| To: Les H who wrote (42940) | 7/20/2024 1:36:18 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Report: Biden won’t give Netanyahu ‘satisfaction’ of quitting before PM’s trip to DC
US president, isolating with COVID-19, is said to be furious with top Democrats for pressure on him to quit following debate flop, but resigned to prospect of pulling out of race
Joe Biden’s advisers believe the United States president does not want to bow out of the November election before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington this week, as Biden is unwilling to give Netanyahu “the satisfaction” given the two leaders’ tensions over the war in Gaza, The New York Times reported on Friday.
The report, citing several unnamed people close to Biden, came after the Axios news site on Friday cited top Democrats as saying Biden had resigned himself to the pressure on him to quit, and could bow out as soon as this weekend.
But advisers say that Netanyahu’s impending visit could draw out the process of Biden pulling out of the race, with the president unwilling to give Netanyahu the satisfaction, given their strained relations lately over the Gaza war.
Joe Biden’s advisers believe the United States president does not want to bow out of the November election before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington this week, as Biden is unwilling to give Netanyahu “the satisfaction” given the two leaders’ tensions over the war in Gaza, The New York Times reported on Friday.
The report, citing several unnamed people close to Biden, came after the Axios news site on Friday cited top Democrats as saying Biden had resigned himself to the pressure on him to quit, and could bow out as soon as this weekend.
But advisers say that Netanyahu’s impending visit could draw out the process of Biden pulling out of the race, with the president unwilling to give Netanyahu the satisfaction, given their strained relations lately over the Gaza war.
US-Israel tensions have simmered in recent months over the civilian toll in Gaza and the shortage of humanitarian aid there; the lack of a tangible plan by Netanyahu for Gaza’s post-war governance; Biden’s withholding arms from Israel over its offensive in Rafah; and Netanyahu’s perceived derailing of talks, mediated in part by the US, to secure a ceasefire and release of hostages held in Gaza. At least one member of Netanyahu’s government has also explicitly endorsed Biden’s rival, former US president Donald Trump, in the upcoming election.
Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday at the initiative of the Republicans. Several Democrats have said they will boycott the speech over Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza. The premier was also scheduled to meet Biden, but the fate of the meeting is unclear as the US president isolates at his Delaware home following a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Biden, who is reportedly coughing and hoarse, has begun to accept the possibility he will have to step down, the Times said. He is reportedly resentful of high-ranking Democrats — including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former US president Barack Obama — whom he suspects of orchestrating a media campaign designed to pressure him to quit, as a growing list of Democrats have publicly called on him to do so.
At least two dozen congressional Democrats have publicly called on Biden to quit since his disastrous June 27 debate against the Republican nominee, former US president Donald Trump. Biden’s halting performance intensified concern about his age, already a major issue for voters.
timesofisrael.com
That seems minor consolation and ignores the participation of US forces in the war on Gaza and in running the torture detention centers. |
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| To: Les H who wrote (42941) | 7/20/2024 1:46:12 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Years of miscalculations by U.S., NATO led to dire shell shortage in Ukraine
reuters.com
Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine
cnn.com
The West finally allowed Ukraine to strike back at Russia — and it seems to be working
By Ivana Kottasová, CNN
cnn.com
It's been allowed for a long time. Without the US/Britain providing the targeting, they wouldn't have been carrying out cross-border attacks for the last two years. |
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| To: Les H who wrote (42944) | 7/20/2024 2:02:24 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Israel strikes Yemen in response to Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv
The official added that the port of Hodeida is "terrorist infrastructure and a legitimate military target" that he claimed is used by the Houthis for obtaining weaponry.
The official said the port was previously "granted immunity" because humanitarian aid is delivered there. In practice, the official claimed, most of the aid goes to the Houthis and not to the citizens of Yemen.
"Israel has nothing against the citizens of Yemen. Israel does not want a regional war but will continue to protect its citizens from attacks. The attack by the Houthis on Tel Aviv crossed all the red lines and that is why we responded to it after nine months of restraint," the official said.
axios.com
According to Israeli policy and previous statements by the Obama administration on the war in Yemen, civilians are fair game. The dissatisfaction with Israeli runs far beyond militants and Israeli politicians have given them every reason with statements backing ethnic cleansing and genocide. |
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| To: tntpal who wrote (42943) | 7/20/2024 2:46:22 PM | | From: tntpal | | | | Days before Olympics French police arrest man for attack in name of Hamas
French police arrested a man today on terrorism charges who is accused of trying to murder a taxi driver with a knife while expressing support for the Hamas terror group, a source at the terrorism prosecutor’s office says.
France is on its highest state of security as it gears up to host millions of visitors, athletes and world leaders during the Paris Olympic Summer Games, kicking off on July 26.
timesofisrael.com |
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| To: tntpal who wrote (42946) | 7/20/2024 2:49:58 PM | | From: tntpal | | | | Arabs Suffering Outside Gaza
JUL 20, 2024
The world is fixated on the suffering, both real and fictitious, of the Arabs in Gaza. But that is because Jews are involved, and “Jews are news.” Supposed outrage over the treatment of Gazans has become a respectable vehicle for antisemitism, a pathological disease from which, alas, hundreds of millions around the world suffer.
Many Arabs have suffered far worse than the “Palestinians” in Gaza, yet are given far less attention, precisely because Jews are not part of the story. More on this phenomenon, described several months ago by Hussain Abdul-Hussain of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, can be found here.
What would a Sudanese person watching that country’s renewed civil war — which has killed 14,000, displaced eight million, and threatens 17 million with famine in less than a year — think when they this CBS headline: “Gaza faces unprecedented desperation.”
Sudan has a population of 46 million, Gaza only has two million.
Between 2004 and 2009, the Sudanese regime killed 400,000 people in Sudan.
Millions were displaced and still live today in camps suffering acute hunger and the spread of cholera. Since then, the Sudanese regime has disintegrated into its components: its the army and its militias. Since April, the two sides have been engaged in a civil war, causing even more Sudanese deaths, displacement, and agony.
A child in Sudan is dying every hour, according to Medecins Sans Frontier. The International Rescue Committee lists the war in Sudan as the top concern of its 2024 Emergency Watchlist.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported that 25 million Sudanese are in need of assistance. Close to 18 million of them face acute hunger, 4.9 million on emergency levels. Of the $2.7 billion needed for Sudan in 2024, UN agencies have received $96.7 million, amounting to only four percent.
Yet, the Sudanese tragedy never seems to attract as much attention as the newer and much smaller conflict in Gaza. |
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| To: Les H who wrote (42945) | 7/20/2024 5:05:56 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Surge in Violence by West Bank Settlers Draws Ire of Israel’s Allies
The European Union sanctioned settler extremists for ‘systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians,’ and rights groups say the Israeli military is complicit.
By Ephrat Livni
July 16, 2024
Updated 1:58 p.m. ET
A surge in Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is raising the ire of some in the international community as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government officially expands its hold on the occupied territory by claiming more land and quietly assists extremists with tacit military support, according to rights activists.
The European Union on Monday sanctioned five Israeli settlers, two outposts and an extremist group that were “responsible for serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank,” the European Council, the E.U. body that represents the heads of the member governments, said in a statement. The United States last week also imposed sanctions on Israelis and entities in the West Bank that the State Department said had incited violence against Palestinians or encroached on Palestinian land.
Peace Now, an Israeli organization that tracks Jewish settlements, responded to the European sanctions by accusing the Israeli government of failing to enforce its own laws and of being complicit in the settler violence.
The West Bank is home to about 2.7 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 settlers. Israel seized control of the territory from Jordan in 1967 during a war with three Arab states, and Israelis have since settled there with both tacit and explicit government approval, though the international community largely considers settlements illegal, and many outposts also violate Israeli law. Settlers are governed by Israeli civil law while their Palestinian neighbors are subject to Israeli military law.
Palestinians have long argued that the settlements are a creeping annexation that turns land needed for any future independent Palestinian state into an unmanageable patchwork. But the war with Hamas in Gaza has given Israel’s right-wing government, intent on West Bank expansion, a way to bolster settlers who oppose the creation of a Palestinian state under the guise of providing added security amid heightened tensions, some rights groups say.
The army has shut down “so many roads” in the West Bank that thousands of acres of land have become off limits to Palestinians, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now’s “Settlement Watch” project said in a phone interview. The military erects gates in the name of security, but the result is that it shuts off Palestinians’ access to large areas they rely on, she added, and that ultimately advances settlers’ aims.
Notably, there are also more Israeli troops stationed in the area than before the war. “In every settlement, you now have reserve soldiers who are settlers and who take extremist measures against Palestinians,” Ms. Ofran said. “Settler soldiers are actually an armed militia.”
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, is a settler himself and responsible for extremist policies meant to expand Israel’s hold over the West Bank. Mr. Smotrich is taking away much of the military’s authority there and instead putting settlers in charge of civil administration, effectively taking control, Ms. Ofran noted. In a secretly recorded speech on June 9, Mr. Smotrich outlined this carefully orchestrated program to take authority over the West Bank out of the hands of the Israeli military and turn it over to civilians working for him while deflecting international scrutiny.
From the perspective of some in the Israeli military, settler violence is a threat to Israel’s security. Retired Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fox, former chief of Israel’s Central Command, which oversees the West Bank, rebuked the Israeli government’s policies in the area and condemned the rising tide of “nationalist crime” in his departure speech last week.
But as the military’s presence in the West Bank has increased since Oct. 7, so have violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops meant to maintain order there, further escalating tensions in the already fraught region.
Israeli forces shot a man dead in the West Bank on Tuesday during clashes in Al Bireh, according to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Israel’s military said on social media on Tuesday that it was chasing people who fired on a car with Israeli civilians inside in Ramin, a village in the northeast of the West Bank, adding that the civilians had been lightly injured in the attack and had been evacuated for treatment. It gave no further details.
Israeli forces have killed more than 530 West Bank Palestinians since the war in Gaza began, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which tracks West Bank violence on a weekly basis. In its latest update, the agency said that the Israeli military on July 9 killed a 13-year old Palestinian boy in Deir Abu Mash’al village near Ramallah and injured three other boys.
The Israeli military, in response to a query about the incident, said in a statement that since Oct. 7, there had been “a significant increase” in attempted terrorist attacks in the West Bank and nearby area — more than 2,000 in total — and that it is “actively conducting operations” to prevent terrorism. The military confirmed the U.N. report of violence on July 9, but not a death or the involvement of any children in the confrontation, stating that “masked terrorists hurled rocks” at Israeli military vehicles and a “soldier in the area responded with live fire, hitting one of the terrorists.”
Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.
archive.ph
Israel has long had a reputation for opportunism in attacks in the occupied territories to coincide with major world events in order to minimize the glare of publicity. Some were surprised that Israel hadn't conducted a civilian massacre at the time of the Trump assassination attempt. Israel's al-Mawasi massacre occurred hours before the Trump rally. |
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| To: Les H who wrote (42949) | 7/20/2024 7:23:00 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Trump Jr’s fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle had a history lesson for Republicans but her schoolboy error was the convention’s funniest laugh out loud moment
Kim Guilfoyle at the RNC says the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy ‘faced down communism’.
thepoke.com
It's because the US under Biden and Trump were training the Azov neo-Nazi militia and assimilating them into Ukraine's military and state security agencies. The Nazis blocked Zelensky early on from negotiating peace agreement with Russia. It's also a sad state that Ukraine, Israel, and the US have tried to paint the Nazis in a more sympathetic light. |
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