UPDATE: A bunker buster -
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| image source: https://www.radiohc.cu/index.php/pt/noticias/internacionales/341166-us-sends-deadly-bunker-buster-bombs-to-israel-[...]-gaza |
We send them to Israel. Israel airlifts them to Gaza. Best effort search result, the BLU-109 is not a depleted Uranium device, where Israeli dU use/non-use is unclear. If dU is used, it would exacerbate reported war-induced Gazan environmental harms.
____________END UPDATE____________
The post headline is an item paragraph shown below in context. Just note - That is one hell of a lot of death handed over to an effort to disproportionately harm neighbors.
Jaylani Hussein, director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said that Biden’s unwillingness to call for a ceasefire had damaged his relationship with the American-Muslim community beyond repair. (Cair-Minnesota is not involved in his work on the Abandon Biden effort, which the organization said Hussein is doing in his personal capacity.)
[...] After Israel resumed its bombing offensive on the territory after a five-day pause, the health ministry said 15,200 Palestinians, roughly two-thirds of them women and minors, have been killed thus far. Israel’s air and ground strikes began after Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took around 240 hostage in a cross-border attack on 7 October.
From behind a lectern that read “Abandon Biden, ceasefire now”, leaders from Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania issued similar warnings that the president could not afford to lose the support of the Arab-American community in states critical to his chances for re-election.
A recent poll showed Biden’s support among Arab Americans has plunged from a comfortable majority in 2020 to 17%.
Dearborn is home to the highest concentration of Arab Americans in a state that has the highest number, 211,405 , and the highest percentage of Arab Americans, at 2.1%. Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 2.8% of the vote. Arab Americans account for 5% of the vote, according to the Arab American Institute.
In Wisconsin, where there are 25,000 Muslim voters, Biden won by about 20,000 votes, Tarek Amin, a doctor representing the state’s Muslim community, said.
In Arizona, where Biden won by around 10,500 votes, there are over 25,000 Muslim voters according to the US Immigration Policy Center at the University of California San Diego, said Phoenix pharmacist Hazim Nasaredden.
About 3.45 million Americans identify as Muslim, or 1.1% of the country’s population, and the demographic tends to lean Democratic, according to Pew Research Center. Like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are also home to significant Arab-American populations and critical to Biden’s re-election mathematics.
The #AbandonBiden campaign began in Minnesota in October and has since spread to at least five other states represented at the conference.
[...]The Wall Street Journal reported that the US has provided Israel with 100 BLU-109, 2,000-pound bunker busters included in a transfer package of around 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells since 7 October.On Saturday, US vice-president Kamala Harris said that while the US supports Israel’s “legitimate military objectives” in Gaza, the suffering of the civilian population inside the enclave has been too high.
“Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering, and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating,” Harris said at a press conference in Dubai. “It is truly heartbreaking.”
At a meeting with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, Harris also said that Washington will not allow for the forced relocation of Palestinians or any redrawing of the current border of the Gaza Strip.
“Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza,” Harris said, according to a read-out of the meeting.
Against a backdrop of pro-Palestinian protest in the US, Muslim leaders gathered in Dearborn said Biden or likely Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump were not their only choices next year, and they could choose to sit out the election.
In a Biden - Trump contest, there are not other options. Enough said about that.
Supplying the explosives and saying, "We're bothered," is two-faced.
The key Harris language is -
Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza.
Three things, [1] Egypt and Jordan will not be pushed to take in Palestinian refugees; [2] borders will remain as pre-war; and [3] the U.S., [somehow - but unspecified], will not "permit" "besiegement."
Last first, "assist" would be a sounder word than "permit," and if what is happening now is not besiegement, wtf is?
This fits with an earlier post where Blinken said, more or less, "Wrap it up quickly, be more surgically precise in South Gaza. Look a bit more decent. Please." That seems to include even if Israeli ground force deaths are greater than under carte blanche Dahiya doctrine .
It also fits with an earlier post noting a former Israeli intelligence official suggested a several kilometer wide DMZ, mined and with tank barriers, around Gaza's internal perimeter, after the slaughter stops; (borders not changed).
Dahiya doctrine explained
To better understand infer Israeli intent, as best as we can circumstantially guess, one circumstantial fact is Israel formed during or after its 2006 Hezbollah incursion a doctrine of intentional disproportional force (a/k/a death), with lessened care over civilian consequences in territory it wished to punish; Wikipedia noting:
The Dahiya doctrine, or Dahya doctrine,[1] is a military strategy of asymmetric warfare, outlined by former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot, which encompasses the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of regimes deemed to be hostile as a measure calculated to create civillian suffering to pressure combatants.[2] and endorses the employment of "disproportionate force" to secure that end.[3][4]
The doctrine is named after the Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut, where Hezbollah was headquartered during the 2006 Lebanon War, which were heavily damaged by the IDF.[2]
Wikipedia separately notes about Israel's current Defense Minister:
Minister of Defense
Gallant with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv, Israel, 13 October 2023 On 8 August 2023, Gallant warned that they would not hesitate to attack Hezbollah and "return Lebanon to the Stone Age" if Israel was attacked.[24]
On 9 October 2023, following the beginning of the October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict and attacks in Israel by Hamas militants, Gallant said that Israel would impose a "total siege" of the Gaza Strip while at the same time "fighting human animals" to refer to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.[25][26][27] A total blockade of the Gaza Strip was announced by Gallant, who stated: "There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."[28][29]
On 13 October 2023, he met with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, including Gaza City, saying: "The camouflage of the terrorists is the civilian population. Therefore, we need to separate them. So those who want to save their lives, please go south. We are going to destroy Hamas infrastructure, Hamas headquarters, Hamas military establishment, and take these phenomena out of Gaza and out of the Earth."[30] On 13 October, he said that "Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything."[31]
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Those are statements of intent. Take them at face value. Israel's Minister of Defense said "total siege." Harris said U.S. will not "permit besiegement," so go figure who's flying and dropping the bombs the U.S. gave Israel. The Bunker Busters. So - Who's in the driver's seat?
The guess here, Harris and Blinken are each blowing smoke. For the media. BDS might affect Israeli action. Words? Readers, please guess about that.
A screen capture:
https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/portalfiles/portal/121003921/MAREI_Dahiya_Doctrine.pdf
click image to enlarge and read
There are online resources. Wiki on Goldstone Report (the report itself is believed to be online, but tediously long). search = goldstone report -- JPost belittling the report.
Truthout: The Dahiya Doctrine: State Terrorism and a Philosophy of War Crime
A long but current and helpful item, not pro-Israel: Permissive airstrikes on non-military targets and the use of an artificial intelligence system have enabled the Israeli army to carry out its deadliest war on Gaza, a +972 and Local Call investigation reveals.
IMEU, 2012, re Dahiya Doctrine
IrishTimes: Middle East - Israel’s assault on Gaza is an expression of the Dahiya Doctrine - Opinion: The doctrine provides a basis for deploying massive force and showing reckless disregard for civilian life - including this image, readers be glad it is not your neighborhood as shown
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WaPo on the Dahiya Doctrine
The sampling is representative of items largely critical of Israeli conduct, with the one JPost item first cited as somewhat different. The sampling seems representative of most online opinion/reporting re the Dahiya Doctrine. Readers believing Israel is justly using disproportionate force and respecting the civilian vs combatant differentiation are urged to conduct their own web searching in that direction. The strongest Israeli justification claim is that against a non-uniforned militant enemy it is hard to distinguish civilians from fighting men, but women and children, about 2/3 of the Gazan deaths, are generally unlikely to be Islamic combatants, and generic airstrikes are discussed in the cited items.
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Intentional war crime, or acceptable strategic action plan? You decide.
It seems clear that, either or both, Biden and Trump, grant Israel a war crimes mulligan. Then Harris goes out and waves a crying towel. Israel, in the opinion of Crabgrass, needs constraints imposed from outside. U.S. annual billions given; and BDS are tools. Voting present without lodging a veto in UN security council sessions is a tool. Tools exist to be used.
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BOTTOM LINE: This is no longer just about the Benjamins, This is about the spoils of the next election; about November 2024; and the squad can perhaps help Biden repatriate the disaffected Islamic vote in the short year existing before the general election. One hopes he seeks help.
Control of the White House, Senate and House are all at stake. Trump is a clear menace. Biden better not fuck it up. All options should be on the table. BDS and ongoing money to Israel included, as leverage.
________UPDATE________
SeattleTimes with an AP carry:
TURKISH PRESIDENT SAYS NETANYAHU SHOULD BE TRIED FOR ALLEGED WAR CRIMES
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be put on trial for alleged war crimes just like former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
A vocal critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, Erdogan once again referred to Netanyahu as the “butcher of Gaza.”
“Netanyahu, the butcher of Gaza, is not only a war criminal, but he will definitely be tried as the butcher of Gaza, just like Milosevic was tried,” Erdogan said in a speech at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul.
The Israeli prime minister would need to be indicted by an international tribunal in order to stand trial for alleged war crimes. Milosevic was put on trial by a U.N. tribunal in The Hague on charges of fomenting bloody conflicts as Yugoslavia crumbled in the early 1990s. He died in his cell before the court could reach a verdict.
Erdogan also renewed his criticism of the United Nations system, accusing the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council of blocking efforts to end the violence.
“On the one side, there are 121 countries that say ‘stop the war’ and ‘no more bloodshed,’ and on the other side, there are three or five countries that give carte blanche to Israel’s attacks,” Erdogan said.
Netanyahu is not alone. He has a cabinet. A Minister of "Defense." Generals. There are those who first formed the policy of asymmetric response and civilian infrastructure destruction, IDF planners, targeting officials. There are decision makers who sequestered the year long possession of the Hamas battle plan. Who either inadvertently or deliberately did not prepare a response to meet Hamas Oct. 7. The "Let it be - Then react on our terms" crowd. However extensive that may be.
Some may disagree with or question the bona fides of Trukey's leader to criticize, as one who has been hard on the Kurds.
FURTHER: More SeattleTimes:
Lawmakers warned President Joe Biden’s national security team that planned U.S. aid to Israel must be met with assurances of concrete steps from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
“The truth is that if asking nicely worked, we wouldn’t be in the position we are today,” Sanders said in a floor speech. It was time for the United States to use its “substantial leverage” with its ally, the Vermont senator said.
“And we all know what that leverage is,” he said, adding, “the blank-check approach must end.”
[...] Sanders and the Democratic senators involved say they are firm in their stand that Israel’s military must adopt substantive measures to lessen civilian deaths in Gaza as part of receiving the supplemental’s $14.3 billion in U.S. aid for Israel’s war.
At this point if there are any U.S. politicians saying, "War crimes," it would be few. But Israel appears intent on raising that number. With ground troops in place the airstrikes can lessen, and Israeli objectives can be met via more careful ground actions. Intentionally reducing housing to rubble is as cruel as the intentional killing of Gazan civilians, ten-to-one as to number of dead Israelis from Oct. 7, and onward.
And, Israel now is throwing its weight around in the West Bank occupied territories. Let Israel conduct a Gaza ground war onward to meet its stated goal of defeat of Hamas, as through as needed in response to Oct. 7, but do not use the veto of any UN Security Council resolutions about intentional civilian mayhem and death. Ditto about war crime. Ditto as to any reparations for a rebuild of Gaza once Israel is finished, weeks from now.
Feet need to be held to the fire over grotesque "war" as Israel is doing it against civilians.
At a guess, none of the dead and maimed women and children in Gaza crossed the border on Oct. 7; nor did they send others there. They are NOT Hamas. They are bystanders. Powerless against Israel. Powerless against Hamas. Deliberately fucked over by Israel per the Dahiya commitment, a concrete constructed formulated-and-implemented policy to do just that.
Gaza might need the equivalent of a Marshall Plan once deadly force is ceased, and Israel should pay that bill. Not us.