Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown has expressed concern that Israel’s killing of Palestinian civilians will help Hamas recruit more militants and cautioned against a long war in Gaza.
Asked by reporters if the high civilian casualty rate will create more Hamas fighters, Brown said, “Yes, very much so. And I think that’s something we have to pay attention to.”
“That’s why when we talk about time — the faster you can get to a point where you stop the hostilities, you have less strife for the civilian population that turns into someone who now wants to be the next member of Hamas,” he said.
Brown, who replaced Gen. Mark Milley as the top US military officer last month, said Israel’s stated goal of eliminating Hamas is a “large order” but did not call for a ceasefire. He also claimed Israel was following the laws of war despite the massive child casualty rate.
Israel has been relentlessly bombing Gaza since October 7 and launched a ground invasion of the north on October 27, but a US official told The New York Times recently that the campaign has not come close to destroying Hamas.
The Times report, published on November 4, reads: “One senior US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details, said the operations so far have not come close to destroying Hamas’s senior and middle leadership ranks.”
Regardless of the US concerns and the White House acknowledging Israel has killed “many, many thousands of innocent people,” the US is providing unconditional support for the war. The Pentagon has said there are “no limits” on how Israel can use its US-provided weapons.
Maybe holding back some of the exorbitant funding we continuously give, annually to Israel. Billions of dollars… Take it back and see if you get a different response….
Turn off the money/weapons spigot. Now! We are a co-belligerent in ethnic cleansing, genocide, crimes against humanity.
The annual funding given to Israel is around 1 percent of their GDP. So stopping will not change Israel polices. What it will do is decrease US influence of Israel polices such as it is. Which is not that much.
US aid comprises about 16% of Israel’s military budget.
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/
If the US stopped that funding, Israel, which already spends more than 12% of its budget on the military, would face very difficult choices and realities.
Even more importantly, Israel is protected from hostile neighbors by the threat of US military force. If that threat did not exist, Israel would be facing existential threats from every side.
If the US told Israel to stop or face real consequences, Israel would stop.
Israel defense spending on percentage of GDP and government budget is not so different than the USA. They would endure a reduction in US aid. And don’t forget, a fair amount of the $4 billion goes to buying US weapons system. It does not matter, because the US Congress is not going to cut Israel aid. The opposite will occur once the GOP is done playing games.
Israel has for 75 years faced existential threats, including three major wars. That is why Israel has between 80 to 300 nuclear warheads and the ability to deliver them. These warheads are the real protection Israel has from Arab nations attacking Israel.
“The annual funding given to Israel is around 1 percent of their GDP.”
And countries in NATO are asked to contribute 2% of their GDP to the alliance (most don’t) – and look at how that alliance has wrecked Ukraine, and consider how, if NATO didn’t exist any more and the EU had its own collective security establishment (if it felt it needed one), all of the weapons and hardware dumped off NATO shelves into Ukraine, wouldn’t have been.
And if your second paragraph was true Russia would be occupying all Ukraine right now. Also Russia could take any other country they wanted in Eastern Europe. Bye bye Baltic states.
From my own words : “…if NATO didn’t exist any more…” – and to clarify and reiterate a consistent point of mine… If NATO had folded up when the USSR did, we would not have the current state of problems in Europe that we do because NATO continued to exist.
Worst-best case, NATO continued past 1991 BUT incorporated post-Soviet Russia into its fold. Then modern Europe is still better off.
It is true that NATO exists to counter the threats created by the continued existence of NATO.
Why is it that Israel, a staunch ally, takes the money and runs and leaves us listening to the wind blowing thru the trees?…..
They aren’t officially an ally though, are they ? We have no treaty with them anyhow. They don’t even want one, for obvious reasons. A “special relationship” suits them fine, as it doesn’t obligate THEM for anything.
“Brown, who replaced Gen. Mark Milley as the top US military officer last
month, said Israel’s stated goal of eliminating Hamas is a “large
order” but did not call for a ceasefire. He also claimed Israel was
following the laws of war despite the massive child casualty rate.”Lying mother f*cker!!! It is a crime against humanity.
In the present day US military, assholes rise to the top.
Yeah, first he says something that makes sense about killing civilians and then he remembers who he is and condones it. You don’t get that many stars without burying your nose up someone’s ass.
And these psychopaths have nukes….”following the laws of war”
I already “pay attention.” But the rest of us are like, “We keep starving and killing them, then their children become terrorists. That’s 100% proof that they are all violent, uncivilized terrorists.” It’s as close as you get to a self-fulfilling prophecy–except we knowingly keep fulfilling it.
The “War on Terror” was and is a war OF terror.
The two most immoral and racist killing nations on Earth are having a hard time against purposefully impoverished, highly motivated Gaza.
It’s a war between the”haves” and the “ have nots”. the”Haves” literally control everything in the western world: banking, Hollywood movies, politics, etc. the “ have nots” are scared to be the next Iraq, circa 2003
But as BRICS is starting to demonstrate – the “have nots” are beginning to figure out there are more “have nots” than “haves”.
I will take my chances with the Have-nots. The Current Rulers are total lying pigs
Every day I become more of a have-not.
Meanwhile,China genocided Tibet,and is ready to conquer a free Taiwan,Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine.
I don’t get what point you are (failing to) make.
Please, restate with specifics instead of right-wing knee-jerks.
Lets hear-who are these haves that control baking and Hollywood-come on now….
Your question implies you know the answer. The most powerful lobbyist in the World is AIPAC. The most powerful mafia in the World is the ADL. It’s ok, we know you have to defend your people, too
“…these haves that control baking…”
I call them the Pentavirate : Julia Child, Betty Crocker, Robin Hood Flour, General Mills, AND Aunt Jemima BEFORE her branding went taets-oop.
I’m not a fan of Reagan , but….
Why Do We Let Israel And Ukraine Wag The US Dog?
The bind over Israel is yet more acute. According to widespread reports, Biden and his advisers believe that Israel is embarked on a mad project in Gaza. They see that the United States — having given Israel a green light, a blank check, and tons of bombs — will be held directly responsible for the awful humanitarian consequences. They don’t think Israel has defined a coherent endgame. They fear they are presiding over a moral enormity. They see a precipitous collapse in support from others….Biden has to worry about America’s larger role in the world and is alive to the likelihood that what is coming in Gaza will wreck America’s legitimacy. Who in the non-West could ever bear again a lecture from the United States on its zealous commitment to human rights? What would this do to America’s case against Russia?
On present trends — no exit to the Sinai for the mass of Gaza’s population, the complete collapse of the health and sanitation systems, relentless Israeli military pressure and economic blockade, 1.5 million already displaced — it is difficult to see how the total casualty count among Gazans avoids numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Probably many more will die from disease and epidemics than from bullets and bombs. The experience, as Netanyahu has said, will be remembered “for decades to come.” What if it registers in world public opinion as an historic crime?
….1982, when Ronald Reagan told Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to cease Israeli’s bombardment of Beirut. “Menachem,” Reagan said, “this is a holocaust.” To Reagan’s surprise, his threat of an agonizing reappraisal worked. “I didn’t know I had that kind of power,” he told his aide Mike Deaver. At the time of Reagan’s threat, the death toll from two and a half months of war approached 20,000, of which nearly half were civilians.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-israel-ukraine/
I’m not a fan of Reagan , but….
Why Do We Let Israel And Ukraine Wag The US Dog?
The bind over Israel is yet more acute. According to widespread reports, Biden and his advisers believe that Israel is embarked on a mad project in Gaza. They see that the United States — having given Israel a green light, a blank check, and tons of bombs — will be held directly responsible for the awful humanitarian consequences. They don’t think Israel has defined a coherent endgame. They fear they are presiding over a moral enormity. They see a precipitous collapse in support from others….Biden has to worry about America’s larger role in the world and is alive to the likelihood that what is coming in Gaza will wreck America’s legitimacy. Who in the non-West could ever bear again a lecture from the United States on its zealous commitment to human rights? What would this do to America’s case against Russia?
On present trends — no exit to the Sinai for the mass of Gaza’s population, the complete collapse of the health and sanitation systems, relentless Israeli military pressure and economic blockade, 1.5 million already displaced — it is difficult to see how the total casualty count among Gazans avoids numbers in the hundreds of thousands. Probably many more will die from disease and epidemics than from bullets and bombs. The experience, as Netanyahu has said, will be remembered “for decades to come.” What if it registers in world public opinion as an historic crime?
….1982, when Ronald Reagan told Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to cease Israeli’s bombardment of Beirut. “Menachem,” Reagan said, “this is a holocaust.” To Reagan’s surprise, his threat of an agonizing reappraisal worked. “I didn’t know I had that kind of power,” he told his aide Mike Deaver. At the time of Reagan’s threat, the death toll from two and a half months of war approached 20,000, of which nearly half were civilians.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-israel-ukraine/
Apparently Bibi thinks that slaughtering innocent natives is better than sex.
Held in check by Washington comprador regimes, the entire Moslem world is enraged; and if it comes to it,
there’d be no shortage of volunteers.
Brown is a complete Moron…!
A product of Obama Biden 3.0
And absolutely no different from any before Obama Biden 3.0
Trump was no different either
I thought he was implying Obama/Biden 3.0 as presently. So, I was including Trump.
So, stop them, like you would to any other country. Oh, sorry, I forgot…
The masks are finally coming off. Israel can no longer pretend that it cares about the rights of Palestinians. And the whole notion of Israel is based on a commitment to modern Judaic morality, which is a high standard. Lacking a commitment to fairness and justice for all, Israel becomes just what its best people sought to avoid: an ethnocentric religious state. Now that the process of ethnic cleansing is out in the open, it’s hard to put it back into the closet. Everyone in the world now knows that Israel intends to drive out all the Palestinians. The war now in Gaza marks a real turning point and there is no going back.
“Israel can no longer pretend that it cares about the rights of Palestinians” They never did. And neither does Palestinians care of citizens of Israel. They are enemies and will remain that way for a long time.
here’s why US elites support Israel no matter what
check out Joe Biden’s take @4:50
There are less die hard pro Israel pro Zionist people in America than independents, not to mention libertarians and socialists, therefore put you effort and wealth ( money ) to work for your causes like you do your mouth.
NOW the US says this… after killing countless civilians in the numerous illegal US wars
They don’t mean what they say anyway.
LOL stating the obvious , US commanders arn`t the sharpest tolls in the box are they ? , perhaps that`s why they have never won a war .
“never won a war” ? I wonder if the Japanese know that?