Antony Blinken was asked yesterday at a State Department press briefing if he agreed with the EU’s Josep Borrell that Israel was using starvation as a weapon in Gaza, and he gave this answer:
What we’ve seen in terms of food as well as other supplies, going to your – the second part of your question, is of course the Israelis have been not only allowing food in, they have been working to make sure that it gets in and gets to people who need it. We’ve seen throughout this process, first, the opening of Rafah back in October. After my first visit to Israel, many hours of discussion, Rafah opened. Assistance began to get in. We went back some weeks later. We got agreement to open Kerem Shalom. During the first pause, the hostage pause, one week, the amount of assistance that was then going in doubled during that period of time
Since then, we’ve pressed them on doing things like getting flour in from Ashdod; I mentioned that a short while ago. The flour that is now getting into Gaza is enough to produce bread to last for six months in Gaza. We have a new opening that was just put in place that will facilitate more assistance going in. And of course, I talked about the maritime corridor that we’re building. We’ve been doing air drops. The bottom line is food is getting in, but it’s insufficient. That’s why we’re talking about doing everything possible to maximize not only what gets in but what gets to people.
If the occupying power of a territory deprives the population of basic necessities and objects indispensable for survival for five months but occasionally lets in a trickle of aid, they are still collectively punishing the population and deliberately starving them. The evidence that the Israeli government has been blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid is also overwhelming. Refugees International released a report on this last week:
Despite its claims to be facilitating humanitarian aid, research and analysis by Refugees International shows that Israeli conduct has consistently and groundlessly impeded aid operations within Gaza, blocked legitimate relief operations, and resisted implementing measures that would genuinely enhance the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Blinken talks about “doing everything possible to maximize” what gets to the people of Gaza, but it is obvious that our government isn’t doing that. Instead our government settles for dangerous and ineffective stunts and token aid deliveries that cannot prevent or mitigate the famine that is already happening. The executive director of Doctors Without Borders USA had this to say in response to the president’s announcement of the building of a temporary pier:
The US plan for a temporary pier in Gaza to increase the flow of humanitarian aid is a glaring distraction from the real problem: Israel’s indiscriminate and disproportionate military campaign and punishing siege. The food, water, and medical supplies so desperately needed by people in Gaza are sitting just across the border. Israel needs to facilitate rather than block the flow of supplies. This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem. Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist.
Read the rest of the article at Eunomia
Daniel Larison is a contributing editor for Antiwar.com and maintains his own site at Eunomia. He is former senior editor at The American Conservative. He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, World Politics Review, Politico Magazine, Orthodox Life, Front Porch Republic, The American Scene, and Culture11, and was a columnist for The Week. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago, and resides in Lancaster, PA. Follow him on Twitter.
