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   From: skeeterweed@photonmail.com   
      
   In article , Dawn.Belle.Flood@gmail.com   
   says...   
   >   
   > On 3/28/2024 7:44 PM, NefeshBarYochai wrote:   
   > > by JACK MIRKINSON   
   > >   
   > > Since Israel?s campaign of death began, President Joe Biden has   
   > > perfected the art of cognitive dissonance, planting story after story   
   > > about his ever-increasing ?frustration? with Israeli Prime Minister   
   > > Benjamin Netanyahu while continuing to send Israel the bombs it is   
   > > using against the people of Gaza. But the past seven days have taken   
   > > this absurdity to new levels. That?s because this was the week when we   
   > > saw both Biden?s most dramatic attempts to appear to be radically   
   > > shifting his approach and the most dramatic evidence of just how   
   > > deeply the United States is helping to perpetuate this war.   
   > >   
   > > First, the attempts to telegraph that change is happening: Biden used   
   > > his State of the Union address to announce that the United States   
   > > would be building a pier off the Gaza coast so that it could deliver   
   > > aid to the millions of people who are either being massacred or left   
   > > to starve to death due to Israel?s unceasing bombardment and total   
   > > siege of the region. He was then filmed telling Senator Michael Bennet   
   > > that he was going to have a ?come to Jesus meeting? with Netanyahu,   
   > > though he immediately undercut the seemingly accidental nature of the   
   > > broadcast by adding, ?I?m on a hot mic here. Good.?   
   > >   
   > > On Saturday, Biden went further, telling MSNBC?s Jonathan Capehart   
   > > that Netanyahu was ?hurting Israel more than helping Israel? and that   
   > > an Israeli invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where 1.4   
   > > million Palestinians are trapped, would be a ?red line.? All of this   
   > > was enough to prompt some of the White House?s more sycophantic   
   > > chroniclers, such as Axios reporter Barak Ravid, to proclaim that   
   > > Biden was ?breaking? with Netanyahu.   
   > >   
   > > And it?s true that these moves could seem like an encouraging signal   
   > > about his willingness to put some kind of pressure on Israel.   
   > >   
   > > But wait, what?s that sound? That would be the other shoe dropping.   
   > > The most important news about the American handling of the war in the   
   > > past week could be found not in any of the aforementioned, highly   
   > > choreographed moments, but in a pair of reports on Tuesday in The   
   > > Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, in which the outlets   
   > > revealed that not only has the United States been transferring vast   
   > > amounts of weapons to Israel, but that it has been doing so in a way   
   > > deliberately designed to evade public scrutiny.   
   > >   
   > > According to the reports, the US has approved more than 100 arms sales   
   > > to Israel since October 7, constituting what the Journal called ?tens   
   > > of thousands? of weapons. But the Biden administration has revealed   
   > > only two of those deals to Congress. The rest have been masked by one   
   > > of the oldest shady financial tricks in the books, as the Post   
   > > explained:   
   > >   
   > > [Th]e weapons transfers were processed without any public debate   
   > > because each fell under a specific dollar amount that requires the   
   > > executive branch to individually notify Congress, according to U.S.   
   > > officials and lawmakers who, like others, spoke on the condition of   
   > > anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter.   
   > >   
   > > [?] ?That?s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of a   
   > > pretty short amount of time, which really strongly suggests that the   
   > > Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of U.S.   
   > > support,? said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration   
   > > official and current president of Refugees International.   
   > >   
   > > So let?s recap. Biden is publicly lamenting the scale of death in   
   > > Gaza, going after Netanyahu, and pledging to build a maritime aid   
   > > corridor to get around Israel?s siege. But Netanyahu?s ability to   
   > > carry out that level of carnage, and impose such an inhumane siege, is   
   > > dependent on the continued flow of weapons to Israel from the   
   > > government headed by? Biden. Or, to put it more succinctly: The US   
   > > government is now making elaborate plans to ameliorate a humanitarian   
   > > catastrophe that would not exist without its own bombs.   
   > >   
   > > When you add the fact that Biden?s government is not only sending   
   > > Israel weapons but is so eager to do so that it is purposefully   
   > > skirting congressional oversight and public accountability, it all   
   > > gets even more ludicrous. We?re no longer in a simple ?this makes no   
   > > sense? situation. Instead, we?ve arrived at a Twilight Zone ?if I try   
   > > to rationalize this, it will tear a hole in the fabric of space and   
   > > time? situation. It?s as if you kept secretly handing an arsonist   
   > > gasoline and matches, then showed up five minutes later with the   
   > > firefighters, read out a statement about how unconscionable arson is,   
   > > and announced that you were taking major steps to help the survivors.   
   > >   
   > > Things get more maddening when you look at the nature of the American   
   > > aid effort. That pier Biden announced? The Pentagon says it could take   
   > > up to two months to build. There is a famine happening right now in   
   > > Gaza, not two months from now. And the US won?t even give assurances   
   > > that Israel will be prevented from firing on Palestinians trying to   
   > > retrieve American aid. There are other agencies on the ground, but the   
   > > US is in the way there too. It has cut off funding to UNWRA, the main   
   > > relief organization in Gaza, on dubious evidence that the UN now   
   > > claims was based in part on evidence obtained through torture.   
   > >   
   > > These loopholes and contradictions have become so glaring that people   
   > > you might normally expect to overlook them are unable to. A recent   
   > > report in The New York Times, for instance, delicately noted that ?the   
   > > United States finds itself on both sides of the war in a way, arming   
   > > the Israelis while trying to care for those hurt as a result.? And   
   > > Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen told The New Yorker, ?I really   
   > > haven?t heard a good response to the question of why we should not   
   > > apply existing U.S. law?to insure that U.S. military assistance is   
   > > used in accordance with our values.?   
   > >   
   > > Nobody has heard a good response?and that?s because there isn?t one!   
   > > It?s shameless hypocrisy from Biden all the way down.   
   > >   
   > >   
   >   
      
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