Israel will push on with its offensive against Hamas, including into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, despite growing international pressure to stop, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas after its fighters attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253, according to Israeli tallies. More than 30,000 people have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s subsequent offensive, Palestinian health authorities estimate, prompting worldwide criticism and condemnation.
“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but particularly when the international pressure rises, we must close ranks, we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” he said.
According to half of lemmy he can press a magic button to stop it.
Oh, and it’s his fault… Somehow.
It’s not his fault, but he has approved a number of military aid packages that get sent directly to Israel. So, in a way, it kinda is indirectly his fault.
Instead of dealing with our own problems in our country, he’s giving money to Israel to participate in genocide.
Biden could stop supplying weapons and ammunition until the radical Republicans finally pass a budget that includes money for that. He could put limitations on the weapons that we do supply to Israel, like we’ve put restrictions on the weapons we supply to the rest of the world - including Ukraine. He could put sanctions on the members of the Israeli government and the Israeli press and the Israeli religious community that have publicly called for Palestinian genocide. He could speak against Israel’s actions in his speeches, or send surrogates out to do so on his behalf. He could stop vetoing toothless UN resolutions calling for Israel to stop murdering civilians.
European view here, with a question:
I understand the US has always stood by Israel. Some reasons geopolitical, some religious and some business related.
Wouldn’t every president who would actively block military or financial aid to Israel or even whisper the word sanctions be a pariah in his own government?
How would the media react?
How would the big players and decision makers in politics, religion and business react?
That’s the real problem. Israel is a major ally because they’re in the Middle East and not many countries like the US there. So it’s in the US interest to support them.
There’s also a very scary amount of doomsday religious people with pull that believe Israel will trigger the end of the world, and they actually want that to happen.
The mainstream media would react better than you think. They’ve been running stories about Israeli war crimes for months.
Just one uhhh point.
If the UN got such a resolution past the security council, it could very well result in a peacekeeping force and Israel becoming a banned country as far as weapons and military technology sales.
The UN is toothless because of the security council vetoes.
Nice strawman.
What he could do, at the very least, is follow the tone already set by his VP, or even (dare I say it) threaten to pause US military support if the assault on Rafa goes ahead.
What’s the straw man I presented?
Yeah the button is labeled “stop transfer of bombs to Isreal”. All he has to do is push it. Without the unlimited firehouse of US taxpayer funded weapons flowing in, Isreal will have to decide whether they want to draw down their current stocks blowing up residential houses and hospitals, leaving them more vulnerable to actual threats, or pull back. Also, the US is the only thing holding back international accountability. If Isreal loses that support, they might face consequences for their actions, become isolated, lose trade, etc.
Now it doesn’t have to get all the way to that point, the US could just seriously threaten cutting off support, military or otherwise, and Israel would likely back down. But Biden calling bibi and saying “pwease don’t target civilians” is not asserting pressure.
Biden won’t do more because he knows if he puts real pressure on Isreal then Republicans would attack him as “weak on Hamas” or whatever, and that threatens his reelection. Biden cares about that far more than human rights.
He’s personally stopped Netanyahu before. The Israelis stopped bombing Gaza in 2021 after one phone call.
Also supplying the bombs makes you pretty fucking complicit. Everyone understood this when Iran supplied AQ with roadside bombs in Iraq but now it’s some distant concept.
That’s only half the problem. The other half is that they don’t know that diplomacy happens behind closed doors.
For instance, the DOD has been working the last couple of weeks getting together material for the floating docks for Gaza announced today. If you think this angers Bibi, you would be right. Instead half of Lemmy takes credit for it by their uncommitted votes. Ridiculous, but that’s OK.
As for this, the rumor is that Biden has some consequences for Bibi if he makes a move on Rafah.