I find this a chilling message as Israel coward attack on Gaza continued today hitting a U.N. shelter and a public market killing scores of children. The White House and the State Department refuse to come forward and put blame on Israel. I find this cold and heartless, this is not my America. This is a My Lai slaughter of defenseless people all over again. Obama, Biden. Kerry and Rice, I have lost all respect. Your R2P policy is just a bunch of crap, you heartless and mindless souls. This is not showing leadership, this is inhumane.
I heard this news story on CNN from Pentagon reporter Barbara Starr first.
US resupplies Israel with munitions as Gaza op continues
(Ynet News) – The United States has allowed Israel to tap a local US arms stockpile in the past week to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds, a US defense official said on Thursday.
The munitions were located inside Israel as part of a program managed by the US military and called War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for US use that Israel can also access in emergency situations.
Israel, however, did not cite an emergency when it made its latest request about 10 days ago, the defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The United States allowed Israel to access the strategic stockpile anyway to resupply itself with 40mm grenades and 120mm mortar rounds to deplete older stocks that would eventually need to be refreshed.
“They didn’t ask for it from there but we gave it to them so we could rotate our stocks,” the official said.
Additional Israeli requests for US-manufactured ammunition were also being processed in the United States, the official said. The official did not offer further details on quantities or costs of ammunition already supplied or requested.
Israel’s embassy in Washington declined comment about the resupply request, including whether it asked for the ammunition because of its operations in Gaza.
- ○ U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel – The United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act (H.R. 938, S. 462) [pdf]
The only nations who can put pressure on Hamas’ military command are Turkey and Qatar. Vice-President Biden took time-off to meet a Defense Minister from Qatar for a $11 bn deal. SHAME USA!
From my diary – The Hanging Gardens of the White House – Year 2014.
Army Surplus of Mortars and Grenades good enough for Gaza before expiration date – fancy price for Israel’s Defense Forces – thank you Uncle Sam.
Stockpiling of Defense Articles for Foreign Countries
TRANSFER OF CERTAIN OBSOLETE OR SURPLUS DEFENSE ARTICLES IN THE WAR RESERVE STOCKPILES FOR ALLIES TO ISRAEL.
TRANSFERS TO ISRAEL.–
(1) AUTHORITY.–Notwithstanding section 514 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2321h), the President is authorized to transfer to Israel, in return for concessions to be negotiated by the Secretary of Defense, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, any or all of the items described in paragraph (2).
(2) ITEMS COVERED.–The items referred to in paragraph (1) are munitions, equipment, and material such as armor, artillery, automatic weapons ammunition, and missiles that–
(A) are obsolete or surplus items;
(B) are in the inventory of the Department of Defense;
(C) are intended for use as reserve stocks for Israel; and
(D) as of the date of the enactment of this Act, are located in a stockpile in Israel.
The United States allowed Israel to access the strategic stockpile anyway to resupply itself with 40mm grenades
and 120mm mortar rounds to deplete older stocks that would eventually need to be refreshed.
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'World Stands Disgraced' as Israel Bombs Another UN-Designated Shelter in Gaza (Common Dreams)
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SPEAR autonomous mortar system from Elbit Systems. (Photo: Noam Eshel, Defense)
Note: Photo’s did’t display in diary entry
The Onion should seriously consider taking a break: July 23, 2014 headline Israel: Palestinians Given Ample Time To Evacuate To Nearby Bombing Sites.
Trauma from the Shoa is not universal and can’t be used as an excuse for today’s atrocities in Gaza. With the influx of Jews from the former Soviet bloc, a hardened group of people became part of the rhetoric in support of fascisme/nationalism in Israel. Some Israelis are saying the Russian-speaking immigrants brought prostitution, corruption and crime. Former Soviet Union (FSU) Immigrants: The Impact on Israel, Israeli Politics, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict [pdf].
In today’s cabinet, Netanyahu is the moderate voice losing out to settler extremist Naftali Bennett, Danny Danon, Liberman. The political choices made by Netanyahu in forming alliances were to guarantee any peace talks would fail. Obama, Kerry and Indyk should have known, but the U.S. put on a show of a ‘neutral’ broker they were not. Accomodating Israel to increase settlement building from Day 1 of Obama’s inauguration illustrates his failed leadership on the I/P issue. It certainly shows his lack of resolve in the most difficult conflicts in today’s world.
What Netanyahu really thinks a week ago and 17 years ago:
○ Netanyahu finally speaks his mind – July 2014
○ PM Netanyahu Statement to Knesset on Hebron Protocol – January 1997
Qassam rockets fired and Israeli casualties of war
The improvised Qassam rockets carry a warhead between 5 and 20 kg. Cross-border attacks are differentiated between rockets and mortar shells. During all of 2013, there were 32 rockets and 15 mortar shells fired at Israel, There were no casualties.
During the three weeks of Israeli violence on Gaza, more Palestinians were killed than Israelis in all of the violence and terror attacks from Septembet 2000, which includes the violent 2nd intifada campaign.
Don’t worry. The administration is “deeply troubled” by this turn of events.
At least the mask is coming off for people obsessing about the Israeli lobby. This is the true lobby with actual force and power: the military and imperialism lobby.
Really? They’re figuring out that Bibi can thumb his nose at DC Democrats and consort with Republicans because DC Democrats pledged loyalty to Israel no matter what long ago?
Confused at what you’re saying. I am saying that I do not believe that the Congress is cowed by the Israeli lobby; I don’t believe in Walt and mearsheimer’s thesis. The lobby is powerful, yes. But it does not derive its power in any vacuum. Israel is not who is controlling the US Congress. Quite the opposite. Wondering why the US continues to take Israel’s shit is like wondering why a ventriloquist accepts mockery from the dummy.
Congress is controlled by big money. And some historical alliances. A few decades ago, US Jews were strong supporters of both Israel and the Democratic Party. A natural alliance in response to the horrors of the Holocaust, but one that also overlooked what was done to the native Palestinians to create the new state of Israel and a romanticized notion of a democratic state that espoused a high level of financial equity for it’s citizens. That Democratic Party support is apparently what cost RFK his life.
GOP support for Israel came later from the “defense” industry and later still from the “Christian” fundies. That was matched by the money flowing to Democrats from Wall St-Hollywood. Single issue donors such as Haim Saban and multi-issue folks (Marc Rich was a poster boy for that constituency) such as Bloomberg. (Soros appears to be the exception among big money, Jewish Democratic Party donors in not demanding allegiance to Israel.) However, the GOP has been making inroads into that funding source with Adelson being the most public one. (Michelle Nunn has been courting (a bit too publicly) that money.) AIPAC seems to play a role in directing where such money should go but may be only a bit player in this.
One thing we do know is that such money can defeat a Democratic Party politician that doesn’t toe the Israeli line. Hence, ex-Congression Rep Cynthia McKinney (who was impolitic but never crazy and never appeared more than half as crazy as a huge number of sitting GOP reps).
Bottom line politically is that we’re all Israelis now and some of us can mouth “deeply troubling” as Israel appropriates more Palestinian lands and destroys people, buildings, and infrastructure in Gaza.
From the Times of India Gaza `miracle baby’, who was rescued from dead mother’s womb, dies
The fake story about premature Kuwaiti babies being tossed from their incubators by Iraqi soldiers helped take the US to war. Will Americans show any such concern for the real death of this premature Palestinian baby that was a direct result of the actions of the Israeli military? (Resupplying Israel’s bombs is our answer this time.)
Let’s answer your rhetorical question just for the heck of it. No. I was taken in by the incubator scam: what filth. Ms Clinton muses whether there can be military zones in such a heavily populated area. The woman is so profound and intelligent. Either she’s as dumb as they come or she’s a flaming hypocrite. Take your choice. She doesn’t wonder why the Gazans can’t flee across a border to saftey. She probably has never lived in a house with trapped rats. Let her spend her next vacation in Gaza. She and her hubby must vanish instantly.
I wouldn’t look to Clinton’s recent comment on Gaza that’s more innocuous than what other Israel supporting DC Democrats have said to answer my rhetorical question. Her past behavior in supporting military actions to bomb Iraq, Libya, and Syria is all I need to know. (She may even see Palestinians as more human than others in DC do, but she wouldn’t let her personal feelings get in the way of whatever she thinks will advance her aspirations.)
Lies to get a war on are always despicable. So many in the past few decades have been such obvious lies that every time I was amazed at how gullible the people in this country are. While I had to think through and study the publicly available information on most of the claims (mostly lies) for the Gulf War and Iraq War, didn’t buy the baby incubator scam for one second. And that was my clue that the other claims were likely false as well.
○ Israel Murders IDF Soldier to Prevent His Capture
○ How Politics and Lies Triggered an Unintended War in Gaza by J.J. Goldberg
○ 12 Years Ago Today, Hamas Tried to Kill My Wife. I’m Marking that Day by Opposing the Gaza War
It’s just unbelievable. After the lies of Netanyahu and his cabinet to fight a war of choice, Israel gets all the support fron ‘peace broker’ the United States. All three US representatives were silent when Netanyahu rounded up 800 members of Hamas in West Bank razzias in June. Today, all three blame Hamas for breaking the cease-fire and demand the release immediate of a single IDF soldier.
Bertus Hendriks, an oustanding Middle East analyst, said the cease-fires agreement between Hamas and Israel was ambiguous. The IDF expeditionary forces inside Gaza were allowed to stay in place and by some weird interpretation were even allowed to continue their search for and destruction of the tunnels. The cease-fire agreement didn’t address the Hamas demand for an unconditional release of the illegal capture of its members on the West Bank in June. Egypt can’t be an honest broker for Hamas, as General Sisi is at war with the Muslim Brotherhood, an alliance with the Hamas militants in Gaza and Islamists roaming the Sinai desert.
○ Cease-fire breaks down: Israeli shelling kills 50 after reported capture of soldier
○ Reprint of Yochanan Gordon’s “When Genocide is Permissible” (Updated)
○ Israel Crosses ‘Red-Line’ with Criticism of Obama and Kerry
○ Ligue de défense juive : l’Intérieur soigne son droit [Should JDL be banned in France?]
○ Jordan facilitates 180 truckloads of relief aid to Gaza
AMMAN — PM Abdullah Ensour reiterated that Jordan is serving the Gaza people by keeping diplomatic ties with Israel.