The headline above is from Bernie writing a May 14, guest opinion for NYTimes. Title: The U.S. Must Stop Being an Apologist for the Netanyahu Government
Bernie expands toward the item title and goes Trump-Biden before ending:
Further, we have seen Benjamin Netanyahu’s government work to marginalize and demonize Palestinian citizens of Israel, pursue settlement policies designed to foreclose the possibility of a two-state solution and pass laws that entrench systemic inequality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel.
[...] the fact of the matter is that Israel remains the one sovereign authority in the land of Israel and Palestine, and rather than preparing for peace and justice, it has been entrenching its unequal and undemocratic control.
Over more than a decade of his right-wing rule in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu has cultivated an increasingly intolerant and authoritarian type of racist nationalism. In his frantic effort to stay in power and avoid prosecution for corruption, Mr. Netanyahu has legitimized these forces, including Itamar Ben Gvir and his extremist Jewish Power party, by bringing them into the government. It is shocking and saddening that racist mobs that attack Palestinians on the streets of Jerusalem now have representation in its Knesset.
These dangerous trends are not unique to Israel. Around the world, in Europe, in Asia, in South America and here in the United States, we have seen the rise of similar authoritarian nationalist movements. These movements exploit ethnic and racial hatreds in order to build power for a corrupt few rather than prosperity, justice and peace for the many. For the last four years, these movements had a friend in the White House.
[...] With a new president, the United States now has the opportunity to develop a new approach to the world — one based on justice and democracy.
[...]
In the Middle East, where we provide nearly $4 billion a year in aid to Israel, we can no longer be apologists for the right-wing Netanyahu government and its undemocratic and racist behavior. We must change course and adopt an evenhanded approach, one that upholds and strengthens international law regarding the protection of civilians, as well as existing U.S. law holding that the provision of U.S. military aid must not enable human rights abuses.
This approach must recognize that Israel has the absolute right to live in peace and security, but so do the Palestinians. I strongly believe that the United States has a major role to play in helping Israelis and Palestinians to build that future. But if the United States is going to be a credible voice on human rights on the global stage, we must uphold international standards of human rights consistently, even when it’s politically difficult.
Howie Klein at DWT also posts about Netanyahu. Title, Had Enough of Netanyahu's War Crimes? Briefly:
On Monday, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett were ready to tell the President of Israel that they had formed a government. Netanyahu didn't waste a moment. He started escalating the tense situation with the Palestinians and... bombs started dropping before anyone could say "wait a minute, buster."
Leaving out a reference to a candidate Howie characterizes as necessary or at least amenable to change toward Israeli gross conduct, change by our government starting in Congress he notes:
[...] An even-handed U.S. approach in the conflict between Israel and Palestine has never been permitted in American politics. It was a complete third rail. This latest round of brutal Israeli overreach is helping change that. Progressives in Congress-- not to mention candidates like Dalsimer-- are finally saying "enough is enough." Ilhan Omar (D-MI), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), AOC (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jamaal Bowman (D-MO), Marie Newman (D-IL), Cori Bush (D-MO), Betty McCollum (MN), André Carson (D-IN), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Joaquin Castro (D-TX) were among the Democrats willing to speak up against continued US military aid for Israel. FINALLY!
After linking to and quoting Bernie's NYTimes item, Howie adds another paragraph about a second supported candidate willing to support change of government policy toward the worse of Israel (with or without Netanyahu making bad worse).
Juan Cole has recently written and posted about current post-election U.S. policy: How Biden Enabled Israeli Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinian E. Jerusalem by affirming Trump move of US Embassy There.
“Making the enemy blind”: Did Israeli AF destroy Highrise housing AP and Al-Jazeera to Hide War Crimes?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Associated Press is flatly denying the Israeli military’s cover story for why it bombarded the al-Jala tower in Gaza, which housed media offices of AP and al-Jazeera, and where dozens of journalists were based. Israel maintains that there was a Hamas intelligence unit in the building that was targeting Israel.
This Israeli allegation is, of course, ridiculous. Hamas’s attacks on Israel are via little rockets with no guidance systems. A third of the Hamas rockets are so feeble that they actually land inside Gaza and have hurt Palestinians. The rockets fly blind and most land uselessly in the desert. So what would an “intelligence office” in an office building be doing that posed a danger to Israel? If they were on a computer on the internet, they could be anywhere– they didn’t have to be in the al-Jala.
[...] Plus, AP are reporters and I trust them that they would have investigated and known if Hamas was operating in their building, since they wouldn’t want their staff to be in the cross-hairs.
So the Israeli military is lying. It actually destroyed al-Jala because it was a highrise that gave AP and al-Jazeera journalists good sightlines for the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli generals don’t want those images going out to the world, because they are evidence of war crimes. The AP CEO admitted that the world will know less about what is going on in Gaza because that building was demolished.
Al Jazeera: “CEO of Associated Press ‘shocked, horrified’ over Israeli attack on Gaza bureau”
[...] The International Criminal Court in the Hague is already beginning an investigation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
[...] Even before this atrocity, the Committee to Protect Journalists had complained about Israeli attacks on journalists:
“On May 12, Israeli forces in the West Bank city Tulkarem arrested Hazem Naser, a Palestinian camera operator for the Amman-based broadcaster Al-Ghad, according to a report by his employer; he remains in detention today, and authorities have not disclosed the reason for his arrest.
Separately, two members of a right-wing Israeli demonstration in Tel Aviv assaulted a TV crew working for the Israeli public broadcaster Kan News yesterday, according to news reports.
Also, an Israeli air strike injured at least two Palestinian journalists with the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency . . . in Gaza, their employer reported.
“Israeli authorities must cease arresting and attacking journalists, who play a vital role reporting the news and bringing clarity amid chaos,” said CPJ Middle East and North Africa representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado.”
So Israel’s response was to destroy a whole communications office building full of journalists who had to run for their lives, leaving behind notes and footage that Israel did not want to see the light of day.
Basil Maghribi at Arab 48 reports that the number of victims of Israeli bombardment in blockaded Gaza rose Saturday night to a total of at least 150, including 41 children and 22 women, since last Monday, while the number of injured rose to more than one thousand.
The U.S. policy of subsidizing Israel's war machine with four billion annual dollars of taxpayer money needs revision to condition any "aid" to that theocratic nation be available only on honest effort to effectuate the two-state solution soon, without any more settlement activity of Jews into between Israel and the Jordan River. Enough is enough. And Netanyahu is too much.
At some point our nation has to halt making its international regard less by blind support of Israel's worse conduct toward Palestinian Arabs in land it runs as a wartime occupying force after seizing that land in the 1967 War.
THE ABUSE HAS TO END. FOR IT TO END ISRAEL MUST BE FORCED TO REASON. SO FAR U.S. POLICY HAS DONE THE OPPOSITE. THAT IS TRUE REGARDLESS OF RHETORIC AND SOPHISTRY AIMED AT HIDING THE BAD TRUTH. OUR NATION'S SUPPORTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE ATROCITY. THIS MUST END. BIDEN AND CONGRESS MUST REFORM U.S. POLICY.
_________UPDATE________
SHOCK AND AWE? OR JUST PLAIN OLD-FASHIONED SUPER TERROR? YOU HIT ME ONCE I HIT YOU A THOUSAND TIMES VERSION OF ISRAELI TERROR? YOU DECIDE, AND IN THE FOLLOWING, USE "TERROR" IN PLACE OF THE MINIMIZING WORDING, "DETERRENCE."
Quoting from Breitbart - 22 May 2021 - the full item, because it is short and hangs together more tellingly, with the word shift as above suggested, than an excerpt:
On Saturday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and U.N. Gilad Erdan stated that President Joe Biden supported Israel, there were disagreements over when to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and that while Israel did strike a significant blow against Hamas’ terror capabilities, it will have to see if they successfully restored deterrence.
Co-host Pete Hegseth asked, “Has the Biden administration been as supportive as you would like?”
Erdan responded, “Yes. And I don’t intend to give grades to the presidents of the United States. I was encouraged because I was on the president[‘s] and the prime minister[‘s] calls each time. They spoke on the phone like six times, and I heard a strong commitment that came from the president to the security of the state of Israel and our right to defend our citizens. He even said yesterday — or two days ago in his statement that he’s committed to replenish the Iron Dome system. So, yeah, he supported us. We didn’t agree on everything. I mean, the timing when to end this operation exactly.”
Hegseth then asked, “Are you saying you would have liked more time to hit Hamas?”
Erdan answered, “I’m not sure, really, I’m not sure. Because it’s — there is no specific formula when you need to end those military campaigns. You have to feel that you already succeeded, to restore your deterrence, and that is something that we will have to see and wait and see if that happened. But as I said, we succeeded to significantly degrade their terror capabilities. They didn’t expect such a response from our side, and I hope it will bring us some calm and relative periods of time like we had after the last operation that took place in 2014.”
BDS! That is the only answer to bring evil hubris to task. And you ain't getting it from Status Quo Joe anymore than you'd have gotten it from four more of Trump. It will happen, history has its ways, but sooner than later would be one whole hell of a lot more humane. This intimidating theocratic Middle East nation is modern day ROME in its use of disproportionate suppressive brutality, and should be made to stop. It is the equivalent of Bush-Cheney amok in Iraq. It smells of ultimate failure.
How it is. Not how it should be.
________FURTHER UPDATE_______
Saying the same thing the Israeli ambassador, more bluntly, without getting into any possible mixed motives the electability-challenged Netanyahu regime faced with the opposition poised to form a new government without Bibi, DWT, this post:
That Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza started becoming clear on May 12th, and has become increasingly confirmed by events since then.
On May 12th, Al-Arabia, CBS News, and other media, reported Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz as promising that "The army will continue to attack to bring a total, long-term quiet." And, "Only when we reach that goal will we be able to speak about a truce." Britain’s Guardian reported his speech as having said that "Israel vows not to stop Gaza attacks until there is complete quiet." Britain’s Express reported him as saying that "There is no end date and we will not receive moral sermons from any organization on our right to protect the citizens of Israel. Only when we reach that goal will we be able to speak about a truce."
In other words, Israel is promising that until Gazans are totally conquered, there will be no "truce": Israel will continue this until total victory is achieved-- conquest, surrender by all Gazans.
Throughout the conflict, U.S. President Joe Biden has said that America’s policy is to request that there be a truce. However, ever since at least May 12th, Israel has made clear that a "truce" will occur only when the Gazans are totally defeated, so that there is, in Gaza, "a total, long-term quiet." Does that differ from Israel’s announcing that they are ethnically cleansing Gazans from Gaza?
The difference would be equivalent to the difference between offering Gazans a choice ultimately between remaining quiet in the world’s largest-ever open-air prison, versus becoming totally exterminated by their enemy.
All readers should view the ambassador's "deterrence" spiel as euphemism for beaten-into-an-intimidated-submission by force, submitting to force, without any moral dimension intervening to lessen or leaven brutality against helpless civilians who may have ended badly dead, for being in the right place, but it was the wrong time.
There is good luck and bad. There have been no high destruction high fatality Israeli air strikes against Ramsey, MN; but that is cause to be grateful but not forgiving. Wrong is wrong, and ethnic cleansing fits into "wrong" very tightly, every time. Every time is the wrong time. Wrong place. Nowhere is there ever a right place, right time. BDS is needed. BDS is overdue.
__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Politico, carrying a 5/25/2021 AP feed, in part:
Netanyahu is fighting for his political life after a fourth inconclusive election in two years. He faces mounting criticism from Israelis who say he ended the offensive prematurely, without forcibly halting rocket attacks or dealing a heavier blow to Hamas.
In his remarks after meeting with Blinken, Netanyahu hardly mentioned the Palestinians. He warned of a “very powerful” response if Hamas breaks the cease-fire.
Netanyahu spoke of “building economic growth” in the occupied West Bank but said there will be no peace until the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.” The Palestinians have long objected to that language, saying it undermines the rights of Israel’s own Palestinian minority.
Blinken will also visit neighboring Egypt and Jordan, which have acted as mediators in the conflict. Egypt succeeded in brokering the Gaza truce after the Biden administration pressed Israel to wind down its offensive.
The administration had been roundly criticized for its perceived hands-off initial response to the deadly violence, including from Democratic allies in Congress who demanded it take a tougher line on Israel. Biden repeatedly affirmed what he said was Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Gaza.
The administration has defended its response by saying it engaged in intense, but quiet, high-level diplomacy to support a cease-fire.
Is it again time in the UN Security Council to vote "present" instead of "veto" when the remainder of the world wants to pass a resolution against the Netanyahu regime's excesses, yet again, where U.S. past veto usage has shielded Israeli evil toward the helpless occupied people. It seems Netanyahu's idea of economic bolstering the occupied territory is to cram more Jewish settlements into it. The man needs to be reined in, and if Biden will not do it, it will not get done. Biden is at fault for trying to maintain a straddle, pro-Israel in nature, against the remainder of civilization and against the weight of history. His U.N. ambassador should be empowered to enter a conscience vote in the Security Council, for a change.
It has been suggested in several web postings that Netanyahu instigated trouble in order to save his sorry ass from ouster as Prime Minister, whence he'd be duly prosecuted for taking a bribe and other criminal conduct.
Netanyahu is the Trump of the Middle East. And needs to be stopped.
BDS is the answer. Biden will not favor BDS, so atrocities will continue unstopped. The present ceasefire is only a lull. More force and power against wrong is needed.