Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
Another “emergency” shipment of arms to Israel: What a way to end the year! First, the Biden administration sent $106 million in tank shells to Israel without Congressional approval. Now, the government is sending $147.5 million in fuses, charges, etc. to Israel for 155mm artillery shells, also without Congressional approval. Mind you, Hamas doesn’t have tanks or heavy artillery, so these shipments aren’t for “defense.” Tank and artillery shells are really for one thing: urban destruction. Artillery is the very definition of an area weapon, i.e. imprecise. Yet, even as the Biden administration sends this weaponry to Israel, which will enable more killing on a mass scale, it expresses concern that Israel is ethnically cleansing too fast, killing too many innocent civilians too quickly.
You can’t have it both ways, obviously. You can’t send heavy calibre weaponry to Israel and then complain when they use it. And to justify this aid as an “emergency” for America’s national defense interests! If democratic processes can be bypassed simply by declaring an emergency that clearly doesn’t exist, there is no democracy. Thanks for making that obvious, Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, Gaza continues to be pounded into rubble. Casualties there will soon exceed 100,000 as nearly half a million Palestinians begin to starve. The Israeli/US end game is clear: render Gaza uninhabitable, forcing the Palestinians to make a choice: leave or die.
The two self-declared democracies of Israel and the USA are combining to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians with the goal of incorporating its territory into Israel. Now I know why the world hates us: for our freedoms, right?
How can Israel commit such a crime? I suggest you watch the interview below with Gideon Levy, who explains it plainly and succinctly. As he notes:
- Israeli Jews generally believe they are God’s Chosen People.
- Israeli Jews generally believe they are the real victims here (the Holocaust; Hamas attacks).
- Palestinians have been dehumanized as barbarians, as worse than animals.
The Chosen People, the eternal victims, are tired of the beasts in Gaza and are getting rid of them, one way or another.
“We [Israelis] live in denial,” Levy says. Ignorance is combined with nationalism. Most Israelis simply don’t want to know what their government is doing in their name. To that end, media coverage in Israel is entirely one sided; the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza is almost never shown. The only people who suffer are Jews.
To Israelis, life is precious and dear; but Israel acts to show Palestinians their lives are cheap. Gaza, Levy says, was a “cage” for the Palestinians living there; Israel has now decided to empty that cage.
Levy has no illusions about the nature of the Israeli government under Bibi Netanyahu, which he calls a brutal dictatorship. And, if we accept him at his word, for he is an Israeli Jew who knows his country, America is aiding a brutal dictatorship in its goal of clearing the Gaza ghetto irrespective of the cost in lives of innocents.
What does that make the Biden administration? What does that make us?
Note: the video link below contains a warning about graphic material. It’s apparently designed to discourage viewing. There is nothing “graphic” about this video except the truths that Levy speaks.
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views
Biden is arming Israel to the teeth to commit genocide in Gaza. He says Israel has the right to defend itself, he is denying Palestinians that same right.
I watched Pro Palestine Protests on You Tube and people chanted: “From The ‘River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” and “From The Sea To The River, Palestine Will Live Forever” and “Free, Free Palestine” and “Biden, Biden, You Can’t Hide, We Charge You With Genocide”.
Biden is single handedly ruining the chances for election victory for democrats running for office in 2024. He is not the only politicians going down. Such a stupid person.
Right on!!!! Complicite!
“Most Israelis simply don’t want to know what their government is doing in their name. ” They DO know. All they have to do is turn on their TV, while having tea, enjoying their carefree lives, as if watching a war movie. They DO KNOW.
Actually , it is already US US Federal Law/Congressional statute that the USA will resupply any and all ammo and equipment that Israel uses or asks for (free of charge of course). The US maintains several huge ammo dumps/supply installations in Israel for this purpose. Recent shipments have been both to supply the IDF and to keep those bunkers filled.
Which law would that be?
12-150 , Public Law 113–296, and 22 USC 93
“12-150” is a range of numbers.
Neither Public Law 113-296 nor 22 USC 93 says anything resembling “the USA will resupply any and all ammo and equipment that Israel uses or asks for (free of charge of course).”
I suggest reading up on the MDA (Missile Defense Agency” and realize what that funding means and the wording of the those laws to cover other “ammo expenses”.
I am 20 years out the gov and 10 years past studying the chit.
I can’t help you further with debating (ZOG),
so to speak.😎 Regards to you and/as Mod
I can read up on the MDA all I want and not find anything saying that Israel gets what it wants whenever it wants it.
That may be the OUTCOME of the requirement that the US ensure a “qualitative military edge” to Israel, but it’s not the legally prescribed process.
Like cats in a litter box, these people cover their shit up at least a little.
It was a choreographed scene starring the US president and First Lady that was meant to convey the restorative spirit of the festive season.
Last week, Joe and Jill Biden emerged from behind a black curtain like giddy celebrities and took their red seats before a large Christmas tree brimming with decorations and gifts at the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC….
Their excited audience included a gaggle of young patients and their parents anxious to see the commander-in-chief and his wife who would read aloud the popular poem, The Night Before Christmas.
“Thanks for letting us come to see you,” President Biden said.
Indeed, every First Lady beginning with Bess Truman – 75 years ago – has made the annual pilgrimage to the children’s hospital “to spread holiday cheer”. In 2022, Biden became the first sitting president to tag along.
A frail-looking but animated Biden winked, waved and smiled as the First Lady read from the picture book, holding it aloft.
When the First Lady finished, Biden thanked the hospital staff. “It’s special, special what you do.”
He had this parting advice: “Where there is life, there is hope.”..
Instead of using his powers and influence to try to stop the maiming and killing of thousands of Palestinian children, Biden has, in odious effect, encouraged the maiming and killing of thousands of Palestinian children.
In occupied Palestine, Biden is not a harbinger of “joy”, but the co-architect of the dystopian carnage engulfing a shattered people and their shattered land.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/31/i-dont-care-who-wins-the-us-presidential-election