It would be an outrage if Israel’s “assurances” are treated as credible, and their obstruction of supplies and various glaring atrocities are ignored.
But if they are “cleared”, and only then attack Rafah, Biden will be humiliated.
— ‘the state department is also due Wednesday to deliver a formal assessment to Congress … assessing whether the IDF are conducting its campaign in accordance with humanitarian law – in other words, whether the IDF is committing war crimes.’
Finally. Biden has done the very least he could have done, at the very latest.
A “pause” that is a “policy decision” and (ostensibly) isn’t due to any legal determination.
— ‘There is nervousness in the administration about making legal judgments in case they are used against Israel in legal disputes before the international [courts].
… conversations in recent months have focused on how the Israeli military’s use of certain munitions diverges from the Pentagon’s …’
They already have supplied the weapons – Israel hasn’t run out of US bombs – they already have triggered a humanitarian disaster – is he not watching the fucking news?! – and they already have “gone into Rafah”, closing the border and purposefully making that situation worse.
— ‘The US president … made clear his administration would not provide the weapons for an offensive on Rafah, which the US, the UN and other aid agencies warn would trigger a humanitarian disaster.’
Cruder than these weapons is Israel’s warfare – it says it needs them to eliminate Hamas; by flattening every block in Gaza?
— ‘A surprise was that the US was even considering supplying the 1,700 500lb bombs and in particular the 1,800 2,000lb bombs … powerful enough to blow up a small apartment block and leave behind a crater 12 metres wide.
…
CNN, using satellite imagery, concluded that 500 large impact craters had appeared in Gaza during the first month of the war …’
The US confirms its complicity in Israeli war crimes.
— ‘Van Hollen … called it “contradictory”, pointing out that it found evidence of violations while it accepted Israeli assurances of compliance to be “credible and reliable”
…
“While the administration reaches this general conclusion, it fails to do the hard work of making an assessment and ducks the ultimate questions that the report was designed to determine with respect to compliance with international law.”’
So predictable. They must have moved on this the minute the US confirmed its wilful ignorance of the use of its weapons, and blocking of its aid, against US and humanitarian law.
To paraphrase Trump: if you don’t look for evidence, you can pretend there’s no war crimes.
— ‘More than 150,000 people have already fled the southern city …
Many have gone to an “expanded humanitarian zone”, designated by the IDF … where conditions are “horrific”, according to aid workers.’
Cameron poses the question, to immediately give HIMSELF a non-answer.
The missing part is him ignoring the advice and making the UK complicit.
— ‘One source had predicted privately that a ban on the sales of offensive weapons had been imminent, but was subject to debate with Downing Street.
…
[Cameron said] “is there a serious risk of a serious breach of international humanitarian law? The answer up to now has been that we’ve allowed the export licencing to continue.”
Blinken will know that international law does not allow atrocities in any instance – not even in retaliation for other atrocities, no matter how barbaric.
It certainly doesn’t okay killing civilians in the dozens, imploding entire apartment blocks, just in case there may be terrorists hiding underground.
— ‘the US was avoiding any firm assessment over a potential breach because Hamas “hides behind as well as underneath civilian populations, in schools and hospitals”.’
— ‘Israeli forces have carried out at least eight strikes on humanitarian convoys and their facilities in Gaza since October, even after aid organisations provided their coordinates to the Israeli authorities …
Belkis Wille, a director at HRW, said: “… Israel is blocking access to critical life-saving humanitarian provisions, and … attacking convoys that are delivering some of the small amount that they are allowing in … there should be accountability for these crimes”’
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