Posted on 10/24/2024 5:08:20 AM PDT by bert
Blinken raised the issue during his conversations in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that he would in fact restrict military aid to Israel over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as he spoke with reporters in Israel prior to his departure for Saudi Arabia.
“I will follow the law,” he said when pressed if he would uphold Memorandum National Security Memorandum 20, which makes military assistance contingent on compliance with international law and international humanitarian law.
The United States had warned Israel in April that it risked being out of compliance with the law, but continued with military aid after Israel took steps to improve the delivery of aid in Gaza. In October it reissued that warning.
Blinken raised the issue during his conversations in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“Since that letter, yes, we've seen progress, but it's not enough,” Blinken said.
“We have a list of things that we are going through, one by one, systematically with our Israeli counterparts to make sure that they follow through,” he said, as he assured reporters that the US was tracking these improvements.
The measure, however, is whether Palestinians in Gaza receive what they need, he said.
He acknowledged that the situation had improved but that the situation had deteriorated.
“That's why we're looking at” what “has to be done in a sustained way,” Austin said.
This intense focus on humanitarian aid even as the US is “trying to get to an end of the conflict in Gaza, bring the hostages home, even as we’re dealing with Lebanon, even as we’re dealing with Iran,” he said.
Blinken also rejected calls by those on the Israeli right to rebuild Israeli settlements in Gaza, to replace the 21 Jewish communities the government evacuated there in 2005.
“We reject any Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. I said so in Tokyo a year ago.
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It’s been US policy; it will remain US policy. And it’s also, to the best of my understanding, the policy of the Israeli Government. That’s what I heard from the prime minister, who is the authoritative word on this,” Blinken stated.
President Trump will assure that Israel has the weapons to finish off Hezbollah. Hamas is no longer a threat requiring US weapons aid. Hamas is being squeezed and squeezed, day after day, street after street, tunnel after tunnel.
The Obama polisy is dead, a failure to go down in history as a Black man's poor choice of allies. The Black man chose Iran and chose failureas
Blinken is not the boss. Someone needs to inform him of this fact.
Blinkey needs to get off his ass and get out there lookin’ for a job.
they will be out in due time
Having been directly involved in the production of military equipment for Israel in American companies and as an employee of an Israeli company’s American division, here is my perspective. Israel can build anything America is giving it. The aid given to Israel as American built hardware is primarily a subsidy to the American company. The additional sales amortize the company’s costs over a larger production run and creates the appearance that the hardware produced and sold to the US is actually cheaper than, in reality, it is. Israel, so far as I understand can build anything that it receives from the US but would need to pay for that extra production with their own money. And THAT is the actual threat being made.
My take on the situation is that Israel will not be deterred by having to pay 2X for the hardware they use instead of 1X. The US is playing a weak hand, probably motivated by the perceived importance of the votes from Pro-Palestinian Americans.
Wow........ thanks for that truly informative post.
War is not a game, there are no rules.
““I will follow the law,” he said...”
No one in the collection of misfits, idiots, and liars in the Biden administration has ever followed the law. Not even close to kidding. Eff them and the sewer that they oozed out of.
The US provides over $3B in US military equipment annually via FMF grant funds. That doesn’t cost Israel anything.
Blanken is an embarrassment to America and needs his frequent flyer miles confiscated
Kommie just lost another 50,000 votes in PA and NC...but gained another 50,000 in MI. However,DJT doesn’t need to win MI.
Congress makes these decisions.
Not some flunky appointee.
“(xxv) Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare by depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies as provided for under the Geneva Conventions;”
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf
Seems the admin wants Israel to deliver food. Like Grubhub.
If Israel wants Hamas out, and it should be out, some party has to take its place on the humanitarian front. Unfortunate that Israel let Hamas get this far. Hard to unwind 20 years of errors in a handful of months. The weapons and tunnels have to be destroyed But at the same time, someone with power and reach needs to step in to deliver food and medicines.
I’m afraid they are setting Israel up to fail, or to become victims. If Israel has to go in and protect all food deliveries they will become targets for the Hamas fighters that remain. The admin seems to want a long slog in Gaza.
The only humanitarian crises I have seen or heard of in the region happened on October 7, 2023. Piss be upon you, Blinkin.
“Congress makes these decisions.
Not some flunky appointee.”
The rules of war are established by treaties (the Geneva Conventions) to which the US is a state party.
Sinwar died with $3,000,000,000.00 in stolen humanitarian aid having been converted into cash.
Blinken wants more.
Israel can build it but that would create a different set of problems. We want to control the supply. We don’t want a rogue Israel selling this stuff to India, for example, without controls. Which they will have to do to cover the development costs as you noted.
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