Inside the Washington Blob There Is No Strategic Vision

At a recent seminar sponsored by the two primary Washington think tanks, one American and another European, the subject of the war in Ukraine was discussed, as was how two upcoming significant elections in the European Parliament in June and the U.S. President in November might affect Western support for Ukraine and thus the course of the war.

The questions proposed for discussion were: What is public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic during these critical elections? Are Americans souring on the war? Are Europeans prepared to take the slack if the United States leaves the field? What will it take for both European and American leaders to continue supporting Ukraine?

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Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes

A doctor at an Israeli field hospital inside a notorious detention center where hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are temporarily held is sounding the alarm about torture and horrific conditions at what some human rights defenders – including Israelis – are calling “Israel’s Guantánamo Bay” and even a “concentration camp.”

In a letter to Israel’s attorney general and defense and health ministers viewed by Haaretz – which reported the story Thursday – the anonymous physician describes likely war crimes being committed at the Israel Defense Forces’ Sde Teiman base near Beersheva. Palestinian militants captured by IDF troops, as well as many civilian hostages ranging in age from teenagers to septuagenarians, are held there in cages, 70-100 per cage, until they are transferred to regular Israeli prisons or released.

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Dennis Kucinich: The US Engineered a Coup To Drag Ukraine Into a Conflict

In this April 2, 2024 interview with Judge Napolitano, Dennis Kucinich says: “What’s happened is that the U.S. State Department and U.S. Government basically engineered a coup in Ukraine and used that to drag Ukraine into a conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas and ignited this war which Russia has been horrible in the way they have come in and attacked. There’s been six hundred thousand people, the flower of Ukraine, who have been killed. This thing is heartbreaking.

But we cannot ignore the role that the U.S. has played in helping to impel it, and we cannot ignore the fact that, as you point out, there was a chance to resolve this two years ago.”  (He’s referring to how in March of 2022 the U.S. forced the Zelensky government to step back from a peace deal that was being negotiated with Russia.)

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US Complicity in Israel’s War Crimes Takes Another Step

The Biden administration continues to act contrary to logic and humane values in response to Israel’s war policies. Despite overwhelming evidence of Israel’s war crimes and acts that constitute genocide, the administration plies the right-wing Israeli government with more weapons. The latest arms package being prepared by the administration will reportedly be the largest since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Valued at around $18 billion, it will include 50 F-15 fighter jets and precision-guided munitions kits as well as more 2000- and 500-pound bombs.

Many critics, including some within the administration itself, have pointed with alarm to the obvious contradiction in US policy between supporting negotiations on a cease-fire and hostage release on one hand, and continuing to ship non-defensive weapons to Israel on the other. The contradiction applies not just to the immediate situation in Israel but also to overall US policy on the abuse of military aid – NSM 20 – which specifies that arms recipients must adhere to international and American law. Israel, while giving assurances about its use of US weapons, has violated US policy guidelines in numerous ways – for instance, bombing hospitals and other civilian targets with US bombs, and using US-supplied white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas of Gaza.

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80+ Groups Urge Biden to ‘Reverse Course Before Thousands More Die’ in Gaza

More than 80 U.S. Muslim, Palestinian, and allied groups on Wednesday implored President Joe Biden to pursue a “concrete change in policy” that includes the suspension of arms transfers to Israel as it wages a genocidal war on Gaza.

“The National Security Memorandum on Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense Services prohibits our government from transferring arms to nations that violate international law or obstruct U.S. humanitarian aid,” the groups wrote in a letter to the U.S. president. “Furthermore, the Leahy Law forbids our government from providing military assistance to military units in foreign nations involved in human rights abuses.

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