Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart on Wednesday amid Israel’s new bombing campaign in Gaza and reaffirmed the US’s “ironclad commitment” to Israel.
“Secretary Austin conveyed the Department’s ironclad support for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and its people, and he strongly condemned the launching of rockets by Hamas and other terrorists groups that targeted Israeli civilians,” the Pentagon said in a readout of the call.
The US has failed to condemn or even really address the Palestinian children that have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Austin also “reiterated the importance of all involved parties to take steps to restore calm.” But Israel appears to be set on escalating the situation and has rejected a truce offer from Hamas.
Also on Wednesday, President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the White House, Biden “conveyed his unwavering support for Israel’s security and for Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians.”
While Biden mentioned “protecting civilians,” he said nothing of the Palestinian children killed by Israel but made sure he “condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups.” Biden also conveyed the US’s “encouragement of a pathway toward restoring a sustainable calm.” But again, the Israelis show no sign of seeking a de-escalation. On Wednesday night, Israel’s security cabinet approved of an escalation of airstrikes in Gaza.
appalling
So apparently ‘defense’ has the same meaning in the Israeli lexicon as it does in the American one; any aggressive act you want to excuse can be expediently lumped into the catch-all category of ‘defense’ and supposedly thus ‘justified’ (sic). And simultaneously, any act of resistance by an occupied enemy still remains an ‘attack’. Noted: There is an Israeli ‘exceptionalism’ as well as an American one.
And don’t forget that the occupied are “terrorists”.
A minimum US$ 3.8 billion a year to Israel to murder Palestinians.
Palestinians are the current day Native Americans.
“The US has failed to condemn or even really address the Palestinian children that have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. Austin also “reiterated the importance of all involved parties to take steps to restore calm.” But Israel appears to be set on escalating the situation and has rejected a truce offer from Hamas.”
Shocking. Israel rejecting a truce offer after Austin says our support is Ironclad. I guess he didn’t read Thomas Knapp’s piece:
“If I hand my kid a wad of cash and say “please don’t spend this on booze and brass knuckles, but if you do, well, that’s okay, and there’s more where that came from”
Except that when the US dispenses the wad of cash not even a disingenuous request to not spend it on weapons is made. In fact, if there are any secret strings attached to the grants at all, I expect that they are explicitly for the purchase of US armaments.
I think years ago they had to spend 70% of our annual gift on armaments. I think.
Here are two brief video clips at a twitter site where Austin’s boss offers his thoughts about the Apartheid state.
https://twitter.com/Blike_Dante/status/1392210478462611470
From 1939, still relevant. Change the names and faces and we have Israel as Stalin and Palestine as the blonde.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b3140405b60dd8c78a187264a738d710883b00a4dd55f6f3e0e2e05a246f0e6d.jpg