Its actually going to help Ukraine as Biden is tying Ukraine aid to Israel aid.Ukraine is about to get one of their biggest aid packages yet due to Israel.
Israel Finds Itself Increasingly Alone as Fury Grows Over Gaza Ethan Bronner, Bloomberg News An Israeli man wearing a prayer shawl prays beside houses destroyed during fighting with Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, on Oct. 22. Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg , Bloomberg Smoke rises over the northern Gaza strip following an Israeli strike, on Oct. 25.Photographer: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images By Ethan Bronner 26 October 2023 (Bloomberg) -- Jordan’s Queen Rania Al Abdullah was offered a chance to express horror at the Oct. 7 Hamas killing and abduction of Israelis. How did she feel, she was asked in a CNN interview, “as an Arab, as a Palestinian, a human being, a mother?” The monarch launched into an impassioned denunciation of Israel’s subsequent bombing of Gaza and the West’s “double standard,” juxtaposing what happened in southern Israel with what is occurring in Gaza. “Are we being told it is wrong to kill an entire family at gunpoint but it’s OK to shell them to death?” The interview, greeted with fury in Israel, is part of a growing disconnect between how the Jewish state views the conflict, and how it is seen by the rest of the Middle East and many further afield. Inside Israel, a powerful sense of foreboding was evidenced by a new poll showing 64% of Israelis now fear for their physical safety. Hamas continues to fire rockets and missiles into the country every day while militants try to sneak in via land or sea. Security officials believe some of those who entered on Oct. 7 may be in hiding in preparation for a second attack. Outside of Israel, many see things differently. On Tuesday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said of the Hamas killings that they “did not happen in a vacuum,” adding, “The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, was so outraged at the notion that Hamas’ violence needed this context that he called on Guterres to resign. The sentiment wasn’t limited to those on the right of Israeli politics. “Dark are the days when the United Nations Secretary General condones terror,” opposition leader Benny Gantz posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Germany, which has been quick to show its support to Israel in the days since the Oct. 7 attacks, made a point of rejecting its ally’s demand. “The UN secretary general has of course the trust of the German government,” said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit in Berlin. Israelis don’t deny that the events of Oct. 7 — when 1,400 were killed and another 200 people abducted — require context. But for them, that context is not the mistreatment of Palestinians. They see the attack by Hamas as an extension of anti-Semitic assaults through the centuries. The Holocaust memorial centre in Jerusalem, known as Yad Vashem, issued a statement in response to Guterres, saying Oct. 7 was different from the Holocaust only “because Jews have today a state and an army. We are not defenseless and at the mercy of others. However, it puts to test the sincerity of world leaders, intellectuals and influencers who come to Yad Vashem and pledge ‘Never Again.’” There has been a parade of Western leaders through Tel Aviv offering solidarity and support. This follows a visit by President Joe Biden who came offering billions in military aid and referred to painful Jewish history. After that visit, Israelis felt understood. They believed that their plan to destroy Hamas would gain world sympathy as they publicized gruesome videos the killers themselves took of slaughter and abuse. As Israeli fighter jets took to the skies over Gaza and bombarded it, killing thousands, that sympathy has come with qualifications they did not expect. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday canceled a visit to Israel that was meant to take place later this year and added, “Hamas isn’t a terror organization but is instead a group of liberators and mujahideen defending their land and people. We will never allow for the killing of children.” Turkey also paused plans for energy cooperation with Israel. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that no Muslim leader expects the events in Gaza to be resolved easily. Why? “Israel has become too arrogant with the support of the US and Europe,” he said. “It is the level of insanity to allow people to be butchered, babies to be killed, hospitals to be bombed, and schools to be destroyed. It is the height of barbarism in this world.” Israel refers to Hamas as the new ISIS, and has vowed to destroy the militant group, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union. “Saying that Hamas is the new ISIS is not only analytically inaccurate but also carries the risk of making all residents of Gaza vulnerable targets,” said Lina Khatib, the Director of the SOAS Middle East Institute in London. “Arabs and Muslims are widely rejecting this simplistic and dangerous characterization.” Many world leaders are calling for a ceasefire that would allow for more aid to get into Gaza, although some describe it as a “humanitarian pause.” On Tuesday, eight trucks got in, followed by another 17 on Wednesday, according to Israeli officials, who said every truck was checked by their officers to make sure nothing was going in to help Hamas. The aid that’s arrived so far is “a drop in the ocean,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, earlier this week. In Israel, as concerns grow that Hezbollah may enter the war from Lebanon to its north, some speak of leaving for the US or Europe, at least for a period. But others say the anti-Israeli demonstrations across Western cities make them feel even less safe abroad than at home. This is a fight, many say, for the Jewish homeland, a second war of independence. But what that will create internally remains unclear. Gun license applications, officials report, are poised to triple. Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh was taken captive by Hamas at a music festival, spoke at the UN and asked why there wasn’t more agitation over the abducted. “Where is the world?” she said in anguish. “Where are you?” --With assistance from Sam Dagher and Gina Turner. ©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Queen Rania of Jordan accuses West of ‘glaring double standard’ as the death toll rises in besieged Gaza By Sana Noor Haq and Claire Calzonetti, CNN Wed October 25, 2023 CNN — https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/24/middleeast/queen-rania-jordan-amanpour-interview-intl/index.html Queen Rania of Jordan has accused Western leaders of a “glaring double standard” for failing to condemn the deaths of civilians under Israeli bombardment in Gaza, as Israel’s war on Hamas threatens to destabilize relations between US and Arab leaders. Speaking to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview, Rania said, “The people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, we are just shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen a glaring double standard in the world.” “When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened … but what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world,” she told CNN. Israel declared a “complete siege” on Gaza following the October 7 terror attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave, that killed more than 1,400 people and saw over 200 taken hostage, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The siege has resulted in relentless airstrikes on densely-inhabited Gaza, and a blockade on vital supplies – including food and water – to the isolated strip’s entire population. “This is the first time in modern history that there is such human suffering and the world is not even calling for a ceasefire,” Queen Rania added. “So the silence is deafening – and to many in our region, it makes the Western world complicit.” “Are we being told that it is wrong to kill a family, an entire family, at gunpoint, but it’s OK to shell them to death? I mean, there is a glaring double standard here,” she said. “It is just shocking to the Arab world.” Latest figures from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza put the death toll from Israeli strikes at more than 5,000, including more than 2,000 children. At least 35 UN workers have also been killed. Israel says that it is targeting Hamas terrorists, and has blamed the group for hiding behind civilian infrastructure. The United Nations and several aid agencies are calling urgently for a ceasefire and for the free movement of humanitarian aid to the increasingly desperate population. Doctors working in the isolated enclave meanwhile warn that power shortages threaten the lives of their most vulnerable patients, including the critically injured and premature infants in need of incubators. “As a mom, we’ve seen Palestinian mothers who have to write the names of their children on their hands – because the chances of them being shelled to death, of their bodies turning into corpses are so high,” Rania said. “I just want to remind the world that Palestinian mothers love their children just as much as any other mother in the world.” Growing frustration with the West Arab leaders have voiced frustration with the perceived unwillingness by the US to try to curb Israel’s siege; Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority pulled out of a planned summit in Jordan with US President Joe Biden last week. Washington, a close ally of Israel, has remained steadfast in its support of the retaliation on Gaza by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has rebutted calls for a ceasefire. “We’re not talking about a ceasefire right now,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN on Monday. “In fact, we don’t believe that this is the time for a ceasefire. Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership, we’re going to keep supporting them or giving them more security assistance.” Speaking in the UN Security Council on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, saying that “humanitarian pauses” should be considered, but notably avoided the phrase “ceasefire.” However, the US vetoed last week a Security Council proposal for a humanitarian pause in the bloodshed, criticizing the draft resolution for failing to mention Israel’s right to self-defense. The United Kingdom also refused to endorse the resolution. An earlier Russian ceasefire proposal similarly failed. Israel is committing “crimes against humanity” in its current campaign, nine independent experts working with the UN said in a joint statement on Thursday. The “unspeakably cruel” blockade on Gaza, coupled with “forcible population transfers” is in violation of international and criminal law, the experts added. Former Israeli hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin has meanwhile warned that the crisis should be a “wake-up call” for both Israelis and Palestinians and called for a change in leadership on both sides. Baskin, an Israeli citizen, played a key role in the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured and imprisoned by Hamas from 2006 to 2011. Baskin is the author of “The Negotiator: Freeing Gilad Schalit from Hamas,” and he is now in touch with both the Israeli and Hamas leadership in an unofficial capacity. “It should be no surprise to anyone that we’ve arrived at such a horrific situation,” he told Amanpour in a separate interview on Tuesday. “It has to be a wake-up call for Israel that you cannot keep another people occupied for 56 years and expect to have peace. You can’t lock two million people in an open-air prison and expect there to be quiet.” “And for the Palestinians, it should be a wake-up call that if you support radical fanatic leaders and refuse to recognize the other people living in your land as having the same rights that you do, then you’re going to suffer this,” he added, speaking from Jerusalem. “[These are] the most traumatic events for Israel and Palestine since 1948.” A growing crisis and fears of displacement Fears are growing that the conflict could spill into neighboring countries in the Middle East, as Israel urges civilians in the northern part of Gaza to relocate south ahead of an anticipated ground operation. Forcing Gaza civilians to relocate amounts “to the war crime of forcible transfer,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said. And Jordanian and Egyptian leaders have raised concerns that millions of Palestinians could eventually be pushed out of Gaza and the occupied West Bank and into Egypt and Jordan, respectively, saying such a move could plunge the region into war. Jordan’s King Abdullah warned last week that the displacement of Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt would be a “red line,” and said neither Jordan nor Egypt would accept refugees from Gaza. He said that any suggestion of the two countries taking in fleeing Gazans was a plan “by the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground,” suggesting that the refugees may not be allowed to return to their homes. Asked by Amanpour about her husband’s position, Queen Rania said the people of Gaza face “two choices.” “Essentially they’re given a choice between expulsion or extermination, between ethnic cleansing and genocide. And no people should be given, [should] have to face, that kind of choice. The people of Palestine should not, [the people] of Gaza should not, be forced to be moved again,” she said. More than half of Gaza’s population are refugees whose ancestors fled or were expelled from their homes in present-day Israel by armed Jewish groups during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which Palestinians call the Nakba or “the catastrophe.” Israel has never allowed them to return to their homes and many have lived in poverty ever since. The queen also emphasized that the conflict in the Middle East did not begin on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, highlighting the history of Israel’s occupation and the displacement of Palestinians. “Most networks are covering the story under the title of ‘Israel at war.’ But for many Palestinians on the other side of the separation wall, on the other side of the barbed wire, war has never left,” she said. “This is a 75-year-old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people. It is a story of an occupation under apartheid regime, that occupies lands, that demolishes houses, confiscates lands, military incursions, night raids.” Jordanians gather during a pro-Palestine protest in Amman, on October 20, to express solidarity with civilians in Gaza. Alaa Al Sukhni/Reuters Pro-Palestine demonstrators chant slogans near the Israeli Embassy in Amman, on Friday. Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images Even before the war with Hamas, tensions were high between Palestinians and Israelis in the occupied West Bank. Following a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last year, Israel launched regular incursions and raids into the occupied West Bank targeting what they said were militant strongholds. The resulting violence left a record number of both Palestinians and Israelis dead, numbers not seen in at least a decade. Since Israel took control and occupied the West Bank in 1967 from Jordan following the Six Day War, large swaths of the territory, which residents hope will form part of a future Palestinian state, has been settled by Israeli civilians, often under military protection. Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law. Protesters in parts of the Arab world have flooded the streets in recent days to show support for Palestinians under the Israeli siege and bombardment. About 6,000 demonstrators marched in Amman in support of Palestinians on Friday. A two-state solution to establish a “free, sovereign and independent” Palestine is the only path to peace in the region, Rania told CNN. “There can never be a resolution except around a negotiating table … there is only one path to this, and that is a free, sovereign, and independent Palestinian state, living side by side, in peace and security, with the state of Israel.” CNN’s Alaa Elassar, DJ Judd, James Frater, Tim Lister, Lauren Kent and Amy Cassidy contributed reporting.
As I mentioned earlier, Biden thinks its a good idea supporting Israel and entering Americans into a fight in a pig pen.
I don't recall what Hamas was like in 2006 but essentially, yes... Remember, that's just among the eligible to vote. The median age in Gaza today is 18 from what I read, more than half the population was not even alive in 2006. So, if you want to apply sound statistical analysis of how past support for Hamas among folks back then relates to support today then you need to either dig deeper or be careful with quick conclusions... The fact that those Palestinian women are in the literal sense baby making machines tells me that Israel will never allow vetted Palestinians to coexist and live among Jews in Israel proper. Very soon the majority of the israeli population would be Arab as well.
Portugal backs UN in bitter feud with Israel, which vowed to ‘teach them a lesson’ Top United Nations official is embroiled in an escalating dispute with Israel over his position on the Israel-Hamas war. Israel has denied a visa to U.N. Under Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, following Guterres' comments on the conflict with Hamas | Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images By Claudia Chiappa and Nicolas Camut October 25, 2023 https://www.politico.eu/article/isr...in-griffiths-antonio-guterres-hamas-conflict/ Portugal’s Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho on Wednesday said his government supported António Guterres’ position on the Israel-Hamas war, amid an escalating dispute between the United Nations secretary-general and Israeli authorities. “We fully understand and follow the position of António Guterres, who was unequivocal when he condemned Hamas terrorism,” Gomes Cravinho told Portuguese newswire Lusa. “There is no way to say that António Guterres is in any way excusing terrorism.” The Portuguese foreign minister also dismissed Israel’s calls for Guterres — who is Portuguese — to resign. Guterres also received Germany’s support, with a spokesperson for the government in Berlin saying on Wednesday it had confidence in the U.N. chief, according to Reuters. On Tuesday, Guterres said during a Security Council meeting that the violent Hamas attack against Israel on October 7 “did not happen in a vacuum,” triggering furious reactions from Israel. In response, Israel’s U.N. ambassador Gilad Erdan told Israeli radio on Wednesday morning that the country has denied a visa to U.N. Under Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, following Guterres’ comments. “Due to his remarks we will refuse to issue visas to U.N. representatives … The time has come to teach them a lesson,” Erdan told Army Radio, reported Times of Israel. Guterres followed up in the early hours of Wednesday morning, saying that the “horrendous attacks” by Hamas “cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Guterres’ initial “vacuum” remarks were slammed by Erdan, who said “the Secretary-General is completely disconnected from the reality in our region” and called for his resignation. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also announced he would no longer meet with Guterres. Some top Western officials have been appealing to Israel to mitigate its response against civilians in Gaza, a coastal strip of land where more than two million Palestinians live and where Hamas militants are in control. Following Hamas’ deadly attack in early October, which killed more than 1,400 people, Israel has carried out relentless retaliatory airstrikes and put the Gaza Strip under a “complete siege,” cutting off fuel, electricity and water, and killing more than 6,500 people.