Author: Daniel Larison

A veteran State Department official, Stacy Gilbert, resigned from the department this month to protest the administration’s policy and the department’s false claims that Israel isn’t blocking aid. She spoke to Akbar Shahid Ahmed about her resignation:

“It drives me crazy when people say, ‘You’re so principled for resigning,’” Gilbert said. “You can’t work in the government that long and be completely principled but I’m practical. I understand compromises and that there are trade-offs. But in the end, I know the difference between right and wrong. What happened in this report is wrong, and this report is being used to justify continuing to do what we’ve been doing.”

Continue reading “The US Enables Israel’s Man-Made Famine in Gaza”

Nick Kristof makes the mistake of taking Biden at his word:

This should be an easy call, and it offers Biden a chance to rescue his failed Gaza policy, for, in this case, Biden and the World Court are fundamentally aligned [bold mine-DL]: They both oppose an all-out invasion of Rafah, and they both want Israel to allow in more humanitarian aid. But for seven months, Biden has allowed himself to be ignored and steamrolled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the question now is whether the court ruling will help Biden find the gumption to pressure Israel to obey the decision.

Continue reading “The Incorrigible President and His Indefensible Gaza Policy”

Dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed and hundreds more injured on Sunday in a blaze caused by an Israeli airstrike on a Rafah tent camp full of displaced people. The massacre has been widely condemned:

Several countries and global organisations have condemned the Israeli air attack on tents housing displaced people in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah that killed at least 40 Palestinians, including many children.

Continue reading “The Rafah Tent Massacre”

The Biden administration finally released their report on Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law on Friday. Predictably, the administration ignored the mountain of evidence showing Israeli violations of international law in their conduct of the war and their ongoing efforts to impede the delivery of humanitarian aid. Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported:

President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday concluded its assessment of whether Israel is breaking international and American laws in its U.S.-backed military campaign in Gaza and did not conclude that Israel’s conduct requires Washington to cut off aid for the offensive, according to a copy of the assessment reviewed by HuffPost.

Continue reading “Biden Lets Israel Off the Hook Again”

Garry Kasparov calls for more regime changes in The Wall Street Journal:

A war can’t be won by following the rules set in peacetime. The only way to win this long war is through regime change in Moscow and Tehran. Such change will be brought closer by isolating Russia and Iran politically and economically and by halting their foreign aggression.

Kasparov’s argument is deranged, but it is useful in reminding us how extreme and dangerous this worldview is. If hardliners like Kasparov had their way, they would unleash chaos and instability unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes. The same people that want to set the world on fire are constantly warning us that if we don’t do what they want that we face “a global catastrophe the likes of which we have never seen,” but it is clear that they are the ones demanding that the U.S. initiate such a catastrophe with overly aggressive policies.

Continue reading “The Insanity of the Regime-Changers”

The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, acknowledged the famine in Gaza in an interview on Meet the Press:

“What I can explain to you is – is that there is famine – full-blown famine – in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” she said.

McCain called for a ceasefire to allow for humanitarian relief to reach the population. That is what humanitarian agencies have been demanding for the last six months to no avail. All of them could see what would happen to the people of Gaza if the war was allowed to continue, and they have been shouting from the rooftops that famine was coming. This famine was the most readily foreseen and most easily prevented famine in decades, and that makes the shame of failing to stop it all the greater. The international response to these warnings has been pitiful, and the response from our government has been downright criminal.

Continue reading “The Most Preventable Famine in the World”