Biden discards temporary spine
Becomes spineless again for Israel
Last week, President Biden appeared to have strapped on a temporary spine in delaying shipments of “offensive” weaponry to Israel for its murderous invasion of Rafah in Gaza.
That spine had a short duration as Biden announced yesterday renewed shipments of tank and mortar rounds to Israel. Here’s the Washington Post article:
The Biden administration informally notified congressional committees Tuesday that it planned to move forward with more than $1 billion in weapons deals for Israel, said U.S. officials familiar with the matter, a major transfer of lethal aid that comes a week after the White House paused a single shipment of bombs because of concerns that a planned assault in southern Gaza could cause immense civilian casualties.
The arms deals allow for the potential transfer of $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The decision underscores the administration’s reluctance to defy pro-Israel donors in the Democratic Party who criticized Biden’s decision last week to withhold the shipment, which included controversial 2,000-pound bombs that have been involved in mass casualty events in Gaza.
“Mass casualty events”: you mean the murder and wounding of more than 120,000 Palestinians in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza?
It looks like “pro-Israel donors in the Democratic Party” are the real rulers here, not President Biden. They are the ones making the decisions for the country. I’m not saying that: The Washington Post is. Kudos to them for telling us who really rules America.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to level neighborhoods in Gaza while starving the people there. As near as I can tell, the Biden administration heartily approves of this. The only thing Biden is against is dropping 2000-pound bombs in Rafah, mainly because it looks bad and can’t be sold as “precise” by idiot U.S. media spin-masters.
Of course, most Republicans are even more fervid in their bloodthirsty support of Israel. Both parties are so thoroughly corrupted, so morally compromised, that Americans should and must find a way to elect new people.
Together, America’s uniparty has a clear message to Israel: Go ahead and ethnically cleanse Gaza, just don’t do it too fast.
(My thanks to Ray for sending the link to the WP article.)
I think Biden's "reversal" is not that at all. It shows that His "red line" was theatrical not ethical.
I think Israel is effectively destroying its future. Nobody approves of ethnic cleansing and the only thing that has allowed Israel to do it with impunity is the protection of the US. Now with this blatant slaughter in Gaza any sympathy provided by the holocaust is exhausted and everyone now alive above the age of 15 will have the images of Gaza in their heads for a lifetime, not least the Gazans and the entire Arab world. The UN every year has tried to sanction Israel and get it to give up the occupied territories and every year the US has vetoed it. What an awful indelible record of injustice.
I read Haaretz every day and I am impressed by the fact that the comments on the articles there are overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian, many of those commenting saying that they are Jews. Israel is eagerly destroying its successful image building campaign to reveal the heart of the project. The whole world is repulsed. 38 members of Congress voted against sending the last batch of weapons to Israel. 38 members when not long ago one couldn't find a single vote against anything that wasn't beneficial to Israel. Congress is taking heat for the first time over Israel. That is something for this septuagenarian to see.
The jig is up and the US is embarrassed almost every day for what it is doing that has nothing to do with liberty and justice for all. If I had to bet on the money from billionaires or the protesters I would bet on the protesters, growing in number all the time. Israel's supporters in the US sound ever more frantic and deranged (Ben Shapiro, Bill Ackman and Alan Dershowitz) defending the indefensible. The exposure of Zionism is the one area of world affairs where I am optimistic, but there will be plenty more blood spilled and lots of big donor money spent before an accommodation is reached. A bonus to all this tragedy is that the corruption of the US political system is laid bare alongside the ideology of Zionism that the corruption supports.