Search and rescue efforts for those trapped under rubble continue after Israel bombed the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza on December 25, 2023. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images) 'Obscene': Biden Quietly OKs More 2,000-Pound Bombs, Warplanes for Israel "Arming a war criminal makes you a war criminal," one critic admonished the U.S. president. Brett Wilkins Mar 29, 2024 https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-military-aid-to-israel-2667634511 Despite growing worldwide calls for an arms embargo, the Biden administration in recent days has approved the transfer of billions of dollars worth of new weapons shipments to Israel, including warplanes and 2,000-pound bombs that have been dropped on densely populated areas of Gaza with devastating results. The Washington Post reported Friday that the administration has "quietly" authorized arms shipments including more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, as well as 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth approximately $2.5 billion. The transfers are the latest of more than 100 arms shipments authorized by the Biden administration since the October 7 attacks on Israel. "'Quietly,'" Palestinian American writer and political analyst Yousef Munayyer scoffed in response to the report. "This is cowardly from the administration. If you are going to be full backers of genocide, own it. We see you and history sees you as well." "It is scary to think of the world U.S. support for Israel is creating. A world with no rules, no limits in war, where norms don't exist, and where genocide is supportable," he added. "Good luck getting anyone to listen to you about international law after this." Edward Ahmed Mitchell, deputy executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said in a statement: "We strongly condemn the Biden administration's unbelievable and unconscionable decision to secretly send hundreds of new 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons to support Benjamin Netanyahu's genocide. Arming a war criminal makes you a war criminal." According to the Post: The 2,000-pound bombs, capable of leveling city blocks and leaving craters in the earth 40 feet across and larger, are almost never used any more by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties. Israel has used them extensively in Gaza, according to several reports, most notably in the bombing of Gaza's Jabalia refugee camp October 31. U.N. officials decried the strike, which killed more than 100 people, as a "disproportionate attack that could amount to war crimes." Israel defended the bombing, saying it resulted in the death of a Hamas leader. The Biden administration's arms shipments to Israel continue despite urgent pleas from United Nations officials, international human rights groups, and some progressive U.S. lawmakers to stop arming Israel's 175-day Gaza onslaught, during which Israeli bombs and bullets have killed more than 32,600 Palestinians—mostly women and children—while wounding over 75,000 others and damaging or destroying hundreds of thousands of homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, and other structures. The International Court of Justice in January found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered the country to prevent genocidal acts. However, Israel has been accused of ignoring the ICJ order, and amid ongoing atrocities—including the forced starvation of Palestinians—the court on Thursday issued another order demanding that Israel allow desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza. Last December, when the death toll in Gaza stood at approximately 18,000, President Joe Biden implored the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Palestinian civilians in the embattled enclave. However, U.S. support for Israel—which already included nearly $4 billion in annual military aid—has continued unabated, with the Biden administration seeking an additional $14.3 million in armed assistance and repeatedly bypassing Congress to fast-track emergency weapons shipments. "The U.S. cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day and the next send him thousands more 2,000-pound bombs that can level entire city blocks," U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media Friday. "This is obscene. We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel." Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) told the Post that "the Biden administration needs to use their leverage effectively and, in my view, they should receive these basic commitments before greenlighting more bombs for Gaza. We need to back up what we say with what we do." Biden administration officials have claimed they don't have any leverage over Israel, drawing ridicule from observers who point to the indispensable military and diplomatic support the U.S. provides. The staggering death and destruction wrought by Israel's assault on Gaza has drawn criticism from even staunch supporters of the key U.S. ally. Referring to the worsening famine in Gaza—which one U.S. State Department official acknowledged anonymously to Reuters on Friday—New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote on social media: "Really, POTUS? With Gaza facing starvation and Netanyahu defying you over Rafah, you ship billions of dollars in additional weapons to Israel, including 2,000-pound bombs, without end-use restrictions? Bibi is rolling you."
Thank you (ficticious) jesus that when our politicians swear on the bible, they're as corrupt to the eyeballs as anyone who doesn't.
Europe has entered ‘pre-war era’, says Poland’s prime minister By Rob Harris March 30, 2024 https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe...-poland-s-prime-minister-20240330-p5fg8z.html London: Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that Europe has entered a “pre-war era” reminiscent of the late 1930s and says if Ukraine is defeated by Russia, then nobody in Europe will feel safe. Tusk, who previously served as prime minister between 2007 and 2014, used his first foreign interview since his return to office to urge the leaders of his neighbouring countries to do more to bolster their defences. Donald Tusk says “literally any scenario is possible” in Europe because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Credit: AP His comments come amid a fresh barrage of Russian missiles targeting Ukraine, which has intensified its bombardment of several cities, including the capital, Kyiv, in recent weeks. Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 58 drones and 26 missiles, and the government said energy infrastructure had been damaged in six regions, in the west, centre and east of the country. Last week, a Russian missile also entered Polish airspace, prompting Warsaw to activate F-16 fighter jets. A former president of the European Council, Tusk said Russian President Vladimir Putin had already blamed Ukraine for the jihadist attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall without any evidence and “evidently feels the need to justify increasingly violent attacks on civil targets in Ukraine”. “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past,” he said. “It’s real and it started over two years ago.” “I know it sounds devastating, especially to people of the younger generation, but we have to mentally get used to the arrival of a new era ... the pre-war era. I don’t exaggerate. This is becoming more and more apparent every day.” Tusk said regardless of whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump wins November’s US presidential election, Europe would become a more attractive partner to the US if it became more self-sufficient militarily. Sandwiched between Germany and Russia, Poland has long been aware of the importance of strong defence and has spent 4 per cent of its economic output on its military in the past few years. It aims to have the largest army and the biggest fleet of tanks in mainland Europe. Tusk said every other European country should spend 2 per cent of GDP on its own defences. He said since Moscow had launched its full-scale war in Ukraine, relations with the West had reached their lowest ebb since the worst days of the Cold War. Meanwhile, Putin himself said this week that Moscow had “no aggressive intentions” towards NATO countries. He said the idea that his armed forces would attack Poland, the Baltic states and the Czech Republic was “complete nonsense” but added if Ukraine used Western F-16 warplanes from airfields in other countries, they would become “legitimate targets, wherever they might be located”. Appealing for urgent military aid for Ukraine, Tusk warned that the next two years of the war would decide everything and said his European partners had “a long way to go” before they would be ready to resist a direct Russian offensive. “We are living in the most critical moment since the end of the Second World War,” he said, adding: “Literally any scenario is possible”.
In the meantime, smart Biden with GOP's assistance, keep pissing time and money into rightwing shithole Israel, fighting (and stealing land from) Palestinians, Putin and Xi love the distraction.
Biden’s ‘double talk’ on Gaza: Cynical election politics? https://www.aljazeera.com/program/t...double-talk-on-gaza-cynical-election-politics Video Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch, dissects the US president’s ‘classic double talk’ on Israel’s war in Gaza. The Biden administration has fallen into a predictable pattern on Gaza, according to Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: Talk about concern for civilian casualties, but undercut any pressure on Israel to stop the war. Roth tells host Steve Clemons that US President Joe Biden is engaging in “cynical” election politics by refusing to enforce the UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, or the World Court ruling ordering Israel to allow more food into Gaza, where starvation and disease are spreading because of Israeli measures. US disregard for international law will have far-reaching consequences, says Roth.
Asked in an interview with Radio Kol Berama whether an atomic bomb should be dropped on the enclave, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu says “this is one of the possibilities.” Eliyahu, of Itamar Ben Gvir’s Jewish supremacist political party, stated further that “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza,” and that, therefore, no humanitarian aid should be allowed into the besieged enclave. He also expressed his support for depopulating Gaza and reconquering it to reestablish Jewish settlements there. Regarding the Palestinian population, he says: “They can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves.” He says anyone waving a Palestinian or Hamas flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth.”
For your weekly quiz. Name the country in the past week which has killed and imprisoned more Palestinians than Israel. Pro-Hamas riots erupt in Jordan causing inner divisions to resurface Inner divisions in Jordan resurface following weeks of pro-Hamas riots against security forces and arrests of Muslim Brotherhood activists. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/p...n-causing-inner-divisions-to-resurface-794469
Gaza war evokes Vietnam's own struggle, past unity with Palestine Vietnam sees rare political activism in support of Palestinians as war on Gaza recalls once-shared solidarity in fight for national liberation. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat inspects an honour guard with Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong in Hanoi in 1999 [File: AFP] By Hai Dang 30 Mar 2024 https://www.aljazeera.com/features/...iberation-struggle-once-shared-with-palestine Hanoi, Vietnam - At a private venue tucked away in a narrow alley in Hanoi's city centre, a group of more than 20 people listened attentively to Saleem Hammad, a charismatic, 30-year-old Palestinian man, as he spoke in fluent Vietnamese. Hammad, who runs a business in Vietnam, shared an incident from his childhood in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Those present listened as he recounted a vivid memory of being awoken one night as Israeli soldiers surrounded and raided his family home. Earlier, he had told those attending the discussion that Vietnam’s history of fighting for liberation against the United States had inspired Palestinians in their struggle against Israel’s occupation of their lands. "Vietnamese people, with their painful and glorious history, have always been the source of inspiration for the Palestinians in our struggle for justice,” Hammad told his audience. “We always look up to you as the role model.” Horrified by Israel’s war on Gaza and the spiralling death toll, primarily young Vietnamese people have begun to raise their voices in support of Palestinians. In the process, they are discovering historical ties between Vietnam and Palestine and their shared fights for national liberation. But the decades-old relationship between the two nations has been overshadowed by more recent promotion of Israel’s business culture to a younger generation of Vietnamese. Focused on achieving success in Vietnam’s fast-growing free market economy, many have been inspired by Israel's startup business culture while knowing little about the darker side of Israel's success in terms of its long occupation of Palestinian land...... Continues......
Let's take a look at the primary causes for hunger in Gaza as Hamas and Clans steal food and repress the population while Israel kills terrorists adding to the chaos. Gazans Go Hungry as Hamas, Israel and Clans Battle for Control https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-as-hamas-israel-and-clans-battle-for-control