Biden says US won't supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah, in warning to ally
Biden says US won't supply weapons for Israel to attack Rafah, in warning to ally
Same interview.. “US is committed to Israel’s defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive arms, but that if Israel goes into Rafah, we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells used”. Defense secretary Austin Lloyd reiterated that same point
Ok, good? All you can do with Iron Dome is shoot down mortar rounds and slower-moving rockets (and maybe drones?) - it really only works for defense. I don't see the problem.
In general I love the idea of the US moving more and more towards only supplying defensive munitions to countries (such as the long list of really fucked up countries we deal arms to that would surprise most people).
We could always take special action to supply offensive arms in response to justified conflicts such as in Ukraine, but let's not let authoritarians build up a stockpile of offensive capabilities from US sweat during times of peace. That's a recipe for less peace.
But by all means we should let allies buy as much defensive capabilities as they desire.
Being an ally to the US should be more associated with the benefits of protection from bullies than capacity to bully.
(And most important IMO is that we don't allow selling tech officially or privately by US corporations to enable authoritarians to abuse their own citizens. Something we very much do and I really wish we didn't.)
I'm fine with this model. Defend them from attacks, but don't help them offensively. And leverage our defensive aid to strongarm them into not being genocidal.
US worded its statements carefully. They'll still provide support for all the other parts of Israel's military operations, just not for the Rafah invasion. Israel is free to shuffle things around so that it won't make a difference.
This is a good move. He's doing what he can to temper Netanyahu's attempts at genocide, while still protecting Israel.
I just hope it's enough to stop the killings. That monster will sacrifice every man, woman and child to stay in power (and out of prison).
Just like all the other things Biden has done in this conflict, this is merely a symbolic gesture to say "don't blame us if Israel flattens Rafah".
The US has already provided huge amounts of unconditional military aid to Israel, and remains committed to continuing to do so. So Israel is free to shuffle around their ample resources internally to reach the same outcome.
don't blame us if Israel flattens Rafah
Yeah, that's literally the point. Biden is being blamed for the genocide up to now, so he's literally saying not to blame him if they flatten Rafah.
Not sure why that's supposed to be a gotcha...
Yeah, israel already has all it needs to carry out this mission. It remains to be seen if this action now will do anything, but given past actions by the US, I'm afraid it won't go far enough to stop israel.
um, didn't the supply already happen?
AFAIK Other stuff has gone forward but they're specifically holding back the large bombs that caused so much death in the rest of Gaza.
Now though we have the problem of Israel holding all but one border crossing closed. (Unless they've reopened some in the last 24 hours) Aid is not getting through at all right now. The single border crossing is in the North of Gaza where they're already in a Famine. The With now has no aid access by ground. It's all ship stuff, but the ground access is actually far better. There's also the problem that Israel will not let aid groups import fuel and with the borders closed they can't drive trucks in to unload the ships.
So the new position has to be either Israel lets aid in or the US steps out of the way in the UN security council.
No, those had a sticky note on them that specifically said, "not for usse in rafah".
Agent Provacateurs Left Confused After Biden Does What They Want - "How do we make Biden look bad now?"
Despite the pause, the Israeli military has enough weapons supplied by the U.S. and other partners to conduct the Rafah operation if it chooses to cast aside U.S. objections, the first official said.
He added that none of the pauses apply to the billions of dollars in additional israel aid passed by Congress last month. With regards to that, the Biden administration just approved $827 million worth of weapons and equipment for Israel in the latest tranche of Foreign Military Financing, the official said.
Take it with a grain of salt. A good first step however.
This should have been the move on day 10 of the invasion. And a white house insisting on peace negotiations and the release of hostages on both sides. He would have instantly been viewed favorably on this issue and likely wouldn't have tanked his polling.
He would have instantly been viewed favorably on this issue and likely wouldn’t have tanked his polling.
Israel is committing a genocide, to be clear. The moral thing is to, at minimum, stop supporting their genocide. But that's not the same as saying that the Palestinian genocide is what brought Biden's poll numbers down, or that it's a silver bullet (or even an unambiguous net gain) electorally speaking.
Most Americans are either in support or ambivalent towards Israel in this conflict.
This either isn't true or is only true when you're including Republicans, whose opinions are irrelevant to Biden's reelection. Dem/Lean Dem oppose Israel's conduct 52-22, while Rep/Lean Rep support it 59-17 (they love blowing up Arabs).
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not supply offensive weapons that Israel could use to launch an all-out assault on Rafah — the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza — over concern for the well-being of the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there.
It also comes as the Biden administration is due to deliver a first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on delivery of aid have violated international and U.S. laws designed to spare civilians from the worst horrors of war.
Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance as Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House.
The decision also drew a sharp rebuke from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who said they only learned about the military aid holdup from press reports, despite assurances from the Biden administration that no such pauses were in the works.
“If we stop weapons necessary to destroy the enemies of the state of Israel at a time of great peril, we will pay a price,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., his voice rising in anger during an exchange with Austin.
The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.
The original article contains 1,417 words, the summary contains 245 words. Saved 83%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So, since they're attacking Rafah right now, that means you're going to stop giving them weapons right now, right? Right?
Literally yes. There was a weapon shipment of bombs that was scheduled last week and they withheld them.
Biden’s comments and his decision last week to pause a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel are the most striking manifestations of the growing daylight between his administration and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Biden has said that Israel needs to do far more to protect the lives of civilians in Gaza.
The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs and 1,700 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs, according to a senior U.S. administration official
Now make them stop.
Riiiiight I'll believe it when the weapon shipments actually stop.
Proof that protest works.
Go ahead, downvote because you’re mad that I’m right.
Upvoted because I'm happy you're right. Biden will lose to the orange criminal if he doesn't stand up and stop money and weapons to Israel. America is fucked if it keeps supporting Israel.
I think you're overestimating how many voters are deeply against Israel's assault on Palestine, while also underestimating the ability of those virtuous people to understand the landslide of harmful outcomes that would come with another trump presidency.
Protesters vote…
Well some protests. Did anything really happen at all after the BLM protests? Cops are still able to get away with murder and have very little oversight.
The BLM protests did work, they exposed that the US is a violent police state where voting doesn’t actually do anything to change whether we live in a violent police state because both the Republicans and centrist Democrats will collaborate as much as needed to betray their voters in order to sustain the system of policing and prisons.
The fact that in the wake of George Floyd a lot of cities and municipalities actually went more draconian with their policing laws in backlash is only an indicator of a failure of the BLM protests if you don’t look closer, step closer and you see the truth is far scarier, the BLM protests did massively change the psyche of America, it’s just that actually has no effect upon policy making because democracy is so broken in the US to the extreme point where many city governments chose to actively do their opposite of the will of the people as a show of force and a chilling warning to leftists.
It depends on what kind of effect you're expecting. Did the US state and federal governments suddenly defund the police and start sending reparations to black Americans? No, not exactly. But Derek Chauvin was convicted and sent to prison for 20+ years. Different municipalities did reform their police departments and even implemented things like unarmed crisis response units. BLM has helped introduce policy discussions that would not otherwise be on the table.
The effects of a protest aren't always direct or immediate, their benefit is as much about changing the national narrative on any given issue than it is just achieving a primary goal by the time the protesrs end, and also it's a way to learn what's effective and what's not.
For example, part of why these recent protests were effective and why they illicited such a desperate response from authorities and the media is because the young people looked at the failed tactics from protests like the Occupy movement and adapted.
One if the weaknesses of Occupy was that there was no unified voice, instead the media would walk up and find some random individual, get them to make some unflattering soundbyte and then put that on blast on their networks. By contrast, the students anti-genocide protests designated a spokes person, and when the media approached random protestors they would just direct the media to that spokes person.
It's really smart and that kind of tactical refinement is arguably a result of the failures of Occupy. It made it difficult for the media to fool the public as to what these protests are really about, and you see that born out in people's growing awareness of how fucked up the situation in Gaza not only is right now, but has been for decades.
Protesting and social justice is iterative and experimental, it's about making it more difficult to just continue with business as usual going forward.
we have to keep fighting back against this genocide
Ok, so will the protests stop now?
Has the genocide actually stopped or did Genocide Joe just move the goalposts?
Yo check your tether, friend. Reality can get away from you quick.
That’s a tough statement to back up. Especially considering the scale of the protests, and Biden’s refusal to speak against isreal until this point.
Prove it
You aren't claiming a negative.
Logically, it was caused by something. You are claiming that the something that caused it was not the protests.
The only way you can accurately make that claim is with the knowledge of what did cause it.
So prove your claim that the thing that caused this was not the protests, but something else instead.
If you don't do that, you're admitting to arguing in bad faith.
What caused it?