Israel continues to prosecute its war against Hamas in Gaza under increasing international criticism.
The State Department said Friday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had told Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5 million sale for equipment, including fuses, charges and primers, that is needed to make the 155 mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.
[…]
The emergency determination means the purchase will bypass the congressional review requirement for foreign military sales. Such determinations are rare, but not unprecedented, when administrations see an urgent need for weapons to be delivered without waiting for lawmakers’ approval.
Blinken made a similar decision on Dec. 9, to approve the sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106 million.
Lawmakers warned President Joe Biden’s national security team that planned U.S. aid to Israel must be met with assurances of concrete steps from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
“The truth is that if asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in the position we are today,” Sanders said in a floor speech. It was time for the United States to use its “substantial leverage” with its ally, the Vermont senator said.
“And we all know what that leverage is,” he said, adding, “the blank-check approach must end.”
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel pounded targets in the crowded southern half of the Gaza Strip on Saturday and ordered more neighborhoods designated for attack to evacuate, driving up the death toll even as the United States and others urged it to do more to protect Gaza civilians a day after a truce collapsed.
The truce didn’t “collapse.” It’s not something that just happened. Hamas broke the truce.
Also, notice how Israel continues to try to protect civilians by announcing where they are going next despite the increased risk to their soldiers. Hamas does not do that.
At least 200 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed Friday morning following the weeklong truce with the territory’s ruling militant group Hamas, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. Several homes were hit across Gaza on Saturday, with multiple casualties reported in a strike that flattened a multi-story building on the outskirts of Gaza City.
The Health Ministry in Gaza is Hamas and they have been proven habitual liars. Yet, this reporter takes their statements at face value.
The appeal from the United States, Israel’s closest ally, to do more to protect civilians came after an air and ground offensive in the first weeks of the war devastated large areas of northern Gaza.
The Biden Administration has abandoned Israel and is lobbying on behalf of Hamas.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militant groups in Gaza said they fired a barrage of rockets on southern Israel. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesperson, said Hamas had launched more than 250 rockets at Israel since the cease-fire ended.
Put another way, “Hamas terrorists continue to target Israeli civilians with indiscriminate rocket attacks.” Notice how Israel is intentionally warning civilians to protect them while Hamas is targeting civilians. There is not a moral equivalence here.
The maps and leaflets generated panic and confusion, especially in the crowded south. Unable to go to northern Gaza or neighboring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220-square-kilometer (85-square-mile) area.
Remember that Egypt could – at any time – open their border with Gaza and offer their fellow Muslims sanctuary. Egypt is not willing to welcome the terrorists into their country for good reason.
Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in Dubai on Saturday for the COP28 climate conference, said in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that “under no circumstances” would the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza or redrawing of its borders, according to a U.S. summary.
Harris was expected to outline proposals with regional leaders to “put Palestinian voices at the center” of planning the next steps for Gaza after the conflict, according to the White House. President Joe Biden’s administration has emphasized the need for an eventual two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state coexisting.
Again, the Biden Administration is firmly on the side of the terrorists now.
Aid deliveries to Gaza were halted on Friday due to fuel shortages and a communications outage in the Palestinian enclave, United Nations officials said, while issuing dire warnings of people possibly facing starvation.
TEHRAN, Iran — Thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They condemned Washington’s support of Israel as it strikes the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas.
[…]
In a statement published on behalf of the protesters at the end of the commemoration, they called for an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza and warned the U.S., Britain, and France that the crisis might expand in the region. The statement ended with a vow that Iranians would stand by Palestine “until final victory.”
Houston’s Jewish-owned restaurants, as well as Palestinian restaurateurs, face a conundrum in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks and the onslaught of news surrounding the recent atrocities: Do they publicly show support for Israel, or Palestine, or is it too political for customers? In some cases, they’re also contemplating safety concerns, as officials say they would increase patrols around Jewish and religious institutions in the city.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved a nearly $14.5 billion military aid package Thursday for Israel, a muscular U.S. response to the war with Hamas but also a partisan approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden.
In a departure from norms, Johnson’s package required that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government spending elsewhere. That tack established the new House GOP’s conservative leadership, but it also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into one dividing Democrats and Republicans. Biden has said he would veto the bill, which was approved 226-196, with 12 Democrats joining most Republicans on a largely party-line vote.
Johnson, R-La., said the Republican package would provide Israel with the assistance needed to defend itself, free hostages held by Hamas and eradicate the militant Palestinian group, accomplishing “all of this while we also work to ensure responsible spending and reduce the size of the federal government.”
Democrats said that approach would only delay help for Israel. Senate Majority Leader , D-N.Y., has warned that the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chances in the Senate.
A Hamas terrorist told an Israel Securities Authority (ISA) official he and another man shot and killed crying children who were inside a safe room, until the sounds could no longer be heard, while acknowledging he entered the house simply to kill.
In a video posted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, the Hamas terrorist is seen wearing prison garb while sitting in a chair with an Israeli flag behind him.
[…]
The ISA official then asked the Hamas terrorist if he entered the house as an order to kill from Hamas, and he nodded.
He was also asked what the difference between him and ISIS are, and told the official there was no difference, based on videos he was shown of Hamas spreading terror.
Talks are underway to establish a multinational force in Gaza after Israel uproots Hamas, two senators confirmed Wednesday, the clearest sign yet that the U.S. and its partners are seriously weighing deploying foreign troops to the enclave.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told POLITICO that there’s early, closed-door diplomacy over establishing a peacekeeping force in Gaza, though it was not likely to include American troops.
[…]
Bloomberg News first reported that the United States and Israel were in discussions about establishing a peacekeeping force to maintain order in the enclave. In a statement to Bloomberg, NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson denied that “sending U.S. troops” to be part of the coalition was under discussion.
Yes. More of this. I’m sick of the omnibus approach to governing. Take each issue as a standalone bill. The war in Ukraine is completely different than that in Israel. Different causes. Different consequences. Different combatants. They should not be linked.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are increasingly split over whether to tie foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel together in one congressional package, revealing the significant hurdles any new military assistance legislation or foreign aid has in Congress.
While there are “lots of things going on around the world,” Johnson said, “what’s happening in Israel takes the immediate attention.”
A top House Republican, Rep. R-Texas, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” he also thought Israel and Ukraine aid should be taken up in separate packages.
“I think what we want to do is really because the need is so urgent now in Israel, is to start with Israel first … as a separate measure,” McCaul said.
After the statement was released, Jewish student groups pushed back and accused them of supporting the Hamas attack. Students in the pro-Palestinian groups have denied those claims and said the statement was misinterpreted.
“This is the most tense campus has ever been by far,” Hejir Rashidzadeh, a Harvard law student, told ABC News.
[…]
Students alleged to be in those student groups are now facing intense backlash on campus and online. Students in pro-Palestinian groups and in the Jewish community at Harvard told ABC News they are feeling scared and isolated.
[…]
“Imagine feeling like the place that you’re from is going to get wiped off the map. I feel certain that in a week I’m going to wake up and it’s going to be that Gaza has been flattened and that there is nothing left. I can’t breathe. I can’t see.”
The Palestinians attacked across the border into Israel. When you are the aggressor, you can’t whine when someone punches back.
Asked by a reporter about graphic photos, Blinken says that what they show is “beyond what anyone would want to imagine. Babies riddled with bullets, young people burned alive… It’s simply depravity in the worst imaginable way.”
He’s then asked about the situation in Gaza.
He repeats a line said by President Biden in his speech earlier this week.
“Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields”, Blinken says, stressing the perspective that Hamas has been intentionally putting civilians in harm’s way.
Around 1,400 have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched retaliatory air strikes.
Blinken says he’s spoken to Israeli officials about options to provide civilians safe passage who want to get out of Gaza.
Personally, this monstrosity has pushed me to the point of “never again.” And to make it never happen again, Hamas, Hezbollah, and anyone who supports them needs to be bulldozed into the sea. The world community is offering a way out for innocents. If they don’t take it, then we have to understand that they support the butchering of babies. To hell with them all. Literally.
This time, we are seeing many people who usually mouth platitudes about restraint and a two-state solution taking a much, much firmer stance against terrorist barbarism. Will it hold? One can hope…
