As Israeli bombs are pounding Gaza, the US is standing firmly behind its ally. President Biden on Thursday said the bombing campaign that has killed over 100 people is not a “significant overreaction.”
“I have my intelligence community, the Defense Department, as well as the State Department … in contact with all of their counterparts, not only in Israel, but in the region, and one of the things I have seen thus far is there has not been a significant overreaction,” Biden said.
Israel’s bombing campaign began on Monday after rockets were fired out of Gaza in response to the ongoing violence against Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The first barrage of Gaza rockets did minimal damage, only leaving one Israeli “lightly injured.” Israel responded by carrying out a series of airstrikes in Gaza that killed 20 Palestinians, including 10 children.
As of Friday morning in Gaza, 113 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including 13 children. In Israel, seven people have been killed by rocket fire, including one child.
US officials have been calling for a “de-escalation,” but Israel shows no signs of slowing down. “The question is how do we get to a point — they get to a point — where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired in the population centers, but I expect I’ll be having some more discussions,” Biden said on Thursday.
On Wednesday night, Israel rejected a ceasefire offer from Hamas and approved a plan to intensify airstrikes indefinitely. Late Thursday, Israel started what Israeli media described as “the heaviest strikes yet,” as air and ground forces bombarded northern Gaza. So far, it appears no IDF troops have entered Gaza and are only attacking from the Israeli side of the border, but a ground invasion is reportedly being planned.
Israeli officials are warning that the brutal siege is far from over. While the IDF was readying plans on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said “Gaza will burn” if Hamas rockets continue to be fired.
Like other Israeli officials, Gantz is portraying the ongoing violence as the result of Hamas refusing to stop firing rockets. But the ceasefire Israel rejected on Wednesday was an offer from Hamas to halt attacks on a “mutual basis” with Israel, a proposal that got little attention from Western media.
It’s clear Israel is using this latest flare-up as an opportunity to launch a full-scale offensive against Gaza, and judging by Biden’s comments, the US is fully behind it.
Lick-spittle.
No kidding Israel’s rejection of the ceasefire offer got scant coverage. Also lacking coverage are the US vetos to discuss this at the UN Security Council. The big news is we sent an envoy. Sent an envoy.
Yeah. An envoy, which will hit their knees, in private, when they meet with Bibi.
The entire scenario was planned, premeditated, for one purpose: take more lands from Palestinians in the occupied territories (which make it illegal because Israel is the occupier), kill more Palestinians.
Our politicians are so frightened of AIPAC, it is beyond disgusting. “America the Great”. So laughable. A handful of Zionists control our government, which means we are controlled.
The Palestinians will go the way of Native Americans did on this continent, and we are paying for it, supporting it.
UNR 181 remain the only internationally recognized borders of the 2 states.
The plan called for Arab (Palestinian) area to be chopped up. There was never a plan for a contiguous area for them. Why would the Palestinians or Araba agree?
The current assault by settlers involves the same procedure.
The New York Times: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-map-of-israeli-settlements-that-shocked-barack-obama
are you sure about the 181 borders ?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine
I actually saw the ceasefire referenced in a headline on The Young Turks but when I went to click on it, I couldn’t get to the segment. Mind you that was on Facebook and I didn’t go to their website. I can see FB suppressing that.
It’s not an overreaction if you compare it to Israel’s brutality every time it decides to empty the shelves of their munitions on people packed like sardines who can’t adequately defend themselves. And isn’t it shocking that the Israeli counterparts to our intelligence community, defense department and state department say it isn’t an overreaction? And please do tell us what counterparts in the “region” are also on board with this not being an overreaction. No way in hell do they have any more knowledge than what was fed to our counterparts by those same Israelis Biden referred to. But you can throw bullsh*t out there when it concerns Israel without having to worry about anyone fact checking that bullsh*t.
So it IS an overreaction, and a crazy one.
Of course it IS.
The bombing of civilians is a typical fascist reaction when the oppressed oppose state repression and institutional violence.
Crazy, like a fox is crazy. This has been planned, right down to the ground assault.
Bombs will not make a sufficient number of Palestinians move, a ground assault, with air firepower will.
Secretly, Biden, will ask AIPAC, “did I do well, say the right things?”
The last gasp effort of Netanyawho to stay in power, with the attack on the mosque accompanied by the ethnic cleansing.
If not him, there are others in Israel with the same plan.
No doubt about that. It’s Netanyahu or “Gaza will burn” Gantz. They’ll try to outdo each other brutality wise.
Bibi doing his best Trump impersanation:
“We will hit them with strikes they have never dreamed of” Netanyahu said as he announced the assassination of senior Hamas commanders earlier on Wednesday.
During the last election cycle there were no decent choices with regard to foreign policy. For reasons of their own the Democratic Establishment forced the worst of a bad lot on us. Biden is a clueless and not-too-bright warmonger. He always has been.
There is no point of my raging about this – there is nothing at all I can do which will cause him or the bipartisan Congressional Apartheid state a@@ kissers to change their ways.
Trying to inform a few of my friends and relatives about the real situation may keep my blood pressure from spiking.
There never is. Any candidate that doesn’t genuflect to the Deep State insofar as enlarging the American Empire, gets pilloried by them, along with all the warmongering candidates and the media.
Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Tulsi Gabbard – for example. The rest of the candidates go into their war-whoops on stage to gang up on the peace candidate and naturally the so-called moderator(s) join in the lynching.
Biden doesn’t know the definition of Overreaction…!
Biden is underreacting to Israel’s strikes in Gaza. He is a lot like Trump and Obama.
Why don’t they just go in and get rid of Hamas and incorporate Gaza into Israel and let all the people there vote in Israeli national elections? Wouldn’t that be kosher for the only “Western style democracy” to do?
It would if Israel genuinely were such a thing. Israel has always been the Jewish State first, a democracy second. It wants to have its cake (the land) and eat it too (refuse the right of the return of refugees who fled the territory in the firt place, never mind offer votes to the people they’ve been bombing for decades). Israel claimed to have “left” Gaza when they removed the settlers. In reality, they control the borders and the port. It’s the definition of dictatorship: control of the land and the movements of its people without representation. The same applies to the West Bank, which still has settlers, and to Jerusalem, which is now being ethnically cleansed. It’s maddening.
What might his “Intelligence people” be telling him that makes this terror bombing not an “overreaction”? …that Hezbollah had smuggled in more qassams? …Iran evaded the Israeli blockade with a shipment of portland cement? …maybe some medical supplies got through? …or anti-Zionist school books with maps showing Israel within the ’67 borders? ….are these the Intelligence people that gave us all the “slam dunk’s” -Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya…?
the same CIA Gina Haspel types who enjoy torture so passionately?
Doesn’t matter where you stand on the conflict. I don’t see how you can call bombing apartment buildings and killing children not an overreaction.
Right, it’s just sickening.
And Gaza Tower. But Americans probably still think US bombing of Al Jazeera offices by the Americans (twice, in Afgahnistan and again in Iraq), was justified, because they actually show uncensored pictures of Arab victims. Of course, this time, the AP got bombed too.
when you start killing people for what they think, you’ve lost
Sorry to say that Hamas cannot dictate when Israel will accept a ceasefire. They cannot lob literally thousands of rockets at israeli civilian targets and expect to escape undamaged. Unfortunately, this happens every few years. Israel will stop when Hamas has been hurt to the extent that they will need a few years to regroup and rearm.
The Israelis said today that they won’t stop till Hamas stops. Well, you cannot do that till one side offers a ceasefire. Hamas did that. Israeli refused to accept it. What do they want, the right to keep killing kids for a few days after Hamas stops retalitating?
Please. Israel makes every effort to avoid civilian casualties. Unfortunately Hamas plants their weapons and hides their fighters in schools mosques and hospitals. This is a cynical attempt to either deter israeli retaliation or to incur Palestinian casualties which plays well to world media.
You’re either very naive, or Hasbra isn’t paying you enough to get you to make a real effort. Where were Hamas hiding in the Gaza Tower along with al Jazeera and the Associated Press? Which ofthe refugees in the camp actually Hamas in disguise?
I don’t understand. Israel brought down this tower after warning the owner of the building and all the occupants. It is for this reason that there were no casualties. I don’t remember the last time Hamas warned Israeli civilians that they were sending missiles their way. Do you?
“I don’t remember the last time Hamas warned Israeli civilians that they were sending missiles their way. Do you?”
The last time? Not sure. I know they did so at least as recently as May 5.
Those benevolent Israelis. That’s why there is only a 20 to 1 difference in the amount of deaths caused including 58 children and 34 women at last count.
And no warning on this one. 10 dead. 2 women and 8 children. That’s equivalent to the total killed in Israel thus far
“A local resident said the Israelis dropped three bombs on the house without warning, giving the residents no chance to leave.”
https://news.antiwar.com/2021/05/14/israel-bombs-civilian-home-in-gaza-killing-8-including-6-children/
I’m sure you’d be happier if the casualty toll was equal or greater on the israeli side. Too bad israel invests in bomb shelters and iron dome defensive missiles. The hundreds of millions that go to Hamas are used to build many kilometres of underground tunnels and offensive missiles. Many times more German civilians died than British civilians during the 2nd world war. That doesn’t make the German position any more righteous.
Twisting my words won’t work. I responded to you claiming Israel is the good terrorist and Hamas is the bad terrorist. And give Hamas the 3.8 billion instead of the hundreds of millions(?) and we’d see who would be building underground tunnels and investing in offensive missiles.
No twisting of words. I hear your argument all the time. Seems like people are ok with dead Jews. The problematic Jews are the ones that defend themselves. And you could give Hamas 10 billion dollars. It would only end up in the pockets of the thugs running the show in Gaza. Mrs Arafat is living in Paris with a few hundred million in her bank account that her husband stole from his devoted people
There’s a serious problem in the Arab world that has nothing to do with Israel. It’s nice to have someone to blame though.
There are certainly some people who are “OK with dead Jews.”
There are likely a few of them still here, but they’ve learned to behave themselves a little bit and not come out and say that.
I’ve never been under the impression that wars r u.s. is one of those people. He or she seems more like one of the people who doesn’t want any dead people, period.
You’re right that there’s a serious problem in the Arab world.
And it’s very, very similar to the serious problem in the Israeli world.
Thank you. And it’s he.
It was a general statement made, not specifically about wars r u.s. I don’t know him and have only read his responses to me here. There is no comparing Israel to her neighbours. Assad has murdered over 400,00 Syrians. Iran and their disciple Hamas openly state their goal to eliminate Israel. In fact the Hamas charter calls for the genocide of the Jewish people. Israel has problems. However, she has done remarkably well considering the challenges she faces by living in such a hostile environment.
The main difference between the Israeli regime and those of Syria, Iran, or Saudi Arabia is which ethnicities and religions are favored and which are suppressed.
Oh, and that some of those other regimes don’t caper around masquerading as “liberal democracies” while censoring the press, banning anti-regime political parties, denying the vote to substantial percentages of the people they rule, etc.
You are obviously not very familiar with the israeli press, some of which is extremely hostile to the government. Some publications are anti Zionist and propose the dissolution of the state. You may not be aware of the fact that Israel banned the Kach party, a radical Jewish right wing party. ALL israeli citizens can vote in elections. I assume you’re referring to Arabs living in the West Bank who are, of course, not citizens. Israel has a loud, vibrant democracy. There are Arab members of parliament. The United Arab List Party headed by Mansour Abbas held the balance of power in this most recent election. They might have been decisive had a war not broken out. There is an Arab Supreme Court Justice. There are inequalities in israeli society, but not in the law just as there are inequalities between different groups in all western democracies).
“You are obviously not very familiar with the israeli press.”
Other than reading it every day, you mean?
Most recent statistics I’ve seen from the Israeli Military Censor is from 2018 — 363 articles prohibited outright, 2,712 redacted. See also Section 173 of the Israeli criminal code, which imposes jail terms for “publish[ing] an advertisement that may blatantly offend the faith or religious sensitivities of others.” The regime also requires all journalists to register with the Government Press Office, and denies accreditation to outlets it wants to shut down (for example, Al Jazeera). Israel ranks 88th on the World Press Freedom Index.
Yes, I’m aware that some of the political parties that have been banned (or simply been forbidden to have candidates on ballots) have been ultra-Zionist parties.
“ALL israeli citizens can vote in elections.”
True. But the people living under Israeli occupation aren’t considered citizens. They just get to do as they’re ordered, or be killed.
I’m not saying Israel is the worst country on Earth or anything. It’s just another typical ethno-religious apartheid garrison shithole like many others.
“It’s just another typical ethno-religious apartheid garrison shithole”
When you write stuff like this, I realize that you have never seen the country. You seem to have no idea what Israel is about short of your cliched, anti-Israel rhetoric.
It’s too bad.
I don’t have any “anti-Israel rhetoric” to dispense. I’m an anarchist. Israel is a state, and not a special one. Do the math.
How would “seeing” the country change anything? Will Palestinians no longer be “cockroaches”?
It seems someone is lost. This is the Antiwar website. Hate, racism, and propaganda are not welcomed here. Those dead Syrians include Syrian soldiers and civilians. They were killed by terrorists supported by the US and Israel to conduct a regime change in Syria. Plenty of Arab monarchs are left to teach about democracy. Why focus on poor Syria? Peace.
What are you talking about? Most of the Syrians were murdered by Assad and Hezbollah. That’s not hate or racism. If you love Syria you should hate Assad and those who support him
You did an opinion poll in Syria? Makes perfect sense. The majority of Syrians must support Assad and keep re-electing him because he murders them. It sounds like you know about stuff. My neighbor has a perfect lot for you in Louisiana. If you’re not interested in swamp land, he has a bridge for sale in Alaska. Just call: 888-not-antiwar-are you?
Don’t need an opinion poll. Assad won 89% of the vote in 2014 because his people adore him. He’s a butcher and you probably work for him. Go post on baath.com.
No, I don’t work for anyone. I love people and don’t want them to die from starvation or war to satisfy warmongers. This is why I follow antiwar.com. The Syrian people don’t deserve to starve and die because you think their President is a “dictator.” But before I forget, why do you follow Antiwar.com?
The more interesting question is why you would follow and post on antiwar.com when you obviously support a mass murderer like Assad
Almost everyone who follows and posts on Antiwar.com supports one mass murdering government or another.
Maybe. But given the plethora of truly evil regimes in history, pacifism
Is immoral.
Exactly the rhetoric from warmongers who support mass murder of Syrians, Palestinians, Libyans, Iraqis, Russians, Chinese, etc. They have no shame and repeat the same warmongering propaganda against all these countries. They are barking up the wrong tree by posting warmongering propaganda on an antiwar website.
You did an opinion poll in Syria? It makes perfect sense. The majority of Syrians support and re-elect Assad because he murders them. Sounds like you know about stuff. My neighbor has a perfect lot in Louisiana for you. If swamp land not for you, he has a bridge in Alaska. Just call his number: you-are-not-antiwar-are-you?
I’m a pacifist. I catch and release insects from my house. Of course I have more respect for them than Israeli leadership. Or Hamas leadership for that matter. But you go ahead with your fantasies.
“And you could give Hamas 10 billion dollars. It would only end up in the pockets of the thugs running the show in Gaza.”
Easy fix. Make them spend it on military hardware like we do with Israel’s annual 3.8 billion. Then they could level some high rises and we could call that self defense and veto any condemnation coming from the UN security council.
Right, and when I shoot a bullet in a sardine can I’m doing everything possible not to hit a sardine.
Biden can burn in Hell.
Is this statement is Presidential,well,maybe not,we know it when we read it and we will see the deep meaning.
He says he has his own intelligence,but Russian Bounty Story appearantly wasn’t real, and based on that story made speache, so how we will have confidence as a ordinary folks that he has trust intelligence but failed and,now, Putin is number 1 powerful enemy,and as far as we know,he is
Equally powerful, hopefully not more powerful then Americans.
All it takes now; to how to start nuclear power and destroy the enemy without giving a chance to retaliation!
Perhaps creating fake Cyber Country and directing response of nuclear retaliation on that fake country in space ?
If this possible,it’s official I already patented design and technology.
We in the “civilized world” learn from each other:
General Moshe Dayan: ‘Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.’
Nixon’s madman diplomacy: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/nixons-nuclear-specter-the-secret-alert-1969-madman-diplomacy-and-the-vietnam-war
Trump’s madman diplomacy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/22/trump-madman-review-sciutto/