President Joe Biden has his hands full in trying to protect US national security interests but he’s being hampered by US GOP MAGA congressional members who appear intent on tying up allocation of monies tied to US support of Ukraine and Israel due to the right -wing Trump led domestic politics centered around the issue of US border reform. This is not the standard way of handling US foreign policies in Washington, but make no mistake, it’s the former GOP MAGA president who’s now calling the shots with republican politicians who dare not oppose his wishes. And the republican party’s ex-president’s buddy, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin must be smiling from ear to ear as this gives him a winning card to play in his upcoming elections.
But President Biden is starting to take a tougher stand when he’s talking about the Israeli government. Speaking at a recent campaign fundraiser in Washington, he ramped up pressure on Israel over any post-hostilities deal, including stating how there should be a plan for a Palestinian state.
Also, President Biden cautioned that while Israel can continue to count on US support, he warned how the alliance of international support behind Israel due to the October 7th attack on Israel by HAMAS was now in peril because of the indiscriminate bombing that has been taking place.
The autocratic leaning Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been counseled that he has to change his conservative government which includes members who’ve a long history of being opposed not only to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine but would like all Palestinians to be permanently relocated outside of Israel. In his discourse, President Biden singled out in particular, Itama Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister.
While Hamas has as its goal, the elimination of all Jews, the current right wing Israeli government also wants all Palestinians gone from its territory. This is why I’m convinced that both HAMAS and the Israeli prime minister with his right-wing coalition must be made to exit the political stage for there to be any chance for peace.
See : Who Is Itamar Ben-Gvir? – The New York Times
Here’s a write-up detailing the extreme demolition of Gaza’s infrastructure along with 18,000 Gazans killed, including more than 7,500 children…This level of scorched earth in retaliation by Israel for the brutal, unprovoked attack by HAMAS that killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in about 240 abductions doesn’t comport with Israel’s claims that its military is doing everything possible to protect civilian lives.
As per December 11, 2023 NY Times op-ed piece, “We Are No Strangers to Human Suffering, but We’ve Seen Nothing Like the Siege of Gaza” by Michelle Nunn, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Jan Egeland, Abby Maxman, Jeremy Konyndyk and
(Ms. Nunn is president and chief executive of CARE USA. Ms. McKenna is chief executive of Mercy Corps. Mr. Egeland is secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Ms. Maxman is president and chief executive of Oxfam America. Mr. Konyndyk is president of Refugees International. Ms. Soeripto is president and chief executive of Save the Children U.S.)
Excerpts:
“We are no strangers to human suffering — to conflict, to natural disasters, to some of the world’s largest and gravest catastrophes. We were there when fighting erupted in Khartoum, Sudan. As bombs rained down on Ukraine. When earthquakes leveled southern Turkey and northern Syria. As the Horn of Africa faced its worst drought in years. The list goes on.”
“But as the leaders of some of the world’s largest global humanitarian organizations, we have seen nothing like the siege of Gaza. In the more than two months since the horrifying attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in some 240 abductions, about 18,000 Gazans — including more than 7,500 children — have been killed, according to the Gazan health ministry. More children have been reported killed in this conflict than in all major global conflicts combined last year.”
“The atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct. 7 were unconscionable and depraved, and the taking and holding of hostages is abhorrent. The calls for their release are urgent and justified. But the right to self-defense does not and cannot require unleashing this humanitarian nightmare on millions of civilians. It is not a path to accountability, healing or peace. In no other war we can think of in this century have civilians been so trapped, without any avenue or option to escape to save themselves and their children.”
“Most of our organizations have been operating in Gaza for decades. But we can do nothing remotely adequate to address the level of suffering there without an immediate and complete cease-fire and an end to the siege. The aerial bombardments have rendered our jobs impossible. The withholding of water, fuel, food and other basic goods has created an enormous scale of need that aid alone cannot offset.”
See: We Are No Strangers to Human Suffering, but We’ve Seen Nothing …
Here are 2 reports on why the Israeli prime minister may not be able to fulfill the mission of wiping out HAMAS in Gaza…
As per a November 18, 2023 Reuters report, “Jordan’s minister said on Saturday that he did not understand how Israel’s goal of obliterating the Palestinian militant group Hamas it is fighting in Gaza could be achieved.
“Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There’s a lot of military people here, I just don’t understand how this objective can be realized,” said Ayman Safadi.
“He warned Jordan would do “whatever it takes to stop” the displacement of Palestinians, amid heavy Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other Islamist militants.”
“LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: One of Israel’s stated goals for its invasion of Gaza is to eliminate Hamas to prevent it from ever committing another attack like the one on October 7 that Israel says killed some 1,200 people and saw gunmen take some 240 hostages. Since then, Israel’s offensive has killed more than 12,000 people, according to Gaza health officials. And the fighting continues. But is that aim – to eliminate Hamas – even possible?”
“Tareq Baconi is the author of “Hamas Contained: The Rise And Pacification Of Palestinian Resistance,” and he’s president of the board of the think tank Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. He has also worked with the International Crisis Group in Ramallah and is known for his expertise on how Hamas works and thinks. I started by asking him what eradicating Hamas would look like.”
“TAREQ BACONI: Well, it looks like an impossible goal and one that enables Israel to put forward quite violent plans towards the Palestinian people more broadly. So just to explain this – Hamas is fundamentally a social movement and a political movement with a military wing, so it has a vast social infrastructure embedded in charities and health care and educational facilities and a whole host of communal and welfare practices. So the idea that Hamas can be decimated is really saying that this vast social infrastructure and political movement can be dismantled.”
“FADEL: In Baconi’s view, Israel’s stated goal could mean targeting of anyone – from a low-level bureaucrat in Hamas to a person who voted for the organization back in 2006. He says using force to get rid of Hamas won’t work because it doesn’t answer key Palestinian aspirations – statehood and freedom.”
“BACONI: Hamas is an ideology. It’s a movement that’s committed to the liberation of Palestine. That ideology within Hamas is cloaked in an Islamist garb, but that ideology is not limited to Hamas. So even if Hamas militarily is severely hit by Israeli actions now, that ideology will reemerge because that’s grounded in the political principles of the Palestinian struggle. So this military approach is really just a way to avoid dealing with the root cause of the problem.”
“FADEL: Many Israelis will tell you Hamas is simply an ideology of violence aimed at killing Israelis. They point to last month’s attack as proof. Now, Hamas claims to be fighting for liberation, and that resonates for Palestinians, although the group’s stated goal remains the elimination of Israel, but it also presents itself as the resistance against Israel.”
“October 7 was an atrocity – many, many civilians killed, and so Israeli political leadership will say this is the proper response to an atrocity that we saw in the south.”
BACONI: Look. It’s important to talk about what happened on October 7. This didn’t begin on October 7. The idea that Israelis and Israeli political leaders can pretend that they are allowed and have their rights to a life of full freedom and full liberty, while maintaining an apartheid regime against Palestinians, is nonsensical.”
“FADEL: Rights groups inside and outside of Israel accuse the government of an apartheid system. They point to the Israeli government’s policies on land access, restriction of movement, unlawful killings, and limitations on the right to vote for Palestinians as examples of one group trying to dominate the other. Hamas has capitalized on that misery. And although most Palestinians are not Hamas, they’re desperate for anything that might change their reality. I asked Baconi how Palestinians view Hamas in Gaza, where a blockade by Israel with Egypt has led to widespread deprivation.
I’m wondering that pre-October 7 and post. I mean, they must have known what type of response they would get with killing this level of civilians.
BACONI: I have no illusion that they didn’t expect a ferocious response to whatever they had planned on October 7. Now, Hamas’ governance in the Gaza Strip obviously has not been ideal. The movement has been accused of corruption. It has carried out pretty authoritarian tactics against Palestinians in Gaza, including stamping down on freedom of speech and political plurality. But also, because of the nature of the blockade which Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip in its current format since 2007, many Palestinians in Gaza put the blame for their impoverishment or the lack of economic opportunities that they might have on Hamas.
But in the past, historically, whenever Hamas engaged in military activities or armed resistance or unarmed resistance, its popularity increased before eventually sort of dropping off again when the reality of the blockade comes crashing back…But at the same time, given the scale of the destruction, I would imagine that a lot of Palestinians in Gaza are quite fearful at the moment and questioning where Hamas wanted to go with this.
“FADEL: So now what? The stated goal of this war, supported by the United States, is to get rid of Hamas. What happens after?
“BACONI: For Israeli Jews, it’s clear that there is no security in Israel for its citizens unless the Palestinian question is dealt with. And for Palestinians, it’s clear that even if Hamas is militarily weakened, their resistance will be ongoing until their rights are achieved. So I think the only thing that can get us out of this bloodshed is to finally reckon with this reality as a political problem, not a military one.”
See: Grading Biden’s Israel-Hamas War Response – Foreign Policy
Gronda Morin 