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israeli military
How Section 219, the US-Israel Military Merger, Would Thwart American Democracy
The merger would connect the US and Israeli militaries in unprecedented ways and make it exceedingly difficult for any future president to unwind this partnership with a foreign government, no matter what public opinion says.
Jul 13, 2026
It's called Section 219. Tucked away in the massive congressional spending bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, this provision of the law would effectively require our nation to permanently entangle the American military with the Israeli military.
Among other things, the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative would require the US to share intelligence with Israel and establish a system of weapons research, development, and production, particularly in the domains crucial to warfare in the modern age: artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and various other fields of high defense technology.
The House provision, which has a Senate version known as Section 1217, would also forbid the president of the United States from limiting intelligence collaboration with Israel over its human rights abuses. If the President ever wants to limit such collaboration, he or she must tell Congress and can only cite American national security as a basis.
In other words, these bills would connect the US and Israeli militaries in unprecedented ways and make it exceedingly difficult for any future president to unwind this partnership with a foreign government.
There’s a reason why members of Congress are trying to sneak this bill through right now, buried in a massive and must-pass defense spending bill: This might be their best, last chance to thwart the will of the American people.
If these bills pass in their current form, the US military would be more integrated with Israel’s than with that of any other country, including America's NATO allies.
There’s a reason why members of Congress are trying to sneak this bill through right now, buried in a massive and must-pass defense spending bill: This might be their best, last chance to thwart the will of the American people.
Over the past three years, American public opinion has turned sharply against the Israeli government.
Thanks to the modern miracle of social media, Americans were able to directly see the human carnage as the Israeli military slaughtered and starved, by the most conservative estimate, over 73,000 people in Gaza.
Americans were also able to see the consequences of the Israeli military's ethnic cleansing in Lebanon, which has destroyed ancient cities, including Christian towns, and displaced a million people from their homes.
Most recently, the American people watched as the Israeli government openly convinced the Trump administration to launch an unnecessary, illegal and failed war on Iran that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, over a dozen American soldiers, and a global economic crisis, including a sharp rise in gas prices.
The American people are simply fed up.
Members of Congress who recognize American sovereignty and respect American democracy must join Rep. Smith and others in opposing these provisions, and all Americans should call on their members of Congress to do so.
According to recent Pew data, 60% of American adults have an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 42% in 2022.
Majorities of voters under 50 in both parties feel this way: 57% of young Republicans and 84% of young Democrats.
Most Americans oppose further unconditional US military aid for the Netanyahu government.
Recent election results, in which candidates who staked their campaigns on investing American taxpayer dollars here at home instead of overseas in the Israeli military, have also shown that the tide is rapidly changing.
Even prominent conservatives like Tucker Carlson have decried the Israeli government's influence on our political system while once-dominant conservative voices like Ben Shapiro known for supporting Israel have flailed and bled support.
Instead of respecting the clear will of the American people, members of Congress dedicated to maintaining unconditional US support for Israel have introduced bills meant to ensure changes in American public opinion never become changes in American public policy.
This should be unacceptable to everyone in our nation.
Although the US-Israel merger bills are currently making their way through Congress, the fight to strip these provisions from the NDAA is not over.
Just this week, Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.)—the ranking member on the House Armed Services committee—announced that he was withdrawing his support for the provision.
“I cannot support endless conflict even though I support Israel’s right to exist,” said Smith. “For these reasons, I will vote to remove Section 224 from the National Defense Authorization Act if it comes to the Floor.”
If the joint technology development, intelligence sharing, and weapons production are enshrined in law, they would become extraordinarily difficult for future presidents or Congresses to undo, regardless of changing public opinion or policy priorities.
The United States would be permanently locked into a strategic alignment with a foreign government, taking away the American people’s ability to decide on the future of the relationship.
Members of Congress who recognize American sovereignty and respect American democracy must join Rep. Smith and others in opposing these provisions, and all Americans should call on their members of Congress to do so.
If joint technology development, intelligence sharing, and weapons production are required by law, they would become extraordinarily difficult for another Congress or future presidents to undo, regardless of changing public opinion or policy priorities.
Our nation would be trapped a strategic alignment with a foreign government, taking away the American people’s ability to decide on the future of the relationship.
The US military is meant to protect American interests, and Congress is meant to serve the American people.
That's why Section the US-Israel merger bills must go.
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'They Must Be Prosecuted': Video Found on Phone of Murdered Gaza Medic Refutes IDF Claims
"Everyone involved in this crime against humanity, and everyone who covered it up, would face prosecution in a world that had any shred of dignity left."
Apr 05, 2025
A video presented to officials at the United Nations on Friday and first made public Saturday by the New York Times provides more evidence that the recent massacre of Palestinian medics in Gaza did not happen the way Israeli government claimed—the latest in a long line of deception when it comes to violence against civilians that have led to repeated accusations of war crimes.
The video, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), was found on the phone of a paramedic found in a mass grave with a bullet in his head after being killed, along with seven other medics, by Israeli forces on March 23. The eight medics, buried in the shallow grave with the bodies riddled with bullets, were: Mustafa Khafaja, Ezz El-Din Shaat, Saleh Muammar, Refaat Radwan, Muhammad Bahloul, Ashraf Abu Libda, Muhammad Al-Hila, and Raed Al-Sharif. The video reportedly belonged to Radwan. A ninth medic, identified as Asaad Al-Nasasra, who was at the scene of the massacre, which took place near the southern city of Rafah, is still missing.
The PRCS said it presented the video—which refutes the explanation of the killings offered by Israeli officials—to members of the UN Security Council on Friday.
"They were killed in their uniforms. Driving their clearly marked vehicles. Wearing their gloves. On their way to save lives," Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN's humanitarian affairs office in Palestine, said last week after the bodies were discovered. Some of the victims, according to Gaza officials, were found with handcuffs still on them and appeared to have been shot in the head, execution-style.
The Israeli military initially said its soldiers "did not randomly attack" any ambulances, but rather claimed they fired on "terrorists" who approached them in "suspicious vehicles." Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an IDF spokesperson, said the vehicles that the soldiers opened fire on were driving with their lights off and did not have clearance to be in the area. The video evidence directly contradicts the IDF's version of events.
As the Times reports:
The Times obtained the video from a senior diplomat at the United Nations who asked not to be identified to be able to share sensitive information.
The Times verified the location and timing of the video, which was taken in the southern city of Rafah early on March 23. Filmed from what appears to be the front interior of a moving vehicle, it shows a convoy of ambulances and a fire truck, clearly marked, with headlights and flashing lights turned on, driving south on a road to the north of Rafah in the early morning. The first rays of sun can be seen, and birds are chirping.
In an interview with Drop Site News published Friday, the only known paramedic to survive the attack, Munther Abed, explained that he and his colleagues "were directly and deliberately shot at" by the IDF. "The car is clearly marked with 'Palestinian Red Crescent Society 101.' The car's number was clear and the crews' uniform was clear, so why were we directly shot at? That is the question."
The video's release sparked fresh outrage and demands for accountability on Saturday.
"The IDF denied access to the site for days; they sent in diggers to cover up the massacre and intentionally lied about it," said podcast producer Hamza M. Syed in reaction to the new revelations. "The entire leadership of the Israeli army is implicated in this unconscionable war crime. And they must be prosecuted."
"Everyone involved in this crime against humanity, and everyone who covered it up, would face prosecution in a world that had any shred of dignity left," said journalist Ryan Grim of DropSite News.
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Doctors Without Borders Warns Newborn Babies at Dire Risk as Israel Assails Gaza Hospitals
"It's an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won't last more than 36 to 48 hours," said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza.
Jan 09, 2025
The international humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders or MSF, warned in a Wednesday statement that newborn babies and other patients are at dire risk as southern Gaza's Nasser Hospital runs out of fuel.
The group warned that electricity for the MSF-supported Nasser Hospital, where MSF members are providing emergency, maternity, pediatric, burn, and trauma care, may be cut off for some hospital departments leaving patients without "lifesaving care." The hospital's neonatal intensive care unit is currently treating children and newborns who are reliant on mechanical ventilation and incubators. All of these young patients are dependent on electricity from fuel generators, MSF wrote.
Nasser Hospital, as well as two other facilities in the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital and European Gaza Hospital, are nearing the need to close due to lack of fuel, the group reported Wednesday.
"It's an impossible situation, because even if we prioritize the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that they won't last more than 36 to 48 hours," said Julie Faucon, MSF medical team leader in Gaza, according to the statement. "While some patients are hanging on by a thread, the lack of sustained electricity is impacting the level of care we can provide to those with burns and trauma."
Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator, said that the situation is "a consequence of Israel's ongoing blockade and continuous criminal looting of lifesaving supplies."
In mid-July, the United Nations reported that "Israeli authorities continue to tightly control allocations of incoming fuel, thereby limiting humanitarian operations, especially by local partners," and just last week the body noted that only 16 of the region's 36 hospitals remained partially in operation.
Pointing to lack of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel, Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization representative for the West Bank and Gaza, told a recent U.N. Security Council meeting that "the health sector is being systematically dismantled."
Attacks by the Israeli military have left northern Gaza's three hospitals—the Kamal Adwan Hospital, al-Awda Hospital, and the Indonesian Hospital—either entirely out of service or barely functioning.
Hussam Abu Safia, the head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, was detained by Israeli forces during their raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in late December.
Human rights defenders and the medical community have called for his release, it's believed that he is being held in an Israeli detention center, though the Israeli officials had given news media and human rights groups conflicting messages about his whereabouts.
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UNICEF Says Deaths of More Gaza Children 'Tragically Foreseeable' as Israeli Assault Continues
"These preventable deaths lay bare the desperate and deteriorating conditions facing families and children across Gaza," said the humanitarian aid organization.
Dec 27, 2024
UNICEF, the United Nations agency tasked with providing humanitarian aid for children, released a statement Thursday decrying the recent deaths of Gazan children, particularly those who have perished because of cold and lack of adequate shelter.
"Cold injuries, such as frostbite and hypothermia, pose grave risks to young children in tents and other makeshift shelters that are ill-equipped for freezing weather. For newborns, infants, and medically vulnerable children, the danger is even more acute," said UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder.
"With temperatures expected to drop further in the coming days, it is tragically foreseeable that more children's lives will be lost to the inhumane conditions they are enduring, which offer no protection from the cold," he added.
The Quds News Network reported Thursday, citing the head of pediatrics and obstetrics at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, that four Gazan newborns have died in the past few days because of low temperatures and lack of shelter.
"These preventable deaths lay bare the desperate and deteriorating conditions facing families and children across Gaza," said Beigbeder.
One of those babies was Sila Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, a 3-week-old girl, who died Sunday "from the extreme cold" in a tent where her forcibly displaced family is sheltering on a beach in al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated "safe zone" for displaced Palestinians that has repeatedly come under attack.
Sila's father, Mahmoud al-Faseeh, told The Associated Press that the family attempted to keep the baby warm as the temperatures fell to 48°F (9°C)—below the fatal threshold for hypothermia—in their unsealed tent on cold ground.
"It was very cold overnight and as adults we couldn't even take it," al-Faseeh said. "We couldn't stay warm."
Over 14,500 children have reportedly been killed since October 7, 2023 as of mid-December, according to UNICEF, though the Gaza Government Media Office cites a higher figure.
The U.S. government successfully sought the retraction of a report from an organization monitoring food crises that warned of looming famine in north Gaza under what the report called Israel's "near-total blockade," according to Thursday reporting from The Associated Press. The move drew concern from aid groups, per AP.
In November, more than two dozen international relief groups operating in Gaza warned that humanitarian assistance entering the enclave had "fallen to an all-time low" due to Israel's continued blockade.
The situation has also exacted a punishing psychological toll on the children of Gaza. A report from the Community Training Centre for Crisis Management released in November found that, of the more than 500 Palestinian children it surveyed in Gaza last summer, 96% of them fear imminent death, 92% are not accepting of reality, 79% suffer from nightmares, and 49% wish to die because of the war, and many more "show signs of withdrawal and severe anxiety, alongside a pervasive sense of hopelessness."
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Cutting Off Lifeline for Starving Gazans, Israel Seizes Control of Rafah Crossing
"This has devastating impacts for the people of Gaza who are already on the verge of famine," said the UNRWA's director of planning.
May 07, 2024
With tanks and ground forces, the Israeli military seized control of the Gaza side of Rafah's border crossing with Egypt on Tuesday, cutting off a critical humanitarian aid route as much of the enclave's population faces imminent famine.
Israel's takeover of the Rafah crossing came hours after the country's military ordered more than 100,000 people in the southern Gaza city to evacuate ahead of a ground assault, which is moving forward after the right-wing Israeli government rejected a cease-fire proposal accepted by Hamas. Cease-fire negotiations mediated by Egypt and Qatar are expected to continue in the coming days.
Video footage posted to social media shows an Israeli tank running over a Gaza sign as Israeli forces took control of the Rafah crossing on Tuesday.
Israeli tank bulldozers Gaza sign as Israeli army captures Rafah crossing this morning.
pic.twitter.com/JNnAXKeW9h
— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) May 7, 2024
Reporting from Rafah, Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli military is "cutting off the only lifeline right now to the people in Gaza, particularly for the 1.5 million displaced Palestinians here in Rafah."
The Rafah crossing is closed, cutting off the life line for 1.5m people crammed into this tiny piece of land right at the southern end of the Gaza strip.
Hani Mahmoud reporting from Rafah. pic.twitter.com/kPeImrntDj
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 7, 2024
Two key humanitarian aid routes—the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings—have been shut down for days as the Israeli military plows ahead with its Rafah assault in the face of international outrage. More than 600,000 children are currently living in Rafah, and aid organizations say Israel has no credible plan to protect them.
Overnight, Israel launched deadly airstrikes in Rafah, describing its military operation in the overcrowded city as "very precise." One resident
told Reuters that the Israeli strikes killed his wife and children.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press that Israeli authorities have denied the agency access to the Rafah crossing.
A lasting shutdown of the route, Laerke warned, "will plunge this crisis into unprecedented levels of need, including the very real possibility of a famine." He added that Israel's military is "ignoring all warnings about what this could mean for civilians and for the humanitarian operation across the Gaza Strip."
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the director of planning at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)—the most important aid organization operating in Gaza—said the closure of the Rafah crossing is having "catastrophic impacts on everyone in Gaza."
"Since October, this has been the main entry point of goods coming into Gaza," said Sam Rose. "There has only been a trickle of goods coming in, and since Sunday the crossing has been closed completely. And this has devastating impacts for the people of Gaza who are already on the verge of famine."
"No aid coming in means no aid distributed after a couple of days," Rose continued. "And equally importantly, Rafah and Kerem Shalom are the only entry points for fuel in Gaza, so without the fuel there's no ability for trucks to move around, there's no ability for desalination plants to operate and provide safe water, there's no electricity. It cuts off everything. Rafah and Kerem Shalom—they're the lifeblood for the small amount of goods that have been coming into Gaza since October, so absolutely devastating."
"Absolutely devastating"
This morning the IDF have seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, and Sam Rose from UNRWA explains what it means now that the crossing is closed. pic.twitter.com/iC1w8AWnt5
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) May 7, 2024
Laerke of the U.N. humanitarian affairs office said that cutting off the supply of fuel to Gaza for an extended period of time "would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave."
Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement that "more attacks on what is now the primary humanitarian hub in the Gaza strip are not the answer."
"First and foremost, there must be a cease-fire. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to flow freely and at scale. And the hostages and those arbitrarily detained must be released at once," said Türk. "Those that elect to flout international humanitarian law and international human rights law must be held to account."
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Israel's Conscientious Objectors Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
Refusing to fight in unjust and brutal wars is not new, but it remains a rare act of courage.
Mar 22, 2024
According to legend, the organization I lead, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, was founded in August 1914 when a British Quaker and a German Lutheran shook hands at a railway station in Cologne. With England on the cusp of joining World War I, they pledged, "We are one in Christ and can never be at war."
After Germany sunk the Lusitania ship in May 1915, American public support for joining the war swelled. But not everyone got on board.
Political activist and theologian A.J. Muste responded to his country’s gearing up for war by becoming a pacifist. His views resulted in him being forced out of his pastoral position. Likewise, pacifist and social reformer Jane Addams (who later went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize) was viciously criticized for calling the war “an insane outburst.”
Despite the pro-war hysteria that countries use to justify their military endeavors, conscientious objection remains a courageous option for those committed to peace. As the ongoing genocide of Palestinians unfolds in front of the eyes of the world, a couple of young Israelis are choosing this brave, though unpopular, path.
“Slaughter cannot solve slaughter,” 18-year-old Israeli-American Tal Mitnick said in December 2023 before receiving his first 30-day prison sentence for refusing to join Israel’s military.
The same week that Tal refused for the third time and received a third term in prison, he was joined by fellow teenager Sofia Orr. “I reject participating in the violent policies of oppression and apartheid that Israel has imposed on the Palestinian people, especially now during the war,” she said.
It’s not the sentences Tal and Sofia are enduring that make their actions exceptional. They have options. In fact, 12 percent of conscripted Israelis get out of service through notoriously easy-to-obtain mental health exemptions. Instead of the 10-year terms that Russian draft evaders face, even when Israelis are sentenced for refusing, they receive consecutive sentences with breaks in between to see if they have changed their minds.
Tal and Sofia are not being held indefinitely in overcrowded, abusive, deadly prison facilities like incarcerated Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. But, what Tal and Sophia are doing is heroic and places them within a legacy of great peacemakers.
The earliest recorded act of conscientious objection occurred in 295 A.D. when Maximilianus refused his conscription into the Roman Army. He was beheaded for refusing to kill. Later, he was canonized as a saint.
Like Maximilianus, Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter was arrested and executed for refusing conscription by the Nazis. He wrote, "I find that [my hands being in chains is] much better than if my will were in chains. Neither prison nor chains nor sentence of death can rob a man of the Faith and his free will.”
When, in 1944, devout Quaker Bayard Rustin was sentenced to three years for refusing to serve in World War II, he devoted his prison time to racial justice work. A disciple of Gandhian nonviolence, he organized his fellow prisoners to resist segregation in the prison. He was so successful that the head of the prison described him as “an extremely capable agitator.” Upon release, he traveled the country organizing communities, including the “First Freedom Ride” in 1947.
James Lawson, also a student of Gandhi, spent 13 months in prison between 1951 and 1952 for refusing to serve during the Korean War. Lawson went on to become, along with Rustin, an essential advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King.
Since its campaigns were broadcast on TV across America, the civil rights movement challenged the public, especially American youth, to choose between justice and segregation — between equality and oppression. At the same time, there was a surge of draft evaders and conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War, including prominent leaders like “good troublemaker” John Lewis.
Refusing and avoiding conscription became so popular during the Vietnam War that President Nixon’s commission reported that the movement was “expanding at an alarming rate,” leaving the government “almost powerless to apprehend and prosecute them.”
With the majority of Israelis opposing an end to the war in Gaza and 72 percent of them supporting no humanitarian aid, Tal and Sofia are not part of a growing popular movement, like what took place during the Vietnam War. But their contributions to peace are no less important.
Whether or not other young Israelis join them in jail — Tal and Sofia were part of a group of 200 Jewish Israeli 12th graders who pledged in August 2023 to refuse military service to protest the government’s effort to overhaul Israel’s judicial system — what Tal and Sofia have done places profound marks on the pages of history.
Members and contributors to the Fellowship of Reconciliation include the likes of Jane Addams, A.J. Muste, Mahatma Gandhi, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, James Lawson, and countless other brave conscientious objectors and peacemakers.
Today, as the world is watching a genocide take place in real-time — as of this writing, the death toll in Gaza is approaching 32,000 and famine is setting in — FOR-USA is proud to be raising money for an ad in an Israeli newspaper lifting up two of the most important conscientious objectors of our time. We invite you to join us by following Tal and Sofia’s journey at forusa.org/IsraeliRefusers.
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Majority of Americans Want Halt of US Weapons Bound for Israel: Poll
"Everyone knows that the U.S. could end this today if we wanted to," said one analyst.
Mar 05, 2024
A new poll released Tuesday revealed that a majority of Americans want to the U.S. government to stop supplying the Israeli military with weaponry to carry out its brutal assault on Gaza that has killed over 30,000 Palestinians, most of them civilian men, women, and children.
As organizers called on Democratic voters in at least seven states to vote "uncommitted" on their Super Tuesday primary ballots on Tuesday to help push the Biden administration to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, the YouGov poll provided another measure of Americans' growing outrage over their government's material and political support for the "genocidal" campaign by Israel's far-right government.
Commissioned by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), the poll of 1,000 U.S. adults asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement: "The U.S. should stop weapons shipments to Israel until Israel discontinues its attacks on the people of Gaza."
Fifty-two percent of people said they agreed with the statement, while just 27% said they disagreed.
CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot noted that while the call for a cease-fire "can mean different things to different people... the support for halting weapons shipments is specific and unambiguous."
Less than two weeks after scientists projected that at least 6,500 people would likely die in Gaza in the coming months even in the case of an immediate, permanent cease-fire, Weisbrot said many Americans may have "already moved past" the idea that a cease-fire is sufficient.
"Support for stopping U.S. weapons shipments to Israel has gained traction in recent days," noted CEPR, "as the Gaza death toll has surpassed 30,000 people, about two-thirds of them women and children."
Since the Biden administration's approval of weapons shipments to Israel since October, Israel has decimated civilian infrastructure across Gaza while also blocking nearly all humanitarian aid, leaving the entire population facing "crisis-level hunger" that is approaching famine in some areas.
"We have the power to stop this. Everyone knows that the U.S. could end this today if we wanted to," said Weisbrot, posting a video of European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell calling on U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders to "provide less arms" to Israel, considering Biden's stated belief that too many civilians are being killed.
We have the power to stop this. Everyone knows that the U.S. could end this today if we wanted to. This is Josep Borell, the highest official of the European Union in charge of foreign policy, telling the United States government that they need to do something, like cut weapons… pic.twitter.com/F9y8zwgPxj
— Mark Weisbrot (@MarkWeisbrot) March 5, 2024
Tuesday's poll revealed that ending weapons shipments for Israel is popular across the political spectrum.
Sixty-two percent of people who voted for Biden in 2020 agreed that the U.S. should end shipments, while only 14% disagreed.
CEPR pointed out that "Among those who did not vote in the 2020 presidential elections—a key group containing voters that both Democrats and Republicans would like to turn out this year—fully 60% agreed that the U.S. should block weapons shipments."
The latter result is one "that the Biden campaign should be worried about," said Weisbrot. "These are the voters Biden needs to turn out to expand his base."
People who voted for former Republican President Donald Trump in 2020 were the only group in which a majority opposed halting weapons shipments, with 55% saying the shipments should continue. Thirty percent said they should stop.
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EU Foreign Policy Chief to World Leaders: 'Stop Saying Please' and Cut Off Arms to Israel
"If you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed," Josep Borrell said in remarks directed at U.S. President Joe Biden.
Feb 12, 2024
The European Union's top foreign policy official said Monday that the Biden administration and other governments professing concern about the grisly death toll in the Gaza Strip should stop supplying so much weaponry to the Israeli military as it carries out one of the most devastating bombing campaigns in modern history.
Pointing to U.S. President Joe Biden's statement late last week that Israel's war on Gaza has been "over the top," E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said during a press conference in Brussels, "Well, if you believe that too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms in order to prevent so many people being killed."
Borrell then extended that suggestion to the rest of the international community, saying if governments believe that "this is a slaughter, that too many people are being killed, maybe they have to think about the provision of arms."
"Everybody goes to Tel Aviv, begging, 'Please don't do that, protect civilians, don't kill so many.' How many is too many?" Borrell asked. "It is a little bit contradictory to continue saying that there are 'too many people being killed, too many people being killed, please take care of people, please don't kill so many.' Stop saying please and [do] something."
Watch:
Update: EU's Borrell on US+Israel:
"If you believe too many people are being killed, maybe you should provide less arms"
"Everybody goes to Tel Aviv begging"
"Netanyahu doesn't listen to anyone. They're going to evacuate. Where? To the moon?"
"Stop saying please & do something!" pic.twitter.com/g8uiprUia2
— Rosie Birchard (@RosieBirchard) February 12, 2024
Shortly following Borrell's remarks, veteran Associated Press reporter Matt Lee grilled U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on what leverage the Biden administration has used thus far to pressure the Israeli government to protect civilians in Gaza.
Lee challenged Miller by saying that top U.S. officials, including Biden, standing up and "wagging [their] finger" at Israel was "not really leverage."
Miller responded by citing "the words of the president of the United States" and other diplomatic engagement—a reply that exemplified the approach Borrell urged nations to abandon.
Watch:
AP's Matt Lee: What leverage is US using?
State Dept spox Matt Miller: "The words of the President…matter"
Lee: "Over the top?' That's leverage?"
(2 days after Biden called Israel's behavior "over the top," it attacked the last refuge for 1.5 million Palestinians—killing 90+) pic.twitter.com/pEOKbQlCsb
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) February 12, 2024
The U.S. is by far the largest supplier of arms to Israel, but other countries—including the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands—have provided the country with weapons and other military equipment deployed during its ongoing assault on Gaza.
On Monday, a Netherlands court ordered the Dutch government to stop exporting F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel, citing the "clear risk" that the warplanes "might be used in the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law." The government said it would appeal the ruling to the nation's Supreme Court.
Borrell's call for restrictions on weapons transfers to Israel came weeks after a coalition of leading humanitarian organizations urged all countries to impose an arms embargo on Israel and Palestinian militants, declaring that "all states have the obligation to prevent atrocity crimes and promote adherence to norms that protect civilians."
The U.S. Senate over the weekend advanced legislation that would provide Israel with over $10 billion in military assistance on top of what the Biden administration has already provided since the Hamas-led attack on October 7. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was the lone member of the upper chamber's Democratic caucus to vote against advancing the bill.
In the E.U., the foreign ministers of 16 countries received a letter from human rights groups on Monday urging them to do everything in their power to ensure Israel complies with the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) interim order, which requires Israel to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza.
"Furthermore," the letter reads, "the E.U. and its member states must call for a cease-fire to ensure that no genocidal acts might be committed by the state of Israel and ensure that they do not cooperate on potential genocidal acts by suspending arms trade with Israel."
Pressure on governments to stop providing arms to the Israeli military is growing as the Netanyahu government prepares for an invasion of Rafah, a small Gaza city to which more than a million displaced Palestinians fled in an attempt to find refuge from incessant Israeli airstrikes.
During Monday's press conference in Brussels, Borrell criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to forcibly "evacuate" Rafah's civilian population.
"They are going to evacuate. Where, to the moon?" he asked. "Where are they going to evacuate these people?"
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House GOP Wants to Pair Israel Military Aid With IRS Cuts That Help Rich Tax Cheats
"House Republicans are using aid for Israel as a political pawn in order to slash taxes for their wealthy donors," said Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden.
Oct 31, 2023
House Republicans released legislative text on Monday that pairs around $14 billion in military aid for Israel with steep cuts from Internal Revenue Service funding that has given the agency more capacity to pursue wealthy tax cheats.
The GOP bill would strip $14.3 billion in funds from the IRS, a move that would undercut the agency's renewed enforcement push and nix efforts to build out a free digital tax filing system to compete with private tax-prep firms, which have lobbied aggressively against the IRS alternative.
While the House GOP's proposed IRS cuts were widely presented as "offsets" for the new aid for Israel's military, such cuts would in fact add to the federal deficit by depriving the agency of resources to collect taxes from rich tax dodgers who are costing the U.S. tens of billions in revenue.
"Every $1 you cut IRS funding will lose about $2 of revenue," noted Marc Goldwein of the conservative Center for a Responsible Federal Budget. "So that means this bill would add about $30 billion to the deficit."
The IRS said earlier this month that it has collected $160 million in back taxes from millionaires this year thanks to new enforcement funding provided under the Inflation Reduction Act. The agency also recently launched an initiative aimed at cracking down on tax dodging by large corporations.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) argued on social media late Monday that "House Republicans are using aid for Israel as a political pawn in order to slash taxes for their wealthy donors."
"Making it easier for rich people to cheat on their taxes isn't an offset, it adds to the deficit," Wyden wrote.
House Republicans' bill comes in response to President Joe Biden's request for $14.3 billion in military aid for Israel as part of a broader $106 billion emergency funding request that also called for military assistance for Ukraine, disaster relief in the U.S., and some humanitarian aid for Gaza that human rights advocates say could bolster Israeli efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians.
The GOP legislation, which is likely dead on arrival in the narrowly Democratic U.S. Senate, only contains funding for Israel.
The bipartisan push to approve new military aid for Israel comes despite warnings from legal experts that the U.S. could be complicit in genocide and other war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel's bombing campaign has killed more than 8,000 people—including more than 3,400 children—and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe, displacing more than a million Gazans, destroying or damaging roughly 40% of the territory's housing units, and pushing the enclave's healthcare system to the brink of total collapse.
The National Priorities Project cautioned in response to Biden's supplemental funding request that "more military aid to Israel will mean more deaths."
"In the face of massive suffering in Gaza and disregard for international law by the Israeli government, the U.S. must not provide additional military aid or weapons that would cause more deaths," the group said. "Instead, the U.S. should use its considerable diplomatic strength to call for an immediate cease-fire."
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End the Collective Punishment of Gaza's People—Now!
The death toll in Gaza continues to climb, but this level of vengeance and violence must not be allowed.
Oct 27, 2023
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the UN Security Council on Tuesday, saying, “To ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer, and facilitate the release of hostages, I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.” He went on to criticize Israel’s siege and bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for the October 7th attack by Hamas, which killed over 1,300 Israelis:
“It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their lands steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence, their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas, and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Israel’s UN ambassador demanded Guterres’ resignation, adding, “we will refuse to issue visas to UN representatives…to teach them a lesson.” The U.S. presented a Security Council resolution for a “humanitarian pause” in Gaza, which Russia and China vetoed saying it did not go far enough. Russia countered with a full ceasefire resolution that the US and UK vetoed.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza continues to climb, with at least 7,000 Palestinians killed since October 7th, including nearly 3,000 children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The Israeli military and armed settlers have also killed more than 100 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 7th, adding to the record number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank this year.
Israel has held the Gaza Strip under a devastating blockade since 2006, trapping its 2.4 million residents in what is arguably the world’s largest open air prison. Israel limits the delivery of food, fuel, water and medicine and imposes apartheid controls on who can enter and leave. The current complete shutoff of life-sustaining supplies that Israel imposed on October 7th, compounded by the relentless airstrikes, has created what Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency, describes as “hell on Earth.” He writes, “Entire neighborhoods are being flattened over the heads of civilians.”
Among those killed were the wife, daughter and son of Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, called by many “the Voice of Gaza.” They were killed in the south of Gaza, in an Israeli airstrike. “Wael, like many of us, like thousands of Palestinians who got the order to evacuate from the north and from Gaza City to the south, heeded that order and moved his family to the south, to Nuseirat refugee camp,” Al Jazeera correspondent Youmna ElSayed said on the Democracy Now! news hour, the day after the airstrike. “When we say there is no safe place in Gaza, we’re not lying…Why did they ask us to go to the south?”
Oxfam’s Middle East Regional Director Sally Abi Khalil said in a statement, “The situation is nothing short of horrific–where is humanity? Millions of civilians are being collectively punished in full view of the world, there can be no justification for using starvation as a weapon of war.”
Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure is on the brink of collapse. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of pediatrics at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza told Al Jazeera, “We are overwhelmed with dozens of wounded, dying and dead children coming in…The pace of strikes is escalating, and our supplies are near depletion. When the fuel runs out tomorrow, this hospital will rapidly become a mass grave.” Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, likened expected deaths of patients dependent on electricity for respirators or dialysis machines to “premeditated murder.”
On Wednesday, in a White House Rose Garden speech, President Joe Biden questioned the reported numbers of Palestinians killed in Gaza. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” he said.
Last February, months before the October 7th Hamas attack, Haaretz, one of Israel’s most influential newspapers, published an editorial, referring to the collective punishment that followed sporadic attacks on Israeli citizens by Palestinans: “Laws that permit Israel to violate international law and the laws of occupation will not only fail to thwart terrorism, but will drag Israel to the defendants’ dock of the international community.”
Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians is nothing new. But this latest siege of Gaza, described by Israeli Holocaust historian Raz Segal as “a textbook case of genocide,” must stop now.
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