He also called on Israel to take immediate steps “to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers” and “made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action on these steps,” according to the White House statement.
Finally.
I wonder if the recent news stories about “Lavender” and Israel’s grotesquely high acceptable civilian casualty rates had any bearing on this seeming shift in policy.
no doubt the IDF indiscriminately blowing up aid workers has something to do with it
Western aid workers, most importantly.
Over 100 aid workers have been killed since last October, but the others weren’t nearly as newsworthy due to being of Arab descent.
In circumstances eerily similar to the recent drone strikes on WCK, aid workers and medical staff working with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) were bombed and killed by Israeli forces even though they had notified the IDF of their location, and their convoy was fired upon as they tried to evacuate workers and their families from northern Gaza.
but the others weren’t nearly as newsworthy due to being of Arab descent.
You may want to add an “apparently” to that or I’m afraid it could be taken the wrong way…
How fucked that indiscriminately blowing up children isn’t sufficient, but I’ll take whatever positive progress possible.
Probably not as much as an American citizen being killed by Israel on Monday, unfortunately.
Probably more likely the recent WSJ polls showing him losing his ass across all swing states. He’s a cipher. He’ll just move with the numbers.
Its not like the absurdity of Israels ongoing genocide stopped him before; philosophically, Biden basically is a Zionist. He’s one of the most pro-Israel Democrats there is.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/03/trump-biden-polls-2024-00150322
This will be a bit of a tangent, but I can’t believe people approved of Trump’s time in office. Are people’s memories that short? Every day was something else crazy. He basically caused this economic crisis by messing with the money in dumb ways, killed an Iranian general almost dragging us into a war, worsened this crisis in the Middle East, kids in concentration camps being separated from their families, unbelievable high amounts of corruption and turnover, impeached twice, botched Covid because they were mad at blue cities and didn’t like governing, and it ended with an attempted coup. It just never ended. Every day was something new and stressful. 51% of people saying they approved of Trump’s time in office from that article you posted just blows my mind. Just shows how dire straights America is in, how strong the propaganda is in Fox News and OAN.
And the sad part is that it doesn’t matter what I think, it only matters what the people in those swing states they polled think.
51% of people saying they approved of Trump’s time in office
I think its not that complicated for people. They look at their bank accounts, they look at their wallets, they look at their job prospects and world around them, and they can pretty easily conclude: their lives were better under Trump.
It doesn’t matter that Trump had nothing to do with things going well then, and was likely making it worse, because peoples lived experience was that their lives were better. Biden inherited a shitwagon going off a shit cliff. He did turn things around, a bit. But a bit is not enough. People are still suffering. They look at the state of things and think “Well things were better then”. Its not a complicated calculus, even if its wrong.
The majority of people aren’t watching OAN or Fox news even. They arent watching anything really. Their calculations are very very simple.
Whatever he is, I’ll gladly accept Biden’s change in position on this.
And he IS moving in the right direction, even if at a glacial pace; Trump just wants to blow it all up already.
You might have missed it, but Trump has already pivoted on Gaza. It happened at neck snapping speeds. He’s pivoted to being highly critical of Bibi and is basically telling Israel they need to be done. He’s basically trying to be to the left of Biden on Gaza at this point. Now if that would hold up once he’s in office… eh. But that’s the rhetoric as of today/ a few hours ago.
Huh, well that’s me corrected, for the next five minutes at least, lol. To be honest I don’t see it as anything but verbal posturing, because his eagerness to blow it all up is rooted directly in the crazy ass Christofascist/evangelical end times religious thing he and his churchy stans have going on right now, where they think if they can arrange things so that armies surround Jerusalem (a biblical prophecy that would indicate the imminent return of Jesus) it punches his divine plane ticket and they can get him back sooner.
I can’t even begin to parse the rest of that delusional shit, but even beyond the deranged biblical twist I don’t think he’s going to be able to keep it up, just because his base is made of pro-Israel brown-people haters who will probably not take this well if it continues. But thanks for taking the time to let me know the wind has whipped him around again, I had no idea.
I’m also going to speculate Iran’s threats to retaliate for the consulate bombing has their attention. Biden doesn’t want to start a war with Iran before the election, or at least I hope not
I don’t think the title is accurate. I don’t have access to the full text of the WSJ article, but according to the Guardian
He underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged the prime minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.
Unless I’m missing something, Biden is not demanding a unilateral Israeli cease-fire. The cease-fire is still conditional on the release of the hostages.
The cease-fire is still conditional on the release of the hostages.
That appears to be what is changing, as they are not mentioned front and center anymore, and the NSC spokesman John Kirby refers to a “shift” having taken place since the World Central Kitchen workers were killed:
The U.S. has been pressing for a cease-fire in Gaza for months, though Biden had conditioned the cease-fire on Hamas’s willingness to release the more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza. According to the White House statement Thursday, Biden told Netanyahu “that an immediate cease-fire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged the Prime Minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home.”
The White House statement was followed by an even more pointed warning against Israel by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“If we don’t see the changes that we need to see, there will be changes in our own policy,” Blinken said at a press conference in Brussels.
John Kirby, the White House National Security Council spokesman, wouldn’t say in a briefing to reporters after the Biden-Netanyahu call whether the U.S. was considering placing conditions on military aid to Israel. “There are too many civilians being killed,” he said.
Kirby said that the U.S. was expecting Israel to take steps the U.S. is seeking in the coming “hours and days.” He added that Biden was “shaken” by the deadly strikes on aid workers for World Central Kitchen in Gaza this week, explaining the timing of the U.S. shift toward Israel. “I would characterize this call as very direct, very businesslike, very professional on both sides.”
Archive link: https://archive.ph/vQYx7
Has anyone told Biden that israel is actively violating a binding UN ceasefire resolution?
Haven’t you heard? He threatened them with even harsher threats if they don’t comply this time.
I heard he might also get oven more outraged.
theyre getting dangerously close to seeing him slam his fist on a table
Flummoxed, even.
I hear tabloids might be able to use “stern” if they don’t stop immediately.
They added it to the meeting notes right after selling the jets.
There was some serious finger wagging this time around and the finger will be wagged in an even more serious manner if they don’t comply.
While still providing them with weapons the other day.
That’s the point of my comment.
Several times 2000lb worth of hyprocrisy.
No, that particular resolution was for a ceasefire during Ramadan, which is now over. Of course, there other UN resolutions it is violating, and it had violated that one, but to be fair it isn’t currently violating it.
I thought there were a few days left.
There are
I thought Biden just had a bunch of people over at the whitehouse for Eid, and some of them stormed out in protest. I thought Eid was the end of Ramadan?
Edit: Here it is. Ah, I thought the iftar meal was the one on Eid, not just a normal sun-down meal.
yeah, should still be binding until early nextly week, around Tuesday.
Lol at the UN being binding
All UNSC resolutions are binding.
Though israel has ignored like 160 other UN resolutions (not all security council) so international law doesn’t mean much since nobody enforces it.
Maybe Biden can write poems and sing songs about how much he wants to genocide to stop.
Words are irrelevant while he continues to send them the tools they use to carry out the genocide.
And if they DON’T then they’ll only get a couple HUNDRED world ending Bombs instead of a couple THOUSAND!
World ending?
Are they sending nukes?
No
Remember, this isn’t about being rational, it’s about undercutting support for Biden.
Shame on them for getting emotional about genocide, amirite?
Yeah, seriously, they should think with their emotions instead of their heads. It’s exactly why Trump supporters are right about the election being stolen, because it feels like it was to them!
“you better stop using all of those guns and bombs I sold you, or else! Also the high-end fighter jets should be arriving this week, ttyl”
I know you were joking, and it’s still bad, but the jets order is for 5 years from now. Which is longer than sometime this week.
Strong words are nice, would have been better 6 months ago.
At this point, it’s time to stop sending them more bombs at a minimum. Biden gets on the phone and says this bullshit, then turns around and circumvents Congress to sends billions in bombs anyway. Bibi responds by going in Israeli news media and just dunks on him for being Israel’s lil removed, it’s pathetic.
At a certain point, and maybe we’ve already surpassed this - Biden will lose voters to Trump because Biden’s “Israel First” policy doesn’t sound as good as Trump’s “America First”
Upon reading this headline, my initial question was “or what?”
Biden has previously signaled that he wouldn’t halt arms shipments to Israel and has said U.S. support for the country in its defense against Hamas is unflinching.
This week, the Biden administration authorized the transfer to Israel of over 1,000 500-pound bombs and over 1,000 small-diameter bombs, U.S. officials said.
Oh.
NPR noted that even if the US stopped all shipments right now, Israel has enough weapons and munitions to continue on their own for several months.
So… Why are we sending them weapons?
From a political/military perspective, they are by far our most reliable ally in the region. The government wants to keep them happy. If we don’t, someone else will.
So, genocide is fine as long as it ours and we must keep them happy doing it.
That’s what some people seem to think. I was only explaining the rationale; I don’t agree with it.
How useful is Israeli as an ally really? They threaten huge costly wars constantly, destabilize the region, and export right wingism. They’re at best an R&D project of the department of defense.
Damn… yo they should let someone else then!
Because many of the sales were agreed to before the war started and it takes congressional approval to change or cancel the deal. Our Congress is a mess right now and couldn’t pass a resolution that water is wet.
Stop lying to support a genocide
It would still be a clear, powerful message.
He’s still trying to get away with just talkie-talkie (with a wink and a nod) to save his presidency in the upcoming election.
Anybody who is not a commited tribalist and has even the slightest wiff of skepticism is by now, having seen all that Biden has said and done in the last 3 months, well beyond believing mere words from this US Administration: only actual actions (not promises of actions, actually doing it) will even just begin to offset the months of actions in the very opposite direction (including the recent sending of 2000lb bombs to Israel, since those are well known for causing massive civilian casualties when used).
Sanctions on Israel would be a good start.
One day later and we can conclude that there is no ceasefire and this was a PR stunt from Biden.
