UN Vote Unlikely to Signal Change in US Policy Towards Israel
The Biden administration signaled passivity, but not support towards a proposed ceasefire in Gaza during a vote on the matter at the United Nations on Monday.
The move made headlines as the United States’ abstention marked a shift from the country’s previous three vetoes of similar Security Council resolutions.
But analyst Mark Sleboda warns of reading too far into the incident, claiming the current rift in US-Israel relations is more of a matter of animosity between the countries’ leaders than a genuine change in their military relationship.
“As to [Israeli President] Benjamin Netanyahu, Bibi and Biden, this is a broken bromance,” said the researcher and international relations expert on Sputnik’s Political Misfits program on Monday. “I don’t know if it was ever a bromance, actually, between the two, but all the indications are that this is not indicative of some larger change in US foreign policy considering the influence of AIPAC in the US and the longstanding US security relationship with Israel. That would actually be very momentous if it was true.”
“Everything we’ve heard in the Western press is that Biden personally has problems with Netanyahu,” added Sleboda. “It seems [to be] not so much what he’s doing, but the way he’s going about it and his complete lack of political damage control which is making Joe Biden’s life and his reelection more difficult.”
The analyst said a halt in US lethal aid flowing to Israel would be evidence of a genuine shift in relations between the two longtime allies. The death toll in Gaza currently stands at over 32,000, with the majority of casualties thought to be of Palestinian civilians. Israel has been engaged in an assault on the enclave since early October.
Biden’s antipathy toward Netanyahu likely extends back to the administration of former US President Barack Obama, when Biden served as vice president. Netanyahu opposed Obama’s attempts to pursue diplomacy with Iran, preferring military confrontation with the country of 88 million.
Netanyahu’s attempts to undermine Obama extended as far as giving a televised address to a session of the US Congress blasting the US president’s policy.
Despite the open hostility, Obama still provided Netanyahu with Israel’s largest military aid package in history before leaving office.
Whatever rift existed between the current US president and Netanyahu seemed to have briefly healed as a sobbing Biden embraced the Israeli Prime Minister in Tel Aviv in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 uprising. But Netanyahu has repeatedly embarrassed Biden in recent months with his blatant defiance of US calls for restraint.
“We’ve already seen other potential Israeli politicians inside the unity government doing a tour of London and Washington,” noted Sleboda, “positioning themselves, it seems to me, to be the next prime minister of Israel with the US’ support.”
Observers have speculated Biden may prefer a more outwardly moderate figure like opposition leader Benny Gantz.Sleboda stated the primary concern for Biden currently is that Israel will undertake a violent incursion into Rafah, where over 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering. Besides generating public opposition, such a move would likely also damage the United States’ relationship with Egypt if Palestinians are forced to seek refuge in the Sinai Desert.
Egypt has been one of the largest recipients of US foreign aid dating back to the late 1970s, when US President Jimmy Carry oversaw the signing of the Camp David Accords which guaranteed Egyptian backing of Israel. The United States has stifled Egyption democracy in the decades since, supporting a coup against elected President Mohamed Morsi to ensure a pro-Israel leader holds power in the country.
US support for Israel has apparently done little to generate gratitude among average Israelis. A 2009 video filmed by journalist Max Blumenthal demonstrated widespread racist attitudes among the Israeli public, with Israelis calling then US President Obama the N-word among other racial slurs.
My 2009 video, “Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem,” has been banned by YouTube, Vimeo & virtually every other platform.
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 14, 2021
It feels like a good day to bring back this portrait of the poisonous, mind-destroying impact of Zionism on Jewish American youth in Israel.
Here’s part one: pic.twitter.com/FXx4MD9CLj
The video was taken down by YouTube, Vimeo, and other online platforms amidst opposition from Zionist groups, who opposed drawing attention to the pervasive bigotry within Israeli society.
One of the most monstrous families on Earth is fading away.
Pentagon’s ‘New’ Ukraine Aid Package Was Spent Months Ago – Report
A $300 million spending package for Ukraine approved by the US Congress last week will not provide fresh aid for Kiev because the money was actually spent months ago, Politico reported on Tuesday.
The allocation for Ukraine was part of a $1.2 trillion spending package signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday, which will ensure funding for the US government until October.
The $300 million goes into the Pentagon’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a mechanism used by Washington to funnel arms to Kiev, and which funds contracts for future arms and equipment deliveries. The money, however, “is not available for us to use now” due to how the initiative works, a US official told Politico on condition of anonymity.
In reality, the $300 million for Kiev was obligated back in November, when the Pentagon announced a support package which it said exhausted the remaining USAI funds. The Department of Defense has since reported that an accounting trick allows it to produce another military assistance package worth $300 million under existing authority.
It has reevaluated weapons drawn from its stockpile for Ukraine under a separate mechanism at net book value rather than replacement value, which tends to be higher. The approach, however, leaves a $10 billion hole in the Pentagon budget, since it doesn’t have enough funds to replenish its arsenal, officials admitted this month.
Continued American assistance to Kiev has been stifled by partisan divisions. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is blocking over $60 billion in funding for Ukraine that the White House has been demanding for months.
The additional funds in the stopgap bill were approved by lawmakers this week in a moment of bipartisanship, even if symbolic rather than practical, Politico said.
Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated that a vote on further Ukraine aid may happen after the threat of a government shutdown in 2024 is alleviated. The chamber, however, is currently in recess, meaning any progress is unlikely before April.
Moscow has accused the West of waging a proxy war against Russia, using Ukrainians as cannon fodder. No amount of Western aid will alter the outcome of the conflict, Russian officials have insisted, warning that arms deliveries also stand in the way of a reasonable peace deal.
One of the most monstrous families on Earth is fading away.
VIDEO: Tucker Carlson Says The NWO is Dead
Talkshow host Tucker Carlson explained that the Anglo-American New World Order is fading in power as the all-out attack on civilization intensifies.
“The world is resetting completely, the post war order is collapsing, NATO is going to collapse obviously,” he said to a live audience, going on to discuss how the U.S. blew up the Nordstream gas pipeline, a necessary delivery system for an energy source used to make nitrogen-based fertilizer needed in industrial agriculture.
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VIDEO: President of Mexico Holds America Hostage
On his Monday show, Alex Jones covered a recent interview where Mexican President Andrés Obrador said that if the U.S. doesn’t legalize millions of illegal aliens, Mexico will keep bombarding the border with them.
“The flow of migrants will continue,” he said.
In response to criticism that the Mexican President is committing diplomatic blackmail, Obrador said he always says what he thinks and feels, implying he really does wish to hold America hostage with the threat of demographic suicide via mass illegal immigration.
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The American Journal: Tragedy Strikes Baltimore! Bridge Collapses After Being Struck By Container Ship
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Palestinian UN Envoy Accuses Israel Of ‘Genocide’ In Gaza
A report by the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese claims that Israel is conducting a ‘genocidal’ campaign against Gaza. In her report titled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, Albanese described Israel’s bombardment of […]
The post Palestinian UN Envoy Accuses Israel Of ‘Genocide’ In Gaza appeared first on The People’s Voice.