Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a stark warning to Tel Aviv that Israel risked becoming no different from Hamas if it did not curb civilian casualties in Gaza. The senior official also said that the White House welcomed the opening of another border crossing into the territory, but would not be satisfied until more aid reached the Palestinians.
During a press conference in Brussels on Thursday, Blinken pinned blame on Hamas for the severe deprivation in Gaza but said Tel Aviv shared some responsibility and must assist the millions of refugees displaced by its bombing spree.
“What happened after October 7th could have ended immediately if Hamas had stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages, and put down its weapons,” the diplomat said. “But Israel is not Hamas. Israel is a democracy; Hamas, a terrorist organization. And democracies place the highest value on human life – every human life.”
He added, “It’s what distinguishes us from terrorists like Hamas. If we lose that reverence for human life, we risk becoming indistinguishable from those we confront.”
Blinken’s statement came amid Israel’s brutal six-month-long onslaught in Gaza, which has earned Tel Aviv much negative press in recent days given the scale of destruction and human carnage.
On Monday in central Gaza, Israel killed a seven-member aid team working for a US NGO, World Central Kitchen, with three strikes. The aid workers were from Western countries, including the US, provoking demands that Tel Aviv investigate the crime. Additionally, Haaretz reported that Israeli forces have established unmarked “kill zones” in Gaza that have resulted in the deaths of countless innocent Palestinians.
In response to the murder of an American aid worker, President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demanded that Israel protect civilian life and allow more aid into Gaza.
On Friday, Israel announced that it had dismissed two officers who approved the strikes on the aid convoy. It also said it would open an additional border crossing into Gaza to allow more supplies to enter.
Blinken said Washington welcomed the step; however, the White House wants to see results. Aid shipments in Gaza plummeted after October 7, when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that Tel Aviv would effectively bar all humanitarian assistance from entering the territory.
Before October, more than 500 aid trucks and other commercial deliveries were able to enter Gaza each day. In February, that sunk to a low of under 100 trucks daily. According to Tel Aviv, that number has slightly ticked up but remains at about 150 trucks per day.
In addition to increasing the number of trucks entering Gaza, aid groups say that only a ceasefire will allow aid to reach the most devastated areas of the Strip, where thousands remain on the brink of famine.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
Blinkey is off his rocker. Israel is worse than Hamas by orders of magnitude. He knows perfectly well the history behind the breakout of 7Oct. Perfectly well.
Israel sure kills more people. The 7th was bad, but it’s like Israel is competing in a video game to kill at minimum 10x more each conflict. And this conflict isn’t ending.
To win, Israel must expel them, and it hasn’t managed that. To lose, it would harm them without expulsion. It’s doing just that. The martyr race.
To massacre a defenseless nation by starvation and 2000 pound bombs and more is the most brutal genocide. Are the dehumanized Zionists even human?
Rothschild demons.
The families of the 250 + IDF troops killed in Gaza disagree with your term “defenseless”.
Lie, deny and occupy! ;-/
Well, how many starving babies does it take two kill some IDF? Does it matter what the parents of some 15 000 killed children think of the heroic IDF scum?
The crocodile tears for the brutal Israeli IDF thugs are embarrassing. The majority of Israelis support the starvation and slaughter of Palestinians among them thousands of infants and babies. Why cry for Israelis?
Relatively speaking. Israel can bomb with impunity.
The families support the war and they should know in war soldiers get killed, soldiers kill babies too, they know it. So stop your crying for the poor IDF soldiers getting killed.
Remember: That is what happens in war, look at Gaza, DEATH and DESTRUCTION, THAT IS THE REAL LEGAZY of the butchers Biden and Netanyahu and all the other war criminals.
The 7th was bad, but it’s like Israel is competing in a video game to kill at minimum 10x more each conflict.
2008 – 899/33
2009 – 1066/11
2010 – 95/8
2011 – 124/11
2012 – 260/7
2013 – 39/6
2014 – 2328/88
2015 – 174/26
2016 – 109/12
2017 – 77/17
2018 – 300/13
2019 – 138/12
2020 – 30/3
2021 – 349/11
2022 – 191/21
Nicely done wars, nicely done and well done!
And yet the terrorists attacks continue.
Yawn……………………………………………………!
Yes, and the left column shows how many people the Israeli terrorists killed. Not up to their genocidal standards we see today, but disproportionate nonetheless.
To imagine a slithering liar like Blinken even exists in this sea of stars is almost crazy in and if itself;
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
But even if it were a full-blown terrorist attack by Hamas, the genocidal attack in response would still be equally wrong.
The counter act by Israel was necessary. Like terrorists supporters you are OK with terrorists attacks against Israel but whine about how hard the counter act is.
What are you, fucking illiterate? Learn how to write coherently. And the Israelis are conducting a genocide no matter how many times you repeat that hasbara gibberish. Genocides are always wrong.
Unbelievable steaming heaps of BS … does ANYONE believe what this clown says anymore?
“reverence for life”, eh? His predecessor Madam Albright said it better when she admitted the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children had been “worth it” … Worth what, exactly, she did not say …
More CYA by the Biden administration. All these supposed “phone calls” between Biden and Netanyahu probably don’t even exist or are done only to provide performative evidence that “Biden cares” for election purposes.
You don’t judge people by words but by actions. The administration continues to prepare for war with Iran and continues to support Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.
Israel’s crimes since 10-7 make the casualties of that day seem quite minor in comparison.
The IDF are the most murderous terrorists in the region, by far.
The IDF massacred 400+ Israelis on 7.Oct using Helicopeter gunships and tanks in a spray & pray display of the Hannibal
directive
Between the lines we can read the IDF killed more ISRAELIS 10/7 than Hamas did? How many Hamas/Palestinians were killed? Did the Israelis investigate and if so are there any final, credible numbers? Frankly, I don’t think so, just asking.
Nonsense.
You think the IDF acting out the Hannibal Directive killed more than 400 Israelis that day ?
It’s certainly possible given the massive firepower of the Helicopter gunships as well as Main Battle Tanks fireing wildy
Israel is much worse than ISIS. ISIS doesnt kill babies nor children intentionally and brag about it.
Nothing… , But hypocrisy…!
Israel funded Hamas. Some people say that Israel created Hamas. Israel is committing genocide, Hamas never did anything like that, and I don’t support Hamas except in its defense of Palestinians against Israeli aggression. If you can’t tell the difference between Israel and Hamas, there’s something really wrong with you. This stuff is just a distraction. Blinken is totally evil, screw him.
Palestinians aren’t being genocided by Hamas, Abe. The IDF is unintentionally or otherwise killing more Israelis than Hamas. The Hannibal Directive.
Why do you call him Abe?
A. Blinken. Abe (Abraham) Lincoln.
I read a website that he used A. Blinken to identify himself and his musical ability.
Presidential material and diplomat, he’s not.
Did you see his presser from Ukraine saying they will definitely join NATO? He looked like shit. And I thought “good”. Look what pain you’ve caused people.
When considering Gaza, the Middle East, and Ukraine, the Biden administration’s performance would be rated by most as horrific and highly destabilizing.
If we observe that Blinken and Biden are among the WEFers choreographing mass depopulation, then by Blinken’s silent admission, he’d admit to an exalted ‘professional’ competency.
Don’t forget eyes on China.
An abysmal rating across the global stage.
What else is new?
I just got that. It took me 21 hours.
If one learns what happened to Vietnam and Cambodia when it comes to being murderous butchers of innocent people. There is one country that makes Israel and Hamas look like amateurs.
The USA.
Yes, but by volume only. In relative terms, Israel is neck and neck with the US.
Blinken is saying that “Israel risks becoming no different from Hamas if it does not curb civilian casualties in Gaza“.
But the Israeli government has already killed tens of thousands Palestinians, mostly women and children!
If, in the eyes of the Biden administration, both Hamas and the Netanyahu Israeli government are evil and murderous, why would it still ship to the Netanyahu war machine thousands of bombs and F-15 fighter jets to drop them on Palestinians? That does make any sense.
Where is the equivalence about what the US government is doing?
Palestine fights for freedom, Israel fights for Apartheid..
Israel fights for survival. The destruction of Israel is the stated goal of the Palestinians.
No, it isn’t.
OMG WTF am i just another dimwit who tries to pretend that my outrage actually means something?
i was trying my damdest to be a serious musician in the ‘8o’s. what. i thought that these dudes were cool for about 1 week until i decided that they were just more weirdos.
In the early days of the war, Biden underscored the scale of the Hamas attack by saying it was equivalent to 15 9/11s for a nation of Israel’s size. The equivalent figure for Gaza, where more than 20,000 people have been killed, is now approaching 900.
Gaza has now experienced around 1400 9/11s if we just count the dead that have been found. The ones still under rubble or buried by Israeli bulldozers will never be known. So, for Israel to be indistinguishable from Hamas, we’d have to turn the clock back to October and they’d have to change their behavior drastically. Blinken is dreaming. Israel will now be distinguishable from all other terrorist organizations moving forward. They have no peers.
Yea, it’s like they value Israeli lives more. I hate seeing that.
Um, I guess colonialism was that way, but it’s just sad to see. It’s like Israel is just more extreme than others.
Colonial western powers are still white supremacists.
European based Zionists are simply repeating their true anti-life pro-money European colonial culture.
Motivation is a big big difference. Hamas is motivated by real and honest self-defense and because they are human some hate also, Israelis are motivated by hate and greed only, they call it their human rights.
I’m not a backer of Hamas because of their ideology. No one should live under Shiara law. But I do believe that they had/have the legitimate right to attack Israeli military institutions. I hope the Palestinians end up with better representation when this is over.
They and Iran do not practice Sharia law, the Sunni Arabs do. For political reason Hamas has been demonized, we have been fed tons of lies. The PA on the WB is totally corrupt and serves Israel if they know what is good for them. We would never go to war for religious reasons anyway, it is a valuable tool selling political interests and wars. Libya, Iraq, Syria all had freedom of religion, the US supported the most extreme Muslims against the governments including Afghanistan.
I wouldn’t want to live in Iran either. Any laws based solely on religious beliefs are bullshit. What’s the difference between “strict Islamic law” and “Shiara law”? And I agree that Hamas has been demonized for political reasons but that doesn’t mean they are someone I would want to be governed by. I feel the same way about Iran.
Laws are based on morals, religion is a bases of values. Other nations, other cultures have different believes they have to live with and we live with ours.
They have their cultural basis, the Palestinians have the right to pick their government, if they like Hamas so be it, the Israelis like their Likud and we have our own issues. Separation of Church and State is in our constitution, but that is not what religious people like, it is not reality, we have a washed down version, we have a Catholic dominated SC deciding women’s issues, including contraceptives and abortions. It is an interesting and complex issue. (They do say, to keep the peace don’t discuss politics and religion)
And all I’m saying is I wouldn’t want to be governed by Hamas. Or live in Iran’s Theocracy. My support for either ends at their right to protect their people. But my perception of them, as a whole, doesn’t change because of who their enemies are.
This is an insult to Hamas.
Ah, there’s the ol’ Blinken and the Israelis again. Lying effortlessly even in the face of undeniable facts caught on camera.
Lying effortlessly (thank you Erik). Another tall tale from Israel. What is the ACTUAL “number of trucks” and what is ACTUALLY permitted by Israel to be carried in those trucks? Can we at least use the word “allegedly” 150 trucks? Who inspects the truck contents? How many and what items were removed by Israel? Any independent body can certify that trucks were loaded with food and actually crossrd into Gaza? And which agency is authorized to take those trucks and drive them into which part of Gaza? Which agency is authorized to distribute?
Let’s consider another number – 500 – the number of aid trucks Israel was allowing in Gaza before it went from merely being an apartheid state to a Genocidal one.
And those 500 weren’t enough. So, the genocide started on a society that already had portions of it being “food insecure”. Not to mention 96% of their water was contaminated before the genocide started.
OMG we got nothing. WTF can we ever be something?
no. we can not ever be something.
we got nothing =
What are we even talking about when mentioning Hamas? Israel doesn’t make any distinction between a Hamas fighter and a Palestinian toddler and therefore almost all of Western media automatically can’t either. But Blinken deploring that Israel is becoming indistinghuishable from Hamas in Gaza is something like Himmler deploring that the SS is becoming indistinguishable from the Jewish resistance in Warsaw.
The ANC was a terrorist organization until world condemnation forced the US into opposing the apartheid SA government it had been arming and supporting for decades. However it was the terrorist organization, Israel, that in 1975 offered to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa – birds of a feather. Oh wait, Israel’s never been designated a terrorist organization, but then neither has the world’s largest perpetrator of terrorism – the US.
This too. “Records of Israeli arms sales during Rwandan genocide to remain sealed Supreme Court denies attorney’s petition to reveal defense exports to the African country, citing risk to national security, foreign relations” — Times of Israel
Well, they obvoiusly don’t, if they can kill 50 times more people and still yet think they can say they respect all human life.
That guy is a slow learner and he attended the best schools money can buy. The Zionist Biden administration is enough to v*mit.
To call it what it really is.
It is not a war. It is genocide, the massacre of defenseless people being killed with 2000 pound bombs and plain denial of food and water, medical care, and shelter and basic necessities like sanitation.
It is a most brutal massacre of people, including infants and toddlers by a nuclear military terrorist nation funded by another nuclear power, the USA. Their motivation is greed for land, natural resources and power.
The undisciplined brutal IDF people are the real Israel and USA. Both nations are being governed by out of control criminals.
The US is happily moving toward WW3 with obese soldiers, crappy ships and planes while anti war dot com happily chronicles the whole mess, and solicits funds while not taking an anti-war stance involving many countries, especially China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. There is no attention given to stopping a mistaken foreign policy with no recognition of Pentagon and media failures which are pushing uneducated Americans into the “thank you for your service” baloney. . .Face it, anti-war dot com has not positively affected anything, really. Nothing to show for it.
Face it, they have contributed to the opposition. Who are you?
I’m a numbers guy. And 30,000 is greater than 1,200 regardless of how each side reached their outcomes.
Yes 30,000 is greater than 1200. So is 1,000,000 greater than 2400, The 1,000,000 is the estimated number of Japanese kill in the bombing Japan’s cities and 2400 is number of American that died at Pearl Harbor. So what is your point?
Your point seems to be that the US is more terroristic than Israel. It’s close but you’re probably right.
Let us help the Secretary of State make the distinction between Hamas and zionists:
One is genocidal; the other is not.
One is Semitic; the other is antisemitic.
One is fighting to keep land; the other is fighting to take land.
Bibi and Biden are indistinguishable.
No reason to compare… It was obvious since Ten Seven…!
Blather blather blather…Here have some more bombs.
Definitely a blinken idiot.