Biden, Joe President
Updated 2024-04-01
2024-03-27 How Biden Could Radically Alter the U.S.-Israel Relationship On February 1, the Biden administration issued an executive order on violent extremism by settlers in the West Bank, which has been increasing over the past several months with the world watching the war in Gaza. The Biden administration accompanied this order with sanctions on four settlers who, it charged, had directly carried out violence or intimidation. This month, the Biden administration expanded the sanctions, adding three more settlers and two illegal outposts, which it said were bases used to “perpetuate violence against Palestinians.”
Elsewhere, it was heralded as a potentially major development, a warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, particularly given that U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal that they were considering sanctioning two of his coalition’s extremist members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. https://newrepublic.com/article/179968/biden-executive-order-west-bank-us-israel-relationship
2024-03-21 Why Biden’s Strident Support for Israel Could Lose Him Critical Youth Turnout While few of these young anti-war voters will vote for Donald Trump, they are now far more likely to vote third party or not vote at all.
A recent poll showed that 72% of voters ages 18 to 29 disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war. That is a higher percentage of young voters than those who disapproved of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, Ronald Reagan’s wars in Central America, or even Richard Nixon’s war in Vietnam. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-israel-lose-youth
2024-03-15 Biden Must Choose: Netanyahu or Democracy? Biden’s big pitch for the presidency is that he will preserve U.S. democracy from Trump, but through his support for Netanyahu, he may very well destroy it. Biden’s overwhelming support for Israel’s bloody crusade against Gaza has already turned off huge swaths of crucial voters—and some additional aid is far from enough to bring them back. Ultimately, Biden’s decision to cozy up for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for months could cost us our democracy. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-choose-netanyahu-or-democracy
2024-02-16 ‘History Is Watching’? You Bet It Is, Mr. President. “History is watching,” the president said after the Senate passed his $95.3 billion war bill by a vote of 70-29. He said it three times: “History is watching.” He’s right. Democrats should remember that before trying to use an obscure parliamentary procedure to force a vote on this bill in the House. The move, called a “discharge petition,” would almost certainly fail without support from House progressives. They have a moral obligation to withhold that support.
This bill, deceptively described as an “aid package,” slashes all future funding for the most important humanitarian aid group serving the people of Gaza. At the same time, it provides $14 billion in military aid (which its Democratic sponsors coyly call “security assistance”) to the armed forces that are killing them. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/house-progressive-israel-aid-package
2024-02-09 Biden’s biggest problem in 2024 isn’t age or a shaky memory. It’s the war in Israel. “There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying,” said Biden. “And it’s got to stop.” It’s a rhetorical shift from the early days of the war, when Biden forcefully backed Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks. But with nearly 30,000 Palestinians already dead, along with the looming threat of famine and disease in Gaza, the president has become more vocally critical of Israel’s conduct. It’s a shift that’s been driven as much by the situation on the ground in Gaza as it is by the protests and outrage he’s faced from Democrats back home.
But among rank-and-file Democratic voters, the situation is far more dire and could threaten Biden’s chances of being reelected next November. According to one recent poll, 50% of Democrats believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. While many Democrats who believe that may be willing to support Biden anyway, there’s a sizeable portion who may decline to support Biden’s reelection.
And even as Democratic leaders argue that a Trump presidency would be far worse than Biden, those voters are unlikely to be swayed without a significant change in US policies toward Israel. “It should not be the Biden administration asking his core constituency to support him because he is the lesser of two evils,” “President Biden himself, by failing to call for a ceasefire, is on track to deliver the presidency back to Donald Trump and his white supremacist buddies,”
While the issue is especially acute in Michigan, Biden faces a miniature version of it in states across the country, not just from voters who are personally connected to the conflict, but from progressives and younger voters. f the election’s close, as many expect it to be, even just a few thousand voters per state choosing to leave the top of the ballot blank, or not showing up at all, could have a major impact. https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-biden-age-memory-war-israel-2024-2&post-bottom-piano-recommendations
2024-02-06 Denting Reelection Hopes, 60% of US Voters Disapprove of Biden’s Israel Policy Along with persistent protests at public events held by U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, recent polling is continuously demonstrating that the White House’s vehement support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza despite the rising civilian death toll is not winning them accolades among the voters whose backing they depend on in the upcoming election—and a new survey out Tuesday was no exception.
In the UMass Poll, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and YouGov found that out of 1,064 respondents nationwide, just under 60% said Biden is not handling “the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas” well, while just 31% approved of Biden’s policy regarding Israel. Taken from January 25-30, the poll asked American voters about a wide range of topics, from inflation and their individual ability to afford necessities to their views on whether Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, where the Israel Defense Forces have killed at least 27,585 people in air and ground attacks as well as blocking nearly all humanitarian aid—plunging the enclave into a crisis of widespread starvation and disease. https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-2024-israel
2024-01-23 Biden Endorsements on the Line as Outrage Over Gaza Grows U.S. President Joe Biden’s refusal to do all he can to stop Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip has consequences for not only Palestinian civilians in the besieged enclave but also this year’s presidential contest in which the Democrat is seeking reelection.
Multiple polls over the past couple of months have shown Biden’s approval rating at all-time lows, partly related to how he has handled Israel killing nearly 25,500 people in Gaza—as of Tuesday—in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7. Biden last month called out Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza and said that “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives,” but he has also bypassed Congress to arm Israeli forces while asking lawmakers for a $14.3 billion package on top of the United States’ $3.8 billion in annual military aid to its Middle East ally.
On the eve of the New Hampshire vote, a prominent group in California—where the primary is March 5, or Super Tuesday—announced its members “overwhelmingly voted” to rescind an endorsement of Biden from October due to “widespread outrage and international indignation over the president’s handling of the Israel-Gaza conflict.” “Focused on the crisis in Gaza, we condemn President Biden’s misguided and perilous actions, and inaction, which undermine the long-term interests of both Israelis and Palestinians,” the San Francisco-based Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club said Monday. “While our stance doesn’t extend to the November 2024 general elections, we aim to send a powerful signal to President Biden and the Democratic establishment that our base demands to be heard.”
The San Francisco club isn’t alone in reconsidering a Biden endorsement. With 3 million members, the National Education Association (NEA) is the largest union in the country, and it endorsed Biden in April—followed by various key labor groups last year. Now, some rank-and-file members want the NEA to revoke the teachers union’s endorsement of Biden until he fights for a permanent cease-fire; stops sending military support to Israel; and uses diplomatic pressure to secure the release of all political prisoners and hostages as well as end Israel’s blockade of Gaza, settlement activity in the West Bank, and killing of journalists. https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-gaza-election
2024-01-16 How Biden Can Stop Houthi Missile Attacks—Without Risking War There is a simple reason why U.S. and U.K. military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis will not achieve their objective of re-opening the crucial Red Sea lanes for international shipping: The Houthis don’t have to succeed in striking additional commercial vessels, or even successfully retaliate against U.S. military ships. All they need to do is to try. That is enough to sustain a de facto shipping blockade of the Red Sea, through which a staggering 12% of global trade flows. Many Western commercial vessels will simply not risk moving their ships through those waters, not in spite of President Joe Biden’s military strikes, but now because of them. The Houthis had managed to increase the cost of container shipping in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war by launching missile attacks at cargo ships passing through the vital waterways. But the Biden Administration’s retaliatory strikes on Yemen’s Houthis have turned off shipping companies, perhaps irrevocably, until the war ends.
Biden can certainly choose to up the ante and intensify the targeting of Houthi weapons depots and missile launchers. But unless there is a substantial degradation of Houthi military capabilities—a scenario that seems improbable given their large arsenal of anti-ship missiles and estimated 200,000 fighters—continued strikes will only beget more of the same: escalating tensions that strengthen the de facto Houthi blockade and elevate the potential for the conflict to expand into a full-fledged regional war. This is an outcome the Biden Administration claims to want to prevent.
Yet a ceasefire is far more likely to curb Houthi and Iraqi militia attacks; reduce tensions on the Israeli-Lebanese border, where regular exchanges of fire have been taking place; secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas; and, most important of all, stop further civilian casualties in Gaza. Instead, under the guise of restoring deterrence, Biden has done the opposite. If, in the worst-case scenario, Biden’s escalation against the Houthis sparks a regional war, there should be little doubt that this is another war of choice—and one without Congressional authorization. Not because Biden desired it, but because he refused to pursue the most obvious and peaceful path to prevent it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/how-biden-can-stop-houthi-missile-attacks-without-risking-war/ar-AA1n0O6A
2024-01-13 A Visit from Uncle Joe and Auntie Jill What are we to make of a president and a first lady who face an audience of children afflicted with a range of medical problems and read them a story about a charming but fictitious event written for the author’s presumably healthy, well-cared-for children? It’s not much of a stretch to imagine families watching the telecast of the reading and thinking about how blessed we are to have a president and a first lady who are loving and compassionate, attuned to the needs of children, particularly those who are coping with severe, life-threatening illnesses, and willing to manifest the spirit of Christmas in word and deed? At the end of the reading, President Biden reminds the audience of something his father used to say: “Keep the faith. We’re going to beat all this. I promise you… God bless you all.”
How warm, how cheery and bright. The perfect message for hospitalized children on a winter’s night. A few questions come to mind, though: Who’s going to beat what? Does God bless all children or only certain children? Does He bless children in Gaza the same as He blesses children at the hospital in Washington D.C. where the Bidens went? If He blesses children in Gaza, how would we know?
What sort of story would the president and first lady read to children in a hospital in Gaza, assuming there is a hospital in Gaza that is still functioning and has adequate medical supplies, to say nothing of electricity, clean water, food, and beds? Of course, only in an alternate universe would the Bidens be invited to Gaza as ambassadors of a friendly nation defending the rights of the Palestinian people while condemning Israel’s genocidal onslaught. In this universe (the only one we actually know of), Joe Biden is okay with the deadly shelling of civilian homes and infrastructure, and the nonstop killing of mostly women and children. And since his wife, with a doctorate in education, hasn’t issued a word of protest to the policies of the Biden administration, I think it’s safe to assume that the public version of Dr. Jill Biden is onboard with those same policies and has no moral qualms about the evisceration of Gaza and the dispossession of its people. (I have no idea of what her private convictions might be or if she shares them with her husband.) https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/uncle-joe-and-auntie-jill
2024-01-12 Biden admin continues push for two-state solution as critics warn: ‘efforts repeatedly fail’ https://www.foxnews.com/world/biden-admin-continues-push-for-two-state-solution-as-critics-warn-efforts-repeatedly-fail
2024-01-12 Biden confronted by hecklers shouting ‘go home’ during Pennsylvania visit: ‘You’re a loser’ President Biden received a hostile welcome from swing state voters in Pennsylvania during a visit to several small businesses to tout his Bidenomics economic plan.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-confronted-by-hecklers-shouting-go-home-during-pennsylvania-visit-you-re-a-loser/ar-AA1mTa7O
2023-12-20 A Conversation on the Horrors in Gaza with Jeremy Scahill and Sharif Abdel Kouddous Everything we know about Joe Biden’s 50-year history of supporting and facilitating Israel’s worst crimes leads to one conclusion: He wants Israel’s destruction of Gaza — with more than 7,000 children dead — to unfold as it has. When will it stop? Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill and journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous discuss the U.S. role in Israel’s scorched-earth campaign to annihilate Gaza. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeeLEJTZHNk
2023-12-12 In Dueling Remarks, Biden and Netanyahu Spar Over Gaza’s Future President Biden and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clashed Tuesday over who should govern Gaza after the war, in a remarkable public display of differences emerging between the two leaders over the conflict.
Biden made his toughest remarks since the war began about Netanyahu’s government. He suggested that its hard-line stance has prevented Netanyahu from accepting the Biden administration’s postwar plan to have the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza, and that it would also obstruct progress toward political, economic and security arrangements that could spawn a separate Palestinian state—an outcome the U.S. president sees as a long-term solution to the conflict.
President Biden’s comments came as Netanyahu said in Israel he would block the Biden administration’s postwar plan to have the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza, the sharpest sign of Israeli pushback against the U.S. blueprint for administering the enclave after Israel’s invasion ends.
“After the great sacrifice of our civilians and our soldiers, I will not allow the entry into Gaza of those who educate for terrorism, support terrorism and finance terrorism,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Palestinian Authority, which currently oversees parts of the West Bank, in a statement Tuesday.
The plan was already facing opposition from Arab governments and from Palestinian Authority officials themselves, who say they want Israel to halt its offensive in Gaza and withdraw its troops before they will agree to serious talks about postwar planning.
Israel’s position on who will replace Hamas in postwar Gaza may not become fully clear until elections that are expected to be held next year, when it will be decided whether Netanyahu survives as prime minister. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-dueling-remarks-biden-and-netanyahu-spar-over-gaza-s-future/ar-AA1lou8j
2023-12-07 Biden Should Just Say ‘No’ to Israel In recent weeks, the Biden administration has attempted to pivot from its initial unconditional support for Israeli actions in Gaza by combining caution with a vague plan for “the day after.”
As U.S. polls showed growing disapproval for Israeli actions and the administration’s timid response, coupled with signs of increasing Arab world dissatisfaction with America’s refusal to rein in Israel, the administration attempted to create even more distance. Key White House talking points now included: urging Israel to adhere to the “rules of war” by limiting civilian casualties, warnings that the U.S. wouldn’t accept the reoccupation of Gaza, and insistence on increased humanitarian assistance to displaced Palestinians. Despite this slight change in tune, there was no shift in policy.
To facilitate this, the U.S. would have to change its “No” at the United Nations to a “Yes” and support a Security Council resolution recognizing Palestine as a state, declaring its continued occupation as a threat to regional peace and security, and ordering an empowered U.N. peacekeeping force to the occupied territories to provide peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Such moves from the U.S. would undoubtedly cause a shock to both societies. Only under the security provided by such a U.N. mandate would the Palestinians be able to put their house in order. At the same time, the shock of a U.S. “No” to Israel and “Yes” to a U.N. Security Council resolution that would change the status of territories to Palestinian land, Israelis would be left to ask hard questions about where decades of unchecked acquisitiveness and expansion have led them. They would be forced to reexamine whether they could continue to oppress Palestinians with impunity. In the aftershock, sane voices will be able to break through in the public square reigniting both Israeli peace forces and Palestinian moderates. It won’t be easy, but leaving the cancer in place is nothing more than a prescription for certain death. A shock to the system is required and it all begins with a U.S. “No” followed by “Yes.” https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/biden-should-say-no-to-israel
2023-11-16 When Middle East Politics (Almost) Tipped an American Presidential Election In 1948, Henry Wallace peeled off enough of the Jewish vote to deny Harry Truman the nation’s then-most populous state, New York. What this does—and doesn’t—augur for Joe Biden.
Several political reporters are speculating that President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict could lead to his defeat in 2024. Several polls indicate his support for Israel’s military response, however nuanced, has caused a dip in support among younger voters nationally and a cratering of support among Arab and Muslim voters who are key constituencies in the swing state of Michigan.
Most presidential elections hinge on the economy, except when American troops are fighting and dying abroad. The only elected incumbents to lose reelection in the last 100 years—Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Donald Trump—couldn’t overcome high unemployment.
Two others—Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson—were hounded out of running for reelection while waging unpopular wars. Preparations for war complicated the reelection campaigns of Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940, but neither had yet sent American troops into battle, and both won re-election. We don’t have an example of a presidential election outcome determined by an international crisis that doesn’t involve American troops.
If Middle East politics could splinter the 1944 Democratic coalition in New York, could the same happen in 2024 with Michigan? It’s mathematically possible. But the Arab/Muslim vote in Michigan today is much smaller than the Jewish vote in 1940s New York. Arabs make up about 3 percent of the Michigan population. Jews in 1948 made up about 13 percent of the New York population.
Clearly, Biden should not be cavalier about Michigan’s Arab/Muslim vote, just as Truman couldn’t be about New York’s Jewish vote. That’s one lesson from 1948. But another conflicting lesson is that presidential elections are shaped by a myriad of factors, usually most significantly by the overall economy. Any slippage Biden suffers from one constituency over one issue could be offset by others. A third related lesson is that while presidents can’t be blind to political considerations, they should first pursue the policies they believe to be the wisest and worry about politics second. There are simply too many factors that can theoretically tip an election. Bending over backward to appease one constituency can alienate others. Doing an overall good job will please many constituencies. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/11/16/when-middle-east-politics-almost-tipped-an-american-presidential-election/
2023-12-02 Behind Israel’s Brutal Genocidal Attack on Gaza Stand Joe Biden and Congress [MEK Note: also see November 14th White House letter]
Biden can get more humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza simply by enveloping them with the American flag and daring Israel to delay, obstruct or destroy these carriers of live-saving food, water, fuel and medicine. But he is too weak and too cowardly to do so. He has made the U.S. a co-belligerent by unconditionally supplying abundant weapons, military intelligence and political cover, including vetoes of United Nations resolutions.
We asked why he wants Congress to make U.S. taxpayers pay another $14.3 billion for a prosperous country’s colossal military and intelligence operations, especially since Israel’s leadership failed to protect its people on October 7th. Biden has another apprehension—the near total control of Congress by the “Israel’s government can do no wrong” lobby. The indentured rubber-stamping Senators and Representatives have no problem supporting Israel’s violent repression and land dispossession in what is left of the original Palestine and its five million encircled Palestinians. Would these politicians deploy such eagerness in helping poor American children and their families in our country?
In response to Biden’s repeated urging that Israel comply with the “laws of war” we described how Benjamin Netanyahu and his regime are doing just the opposite with its brutal terror campaign against defenseless Palestinian civilians and their critical public support structures. Israel’s extremist right-wing politicians use words such as “human animals,” “annihilation” and “extermination” as declared objectives of their mass terrorism. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/joe-biden-israel-genocide-gaza
2023-11-28 As Anti-Israel-Hamas War Movement Deepens In US, So Does ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden’s 2024 Poll Conundrum A movement calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war has erupted across the United States condemning US President Joe Biden’s reluctance to push ally Israel for a long-term ceasefire in war-ravaged Gaza. Amid domestic and international pressure, Biden seems to have changed his tone. Watch for details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKqkLjJw2Fg
2023-11-27 Team Biden Goes From Denial to Panic The outlook is now grimmer than ever, but the big divide between Biden’s low popularity and public support for the Democratic Party overall was clear a year ago, despite the hype giving Biden credit for midterm election results in November 2022. Back then, the New York Times reported that one House Democrat offered a more candid assessment: “Biden’s numbers were ‘a huge drag’ on Democratic candidates, who won in spite of the president not thanks to him, the lawmaker said on the condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing the White House.”
Our RootsAction.org team had no reason to avoid antagonizing the White House. Immediately after the 2022 election, we launched the Don’t Run Joe campaign. Last winter, it included TV ads in New Hampshire and other early primary states as well as in DC. We also placed full-page ads in print editions of The Hill newspaper, widely read on Capitol Hill; one depicted congressional Democrats as having their heads in the sand. A steady flow of news releases went out, citing data on Biden’s electoral vulnerabilities. A mobile Don’t Run Joe billboard circled the Capitol and White House when Congress reconvened in January.
But elected Democrats, loyal boosters and allied organizations stuck with the party line. Apparently, they couldn’t imagine being independent enough to call for a candidate who could champion a progressive agenda and be a stronger contender than the anemic Biden in the 2024 race https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/joe-biden-polls-2024
2023-11-25 Biden endorses Israel’s war to eliminate Gaza Amid “utter carnage” in Gaza, the White House insists that the Israeli government has a “legitimate objective.” According to Politico, “there was some concern in the administration about an unintended consequence of the pause: that it would allow journalists broader access to Gaza and the opportunity to further illuminate the devastation there and turn public opinion on Israel.”
The Biden team’s concern is understandable: the devastation that they have supported in Gaza is without precedent in recent memory. The United Nation’s top aid official, Martin Griffith, describes Gaza as “the worst ever” crisis that he has witnessed. “I don’t think I have seen anything like this before,” Griffith remarked. “It’s complete and utter carnage.” https://www.aaronmate.net/p/biden-endorses-israels-war-to-eliminate
2023-11-23 White House Triggered by “Genocide Joe” nickname First up is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lulls a whimpering Fox News host in his loving cradle, explaining that Israel is actually fighting America’s war against terrorism. And all those dead civilians are just his way of saying: thanks.
With the Palestinian death count mounting higher and higher, only being paused when the bodies under the rubble have become too many to count, Joe Biden has earned the nickname ‘Genocide Joe.’ But don’t ask Communications Director John Kirby what he thinks of that nickname… “This word genocide’s getting thrown around in a pretty inappropriate way,” he tells reporters. “Yes, there are too many civilian casualties in Gaza. Yes, the numbers are too high. Yes, too many families are grieving. But Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel is not trying to wipe Gaza off the map.” https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/white-house-triggered-by-genocide
2023-11-21 Head of Bombed Gaza Hospital Appeals Directly to Biden The director of the aid group that runs the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza—where Israeli attacks killed at least a dozen people on Monday—appealed directly to U.S. President Joe Biden, imploring him to push Israel to accept a cease-fire in a war that’s killed or maimed more than 40,000 Palestinians.
“Gazans are facing death every day. Every five minutes, a Palestinian child is killed,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, head of Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) Indonesia, wrote in a letter to Biden.
Noting that Israeli forces have attacked “babies, children, women, the elderly, the disabled, hospitals, ambulances, medics, schools, teachers, residential complexes, worship places, and much more,” Murad asserted that “this is completely genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
“It is very unfortunate that your siding with Israel by facilitating weapons of mass destruction has actually made the conflict even wider,” Murad continued. “Your action clearly contradicts various international treaties and agreements that apply to the existence of Palestine. You have destroyed the international rules of the game, insulted the authority of the [United Nations], torn apart the sense of justice, hurt human values, and tarnished the face of human civilization.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/indonesia-hospital-gaza
2023-11-19 President Biden Has Let the Children Down As of now, 4,237 Palestinian children have been killed in just over a month. Over 1,000 more are missing or buried under the rubble of bombarded buildings. Those not killed by bombs are dying from starvation, disease, and dehydration. Most at risk are the youngest—children born during the war in shelters and streets amid rubble. Medical workers are using the term “wounded child no surviving family,” to describe 2023 war orphans in Gaza. The United Nations describes this a “graveyard of children.”
A full 70% of the Gaza’s population—more than 1.5 million people—has been displaced. The Israeli government has bombed hospitals, refugee camps, schools, and even U.N. shelters. There is no safe place for the innocent.
Now I am 16 years old, and doubt clouds my belief in the U.S. government. Mona and I wrote to the president because we believed that the United States had the power to stop these horrors. But the United States aids and abets this merciless carnage. It provides $3.3 billion in military aid to Israel each year. Now the Biden administration is transferring billions more in military aid to Israel, including the bombs that are dropping on Gaza. My grief for the children in Gaza is inconsolable; their blood is equally on my government’s hands. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/president-biden-children-gaza
2023-11-18 BIDEN TANKS IN POLLS, BUT MEDIA DOWNPLAYS IMPACT OF GAZA ON VOTERS Bumfuzzled by losses among young voters, media outlets obscure how much Biden’s lockstep support of Israel is harming his prospects in the 2024 election. In the 2020 election, Biden’s support from young voters was a commanding 20 points higher than Trump’s; now, he’s virtually tied with Trump with young voters in five key swing states. The headlines don’t look good for the President. “Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Siena Poll Finds,” The New York Times warned on Monday. https://therealnews.com/biden-tanks-in-polls-but-media-downplays-impact-of-gaza-on-voters
2023-11-16 “Failure to Prevent Genocide”: Biden Sued as U.S. Provides Arms & Support for Israel’s Gaza Assault As Israel rejects growing international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the Center for Constitutional Rights in the United States is suing President Biden for failing to prevent genocide. The center is seeking an emergency order to block Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from providing further military funding, arms and diplomatic support to Israel. Katherine Gallagher, a senior attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights on the case, argues the U.S. is complicit with Israel in the “crime of crimes” by “aiding and abetting genocide” with military aid, advisers and political support despite clear signs of intent to collectively punish the Palestinian population. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGOOgv_Bnhg
2023-11-15 Palestinians sue Biden to stop Gaza genocide Palestinians are suing US President Joe Biden and his secretaries of state and defense to stop them from further aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The legal move comes as the Israeli military has stormed al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest health facility, after US officials parroted Israel’s claims that Hamas uses it as a commander center, despite a lack of credible evidence.
The complaint was filed in a federal court on Monday by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based civil liberties group, on behalf of the Palestinian human rights groups Defense for Children International-Palestine and Al-Haq and several Palestinians who are inside Gaza or are US citizens with family there.
The suit calls for the defendants to “take all measures within their power to exert influence over Israel to end its bombing of the Palestinian people of Gaza” and to lift the siege and prevent the forcible transfer and expulsion of Palestinians in the territory. The plaintiffs also ask the court to “order an end to US military and diplomatic support to Israel,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a press release on Monday.
Biden and secretaries Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin III “have not only been failing to uphold the country’s obligation to prevent a genocide,” according to the lawsuit, “but have enabled the conditions for its development by providing unconditional military and diplomatic support – disavowing any constraint or ‘red lines’ on Israel’s military campaign.” This unconditional support is despite “numerous Israeli government statements reflecting a genocidal intent,” according to the complaint. “Defendants have refused to even initiate internal processes to assess whether there is a genocide unfolding in Gaza, or to monitor how US weapons are used there.” Meanwhile, the US leaders have refused to call for a ceasefire and vetoed UN resolutions calling for “humanitarian pauses” in Israel’s attacks, all while influencing and “guiding” Israeli military strategy.
Among the plaintiffs is The Electronic Intifada contributor Ahmed Abu Artema, one of the founders of Gaza’s Great March of Return protests, whose nearly 13-year-old son Abdullah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on 24 October. “All have had multiple family members killed, subjected to the closure of Gaza, and displaced,” according to the Center for Constitutional Rights.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Katherine Gallagher, an attorney with the civil liberties group, said that the lawsuit brings forward two claims: “a claim of their failure in the duty to prevent genocide, and complicity in genocide.” The crime of genocide “means to destroy, in whole or in part, a group because of its identity,” Gallagher said. “In this case, we are setting forth the case of genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.” The complaint lays out “the very clear, specific intent announced and admitted by Israeli officials to destroy in whole or in part the Palestinian population in Gaza,” she added.
“It is very rare in cases of genocide that at the front end of an unfolding genocide, we have such clear evidence of specific intent,” Gallagher said. “And that is part of why the duty to prevent is something that is so important to enforce in this case. We should not have to wait until the death counts rise” and people start dying from starvation, dehydration and lack of medical care “before people act.”
The 1948 Genocide Convention – to which the US, Israel and Palestine have all acceded – puts an affirmative duty on states with influence to “take all measures that they can from the moment they know that there is a serious risk of genocide” to prevent it,” Gallagher added.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinians-sue-biden-stop-gaza-genocide
2023-11-15 Biden admin justifies Israel’s assault on Gaza hospitals with recycled Israeli ‘intelligence’ “I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al-Shifa, and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Tuesday. Kirby’s claim echoed the assertion by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who maintained that “open-source reporting” shows “Hamas does use hospitals, along with a lot of other civilian facilities, for command-and-control, for storing weapons, for housing its fighters.”
On November 14, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters that US intelligence had no “boots on the ground,” nor any intelligence assets capable of independently gathering intelligence from or about Shifa. When asked if the declassified intel briefing spun out by Kirby and Sullivan arrived through Washington’s “Israeli counterparts,” she refused to answer. But she strongly suggested the intelligence dump was politically motivated. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/11/15/biden-israels-gaza-hospitals-intelligence/
2023-11-15 Biden Faces Rebellion Over Israel Policy | Vantage with Palki Sharma Over 500 political appointees and staff members from about 40 US government agencies sent a letter to US President Joe Biden, protesting against his unwavering support for Israel. The letter, presented to Biden and his cabinet, calls for the president to seek an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The US has acknowledged this dissent but there is still no change to policy. Palki Sharma tells you all about the brewing dissent in the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQH8HYIkCwU
2023-11-14 White House Repone to Ralph Nader [MEK Note: White Houe Letter demonstrates deliberate ignorance of the facts publicly known for almost a month. 1300 innocent civilians killed on October 7th??? There are at best only 800 civilian deaths! 100 were Hamas fighters and about 400 were IDF military, police and security persons! Worse yet, Israeli investigations have shown the IDF used Apache helicopters to fire on the music festival crowd and IDF tanks fired on Kibbutz villages without concern of IDF troops and civilians clearly killing half or more of the civilians and even many of their own soldiers.] https://nader.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/BidenResponse.pdf
2023-11-14 Biden SLAMMED for Israel/Gaza ‘MISINFORMATION’ By 100+ STATE DEPARTMENT Employees Internal Memo Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave react to latest updates on Israel and Palestine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cck1z_N71K8&list=RDNSDQH8HYIkCwU&start_radio=1&rv=DQH8HYIkCwU
2023-11-13 LEAKED State Dept. Memo Condemns Biden’s Policies On Israel An State Department dissent memo said that Israel is committing war crimes and that President Biden is misleading the American people on what’s happening. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks. “An internal State Department dissent memo accuses President Biden of “spreading misinformation” on the Israel-Hamas war and alleges that Israel is committing “war crimes” in Gaza, according to a copy of the memo obtained by Axios. Why it matters: The scathing five-page memo — organized by a junior diplomat who has suggested on social media that Biden’s support of Israel has made him “complicit in genocide” in Gaza — offers a rare look at the raw divisions within the Biden administration over the Israel-Hamas war.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnK1ELXjHsw&list=RDNSDQH8HYIkCwU&index=2
2023-11-10 Disrupting Biden for Gaza Didn’t Take Courage Yesterday, I interrupted an event where President Joe Biden was speaking in Belvidere, Illinois, to demand that he call for a cease-fire in Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians, half of them children, have been killed by Israeli bombardments in the last month. Entire bloodlines have been wiped off the face of the Earth. And the day I confronted Biden, a harrowing video surfaced of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza evacuating their cities on foot. Normally, I get incredibly anxious when speaking publicly, and I have a hard time speaking without tripping over my words. You would think that interrupting the President of the United States, arguably the most powerful man in the world, would have made me stop in my tracks. I also knew that if I interrupted the president, the crowd was bound to be hostile, very hostile. My stomach was churning, and my heart was fluttering. But somehow, once the president started to speak, I waited for a quiet moment and then the words just flowed from my mouth; it felt like a miracle. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/disrupting-biden-for-gaza
2023-11-09 John Kirby has no tears and no red lines for Gaza Last week, we saw National Security Council Communications Director John Kirby showcase his (awful) thespian skills with bogus tears for dead Israelis. Today, with Israel’s bombings of hospitals and refugee camps bringing the Palestinian death toll over 10,000, Kirby has a different message: the US draws no red lines for Israel. They’ve got free rein to kill as many people as they see fit.
And speaking of security-state puppets, CNN’s Jake Tapper, doing his part in the genocidal propaganda machine, has a question for you: What else is Israel supposed to do? “They hear the calls for a ceasefire,” he drones at his viewers. “And they see no parades for the return of the hostages.” So they have no other choice but to bomb the buildings that the hostages are in. With all this infuriating, oppressive talk drenching the entire corporate media landscape, who better to tell these propagandists where to shove it than Useful Idiots-favorite Norman Finkelstein. https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/john-kirby-has-no-tears-and-no-red
2023-11-09 ‘No Possibility’ of Gaza Cease-Fire, Biden Says as 500+ Former Staffers Demand One “As the president of the United States, you have power to change the course of history, and the responsibility to save lives right now,” the staffers wrote.
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday that there is “no possibility” of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, a remark that came as hundreds of his former 2020 campaign staffers released an open letter urging him to support a cease-fire or be complicit in genocide. Asked about the chances of a cease-fire in Gaza as he left the White House for a trip to Illinois, the president responded, “None.”
Biden said he has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a “pause” of longer than three days, but Netanyahu has thus far refused. Earlier Thursday, the White House announced that Israel has agreed to allow daily four-hour pauses in parts of northern Gaza, which is currently encircled by Israeli troops. https://www.commondreams.org/news/no-possibility-of-gaza-cease-fire-biden-says-as-500-former-staffers-demand-one
2023-11-09 Contradicting Biden, US Official Says Gaza Death Toll May Be ‘Even Higher’ Than Reported Contradicting her bosses in the Biden administration who have rejected official Palestinian casualty reports, a high-ranking U.S. State Department official on Wednesday said the death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza may be “even higher” than reported—an assessment that came during a congressional hearing interrupted by peace activists.
“In this period of conflict and conditions of war, it is very difficult for any of us to assess what the rate of casualties are,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We think they’re very high, frankly, and it could be that they’re even higher than are being cited. We’ll know only after the guns fall silent.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-death-toll-2666221271
2023-11-07 Progressive Leaders Warn Biden’s Support for Gaza ‘Slaughter’ Risks Millions of Young Votes “Every day Biden chooses to fund genocide, he loses support,” said Sunrise Movement. The leaders of youth-led progressive groups on Tuesday published an open letter warning U.S. President Joe Biden that his administration’s staunch support for Israel’s war on Gaza—which many experts say may be genocidal—could cost him millions of young votes in next year’s presidential election.
“We mobilized the record youth turnout in 2020 that pushed your ticket over the finish line in key swing states. Many of us worked to provide the critical source of support for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections that prevented the Red Wave. We have been preparing to mobilize the youth vote again as you face your reelection,” wrote the campaigners—who include leaders of groups like March for Our Lives, Gen Z for Change, and Sunrise Movement.
“We share your conviction that the 2024 election will be one of the most important in American history,” the letter states. “We write to you to issue a very stark and unmistakable warning: You and your administration’s stance on Gaza risks millions of young voters staying home or voting third party next year. We are pleading with you to use every tool available to you to broker a cease-fire, now, and to revive the peace process.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/biden-gaza-2024
2023-11-03 “Wealthy American Women Are The Real Victims Of Hamas” – Joe Biden Joe Biden has been unabashedly behind Israel in the current conflict with Hamas in Gaza, and calls in to The Jimmy Dore Show to explain why. Palestinians lie about civilian deaths, he tells Jimmy, campus antisemitism is a huge problem and he feels he needs to align himself with Amy Schumer and Sarah Silverman because wealthy white women are the real victims of Hamas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWd0ZMFamO8&t=114s
2023-10-30 Biden Is a Genocide Denier and the “Enabler in Chief” for Israel’s Ongoing War Crimes For three weeks, President Biden has played a key role in backing Israel’s war crimes while touting himself as a compassionate advocate of restraint. That pretense is lethal nonsense as Israel persists with mass killing of civilians in Gaza. The same crucial standards that fully condemned Hamas’s murders of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 should apply to Israel’s ongoing murders that have already taken the lives of at least several times as many Palestinian civilians. And Israel is just getting started.
“We need an immediate ceasefire,” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib wrote in an email Saturday evening, “but the White House and Congress continue to unconditionally support the Israeli government’s genocidal actions.” That unconditional support makes Biden and the vast majority of Congress directly complicit with mass murder and genocide, defined as “the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.” The definition clearly fits the words and deeds of Israel’s leaders.https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/3226-biden-is-a-genocide-denier-and-the-enabler-in-chief-for-israels-ongoing-war-crimes
2023-10-27 Biden Loses Democratic Support With Israel Backing The Biden administration has asked Congress for $14 billion in additional military aid to Israel, despite warnings he and other officials could be rendering themselves complicit in genocide.
A new Gallup survey shows that U.S. President Joe Biden’s approval rating among Democrats has fallen by 11 percentage points this month, a possible indication that his unconditional support for Israel as it carries out massacres in the Gaza Strip is angering part of his base. In September, 86 percent of Democrats approved of Biden’s job performance. But between October 2 and October 23, Biden’s approval rating among Democrats has fallen to 75 percent, according to Gallup—the lowest level of his presidency. Megan Brenan, a research consultant at Gallup, argued the survey results released on Thursday suggest that “Biden’s immediate and decisive show of support for Israel following the October 7 attacks by Hamas appears to have turned off some in his own party.” https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/27/biden-loses-democratic-support-with-israel-backing/
2023-10-27 Behind Biden’s shift on Israel-Hamas war – Gaza deaths, international pressure But a rapidly rising Palestinian death toll, the difficulty of freeing hostages held by Hamas and an increasingly vocal outcry from Arab nations, European allies and some Americans at home, have pushed Biden’s team to support a humanitarian pause to Israel’s attacks and focus on getting aid to Palestinians, say multiple sources inside the administration and out.
A White House official said the shift in tone was based on “the facts on the ground” in Gaza with a humanitarian crisis worsening and the Biden team’s “conversations with countries around the world.” There has been a tug of war behind the scenes among Biden and his advisers about the US message, said one former official who is in touch with current officials.
The shift followed a plea from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for civilians to be protected and increasingly desperate appeals from U.N. organizations to allow in aid. The US revised its own U.N. resolution from a focus on Israel’s right to defend itself to include calls for all measures, specifically to include humanitarian pauses, to allow unhindered humanitarian access of aid.
During Blinken’s six-day trip, the death toll in Gaza soared from Israeli air strikes and concerns grew about food and water. Every Arab leader Blinken met in the region pressed him to urgently find a solution to the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/behind-biden-s-shift-on-israel-hamas-war-gaza-deaths-international-pressure/ar-AA1iVAFn
2023-10-26 Biden Accused of ‘Genocide Denial’ After Casting Doubt On Civilian Death Toll in Gaza Palestinian officials, U.N. experts, and even Israeli media say nearly 7,000 men, women, and children have been killed by Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes and shelling.
Speaking at a Wednesday afternoon White House press conference, Biden said that “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed.” “I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war,” the president continued. “But I have no confidence in the number that the Palestinians are using.”
Responding to Biden’s remarks, Palestinian American poet, author, and activist Remi Kanazi said: “Genocide denial has a long sordid history. Israel and Joe Biden know exactly what they are doing when they play down the death toll in Gaza.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-death-toll
2023-10-25 Biden’s Gaza “Aid” Plan a Fig Leaf for Genocide The Biden administration on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for humanitarian pauses to deliver urgently needed aid to Gaza. But it put forward its own bogus “aid” plan that amounts to nothing more than “humanitarian” window dressing for Israel’s genocidal, US-backed bombing campaign.
The resolution introduced by Brazil “called for humanitarian access to Gaza and protection of civilians” and “condemned the Hamas attack on Israel” on 7 October, The New York Times reported. Majed Bamya, a diplomat representing the Palestinian Authority at the UN, said that Brazil’s “draft resolution was biased, politicized, failed to acknowledge Palestinian victims and the Israeli indiscriminate attacks against them, failed to call for a ceasefire, all to avoid a US veto.” “It was just vetoed nevertheless,” Bamya added. The US cast its veto, according to the Times, “because the US wanted to give diplomacy a chance as President Biden was in Israel and because it did not state that Israel has the right to defend itself.” https://blackagendareport.com/news/260/47/Bidens-Gaza-Aid-Plan-a-Fig-Leaf-for-Genocide
2023-10-19 Biden Visits Israel to Oversee Humanitarian Aid to Palestinians US President Joe Biden travelled to Israel on Wednesday amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. This is the first time a sitting president has visited Israel during a war. The terror group is said to be holding 199 hostages – men, women, and children – including approximately 13 Americans. Biden on Wednesday pledged his support for Israel during his trip to Tel Aviv and said that while America stood by during the Holocaust, this time, America has Israel’s back. At the same time, Biden was in Israel to ensure the safe passage of Palestinian civilians and to ensure they are able to receive humanitarian aid.https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/biden-visits-israel-to-oversee-humanitarian-aid-to-palestinians.html
2023-10-18 WHAT IS BIDEN TELLING BIBI? The White House and Central Intelligence Agency are again at odds, as they have been during Ukraine’s losing war with Russia, over the facts on the ground as President Joe Biden suddenly decided to fly again to Israel, supposedly at the request of Benjamin Netanyahu, the beleaguered Israeli prime minister. https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/what-is-biden-telling-bibi
2023-10-12 Biden lied about seeing photos of beheaded Israeli children The White House confirmed on Wednesday evening that President Joe Biden’s claim that he had seen photos of Israeli children beheaded by Hamas fighters is false. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I never really thought that I would see, have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” Biden said to leaders of US Jewish organizations at the White House on Wednesday evening. The president was echoing lurid claims by the Israeli government that women and children had been beheaded by Hamas fighters who took over an Israeli settlement across the boundary from Gaza in recent days.
But the administration quickly backtracked on the president’s seeming confirmation of a story Israel has been using to justify its ongoing mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. “A White House spokesperson later clarified that US officials and the president have not seen pictures or confirmed such reports independently,” The Washington Post reported. “The president based his comments about the alleged atrocities on the claims from Netanyahu’s spokesman and media reports from Israel, according to the White House.” https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/biden-lied-about-seeing-photos-beheaded-israeli-children
2023-10-10 Univ. of MD Prof. Shibley Telhami to President Biden: Value Palestinian Life as Well as Israeli Life As we continue to cover Israel’s war on Gaza, we speak with Middle East scholar Shibley Telhami, who says this latest violence is likely to have a major impact on the wider region, especially if other actors like Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters get involved in the conflict. He says U.S. President Joe Biden’s support for Israel following the Hamas attack on Saturday was understandable, but that focus must shift to finding a long-term solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “This is not a military challenge,” says Telhami. “This is a political problem, and the occupation has to be addressed.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/10/shibley_telhami_israel_hamas_war_region
2023-02-22 By Caving to Israel, Biden Opens the Door to War With Iran U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Sunday that “Israel can and should do whatever they need to deal with [in regards to Iran] and we’ve got their back” — a thinly veiled reference to military action.
These comments do not appear to be outliers. After Israel struck a defense compound in Iran on January 29, the Biden administration uncharacteristically hinted to reporters that the Israeli operation was part of a new joint effort by the U.S. and Israel to contain Tehran’s nuclear and military ambitions. When Secretary of State Tony Blinken was asked about it a day later, he offered no criticism and no concern for the destabilizing potential of the strikes, let alone a condemnation. Instead, he offered what amounts to a defense and justification of the Israeli strike: “[It is] very important that we continue to deal with and work against as necessary the various actions that Iran has engaged in throughout the region and beyond that threaten peace and security.” A senior Biden administration official tells me that this does not signify a major shift in policy, but, without a public walk-back, such assurances leave much to be desired. From George W. Bush to Barack Obama to even Donald Trump, the U.S. government has sought to prevent Israel from bombing Iran since Washington risked getting sucked into that war — and the end result would most likely be a severely destabilized Middle East and an Iran with a nuclear weapon. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-biden-war-iran
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