A top Democratic Party lawmaker in the US has said the Senate will seek to pass a resolution supporting Israel and approve additional funds for the country this week (16-20 October 2023).
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, said he plans to work with the Biden administration on “an emergency supplemental [spending bill] that will give Israel the tools it needs to defend itself”. “That means military assistance, intelligence assistance, diplomatic assistance and humanitarian assistance to care for innocent civilians. We want to move this package quickly,” Schumer said.
"Defend itself" apparently extends to committing war crimes with impunity. “Israel has a horrific track record of committing war crimes with impunity in previous wars on Gaza,” Amnesty International wrote in a statement that called on Palestinian armed groups to refrain from targeting civilians.
The US already provides Israel, which leading rights groups have accused of imposing a system of apartheid against Palestinians, with at least $3.8bn in military assistance annually.
Citing unnamed defence officials, The Wall Street Journal has reported that the US military has earmarked approximately 2,000 servicemembers for a potential deployment to Israel. If deployed, the troops would not be used for combat but would be assigned to advise and offer medical support to their Israeli counterparts, among other tasks, the newspaper said. The Biden administration has repeatedly said it has no plans for putting “US boots on the ground” in the Israel-Hamas war. “What we have done is sent experts from across our government to the region to consult and advise with their Israeli counterparts,” White House principal deputy national security advisor Jon Finer told MSNBC last week (9-14 October 2023).
So the US leadership pushes for more weapons for Israel - not US boots on the ground - and the other AUKUS partners who've become drunk on the arm's industry's marketing, Australia and the UK, are mute. The entire mainstream media in Australia - including so-called "independent" Australian broadcaster the ABC - appears to only report pro-Israel propaganda. Even New Zealand, - a possible future AUKUS participant and now under a new right wing government after the election on 14 October 2023 - is apparently silent. In fact, even before the election, their Labour government, much like Australia's right-wing dominated Labor Party were very pro-Israel. You can bet that the "humanitarian and diplomatic" assistances the Biden administration is talking about is focused only on Israel.
Commenting on possible International Criminal Court (ICC) investigations into allegations of war crimes by Hamas and Israel, international human rights lawyer Toby Cadman says ICC Prosecutor Karim Kham and his team face a very challenging situation. “Israel has stated in the past they will not cooperate in any investigation, and they may not even allow Karim Khan and his team to enter Israel to carry out investigations unless they are only aimed at investigating conduct by Hamas,” Cadman told Al Jazeera.
In the meantime, much of the rest of the world is more concerned about the humanitarian crisis and the protection of innocent civilians rather than military assistance to Israel:
- Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian chief, is heading to the Middle East this week amid a continuing push for humanitarian aid access to Gaza. He will travel to Egypt on Tuesday for “a mission to last several days” and also plans to visit Israel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. “We need access for aid,” Griffiths said in a video statement.
- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza and a humanitarian corridor. Trudeau also said Canada is deeply concerned by the dire – and worsening – humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian territory.
- Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi underlined the necessity of containing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict so that it doesn’t threaten regional security, el-Sisi’s office has said. He said in a phone call to U.S. President Biden that it is a priority to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, an Egyptian presidency spokesman said in a statement.
- Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, has described a US congressional resolution calling for de-escalation and a ceasefire as “a very important move”. “It’s very simple,” Bennis told Al Jazeera about the proposal, which was put forward by a group of progressive Democrats earlier today. “It doesn’t get into long discussions about the origins of the crisis and what led to it, but it calls for the immediate … need for a ceasefire,” she said. “And I think right now that’s what’s so desperately needed.” The measure – backed by more than a dozen Democratic House members, including Cori Bush, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar – is unlikely to pass, but it highlights growing calls in Washington for a ceasefire in Gaza. “We must do everything in our power to end this ongoing violence,” Congressman Jamaal Bowman, another co-sponsor of the resolution, said in a statement. “Our actions should proceed on the basis of recognizing our shared humanity, including rejecting violence in all forms and pursuing an urgent ceasefire and de-escalation so we can save civilian lives.”
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered Moscow’s support to end the current conflict in a call with Israel’s Netanyahu, according to the Kremlin. Putin also informed the Israeli prime minister of his conversations with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, his foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said, as reported by the Interfax news agency. Putin had called for an immediate ceasefire and for the interests of the Palestinians to be taken into account in the crisis.
- The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a legal non-profit based in the United Kingdom, has issued a notice to leaders of the British Labour Party of its intention to prosecute “any UK politician for their complicity in war crimes in Gaza”. Last week, Labour leader Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry, the party’s shadow attorney general for England and Wales, spoke out in defence of Israel’s withholding of food, water and electricity to Gaza, justifying it based on “Israel’s right to defend itself”.
- The European Union has said it would launch a humanitarian air bridge operation consisting of “several flights” to Egypt aiming to bring supplies to humanitarian organisations on the ground in Gaza. “The first two flights will take place this week, carrying humanitarian cargo from UNICEF including shelter items, medicines and hygiene kits,” the EU said in a statement.
- While the right-wing dominant Australian Federal Labor parliamentarians are all pro-Israel, one member from Labor Left Victorian Julian Hill MP said "The overwhelming feedback I have had from my community is the concern and the need to protect human life and ensure that Australia’s response, along with the rest of the international community, equally values the lives of people in Gaza and innocent Palestinians and Israelis, and their collective suffering and loss." Labor’s Julian Hill stood in parliament and told his fellow MPs that Israel’s right to defend itself did not extend to the “indiscriminate mass killing of innocent Palestinians”.
- Millions throughout the world protest Israeli war crimes. In Australia, tens of thousands of people joined protests around the country over the weekend to oppose the Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza. Rallies or marches were held in the main cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, defying threats by right-wing dominated Labor state governments and police commanders to ban or shut down demonstrations. In Sydney, NSW, the police threatened to use special powers to conduct searches and identity checks on participants. A heavy police presence extended to very visible deployments at train stations to and from the protest, and a police helicopter circled low over the event in an intimidating display.
The most significant demonstration Friday 13 October 2023 took place in New York City, where thousands rallied to oppose the onslaught against Palestine, in open defiance of the unrelenting pro-Israel propaganda of the entire American political establishment and corporate media. In the center of world imperialism, home to the largest Jewish population of any American city, masses of people—including over 1,000 Jews—expressed their revulsion with the unfolding crimes in Gaza. In fact, galvanized by groups including ‘IfNotNow’ and ‘Jewish Voice for Peace,’ thousands of US Jews have denounced the Jewish state almost immediately after slaughter of 1,200 Israelis.
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