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u.s. aid to israel
Israel Used US-Supplied Bomb in Beirut Strike That Killed at Least 22 Lebanese
"The Biden-Harris administration gave Israel at least 3,000 of these munitions from October-December 2023 alone," noted one expert.
Oct 11, 2024
At least one U.S.-supplied bomb was used by Israel in a Thursday night airstrike that killed at least 22 people and wounded over 115 more in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to a Guardian analysis published on Friday.
The crisis, conflict, and arms division of Human Rights Watch and a former U.S. military explosives expert analyzed shrapnel from a bomb used by Israel in the strike on an apartment complex in the densely populated Basta neighborhood near central Beirut and concluded it came from a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) manufactured by Boeing.
"The bolt pattern, its position, and the shape of the remnant are consistent with the tail fin of a U.S.-made JDAM guidance kit for MK80-series air-dropped munitions," HRW senior researcher Richard Weir told The Guardian.
MK80-series JDAMs are attached to so-called "dumb" bombs ranging from 500 to 2,000 pounds to convert them into GPS-guided "smart" munitions.
"The use of these weapons in densely populated areas, like this one, places civilians and civilian objects in the immediate area at grave risk of immediate and lasting harm," Weir said.
In May, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in armed aid to Israel, even as the key ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice— suspended transfers of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs over fears that the devastating munitions would be used in airstrikes on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge.
By that time, Israel had already dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs—which the U.S. military avoids using in civilian areas because they can destroy entire city blocks—on Gaza, including in an October 31 attack on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp that killed more than 120 civilians.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said in June that Israel's use of 2,000-pound bombs and other U.S.-supplied weapons likely violated international law by deliberately targeting civilians in disproportionate attacks. Israeli military commanders have also been criticized for using artificial intelligence-based target selection to approve bombings they know will cause high civilian casualties.
The Biden administrationresumed shipments of 500-pound bombs to Israel in July, while keeping the temporary proscription on 2,000-pound munitions in place.
While Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border attacks since the armed wing of the Lebanon--based political and paramilitary group began firing rockets and other weapons at Israel in solidarity with Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the intensity of Israel's assault has increased dramatically since last month.
Since then, two waves of Israeli-engineered detonations targeting thousands of pagers and other communication devices killed dozens of people including Hezbollah members and civilians, two of them children. Later in September, Israeli forces unleashed an aerial bombing campaign in Lebanon, including the September 27 strike that assassinated Hezbollah political leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior members of the group.
Expert analysis concluded that Israel used U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs in the strike on a densely populated suburb of Beirut, which flattened several residential buildings.
Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health says that more than 2,200 people—including at least 127 children—have been killed and over 10,000 others wounded by Israeli forces since last October. Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians and 39 soldiers in Israel over the same period.
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres joined foreign ministers from countries including China, France, Italy, Indonesia, and Turkey, as well as human rights organizations around the world, in condemning Israeli attacks on U.N. personnel in southern Lebanon after two Indonesian U.N. peacekeepers were wounded by Israeli tank fire.
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Israel's War on Gaza and Beyond Has Cost US Taxpayers At Least $22.76 Billion: Report
"It has been difficult for the U.S. public, journalists, and members of Congress to get an accurate understanding of the amount of military equipment and financial assistance that the U.S. government has provided."
Oct 07, 2024
U.S. armed aid to Israel and related spending on American militarism in the Middle East cost taxpayers at least $22.76 billion over the past year, according to new research published Monday.
The Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs—which has long been the premier source for statistics on the human and economic costs of ongoing U.S.-led post-9/11 wars and militarism in the Middle East and beyond—called the $22.76 billion estimate "conservative."
"This figure includes the $17.9 billion the U.S. government has approved in security assistance for Israeli military operations in Gaza and elsewhere since October 7—substantially more than in any other year since the U.S. began granting military aid to Israel in 1959," report authors Linda Bilmes, William Hartung, and Stephen Semler wrote. "Yet the report describes how this is only a partial amount of the U.S. financial support provided during this war."
In addition to the repeated multibillion-dollar rounds of military aid to Israel, related U.S. operations in the region, particularly bombing and shipping defense in and near Yemen—where Houthi rebels have attacked maritime commerce and launched missiles at Israel—have cost over $2 billion since last October.
"It has been difficult for the U.S. public, journalists, and members of Congress to get an accurate understanding of the amount of military equipment and financial assistance that the U.S. government has provided to Israel's military during the past year of war," the report states. "There is likewise little U.S. public awareness of the costs of the United States military's own related operations in the region, particularly in and around Yemen."
The analysis adds that regional hostilities "have escalated to become the most sustained military campaign by U.S. forces since the 2016-19 air war" against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
"The Costs of War project has an obligation to look at the consequences of the U.S. backing of Israel's military operations after October 7, especially as it reverberates throughout the region," Costs of War director Stephanie Savell said in a statement. "Our project examines the human and budgetary costs of U.S. militarism at home and abroad, and for the last year, people in Gaza have suffered the highest consequences imaginable."
According to the Gaza Health Ministry and international agencies, Israel's yearlong assault on Gaza has left at least 149,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. U.S. military aid to Israel has continued in successive waves, even as the country stands trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
The Hamas-led October 7 attack on resulted in more than 1,100 Israeli and other deaths—at least some of which were caused by so-called "friendly fire" and intentional targeting under the Hannibal Directive—with more than 240 people kidnapped.
Although the Costs of War Project report mainly covers U.S. aid to Israel since last October, it also notes that since 1948—the year the modern state of Israel was founded, largely through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Arabs—American taxpayers have contributed over a quarter trillion inflation-adjusted dollars to the key Mideast ally.
A second report published Monday by the Costs of War Project found that around 90% of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced by the Israeli onslaught and 96% of Gazans face "acute levels of food insecurity." The publication cites a letter sent last week by a group of U.S. physicians to President Joe Biden—who has repeatedly declared his "unwavering" support for Israel—stating that "it is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza's population." That figure includes 62,000 deaths due to starvation.
"In addition to killing people directly through traumatic injuries, wars cause 'indirect deaths' by destroying, damaging, or causing deterioration of economic, social, psychological and health conditions," report author Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins wrote. "These deaths result from diseases and other population-level health effects that stem from war's destruction of public infrastructure and livelihood sources, reduced access to water and sanitation, environmental damage, and other such factors."
The new report comes less than two weeks after Israel secured yet another U.S. armed aid package, this one worth $8.7 billion. Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it faced a nearly $9 billion shortfall for Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
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Biden Must End Unconditional Aid for Israel to Beat Trump
The president is at risk of losing support from Muslim, African American, and young voters in key swing states.
Feb 18, 2024
As I recently wrote in these pages: “The unpopularity of President Joe Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy among Arab Americans, African Americans, and young people could well flip the electoral vote to hand former President Donald Trump the 2024 election. A few tens of thousands of these voters in a handful of swing states who likely would have voted for Biden but vote for Trump, a third party, or just stay home could well be enough for Trump to win the presidency legally.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to Biden’s mild attempts to convince him to negotiate a cease-fire deal to release the hostages and to avoid a massive ground attack on Rafah by essentially telling Biden to “f**k off.”
After a 40-minute phone call with Biden earlier this week Netanyahu rejected calls to continue negotiating a cease-fire for hostage release deal and wrote on X: “My position can be summed up in two sentences: 1. Israel rejects out-of-hand international diktats about a final-status solution with the Palestinians… 2. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”
If Biden and his congressional allies could break up the bill into separate parts for military aid and border security, they can further break up the bill into separate parts concerning the proposed arms sales for Israel and those for Ukraine.
As The Wall Street Journal reported: “Biden has shown no willingness to use the biggest tool in his arsenal: weapons sales to Israel. The president has dismissed any talk of slowing arms sales to Israel, U.S. officials said, and instead has largely relied on the bully pulpit to try to express discontent.” Biden’s so-called “bully pulpit” has been totally ineffective and instead demonstrates nothing but Biden’s weakness in the face of Netanyahu giving him the middle finger. Among other things, it shows that Netanyahu would like to help his friend Donald Trump defeat Biden.
Meanwhile, Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress have continued to tie a proposed bill for $60 billion in much-needed supplies to Ukraine to help them stave off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression with $14.1 billion in new military aid to Israel, which is completely unneeded to pursue a guerrilla war against Hamas which lacks most advanced weaponry.
That bill originally included the bipartisan compromise with Senate Republicans on so-called “border security.” But when House Republicans rejected that compromise, the Democrats stripped the border security provisions from the bill and are now trying to get the rest of the bill, including the military aid to Israel and Ukraine, past reluctant House Republicans.
If Biden and his congressional allies could break up the bill into separate parts for military aid and border security, they can further break up the bill into separate parts concerning the proposed arms sales for Israel and those for Ukraine (plus aid to Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Palestinians).
Biden must stop advocating for more unconditional military aid to Israel. Instead, he can add conditions that Israel: (i) stop the slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza; (ii) agree to a hostage for cease-fire deal; and (iii) commit to a pathway to a two-state solution which both recognizes Israel’s right to exist with security and the right of Palestinians to their own sovereignty, at the very least.
As Democratic U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), and Peter Welch (Vt.) wrote in The Washington Post: “Given the lack of a meaningful response to the Biden administration’s appeals to the Netanyahu government, the responsibility to lead falls upon the United States. It falls on the United States because we are the largest provider of military assistance to Israel. It falls on us because the United States has supplied many of the bombs and artillery shells that Israel has employed in its Gaza campaign.”
Biden putting conditions on further aid to Israel is not only the morally right thing to do and consistent with American values; it could help prevent Biden’s Electoral College loss to Trump due to the defection of Muslim, African American, and young voters in key swing states.
A Trump victory would be cheered by Netanyahu, Putin, and other authoritarian rulers around the world.
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World Food Program Economist Warns 'Worst Is Yet to Come' in Gaza
The U.N. organization's chief economist spoke with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders about the "unprecedented" crisis conditions in Gaza as Israel continues to wage war on the besieged enclave.
Jan 23, 2024
Nearly four months into Israel's blockade and bombardment that has killed about 25,500 people in the Gaza Strip, the World Food Program's chief economist warned Tuesday that the "worst is yet to come" in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
That warning from the WFP's Arif Husain came in a livestreamed conversation with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
"In my opinion, this crisis is unprecedented," Husain said. "Three things... make this unprecedented. One is the scale."
The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million residents are facing crisis-level hunger, as the WFP and other United Nations organizations have highlighted throughout the war, which Israel launched on October 7 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
"The second part is severity," Husain explained, with "half a million people literally starving." He also noted that much of the civilian infrastructure has been destroyed, leaving most people in Gaza displaced and with limited access to basic necessities.
"The third part of this is the speed at which it has happened," the economist added. "The other thing which is extremely troubling in this crisis and what makes it unprecedented is what is going to come next."
Husain stressed that "we are one step away from a disease outbreak," pointing to overcrowded shelters, showers, and toilets as well as people with weakened immune systems due to limited food, water, and medicine.
Children in Gaza are already dying of starvation. As Common Dreams reported earlier Tuesday, one 46-year-old parent of five told the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor that their children "have been starving for more than a month, and we do not have any flour."
"We eat a small amount of rice each day, so when I learned that flour aid was available, I walked for 13 kilometers before the Israeli army opened their machine gun fire," said the parent, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. "We were hit by shells fired, resulting in several casualties. I managed to survive, without receiving any flour."
U.S. President Joe Biden has faced intense scrutiny for the United States' support of Israel as it wages war on Gaza. While Biden has called out Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of the enclave, he has also requested a $14.3 billion package on top of the $3.8 billion that Israel gets in annual U.S. military aid and bypassed Congress to arm Israeli troops.
While Sanders—who is Jewish but not religious and briefly lived in Israel decades ago—has been criticized by progressives for not demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, he has spoken out against right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. support for the devastating war.
In response to the Israeli prime minister's recent rejection of a two-state solution, Sanders declared Saturday that "despite the illegal and inhumane actions of Netanyahu's government, President Biden has thus far offered unconditional support to Israel. That must change. President Biden must now loudly and clearly say NO to the policies of Netanyahu's right-wing extremist government."
"And Congress must act. There must be no more U.S. military aid to Israel to continue Netanyahu's war," the senator added. "Humanitarian aid must be immediately allowed to reach those in need. A safe release of all remaining hostages must be negotiated. Israel must work towards a lasting peace that allows two states for two peoples. If Netanyahu continues down the path of military domination, he must do so alone. The United States cannot be complicit."
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Senate Urged to Approve Probe of Israeli Human Rights Violations in Gaza
"It is past time that the United States government understand that and take account of its own role in the crisis," said one campaigner, calling for a cease-fire. "We don't have time to waste."
Jan 16, 2024
Support for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders' privileged resolution that would require the State Department to swiftly produce a report on Israel's human rights practices amid its war on the Gaza Strip mounted ahead of an expected Tuesday evening vote in the Senate.
Introduced by Sanders (I-Vt.) last month, S.Res. 504 relies on Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows Congress to demand information on a country receiving U.S. security aid. If the resolution passes, a report must be drafted within 30 days, after which lawmakers may consider changes to foreign assistance.
The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aid. U.S. President Joe Biden responded to the Hamas-led attack that sparked the current war by requesting a $14.3 billion package from Congress while also bypassing lawmakers to arm Israeli forces.
"The Senate must pass S.Res.504," Win Without War said on social media ahead of the Senate debate, set to start around 4:30pm ET. "If the [Biden administration] isn't following the law, it's Congress' duty to compel it to, especially as the administration rushes through emergency sales outside congressional review."
Robert McCaw, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) government affairs department, said Tuesday, "We call on every American who cares about human rights to urge their U.S. senators to support Sen. Sanders' call for an assessment of any human rights violations the Israeli government has committed with weapons provided by American taxpayer dollars."
Passing Sanders' resolution is "the very least the Senate should do in response to what even President Biden has reportedly described as the Israeli government's 'indiscriminate bombing' of Gaza, which has killed over 24,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children," McCaw argued. "It is imperative that the United States starts upholding the rule of law. As a nation, we must reach out to our senators, mobilize our communities, and urge their support."
Amnesty International USA also endorsed the resolution on Tuesday, with executive director Paul O'Brien saying that "in their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives. They have killed civilians on a mass scale and pulverized street after street of residential buildings and essential infrastructure."
"Indiscriminate attacks, direct attacks on civilian objects, collective punishment are all war crimes," he stressed. "Under these circumstances, members of Congress must vote yes for a resolution that simply asks the State Department to provide relevant information and reporting for Congress to have effective oversight on whether the United States is contributing arms or assistance enabling violations of international law."
Oxfam America President and CEO Abby Maxman also urged the Senate to pass the resolution on Tuesday, stressing that "U.S. support for Israel has continued without any consideration of its contribution to the devastating siege and bombardment of Gaza."
"It is past time that the United States government understand that and take account of its own role in the crisis and to investigate whether U.S. funds and military support are being used by Israeli forces to commit human rights abuses," Maxman said, noting that tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed and most survivors are displaced and "facing catastrophic levels of hunger."
"Deaths due to preventable disease are rising, as Israel's siege of Gaza has left many without access to sanitation, medicine, food, or fuel," she added. "Oxfam continues to call for a complete cease-fire, the safe return of all hostages, and for more aid to reach Palestinians in desperate need. We don't have time to waste."
Sanders—who is Jewish but not religious and briefly lived in Israel decades ago—has faced criticism from progressives for not demanding a cease-fire. However, the senator has also fiercely criticized Israel's brutal bombardment of Gaza and made clear that he opposes giving the country billions of more dollars in unconditional military aid.
"It should not be controversial to ask how U.S. weapons are used," he said before the vote Tuesday. "We should all want this information. If you believe the war has been indiscriminate, as I do, then we must ask this question. If you believe Israel has done nothing wrong, then this information should support that belief."
In a Tuesday statement welcoming plans for the Senate vote, Americans for Peace Now (APN) explained that it "supports U.S. aid to Israel, but aid must align with U.S. values and policy priorities."
"Accountability regarding Israel's use of U.S.-provided equipment is vital, and we must ensure strict adherence to both U.S. and international laws, with an emphasis on protecting civilians," said APN president and CEO Hadar Susskind. "If you believe that Israel has not committed human rights violations in Gaza, then you should welcome this report as it would exonerate Israel from any such claims."
The Senate is set to vote on mandating the State Department report as United Nations leaders warn of rising hunger and disease in Gaza, and just days after a hearing at the International Court of Justice for a South African-led case accusing Israel of genocide.
This post has been updated with comment from Amnesty International.
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Sanders to Force Senate Vote on Probing Israeli War Crimes
"The United States Congress has got to act, because a lot of this destruction is being done with military weapons supplied by the United States of America."
Jan 15, 2024
Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he will force a Senate floor vote this week on a resolution that would suspend aid to Israel if the U.S. State Department fails to report on how Israeli weapons—many of them supplied by the United States—are being used in Gaza.
Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," Sanders (I-Vt.) told host Jake Tapper that he will force a Tuesday evening vote on his resolution, which is based on Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, legislation empowering Congress to "request information on a particular country's human rights practices and to alter or terminate U.S. security assistance to that country in light of the information received."
If the resolution passes, the Biden administration would be compelled to provide a report on Israeli rights violations within 30 days or trigger a suspension of all U.S. assistance to its key Middle Eastern ally.
"What is going on in Gaza right now is a horrendous humanitarian catastrophe," said Sanders—who has infuriated many progressives by refusing to support a cease-fire. "We're looking at 23,000 people who have been killed. Almost 60,000 have been wounded. And two-thirds of the people who have been killed are women and children. You're looking at 70% of the housing units in Gaza that have been destroyed."
By Monday, the death toll in Gaza had topped 24,000, according to local officials.
The United States has provided some of Israel's most powerful weaponry, with which its forces have carried out some of the 101-day war's deadliest massacres.
"What is going on in Gaza now in three months is worse than what took place in Dresden over a two-year period," Sanders noted, referring to the U.S. and U.K. "terror bombing"—Britain's own description at the time—of the German city, largely with incendiary weapons, during World War II.
"This is a catastrophe," he continued, referring to Gaza. "And now, according to the United Nations, after you have 1.9 million people displaced from their homes... What you are looking at is imminent starvation. Children are starving to death."
"So, my view has been from the beginning, Israel has a right to respond to this horrific terrorist attack from Hamas, but you do not have a right to go to war against an entire people, women and children," the senator asserted. "And the United States Congress has got to act, because a lot of this destruction is being done with military weapons supplied by the United States of America."
Asked by Tapper if he could secure the 51 votes needed for the resolution's passage, Sanders replied: "Not on Tuesday night, I don't. I think we're making progress."
"What we're trying to do is unprecedented," he said. "This is the first time this particular resolution has ever been brought to the floor for a vote. This is the first time we have ever seen members of the Congress beginning to stand up... to Israeli aid."
"So it's going to be a long, hard process, but we have got to begin somewhere," the senator added. "This is the beginning."
"This is the first time we have ever seen members of the Congress beginning to stand up... to Israeli aid."
Although the Foreign Assistance Act—passed during the John F. Kennedy administration—ostensibly conditions U.S. assistance upon adherence to human rights standards, it has been repeatedly manipulated to allow military aid for violators including the perpetrators of the Guatemalan genocide. It also created the United States Agency for International Development, through which the U.S. trained dictatorships in torture, assassination, democracy suppression, and other crimes.
Sanders—who is Jewish but not religious and lived on an Israeli kibbutz over 60 years ago—earlier this month called on Congress to block additional U.S. military funding for Israel, a pushback against the Biden administration's request for an additional $14.3 billion for a country already receiving nearly $4 billion in annual armed aid. Biden has also twice bypassed Congress to fast-track "emergency" arms shipments to Israel.
During Sunday's interview, Sanders also weighed in on last week's bombing of Yemen by U.S. and U.K. forces in response to Houthi rebels' attacks on Red Sea shipping.
"The president has a right to respond on an emergency basis to the disruption of international shipping brought about by the Houthis," he said. "On the other hand, he's got to get to Congress immediately. It is Congress that has a right to declare war, not the president of the United States. So I hope this issue gets to Congress immediately."
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Sanders Says No More US Money for 'Grossly Disproportionate' Israeli War on Gaza
"The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza."
Jan 02, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday reiterated his opposition to giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government another $10 billion in unconditional aid to continue waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement echoing his remarks on the Senate floor and a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden last month, Sanders (I-Vt.) argued that "the issue we face with Israel-Gaza is not complicated. While we recognize that Hamas' barbaric terrorist attack began this war, we must also recognize that Israel's military response has been grossly disproportionate, immoral, and in violation of international law."
"And, most importantly for Americans, we must understand that Israel's war against the Palestinian people has been significantly waged with U.S. bombs, artillery shells, and other forms of weaponry," he continued. "And the results have been catastrophic."
Sanders—who briefly lived in Israel in the 1960s and has said that he is "proud to be Jewish" but "not actively involved in organized religion"—has been criticized by many progressives for refusing to call for a cease-fire in Gaza. However, he has also been vocally opposed to Netanyahu's far-right government and the mass killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces.
The senator noted Tuesday that since Hamas led the October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed over 22,000 Palestinians in Gaza—the majority of them women and children—and injured another 57,000, according to local officials. Legal scholars and other critics around the world have increasingly accused Israel of genocide, including at the International Court of Justice.
The Israeli assault has devastated civilian infrastructure, displacing about 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents. Roughly 70% of homes have been damaged or destroyed, and many hospitals have had to shut down. Disease and hunger are rapidly spreading.
As Sanders highlighted, Arif Husain, chief economist at the World Food Program, told The New York Times on Monday that the worsening humanitarian disaster in the besieged enclave was historically horrific, with 20% of the population facing an extreme lack of food.
"I've been doing this for about 20 years," said Husain. "I've been to pretty much any conflict, whether Yemen, whether it was South Sudan, northeast Nigeria, Ethiopia, you name it. And I have never seen anything like this, both in terms of its scale, its magnitude, but also at the pace that this has unfolded."
As Israeli forces have killed civilians in Gaza with American weaponry amid mounting fears of a broader regional conflict, Biden has pushed for a $14.3 billion package for Israel that includes $10.6 billion for assistance through the Pentagon, $3.5 billion for foreign military financing, and $200 million to help protect U.S. embassies and personnel.
"Congress is working to pass a supplemental funding bill that includes $10 billion of unconditional military aid for the right-wing Netanyahu government to continue its brutal war against the Palestinian people," Sanders said Tuesday. "Enough is enough."
"Congress must reject that funding," the senator asserted. "The taxpayers of the United States must no longer be complicit in destroying the lives of innocent men, women, and children in Gaza."
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Biden's Faith and Support for Genocide in Gaza
As a self-proclaimed observant, practicing Catholic, you have not only failed to heed Pope Francis' figurative encyclical regarding Gaza but are shipping billions of dollars of weapons into the arsenal of the Israeli government.
Dec 31, 2023
We and many other organizations and peaceful protesters in our country have worked in vain to persuade President Joe Biden to use his influence to have the Israeli regime agree to a ceasefire that would allow hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks daily into the devastated graveyard that is now the Gaza Strip. Biden regularly begs Israel to let in more trucks, paid for by the U.S. At the same time the Biden administration exercises veto power on the U.N. Security Council blocking a cease-fire, truce, or negotiations toward a permanent two-state resolution. A cease-fire would at least allow aid to reach the besieged.
According to Professor Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, “[U]nless something changes, the world faces the prospect of almost a quarter of Gaza’s 2 million population—close to half a million human beings” can die within a year. (See, The Guardian, December 29, 2023).
We have appealed to Biden’s duty to apply vigorous diplomacy to this cascade of genocidal war crimes by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This means suspension of hostilities, and the immediate flow of critical food, water, medical, shelter, and other supplies for civilians, followed by serious negotiations toward a two-state solution. Instead, Antony Blinken, his secretary of state, behaves as a secretary of war shuttling between the U.S. and Israel.
We have appealed to Biden’s political sense and how he is losing the support of more Americans every day as the slaughters of children, women, the elderly and other innocents worsen.
None of these appeals has moved this co-belligerent in the White House. All that is left is to appeal to what he has said his practicing Catholicism means to him every day. The following letter addresses his conscience as a matter of his professed religious faith.
December 29, 2023
Honorable Joe Biden
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Re: Your Catholic faith. Aiding and abetting Israeli government genocide in Gaza including bombing the Holy Family Catholic Church and Convent. Abuse of power is a cardinal sin.
Dear Mr. President:
You describe yourself as a “practicing Catholic.” During an interview with The Jesuit Review on September 21, 2015, you emphatically asserted that all faiths have an “obligation to fight against abuse of power” as a cardinal sin worse than all others that should be arrested and defeated. You added that “every human being is entitled to be treated with dignity.”
In late October, Pope Francis decried the Israeli government’s post-October 7, 2023, attack on Gaza in a phone conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog: “It is forbidden to respond to terror with terror.” On December 17, 2023, the pope deplored as “terrorism” the bombing and killings by the Israeli government of two Catholic women, an elderly mother, and her grown daughter, and the wounding of seven others who had taken refuge in the Holy Family Catholic Church and Convent.
The Israeli government’s defense minister has dehumanized 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” and pledged to treat them, accordingly, denying them the dignity to which you insist each person is entitled according to your Catholic gospel.
You have acted unswervingly in support of the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza, including a siege that according to the Israeli defense minister’s proclamation means “no electricity, no food, no fuel, no water.” Article II (c) of the Genocide Convention in 1949, born of the Holocaust, defines genocide as, “Deliberately inflicting on [a national, ethnical, racial, or religious] group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
To complement the physical destruction caused by the siege, the Israeli government has bombed and invaded Gaza, killing tens of thousands of civilians, and displaced virtually its entire population targeting hospitals, ambulances, journalists, water mains, houses, apartment buildings, schools, offices, marketplaces, United Nations marked schools, UNRWA personnel, places of worship, and crowded refugee camps, roads, generators and electric networks, and more.
This is genocide by any yardstick. Pope Francis has denounced the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza as “terrorism.” As a self-proclaimed observant, practicing Catholic, you have not only failed to heed Pope Francis’ figurative encyclical regarding Gaza but are shipping billions of dollars of weapons into the arsenal of the Israeli government to assist its Gaza terrorism, including attacking the Holy Family Catholic Church. In your many expressions of support for what Netanyahu is destroying in Gaza, you have not found any room to express condemnation of this Israeli government’s attack on this lone Catholic Church in Gaza.
You have made the U.S. government into a “co-belligerent” under international law and have given a greenlight “with powerful weaponry” to what Netanyahu is doing to Gaza, including enabling him to block most humanitarian aid from starving, sick, and mortally injured Palestinians, a majority of whom are women and children.
The Israeli government has no self-defense justification for the genocide. It targets Palestinian civilians throughout Gaza wherever they are gathered, fleeing, sheltering, starving, and dying.
Practicing Catholics are made of more holy and peaceful convictions.
King Henry VIII was excommunicated by Pope Paul III in 1538 for divorcing Catherine of Aragon, a far lesser sin by your standards than the United States’ and Israeli government’s continuing “abuse of power” in Gaza, i.e., terrorism, war crimes, and genocide, promoted by American weapons, intelligence, and repeated lone vetoes in the United Nations Security Council—a cardinal sins according to your own yardstick.
What do you think Pope Francis should communicate to you?
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein, Esq.
Ralph Nader, Esq.
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Biden Ukraine Statement Highlights Hypocrisy on Gaza
"Read this statement from the White House today... but... change the words Russia, Ukraine, and Putin to Israel, Gaza, and Netanyahu," said journalist Mehdi Hasan.
Dec 30, 2023
While the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip are different for myriad reasons, Western leaders have been called hypocrites for opposing the Russian invasion but backing what global experts warn is a "genocidal" Israeli operation—criticism that was renewed Friday in response to a statement from U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden's statement came after Russia launched its "most massive aerial attack" since invading Ukraine in February 2022, killing dozens, injuring more than 150, and hitting "over 100... private houses, 45 multistory residential buildings, schools, two churches, hospitals, a maternity ward, and many commercial and storage facilities," according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After noting the impact of the "massive bombardment," Biden took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that his "objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped."
Journalist Mehdi Hasan—whose MSNBC show was just canceled after offering rare critical coverage of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on civilians in Gaza—shared that portion of the president's remarks on social media with a suggestion.
"I challenge you to read this statement from the White House today... but... change the words Russia, Ukraine, and Putin to Israel, Gaza, and Netanyahu," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Go on. Do it. See for yourself."
Biden's statement goes on to push for more money for Ukraine. Congress has not approved his $106 billion supplemental funding request from October that includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine and $14.3 billion for Israel—which already receives $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid annually and is now getting some weapons for its war effort without congressional oversight.
"The American people can be proud of the lives we have helped to save and the support we have given Ukraine as it defends its people, its freedom, and its independence," Biden said of the significant support the U.S. has provided over nearly two years. "But unless Congress takes urgent action in the new year, we will not be able to continue sending the weapons and vital air defense systems Ukraine needs to protect its people. Congress must step up and act without any further delay."
"The stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine. They affect the entirety of the NATO alliance, the security of Europe, and the future of the transatlantic relationship," he warned. "Putin has not just attempted to destroy Ukraine; he has threatened some of our NATO allies as well. When dictators and autocrats are allowed to run roughshod in Europe, the risk rises that the United States gets pulled in directly."
Since Russia invaded early last year, at least 10,000 civilians, including more than 560 children, have been killed, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said last month, warning that "the actual figure may be significantly higher given the challenges and time required for verification."
In the densely populated Gaza Strip—widely referred to as the world's largest open-air prison long before the Hamas-led attack on Israel sparked the current war—the death toll has hit 21,672 in just 12 weeks, including over 8,200 children, according to local officials.
As Israeli forces have used U.S. weapons to wipe out Palestinian families and civilian infrastructure in Gaza, experts have warned that continuing to arm Israel could make the Biden administration complicit in genocide. While the president recently condemned Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of the besieged enclave, he has also refused to withdraw his "unwavering" support and cast doubt on the civilian death toll, earning him a nickname among some critics: "Genocide Joe."
The South African government—a fierce critic of decades of Israeli apartheid and the current war in Gaza—on Friday initiated a case at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of breaching its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
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Once Again, Biden Bypasses Congress to Approve Arms Sale to Israel
"When Israel runs out of rockets to murder children with they simply hold their hand out to daddy for more," said one critic.
Dec 29, 2023
Citing "the urgency of Israel's defensive needs," the Biden administration on Friday said it would bypass Congress for the second time this month to approve an immediate arms sale to the key Middle East ally as it continues to wage a genocidal war against Gaza.
The Associated Press reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified lawmakers of the new emergency determination involving the sale of $147.5 million in equipment including fuses, charges, and primers for 155mm artillery shells that Israel has already purchased from the United States.
The unguided explosive rounds—which Israel is using in heavily populated urban areas—have a "kill radius" of about 50 meters, with shrapnel able to inflict lethal wounds on people hundreds of meters away.
"The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces," the State Department explained.
The move follows a similar State Department determination on December 9, which expedited 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), whose troops have killed and maimed more than 80,000 Palestinians—mostly women, children, and elders—during 84 days of near-relentless attacks on Gaza.
Some of the deadliest Israeli attacks of the war have been carried out with U.S. weapons, including an October 31 airstrike with 2,000-pound bombs on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp. More than 120 civilians were killed.
The State Department also said that "we continue to strongly emphasize to the government of Israel that they must not only comply with international humanitarian law, but also take every feasible step to prevent harm to civilians."
"The U.S. administration wholeheartedly supports the mass slaughter of Palestinians."
Critics pushed back against that language, with Ibrahim Zabad, a professor of international relations at St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, asserting on social media that the State Department's move to bypass Congress "shows the U.S. administration wholeheartedly supports the mass slaughter of Palestinians, their ethnic cleansing, and the demolition of Gaza."
British journalist Andy Worthington, known for his work chronicling the cases of Guantánamo Bay detainees, asked: "Do they think not enough Palestinian children are being orphaned or killed in Gaza?"
Eli Clifton, a senior researcher at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted Blinken's lamentation Thursday that 2023 "has been an extraordinarily dangerous year for press around the world." Blinken's statement did not mention the scores of journalists killed—sometimes allegedly on purpose—by Israeli troops during the war.
The U.S. already gives Israel almost $4 billion in nearly unconditional military aid each year. Since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks and Israel's retaliatory onslaught, U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly affirmed his "unwavering" support for Israel. His administration has blocked multiple global cease-fire efforts at the United Nations while seeking an additional $14.3 billion in armed assistance for Israel.
The United States has given Israel more than $150 billion in inflation-adjusted aid since the nation was founded in 1948 following a yearslong campaign of terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
While Biden recently decried Israel's "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza, he has refused to acknowledge what many international experts have called Israel's genocide against the people of the besieged strip. Some activists have dubbed him "Genocide Joe."
On Friday, South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Hundreds of rights groups and a handful of progressives in the U.S. Congress have implored the Biden administration to suspend military aid to Israel, while others including Democratic lawmakers have called for conditions to be placed on such assistance.
Earlier this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led a letter urging Biden to boost oversight of how American arms are used against Palestinian civilians. The letter specifically mentions 155mm artillery shells.
"The IDF has previously used these shells to hit populated areas including neighborhoods, hospitals, schools, shelters, and safe zones, causing a staggering number of civilian deaths," the senators noted.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll published on December 20, less than half of registered U.S. voters support sending military aid to Israel—an approximately 10-point decrease from the previous month.
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